“Communities of Action: Grassroots Movements Creating Extraordinary Change for a Sustainable Future”

Community of Action – Communities of action harness the diverse skills, resources, and passion of indivi” Communities of Action unite to drive extraordinary change.”

duals towards a common purpose. In a world facing complex challenges, from local inequities to global crises, communities of action offer a way for ordinary people to come together and create extraordinary change.

• Nirvanavan Foundation – a small grassroots organization based in Rajasthan, India, believing in a holistic approach to augment and upheld the rights and dignity of children. In a space of authentic and honest work in the realm of education, art (curation/ revival, education, peace and a safe earth through art), eradication of casteism by creating institutions/ spaces that are caste free, rehabilitation of abandoned and nomadic tribal children, resettlement of women from prostitution. The foundation works with the local communities to create awareness and action towards afforestation, rain water harvesting and creating a life of lower carbon emission.

• The Community Action for Health project, Tamil Nadu – As part of the communitisation process recommended under the National Rural Health Mission, Tamil Nadu has been implementing the Community Action for Health (CAH) programme since 2007. The pilot phase was implemented in 2007 – 08 in six districts. Following an external evaluation of this phase, the programme is now being implemented in 446 panchayats of 14 blocks.

The Community Action for Health (CAH) programme in Tamil Nadu is implemented as a government – civil society partnership initiative with designated nodal NGOs at the state, district and block levels. At the beginning of the project, already existing VHSNCs with a predominance of service providers were expanded to provide broader representation to community members, especially those from marginalised groups. Following capacity building of these VHSNC members, three rounds of monitoring of public health services based on entitlements promised under NRHM have been completed – a simplified tool that colour codes the grading of services has been used for this. The information collected through the monitoring process is collated into a panchayat-level report card and presented to the Gram Panchayat.

In addition to the village level monitoring, VHSNC members monitor facilities available at Health Sub Centres and Primary Health Centres.

One of the significant features of the Tamil Nadu CAH programme is the planning component. A Village Health Planning Day is observed once every six months and is attended by the Panchayat President, Panchayat ward members, other community members and health

care providers including the Village Health Nurse and the medical officer of the Primary Health Centre. A discussion is held based on the coloured grades awarded to various services in the Panchayat level report card.

The objective of the planning exercise is “to change Red to Green, in six months, together”. Out of the list of areas identified as needing improvement, two or three are chosen by consultation

with everyone present. Plans are then made to find solutions for these issues. These are followed up at regular VHSNC meetings held every month.

In addition, the information generated at village level is also collated and analysed at the state level, and has been used by the state and district level NGOs to advocate with health authorities.

• Monitoring of Maternity homes, Bengaluru, Karnataka – Public Affairs Centre (PAC), Bengaluru has used innovative methods to monitor the quality of maternity services in Bengaluru’s municipality run health centres.

In the year 2000, PAC undertook a Citizen Report Card survey of these maternity homes. This survey showed poor quality of services in these homes and a high degree of corruption. As a follow up to this initial survey, in the year 2009, PAC took up a repeat monitoring of these facilities along with its partner NGOs to understand the current status of services provided in them.

The first round of Citizen Report Cards in 2010 covered 12 maternity homes in Bengaluru municipality area and included interviews with health care providers, users and Board of Visitors (forum of users). Data from the above interactions was centrally entered and analysed

at PAC and collated to form the Citizen Report Card. The findings of these were then shared with the Bengaluru municipality authorities to advocate for change.

Following this, indicators for a Community Score Card were developed which were based on interactions with users of these facilities. These Community Score Cards were filled in three maternity homes, as a group exercise with users and also with health care staff.

The findings of the Community Score Cards were then discussed at an interface meeting that brought together staff of the maternity homes, higher authorities from Bengaluru Municipality and users of the facility. This resulted in a discussion along with planning for action to

improve the services related to each indicator on the score card.

As the interface meetings received a lot of positive feedback from users, staff and Bengaluru municipality officials, it was decided that a users’ group be formed to carry out monitoring of the facilities and engage with the staff on an ongoing basis.

Thus, Maternity Home Monitoring Committees (MHMCs) have been formed in these maternity homes. MHMC members take turns to visit the maternity home and monitor services provided based on a check list that has been given to them by PAC and meet once every 15 days to discuss issues.

Interface meetings with committee members, staff of the facilities and Bengaluru municipality staff are held once every three months where actions are planned to improve the gaps identified by the monitoring exercise.

• Clean India Programme – lays considerable stress on community action ensure that nature’s bounty is not degraded, leads to sustainable development, environmental conservation and enables opportunities for livelihoods for the weaker sections of the society.

The community action envisages a network – encompassing school children, NGOs, community-based organisations, scientific institutions; resident’s welfare and market associations, business group and associations, civic agencies of the municipality, government officials, legislators, parent eco-clubs, senior citizens, media, etc. Such an impeccable network fructifies only with a positive attitude of cooperation and never with altercations. Once the assessment is accomplished, the next logical step undertaken to create awareness, which in turn leads to improvement actions. These involves:

• Water monitoring, conservation and purification — On detection of impurities and contamination, remedial actions are taken at the household level along with notifying the Jal (Water) Boards in case of municipal and ground water supply. Water conservation measures are instituted by preventing waste, followed by recycling, and recharging.

