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THE ROLE OF NGOs IN TRIBAL DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA NGO initiatives aimed at development have a long history in India.

The individual efforts of social workers are expressed in micro-terms but it deals with conditions that are caused by large macro-structures. There are number of NGOs working for the tribal development in India. The researcher has studied 7 major NGOs from the research area engaged in the tribal development. These NGOs tackle development related issues and their ideological orientation differs widely. There are some NGOs whos nature is agitational and there are some who are engaged in both construction and agitational work. In the present study, the aims & objectives, project area, target group, views of NGOs on problems of tribal communities, their suggestions have been studied. The work of NGO has been evaluated on the basis of nature of work, their priorities, financial conditions of NGOs, staff position, their views on self-sufficiency, need for continuity of work. In order to have openness, their membership patterns, confidentiality of their accounts etc. are discussed. Their views on tribal liberation and need to work all NGOs under one banner also have been sought. Finally the problems of NGOs have been discussed at length. This paper thus evaluates the role of NGOs working with tribal communities, their strengths and weaknesses, future thrust, ROLE OF NGOs IN INDIA The growing disillusionment and the resultant discontent among the masses gave birth to a number of NGOs in 1960s in India. These grassroots movements are concerned with the plight of the exploited sections of society. They are part of the democratic struggle at various levels. The role of NGOs is neither antagonistic nor complementary with the existing sectors. It is a role at once more limited and more radical, taking up issues that the political parties are unwilling to take up, coping with a large diversity of situation that governments and parties are unable to cope, encompassing issues that arise from not merely local and national but also international forces at work. The individual efforts are expressed in micro terms but it deals with conditions that are caused by large macro-structures. The NGOs are thus a part of a large movement for global transformations in which non-State actors on the one hand and non-territorial crystallisations on the other are emerging and playing new rolesi. Most important role Indian NGOs play in of a watch dog. ACTIVITIES OF NGOs All activities of NGOs are aimed at social, economic, political & educational Development of oppressed people in the area. The activities stated by the respondent NGOs are listed below: 1. Comprehensive village development. 2. Activities related with education: Balwadi, supplementary classes for school-going children, school at the brick kilns, education to katkari women, hostel for children, motivate children to go to school. 3. Activities related with Womens development : Formation of Womens groups, Saving group of women, training of self-employment, Womens Co-operative Society, Income generation for women, Womens employment, etc. 4. Youth development activities: Formation of Youth groups. 5. Health activities: Primary health care, health education, health project of family planning,

traditional medicines. 6. Provision of food : Nutrition programmes, Grain bank. 7. Political activities: Awareness and training on Panchayati raj , electoral systems , human rights, 8. Counselling activities: Womens counselling centre, Family counselling centre, Legal counselling. 9. Dissemination of information of Government scheme, helping people to secure benefits of Government scheme. 10. Self employment : Guidance on self occupation , Handicraft development etc. 11. Development of Katkari Leadership. 12. Protecting environment: - Horticulture on the barren land, Watershed development, 13. Anti liquor movement 14. Fighting on land issues, restoration of land rights. 15. Fighting against injustice. 16. Form co-operative societies of tribals such as fisheries societies, brick societies. FUTURE THRUST OF NGO WORK 1. Work with Youth, 2. Information dissemination, Strengths of Panchayati Raj 3. Advocacy & Organisational Work especially for Women. 4. Availability of employment. 5. Anti- Liquor movement. 6. Health awareness. 7. To start the sale counter of Minor Forest Product (MFP) of Women. 8. Educational complex only for Katkari 9. Implement ideal project of Land Development. 10. With co-operation of industries, implement developmental projects. 11. To develop land of 100 tribal families and make them stable. 12. Continue working on the present issues. 13. Develop volunteers. Strengthening NGO. 14. Create Womens federation. 15. Education put tribal children to school. 16. Propaganda and implementation of our experiments. 17. Networking with NGOs in Maharashtra. 18. Women and Panchayati Raj will be the priority. CONCLUSION It is found that though NGOs are doing good work with the tribal communities, there is lack of coordination among them. Their role as watchdog is not being played effectively. Many NGOs are now interested in implementing the projects by the Government in order to earn money for their survival. Their focus is getting shifted as per the priorities of the funding organization

