Problem Analysis

India is a young nation with 70 per cent of the population below 35 years. One of the major problems the country is facing is lack of livelihood options for youth. Many rural youth migrate to cities in search of jobs for want of opportunities in their own communities. The problem is aggravated by a high, school dropout rate amounting to 60 per cent of the students leaving the system before they reach 10th standard. This is in addition to the high illiteracy rate of about 35 per cent of the total population. Unfortunately, the current educational system does not cater to the development of livelihood skills in the students. To add to this, out-of-school youth have hardly any means of developing skills that can make them economically independent. This has led to a sense of hopelessness in millions of youth in the country pushing them to get involved in various anti-social activities. The major fallout has been the exploitation of these youth through under-employment and other oppressive activities.

The proposed action is for strengthening the livelihood base of the people from deprived communities in the region by promoting appropriate technology and developing micro-enterprise in the vulnerable pockets of Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh States. The main population of the region consists of different tribal groups. There is also a substantial number of dalits. These people live in seclusion and with extreme forms of deprivation. These are the indigenous people of the land who occupy the relatively more inaccessible regions of forests and hills and who, for centuries, lived far away from the mainstream society. They are marginal farmers having fragmented land holdings with single cropping dependent on the unpredictable monsoon. Eighty per cent of the population of the states is dependent on agriculture.

Agriculture is dependent on rain in these states and the farm sector employs 82 percent of all workers and 90 percent of rural workers. Wages are low and many of them borrow heavily from moneylenders and landlords to tide over bad times. While the older people become bonded labourers, the children remain either illiterates or drop out from school early with no opportunities for employment or alternative sources of income. Poverty, illiteracy and non-availability of improved methods of farming compound their misery. Appropriate technology and micro-enterprise development can prove to be a great boon to help unemployed youth earn their own living or improve their earning capacities.

An "Appropriate Technology and Micro-enterprise Development Resource Centre" for the three states of Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh is an intervention that can meet the need of bringing together social, environmental and technological knowledge to generate sustainable livelihoods in rural areas. Interventions will be to facilitate promotion of entrepreneurship among rural youth. Training will be provided in enterprise based rural technologies for improved agricultural production, production of building materials, renewable/alternative energy systems, and biomass products.

Development Focus recognizes that in order to improve local economic conditions to meet basic needs, solutions are needed to respond to the needs based on local resource regeneration. One of the major areas of work would be the development of sustainable livelihoods at different levels and scales. To encourage the community to take up self-sustaining concepts like micro-enterprises on a participatory basis would be the key focus. This Centre would be devoted to the continuous creation of assets in the region by not only reinvesting the assets but also by creating assets that repeatedly generate further assets.

The project would be implemented in various phases. The initial phase would be to understand the problems of the area and the people deeply, what their felt needs are and then devise appropriate technological interventions. There is also the need for pilot-testing and action-research, prior to mass propagation of these appropriate technologies. For this, a Demonstration Centre is planned along with the Resource Centre for Appropriate Technology and Micro-enterprise at Bhubaneswar in Orissa.

The Energy programme would be structured around activities concentrating on needs and choice of technology for selected clusters of villages. Systems would be explored locally with the potential for global application.

Majority of the households in the target area being farmers with small land holdings, improved agriculture and diversification of agricultural production could help improve their productivity. Agriculture will include agronomy, horticulture, animal husbandry and fisheries where appropriate.

India has nearly 328 million hectares (mha.) of land, out of which approximately 144 mha is under agriculture, 75 mha under recorded forests and over 100 mha under the category of wasteland. The country is endowed with good rainfall, plenty of sunshine and probably the largest pool of agricultural scientists in the world. Yet food production, hovering around 180 million tons (mt.) per year, is hardly sufficient for its rapidly growing population.

• Alternative building materials and technology
• Energy, resources and environment
• Building systems, design and construction research
• Livelihood systems and enterprise design related to shelter
  
  Some of the technologies in the Shelter programme are:
  
  
• Stabilized Mud blocks
  
  
• Micro concrete roof tiles
  
  
• Low cost eco-friendly roof

The main beneficiaries would be tribal and dalit youth with special emphasis on women.

• To strengthen  people’s institutions and capacity-building
  
  
• To promote replicable livelihood systems leading to regeneration of natural resources and their scientific utilization

• Setting up of Resource Centre and demonstration-cum-training centre at Bhubaneswar
  
  
• Facilitating the process of sustainable livelihood creation
  
  
• Serving as an instrument for rural development through application of  scientific knowledge and technology
  
  
• Conservation, regeneration and using sustainable natural resources
  
  
• Developing, standardizing, popularizing and  commercializing  innovative rural technologies aimed at improving the quality of   life and standard of living of the rural populace of Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand

1. Meeting energy needs through renewable energy systems
2. Raising living standards in rural areas/delivery of rural water supply
3. Improving Quality of life (health, hygiene and sanitation)
4. Making traditional rural business more profitable and generating new opportunities in the rural sector through appropriate technologies

• Setting up of Resource centre and demonstration centre in Bhubaneswar
  
  
• Creating awareness at different levels - forum, cluster and communities
  
  
• Providing motivational inputs at different levels - forum, cluster and communities
  
  
• Introducing and concept-building at different levels
  
  
• Resource-mapping through community participation
  
  
• Identifying community-based appropriate technology
  
  
• Modifying and adopting existing appropriate technology to suit the needs of the communities
  
  
• Transferring identified rural technologies to communities through training
• Standardizing appropriate technology products
  
  
• Promoting micro-enterprises for products and enabling marketing efforts
  
  
• Training and setting up of service and maintenance providers
  
  
• Training in entrepreneurship for women’s groups
  
  
• Assessing the needs for vocational training developing appropriate curriculum
  
  
• Collection and dissemination of data and information
  
  
• Setting up three model villages
  
  
• Studying the market potential of existing traditional trades for its revival
  
  
• Lobbying and advocating for changes
  
  
• Interacting with government and other stakeholders in the three states
  
  
• Preparing IEC materials and using the mass media for information-dissemination
  
  
• Motivating existing  centers adopt new technologies

• Demand-driven: Assessment based on actual needs and taking into account the marketability of technologies for the benefit of a large segment of the population.
  
  
• People-centered: Through the promotion of self-help groups, local committees, and networking with all stakeholders
  
  
•  Rapport building with communities to adopt new technologies and accept changes, including behavioural change.
  
  
• Awareness generation through the collection and dissemination of appropriate data through IEC materials and using the mass media, where warranted.
  
  
•  Linking environmental concerns with water, health and sanitation
  
  
• Constant monitoring and evaluation for mid-course correction, if needed