Towards Livelihoods Sensitivity

True empowerment is not something that can be foisted from outside, nor is it charity that is to be bestowed on the poor; true empowerment comes when knowledge and practices that have been assimilated by communities over centuries are encouraged, supported and given the opportunity and space to blossom. The sooner a development professional understands this, the more meaningful will be his/her contribution.

Introduction

I joined as a Development Apprentice in 2003 in Khunti, Jharkhand. Being a postgraduate in agriculture, I was interested in working for and contributing something innovative to the field of agriculture. I had little knowledge about NGOs but after I joined Pradan I was delighted to see the dedication of my colleagues—their love towards working with poor, their endless energy level and the respect they received from the community. The values and work ethics attracted me and, within no time, this unconventional sector became the most conventional thing in my life. However, I began my journey as someone who wanted to educate the rural masses rather than someone who would sensitively build on their understanding of livelihoods.

My goals, way back in 2003, were very different from what they are now. The team operated in five blocks then—Khunti, Namkom, Torpa, Karra and Murhu— of Khunti sub-division of Ranchi district. At present, Khunti itself is a district. There were 586 villages in these blocks with 49,185 households (Census 2001). We covered only 87 villages (12%) and 4,810 households (9.7%) then. Most of these villages and households were in Khunti and Torpa blocks; we were gradually expanding our area of operations to the other blocks. Of the 4,810 families the team worked with, 3,449 (88.16%) were STs, belonging mainly to the Munda tribe. The occupations of these communities were agriculture, forest produce, livestock, labour and migration.

In 2003, the team felt a need to introduce a package in the community, which, on the one hand, would provide better returns from the uplands and, on the other, would be resilient enough to withstand the erratic rainfall of the region. Further, the crop needed to be such that the production technology could be transferred to a large number of poor families and the produce could be marketed on a large scale.