Ashraya Project
- 1. 14 KERALA CALLING July 2012 CURRENT JAYAKUMAR A Ashraya Ashraya has emerged from a deep will of the government to sincerely address the problems of poverty. Ashraya has a holistic understanding of poverty in all its manifestations, both causes and effects, and the ratchet effect of one factor on the other. It seeks to use the inherent strength of the networked organization of the poor, especially its democratic character, transparent functioning, culture of care and concern, ownership by the poor and excellent outreach and feed back capabilities.Thus it is a community based initiative to accord social security to the poorest of the poor. While in most parts of the country Self Help Groups (SHG) networks function parallel to elected Local Governments, Ashraya seeks to invoke the leadership of elected Local Governments even while guarding the flexibility and autonomy of a Community Based Organization. The strategy of bringing about synergy between elected Local Governments and the organization 14 KERALA CALLING July 2012 Ashraya is probably the first project in the country to target the excluded poor. It has now attained the status of a national best practice in social security and has reached the stage of replicability. Thus, Ashraya is a pioneer, having developed a model, which can be adapted by rest of the country. In recognition of its exceptional merit, it was conferred the Prime Ministers Award for Best Practices in Public Administration in 2008. Observation and studies proved that despite effective implementation of projects to alleviate poverty, a small chunk of population still remain as outliers owing to a variety of reasons. They were termed as destitute since none of the benefits of the welfare state for the poor ever reaches them because of their vulnerable living conditions and their ignorance or inability to access various services.
- 2. 15KERALA CALLINGJuly 2012 of the poor is fundamental to Ashraya. From the time India gained independence, Central as well as the State governments were keen in formulating and implementing various programmes as part of its efforts to curb poverty. From the 6th plan period, these efforts became part ofDirect attack on poverty. Various central government projects viz. IRDP, NREP, RLEGP, SJSY, IAY, EAS,SJSRY,NSDP,VAMBAY,SGRY etc were poverty eradication programmes which evolved from this understanding. Although the governments were able to tackle poverty significantly,majority of the population of the country still remains poor. Observation and studies proved that despite effective implementation of projects to alleviate poverty,a small chunk of population still remain as outliers owing to a variety of reasons.They were termed as destitute since none of the benefits of the welfare state for the poor ever reaches them because of their vulnerable living conditions and their ignorance or inability to access various services. Ashraya follows the principle of empowerment of the poorest of the poor. At the same time it recognises that this can be achieved only in degrees through a process of understanding, care, compassion and continuous handholding. This is sought to be achieved through the principle of self- help combined with support from organizations of the poor themselves. The Ashraya process Ashraya is a project which is envisioned as demand driven, which means that the identification of the beneficiaries and the assistance that is What is Destitution? Poverty has been classified as absolute poverty, relative poverty, traditional poverty etc. Economists have also termed it as a state of living. However it is universally accepted that denial of infrastructure and opportunities to lead a life of dignity could be termed poverty. The basic infrastructure includes food containing enough nutrition, clothing, safe housing with toilets and safe drinking water facilities. Opportunities for quality education, employment and access to health facilities etc are also part of this. The destitute are the poorest of the poor. They are the outliers of the development in the negative extreme. They live at the margins of the economy, society and polity. They do not have a voice or the power of choice. They are not a constituency or vote bank. They face the worst forms of deprivation and lack access even to the basic minimum services. They are exposed to all forms of vulnerability and do not have any safety net against risks. Their income is below subsistence and they are dependent. These faceless, powerless people lack capabilities and are neither aware of their entitlements nor are they in a position to access them. They cannot compete nor can they bargain. They drift pushed by circumstances. Severity of destitution is intensified by unfavorable physical, gender or caste status - that is, being disabled being a woman, being a widow, belonging to a Caste or Tribe can singly or in combination aggravate the suffering. The collapse of the traditional social support systems has orphaned the destitute. They are sometimes objects of charity. But they are never subjects of development. They have to be invested with identity, personality and empowered to stand on their own. Only an Anthyodaya approach can reach them. Only care and handholding can lift them. They can develop only after a period of well-targeted, well-designed welfare programmes.
