Jeevika Trust & the United Nations Shared Vision!

Posted on 18 June 2013 by Andrew

The end of May saw the unveiling of the final report of the UN’s High Level Panel, co-chaired by David Cameron, on what will replace the Millennium Development Goals during the next chapter from 2015 to 2030.

The 12 new Goals proposed in the UN’s report remind me of the 6 goals in Jeevika’s own Operating Plan for our work in village India during the coming 3 years, and what’s nice is the key aims that we share – ‘empowering girls and women’ is the UN’s no. 2 priority, and ‘universal access to water & sanitation’ is their no. 6.

Actually these are very closely linked, and we rate water & sanitation as the top of our ‘conditions for livelihood’ in the villages where we work: two particular examples are restoring traditional village water resources to stop women wasting half their days walking for water, and channelling rain water from school roofs to supply toilet and washing facilities dedicated for girls to stop them opting out of school.

Ensuring health & nutrition are the UN’s new no. 4 and 5 Goals, and we see them as equally integral to village livelihood. For example, we support two of our Indian NGO partners providing specialised support to HIV/AIDS sufferers in Tamil Nadu, particularly women, while village seed banks and worm-composting techniques are two ways we help women to set up and maintain kitchen vegetable gardens for better family nutrition.

No. 8 of the new UN goals is ‘creating jobs and sustainable livelihoods’. Extra income generated by women through working in Self Help Groups typically finds its way to the heart of the family in a way that their husbands’ earnings don’t. In Orissa, one of India’s 3 poorest states, our projects for women’s honey-production, and for crab & prawn cultivation for export, are having measurable impacts on family well-being.

The phrase ‘Small is Beautiful’ constantly comes to mind when little organisations like Jeevika can contribute to universal development goals by leveraging their efforts through on-the-ground NGO partnerships and women’s groups in village communities.

To support our diverse livelihood development projects follow this link…

Broadcasting for a better future with Kingston Green Radio

Posted on 30 May 2013 by Becky

John Peel is one of my all-time heroes. His honeyed wisdoms, the depths of his respect for diversity and pure dedication to his beliefs (including seemingly hopeless cases like failing football teams) are still a cockle warming inspiration today. This International Women’s Day (8^th March) I had the pleasure of following in his footsteps, broadcasting the Jeevika cause into people’s living rooms via the wireless (or the computer, depending on how modern they are).

With Jeevika Trust’s focus on revitalising communities in village India through women’s livelihood development, I was invited to host(ess) an hour long slot. Kingston Green Radio is our local station featuring ‘quality informed programming in a discerning world’ and was on FM airwaves for an innovative Climate Week Special.

After getting lost en route in downtown Kingston I made it to the Kingston Environment Centre in the drizzle. Inside was a hive of volunteers, where I was made welcome and even offered a cooked breakfast! In our studio was veteran Sam, a founder of the movement, the lively Rosa my co-presenter and Kimberly who helped us find the music last minute online on an ipad!

In between Indian inspired tunes we shared stories of and debated travel, violence against women and cultures of inequality, including Bollywood movies (lack of) strong women and what an ideal nourishing life would involve. I repeated Jeevika’s appeal to find people to do sponsored individual challenges to raise funds for our work and for friends to help us out locally, either at events or in the office!

We rounded off the show with Tagore’s poem urging India to awake into a country..

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

The Kingston Green Radio ethos of connecting the community in an environmentally integrated fashion for a healthier, happier future is something we have in common. It’s gratifying to see practical solutions echoed globally! And in being involved to live the John Peel dream…

To listen to our programme visit mixcloud

If you can’t lend the women of India your time to make the difference then back us with your wallet by texting ‘JTGD01 £x‘ to 70070 (where x = sum you want to donate up to £10) or follow the link below

Seeds for Life

Posted on 17 May 2013 by Priya

The Green Revolution, introduced in the 1960s in India, changed the country’s status from a food-deficient country to one of the world’s leading agricultural nations. New high yield varieties of seeds, mainly rice and wheat but also millet and corn, were introduced and improved agricultural tools and practices were used to address food scarcity.

But, the downside of it was its adverse impact on the soil and the environment. It had a dire effect on small farmers and the biodiversity of crops. Traditional agricultural practices were discarded. High yield seeds were utilised and this resulted in a dwindling of the traditional native varieties of seeds available.

