Monthly Progress Report- September 2009

Planning and policy advocacy

• The 9th meeting of the Project Sanctioning Committee was organized on 24th September, 2009 in RMoL office under the chairmanship of the Dy. Chairman, RMoL, Sh. T. Srinivasan. Other participants were Principal Secretary, Labour and Employment; Secretary Finance (Expenditure); Secretary, Women & Child Development; Director, EMI; Director, Employment; Director, Technical Education; Jt. Director, Planning; Directors – Extension Education, MPUAT and RAU; MD, RKCL; Project Director, RMoL and other representatives from RMoL and EMI.
• The 4th meeting of the Project Steering Committee was held on 24th September, 2009 under the chairmanship of Sh. T. Srinivasan, Dy. Chairman, RMoL. Other participants were Principal Secretary, Labour and Employment; Secretary Finance (Expenditure); Programme Officer, Poverty unit, UNDP and representatives from RMoL

Skill Development

• So far 577 skill training programmes have been approved for 2009-10 and with these 212 training providers have been given sanction letters for conducting 531 training programmes. In principle 62 Government ITIs, 21 KVKs, 17 General Education Colleges, 89 other agencies like ITC, RUDSETs, JSS, DCTC, Polytechnics, PIs and NGOs have been approved along with 23 large training providers. Financial sanctions have been given to 116 Institutions so far for conducting 157 programmes. Total 109 training programmes are ongoing while 30 programmes have been completed.
• Meeting with automobile sector was organized to enhance participation of service stations and central workshops of RSRTC in skill trainings.
• A 5 day Training of Trainers programme on soft skills organized by RMoL was facilitated by EMI for RMoL skill training providers. 32 representatives took participation.   
• In compliance to the directives of the Hon’ble CM for arranging skill trainings to persons requesting for employment directly through CM office, RMoL has identified 315 out of 358 such candidates and they in turn have been contacted and suggested to pursue trainings which they prefer from the provided list of RMoL training programmes.    

Initiatives for Livelihood Promotion

• The training program on Entrepreneurial development for 36 Prachetas (block level functionaries) has been successfully completed during 16th to 23rd September, 2009. The first batch training conducted during 17th to 24th August had 38 trainees. EDI, Ahmedabad was the facilitating organization. The event was inaugurated by Dy. Chairman, RMoL, Sh. T. Srinivasan. The trainings were duly appreciated by the Prachetas.
• Under the pilot project on sheep breed improvement, the project villages have been identified, staff have been recruited and posted, concerned Panchayats have formally invited the implementing agency for initiating the implementation work and household survey in project villages is underway.
• A MoU has been signed with Vishwas Sansthan to take up work of Livelihood Resource Centre, Rajsamand.
• Under the migrant support services project, a four member team has been placed by Aajeevika Bureau at village Aaspur in Dungarpur district. Registration of 468 migrants has been done and counseling and information have been provided to 528 migrants.
• Under promotion of dairy cluster project, SRIJAN, the implementing agency has mobilized 27 SHGs with membership of 322 families from 18 villages. Six village level milk collection centres have been established and all necessary en-route arrangements for collection and marketing have been channelled. The new process has impacted through enhanced income to the farmers to the tune of Rs. 5-6 per litre.
• Under promotion of small and micro enterprises by Tribal project, the concept of Gram Nidhi has been introduced as federation of SHGs which will look after loan disbursement to individuals and groups, production and product alignment, value addition and marketing. The enterprise committee, to work under Gram Nidhi has been formed.  
• Under financial inclusion project, the first batch training on the “Certification Program on BC/BF Model” was conducted during September 30 to October 03 2009 at Jaipur. Accordingly training tool Kit has also been developed.
• Under the financial literacy project for women, 18 training programmes have so far been conducted in different places of the Tonk district and a total 799 women have been trained and benefited. The baseline survey of the identified women has been completed and the report is expected by the end of October, 2009.

Monitoring and Coordination

• A three day workshop for developing ‘Monitoring & Evaluation tools’ and for designing logical framework analysis (LFA) for RMoL projects was organized during 16th -18th September, 2009 at RMoL office, Jaipur. The event was facilitated by experts from New Concept Information System, an agency identified by UNDP for providing Monitoring & Evaluation support to RMoL. The workshop was participated by Programme Officer, Poverty Unit, UNDP, RMoL officers and representatives from key partner organizations.
• The RMoL officer participated in the review meeting in Bhilwara on 22nd September, 2009, headed by Dr. C.P. Joshi, Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Govt. of India and senior officials from Ministry of RD, GoI to deliberate on two issues, i.e. finetuning mechanism and introduce innovations for speedy payments to NREGS workers and to develop possible collaborations of Banswara district administration with potential agencies for undertaking interventions under Bhilwara Livelihood Mission Project.
• Mr. Kazuhiro Numasawa, Programme Officer, UNDP along with Gender Advisor, UNDP conducted visits to RMoL project areas of Udaipur, Banswara and Dungarpur during 28th September to 1st October, 2009 and had detailed interactions with all stakeholders including the district administration officials.
• The RMoL officers had visits to Udaipur and Banswara to facilitate UNDP team visits in these districts.      
• Officials from RMoL attended the Seminar on ‘Rehabilitation of De-notified Tribe’ organized by Universal Heritage Foundation at Kota University, Kota.

Initiatives at RMoL District Offices

• On the initiatives of the District Manager, RMoL, the District Collector, Dungarpur has formed the District Level Convergence Committee under his chairmanship with DM, RMoL as the Member Secretary to facilitate convergence initiatives at the district level.
• The DM, RMoL, Dungarpur facilitated formation of Vagad Vikas Manch, an NGO pool and a platform to facilitate convergence and advocacy issues in the district.
• The District Manager, RMoL, Tonk facilitated the tripartite meeting involving RMoL, Zila Parishad and the Tonk diary to create provision of hybrid bulls for natural insemination for the breed improvement of cows. These bulls will be provided by the Zila Parishad under SGSY scheme to Gram Panchayats and the Dairy Cooperatives would be involved in the upkeep of the same.
• The District Manager, RMoL, Rajsamand attended the district planning committee meeting on 9th September and suggested the Chairman to encourage Institutions / NGOs working in the district to take up RMoL skill training programmes for skill generation in the district.
• The District Manager, RMoL, Baran was invited by Zila Parishad as the resource person for their one day NGO capacity building training under SGSY scheme.
• A three day workshop on ‘Module Development for LRC’ was organized during August 14 to August 16, 2009 by CECOEDEECON under ‘Livelihood Resource Centre’ Project supported by RMoL.
• The District manager, RMoL, Banswara attended the DHDR workshop dated 14th September, 2009 organized by Zila Parishad and contributed through quality input in extracting nonfarm based livelihood and employment related data from employment exchange, local DIC and private industries to be added in livelihood chapter in the DHDR report of the district.    
• The DM, RMoL, Banswara had a meeting with CEO, Zila Parishad and discussed scope of convergence of micro irrigation and lift irrigation plans for targeted households under NREGA to ensure food security through availability of water to these vulnerable families’ landholdings. The Executive Engineer NREGA in turn has promised that the department would plan it on pilot basis for 5 villages in coordination with the Gram Panchayats.