BUILDING UP OF VILLAGE PANCHAYAT COMMUNITIES

EMPOWERMENT OF GRAM PANCHAYATS For the building up and empowerment of village Panchayat communities many different programs like; participatory training programs, workshops, seminars, conventions and micro level planning were planned which would accelerate our target groups to make substantial contribution to the comprehensive development of the village panchayats whereby the Musahars, Women and Dalit communities will have greater participation and inclusion in the functioning of the Panchayatraj system. We had our intervention at two levels:- (a) At the grass root level of the individual village panchayats directly and indirectly by way of support to our various village committees (like MANREGA Union, Village vigilance committees), programs for Youth Cadre formation and village Clubs, women’s SHGs and motivational conscentization activities through grassroots training programs etc. (b) At the Macro level of Block and District Panchayats.

GRASS ROOTS / PANCHAYAT INTERVENTIONS The main objectives were: i. To make Panchayat representatives answerable to common man and to help them work to ensure the welfare of the common man. ii. To ensure healthy dialogue between Gram Sabha/People and Elected Panchayat Representatives. iii. To sensitise the Panchayat representatives towards their work and role. iv. To ensure participation of women and men of marginalised and excluded groups in decision making.

PANCHAYAT SAMMELAN (CONVENTION) We have been emphasising on the inclusion of the excluded groups like women, Musahar and Muslim and Dalits in panchayat empowerment through their participation and constant interaction with the Panchayat elected bodies. We had organised 9 Panchayat Sammelan (convention).

MODEL PANCHAYATS One of the major collective decisions that LCS had taken to empower the panchayats was to select and build one each Gram Panchayat as a ‘model panchayat in each Block. In this direction we had selected AIELEY in Chiraigaon Block, TALA in Cholapur Block, and GHATAMPUR in Kashi Vidhyapith and special strategies and activities were planned for the comprehensive development of these Panchayats. Marathon meetings with various groups like-Pradhan and elected members, school management within the limits of the selected villages, government machineries who at the service of the selected villages are contacted and met to achieve the goal. Each of our Animators have also selected one each Panchayats as their model panchayats and making strategy to achieve the se goals of the project as well as Lok Chetana Samiti.

RIGHT TO EDUCATION-ACT 2009- EMPOWERING "SCHOOL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE" Right to Education Act-2009 is a powerful Act introduced in 2009 but has come into effect in December 2010. This Act provides free and compulsory education for all the children under the age of 14. Every school irrespective of Private or Government Sector should reserve 25% for the poor and underprivileged children of its total students. They shall receive free education without making any discrimination with other children who are studying in the school. We made constant effort to make the RTE Act a successful one with our limited time and space. In order to make this Act effective at grassroots we decided and planned to empower the School Management Committee (SMC) who is responsible for the entire management of the school. The first strategy that we applied was that to get the list of SMC-members. Then, we planned a meeting with them in their respective villages and in this meeting we shared about RTE-Act and the role-responsibility of the SMC members for effective and qualitative education of the children. The result was that positive because very many schools did not cooperate with us to provide the SMC list. We have found a lot of mismanagement and anomalies in Midday meals. We have also found that the SMC meetings which would take place every month are not taking place rather the School Principal frequently make changes and signatures. With our intervention the following results are seen in the villages 1. Regular SMC meetings are taking place in 62 villages. 2. SMC members became aware of their rights and demand for regular sittings. 3. We organised One day seminar on RTE-Act in this direction.

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