In recent years, there has been a move towards organic farming. The necessity of having an alternative agriculture method which can function in a friendly eco-system while sustaining and increasing the crop productivity is realised now. Organic farming has been practised in India for thousands of years.

There has also been a movement to preserve the wealth of indigenous agricultural knowledge and to start practically saving heritage seed varieties by NGOs such as the Navdanya Foundation. WORD, our partner from Namakkal district in Tamil Nadu, has started a unique concept called the Seed Wealth Center to encourage farmers to adopt organic farming.

Two Seed Wealth Centers located in Thidumal Pudur and Aavarangadu villages cater to over 156 farmers, 37 of which are women. Over thirteen varieties of vegetable seeds are available, including coriander, broad beans, orange and white pumpkin, snake gourd, tomatoes, white and green aubergines, cluster beans, and ladies finger.

These seeds are stored in earthen pots. In addition the store also sells vermicompost and herbal pesticide made by SHG members in small quantities. Farmers need to register as members by paying a registration fee of Rs 25 each. There is no cash payment made to purchase seeds, but members who avail of seeds need to return double the amount of seeds taken.

To date, members have borrowed a total of thirteen kgs of seeds and over three kgs of seeds have been repaid to the centre. The seeds that are in demand are aubergines, chillies, tomatoes and ladies finger as they produce higher yields as compared to the regular varieties of seeds available in the market.

Plants from seeds provided to member farmers are organically grown using herbal pesticides. These plants are interspersed with the regular crops of the farmers and therefore the same land is used to cultivate crops as well as vegetables. Women also use their seeds in their kitchen gardens and are able to produce enough for self consumption and thus realise savings in their daily expenditure on food items.

Distribution of organic seeds along with the use of natural manures and pesticides, vermi compost and water conservation techniques by Self Help Groups have played a key role in not only enhancing income but enabling people to connect with their roots and engage in an alternate village economy that is suitable and sustainable for rural communities.

To contribute to sustaining traditional organic agriculture in Tamil Nadu simply click on the link below…

Wishing our bees in Orissa a happy 1st birthday!

Posted on 10 April 2013 by Judith

Jeevika’s Madhu Honey Network project celebrated its first birthday with a Honey Fair on 24^th March this year in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. For the first time ever, 30 Tribal women beekeepers left their villages to travel to Bhubaneswar to represent their Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and to sell the honey their bees have produced over the last year.

Traditionally, these women collected wild honey from the forest and sold it however they could in whatever bottles they could gather for minimal profit. As members of the Madhu Honey Network – Madhu meaning honey in the Oriya language – they now produce honey in hives, then filter, pool, bottle, and label it. This has enabled them to sell their honey for competitive prices to their neighbours as well as in the local marketplace.

Indeed, at their first Honey Fair stall, they sold not only honey but other produce such as mustard and sunflower seeds, lentils and incense sticks and, through the process of fertilisation, their bees helped them.

One excellent outcome of the Honey Fair was that Jeevika’s partner organisation, Jeevan Rekha Parishad (JRP) – which is responsible for the beekeeping project and organisation of the Honey Fair – was that the State Ministers for Horticulture and Tribal People, and the Directors of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development and of the Khadi Village Investment Board, all agreed that they are keen to work collaboratively with JRP to expand the Madhu Honey Network into a viable beekeeping/honey production industry within Orissa.

When funding from the British Department for International Development (DfID) for the project ends in November 2013, JRP is ready to become a lead NGO for beekeeping in Orissa: it trains villagers to become beekeepers; it trains youths to make bee hives for the project as well as to sell to other beekeepers; it has published a Trainer’s Manual in the Oriya language; and in the coming months, it will form some beekeepers into a separate SHG to make protective clothing for beekeepers.

The honey that the Tribal women produce – like all honey – is highly valued for being nutritious as well as having medicinal properties; and by the time of its second birthday, the project will be providing a sustainable income for some 300 beekeepers while the bees will also help their farmer husbands by fertilising village crops.

Bees are to be celebrated as, indeed, are the Tribal women beekeepers of Orissa!

If you would like to help continue Jeevika’s work with the women beekeepers of Orissa, please consider making a secure donation through our JustGiving page. Thank you!

Small but not Beautiful?

