District Poverty Initiative Projects
Indira Gandhi Garibi Hatao Yojana: DPIP, M.P.
The DPIP: Phase-I was an ambitious project of the Government of Madhya Pradesh aimed at combating poverty through empowering the people and by improving the governance. The programme was being executed in 20 villages of Agar block of Shajapur district during 2001-07. In all 620 CIGs have been formed covering over three thousands beneficiaries, and over Rs 4 crores have been disbursed in livelihood activities and over Rs 1 crore spent under the infrastructure development activities. Village Development Committees have been formed in all villages and 15 of these Samitis have successfully initiated micro finance activities. The prominent livelihood activities promoted are in the agriculture and allied sector, namely; lift irrigation, dug well, agriculture innovations and dairying. One Agro based Producer Company ‘Samarth’ was also formed. The project (Phase-I) ended in 2007 and the DPIP decided to own and support run the company by itself. Some of the major achievements were:
- A stop dam on river Lakhunder which had the storage capacity of 0.9 million cum and irrigation capacity of more than 5000 hectares,
- Drinking water facility in 6 SC dominated villages which were accessing water from more than 2 km,
- Earthen tanks on high lands, contour trenching on slopes and irrigation wells in valleys served as the successful agri- development model in 15 villages near Kannad in Agar block,
- A primary school built by villagers on their own and run for two years before government takeover,
The efforts resulted significant improvement in the farming production, particularly in wheat, soybean, orange, spices, dairy and goatry, and resulted in perceptible overall prosperity.
Nava Anjor: DPIP Chhattisgarh
The Nawa Anjor was implemented as a major poverty alleviation initiative in 2000 Gram Panchayats in 40 blocks of 16 Districts of Chhattisgarh. The project belief was working through Common Interest Groups (CIGs) of the poor, in particular women and the tribal people and vulnerable sections.
CARD, which played the lead role of sensitizing and orienting all the project staff (govt and NGO) was also associated with the programme as the Project Facilitation Team during 2005-10. CARD has facilitated formation of Community Interest Groups (CIGs) in 25 Panchayats of Magarlod block of Dhamtari District. The programme was implemented by making social and economic investments in villages in a manner and in schemes that are community driven and need based. More than 200 CIGs were facilitated.
One major achievement was formation of a farmer’s group irrigation scheme which irrigated more than 400 hectares through community electric pumps by lifting water from river Mahanadi.