Page 48 - TRIF Annual Report 2021

Support Unit for Transform Transformation of Aspirational
Rural Area (SUTRA)
Directorate of Panchayati Raj, Government of MP Multi-Thematic, Ministry of Home Affairs
Support Unit for Transform Rural Area
(SUTRA), an embedded cell, has been
formed in collaboration with Department of
Panchayat Raj (DoPR). This cell works on the
opportunity to demonstrate scalable
pathways for improving the effectiveness of
Gram Panchayats as vehicles of
socio-economic transformation. Focus is on
institutional development and strengthening
the delivery capacity of Gram Panchayats
(GPs), including organizational capacities,
planning processes, and the effective
convergence of government programs,
together with mobilization of community
collectives like Self Help Groups (SHGs) and
their federations set up by the Madhya
Pradesh Rajya Aajeevika Forum (MPSRLM).
The cell consists of one State unit and two
District units of Barwani and Jhabua. Major
streams of intervention of this cell include
supporting Block Pilots for strengthening
Supply-side, replication and scale up of best
practices, and institutional strengthening of
SUTRA.
In 2020-2021, SUTRA cell anchored ‘Mission
Gaurav’ program (Tata Trusts funded) aimed
at building social and economic recovery for
returnee migrants. The program leveraged
‘Community Based Organizations (CBOs)-
Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI)’ engagement
and government partnerships to tackle the
severe economic shocks and build a
foundation for long-term economic
resilience. Under the program, support was
provided to 30,000 vulnerable families of the
migrants across 10 blocks of Madhya
Pradesh. The cell provided extensive
Covid-19 prevention and management
support to the Department of Panchayati
Raj. The cell was instrumental in
development of IEC and Behaviour-change
materials for village planning, COVID-19
awareness and Panchayati Raj provisions.
Further, a manual on entitlement schemes
was developed during the year, and all
stakeholders were oriented, thereby
boosting the uptake of schemes and
consequent benefit accrued to the
stakeholders. The cell also developed and
deployed a Tool for integrating Village
Poverty Reduction Plan (VPRP) processes
with the on-going GPDP processes.
48 TRANSFORMING RURAL INDIA FOUNDATION
Technical Assistance
Districts Program
The Transformation of Aspirational District Program
(TADP), is a flagship program of the Government of
India anchored by NITI Aayog. The program aims to
bring transformational changes in the 112 districts
across multiple “quality of life experience”
dimensions. As part of the program, 35 Aspirational
Districts spread across 7 States namely Jharkhand,
Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh,
Telangana and Maharashtra, are entrenched with the
dual challenge of backwardness and Left-Wing
Extremism. Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Tata
Trusts partnered for implementing program in these
35 districts, with Transforming Rural India
Foundation as the Implementation agency providing
technical support to the program.
To support this engagement, the three-year
Aspirational District Fellowship (ADF) was launched
in July 2018, anchored by TRIF. TRIF has also
deployed a Fellowship Support cell. The combined
efforts of the District administration and Fellows
have resulted in initiating many public system
strengthening efforts by way of data-driven
governance, technical support to the line
departments for improved designing, planning and
monitoring of schemes along with convergence of
resources and fostering best practices. 31 out of the
35 Districts have received special performance
awards from the NITI Aayog.
The Program team has also developed and
disseminated knowledge materials including
publications on public system strengthening such as
compendium of good practices in health, nutrition
education, agriculture and governance from across
these districts, and a compendium of innovative
practices and processes initiated by District
Administration in India’s poorest districts to Combat
COVID-19. During the pandemic year, innovative
practices of Covid-19 responses were witnessed in
each of the districts. The support was wide-ranging
from emergency medical response, quarantine
management, humanitarian outreach of Social
protection scheme benefits, and planning and
monitoring of Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan (GKRA).
The Aspirational District fellows were also
instrumental in mobilizing significant resources from
CSOs, CSR and Philanthropy to supplement the
efforts of the district administration.
to UPSRLM
Livelihoods, State Rural Livelihood Mission, Government of UP
As part of the Technical Support, TRIF works to develop customised solutions for the stakeholders,
leading to further systematic field level co-creation.
The program aims to strengthen overall systems and processes of UPSRLM, strengthen its community
institutions and platforms, and devise evidence-based strategies and interventions, while also
integrating them into UPSRLM’s core operational model for empowering and mobilizing communities to
achieve sustainable improvement in HN outcomes through UPSRLM’s livelihood platforms. This is a
holistic approach where systems strengthening begins at State level and intervention percolates down
to the Cluster Level Federations (CLFs) with targeted outcomes of improved governance and operations
mechanisms for CLFs as well as strengthened government systems at all levels. Strategy co-creation
with SRLM involves improving intervention design for the field teams, digitization of critical processes
and developing institutional processes along with structured guidelines and SOPs. The processes for
strengthening of community institutions is being devised based on a detailed study of nearly 153 Cluster
Level Federations through training of nearly 800 UPSRLM staff. This program aims to enable 300 CLFs
with their business plans and strengthened internal systems in the next financial year.
State Irrigation Execution
Cell (SIEC)
Livelihoods, Rural Development Department, Government of Jharkhand
Agriculture being the major source of income schemes in securing livelihoods for small
for many States makes reliance on holder farmers and in developing robust
availability of irrigation facilities salient for ‘Agriculture Production Clusters’. The cell has
agricultural productivity. In Jharkhand, with played a pivotal role in strengthening
less than 10.6% of the net sown area being planning and execution including capacity
irrigated, it is touted as one of the ‘extremely building activities under this program. Large
food insecure states’ of India. The State scale implementation of Community Managed
government’s focus on strengthening Micro-Irrigation scheme (CMMIS) has been
implementation of irrigation programs taken up by the cell in 7 blocks. JOHAR, a
created pathways for partnership with TRIF. World Bank funded project is under
TRIF set up State Irrigation Execution Cell implementation in 16 blocks. As part of the
(SIEC) as an embedded unit in Jharkhand project, a Detailed Project Report (DPR)
State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS). creation software has been developed to
The focus of the intervention was to streamline and institutionalize the DPR
demonstrate the potential of micro irrigation creation process.
10,000+ 644 9,874
Irrigation Schemes Acres of Command
Farmers Impacted Commissioned Area Generated
200% 500
Water User Grops
Cropping Intensity Enhanced
Created and Strengthened
ANNUAL REPORT 2020-2021 49