In a State like Jharkhand which is infamous for hunger deaths and rampant poverty and unemployment, access to social security schemes, especially those ensuring the rural masses proper food and nutrition, still remains a distant dream. A large chunk of people belonging to socially excluded communities and those living in far flung areas of the State are yet to manage two square meals for them and get benefits of government schemes due to lack of awareness.
However, winds of change have started flowing in some areas of the State, where rural residents, who were devoid of the government scheme benefits, are gradually becoming aware of their rights and are working towards securing their rights, especially in the field of food security.
The project named ‘Strengthening Rural Governance for Right to adequate Food’ launched in March 2020 being implemented by Phia Foundation in association with Welthungerhilfe being implemented with close coordination with the government in 40 villages of Khunti (20) and Latehar (20) districts of Jharkhand has turned out to be the harbinger of change for thousands of villagers of the area. The villagers are now discussing issues related to MGNREGA, NFSA, MDM, ICDS, AWC, FRA and several other schemes meant to benefit them. They are participating in Gram Sabhas, taking help from NREGA Sahayata Kendras, Mobilizing people to facilitate awareness and their active participation, Adhikar Yatra, awareness campaigns, and other community meetings to spread the word among others and also making efforts to secure their rights through various government schemes.
“There has been a marked change among the people of the area since the programme began here. A large number of people from socially excluded communities of the society were devoid of their rights. However, things have changed now. With the help of awareness programmes run under the project many people have been benefitted with the social security schemes,” said James Herenj, who is associated with the project in Latehar district.
James further said that for the first time people in the area have started getting unemployment allowance under MGNREGA and it became possible only with the help of the MGNREGA help desk established under the project.
Notably, women’s participation in the programme has also increased in the field. “A large number of women are coming forward to claim pension benefits now. Also, they are working towards getting the right amount of food through PDS system they are entitled to. Several people also got their ration cards corrected through the authorities,” said Alice, who works for the project at Karra in Khunti district.
Xavier Hamsay, another member working in Karra said that a positive impact of the project has become visible now as people are getting their ration regularly through PDS shops. “Earlier they used to get tired running from pillar to post due to lack of knowledge about their rights and many PDS dealers used to cheat them. But, today a large number of people are aware and ensure that they got their rights and entitlements. We also organised ‘Ãdhikar Yatra’ recently to make people aware of their rights by distributing booklets on social security schemes,” he said.
The project aims at providing regular access to 90 per cent of the targeted households to PDS/MDM and ICDS services, strengthen grievance redressal mechanism of the government, to make functional multi stakeholder engagement with active local governance bodies Gram Sabha/standing committees (Village Assembly), Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Committees (VHSNC) in strong collaboration with Panchayti Raj department and other line departments such as - Women and Child Development, Agriculture, etc.
It has also set goals to prepare, implement and assess participatory nutrition sensitive micro-plans in 80 per cent of the villages, make at least 10 Panchayats as Zero Hunger and make active VHSNCs in 75 per cent of the villages and monitor performance of ICDS and health facilities. During the entire project in the duration of four years more than 43000 villagers are aimed to be impacted.