Reflections from the Field

It seems like it was only yesterday that I was in Gaya for the second time, working closely with BASIX’s The Livelihood School (TLS) team, trudging through our target villages to design and implement a targeting methodology and tools to help us identify the poorest households for inclusion in the ‘Livelihood Pathways for the Poorest’ (LPP) project. One and a half years have flown by like the blink of an eye, and with age, my cognizance of the speeding up of time is both exhilarating and flustering at the same time. Last August, our team of three slogged through kilometers of muddy or flooded lanes through villages absent of sewage and waste management systems. The monsoon rains, albeit short-lived, were particularly heavy those few days we worked to test the targeting process with a sample group of the target population before the final process would be scaled up across the entire project area to complete the final selection of the two hundred poorest households. We began by holding a community meeting to share the project goal and objectives with the entire village and its leaders before engaging in what is called Participatory Wealth Ranking (PWR), an interactive and inclusive method of rural appraisal, whereby the community members themselves define what poverty means in their own context and categorize individuals according to local definitions. Shortlisted households in the bottom wealth category were visited individually and further surveyed to collect what we call a Progress out of Poverty Index® (PPI®) score, a tool developed by the Grameen Foundation to determine the likelihood of a household or individual falling above or below a specified poverty line. A household survey capturing a range of data on each household on their cash flow, livelihood portfolio, food security, health, and other indicators coupled the earlier tools. The final data was measured against selection criteria that helped us identify the poorest households in a given community. A multilayered filtering process ensures that interventions are reaching households not only living on less than $1.25/day, but are living well below localized definitions of poverty.

Yesterday was a day of achievement for us, as a team. After months of hard work to identify the “right” livelihood activities to be promoted through the program and develop training modules and resources, we finally launched our first set of trainings in the supplemental income generating (SIG) activities- wage based, low skill jobs that provide nominal increases in income to the households to help meet their immediate consumption needs. We are focusing for now on two activities- kitchen gardening and agarbatti (incense stick) rolling. While both are existing activities in the panchaayat we work in, these women are either not engaged due to a lack of awareness or confidence in how to take up the activity or have been unable to access value addition in the form of skills enhancement to roll higher quality (and hence, higher priced) agarbatti or training in agriculture methods to grow vegetables more efficiently throughout the year. In the case of agarbatti, the activity involves direct contact with harmful substances that are breathed in by women and children alike. Food is often eaten without washing the substance off their hands, so incorporating health and hygiene practices into the training module is another value addition. An interesting fact I learned during my time here is that Bihar is the second largest producer of agarbatti in India! Many of us were raised with agarbatti (commonly referred to as oodhupaathi in Tamil) lit in our homes, sometimes each evening, but without doubt, on religious holidays and festivals. Each time I light an agarbatti stick, I will always think of these poor women from whose hands it originated. I hope you will too!

ASHG members in Shivrampur village proudly show their training outputs

ASHG members giggle shyly as the field project manager discusses agarbatti income potential


Rekha Devi, already a highly skilled roller, is helping to enhance her peers' skills

I’ve begun sensing a deeper, intangible change among these women with each and every visit I’ve made these last one and a half years—something more profound than any monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan can capture. It is a change based on the human connection, largely due in part to something called trust. The women have extended this invaluable commodity to us, as service providers and as individuals intent on helping improve their lives with no expectation of anything in return from them. Yesterday, as they opened up to us at the advent of our first set of livelihood promotion activities in Shivrampur village, I was touched by the apparent shift from their skeptical, introverted selves, constantly averting eyes, faces absent of smiles, to vivacious, outspoken, and empowered women, who were keen and proactive in sharing feedback and a sincere gratitude: “Many others have come and gone. We have been cheated many a time. You people have worked so hard for us, more than our own family members would do for us. And, now you are doing something for us.” As discussed in my post 'August Field Visits,' these women and their families have lived their entire lives knowing nothing more than depravity, exploitation, and neglect. As they practiced rolling more and more fine incense sticks, they proudly raised their finished products, seeking our approval and that of the trainer. We laughed together during those subtle moments of humor that we’ve all grown to silently notice through over one year of interactions.

For the first time, they opened up and shared the initial reservations and reason for opposition from their husbands to partake in the program. Their husbands would desperately ask, “Do you even know who these people are? Do you know their background or their intentions? How do you know that they won’t actually sell you on the market?” To share such content, which in itself is considered too shameful to be discussed with strangers, and men at that, was another indicator of their newly cultivated trust. My heart became heavy when I learned that women from these very communities had been victims of human trafficking. In a society where honor and dignity are directly correlated with a certain notion of “purity/tarnishing” of the body, this so-called livelihood “option” (or coercion, in some instances) can tip the life-or-death scale weighed by narrow-minded local leaders and destroy the lives of so many.

