Tsunami- Relief and Restoring Livelihoods & Habitats

DHAN Foundation Initiatives - Update 19

 

RELIEF AND RESTORATION OF LIVELIHOODS AND HABITATS IN TSUNAMI AFFECTED COASTAL AREAS OF TAMIL NADU

 

 

1.0 Initiatives  by DHAN Foundation in Gulf of Mannar Region
 

The 18th update was on the role of fisher Panchayat and DHAN’s strategy in enabling the grass root level institutions. This focus of this update is on DHAN’s intervention with the coastal communities in the Gulf of Mannar (GoM) region as part of the UNDP-GoM project on “Promotion of Alternative Livelihoods in the Biosphere of Gulf of Mannar”.  The project was jointly implemented by MSSRF & DHAN Foundation in the coastal areas of Ramanathapuram and Tuticorin districts of Tamilnadu during April’2000 to Dec’2003. The focus of the overall programme sponsored by UNDP is on integrating livelihood security with conservation and management of Gulf of Mannar Bio Reserve. It also tries to build up access to financial services (Savings, credit and insurance) on a sustainable basis to strengthen the existing livelihood base and promote sustainable alternative livelihoods, which will create the auxiliary effect by bringing down their dependence on the resources of the Biosphere Reserve.
 

Some of the major achievements in the project by DHAN are:

The rich experiences gained by DHAN in working with coastal communities in Gulf of Mannar region would greatly enhance DHAN’s capability to identify alternate sustainable livelihoods to the affected community and also to overcome poverty in the tsunami affected villages in Tamilnadu.

Rationale of the project

Owing to the situation that sea resources are dwindling at an increasing rate due to habitat destruction and over exploitation, corrective measures need to be undertaken against environment degradation and over exploitation as it will erode marine and coastal biodiversity, undermine productivity and intensify conflicts over the increasingly scarce resources of the coastal areas.

 

In the process, community based participatory management approach will bring good result with respect to safeguarding the resources as well as the livelihood. Hence it becomes essential to develop institutional framework of the conservation of sea resources.

 

Addressing the conservation issues in isolation with the natural resources without addressing the livelihood issues of the community will not yield any success. Hence, developing adequate credit mechanisms through SHGs, establishing adequate linkages among local organisations, DRDA, Banks, Panchayat bodies, line departments and arresting migration of inland farmers and villages moving towards the sea from inland through alternative livelihood options based on sea and land resources is piloted in this project.

 

DHAN’s role in the project is to organise the coastal community, involving them in managing the natural resources and explore alternate livelihoods so that their over dependence and exploitation of coastal and marine resources gets reduced.
 

Socio Economic Context
 

An estimated 1,50,000 population live in the immediate coastline of GoM region depending on fishery and sea related occupation, of which, 4/5th of them being traditional and the rest are of recent origin. There are 8 boat landing centers and 2 fishing harbors through which the fishermen operate. The active fishermen are estimated to be around 40,000 in numbers, the chunk collectors 2,600, seaweed collector’s around 820(of which women are the majority). Women engaged fully in sea-based activities are 1177 and shore based activities to be around 1100.

 

The literacy rate is only 31%, far less than the state average (64%). Due to the overall poverty of marine fisher folk families, many children of school going age are also involved in fishing or fishery related activities.

 

Housing is one of the major problems confronted by the fishing community in this area. Most of the fisher folk do not have their own land. They live in huts all along the sandy beaches of the coast. About 54% of fishermen houses in the Gulf of Mannar region are huts (thatched roof with brick wall) and only 21%  Pucca houses (concrete or tiled roof with brick wall).

 

Fishermen irrespective of the extent of their fishing operation are highly indebted. Private moneylenders including fish traders give credit at exorbitant interest rates because of which the fishermen families get into severe debt trap.

