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Focus 1999 April - June English |
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Volume XIII No.2
April-June 1999
POPULATION ENVIRONMENT DEVELOPMENT
A BULLETIN OF POPULATION FOUNDATION
OF INDIA
Panchayati Raj in Haryana
Conference to Discuss
Workshop Finalises Training Strategy MP Population,
STATE LE\\ i£L WORKSHOP
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Chairpersons of Zilla Parishad of various districts from Haryana at the state level
workshop in Chandigarh.
Population Foundation of India
organised a two-day state level
workshop at Hotel Shivalik, Chandigarh
on April 2 and 3, 1999 to discuss the
training strategy and to work out a detailed
plan of action for Panchayati Raj training
in Haryana.
The Chief Secretary of Haryana, Mr R
S Verma inaugurated the workshop. Mr
Kanwal Singh, Minister for Panchayati Raj
and Rural Development, Haryana, was the
chief guest. Mr Vishnu Bhagwan, Financial
Commissioner and Secretary, Education,
Haryana presided over the function. Senior
officials of Haryana Government,
Chairpersons of Zilla Parishad of various
districts from Haryana, academicians from
State Universities and representatives of
leading NGOs in Haryana were present.
Mr Verma commended the work
done by PFI specially the initiative taken
to train the Panchayat members in
Haryana with the support of UNICEF.
Continued on Page 7
Development Issues
PFI has organised a Round Table
Conference at Bhopal on 'Population
and Related Development Issues in
Madhya Pradesh' on August 1 and 2,
1999. Selected experts from various
disciplines will present papers and
participate in the Conference to discuss
the reasons for poor success of the
programmes of family planning,
population stabilisation and related
. developmental issuesand suggest a plan of
action to attain the goal of population
stabilisation in the State at the earliest.
Five major themes have been
identified for discussion during the
Round Table Conference :(i) Economic
constraints, (ii) Bureaucratic constraints,
(iii) Political constraints, (iv) Social
constraints, (v) Situation of Tribes in Mp,
and (vi)Environmental issues.
The Chief Minister of Madhya
Pradesh, Mr Digvijay Singh will
inaugurate the Conference on August 1,
1999. A number of Ministers and senior
government officials of MP are expected
to participate in the Conference. A
reception will be held on July 31, 1999 at
Jehan Numa PalaceHotel, Bhopal to meet
the delegates of the Conference where the
Governor ofMP, Dr Bhai Mahavir will be
the Chief Guest. A meeting of the
Governing Board ofPFI will also be held
atBhopalonJuly31,1999.
•
On Other Pages
• New PFI Publication to be Ready Soon..................... 2
• World Population Day
3
• PFI's Display at Social Development Fair
3
• Follow-up of UP Round Table Conference................. 4
• Anatomy of Voluntarism Translated in Hindi.............. 5
• Dr Srinivasan Advises Census for Lebanon............. 5
• Tamil Nadu Panchayat Chiefs visit Kerala................ 5
• Health Services Provided with Local Support......... 6
• Management Trainees Study Ghaziabad Project..... 8
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Target or Target Free?
The 'Target Free Approach'
(TFA)
adopted by the Department of Family Welfare,
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, since 1996 is
coming under serious review by professionals,
administrators and policy makers. The TFA was
adopted as a natural consequence of the intensive
target-oriented
time-bound family planning
programme implemented in the country since the
very beginning, especially from 1962. In the 'target
era' the family planning targets were essentially
based on the number of sterilisation operations or
sterilisation equivalents of IUD insertions, oral pills
and condoms distributions for achieving a pre-
determined decline in birth rate. As long as there was
a sizeable proportion of eligible couples who had far
exceeded their desired family size in the population,
and who did not want any more children at any cost, it
was not difficult for the programme personnel to
recruit the targeted number of cases of sterilisation
or sterilisation equivalents. In many States, such a
programme exhausted this high fertility pool in
different years.
From 1990, it was becoming increasingly
difficult for the programme personnel to recruit cases
for sterilisation operations. This was particularly true
for the states that had already done well in the family
planning programme, i.e. Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra,
Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Protests against
targets were largely received between 1990-93 from
these states, which claimed that their fertility levels
were already low and the imposition of family
planning targets of any kind was unreasonable. They
also appealed to the Centre that allocation of any
financial assistance from the Centre, based on
achievement of accepted targets was illogical and
was not acceptable to them. They said that fertility
goals and not family planning acceptor targets are to
be considered as 'sine qua non' for the success of the
family planning programme.