Posted on 27 March 2013 by Mark R

In a recent report, the World Bank interestingly puts great emphasis on jobs (livelihoods) and “enhancing gender parity” in its most recent studies and reports on South Asia. The reports are detailed and make for rather dry reading, but what is interesting for Jeevika and its supporters is how much employment is accounted for by small-scale “own account” enterprise even in such areas as manufacturing.

By far, most employment in India comes from self-employment and casual labour and that transition from casual labouring to self-employment will continue to be where the future lies in the near term for most people trying to escape poverty. Salaried employment, despite the high levels of economic growth in India in particular, still only provided 17% of all employment in 2009/10.

I don’t think you will find mention of Schumacher Economics or “Small is Beautiful” anywhere on the World Bank’s website but the statistics they provide show that small-scale employment opportunities make up the bulk of those that exist. The challenge of course is to improve the quality and conditions of such employment with much of the work being “small” scale but far from “beautiful” — especially when it boils down to poorly paid casual labour in bad working conditions.

The way to achieve that is to improve skills, education, and most importantly of all, to “enhance gender parity” as the World Bank describes it, especially if issues like the childhood malnutrition still endemic in the region are to be properly addressed.

Excerpts from the World Bank report on South Asia:

In 2011, the Bank produced a regional flagship report, More and Better Jobs in South Asia. To strengthen the World Bank’s understanding of the policies conducive to inclusive growth, the South Asia region team is working on a new flagship report on Equity for Development, in which inequality in income and consumption will be studied alongside inequality of access and opportunities.

Building Skills and Improving Health and Nutrition Outcomes

The World Bank has strengthened its focus on promoting a multi-sectoral agenda to tackle the severe nutrition problems in South Asia, and on mainstreaming gender issues into its operations. South Asia has 330 million undernourished people, more than sub-Saharan Africa.

The World Bank is drawing on the World Development Report (WDR) 2012 findings as it intensifies its efforts to enhance gender parity in the region. Efforts include strategic mainstreaming across the portfolio, such as the South Asia Gender Initiative, which is working across sectors to mainstream gender; understand gender identities (women’s and men’s) across generations; and support Impact Evaluations of Rural Livelihoods projects in India and Nepal and gender-specific projects.

In addition, the Bank has many stand-alone gender-based projects such as the National Rural Livelihoods Project in India and the Adolescent Girls Initiative in Afghanistan, which aims to help girls stay in school and build skills so they can find jobs.

If you would like to support Jeevika’s work with the poorest of the poor in India, through livelihood initiatives just like those mentioned by the World Bank, please consider making a donation:

First photo used courtesy of TropicalIsland.de and second photo from Chapter 3 of the World Bank report.

Celebrating women, championing their cause

Posted on 7 March 2013 by Judith

“The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.”
– Gloria Steinem

International Women’s Day has grown to become a global day of recognition and celebration across developed and developing countries alike since its birth in the socialist movement in 1911.

The United Nations designated 1975 as International Women’s Year and since then, women’s organisations and governments around the world have annually observed the day on March 8th by holding events that honour women’s advancement while reminding us of the continued vigilance and action still required to ensure women’s equality is gained and maintained in all aspects of life.

There have been significant changes – especially changes in attitude – towards women’s equality and emancipation in society, particularly within the developed world. With more women in the boardroom, greater equality in legislative rights and an increased critical mass of women’s visibility as impressive role models in every aspect of life, one could think that women have already gained a fair share of equality.

The fact remains, however, that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women are still not present in equal numbers in business or politics and, globally, women’s and girls’ education, health and the violence against them is worse than it is for men. In light of this, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) recently published a call to end all violence against women, featuring a letter from Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening.

Nowhere is this inequality more clearly demonstrated than by women villagers in India – particularly those who belong to Scheduled Castes and Tribes: these women remain some of the most impoverished and disadvantaged women of the world. These are the women with whom Jeevika works.

Working with our five partner organisations in the poorest villages, Jeevika helps women gain income-generating livelihoods that enable them to contribute to household income through beekeeping, organic compost and kitchen gardening, cultivation of crabs, prawns, fish and peanuts, etc.

We also work with villagers – both women and men – to help them construct water catchments and toilets for use in schools and their households, all of which improves health and hygiene and encourages children (particularly girls) to attend school.

Inspired by International Women’s Day – and your help – together we can achieve much more to bring equality to the lives of Indian women villagers and their families.

Please consider making a donation to help us make a difference to the lives of some of the poorest and most disadvantaged women in the world!

