Objectives

Envisaging technology in the proposed project:

Project envisages to provide Smart Phones/tablets with internet access and training to team/CBOs/SHGs/leaders for education, communication and action needed at multiple levels, vertically and horizontally for inclusion, empowerment, rehabilitation, and comprehensive development of rural communities with the special focus on the marginalized. Constructive use of digital media –online/offline, news media, social media like WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook etc. for individual rights and collective advocacy.

Measures to ensure inclusion:

“Empowering inclusion and development” of rural communities with special attention to the marginalized without discrimination is the central theme of the project. The interdisciplinary convergence/sensitized and inclusive CBOs/SHGs and constitutionally empowered mechanism at the Panchayat level would overcome socio-economic barriers. Multi-pronged education and action by the informed and empowered villagers would pave path for change in bottom-up manner impacting policy and SDGs.

Partnership with Government:

Project design and actions will be synchronized with government interventions. Technology-backed with constitutionally empowered institutions of local self-government in the Panchayat to demonstrate the conversion from “Data to Dignity & Ability” for a critical mass of Panchayat populations (with their empowered CBOs/SHGs) through their multipronged active participation in the development agenda with multiple community stakeholders and various government functionaries of different sectors. The model is replicable and scalable in Panchayats everywhere with its potentials of impactful development paradigm shift regarding the rural communities specially the marginalized one from mere beneficiaries to contributors.

Project Exit Strategy - The project will gradually and systematically engage rural communities since its inception, with their active participation. This will empower them to make informed decisions, implement activities, and increase their ownership and responsibilities. Well-rooted decentralized project education and action design of CBOs/SHGs merging into local self-government at the Up-gramsabha in the wards of the panchayats & at the Gram Sabha level with all wards included in the Panchayat, jointly complements, and supplements one another. Self-sustainability is integral and inevitable where “project beneficiaries” turns “empowered-resource” generating huge social capital, leveraging available resources, and scaling further through mainstreaming and networking. This is people-centric, intensive process-oriented work that evolves organically in relevant and meaningful ways. This transformative process takes 8 to 10 years to blossom to its full potential in several dimensions. Every year is an important step and a leap forward in a sustainable manner. The programme model is replicable and scalable throughout rural India. It leverages and merges systematically with all government schemes trying to reach out to the most marginalized in rural areas of the country.

Project Duration – Community-based empowering development model is a multi-year programme by CORD. CORD intervention is for a minimum of 8 to 10 years to ensure the quality driven outcome of the intervention in its full potential. The above proposal lists the activities of the multi-year intervention by CORD in the selected rural communities which evolve with strength and depth with time.

Project Budget for 4 years –