73rd amendment in the Constitution of India gave enormous power and responsibility to the grassroot governance institutions of rural areas. Panchayats have the responsibility of governing rural areas and ensuring the welfare of rural communities. There have been increased resources devolved to the Panchayats in recent decades. Traditionally, AKRSP(I) has promoted large numbers of community-based organisations (CBOs) in villages. Community leaders of these CBOs can play an important role in improving the functioning of grassroot governance institutions.
Our rural governance work involves the following activities.
Building the capacities of Panchayats and Panchayat sub-committees so that access to basic services such as drinking water, sanitation, nutrition etc can be improved for rural people.
Providing technical support to Panchayats for improving drinking water schemes, natural resources and other basic infrastructure in villages.
Encouraging women’s groups to participate actively in grassroot governance so that issues important to them get resolved.
Large scale facilitation of entitlements and schemes intended for better quality of life for most marginalized within villages.
Facilitating access to finance through women self-help groups.
Facilitating better governance of primary schools and angawadies in villages through active participation of community. Improved infrastructure, learning environment and improved pedagogy in schools and anganwadies are among the key interventions.
Key Achievements of AKRSP(I) on “Rural Governance”
Women self-help groups in over 1000 villages have been regularly attending Gram Sabhas and getting their issues resolved there.
Technical support is provided to over 800 Gram Panchayats to improve management of drinking water schemes, clean sanitation and natural resources management.
Over 80,000 vulnerable citizens could access their basic entitlements around various social security schemes.
AKRSP(I) efforts have led to access to clean drinking water for 200000 households and access to clean sanitation for over 125000 households.
Infrastructure and functioning of over 600 schools and anganwadies have been improved in last one decade. It has led to substantial improvement in the learning levels of children.