- 3. 16 KERALA CALLING July 2012 to be provided to the beneficiaries should come from the grass root level. The demand should also fulfill the stipulated criteria. This is primarily achieved through identification of beneficiaries using a transparent process by the Kudumbashree network. The identified beneficiaries will be short listed and detailed project is prepared for each family, based on his/her requirements. The prepared project proposal is consolidated and presented before the local self government executive and is approved by them after getting sanction from the Gramasabhas. The approved project is then submitted for vetting before Kudumbashree officials who later send it to the government for final approval. In order to avoid patronage and to introduce transparency and community ownership, a simple and socially acceptable criteria has been determined through an elaborate process of consultation with experts, elected leaders and the poor themselves.The criteria is of two steps; the first being a nine point indicator,which is as below. No Land / Less than 10 cents of land No House/ Living in dilapidated house No drinking water facilities within 300 metres No Sanitary Toilet No employment to any person in the family, employment for less than 10 days a month. Women headed family / widow / abandoned women / presence of unwed mother in the family Presence of physically/Mentally challenged/chronically ill member in the family Family belonging to SC/ST Presence of an adult illiterate member Families attracting seven or more of these indicators are subjected to another list of special indicators for rural areas, which are listed below: Special indicators for rural areas Having no landed property to set up a dwelling place (living in puromboke land, forest land, side bunds of canals and paddy fields etc) Spending the night time in public places, streets or in the verandas of shops for sleeping. Having no healthy member to win bread for the family Resorting to beggary as a vocation Having women subjected to atrocities Having children below the age of 14 who work to earn money for the family Special Indicators for urban areas also include the following four inidcators to those of the rural areas. Having Commercial Sex Workers Having women members who live in Abala Mandirams. Living in Slums Having street children/children in juvenile home or poor home Since Ashraya has tremendous social appeal, some of the enterprising Panchayats have managed to mobilize additional resources by way of donations from philanthropic individuals, sponsorships from institutions, and service commitments from hospitals and so on. If a family attracts at least one of these special indicators in addition to the seven or more from the first set, it is classified as a destitute family Thereafter,utilizing the network of the poor families, preliminary identification of probable destitute families is done by special groups of trained volunteers from each Neighbour Hood Group (NHG) of Kudumbashree. Then under the leadership of the Area Development Society (confederation of NHGs at the ward level), the short-listed households are visited by these teams often accompanied by the elected ward member,which interact with the families. After ensuring that the families come within the definition of destitution, their multiple needs namely, survival needs (food, health, pension, education etc) infrastructure needs (land for house, new
- 4. 17KERALA CALLINGJuly 2012 house, shelter up-gradation, sanitary latrine,drinking water,electrification etc) development needs (awareness creation for employment, skill development, accessing employment opportunities, livelihood for sustenance etc) and psychological needs (building of confidence, social inclusion, safety, etc) of each family are identified and the objective target segment is selected. Experience shows that most of the families cannot even articulate their needs. Here a sensitive enquiry and elaborate interaction by the volunteers based on empathy helps. After the needs identification, the Ashraya plan is developed with individual family as the building block. The plan of each family which includes benchmark description and photograph and cost of different required components, is linked together to develop the Local Government Ashraya Plan. Convergence of resources Resources required for funding different components of the plan are mobilized, as much as possible, from existing schemes and programmes including PDS. Since most of the anti- poverty and social welfare programmes have been brought under Local Governments in Kerala the convergence exercise has been made easier. After identifying available resources in this manner , the gap is filled up by the untied resources transferred to Local Governments for development purposes. As an incentive to the Local Governments to take up Ashraya, Government have committed to provide 40% of the project cost subject to a maximum of Rs.15 lakh as special grant. Since Ashraya has tremendous social appeal, some of the enterprising Panchayats have managed to mobilize additional resources by way of donations from philanthropic individuals, sponsorships from institutions, and service commitments from hospitals and so on. Implementation In order to promote social inclusion and provide a human touch to the implementation of the different components, each family is attached to a Neighbourhood Group of Kudumbashree, which undertakes to carry out the implementation of different components as a social obligation. The all-round acceptance of the process of identifying beneficiaries and willingness to provide higher order of assistance to the identified families, the gradual, but progressive empowerment of the targeted families, who begin to access entitlements, starting with food security through the public distribution system, moving on to health security, social security in the form of pension and then reaching out to human development aspects like skill up- gradation and the visible transformation in the attitudes and approaches of officials and elected representatives who were directly involved in the project are some of the highlights of the Ashraya Programme. Benchmark of Ashraya against other states As of date, 933 of the 1043 local governments, including both rural and urban, have taken up Ashraya projects covering 73565 destitute families at a cost of Rs 421.64 crores. Special Ashraya projects for the tribal population have also been initiated in Local Self Government Institutions where tribals are excluded from general Ashraya projects. Ashraya is probably the first project inthecountrytotargettheexcluded poor. It has now attained the status of a national best practice in social security and has reached the stage of replicability. Thus, Ashraya is a pioneer having developed a model, which can be adapted by rest of the country in recognition of its exceptional merit, it was conferred the Prime MinistersAward for Best Practices in Public Administration in 2008. The writer is Programme Officer (Social Development) Kudumbashree State Mission. State government will explore the possibility of setting up fast-track courts to try cases of atrocities against women and children. Help and cooperation of the High Court of Kerala will be sought in the matter and expenses will be borne by the State government, said Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, inaugurating the State-level launch of the Nirbhaya' programme. The programme, aimed at combating violence against women and children, has been revised incorporating suggestions from various quarters. Five centres would be set up in the State to rehabilitate victims of violence. The first Nirbhaya' to counter violence against women, children of these centres would be opened at Thavanoor, near Kuttippuram The Social Welfare Department had managed to provide protection to women and children to a large extent. However, some of the recent incidents set one thinking about the safety of women in their own homes. Society's conscience should awaken in such cases, Mr. Chandy said.The Nirbhaya' toll-free number is 18004521400. Victims will be picked up from any spot and brought to the rehabilitation and counselling centre or they will be directed to the nearest Nirbhaya centre. As an incentive to the Local Governments to take up Ashraya, Government have committed to provide 40% of the project cost subject to a maximum of Rs.15 lakh as special grant.