DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL INDIA THROUGH HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES

In today’s globalize world, every country is facing challenges of cut throat competition, privatization, liberalization, economy development and its allied problems.India is also facing same problems along with development of rural India. To oversee these problems, all countries look forward to the development of industry and business. By this view, business is considered as a pillar for development of the country. In India more than fifty percent of population live in rural area and are involved in agriculture practices. Thus there is a great need to focus on rural India rather merely on business and industry. In industrial undertakings development of Human Resource is carried out by using scientific Human Resource Development practices. Organizations are considering their workforce as an important resource and a valuable soul of an organization. Therefore organizations are trying to develop human resources and utilizing their whole potential for the organization development.

If we consider whole country as a business house then all people of the country will act as important human resource of the country. If proper utilization of these human resources for the development of the country is took place, then these human resources will act as most important asset of the country. HRD practices are one of the important tools in development of Human Resources of the country. Therefore there is a great need to undertake HRD practices for the optimum utilization of country people which will result in whole development of country. If we will concentrate on development of rural area by applying suitable HRD parameters, it will anticipate in-depth research of the current rural scenario in India with the challenges poses and the approach of HRD practices towards the rural environment.

Janamaithri Suraksha Project=Community Policing Programme

Janamaithri Suraksha Project - The Objectives
Prevention of Crimes
Furthering co-operation and mutual understanding between Police and the Community
Furthering Security-related mutual co-operation among Citizenry

Janamaithri Suraksha Samithi

In every Police Station a ‘Janamaithri Suraksha Samithi’ should be formed. The Samithi should Endeavour to undertake and implement the ‘Janamaithri Suraksha Project’ within the limits of the respective Police Station. In every Police Station a ‘Janamaithri Suraksha Samithi’ should be formed. The Samithi should Endeavour to undertake and implement the ‘Janamaithri Suraksha Project’ within the limits of the respective Police Station. The Samithi should have proportionate representation from among women and the Schedules Castes and Tribes. Respectable citizens from the locality who are active in the educational and cultural field should be included in the committee. High School/College Headmaster/Principal, Teachers, Retired Officers, Ex-servicemen, Corporation/Ward councillors, Merchants, NGOs, Workers’ representatives, Residents’ Association office-bearers, postmen, Kudumbasree office bearers etc. may be included in the Committee.

The Samithi should have at least ten members, and preferably not exceed 25. From amongst the Samithi members, the District Superintendent of Police may nominate one member as the Convener. The meetings of the Samithi will be chaired by the Circle Inspector of Police and the Station House Officer will officiate as Secretary. An Additional Sub Inspector or an Assistant Sub Inspector from the Police Station may be designated as the Community Relations Officer by the Station House Officer. The Community Relations Officer should dedicate himself to the cause of implementation of the ‘Janamaithri Suraksha Project’ and should render all help to the Station House Officer for the success of the programme.

Subjects for Discussion in Samithi meetings

Any matter concerned with security of the area - problems like theft, robbery, bootlegging, traffic offences etc.and their remedial measures.
Introducing patrolling with a view to preventing crime, traffic warden system etc.
Organizing awareness programmes to educate the public on reducing crime and about security measures tobe installed / introduced.
Information regarding organised crimes, environmental crimes etc. in the area.

Activities of the Samithi

Night patrolling with public co-operation
Coordinating with private security guards
Knowing new residents and strangers
Fitting Burglar Alarm and security systems
Helping senior citizens and physically challenged citizens
Protection of women and children
Awareness programmes
Traffic Warden Systems
Organising Counselling centres to resolve family discords, drinking habits etc. may be started
Monitoring maintenance of street lights, traffic lights etc.
Implementation of projects encouraging blood donation, eye donation, organ donation etc.
Organising Self Defence Courses
School -based safety & vigilance programmes
Cooperating with Kudumbasree Units etc.
Preventing illicit sale of liquor and drugs
Monitoring illegal financial institutions
Complaint Card Systems
Disaster Management and Mitigation
Trauma, Rescue and First Aid Projects
Victim Support Cells

IN FUTURE THE COMMUNITY POLICE WOULD ACT AS BETTER RELIEFAND PROTECTION OF LOCAL PEOPLE.