 

Environment Context

The Gulf of Mannar is the first marine Biosphere Reserve not only in India, but also in South and Southeast Asia. The Reserve was one of six areas chosen on the basis of its threatened status and richness of biological wealth for inclusion into an action program to save India's protected areas for future generations ("Protecting India's Endangered National Parks," Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, 1995). Designated a National Biosphere Reserve, the Gulf of Mannar and it's 3,600 species of plants and animals is one of the biologically richest coastal regions in India. The Gulf falls within what is the Indo-Pacific realm of the world's richest region from a marine biodiversity perspective 

Sea grass, Dugongs, Sea Turtles, Coral and Mangroves : Supporting the Gulf's extensive biodiversity is its extensive and diverse assemblage of sea grass. Six of the world's twelve sea grass genera and eleven of the world's fifty species occur in the Gulf. The Gulf harbours the highest concentration of sea grass species along India's 7,500 km of coastline. These sea grass beds are some of the largest remaining feeding grounds for the globally endangered dugongs.  The sea grass beds also provide feeding area for all five species of marine turtles - the Green (Chelonia hyeas), the Loggerhead (Caretta caretta), Olive Ridleys (Lepidochelys olivacea), Hawksbills and Leather backs (Dermochelys coriacea). Many species of crustaceans, mollusks, gastropods and fishes have been observed to inhabit the sea grass beds.

 

The Gulf of Mannar harbours a total of 117 species of coral belonging to 7 genera. Coral reefs serve as the spawning grounds for fisheries, sea grass beds as nursery grounds and mangroves as shelters form a unique component of life-support systems of coastal biodiversity that relates to global benefits and local needs. Seventeen different mangrove species occur within the Biosphere reserve area. The coastal mangrove Pemphis acidula, is endemic to Gulf of Mannar. Coastal mangroves are important nursery habitats and biodiversity reservoirs in coastal areas.
 

DHAN’s Intervention

 

Institution building Activities
 

a)  Promotion of savings and credit institutions and conservation councils by organizing the unorganized poor families in the project area forms the main component of the project. Savings and credit institutions are promoted following DHAN’s model of Kalanjiam Community banking programme. About 1101 Kalnjiam groups have been formed in the project area and training events for entrepreneurship was organised for the groups.

b)   Awareness building about conservation: Identifying the key issues in the coastal ecosystem and marine conservation and educating the public and different stake holders on the issue emanating from habitat destruction, over exploitation, resource declination and the importance of conserving the marine resources through series of awareness programmes of different kind was envisaged.

c)  Linkage with Banks and Panchayat institutions: For the purpose of strengthening the management of financial services and for building the capacity of people in planning, organizing , conflict resolution and implementation of various development programmes, linkage building with banks and Panchayat institutions is encouraged.

d)   Agriculture Development through reviving and developing Tank as a source of irrigation : As failure of monsoon and ground water salinity leading to agriculture failure, rural people are slowly moving to coastal belt to take up fishing and salt making activity. It becomes necessary to undertake activities for agriculture development to stop this migration. The activities suggested include Tank Rehabilitation, Oorani Development, supply channels development and reviving the tank management. Also, the watershed development works includes Farm ponds, improved crop and water management practices, Training and Demonstrations on improved agricultural practices.

Kalanjiam Activities : As part of credit services products in the self-help groups, the members are motivated to  go  for investment credit rather than for consumption purpose. The credit provided is mainly for fishing, fish vending, processing, agriculture, goat rearing, charcoal making and other land based activities. Most of the credit support was extended to promote individual based production rather then any group activity.

Importance of attending Grama Sabha meeting and the roles and functions of Grama Sabha was taught to Group members in their group meetings. Most of the Groups and the cluster leaders made it a mandatory to make their presence and actively participate in the Grama Sabha meetings. During the project period, efforts were also taken to link the Kalanjiam groups with the SGSY programme for revolving fund assistance and also for economic assistance. Around 24.42 lakhs has been mobilized by 31 SHGs under SGSY linkages.

 The status of Kalanjiam groups in Gulf region during pre project period is 271 groups in 4 blocks namely Mandapam, Thirupullani, Ramnad and Kadaladi. At the end of project period that is by Dec’2003, the total number of groups formed remains 1011 groups in 448 villages covering all the 6 blocks of Gulf of Mannar. Systematic procedures were followed in the identification of poor  by PRA techniques such as social mapping and wealth ranking formation of groups. The quality of groups in the project area is ensured by certifying the groups with poor only through quality check process. All books of accounts upto date and byelaws of groups are in place for all the groups promoted under the project. The strategies adopted for reaching out to poor in the project area is by involving direct action from the people functionaries and people leaders and also through Kalanjia murasu (concept of a group promoting another group) at a particular point of time involving cultural troupe.