Government of India adopted the 'target-free
apporach' from 1st April 1996 in all the states. Family
planning was made a part of a more comprehensive
and ambitious Reproductive and child Health
package since October 1997 and TFA was
rechristened as "Community Needs Assessment"
approach. The programme switched over from an
aggressively supply and promotion oriented one to a
meeting-the-demands on a wide array of areas
under RCH including family planning. The switch
over was done without adequate planning,
preparation and putting in place alternate goals for
monitoring and evaluation of programme at the field
level. The number of acceptors for family planning
methods almost collapsed during 1996-97 in those
states where fertility was high but it is ironical that the
number of sterilisations, IUD insertions, and oral pills
and condom use continued to remain at fairly high
levels in those states where fertility was already low
and declined. This suggests that once fertility decline
commences at a rapid pace, and once couples
internalise the small family norm, there is practically
no need to impose any targets.
At present, when Government of India is facing
a dilemma on TFA, it appears prudent not to impose a
common strategy on all the states. The strategy
should best be left to the individual states with the
central government playing an advisory and
supportive role.
KJf~
DR K SRINIVASAN
New PFI Publication to be Ready Soon
A publication, based on 14 case
studies of action research projects
in health and family planning
undertaken by NGOs in ten states and
supported by PFI, is being brought
out. Voluntary Action in Health and
Population: The Dynamics of Social
Transition, edited by Sunil Misra is
expected to be available by the end of
this year.
The Foundation has supported
nearly 320 projects for the cause of
population stabilisation since its
inception in 1970. These include
innovative and research programmes
covering various aspects of' the
population in the form of studies,
action research projects and training
in family planning, maternal and
. child health and related areas. Many
of these were area specific, isolated
activities, important in their limited
o bj ectives, wi tho u t necessarily
falling into an organic integrated
pattern. Despite the sincere efforts
put into these programmes, not
much insight was gained into the
long term sustainability and the
overall impact of the programme as
the Foundation's concern ended
with the payment of final instalment
and the receipt of the final project
report.
It was therefore decided to
undertake qualitative evaluation of
the action research projects which
had been completed during the past
three years (since 1996) or were
nearing completion to assess the
quality of their programme
operation, overall impact, extent of
people's participation and the level of
sustainability after the project
funding was over. It was important
to find out the trends, patterns and
processes of change consequent to
programme interventions.
Fourteen action research
programmes were identified for case
study and qualitative evaluation.
Broadly classified, these related to
focus areas of Infant Mortality and
Fertility; Integrated Health, Family
Planning
and Development;
Reproductive Health and Family
Planning in Urban Slums; Reproductive
Health and Family Planning among
industrial workers; and Family Planning
through Rural Medical Practitioners.
The frame of reference for
evaluating the projects was : (a)
assessment of the overall impact of the
programme in the attitudinal and
normative behaviours ; (b) assessment
of the processes and directions of
change consequent to programme
interventions; (c) assessment of the
extent of people's participation and the
level of sustainability after the
programme was withdrawn from the
area; (d) assessment of the factors
responsible for the success or failure of
the programme, the problem areas, etc;
and (e) assessment of the replication
potential
of the programme
methodology for wider applications.
The evaluation sought to assess the
effectiveness of the NGOs in bringing
about desired changes in individual and
community value systems. The purpose
of the exercise was to understand the
intervention processes, the social and
structural transformation consequent
to programme interventions, how the
NGOs react as catalysts of change and
to derive lessons for future activities.
Prof. Sunil Misra, Joint Director in the
Foundation, edited the fourteen studies
and provided an overview for the
publication.
The major challenge before
development workers is to make the
national or state programmes relevant to
the local context so that the people of the
area for whom the programme is designed
can identify their own needs and
aspirations with the programme
activities. Deep rooted and sustainable
changes have indeed taken place in every
project area where interventions have
been made.
The book would be useful to those
interested in social change especially in
areas of family planning and
reproductive health through non-
governmental efforts.
•
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World Population Day
World Population Day on July
11 this year is to be used to
increase awareness of the Day of
6 Billion on October 12, 1999,
says Dr Nafis Sadik, Executive
Director of United Nations
Population Fund.
