Issues in Orissa
Chris Elliot, a Concern UK Trustee, is in India visiting Concern's operations. This week, he will be sharing his experiences of the trip as a guest blogger.
All along the road to Keonjhar, gaily painted lorries revved their engines, waiting for the evening curfew to rise. At the end of our first day in the state of Orissa we were witnessing an evening ritual that symbolised the challenges that face this state of 38 million people in North East India.
It is in one sense the richest, holding 20% of all the minerals in India. The lorries were waiting until the law says they can virtually take over the road at 8pm to ferry the mined ore and other minerals to Paradeep, the nearest port.
As the lorries trundle through the night they pass through villages whose inhabitants know little of the riches that once lay buried beneath their soil, and who see precious little of the cash such mining generates. If Orissa was a nation state it would be among the poorest in the world, well into the bottom 40. These are the people Concern’s team of 22 based at Bubaneshwar are here to help.
Their official status is as a liaison office which means that all their work is through local partners. Their main focus is on advocacy, HIV and maintaining a rapid deployment team ready for the many emergencies that sweep a country that was prone to natural disaster before global warming and climate change began to emerge. It is a country that has an area 60% of which may suffer an earthquake, 68% is prone to drought and eight per cent to flooding.
Matthew Pickard, Concern’s India Country Director, says that 70% of their budget and efforts go into advocacy. “It’s all about governance, accountability and livelihoods. There are laws and resources coming into the region. A widow might be entitled to allowances of 2,000 to 3,000 Rupees but they just don’t get through. It could be corruption, inefficiency or excessive bureaucracy but they don’t reach her. We try to monitor the process, encourage people to claim what’s rightfully theirs.”
He is deeply concerned at the speed and rapacity of many new mining ventures. “We are not anti-industrialisation, but how it is done. I would ask whether it’s right to rip 20% of the ground up heedless of whether people are suffering.”
One of the most disadvantaged groups is the untouchables; those people at the bottom of the highly complex, deeply ingrained caste system. At the village of Bahania, Concern works with partner Netaji Jubak Sangh, a local NGO, to help farmers re-establish themselves after unseasonal flooding last October and encourage their wives to form an increasingly important self help group.
In all there are 14 women who save 25 rupees a month - no small sum when annual incomes are measured in thousands - and work to build political partnerships. Matarina Sita Jena is the secretary. “The women used to be just taking care of their homes but this group has given us a platform to discuss our views.”
The role of women in saving money in groups with a bank is crucial in creating a cushion for the difficult times. The banks don’t have a high regard for the untouchables as credit risks. The men are often debt defaulters because they go for individual loans to invest in agriculture which are then often wiped out in natural disasters. Concern’s partner NJS give the banks confidence that their money will be safe with the women’s group.
Comments
I was very touched by the women's group saving scheme at the banks. Could women around the world support them with a Concern plan to match their savings?x
Thank you for your visit Our Orissa State & Reporting about Socio-economic through SHGs & Farmers group.
Your visit we hope would definitly provide a different dimension to the civil society organisation. We have bit concern that Concern World wide has not yet interven in the poorest district of South Asia i.e. Bolangir. Although Bolangir reeling under extreme poverty, the Inernational NGOs have never given due priority to this particular district. It has been picturaised by so called leading INGO that huge resources routing to Bolangir, but the irony is that incomparision to other district of Orissa its sofar half. In this context, we request you please give due priority to Bolangir.
In response to the issues raised by Development Concern Orissa posted on 7th April. As an international NGO Concern is unique in having made the decision to both focus our work in only one state of India, and to locate our Country Office in that state. I believe that this gives us a unique advantage over other INGOs; we can understand grassroots realities much more clearly and we can articulate these grassroot voices at the national level and in national forums. When we speak we speak about the realities of the people we work with, from the lives of people that we know, not from the pages of a project report. As a result our programmes are driven by the realities of the poor that we understand first hand.
Within Orissa Concern has chosen to focus its work in a select number of districts. Given that our resources are finite and given that we want to ensure we use those resources as effectively as possible we have made the decision that we cannot work everywhere. We have made a strategic decision to focus our efforts on a smaller number of districts where we believe we can demonstrate change on a sizeable scale. It is important that we are able to show a scale to our work, otherwise we have less opportunity to influence processes at the district and state level, we want to be taken seriously in the in the districts where we work and to do this we require a certain amount of size and scale. Therefore, in line with our strategy, we have decided to focus our work in districts where ST/SC are predominant and alienation from land and the natural resources is likely to increase. These districts would include (Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Gajapathi and Kalahandi). Secondly networking and advocacy efforts would also be taken up other districts covering Kandhamal, Ganjam, Mayurbunj, Koraput, Nayagarh, Sambalpur and Bargarh. We have chosen these districts having identified them to be facing a risk of increased vulnerability over the next ten years
We have made these decisions based on our strategic approach and base on our analysis of the level of support and focus of other INGOs in the remaining tribal districts. Bolangir is not a focus district for us. I do not deny that the indicators of poverty are evident in Bolangir (although I may challenge that this is the poorest district in South Asia). DFID has a large programme supporting development activities in Bolangir, the World Bank also has projects in this district, as does the state government, so in our analysis we feel that our resources are best focussed in other districts which are equally poor but with less external resources available.
Concern will continue to focus its development work in the state of Orissa, we remain committed to to working with the poor and excluded to enable them to exercise their fundamental rights and create just and fair societies, where the rights of all are respected and maintained. We know that you will join us in this struggle.
Thank you very much for your response on the posting regarding Bolangir. But as per the strategy of CWW, Bolangir is also a home of ST/SC, around 50% of its population are ST/SC. So far intervention of DFID is concern, this is the withdrawal phase of the project. Till date the WORLP proje has no impact at all reduction of poverty, rather the officals were benefited by the project. The strategy was wrong because 30% people here are landless and around 60% are marginal holder of land and only 9% people are holding around 50% land in the district. So, whatever benifit was there its went ultimately to the big farmers and allite people. Again its couldnt help in developing Natural Resources. At the same time a NGO(ADHAR
) of the district proved that watershed development could be possible here if the people are taken into confidence, proper accountibility & transperancy maintain which they practiced in there work. So Bolangir is in need of of your kind intervention to reduce the poverty and hunger to reach the MDG. The poverty in Bolangir is menefestation of corrupt governance system.
Issues in Orissa seems never ending and i guess the people of orissa should be cooperating with one another be it the issue of one's street, a colony or the town/district and the State itself. SHGs and NGO sector are a link no matter and some are actively participating in solving issues. But the issues still persists and the suffering continues.
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