Journal of Tropical A g r i c u l t u re 39 (2001) : 52-54 ROLE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY Indu Bhaskar and P. S. Geethakutty College of Horticulture, Thrissur 680 656, India Abstract : Role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in rural development was analysed through a case s t u dy conduc t ed on two NGOs in Thrissur District of Kerala St a t e. Major rur al development programmes of the NGOs were agricultural programmes, health programmes, human resource development programmes, c o m m u n i ty d e v e l o pme nt and i n d u s t r i al and trade programmes. Ma jor i ty of the beneficiaries, nonbene f i c i a r i e s, workers of NGOs and workers of other development agencies considered r u r al development works of the NGOs as effective for rur al development. Key words: Evaluative perception about NGOs, NGOs in rural development, NGOs, roles of NGOs, transfer of technology. INTRODUCTION Non-government organizations with their advant age of non- r igid, l o c a l i ty specific, f e lt need-based, bene f i c i a ry oriented and committed na ture of service have established mu l t itude of roles wh i ch can effect rur al deve lopment. In t h is context, the need to analyse how far the NGOs are effective in r u r al deve lopment, wh at the ir roles are, components of their deve lopment work, t h e ir consequences etc. was evident. With this objective, a case s tudy was conducted in Thr i s sur District of Kerala State. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two well-established NGOs of Thrissur District, Kuriakose Elias Service Society (KESS) and Apex Vo l u n t a ry Agency for Rural Development (AVARD) were selected and t h e ir

progr ammes and coverage were identified. A sample of 50 b e n e f i c i a r i es from each of the organisations was selected through proportionate r andom s a m p l i ng procedure to make 100 beneficiary respondents for the study. From the f u n c t i o n al area of each NGO, a sample of 30 non-beneficiaries was selected as respondents f o l l owi ng purposive s a m p l i ng procedure. Thirty NGO workers selected at r andom from the two NGOs and 30 workers of d e v e l o pme nt agencies other than NGOs in the selected area were i d e n t i f i ed as respondents. Based on discussion with the implementing o f f i c i a ls and a u t h o r i t i es of NGOs, the major programmes and components of the programmes of these NGOs in rur al development were identified. The effectiveness of the NGOs was measured in terms of the reflection of the evaluative perception of the different respondent categories about their experiences and roles played by the NGOs in connection wi th them by measuring their E v a l u a t i ve Perception Index (EPI). The index was formulated and standardised through i d e n t i f y i ng the major components of the programmes of NGOs, which consisted of 120 statements (on f i ve point c o n t i n u um - very strong, strong, neutral, week and very weak) reflecting the components of the programme. The scores obtained by each respondent were summed to

get the i n d i v i d u a ls over all evaluation. EPI = Actual e v a l u a t i ve perception score obtained by an i n d i v i d u al + Potential eva lua t ive perception score The evolved consequences of the programmes were a l so ident i f i ed in r e l a t ion to the major components of the programme and were measured by deve loping Perceived Consequence Index (PCI). The beneficiary respondents were asked to rate the components from their experience or on the basis of the benefits either as positive or negative. A score of one for each positive consequence and a negative score of one for each negative consequence were assigned. The sum of the positive a nd negative scores was taken as the actual score of consequences. The ratio of the ma x imum possible desired score and the score a c t u a l ly obtained by the bene f i c i a ry was taken as PCI. PCI = [Score for positive consequences + score for negative consequences] + Maximum possible desired scoreROLE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION 53 Table 1. Ma jor progr ammes for rur al deve lopment of the selected NGOs SI. No. Programmes Ac t i v i t i es KESS AVARD A g r i c u l t u r al progr ammes HI

IV Health programmes C ommu n i ty deve lopment progr ammes Human resource development Trade and i n d u s t r i al promot i on D i s t r i b u t i on of pl ant ing materials Di s t r ibut ion of diary cattle Poultry Demonstration farm Minor irrigation Lift i r r i g a t i on Land development Contour b u n d i ng C ommu n i ty i r r iga t ion Free medical care Safe d r i n k i ng water by providing we l ls Smokeless choola Sanitary l a t r ines H o u s i ng R e p a i r i ng of house 1RDP model v i l l a ge Vi l l age deve lopment project Common we ll

