Shramdaan by community for Maintenance of Common Property Resources (CPR) under JEEVIKA at Shehore (Madhya Pradesh)

Two things are quite important in development process the first one community involvement and the 2nd one innovation! With JEEVIKA (at Shehore-ANWC-Bhopal) we giving shape to a new model of community based project , where in with the orientation of the project community has been mobilised to have “shramdhan” i.e. voluntary physical work in the village for some common cause in the form of repair or maintenance or creation of Common Property Resource (CPR) or to mini create structures for water conservation. A common agreement has been discussed along with community and signed and a register has been maintained by the people for “shramdaan” and has been done in the project villages before the implementation of the JEEVIKA project and has been decided by the community with facilitation by JEEVIKA project team). The initiation of shramdaan in the project has given a new model of ownership for the JEEVIKA project and also able to create a system of maintenance of common property resources. An estimated wage cost if calculated in money) would be around INR 9000 and 15 CPR has been maintained through shramdaan in JEEVIKA project in the 14 project villages of Shehore district.

Watch Live shramdaan on : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgqR32TCvSA

For community initially it was difficult and were not interested but when JEEVIKA team members including (who all are staying in the project villages, although they are not from the same area) have initiated discussion on CPR and its maintenance and its future sustainability during night community meetings, community has started realising and with initiation by one village, other villages have also started shramdaan for maintenance of CPR.

Let’s hope for creating a community based sustainable change in Madhya Pradesh!