In a message on the
occasion, she says" It took all of
time for world population to
reach 2 billion in 1927- then less
than a lifetime to arrive at 6
billion. World population has
doubled since 1960. Reaching
6 billion marks a success.
People today live longer and
heal thier lives than any
generation in history.
Six billion is also a challenge.
Today there are over a billion
young people between 15 and
24 years of age. Their decisions
about the size and spacing of
their families will determine
how many people will be on the
planet by 2050 and beyond.
Their decisions will also help
determine how they live-in
poverty or prosperity; on a green
and healthy planet or in a world
devastated by human activities.
Good outcomes depend on
good choices. And good
choices depend on freedom to
choose, for women and men
alike, in all areas oflife.
Reaching 6 billion is not
about numbers. It is about
people."
•
Executive Director Dr K Srinivasan with Ms Asha Das, Secretary, Union Ministry of
Social Justice and Empowerment at the PFI stall at Social Development Fair.
PFI's Display at Social D~velopment
Fair Attracts Visitors
P FI partici pated in the third Social
Development Fair held at Pragati
Maidan from May 15 to 23, 1999. A
number of NGOs, Government
Departments and international
agencies working in diverse
developmental fields participated in
the Fair which was organised by the
India
Trade
Promotion
Organisation.
Ms Asha Das, Secretary, Union
Ministry of Social Justice and
Empowerment, who inaugurated the
Fair, also visited the PFI's stall where
she was received by the staff ofPFI led
by the Executive Director Dr K
Srinivasan. She cut a tape at the
entrance of the stall before being
escorted inside by Dr Srinivasan who
briefed her about the various items on
display in the stall.
The PFI had put up an attractive
stall which had a population clock
that could show the population of
different states in India; a map of
India indicating the locations of PFI
projects with coloured lights; a number
of panels describing the work of PFI,
and wall charts and publications
produced by PFI. New panels had been
prepared for some of the latest PFI's
projects : Panchayati Raj Training in
Haryana and TRDCTraining for NGO
personnel. Copies of a number of
publications ofPFI were available. The
staff members of the Foundation were
present at the stall to provide
additional information to visitors.
Special arrangements had bee n
made to provide detailed information
about the Reproductive and Child
Health training for NGOs working in
slums of Delhi being provided by PFI.
A separate register had been kept to
register the names ofNGOs desirous of
deputing their staff for the. training.
The visitors' book kept at the,stall has
attracted a large number of entries,
some of them being quite
complimentary.
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Follow-up of UP Round Table Conference
Projects Identified
As a followup to the deliberations
and recommendations of the Round
Table Conference on Population
Stabilisation and related Developmental
Issues in Uttar Pradesh, held at Lucknow
on January 8 and 9, 1999, the PFI
retained Prof B K Joshi, former Vice
Chancellor, Kumaun University as a
Consultant to prepare a few project
proposals for funding in Uttar Pradesh.
The following is a brief summary of the
projects which have been identified by the
PFI for support in association with other
funding agencies.
Innovative Programmes
in Family Planning
In view of the fairly large un met nee d
for family planning services in Up, it is
proposed to introduce two programmes:
Jan Mangal and the Raj Laxmi schemes
which have been successfully tried out in
Rajasthan.
The Jan Mangal scheme is a
community based programme designed to
improve the delivery system of family
planning services through motivation of
eligible couples and target groups. The
scheme involves identification of couple
volunteers and arranging for their training
on basic issues such as importance of small
family norm, spacing between two
children, reproductive and child health
programmes ete. They, in turn provide
information about health and family
limitation methods to the target group
and also supply contraceptives. These
volunteer couples provide an interface
between the people as users of health and
. family planning services and the state
administrative machinery. As a result of
their dedicated work, contraceptives are
made available readily to the needy
persons even in.remote rural areas.
The Raj Laxmi Scheme is designed to
reduce the age at sterilisation, improve the
status of the girl child by countering the
preference for male children, and increase
the age at marriage for girls.
.
In order to encourage early
sterilisation even when the last child born
is a girl and to ensure the well-being
and survival of the girls and deferment
of their marriage till the age of 20, a
monetary incentive with deferred
return is provided. Under the scheme a
deposit ofRs 1,5001- is made with the
Unit Trust ofIndia (UTI) for every girl
child born to couples undergoing
sterilisation after two children. The
UTI issues a bond in the name of the
girls which fetches Rs 21,0001- to the
bond holder when she reaches the age
of20years.
evaluation of programmes. All the above
would be discussed with special reference
to health and family welfare
programmes.
