Rural
development is the key to overall development of the country.
What
does Rural Development actually mean? Many meanings are given to this
term and are all correct to a certain extent. The most suitable guide
for our action seems to be the notion of Human Development brought out
by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) through its yearly
Human Development Reports.
State
Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) has been an integral part of
YASHADA since its inception. It tries to focus on the man / women and
especially the child. It believes that development lies in development
of human folk.
SIRD
has been undertaking training, research and consultancy assignments in
Rural Development Sector and Panchayati Raj Systems. The training
programmes are intended to create knowledge base, develop skills and
understanding of various dimensions of rural transformation.
The
vision of the Institute is to ensure human development in rural areas.
Main
Themes for Training
-
Education
and Rural Development
-
Nutrition,
Health and Rural Development
-
Information
and Communication in Rural Development
-
Community
Participation, Micro Planning for Rural Development
-
Integrated
Watershed Development and Rain Water Harvesting
-
Entrepreneurship
and Marketing in Rural Areas
-
Social
Mobilisation and Social Audit
-
Empowerment
of Women
-
Sustainable
Socio-economic Development
Mission
Mission
is to facilitate human development in rural areas through continuous
interventions by way of training, research and consultancy.
Mandate
-
Conducting
and organising training programmes, workshops, conferences, etc.
for middle and senior level development functionaries.
-
To
lay more emphasis on capacity building of elected representatives
of all the three tiers of Panchayati Raj Institutions through
direct and indirect training related interventions.
-
Providing
the academic input through training,
research, consultancy, preparation of syllabus and modules.
-
To
analyse and suggest solutions to problems encountered in planning
and implementation of the programme for rural development, people
centered development and governance, Panchayat Raj and related
issues.
-
To
disseminate information through journals, reports and other
publications in the furtherance of basic objectives of the SIRD.
-
To
provide services to:
a)
Different departments of State Government
b)
Some Non-Government Organisations
c)
International Agencies like UNDP, UNICEF, etc. while conceiving
some rural development project.
Achievements
and Milestones
-
During
the last 5 years around 300 training programmes on Rural
Development have been conducted in which around 6,000 officials
and non-officials were trained.
-
Action
Research project funded by NIRD, Hyderabad at Wadeshwar was
successfully completed during the period 1998 to 2003. While
implementing this project got active participation of people
especially women, and Social Mobilization Process developed which
will help in the development of village.
-
Consultancy
provided by SIRD to Second State Finance Commission through active
involvement of one of its Faculty members.
-
Bagged
consultancy from UNDP in the preparation of project on capacity
building of Panchayati Raj Institutions which was also adopted by other Regional Resource Centres in the
Country.
-
For
the first time, SIRD, YASHADA had been instrumental in preparation
of the comprehensive State Action Plan for the training of more
than 2.5 lakh PRI Functionaries for their capacity building as a
part of National Action Plan as conceived by MoRD, GoI/ NIRD,
Hyderabad.
-
Unique
distinction of producing syllabus for various trainees conducted
in 9 GTCs, 11 PRTCs & 1 CTC for grassroots level functionaries
covering induction courses, foundation courses, workshops,
seminars, specific training programmes on gender issues. Under
UNDP funded "Capacity Building of Panchayati Raj
Institutions" Project.
-
Workforce
of 70 trainers belonging to Maharashtra, Gujarat & Goa States
developed.
-
Training
material on important themes like Development; Equity, Social
Justice & Gender Issues; Social Mobilization;
Entrepreneurship, Marketing & Employment;
Decentralization; Functioning of PRIs; Information, Communication
& Technology; And Social Audit. Training Modules on above
themes are being developed.
Social Audit. Training Modules on above themes are being
developed.
-
Decentralized
Planning Laboratory through Social Mobilization Process developed
at Wai Block in Satara Dist. with the help of more than 150
Self-Help Groups.
-
Tie-up
with Yeshawantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, Nashik for
the dissemination of distant learning package on above themes by
starting Diploma and Certificate Courses.
They
possess vast experience of working in field along the length and
breadth of Maharashtra and have been associated with many rural
development programmes directly or through training and research
activities. They all are dedicated to cause of bringing about social
change through motivation, awareness building and attitudinal changes
in the mindset of both official and non-officials associated with the
working of Panchayat Raj Institutions in the State of Maharashtra.
Research
The
faculty members of SIRD have also taken up few research projects
either independently or as a team. Besides some case studies on
various programmes of Rural Development Dept. of Govt. of
Maharashtra have also been taken up this year which will be documented
and later disseminated through training at YASHADA.
Networking
with other organisations
·
District/Taluka level Institutes/Centres
like 9 GTCs, 11 PTRCs, &1 CTC in vogue.
·
Regional Training Institutes at
Amaravati and Paithan (Dist.Aurangabad)
·
SIRD, Goa & Gujarat as a part of
RRC,
YASHADA.
·
SIRDs, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal,
Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh (Under UNDP-PRI
Project)
Publications
Some
prominent publications are
-
Micro-Watershed
Development Three Success Stories from Maharashtra. Ramesh
M Vaswani
-
Training
Module on Women and Panchayati Raj - Ravindra
Chavan
-
Syllabus
for Gram Sevak Training Centres, Panchayati Raj Training Centres
& Composite TrainingCentre (Marathi) - Ravindra
Cbavan
-
Ata
Bhakari Kaun Karnar (Marathi) - Ravindra
Cha van
-
Maharashtratil
Panchayati Raj (Volumes I and II) (Marathi) -Ravindra
Chavan
-
Panchayati
Raj Vyavastha: Navi Bhumika - Vikas
Kharge