Last week, 4 Community Resource Persons (CRPs) from the World Bank-funded Bihar Rural Livelihoods Program (BRLP) visited each of our ASHGs to assess their current development levels and identify areas requiring further strengthening over the next few months. CRPs are women leaders who've demonstrated a will to effect positive change in their own lives as well as those in their communities. Through interactive training sessions, these incredible women shared their own stories of self-empowerment and imparted to our members the importance of the Paanch Sutra or Five Rules adhered to by a strong self-help group: 1) Regular meetings 2) Regular savings 3) Routine inter-lending 4) Regular repayment of loans and 5) Routine record-keeping. It was an incredibly inspiring and humbling experience for us all. These women I call the Fantastic Four are an example, not just for our own clients, but for women everywhere.

BRLP CRP reviews the Paanch Sutra with members


The Fantastic Four: "Yes, we can!"


Our members try to mimic but are still too shy to raise their arms!

Members from Shanthi ASHG receive their savings box, lock, and keys

Photo stream of our clients' children in Pali village:

Coimbatore Calling

As I looked upon the rich, red soil we were descending over from my airplane window, I couldn’t help wondering, “Is this what it feels like?” Denied by our native Sri Lanka and dispersed across the world, my generation of Eelam Tamils raised within the Diaspora are mostly children of immigrants. Gratitude and a particular patriotism for our homelands have been cultivated from birth, but can we ever know a pride for or feel the embrace of our motherland? Given the traumatic events of the past few years, touching ground in Coimbatore felt like the next best thing. After seven intense weeks across Hyderabad, Delhi, and Gaya, I warmly welcomed a reprieve at a home away from home in the rapidly growing Coimbatore or Kovai with arms wide open.

On the way home from the airport, I was overcome by bittersweet emotions as I breathed in the Tamil Nadu air and voraciously absorbed all that is Tamil through my remaining senses- street and shop signs in the Tamil script, conversations and street callings in the Tamil language, and women clad in colorful saris with fresh jasmine flower garlands strung in their hair, bells ringing from their anklets and gold ornamenting their wrists, necks, and ears as they and their families fearlessly made their way to the local markets or to temples to worship. As I conversed about my family’s wellbeing and my work in Gaya with relatives, Tamil trickled off my tongue, and I felt something of a mother’s embrace in that moment- at ease and alive. From birth, we had visited both Eelam and Tamil Nadu every other year to visit family. In the latter, they were relatives who had fled the former in response to the 1983 riots of Black July. In the government-sponsored pogrom, thousands of Tamils were massacred, homes and shops burned to the ground, and tens of thousands more fled as refugees into the arms of other sympathetic and accepting mothers. It was a time I witnessed too young to remember now but has eternally scarred many far more than any physical wound is capable of.

I have the fondest memories of visiting Coimbatore as a child and enjoyed every moment playing tag and hide and seek with my cousins in their three-level rented home in Gandhipuram. My favorite hiding spot was up on the mottamaadi (rooftop) from where one could escape the chaos of the fast growing city and relax meditatively with views of Coimbatore, the sunrise, and the sunset. I loved walking down to Ukkadam and Oppanakkara streets with my Amma and our female relatives, who never passed up the opportunity to buy strings of mallikai poo (jasmine) or kanahaambaram poo, a small, orange colored flower, referred to as ‘paper flower’ in English, to loop into their long, black plaits. I indulged in the kadalai (garbanzo) and kajju (cashew nuts) we bought from a man who sold these roasted and wrapped in newspaper cones from his cart, as he announced his goods for sale throughout the streets of Gandhipuram, plastered with posters of Tamil movie stars cum ‘Gods’ cum politicians. It was incredibly comforting to experience this all again, though admittedly, a bit strange as well to do so on my first trip to Coimbatore without my immediate family.

Tamil movie star cum politician campaign poster


Religious and cultural fusion


Craftsman enlays gold into a necklace; Coimbatore is renowned for its manufacture of gold jewelry

Campaign poster of Jayalalitha, TN's current chief minister and former actress

Auto driver waiting for business

Increased flower sales during Vinayaka Chaturthi

Antique film posters of MGR, Chief Minister of TN in 1977, and a legendry figure of the Taml film industry

Cotton candy in Gandhipuram

Charity

Massive statues of Vinayakar, commonly known as Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu deity of wisdom and good fortune, were erected in temporary mandapas throughout the city, and street vendors displayed hundreds of colorful clay statues of the deity for sale in a range of smaller sizes. The day following my arrival was Vinayaka Chaturthi, commencing a widely celebrated ten-day festival, honoring Vinayakar as superior to all other deities. Each Hindu home installs a clay Vinayakar, specifically purchased to celebrate the festival, and life is symbolically invoked into the statues through the chanting of mantras and offerings of coconut, jaggery, sweets, grass, flowers, vermilion, and sandalwood. Throughout the ceremony, hymns from the Rig Veda, Upanishads, and the Ganesha stotra are chanted. At the end of the poosai (ritual) in our home, I was asked to sing Carnatic songs in praise of the deity before we enjoyed prasaadam (food that has been first offered to God) in the form of delicious aval, a mixture of aval grains, grated coconut, jaggery, and sugar.

