Midnapur Action Research
Coordinator:  Lokenath Ray assisted by Shanti Pal, Ashutosh Pradhan and Saibal Saha. Consultant: Narayan K. Banerjee

The project activities are centered in three blocks of Jhargram sub-division.  Since the inception of the project in 1996, 11 samitis (women’s group) have been formed covering 19 villages/hamlets.  The total membership of the samitis is 573.  A total of 92.95 acres of wasteland has been acquired by 9 samitis and has been turned into plantations of Arjun and Asan trees, the host trees for tassar cocoon rearing.  A total of 1 lakh 53 thousand have been planted. 

The Sarvik Vikas Sangha (SVS) is the spearhead organization comprising samiti women and it is the main agent in mobilizing rural women.  SVS has steadily increased its capacity to manage and sustain project activities, including requests from village women to form new samitis, and coordinating development work.

Major Economic Activities

(a)        Tasar Culture – Generally, SVS undertakes one crop of tasar rearing in a year.  Accordingly during this year, the commercial crop rearing in November was undertaken in various samitis’ tasar field where the host trees were in good shape and other field condition was considered to be suitable for third crop.  A total of 3,000 DFLS were procured from Nari Bikash Sangha, Bankura and released on 1,06,000 host trees in the tassar field of seven samitis.  About 90% of the DFLS hatched.  There was a total production of 112 kahans (1.43 lakh cocoons) fetching a total amount of 1,18,200, an improvement over the previous year.

(b)       Production of Vermi Compost – This is a popular activity, including the use of this compost by women to increase their production quantitatively but also improve standards qualitatively.  During this year women engaged in 60 vermi-compost production units producing 3,135 kg. of compost. Nearly 600 kg. was used on their own agricultural lands and about 2,600 kg. was marketed, fetching a total amount of Rs. 15,000.

(c)        Vegetable Cultivation – CWDS/SVS have also decided to encourage the members to enter vegetable cultivation. During this year, 10 women from 2  samitis produced various seasonal vegetables on 15 bighas of land and marketed for Rs. 34,000.

(d)       Reen Samiti – This is a very significant activity, enabling samiti members to become better managers of their finances.  During this year the Reen samiti assisted 70 women for taking up activities like rice processing, vegetable cultivation, livestock rearing etc.  A total amount of Rs. 66,000 was disbursed for the purpose and members repaid Rs. 55,000 balance on former loans.

Samiti Election and Meetings

During this year SVS successfully conducted Elections in seven Mahila Samitis.  Apart from holding regular monthly meetings at village level, the SVS held several meetings during this year.  Some of the regular items of discussion are mainly related to work – maintenance of tasar fields, review of tasar, cocoon rearing and how to improve its performance, evaluation of Reen Samiti, repayment and extention of Reen, assessment of performance, future plan of Action etc.  Besides these, the SVS, from time to time undertakes certain social issues for identification, discussion and dissemination.

Other Activities

Few SVS leaders along with a project staff participated in a discussion on ‘NREGA’ 2005 Campaign Programme organized by Action Aid-India.

Four leaders of SVS visited Iswarchand Vidyasagar Polytechnic Training Centre to acquire a first hand knowledge about their ongoing various training programmes.