First photo used courtesy of EarthSky.

Voices from India: Basanti in Bebari

Posted on 27 February 2013 by Candace

It’s a balmy Tuesday morning in Orissa as we make our way to the village of Bebari, nearly a three-hour drive from the state capital of Bhubaneswar. For the last few miles, the road is nothing but thick red clay, and several times we pause to give way to cows, the cowherds clucking their tongues to clear up the jam.

A year has gone by since I’ve been to Orissa, and I’m delighted to find myself here once again with Jeevika’s programmes officer, Judith, our in-country coordinator, Priya, and Manu and Madhu, directors of our partner NGO in Orissa, Jeevan Rekha Parishad (JRP).

Today is our first day heading back into the field to visit our projects.

Come and learn from bees reads a poster on one of the first buildings we see in Bebari. But today we have come to not only learn from bees, but from the women who keep them. After receiving a two-year extension from DFID, Jeevika and JRP have continued the Madhu Network Project, which supports 300 traditional women beekeepers in 10 villages across Orissa.

The first woman I sit down with is named Basanti. With Manu kindly offering to translate, I learn that she is 40 years old and has four children – a son and three daughters, ranging in age from 8 to 20 years old. While her children are all studying, Basanti herself has no education.

“There was no school at the time,” she explains. “There was only jungle when I was a child. My parents taught me some letters. That is all.

Originally from the Ganjam district, Basanti has lived in Bebari for 25 years, and was married at the age of 15. “Earlier, there was nothing. We were just housewives. Now we have started beekeeping.”

Basanti even tells us she had the first beehive box in the village. And since two Self-Help Groups (SHGs) were formed in Bebari six months ago, she has become president of hers.

There are typically three kilograms of honey in a harvest, with each kilogram earning 200 rupees in local markets. Basanti uses the extra income to buy household items, for the treatment of her son when he was suffering from fever, and “also for the study of my children.”

“Earlier no one was giving us a single rupee for our activities. Now we have our group and our savings. We are very happy to be working together in a team for economic activities. It is increasing day by day, so we will not stop.

“Now you all have come. We need to assess our other needs and other programmes. That is our future plan. We are very happy many people are coming to our village now.”

In addition to meeting household needs and expenses, each member of the SHG also currently saves 20 rupees a month in their collective savings account. Hearing this is a necessary reminder of the hundreds of millions of rural people living at the ‘base of the pyramid’ that is today’s modern India.

While those at the top now earn and spend at European rates, women like Basanti still find tiny amounts of money to be a worthwhile return on time and effort. Indeed, I think back to what she had said earlier in our conversation:

We are increasing day by day.

I already look forward to the updates – and to seeing Basanti again – when we’re back in Orissa this time next month.

Please consider supporting Jeevika with a small donation as we work to support Basanti and other women beekeepers like her in the communities of village India:

“That collective female power”: Understanding the Delhi rape case

Posted on 18 February 2013 by Andrew

You’ll have read about the case of Jyoti Singh Pandey, a college student returning home in a bus with a male friend, who was raped and brutalised by a gang of young men, subsequently dying of her wounds. This was a symptom of degraded urban humanity, going far beyond animal instinct and assertion of power, into insatiable rage, and the objectification and destruction of a female stranger.

The case was not isolated, so why it led to an extraordinary explosion of publicity, extensive press treatment and mass public protests by women and men alike, in India and abroad, puzzles observers. But it did, and it has led to calls for world leaders, when they consider the ‘post Millennium Development Goals agenda’ in 2015, to enshrine ‘zero tolerance on violence against women’ in the future.

But reversal of sexual attitudes in deeply set male power structures – the courts, the police, the military, higher-caste village men, and even politicians, all of whom are associated with systematic rape and molestation – will take more than even this storm to accomplish.

What is known as ‘eve-teasing’ is no longer a joke when 78% of women in a Hindustan Times survey late last year reported sexual harassment during 2012, of whom 69% reported groping and forcible assault; increasingly explicit rape scenes have become common features in Indian cinema; in 2012 only a single rape case out of 635 brought in Delhi led to a conviction, and the culture of reproaching women victims and excusing male parties is common even at high political levels.

In this case the young men concerned had reportedly all been brought up in villages, and their life in urban slums had fostered social resentment and anger against people like the victim; whether, had they stayed in their villages, the anger would have been less is speculative.