• Air pollution is a major problem in towns and cities in which the government plays the pivotal role to minimise its serious impact on health and consequently its economic repercussions. The normal tendency is to accord priority, but Governments remains hesitant in remove polluting vehicles from the road, especially three-wheelers. Where compressed natural gas has been introduced, the old vehicles (using petrol) are shifted to nearby towns, or, are discontinued. Malpractices like mixing kerosene with petrol / diesel result in heavy toxic emissions. In such situations, communities Suo-motto get mobilised to force the local authorities to take drastic action. It is better to lay off a few people and provide them with alternative means of livelihood than play with the health of the population at large, including children who are the most affected of the lot.

• Solid Waste Management is dealt with utmost planning. About 60% of domestic biodegradable waste are utilised for making compost. This prevents dumping of huge quantities of waste at sites termed as ‘landfills’ but seldom worth their name. The resultant savings in manpower and transportation is utilised to encourage and subsidise communities in their solid waste management initiatives.

• Paper consumption in India is estimated to be 5 kgs per capita which amounts to 5 million tons of paper per year. To make one ton of paper, 17 full grown trees are cut. Hence, we deplete our green cover by 85 million trees every year. For this, the country logs 80 hectares of forest every 30 minutes. Being ignorant of the costs in terms of green cover of such depletion due to manufacture of paper. Although the above statistics are mind boggling, however community based initiatives are implemented to recycle paper at the local level, excessive packaging, using paper instead of cloth for handkerchiefs and napkins, using e-mail for correspondence, etc.

Besides, the above remedial measures, community action at a very rapid pace is underway for large scale tree plantation. Planting of trees, nurturing and protecting them when they are young is equally important. Self-motivated communities are adopting trees alongwith ensuring their well-being. Knowledge of indigenous trees and those with medicinal value which helps in protecting floral bio-diversity and give impetus to the knowledge and practices of our traditional medical systems are often inculcated & imbibed.

• The campaigns against environment degrading practices have assumed great importance. It is essential that sustainable alternatives are indicated. For example, a campaign which is in practice, recommends the use of jute bags of various sizes that could be made readily available to the consumer. Strict enforcement is also required. Similarly, during national festivals like Holi, Diwali and Durga Puja / Ganesh Chaturthi, curbing environment degrading activities are publicly highlighted and alternatives like eco-friendly colours, lighting diyas (or clay lamps) instead of fire crackers and worshipping non-painted clay idols and their suitable immersion are being practiced.

• Bishnoi Community – are India’s OG eco-warriors. Spread mostly in hamlets across the state of Rajasthan, they have been fighting to protect the environment for more than 500 years. The community believes in the sanctity of all life, shunning meat and avoiding felling living trees. Members draw inspiration from Amrita Devi, a Bishnoi woman who was killed in 1730 while trying to protect a grove of khejari trees. Amrita Devi and her three daughters hugged the trees to save them, and in response, paid with their heads being severed.

The Bishnoi’s are actively involved in keeping watch over the poaching of wild animals and rescuing injured animals and often are a big support to the forest department. Advocate Rampal Bhawad co-founded the “Bishnoi Tiger Force”, an environmental campaign group and anti-poaching organisation. It plays an active role in the setting up of rescue centres for injured animals in villages in western Rajasthan and had even donated a vehicle to Jodhpur’s Machia Biological Park Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre to bring in rescued animals swiftly.

Although a subsect of Hinduism, the Bishnoi do not cremate their dead, because that would mean cutting down trees to fuel the fire.

• Van Gujjars – are a semi-nomadic pastoral community, that continues to practice seasonal migration across forests in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh in pursuit of their pastoral livelihood. The phenomena of transhumance pursued by the community are among the few climate-adaptive and resilience strategies that ensure their pastoral livelihood remains viable and sustainable.  Van Gujjars’ activities such as the lopping of leaves enable the sustenance of herbivores. It also fosters healthier growth and density of the lopped trees. The rotational grazing of the Van Gujjars and their buffaloes also help maintain water sources through embankments, removal of invasive species, facilitation in seed dispersal, remanuring the grazing areas and paths and creating fire lines within forests to protect the ecosystem for other species too.

• Idu Mishmis – is a sub-tribe of the larger Mishmi group (the other two Mishmi groups are Digaru and Miju) in Arunachal Pradesh and neighbouring Tibet. They believe that tigers are their elder brothers. Killing tigers is, for the Idu Mishmi, a taboo. Known for their weaving and craftsmanship skills, the Idu Mishmis primarily live in Mishmi Hills, bordering Tibet.

• Apatanis – the community has evolved a unique skill of rice-fish cultivation where along with paddy, fish is also reared on the fields. This is further supplemented with millet (Eleusine coracana) reared on elevated partition bunds between the rice plots. The agroecosystems are nourished by nutrient wash-out from the surrounding hill slopes. Nutrient loss with crop harvest is replaced by recycling crop residues and the use of organic wastes from the villages so that soil fertility is sustained year after year.

To be continued……………….

Writer Suvro Sanyal

Mavericknews30 has launched a series of articles on community building, sharing insights and success stories. Stay tuned for the next article as we explore how to create stronger, more connected communities!

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