Module to ensure people's participation in rural planning

A six-day module, aiming to replace "classroom" approach to Panchayat Raj Institution (PRI) capacity building with "in-situ" micro planning, is being worked out for implementation in Maharashtra.
The pilot project carried out in six blocks of the state by city-based Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration with support from the UNICEF has got nod from the planning department, a YASHDA project coordinator said.
The project, which is part of the Backward Region Grant Fund programme for development of backward regions, envisages a six-day process of micro planning to evolve a definite mechanism of "participative, integrated, bottoms-up planning at local level through PRIs."

"The idea is to enhance people's participation and involvement in resource planning in villages with the application of the six days module which can be kept flexible. The goal is to empower the locals in the process of planning resources," said Pradnya Dasarwar, Coordinator, (Project Monitoring Unit), Centre for Research and Documentation YASHDA.
The Day 1 of the module, which involves the educated and literate sections of population, is devoted to building rapport with villagers while Day 2 covers household survey and social mapping. School children from the village are also involved in the exercise.
Day 3 is utilised in resource mapping and sector-wise stock taking. Drafting plans is done on Day 4.

On Day 5, a special mahila gram sabha meet to deliberate on plans exclusively meant for women while Day 6 is slated for general gram sabha to finalise and endorse the plans for the village.