Organising Clusters and Federations : Each of the group promoted in the Gulf region that are geographically close and homogenous in socio-economic status are grouped and promoted as Cluster Development Association (CDA). Like this, there are 62 CDAs functioning in the project area and each has got exclusive office hired for rent, with at least one local people functionary responsible for implementing the project. Out of the 62 clusters in the Gulf region, around 52 clusters are presently self sustaining ie., all its training, voluntary allowance; TA and administrative expenses are met by the cluster itself. Totally 20.80 lakhs per annum is met by these 52 clusters.

Savings and Linkages
The total savings mobilized as on Dec’2003 amounts to Rs.366.04 lakhs. The contributions of primary savings range across the ages of the groups starting from Rs.25 per month to Rs.125/month in older groups. The Women self help groups federation in the project area has maintained a good relationship with the mainstream financial institutions for the purpose of linking the groups with the bank for mobilizing credit under SHG - Bank linkage programme. The groups were linked with 18 bank branches in 3 Banks and have mobilized Rs. 464.52 lakhs. During the project period, considerable efforts were taken to mobilize bank loan from apex banks like HUDCO, HDFC and PGB for various purpose like micro finance and housing. Totally 53.50 lakhs have been mobilized from apex institution

Revolving fund assistance
In order to strengthen the internal lending at group level, 500 groups were provided with the revolving fund assistance of Rs.10, 000 per group as seed capital. About Rs. 50 lakhs is provided to groups promoted under Gulf of Mannar project. Utilization pattern of the revolving fund shows about 1543 members have utilized the fund totally. Of which, the highest percentage with respect to no. of credit and volume of credit utilized is for Debt redemption followed by Income generation activities. The third highest utilization is for creation of assets such as housing, purchase of land and others.

Total credit mobilization- Internal & External
At the end of the project period, the total external credit mobilized remains Rs.687.75 lakhs. With this, the external fund mobilized during the project period amounts to Rs.631.07 lakhs. Apart from external institution linkages, the groups also mobilized loan from the CDA and also from the total savings. Through CDA’s the groups have mobilized loan to the worth of Rs.485.45 lakhs. The total savings worth of Rs.366.04 lakhs by the group members contribute to internal loan mobilization. Totally, Rs.15.39 cores of money have been transacted among 17334 families during this project period.

Total credit utilization pattern

On analyzing the total credit utilization pattern, it was observed that 39% of credit utilization is on debt redemption. As the traders and money lenders exploits the fishermen families by having voice on control over the fixing of price for the catch and also owing to the fact that all are indebted, the major volume of credit has been utilized for redeeming debt. This empowers the fisher folk to sell their catch as per the market rate.

17% of total credit is on consumption as almost all the members belong to very poor families such as daily labors and wage workers the consumption credit is mush useful. 8% of total credit for Housing. As per the secondary data, it is observed that the housing in fishermen villages is very poor, the demand for new house construction and up gradation of houses required credit support.

Insurance Programme for Health
As expenditure on Health issues becomes unavoidable for the poor members and their affordability is also a major problem leading the members to fall into debt trap, the women federation in Mandapam block were sensitive enough to introduce Health Insurance programme in collaboration with New India Assurance Company. The total premium is Rs.50/annum /member. Which will cover the risk of health expenditures for the entire family upto Rs.5000. Around 750 to 1200 members have been included under Health Insurance programme every year during the past three years. Total no. of claims received is for 43 women families to the worth of Rs. 1.42 lakhs.

Life Insurance

 Social security for the poor households is much more relevant and important as they are the one most vulnerable for risk. Introducing the concept of social security among the communities and convincing them to include under various life Insurance programme of LIC and New India Assurance had been a challenging task for the People Institutions in the Gulf area. Moreover, the safety of the fishermen at sea is uncertain, it becomes very essential to secure the family. Series of events such as Training, Exposure visits and Awareness creation were organized in the Gulf of Mannar area. So far, the project was successful in covering the life of 5903 under Jana Sri Bima Yojana (JSBY) of LIC and Rajarajeswari Thittam of New India Assurance. Total no. Of claims received so far accounts to 76 families to the worth of 5.1 lakhs.