The programme would be
implemented through NGOs. Initially a
comprehensive training programme
would be organised with the help of PFI
for key personnel and trainers of the
NGOs
Involvement of National Service
Scheme in Population Issues
Empowerment of Panchayati
The project aims to train
Raj Institutions
National Service Scheme (NSS)
It is proposed
that a
comprehensive and well formulated
training programme for Panchayat
presidents, members and key officials
be implemented on a pilot basis in two
districts of Uttar Pradesh. Based on the
success of the programme, it may be
extended to other districts.
The training programme is
proposed to be organised in two
segments of five days duration each.
The first segment will cover the
following topics : (i) Major issues in
population and development; relation
between population and development;
(ii) Population
profile and
demographic features of the distric.t.
volunteers to understand the meaning of
family planning, small family norm and
RCH and to motivate them to propagate
these ideas among people living in rural
areas and urban slums with a view to
bringing about a qualitative
improvement in the lives of these people,
especially of women.
Th~ selected universities will be
expected to make population education,
family planning and welfare and RCH
the main components of the regular NSS
programme for a period of three years.
Out of the 20 hours devoted to
orientation ofNSS volunteers, at least 5
hours would be exclusively earmarked to
ese..actlvltles.
'-~.
and state; (iii) Importance of sm r<.
family norm; (iv) Family planni
methods and services; (v) Basic featu
•. Convergence of programmes
..)..:. _baYiqg,a:bearing on population
es 's at the district level
of RCH; (vi) Human reproductio
personal hygiene and sanitation; (vii
eo project aims to develop a
mechanism for bringing about
Service delivery of RCH programmes;
convergence among all programmes and
and (viii) Motivation and IEC for RCH
activities of government
and
programmes. This segment is
nongovernment agencies which have a
meant for Panchayat members at all
bearing on population limitation and
levels-district, block and village.
family planning programmes at the
The second segment of five days
district level.
duration is meant for district and block
The government departments and
Panchayat members and would include
the following topics : (i) Programme
and project planning; (ii) Programme
and project implementation; (iii)
Project management; and (iv)
Monitoring,
supervision
and
programmes whose activities would need
to be coordinated and synergized would
be the departments of Medical and
Public Health, Education, Women and
Child Development,
Rural
Development, Welfare ofSCIST/OBC,
Continued o,n Page 6
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Tamil Nadu Panchayat Chiefs Visit Kerala
~
Dr G. Palanithurai, Professor and Co-ordinator of Rajiv Gandhi
Chair for Panchayati Raj Studies, Gandhigram speaking at a Gram
Sabha meeting in Kerala where Panchayat Presidents from Tamil
Nadu were also present.
A group of ten Panchayat Presidents of Dindigul district of
Tamil Nadu went to Kerala on a trip organised by
Gandhigram Rural Institute, Gandhigram, Tamil Nadu and
funded by PFI. The group visited the Gram Panchayats of
Kottayam dis~rict, studied the schemes being executed by
peoples' groups and attended two Gram Sabha meetings besides
having discussions with officials and representatives of NGOs.
The Panchayat Presidents were impressed by the freedom
enjoyed by Panchayats in Kerala. The allocation of funds for
Gram Panchayats in Kerala was 20% of the state budget while in
Tamil Nadu it was only 8%. Similarly, every work in Kerala was
decided by the Gram Sabhas unlike Tamil Nadu where schemes
were rather 'forced' on Panchayats by the state government.
Gandhigram Rural Institute later organised a workshop at
Gandhigtam where the Presidents narrated their experiences to
reporters. Earlier, Dr G Palanithurai, Professor and
Coordinator of the Rajiv Gandhi Chair for Panchayati Raj
Studies said the main aim of the programme was to change the
mind-set of the Gram Panchayat Presidents of Tamil Nadu from
being 'elected contractors to real leaders of the people'. "We
wanted the village level elected representatives to take the lead in
achieving social development", he said. PFI has supported the
project.
Dr N Markandan, Vice-Chancellor, Gandhigram Rural
Institute said that the need of villages should be determined at
the Panchayat level and not in 'air conditioned head-quarters.'
