The European Union supported project aims to fight poverty and social exclusion by improving people’s access to and their participation in the governance of public schemes and services – especially in the domains of food and nutrition, basic health care, elementary education, rural employment, and social protection.

The project aims to empower the most poor, excluded communities through awareness creation, mobilization and capacity building in order to improve the transparency and accountability in governance in the two target districts.

The target communities, once they get well informed on all aspects of public schemes, would become empowered to participate in various decision-making forums. At the same time, efforts would be made to support the duty bearers to become more proactive in sharing information in a user-friendly manner.

Project Objectives

•. To improve awareness amongst and participation of the most marginalized communities in the governance of food and nutrition security, health and education, social protection and employment schemes of the government being implemented in Koraput and Sundargarh districts of Odisha.
• To improve accountability and transparency in the implementation administration of the said schemes.
• To support duty bearers from village to state level in addressing pertinent gaps at policy and implementation levels in reference to the said schemes through evidence-based advocacy.

Public Schemes

• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)

• Public Distribution System (PDS),

• Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS),

• Mid-Day Meal (MDM)

• National Family Benefit Scheme(NFBS),

• Janani Suraskha Yojana (JSY),

• Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK),

• Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY)

• Elementary Education in line with Right to Education Act (RTE), and

• Various Pensions (widow, disabled, old age and People Living with HIV/AIDS)

Challenges to be addressed

• People are still by and large illiterate, ignorant about their entitlements and lack organization and leadership to claim the same.

• Very few participate in the planning, implementation, and decision-making processes.

• Implementation of the welfare programmes and schemes is non-transparent – resulting in irregularities.

• Constitutional bodies like the PRIs and other community monitoring bodies are mostly dysfunctional – mainly due to lack of capacity and awareness.

• Grievance redressal systems are yet to become fully effective.

Target Group

Tribals, dalits, minorities, women and children constitute the core target of action. Around 56000 households from the two districts of Koraput and Sundargarh are hoped to reap benefits from the above-said schemes of the government.

Estimated Results

• Increased awareness among target communities on their rights, entitlements and duties related to the targeted schemes

• Greater participation of target communities and their representatives in various stages of decision making in the targeted public schemes as also in multi-level Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs)

• Capacity of duty bearers and Rajiv Gandhi Seva Kendras (RGSK) as information hubs strengthened in target districts to improve transparency in access to and governance of the targeted public schemes

• Government mandated multi-level grievance redressal mechanisms strengthened to improve access, accountability and quality of the targeted public schemes

• Visible and tangible action taken by duty bearers to address gaps in policies as also in the implementation of the targeted schemes