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Pradan is a well-known name in the Indian development sector, founded in 1983 to bring better livelihoods to the country’s poorest regions. It has reached over 19 lakh people in the 12 “development clusters” it works in across seven Indian states.
At the heart of Pradan’s mission is the desire to empower low-income rural women by helping them earn a decent living and take charge of their own lives. The organisation does this by mobilising women and families into local self-help groups that work in sectors like vegetable and fruit farming, poultry or tasar silk.
So far, over one million women have been organised into 82,362 self-help groups. The livelihoods promoted by Pradan have generated a gross annual income of $80 million. The organisation has also connected over 6.25 lakh women with banks and markets to secure their incomes, making one of India’s largest microfinance movements. In fact, over the years Pradan has played an important role in the development of several government programmes, including the Integrated Rural Development programme, the National Rural Livelihood Mission, and the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana.
One of the main ways in which Pradan works is to get educated young professionals with an empathy for the poor to work directly in communities at the grassroots level. So far, over 3,000 development professionals have been trained.
The project supported by MFE:
Promotion of Comprehensive Livelihoods for bringing Transformational Change in lives of people
Under the Indian government’s “Transformation of Aspirational Districts” programme, the NITI Aayog ranked 115 of the country’s most backward districts. Rajasthan’s Sirohi district – a part of Pradan’s “development clusters” – ranked 53 on the list.
For the five-year project supported by MFE, Pradan aims to bring better livelihoods to 100 villages in two particularly distressed blocks in Sirohi – Pindwara and Abu Road. Here, the undulating terrain, low rainfall, depleting groundwater and depleting forest cover have made it harder for farmers to grow cash crops or thrive economically. Human development indicators in these blocks are low, with high rates of infant mortality, rampant anaemia in women and children, as well as widespread tuberculosis.
The primary aim of Pradan’s project is to increase the average annual incomes and improve the nutritional status of 10,000 families in these blocks. This is to be achieved through multi-pronged interventions. One is to create irrigation infrastructure, such as 50 new lift irrigation sites, and bring 1,250 acres of land under water conservation works. Through this, at least 500 families are to increase their irrigation efficiency by 50%.
Another is to improve agriculture through the cultivation of more cash crops, and by promoting five Farmer Producer Organisations of 800-1,000 families each. The aim of the FPOs will be to support its members with every aspect of cash crop farming.
Simultaneously, Pradan aims to bring 5,000 families into the fold of integrated livestock rearing, to enhance the productivity of goat, cattle and backyard poultry. To this end, the project will strengthen the Aravali Pashupalak Sangathan, an important local Producer Institution for livestock farmers.
At the end of five years, Pradan’s project plans to significantly increase the annual household income of beneficiary households. For 3,500 families involved in high-end cash crop cultivation, the targeted increase in income ranges from Rs 50,000 to Rs 80,000 a year from their baseline income. For 1,000 families growing moderate cash crops, the project aims for a Rs 20,000 to Rs 60,000 increase in annual income, while for 5,500 low-end cash crop families, the targeted income increase is of Rs 10,000 to Rs 30,000 from baseline.
Finally, the project will introduce several dietary diversity interventions and promote the government’s Poshanwadi scheme in order to improve the nutritional status of the 10,000 target families.
The whole project is being implemented by building on the foundation of local women’s self-help groups and establishing village organisations in each village to monitor the overall progress of the work.
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