He said the elected representatives at the village level should not
depend wholly on the Government for execution of
development programme in the villages in view of the- poor
financial allocation of the Government and political instability.
He exhorted the villagers to develop a positive bent of mind
to remove dependency at the ground level by creating people's
Panchayat that were self-reliant and corruption free.
•
Dr Srinivasan Advises Census for Lebanon
In an interview with the Daily Star,
Beirut, Leb. anon, Ex~e'cut,iwve .
Director Dr K Srinivasan le:mhph Sis:e; .
problems.
Dr Srinivasan pointed out that
Lebanon's
demography
was
e.. the need to conduct ,a cetls 14~ . 'uncommon
L e ban 0 n to de t e ~•~Irn. ~.d{'."",'i(n'fluenced
demographic changes eYri•·
the country during the l•a•s~t 6'1r
d.,,by ,..~...
; • ll:
'i;,i;c;,'
movements
Increase.
that the requisite developmental, soci
because it was
mostly by migratory
rather than by natural
and health strategies can be developed.
:rhe interview in the Daily Star
. Dr Srinivasan was at the American
and a public lecture on 'Population
University of Beirut's Population
Policies and Programmes ofIndia and
Department on an assignment in May.
China' by' Dr Srinivasan led to an
1999.
editorial: 'A Matter of Numbers' in
He said since the last census was
the Daily Star.
held in Lebanon in 1932, the
availability of a good contemporary
database would help correct
misconceptions about the size of
minority groups and provide
satisfactory
solutions to many
The editorial was provoked by
what Dr Srinivasan had said about the
need to have correct and up-to-date
database. The editorial stressed the
need to have a new census for
Lebanon after a gap of 67 years. •
Anatomy o/Voluntarism
Translated in Hindi
Anatomy of Voluntarism : The Case of
Madhya Pradesh, written by Ravi
Gulhati, Kaval Gulhati, Shrikrishna
Ayyangar and Vinita Nagar has been
translated in Hindi. The Hindi version
was formally released on March 27,1999
at Bhopal by Chief Minister Dighvijay
Singh. The study has been financially
supported by PH
The publication analyses the work of
voluntary organisations in four districts
of Raipur, Indore, Rajgarh and Bhopal.
The focus is on organisations working in
the fields of education, women's
development,
health and family
planning.
The book will be useful for
government administrators and NGOs
involved in the voluntary work, social
activists and policy makers
•
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Follow-up of UP Round Table Conference
Continued from Page 4
and Panchayati Raj.
Efforts will be made to reorient and
motivate the functionaries of the various
government departments at the district
level who will be called upon to converge
and synergize their activities. Through the
help of an NGO or a medical
collegelresearch insti tute, a trallllllg
programme will be organised for the
government officials.
Involvement ofICDS in Family
Planning
The proposal
is to add
Reproductive & Child Health (RCH),
family planning and motivation
components to the Integrated Child
Development
Scheme (ICDS)
programme. The project envisages
emphasis on family planning, RCH,
nutrition, awareness, information and
knowledge among women.
The main components of the
project would be: (i) training of ICDS
workers and women workers on issues
relevant to small family norm, family
planning, RCH, availability of services
in the above areas and how to gain access
to these, and (ii) provision of services of
qualified doctors for consultation and
referral services whenever needed.
Innovative Programme on
Population Issues for NGOs
Working in Urban Slums
The project has two aims : (i)
dissemination of information and
creating awareness among people living
in the slums, especially women in the
reproductive age group, about the small
family norm and RCH, and availability of
services through the public system in
these areas, and (ii) organising periodic
visits by doctors to selected slum areas
where public services in health and RCH
care inadequate in order to meet the
needs of the people.
This will be done through selection
of NGOs working in slum areas and
willing to take up a programme of IEC
and provision of health and RCH services
to the people and training the NGO
personnel on the theory and practice of
lEe. The slum people would be guided to
the nearest public health facility for
availing health and RCH services. In case
no such facility exists within easy access of
the slum areas, then periodic visits by
private doctors will be organised.
•
Health Services Provided with Local Support
In order to provide primary health care
services to the villagers living in remote
and interior areas of Pune district, a Sukhi
Parivar Project was ini tia ted in March 1996
in collaboration with Parivar Mangal Trust,
Pune on a pilot basis in 10 villages of
Indapur Block of Pune district, covering a
population of2,27,675 with funding from
Population Foundation of India, for a
period of three years.