Community based resource management system - Village marine Councils

Series of Dialogue, interactions with the fisher folk communities like artisinal and mechanized trawlers, fishermen of different Communities like Paravar, Vallayar and Muslim, fishermen of native origin and migrants, fishermen belonging to different Co-operative societies took place continuously during the project period. In the midst of such diversity existing in the core zone area of Gulf of Mannar, mobilizing the fishermen community for the core purpose of marine conservation throw lot of challenges and requires long years of working. Lot of deliberation took place among the project staff on the purpose, structure, and membership and expected activities of village conservation councils. All sort of base work for the formation of VMCC was undertaken with the formation of marine conservation cum savings group among the fishermen Community. Savings and credit activities similar to women self help groups have been initiated. So far, 23 such marine conservation groups have been promoted in the project area. These groups will later be part of the village marine councils and they will act as conservation groups locally.

Awareness on marine conservation  through cultural programme
A cultural team consisting of 8 artists were involved in mobilizing the women members under Kalanjiam during the initial years of project inception. This team performs cultural programme at village level as well as in the mass gathering in Mahasaba meetings. The message of marine conservation is disseminated through songs, drama and street play. Kalanjiam Newsletter, is circulated among Kalanjiam members is another tool opted for disseminating Gulf of Mannar related messages in a lucid manner. As reading Newsletter during the Group meetings is mandatory, the articles published in the magazine reaches all the 17339 members to their fore.

Vayalagam Acticities - Mobilizing unorganized farmers around tanks

The tanks acts as a unit of organizing the unorganized rural folk. The tank ensures water for domestic use besides agriculture. It is necessary to form an association around the village tanks to secure their life. 72 TFAs (Tank Farmers Association) were formed during the reporting period. In addition, the Micro Finance Groups (MFGs) are formed to strengthen the TFAs.

Involving Panchayat institutions in TFA activities

Panchayat Presidents, Councilors and Panchayat members in a Panchayat Institution were involved in TFA activities. They have taken important role like encroachment eviction, contribution mobilization, work supervision and conflict resolution in tank works. Among 19 Panchayat Institution, 14 Panchayat presidents were nominated as office bearers of the TFAs to create ownership.

Women participation in TFA Activities

The TFA follows dual membership system, which encourages the women members to participate in TFA, and MFG meetings. The process on involving women in the governance part of TFAs is being experimented in some of the TFAs; women members have taken the role of EC member or office bearer.

Conservation and development of Tanks through district federation

Tank fed agriculture development programme in Ramanathapuram district was launched during 1993-94 with a short-term objective of People participatory tank rehabilitation, medium term objective of stabilized tank fed agriculture and long term objective of regeneration of farmers’ management in tank irrigation systems. The programme gained immense experience and insights over years, accordingly the programme concept and growth has been enriched. To promote the awareness and joint action among the TFAs (Tank Farmer Associations) the Ramanathapuram District Tank Farmers Federation was formed in January 1996 and registered under Tamilnadu Societies registration act.

Desilting tank bed and Strengthening of tank bund

Bund strengthening works were undertaken wherever the bunds with severe breaches, and covered by dense vegetation. The tank bund is protected from breaching by putting the desilted earth on the bund. Nearly 17864M length of bund was strengthened in 22 tanks. On the other hand, 77289 cum. of volume of earth was desilted to deepen the tank. Nearly, 47.22% of total sanctioned budget has been spent towards the component. The people contribution was mobilised through works such as vegetation clearance, sectioning the tank bund etc.,      
                                                       

Clearing supply channel
Supply channels are the life line of tank that ensure water supply to the tank. At present, the channels are defunct due to severe weed infestation, encroachment by adjacent landholders, and lack of water flow due to heavy siltation. Clearing works such as removing the weed, deepening the channels to facilitate the water flow and encroachment eviction to demarcate the exact boundaries were undertaken.
 

Construction works 
 

Sluice construction works were undertaken for effective utilisation of water for agriculture. Similarly, the check dam works were taken up to arrest wastage of water to sea and to hold more water sufficient for paddy cultivation. An amount of Rs. 1,94,988/- was spent towards the works in 2 tanks.                     