NGOs in Kerala protest against Bt Brinjal consultation

More than 15 persons representing non-governmental organisations from Kerala will attend the public consultation being organised by the Ministry of Environment in Bangalore on January 25, on permitting commercial release of genetically modified brinjal (Bt Brinjal) in the country.The non-governmental organisations- Thanal, Jaiva Karshaka Samithi, One Earth One Life, Chilla, Periyar Malineekarana Virudha Samithi, Karshika Karma Sena (Trivandrum) and Haritha Sena (Kozhikode), are opposing the release citing risks.
Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh had announced the holding of the consultations at different places following protests against approval granted by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee under the Ministry for the first ever release of a genetically modified (GM) food in India.
According to these organisations, there is extensive evidence demonstrating that GM crops and foods cause adverse impacts on human and animal health, and also on the environment. In addition, it seriously compromises farmers´ and consumers´ socio-political and economic rights and also cultural norms.A recent study, published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences, showed that genetically modified corn caused damage to organs in rats. Effects were mostly associated with the kidney and liver though heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system were also found to be affected.Campaigners against Bt Brinjal said that the Approval Committee had violated transparent, fair, independent and scientific enquiry norms. Many members of the committee were representatives of institutions promoting genetically modified crops.
Brinjal contributes to almost eight per cent of vegetable production in India and is a widely consumed vegetable. If Bt Brinjal is released, there is a very high risk of cross contamination of natural varieties and could potentially wipe out many indigenous brinjal varieties. In addition, there is very high risk that related species could also be contaminated irreversibly.

SHGs and INDIA

India brims with Self Help Groups (SHGs). The National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) estimates that by March 2006 over 33 million women have been linked to banks for financial services through 2.2 million SHGs. 'Linkage' is defined bym NABARD as taking a loan from a bank, although banks in fact first become linked to SHGs by taking their deposits. Growth has been spectacular in the past couple of years: 'over 400 women per hour' according to the NABARD web-site. The hourly rate is actually more than this, with an increase in 2006 of 620,000 SHGs or over 9 million women SHG members.
Growth has been strongest in the southern region where SHG bank linkage first began, with three states (Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka) the top three in the country. The south accounts for 54% of SHGs (half of this in Andhra Pradesh alone) and 75% of bank credit. The rest of the country is beginning to catch up, at least in terms of SHG numbers, although the share of credit remains at one-fourth, both cumulative and current

SHGs for what?

Objectives in promoting SHGs differ. Is it ‘microfinance’? Is it ‘microfinance plus’? Is there a tension (even a trade-off?) between the two? Even with social objectives, ‘Self-Help’ has a financial base (depositing and managing savings, lending and borrowing) and the base has to be right, with effective and transparent management and the guidance to do this

SHGs for whom?

Women from different social and economic levels are joining SHGs, including the poor, and some very poor. This process continues as the numbers grow. However, the barriers to entry for the poor are high – not only do they have lower incomes (by definition), but their incomes are usually more variable. To reduce barriers for the poor means allowing more flexibility to cater to varying and seasonal cash flows, for example allowing varying deposit amounts and frequency, perhaps with a specified annual minimum.
The same principle applies to access to credit and repayment, again within specified minimum norms. (Though both will have to be matched by good record keeping). In this aspect, and in others too (accounting, decision making, social action) it is likely that the poorer the women (or some of the women) in an SHG, the more careful and sustained promotion and guidance needs to be.
THE SOCIAL ROLE OF SHGs

SHGs and politics

There are apparent synergies between SHGs and local politics since through membership of SHGs, or SHG clusters and federations, village women can gain experience of relevant processes (regular meetings, taking decisions, allocating money). They also become more ‘visible’ in the village, which is important for campaigning.
Social harmony
Indian society is split by a hierarchical caste system that has traditionally discriminated against those at the bottom – the Scheduled Castes – as well as those outside it, for example the Scheduled Tribes. Within broad caste categories too there are divisions.
Social justice
SHGs seem uniquely placed to support their members on issues of social justice affecting women. Nevertheless, we did not find that SHGs are dealing regularly with issues of social justice. Nor did many groups report such actions: 12% of sample SHGs (with some groups mobilising together on single issues) had taken up issues such as domestic and sexual violence, bigamy, and a few cases of dowry death, prevention of child marriage, support for separated women to remarry.
SHGs and community action
Women in SHGs can work together to address issues that affect not only their own members, but others in the larger community.