Well known Marathi paper, the' Sakal',
the SISTAS Social Marketing Foundation
and a few corporate sector organisations
joined hands to form the Parivar Mangal
Trust for promoting family planning,
Maternal and Child Health care and
augmentation of the services to reach the
unreachable segments of the society. An
innovative feature of the project was the full
cooperation by the local Zilla Parishad in
implementing the programme.
The project envisaged to develop
health models with the involvement of
local Panchayats in remote villages. The
key elements of the intervention strategies
were organisation of basic health facilities,
identification and training of health
workers and supervision and maintenance
of Health Posts by Panchayats. Ten
villages with population of 800 in each
village, which were away from the
sub centres and where no health
infrastructure existed, were selected
from Indapur block for implementing
the project. Local young and middle
aged women, including Dais, were
selected as providers of health services
and were trained. Sarpanches of Gram
Panchayats were consulted for the
selection of Dais. In each of the 10
villages, Health Posts, donated by the
Gram Panchayats of the villages were
equipped with necessary equipments -
for providing safe deliveries by trained
Dais; treating minor ailments which do
not require expert attention; establishing
referral linkages to Primary Health
Centre/Reproductive Health/Private
Hospitals; promoting spacing methods
of contraception and undertaking AIDS
awareness actlVltles.
After their selection, Dais were
given three month training on basic
health care services. Apart from
providing health care services, Dais
arranged meetings and cultural
programmes for promoting health and
family welfare activities, organised
awareness generation programmes on
nutrition, pregnancy and child birth and
income generating activities. One Field
Organiser worked as a facilitator to
supervise, help, replenish the medicines
and another was used to establish contacts
with the community and work as a link
between the Parivar Mangal Trust, Dais
and the community. The project has been
evaluated by an outside consultant. The
results are quite encouraging.
The Dais manning Health Posts
accepted terminal methods of family
planning in preference to spacing
methods, thus setting an example.
The success of the project lies in
conducting regular training/orientation
programmes with various target groups for
providing services to the population in 10
villages; organising follow-up activities,
and ensuring sustainability of the
programme after discontinuation ofSukhi
Parivar Project. The Sarpanches of the
Gram Panchayats of the villages played a
crucial role in sustainability of the project
by taking overthe follow-up activities. •
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Panchayati Raj in Haryana
Continued from Page 1
He assured Haryana Government's
support and cooperation to the
Foundation in the implementation of
Panchayati Raj training.
Mr Kanwal Singh gave an overview
of the structure and the functioning of
the Panchayati Raj in Haryana.
Though the Minister had reservations
about decentralisation process, he
assured the participants that the
training would help in bridging the gap
between the state government and the
local government. He was in favour of
strengthening the Panchayati Raj
institutions through the process of
training and retraining. Mr Vishnu
Bhagwan said the Government alone
could not bring about development.
Earlier, in his welcome address, Dr
K Srinivasan, Executive Director ofPFI
said that infant mortality rate and
maternal mortality rate were higher in
Haryana than the all India average and
significantly higher as compared with
States like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Goa,
although the State's per capita income
was higher than many states and only
next to Punjab. The decline in sex ratio,
low female literacy rate and the poor
status of women called for immediate
intervention to improve the status of
women without which the human
development in the State could not
improve. Dr R K Rath gave the vote of
thanks.
The second session after tea-break
was chaired by Dr K Srinivasan. Dr
Rath presented the training strategy
and a detailed discussion was held about
its implementation
in which the
participants gave their views. After the
lunch-break, the participants were
asked to share their own experience
about their area of activity and the
infrastructure and expertise available
with them for Panchayati Raj training.
It was clearly established that a large
FOR PANCHAYAT RA
IVALIKVIEW H
L;\\TIO~ FOU D T
Joint Director Dr R K Rath welcoming the Minister for Panchayati Raj and Rural
Development, Haryana at the state level workshop in Chandigarh.
number of active voluntary
organisations existed in Haryana.
The presence of three Zilla Parishad
Chairpersons from the districts of
Kaithal, ]ind and Sonepat was very
inspiring. A video film : 'People,
Population
and our Leaders'
produced by PFI was screened.
