Introduction of Grassroots Democracy
Local Governance from Ancient to British Period
Human Rights
Good Governance at Gram Panchayat
Panchayathu Nalla Nirvagam
Moondru Nilai Ullatchi Amaippukal
Panjayathu Amaippugal
The Swiss Confederation, represented by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, acting through the Embassy of Switzerland in India supporting DHAN Foundation for the project on “Building Good Governance & Grassroots Democracy (G3D) through ICT”
DHAN is working with 10000 poor families in the Kottampatti block of Madurai District. The Women Self Help Group Federation promoted by DHAN focusses on Financial Inclusion like Savings, Linking the SHGs with Banks, Insurance, etc. The federation is also focusing on livelihood of the poor women. The Farmers’ Federation promoted by DHAN Foundation in the same block focusses on renovation of irrigation water bodies, Water Management and Agriculture Development. Both the federations are collectively undertaking several civic activities and facilitating for various Government Programme Entitlements for the poor families. DHAN has also established Community Radio and Web Radio to use Information & Communication Technology as tool for knowledge building & sharing tool. The Women and Farmers are governing their Self Help Groups & Federations and also involveIs in local Gram Panchayat level activities. The Pandemic forces the women and farmers to start using mobile and internet to get update on COVID and also for their day to day operation, hence, the proposed project, DHAN would like to use ICT as a tool for building Good Governance and Democracy for the members of both Women SHG and Farmers Federations. 1000 Members (More than 600 Women members and 400 Farmers) will be involved in the the Project.
Description of the activities: The following activities are proposed in the project
The proposed project will be implemented in Kottampatti Block of Madurai District, Tamil Nadu, INDIA, where DHAN has established two self-sustained federations in Kottampatti Block. More than 6000 Poor Women were organized as Women SHG groups and federated as one SHG Federation in Kottampatti block, similarly more than 4000 small & marginal farmers were organized as one of the Farmers Federations in the same block. The Proposed Project aims to target Women Self Help Group Members and Farmers of the Kottampatti Block/ Madurai District/ Tamil Nadu/ INDIA to build the Good Grassroots governance in the SHGs/ associations/ Local Governance.
This project aims to reach out 600 women members and 400 farmers, thus 1000 poor families will be get build knowledge on G3D within a year. The design itself give focus to reach more women. Women leaders will be given space and opportunity to share their rights / voice / experiences in the web forums. The Women local governance presidents will be enabled to understand more about local governance.
This proposed project will utilize the community resources like Panchayat Leaders, Village level leaders, SHG Leaders, Farmers leaders to discuss & deliberate the content on Good Governance and Grassroots Democracy. Hence, it is purely centered on the community resources.
This project aims to use available ICT tools like Whats app, Google Meet/ Zoom meet, etc to build the community on G3D. The content once produced will be available for ever for easy and no cost replication. This Project aims to organise G3D literacy programme in hybrid mode, offline and online and hence, the options are available for the community to freely, easily discuss & learn about G3D.
It is designed as a pilot to use ICT tools for building Good Governance and Democracy. The proposed project is going to be implemented with one of the self-sustained women SHG federations and one of the self-sustained farmers’ federation. Both the federations are owning the Community Radio. This proposed technology driven initiatives will also be owned by the federations. Hence, after the pilot project, this initiative will be implemented by the federations. The training content once generated in the form of audio book and video bytes, Course Material developed for Literacy programme will be available and may be taken to the large scale with no cost. This proposed project will host the content in the Web Radio and You Tube channel, which may be taken to the larger scale of the community without any additional cost. The pilot experience will build the skill and knowledge of the man power in generating and disseminating content on G3D, hence, trained man power will be available after the pilot.
Online G3D Literacy Programme
Webinar on Human Rights