Tr a ining programme Educ a t ion promotion Earn whi le you learn programme Integrated c o m m u n i ty development projects Creches Fabr i c a t ion works Wood works Umbrella assembling Beedi r o l l i ng P r i n t i ng press Qua r ry Khadi S t a b i l i z er assembling Distribution of p l a n t i ng materials Se r i cul ture Di s t r ibut ion of diary cattle Di s t r i b u t i on of poultry Lift irrigation Immu n i z a t i on of children Health education Fami ly couns e l ing centre Sani t a ry l a t r ines Construction of house Land for landless

Roof ing of house Bore well Voc a t ional t r a i n i ng programmes Education programmes Creches and ba lwadi es Fibre and rope making u n it Apex s t abi l i z er indus t r i es St abi l i z er a s s emb l i ng Us i ng a structured and pre-tested interview schedule, relevant data were collected from the selected respondents. The data were then s t a t i s t i c a l ly ana lyz ed. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Table 1 shows t h at the major rural development programmes of selected NGOs are agricul tur al programmes, he a l th and hygiene, h uman resource development, c o m m u n i ty deve lopment and trade and indus t r i al programmes. Both the organisations put considerable efforts for rural development. A perusal of their programme activities provide a view on the combination of delivery and service activities and employment generation activities in the case of KESS whi le AVARD had made more efforts in delivery services. It is to be mentioned that both the organizations have taken location specific activities, which were formul a t ed after a n a l y z i ng the needs and priorities of their target. The study indicated that majority of the programme activities ul t ima t e ly lead to progress in health and hygiene, education, technology

transfer, employment generation, self reliance, economic development and behavioural changes. Importance to ecological preserva-JOURNAL OF TROPICAL AGRICULTURE Table 2. Di s t r i b u t i on of bene f i c i a r i es based on the Index of consequences of rural development efforts of the NGOs Gr o up Least beneficial Less beneficial Moderately beneficial Most bene f i c i al Class 0.0-0.2 >0.21-<0.6 0.61-<0.9 0.91 and above Frequency 10 90 Percentage 10.00 90.00

Table 3: Distribution of respondents based on the index of evaluative perception of effectiveness of NGOs Respondents Beneficiaries (n=100) Non-beneficiaries (n=60) NGO workers (n=30) Development workers (n=30) Least effective Frequency % Less effective Frequency 11 -

% 18.33 Effective Frequency 27 31 3 9 % 27 51.67 10 30 Highly effective Frequency 73 18 27 21 % 73 30

90 70 tion, safety and security feeling and commun i ty development was also there. Table 2 depicts the d i s t r i b u t i on of beneficiaries of NGOs based on their consequence index of rural development efforts of NGO, which reveals that none of the respondents had considered the programmes of NGOs as least beneficial and less bene f i c i a l. Nine ty per cent of the beneficiaries had considered the programmes of NGOs as most beneficial for them. This whole-hearted acceptance of the programmes of the NGOs can be equated wi th the acceptance of the NGOs themselves in the scene of rur al development. This high acceptance of NGOs among the beneficiaries can surely be attributed to many of the special qualities of NGOs. Voluntary organizations have special qualities in their style of f u n c t i o n i ng such as f l e x i b i l i ty in operation, sensitivity to changing needs, high level of motivation of the functionaries and innovations. Dhillon and Hansra (1995), while discussing about the role of NGOs had indi c t ed that the NGOs in general have firsth a nd experience and knowledge of local needs, problems and research at local level, they are closer to the minds and hearts of the people and they are with commitment and zeal of voluntary action.

Table 3 presents a comparison of the evaluative perception by the di f f e r ent categories of respondents about the effectiveness of NGOs. About 73 per cent of the beneficiary respondents and 30 per cent of non-beneficiaries and 90 per cent of NGO workers and 70 per cent of development workers had high eva lua t ive perception regarding the effectiveness of NGOs. These h i g h l i g ht the simple fact that the non-governmental organizations are accepted by the different sections as an effective machine for rural development. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The paper forms a part of the M.Sc. thesis of the first author submitted to the Kerala Agricultural University and the authors are grateful to the University for the facilities provided. REFERENCES Dhi l lon, D.S. and Hansra, B.S. 1995. Role of volunt a ry organisations in rural development. Kurukshetra 18(5): 10-13

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