But the dislocation of village people finding their feet in city slums starkly illustrates what happens when rural livelihoods fail; when young people, especially males, are tempted to migrate to the cities and then become disillusioned with the limitations and stresses they face, and the realisation that they have no part in the ‘shining’ modern India – dream or reality.

The typical anonymity of urban rape does not apply in typical villages where ‘everyone knows’ what is happening in the community, but where patriarchal male attitudes and power enable domestic violence to go unchallenged. The redoubtable goddess Kali, with her many arms, her red tongue and her garland of little skulls is the mascot of rural women all over India.

More real, however, is the confidence and empowerment which women derive from building a Self-Help Group of 10 or 15 women to receive training, share profitable work and generate income and respect as providers for their families.

That collective female power can match the power of the men – and both we at Jeevika and you as our supporters can take credit for enabling it to happen.

Please consider supporting Jeevika with a small donation as we work to build this collective female power in the communities of village India:

First photo used courtesy of the Indian Fusion.

Making the World Different with Vodafone World of Difference

Posted on 14 February 2013 by Becky

How tired do you get if you have to go to school then fetch litres of water and carry it miles home? Is it difficult to go shopping but not be able to read the ingredients within or price of anything? Do you get embarrassed if you only have one outfit to wear day in, day out, for special occasions and for work, and how do you wash it? What’s it like to hear your baby cry with hunger but have nothing to feed her?

How does it feel to have a job you know is making people’s lives better?

Vodafone’s World of Difference programme is giving me the chance to contribute to solutions to some of these provocative questions.

Over four months I will be working with Jeevika Trust to nourish the crucial initiatives in livelihood development that have helped over 100,000 people in Indian villages. This is Jeevika’s second year partnering with Vodafone and we couldn’t be happier about it.

During my placement, I will be working towards three goals:

I will be establishing a knowledge base of socio-economic and appropriate technology data to feed our growth on the ground.
We’ll also be collaborating with top universities and sharing our findings with you and with our worldwide partners as part of our on-going mission to further the philosophy of Practising Schumacher through Buddhist Economics.
Lastly, I will be bolstering our reputation as ‘Hampton Wick’s own International Charity’ with a website upgrade and community outreach at local schools, businesses and events.

If you want a dose of the feel good factor too, you should volunteer with us! If you have experience in IT, PR, business, academia or simply have a hankering to help change the world, I’m only an email away on becky@jeevika.org.uk.

Or you can always keep in the loop with my journey here on the blog and consider donating:

Many thanks to Vodafone and their World of Difference programme for making this placement possible! We look forward to making a world of difference with you.

Vodafone image courtesy of Afternoon Voice.

The enduring power of Satyagraha

Posted on 30 January 2013 by Mark H

“Satyagraha is never finished because it is a fight for truth and justice.”
– Ramesh Sharma, Ekta Parishad

As well as working for Jeevika, I also volunteer for the Gandhi Foundation, which exists to spread knowledge and understanding of the life and philosophy of Mohandas Gandhi, who led India to independence from British rule.

He did so by mobilising the nation to take part in campaigns of non-violent protest and civil disobedience based on the concept of Satyagraha (which can be translated as “adherence to truth”).

March for Justice

For Gandhi, just as important as independence from the British Raj was socio-economic reform to liberate India’s masses from extreme poverty. His life and message continues to inspire the new generations who seek to address it.

Through Action Village India, I came to know about Ekta Parishad’s “March for Justice” or “Jan Satyagraha”.

This campaign mobilised tens of thousands of India’s landless poor using non-violent methods. On Gandhi’s birthday (2 October) last year, they started a march to Delhi calling for a fairer share of land and resources.

Fighting for Truth

As a result of the march, and the supporting campaigns around the world that it generated, the Indian Government signed an agreement with civil society to take forward the marchers’ demands.

However, the hard work is only just starting and many challenges lay ahead. A joint government-civil society task force has been set up to implement the agreement through an agreed timetable, allocation of resources and institutional mechanisms.

As Jan Satyagraha co-ordinator, Ramesh Sharma, says in a Christian Aid podcast:

“The campaign is not yet finished. Satyagraha is never finished because it is a fight for truth and justice and we know, even after the commitment, we need a lot of strength and energy to percolate all the promises to the ground, to the people”.

Photo courtesy of the Gandhi Foundation.