Socio - economic problems of Gulf returnees

Economy of Kerala largely depends on the financial contribution of Non-resident Keralites. About 90-95% of the emigrants from Kerala belong to West Asia. In the context of the recent global economic slowdown, it is estimated that nearly 37000 Keralites working in gulf countries have been compelled to return home after losing their jobs.
As per statistics, Dubai holds the highest rate of economic breakdown that is 43% in the first half of 2008 and 30 % in the first half of the 2009. Where Oman has the least 2% and 3% respectively (Source: Gulftalent.com). The average age of gulf returnees is 41.6 year... The return emigrants want Government’s help in their rehabilitation. Their main argument is that while working abroad they had remitted large amounts to their home state and that their remittances had helped the country to maintain the foreign exchange reserve at a comfortable level. Emigrant workers sent back about Rs 12,000 crore in the year 2000 as remittances. The banks in Kerala had an NRI deposit of Rs 13,329 crore in 1999 and Rs 20,045 crore in 2000 as on 30th September. This is more than Rs 6,000 per person in 2000. The report, “Decade of Kerala’s Gulf Connection, Migration Monitoring Study, 2008″, said foreign remittances increased from Rs.184,000 crore ($38 billion) in 2003 to Rs.433,000 crore in 2008.
The return emigrants believe that because of their contribution to national foreign exchange reserve, they have a right to get financial assistance and other help from the Government at their time of need. Government has no long term services to support these returnees. It was not a temporary scenario, the statistics shows the rate of returnees increased year by year. The research examine their problems relating rehabilitation.

Success Story - NREGA

India job guarantee Act emerging as ray of hope in global meltdown

Intro: A pioneering piece of legislation that recognises work as a fundamental right and guarantees 100 days employment a year to those in rural areas who demand work is emerging as a ray of hope for India’s poor, who have been left even more vulnerable by the aftershocks of the global financial crisis.

Madhvi Madka, from the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, has one thing in common with business tycoons across the globe. He is part of the construction sector that has been crippled by the global meltdown. He is no real estate shark who had to tighten his purse strings due to the worldwide crisis but a daily-wage earner hit severally by the slowdown in construction. Hailing from a tribal community in the Dantewada district, Madka sustains his family of five by selling forest produce and other agricultural activities in his remote village of Chingawaram. But the meagre income is enough for only four months in a year.

As a sole bread-winner in the family, Madka would supplement his income by travelling to the city for the rest of the year to work as a casual construction worker. Over the past year, however, Madka has failed to find work in the cities. “I failed to find any daily-wage jobs though I looked very hard for many months,” he says. Though he does not know exactly what has led to this sudden turn of fortunes but he is not alone. For India, which is home to about 320 million people living on less than one dollar a day, which is more than the entire population of the US, the aftershocks of the global meltdown have impacted beyond the formal space and shaken up the country’s huge informal economy. The many newly unemployed are not just BPO workers but migrant workers, often short-term migrants with casual contracts whose very existence tends to be ignored by official statistics but whose cheap labour subsidies growth.

But Madka and his family have found a shock absorber in form of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), popularly known as the job guarantee Act. The legislation is fast emerging as a safety net for the poorest of the poor who cannot find work on account of the meltdown. After failing to find work in the city, when Madka returned home he came to know about his right to work under the NREGA and how to access it from an awareness generation programme that was conducted in his village through technical support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which is supporting the implementation of NREGA in India.

“At the meet I learned that through the NREGA I could get daily wages from the government to develop my own land,” said Madka, who then came up with a plan to construct a pond on his agricultural plot through NREGA. Not only was the pond a sound plan for the future of his family but they also received Rs.7,300 as NREGA wages.

Madka’s planning paid off. Today, the pond not only waters his field and cattle; it is also used for rearing fish. Selling the fish provides his family with an extra income. He is also able to grow vegetables all year around and sell them to the neighboring markets. The bonus is that the economic crisis has inflated the prices of vegetables. Madka proudly deposits his earnings in a bank account opened under NREGA. Notified on 7 September 2005, NREGA marks a paradigm shift from previous wage employment programmes with a rights-based approach that makes the Government of India legally accountable to provide employment for up to 100 days to those who demand it.

UNDP in India has been an integral partner to the government in the implementation of the scheme and has been playing an important role in strengthening the government’s capacity for better implementation. UNDP has helped set-up a Technical Secretariat, constituting various experts in monitoring, training, communications, and others to support the government. The support provided by UNDP in generating awareness about the act, the rights it provides and its benefits among beneficiaries – present and prospective – has proved to be crucial in generating demand for work. UNDP-supported innovative technology solutions like smart cards, biometric devices and ATMs are being field tested to ensure transparency in payment of wages and to improve digitization of NREGA information on a real-time basis. UNDP support is also being provided for effective monitoring and greater transparency in the implementation of the programme.
Madka hopes that other residents in the village who have returned due to the recession can learn from his experience and look to the NREGA as a security blanket in these difficult times. Here is hoping that his views are shared by many more (source :http://www.undp.org.in)