A silver Ganesha murti

Ganesha, lord of wisdom and good fortune

Another, more traditional Ganesha murti

Relatives had flown in from all corners of the world to participate in the wedding of my cousin. We shuttled back and forth between relatives’ houses, visiting newly arrived relatives and indulging in meal after meal, snack after snack, and cup after cup of milky, sugary, tea. The gastronomical bliss could also be perceived as agony by the meek or simply an act of overindulgence. The day always starts with one of those ‘out of this world’ cups of tea that never fails to hit the spot, followed by a breakfast composed of idli and sambar or thosai with podi and sambal. Available throughout the day are king coconuts to quench one’s thirst with their fresh water and pulp, additional cups of tea or juice, fried snacks, such as vadai and samosas, and sweets interwoven between rice-and-curry lunches and dinners. I was naturally, then, a happy Coimbatore camper.

My darling nephew, the newest member of the family

Traditional and auspicious Tamil vilaka or lamp

Traditional welcome to any Tamil Hindu wedding

Traditional Tamil wedding band, comprised of nadaswaram and mradangam instruments

Madapam, a sacred structure under which couples are wed in Hindu and Jain traditions

After nearly three days of wedding festivities and a couple more indulging in both family and exquisite, silk sari shopping, it was with a heavy heart that I prepared for my journey back to Gaya, back to work. I was suddenly devastated to leave another de facto home and a place where a large part of my identity flourished. But, I know I’ll be back very soon.

August Field Visits

After slogging barefoot through a kilometer of muddy fields and monsoon rains, we reached our first ASHG (adapted self-help group) meeting of the week. We were greeted with warm smiles from the female members of one of the strongest ASHGs developed through the project to date. Trust levels and self-confidence are building incrementally, and a savings habit is being nurtured amongst our members. Over the next couple of weeks, we will work with the local government to link households to various welfare schemes (e.g., child and women's healthcare, NREGA, guaranteeing at least 100 days of employment or the equivalent payment of wages, etc.). Already this week, after meetings with district and block level government officers, we’ve been guaranteed that all of our households will receive their NREGA job cards in addition to 1-2 fruit plants per household by the end of September. While our households are eligible to avail such government cash and in-kind transfers, they either don’t have the required identify proof or the awareness of the schemes to pursue them. Our facilitation here allows them to see immediate, tangible benefits of engaging in the program as they begin to gradually access and experience the much-needed services that are rightfully theirs.

Understanding the mindset and the conditioning of a lifetime of chronic depravity of our clients is one of the most challenging aspects of this work. We, with our immense worldly exposure, an education, urban, modern lifestyles, and access to an abundance of amenities, are almost at a disadvantage. These luxuries suddenly become our greatest limitations, as practitioners, to relate to and understand a very different reality—that of the majority of our world’s population. A few visits allow one to skim the surface of this reality. And, it is a painful one, more so according to our perceptions than it is for these individuals, as this is all they know. We, however, compare it to our own conditionings and biases. In their case, I wouldn’t say ignorance is bliss; it simply relieves them of an awareness of their own, comparatively harsher reality. To live amongst them, or, at the very least, interact with them on a daily basis for an extended period of time provides us, practitioners, a window into their daily life challenges and garners our own understanding of their needs, the context in which they live, and the rationale behind the difficult daily decisions they must make such as how to feed themselves and their families, what they must forego for the survival of their children, and the sacrifices that must be borne by the entire household, irrespective of age. Designing a methodology, products, and services to create “livelihood pathways for the poorest,” as the project is aptly named, will be a process of trial and error these next 2 years.

One such household is that of Sunita Devi. Sunita is a 35-year old widow with 2 children in the village of Pali. She is the only breadwinner in her household, with an annual income of 21,600 Indian rupees, which is equal to 41 US cents per person per day. While Sunita’s ASHG is thus far one of the weakest ones, we hope through continued household visits, engagement with male members of the village, and concentrated mentoring services, her group will gradually catch up with the more quickly progressing groups. To help meet immediate consumption needs, we are linking households, like Sunita’s, to various government welfare schemes, such as NREGA discussed above, which will provide Sunita 100 days of employment or the equivalent minimum wage payment. As a widow and a BPL head of household, she will be eligible to receive cash and other transfers that she was not able to avail on her own. We are gradually working with her ASHG to begin internal savings on a monthly basis so that in urgent times of need, she will understand how savings can become a risk management tool. More advanced groups have been given a savings box, held by the Treasurer, and as a cost share, the members will purchase a lock and 2 sets of keys, to be guarded by the President and Secretary of the group. This balance of powers allows no single person access to the group savings. In September, we hope to provide Sunita and her peers training in kitchen gardening practices and agarbatti (incense stick) rolling. These two supplementary income-generating activities, combined with government linkages, should hopefully provide immediate relief for Sunita and her children, from both a financial and food security standpoint.