 

D) Fish pond 
 

Fishpond works were undertaken in 6 tanks for Rs. 2,11,178/-. The objective of the activity is to hold more water for initiating pisciculture activities, so that the TFA could generate fund for further tank maintenance. The dead storage structures and fish ponds constructed in Kavakulam, Kidakulam and Melakidaram tanks have created a commendable contribution for the rural community. Though the rainfall was very minimum, the water stored in storage structures harvested out of a single rainy day helped the people to survive for an year. A population of 5000 covering 8 villages were satisfied with available water. The water requirement for domestic and livestock purposes have been met. According to the villages but for the intervention they would have got migrated to other districts. Though the investment is less (Rs. 8.0 lakhs for 20 units), the structures have secured the life of the rural poor to a greater extent.

 

Employment Generation through tank renovation

From the said tank renovation works around 3545.5 man-days of employment was generated to the tune of. Towards this employment generation Rs.2.90 lakhs were spent for labours. This employment generation was utilised by the respective village labours.

 

Training and Demonstration in Agricultural practices Exposure visits  
 

Exposure visits have been arranged to ARS (Agricultural Research Stations) Paramakudi to learn the new technologies in dry land farming. Besides this, they have participated in training organised by the ARS – Paramakudi on identifying suitable paddy varieties for drought prone areas. Also a training was organised on optimum utilisation of chemical fertilizer for Paddy and groundnut crops.

 

Training on Package of Practices on Chillies 

 

Training on agricultural package of practices for chilli crop was given to the chilli-growing farmers through DHAN – Business Development Services by district federation at M. Saveriar Pattinam of Kadaladi Block during agricultural season at regular intervals of 15 days. The training on low cost technologies to cultivate the chillies were also given.

 

Application of Bio Fungicide in Chillies 
 

Chilli is the major crop in Kadaladi block. The fungal disease mostly affect the chillies. The application of chemical fungicides is not showing desired results. DHAN – Business Development Services (DHAN – BDS) identified new bio fungicide namely ‘SAMRAKSHA’.  The application was demonstrated at M. Savariar pattinam in Kadaladi block in 15 acres of chillies from nursery to harvest. This has resulted in the yield increase upto 30%.

 

Gypsum Application for saline soil reclamation 
 

Due to saline water irrigation through well, the land is highly accumulated with salts. For soil reclamation, gypsum was recommended to the farmers and it was demonstrated in 50 acres of field in M. Saveriar Samudram and M. Saveriar Pattinam with good results.

 

Fertilizer market survey  
 

The chemical fertilisers are purchased by the farming community from nearest urban centres, village level merchants, and primary agricultural credit co-operative societies. During the monsoon periods they have more grip and influence on price. A study has been organised spot lighting existing markets mechanism, people perception as regards present market structure, quantity requirement etc. The objectives of the survey are,

 

    To study the nature and limitations of existing market mechanism in the district.

·         To estimate demand for fertiliser among farmers among TFAs.

·         To suggest alternate market mechanism to our TFA

Based on the outcome, a comprehensive market mechanism was suggested involving TFA and federation to benefit the poor farmers of the area.

During peak season, crop loan facilities were arranged to the farmers through micro finance groups with low interest rate. An amount of Rs. 9,60,000/- has been distributed to the farmers for Paddy and Groundnut crop.

 

Supply of Inputs

The district federation has involved in bulk procurement of fertilizer and seed from Primary Producers and supply to the TFAs. In Kavakulam TFA has supplied with 250 bags of Urea to the tune of Rs. 60,000/-. Similarly, the Melakidaram TFA has supplied with 2360 Kgs of groundnut seed. Through this action the farmers could save Rs. 10,000/-. During peak season, crop loan facilities were arranged to the farmers through micro finance groups with low interest rate. An amount of Rs. 9,60,000/- has been distributed to the farmers for Paddy and Groundnut crop.

Primary Producer Group Promotion among Chilli Farmers
 

In order to market the Aflotoxin free Chillies by tank farmers, A Primary Producer Group was promoted by district federation with 30 Chilli growing farmers from different villages of Kadaladi block and Mudukulathur block as demonstration. The PPG will be registered under Companies Act. The activities done by PPG are as follows,

 

.   DHAN’s intervention in the GoM region has created a significant impact among the villagers of the project area through people participation, planning and implementation. The impact of the existing structures has created a demand driven approach, by which the rest of the villagers were willing to take up tank conservation works in their areas.

The experiences and the lessons learnt through this project would be a value addition in DHANs’ capability for attacking poverty in the tsunami affected coastal areas in Tamilnadu.