Bolangir is one of the poorest districts of India, with
90% of the population living below the official poverty line. ActionAid India
started work there in response to severe drought
in 1997. Drought is a political issue, relating more to the distribution of
land and access to food, to local knowledge and information, than directly to
the amount of rainfall. Traditional coping mechanisms, including land management
and distribution, types and distribution of crops, maintenance of forest resources
and types of technology used. Now, traditional drought resistant crops have
been replaced by high-yield modern varieties that thrive only on the richer,
wetter land and traditional drought foods from the forest are no longer available.
This means the majority depend on state handouts, and leads to high levels of
migration.
Reflect circle
Reflect in Bolangir:
After the drought, initial analysis showed a lack of local participation in
planning and decision-making. Reflect was used at village level to identify
the most vulnerable groups and facilitate their analysis, planning and action.
Reflect circles have drawn up micro-level plans, in accordance with legal
state processes, and are now working to make them happen. The current programme
works through 95 circles in 400 villages, managed by a network of 17 organisations:
Collective Action on Drought Mitigation in Bolangir (CADMB).
Click
here to read more about Reflect
in Orissa
Communication
through Reflect:
Bubel village social map
Information, messages and news of activities is spread
through locally produced newsletters and posters. In this way information
about problems, activities and needs on the ground are matched to information
on state entitlements and human rights.
The ICT project will add value to this existing work
in several ways:
- Strengthening CADMB, the Reflect implementing network,
its structures and communication, thereby making it possible to scale up
activities and enhance the impact of actions at district level;
- Complementing existing information channels - such
as newsletters, posters, cultural groups, radio and video - to ensure thorough
and accessible documentation and dissemination of village plans, and to
capture traditional knowledge on drought early warning, coping mechanisms,
crops etc;
- Strengthening micro-macro linkages for policy advocacy,
challenging government policies and rhetoric with information from the ground;
- Facilitating communication between Reflect circles
to enhance identification of common issues and mobilisation to action;
- Diversification of the types of information available
within the Reflect circles and network. A district level resource centre,
linked in to block level structures, will provide a centre for relevant
information to be demanded, sourced, translated/ adapted both from external
sources into Reflect circles, and from village level outwards;
- Building capacity for using and managing ICTs and
information resources;
- Influencing other projects and partners through
issue-based networks, dissemination of learning through pilot process etc.
Find
out more about the India team,
or contact the India pilot by email:
Subrat Rout, ICTs and Reflect coordinator.
Read more about the India pilot on the Communication
Initiative website
