Earthquake Relief Work - A New Beginning

Part of Deepak Foundation's Annual Report, 2001-2002

On January 26^th, 2001 a powerful earthquake leading to massive loss of life and property struck Gujarat. Although the district worst affected was Kutch, Surendranagar district too faced massive destruction. The area where Deepak Foundation works (Baroda District) was not affected, but the scale of destruction was such that Deepak Foundation felt it had to contribute to the rehabilitation efforts that were being undertaken. Our efforts were able to bear fruition when our corporate backer, the Deepak Group, decided to contribute to the relief efforts. The contribution consisted of one day's salary of the workers and the contribution of the management. The total amount contributed by the various companies of the Deepak Group was Rs. 5,70,836.

Most of the relief efforts were aimed at Kutch district and so Deepak Foundation felt that it should focus its efforts on Surendranagar district. We finally narrowed down our choice to a village called Tikar Ran in Halvad taluka of Surendranagar district. This village is one of the border villages of Surendranagar district and is very close to Kutch district. It is a remote village, far from the district headquarter, and no other agency had undertaken relief efforts there. The village had faced near total destruction - nearly 90% of all buildings had been destroyed. It is the largest village in that area with a population of about 5000 and we decided that we would start our work with this village and slowly move to the surrounding villages. Many members of the DCT team donated their time and volunteered to do various tasks in Tikar i.e. facilitated opening bank accounts of families in order to receive government earthquake relief funds; surveyed existing livelihood skills; formed Self Help Groups; held meetings with the community etc. DCT also facilitated the visits of school students belonging to a Pune based school called "RB Academy" to Tikar. The school donated material worth Rs.20, 000 to the school in Tikar in the form of books, teaching materials, craft material etc. The children and the teachers from both schools interacted and shared experiences.

In deciding what programs to take up in Tikar, we decided to focus in those areas where DCT's expertise lay - in building livelihoods and increasing the capacity of women. We elected to move ahead keeping women as the focal point of all our interventions. We decided to help the women rebuild their livelihoods and to increase their capacities, skills, knowledge that we hoped would lead to improved quality of life.

The choice of livelihood to be taken up was determined by existing skills of the women. We did not want to introduce an activity that would increase the drudgery of the women and require them to acquire totally new skills. We decided to build on their existing skills and thus chose dairying. The DCT team identified dairying as an activity that had potential. So the first intervention by us in Tikar Ran was the organizing of women into a Dairy Co-operative. In doing this we took the inputs of the Surendranagar Milk Producers Union Ltd. The dairy was started on October 1^st2001 with 52 members. Training of these members on improved cattle care and managing their dairy co-operatives was carried out with the co-operation of Surendranagar dairy and the local panchayat.

We are facing some challenges in implementing this program. The rate offered by the Surendranagar Dairy per litre of milk is not competitive and the local milk buyers offer more money. In the long run, keeping both sustainability and empowerment of women in mind, the best option is the dairy co-operative. Thus it is a challenge to expand the membership of the co-operative dairy in Tikar and get women to sell the milk to the dairy and not to the local milk buyers. We are trying to meet this challenge and expand membership by tying a host of subsidized services to the membership of the co-operative such as access to cattle care; artificial insemination; improved nutrition for the cattle etc. These services would be provided to non-members only at market rates and members will be given preference.

Details Of Tikar Women's Dairy

Another skill that the women possess and which has earning potential is their embroidery skills. We have surveyed and documented the existing skills and plan in the future to take up this activity as well. We hope to provide design inputs to these women through organizations, which have such expertise and then provide marketing support to them. We have already held a training on tailoring for two months - September and October - which was attended by 24 women.

Linked to the livelihood activity, was the formation of Self Help Groups. We initiated the formation of these groups parallel to taking up dairying. The groups were set up to inculcate in women the habit of saving regularly as well as provided access to credit on reasonable terms. We have been able to form 20 Self Help Groups in the last year with a membership of 448 women. The groups have a cumulative saving of Rs. 67,727. We wanted to link those women who had joined the dairy co-operative to the Self Help Groups in order that they could take loans for buying cattle. To this end as well as to facilitate loans for other livelihood activities DCT provided revolving loan funds to 18 Self Help Groups. The groups were to use this fund for lending activities and the interest accrued would be the earning of the group. The amount granted as revolving loan funds to 18 SHGs is Rs. 3,80,107. Of the 20 groups, 9 have initiated lending activity besides saving. The total number of women who have availed of loans is 21 and the amount borrowed is Rs.1, 51,400. The women are paying back these loans regularly and the total amount recovered so far is Rs.45, 200.

DCT was able to implement these interventions in Tikar with the funds provided by the corporate group - `Deepak'. But based on these activities we were able to apply for funding to expand these activities to other villages of Halvad taluka. We applied to the Department of Women & Child Development, Government of Gujarat and were sanctioned three projects (under various schemes) amounting to Rs. 1,01,10,750. Thus using the initial contribution, made by the `Deepak Group' of Rs. 5,70,836 as seed money, we were able to generate funds to the tune of one crore rupees for undertaking developmental activities in the villages of Halvad taluka, Surendranagar District. Under the Dairying project we are going form women's dairy co-operatives in seven villages, which will cover about 800 women. We are going to form 40 Self Help Groups of women under the World Bank funded Swashakti project and the Norad funded tailoring class will cover 30 women.

Details of Funds sanctioned for Halvad taluka

Tailoring Classes for Women	Rs. 1,21,750
Dairying - Promotion of New Livelihood Sources for Earthquake affected Women in Halvad taluka	Rs. 81,55,770
Formation of Self Help Groups under Swashakti Project	Rs.18,33,230.

Deepak Foundation's main area of work is Baroda district in Gujarat and Raigarh district in Maharashtra. Taking up work in Surendranagar district on a long-term basis does not fit with DCT's vision. Owing to constraints of resources and manpower, taking up work in a district so far from our main area of work in Gujarat - Baroda district - does not seem sustainable and viable. Thus the aim is to find a way to sustain the work in Halvad taluka after DCT withdraws from the area. DCT wants to work in these villages for a specific number of years and empower the local people to manage their programs themselves. Towards this a Trust comprising of the local community has been formed and has been named as "Prerna". This trust was formed in October 2001 (reg. No. E-860 Surendranagar). Training of the members of this trust to manage the programs themselves has been initiated. 11 persons have undergone this training so far. More such trainings are planned this year. We have developed a well chalked out withdrawal strategy and the main focus of our work is to empower the local community especially the women to manage their development programs themselves.