Mr Tapas Datta, Project Officer,
UNICEF made his presentation. He
explained the reasons for UNICEF's
collaboration
with PFI in
strengthening the Panchayati Raj
Institutions in Haryana. He urged the
participants to involve themselves in
the training and make it a success.
A software
package
on
'Man<"6ement Information System'
being developed for the Panchayati
Raj training was presented to get the
feed-back of the participants. The
package created lot of enthusiasm and
the participants expressed their desire
for effective implementation of the
monitoring system of the training.
The software is to document district-
wise Panchayati Raj members'
profile, information about master
trainers and resource persons of
various training institutions and
NGOs who will be involved in the
tramIng programme. The package
will enable managers to take timely
decisions
for effective
implementation
of the training
programme.
The second day of the workshop
began with the third session where
Dr Srinivasan initiated the process
ofidentif)ring NGOs who would act as
Implementing Agencies in various
districts. He requested the NGOs and
Zilla Parishad Chairpersons to let the
Foundation know their choice of
districts, availability of staff and
infrastructure facilities so as to finalise
the arrangements for further action.
Representatives of the Department of
Social Work ofKurukshetra University,
Department of Home Science ofHisar
Agricultural
University
and
Department of Sociology from MD
University, Rohtak, who attended the
workshop, agreed to take up one to two
districts in the State for the training
ptogramme.
.- The workshop concluded with a
note of satisfaction expressed by the
participants and a commitment to
make the project a success. .
•
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8 Page 8 |
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Management Trainees Study Ghaziabad Project
Three management trainees from
S P Jain Institute of Management
and Research, Mumbai made a study of
the Ghaziabad ptoject and have
submitted
their report to the
Foundation. The three trainees: Puneet
Goyal, Pragati Sharma and Vishal Yadav
were here as a parr of their' Developmen t
of Corporate Citizenship' programme.
Besides studying the project
documents, the trainees conducted
several interviews with project staff at
FICCI and those posted at
Ghaziabad, visited several villages of
the project area and interacted with
local population.
The Ghaziabad project, in
collaboration with Socio-Economic
Development Foundation, FICCI
aims to achieve national health goals in
Ghaziabad district by the year 2000.
Besides analysing the packages of
the Ghaziabad project, the trainees
have made a number of suggestions for
the role of voluntary organisations in
family planning and welfare activities
and forthe districtlevel authorities. •
Reproductive and Child Health Training
Next Batch to Start in August
New Joinings and
Departures
The following officials have joined the
PFI :
V]ayachandran joined as
Research Ass 0 cia t eon
April 26, 1999. He was
earlier working as Research
Officer (National Family
Health
Survey),
International Institute for
Population Sciences, Mumbai. He holds a
Ph.D degree in Population Studies from the
lIPS, Bombay.
PFI, with financial support from
the Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare, Government of India, has
been organising a series of training
programmes on Reproductive and
Child Health for Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs) working in
slums of Delhi since January 1999.
The training programmes aim to
develop a cadre of voluntary workers
who would have working knowledge
and skills on issues related to
development, implementation and
monitoring of reproductive and child
health programme.
The duration of each training
programme is five days. There are
two programmes each month. The
training is open to two middle level
managers working in a NGO. There
are no charges forthe training.
The next batch of training will
begin in August 1999. For application
forms, kindly contact:
Dr Amita Bardhan
Course Coordinator
Population Foundation of India
B28, Qutab Institutional Area
New Delhi 110016
Tel:6568181,6867080,6867081
Fax: 6852766
Email: popfound@deI2.vsnl.neUn
SunitaArora joined as
Project Associate for
TRDC project on May
13,1999.She
was
earlier working as Senior
Project Executive
looking after Reproductive Health
Education and Training with Parivar
Seva Sansthan. She holds a Masters'
degree in Social Work.
Semkothong Haokip, who was
working as Research Associate for
TRDC project, left PFI on April 29,
1999 and joined as Programme
Manager in All India Association of
Micro Enterprise Development based
in New Delhi.
•
Published by POPULATION FOUNDATION OF INDIA, B-28, Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi-11 0016. Tel. : 6867080, 6867081
Editorial Direction & Guidance: Dr. K. Srinivasan
Editor: Ajay Sunder
Printed by GRAFFITI, 11737, Street No.3, Sat Nagar, Karol Bagh, New Delhi -110005 Tel.: 5816308, 5816396