Mud and Other Stuff


Child of an ASHG Member in Shivrampur Village


Collecting Savings During the ASHG Meeting

Counting Her Change


Individual savings are noted in the individual's passbook as well as in the group savings register

Taradevi, an ASHG Treasurer, proudly holding the register she safeguards

Another sort of field work

Sunita Devi with her 2 children

Beautiful children of Pali Village

Once our households have stabilized and ASHGs are further strengthened, we will then begin training and introducing them to more high-skilled activities that generate stable, year around income. We’re hoping this gradual transition will lend to a more effective and committed uptake of entrepreneurial activities and a very different approach to life itself. To ensure this, the final key design will be of livelihood financing products, such as credit and microinsurance. But, how to customize these for such a poor population without adding to their indebtedness and daily strains? This past week has been one of stimulating financial product design, through discussions with some of BASIX's greatest minds and visits to local livestock markets. This process has developed in parallel with the final design of livelihood development services. Important questions we've been pondering and answering include: How should the introduction of supplemental income-generating and entrepreneurial activities be sequenced? Which elements of shariyat (Islamic) banking can actually be applied to vulnerable and poor populations? How can repayment be structured to sync with projected income cycles? What aspects of traditional systems can be embedded in the product design that will lend to greater understanding and acceptance of the financial products by our households? The answers to these are shaping some very innovative, finely blended products that we're looking forward to testing out over the next year.

Child in Shivrampur Village

Mesmerizing expressions

Children lingering after the week's meeting

No words, at least for me

Raginidevi places her passbook into the savings box

ASHG members finish depositing their savings for the week/month in Shivrampur Village

End of the meeting and time to start the day's work

Seeing is Believing*

*Written for the Grameen Foundation blog, Creating a World Without Poverty: http://grameenfoundation.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/seeing-is-believing/.

After what seemed would be a third year of dry spells during the critical monsoon season, the rains have finally come in Gaya district of Bihar, India. Agriculture is one of the primary revenue sources for both farmers and wage earners, like the 200 households that the Grameen Foundation is reaching through the Integrated Livelihoods Model for the Poorest (ILM) pilot project being implemented in partnership with BASIX/The Livelihood School. The rains bring increased wage earning opportunities, which, translates into enhanced income and food security for most rural poor households here.

To mitigate the risks of volatile and erratic income generating opportunities, the Solutions for the Poorest (SfP) team aims to gradually enhance the skill sets of the primary breadwinners of our households and link them to more stable livelihood activities. These activities include daily wage activities, which are often seasonal and low skill, and entrepreneurial or productive activities, which lend to higher income generating potential and often require increased skill sets and start-up capital. Through our project, livelihood promotion will be sequenced to first enhance existing or introduce new daily wage activities that can rapidly increase household income while enhancing clients’ self-confidence and trust in our project team and partners. Subsequent to this is the introduction of new, productive livelihoods that generate higher incomes and can sufficiently fill gaps in income flows throughout the year. Examples of these include goat rearing, poultry farming, and vegetable vending. This approach moves away from creating an immediate dependency on credit to meet daily consumption needs and avoids disrupting clients’ existing livelihood patterns.

Over the past month in Gaya, we’ve engaged our clients in exposure visits as a means to enhance their understanding of new livelihood activities- both wage-based and entrepreneurial. Exposure visits entail visiting actors and observing processes along entire supply chains of the activities we will link households to. This deepens their understanding of the benefits and challenges associated with each activity and better informs their decision to commit to the “right” livelihoods for themselves and their households.

This past week’s exposure visit was to the neighboring village of Orr, where our clients met with women of the same socio-economic background and have successfully engaged in kitchen gardening, a method of small scale vegetable production that involves very little or no land and mostly organic inputs. Home grown vegetables significantly increase nutritional levels while also contributing to income through the sales of excess produce. Our clients also received a demonstration on gunny bag gardening, which is essentially a garden in a bag that grows along creepers against the walls and roof of the house. Prior to the visit, our clients expressed self-doubt in their capacity to start new activities, but after seeing how their peers have engaged successfully in these, they claimed, “Now that we have seen them do it, we know we can do it too! And, we are ready to start!” Seeing really is believing.

Our members touring the kitchen gardens of the women in Orr village**

Despite the heavy rains, the women stuck through the entire visit

Our lovely hosts of Orr village bid us goodbye

**Unfortunately, due to the heavy rains, supporting photos are limited.