A one-day orientation workshop for Uttarakhand State Rural livelihood Mission was conducted by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kashipur in Udham Singh Nagar at its premises.
The 43 participants included Iva Ashish Srivastava (Chief Development Officer, Udham Singh Nagar), Rama Goswami (District Mission Manager, Udham Singh Nagar), two Block Development Officers (of Jaspur and Kashipur Blocks of the same districts), four Assistant Development Officers, twelve Gram Vikas Adhikari (GVAs), sixteen Community Resource Persons (CRPs) working in the two blocks and over 10 Self Help Groups of Swarnajayanti Gram SwarozgarYojana (SGSY).
Objectives of the workshop, as explained by Goswami, were to bring in managerial inputs to the best implementation of the mission in the district; to experience sharing of the participants with the teachers, researchers and other management professionals engaged in IIM Kashipur and also those with international bodies for the enrichment of knowledge; for in-depth understanding, analysis and solutions to the problems faced by the participants, and, thus, present a plethora of opportunities available to them to forge ahead; and to ensure that the members of Self-help Groups (SHGs) and the Community Resource Persons (CRPs) get the maximum benefit out of the workshop, so as to strengthen the grass-root level of the mission.
Somnath Ghosh (workshop Director, and the Acting Director of IIM Kashipur) proposed a change in the implementation process for it to be most effective. “The success of livelihood programme lies in, one – identifying the most suitable source of livelihood unique to the people in a specific geographic area; two - capacity building of people; three – perseverance; four – floating, promoting, and successfully running Self-help Groups (SHGs); five – continued innovation and encouraging individual initiative,” added Ghosh.
Throwing light on the development of Self-help Groups (SHGs) as necessary for the livelihood mission, Srivastava explained how the concept, originating in early 1990s, has become a movement now. The workshop was split into two sessions- the first, a team-building exercise known as Broken Square Game, and the second, a small group discussions (six groups).