I met Ramdhari Didi while I was on field in Gumla, Jharkhand. She lived with her husband and belonged to a ‘Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group’. The longer I spoke with her, the more I understood her story about living in extreme poverty. Initially, her crop production was undersized and unassured. She had no savings. Food for her family was hard-earned, only to kill the hunger and stay alive for tomorrow. Ramdhari Didi, along with the rest of the poorest of the poor, didn't think about the long-term and survived for tomorrow. It was very hard for these families to maintain ‘consumption smoothing’- maintaining a similar level of consumption over a significant period. This smoothing is dependent on the level of variation in production and savings, which is where these households fell short. Since their consumption pattern wasn’t stable, it hurt all important events of their lives and didn’t allow them to live securely. Poverty killed their capacity to realize their capabilities to the fullest potential.
However, this changed when she was able to earn more than Rs.18000, with grant investment of Rs.2700, from tomato farming on 1/10th of an acre of land. The profit she made from selling tomatoes enabled her to purchase a new water-pumping machine for cultivation. She is now leasing it out to other families and for the first time, the entire village has a water-pumping machine. Not only did she purchase a new machine for herself, but she has introduced a new source of irrigation for others in the village as well.
How did this happen? Ramdhari Didi was introduced to the ‘graduation approach’. Tight handholding support and continued coaching by the well-trained and dedicated field staff of an agency, like The/Nudge Foundation, helped her to get good productivity and access to the local market. She was also supported with livelihood grants to start two types of diversified livelihood activities. She chose small-scale animal husbandry and vegetable cultivation. At present, the value of productive assets is more than Rs.50,000 (in baseline, the asset was less than Rs.6000). She has also been linked to social protection government schemes like PVTG pension ensuring a standard monthly liquid cash inflow and is also supported with a consumption support grant ensuring her food security when she was busy receiving livelihood development training. With the confidence of owning productive assets and income from own land, Didi now has small savings in a Self-Help Group.
The support in the ‘graduation approach’, which organizations like BRAC and Ford Foundation etc. are also implementing, includes access to grants, rights and entitlements, formal financial services and local markets, along with life skills coaching and simplified technical training. This leads to improved and diversified livelihoods for the ultra-poor.
Cash or asset transfer will not reach its real potential if it is not supplemented by proper and timely handholding support from the civil society organization. It includes the confidence that comes from regular coaching, peer support and the knowledge that the organization is here to work with them, walk with them and face every challenge together. After their food security is ensured, the agency needs to stand by these households and encourage them to take the risk to shift to mainstream livelihood from traditional distress-based livelihood activities. Later on, the maintenance can be handed over to community institutions like Self Help Groups to take care of these most vulnerable households. The shift to mainstream livelihood activities will not only help them ensure a steady income but also secure them from distress migration. This is also important to protect and strengthen the local village-level economy.
The four pillars of the ‘Graduation Approach’- social development, social protection, economic development through asset/cash transfer and access to rights and entitlements through handholding support- need to be the base of every development program that targets the poorest of the poor. The ultra-poor consists of the bottom 10% of our population who are missing both government and market/private interventions. It is crucial to target these households carefully and work with them for at least 36 months to bring them to a better position where they have the confidence to question privilege and fight for their share. This confidence only comes from ‘consumption smoothing’ security, dignified livelihood, ownership over productive assets, having access to government welfare schemes, and their inclusion into community institutions.
Thanks to the graduation approach, Ramdhari Didi is now confident of a quality future. She and other Didis like her have mobilized into a small group that meets every week to discuss their challenges and decide solutions for themselves. After getting vegetables from a small patch of land, having a direct interaction with the local market, seeing cash in her hand for the very first time, and now owning a water-pumping machine (the productive asset) from her own income, the confidence she has is priceless and that confidence is motivating her to fight her way out of extreme poverty.