Kanjar Care: November 2010

Saturday, November 13, 2010

First Year Lesson

In the year that has gone by (till Nov 2010), diversity of activities were conducted to not only understand the socio-cultural profile of kanjar but to test the impact of the interventions on the life and livelihoods of the stigmatized community in Jhalawar. The activities could be grouped under the following:

Social - group formation, constituting dera committee, children education

Technical - provision of drinking water, well deepening, goatry development, distribution of quality seeds and provision of fish nets

Capacity Building - exposure visits, skill training (electrical, mechanical and carpentary training and a stitching centre.

Needless to say, all the activities listed above could tinker the livelihoods of the kanjar at the periphery without making significant impact on uplifting their social status. However, it has helped build a positive rapport with the marginalised community that can help move to the next stage of engagement with them. The essential lessons emerging from the yearlong engagement have been:

1. The need for a programmatic approach to kanjar livelihoods improvement through convergence of existing welfare programs/schemes into a `Kanjar Development Fund' at the State and at the District level.

2. Need to sensitize the police force and the district administrative machinery to show greater empathy towards the tribe. Sustained interaction with the community is critical for building confidence towards the law enforcement agencies.

3. Review of the Habitual Offenders Act and its implications. A policy dialogue on the subject for amending the act, that may have outlived its relevance, can play an important role in mainstreaming the community.

With the Government of Rajasthan having shown sustained interest and commitment towards the initiative, a second phase of the Kanjar Livelihood Improvement Project is being designed to address the essential lessons of the pilot initiative. The Rajasthan Mission on Skill and Livelihoods (RMoL) has been supportive towards developing a long-term proposal (beginning Jan 2011) for Kanjar Upliftment.

Innovative Initiative: To match a `thief'

WWF and the Madhya Pradesh forest department have embarked on a unique initiative to gentrify the `criminal' Pardhi tribe and stop large-scale tiger poaching. The project has two linked objectives - one, persuading the adults to change their ways and two, giving the community's children a shot at education and a subsequent normal life. Called `residential bridge course', the Pardhi children spend none months away from their families in such `borading schools' before crossing over to conventional schools. By now, nearly 250 children have gone through the bridge course in the last three years.

"Dissuading children who accompany their parents on dangerous hunts for wild boars, leopards and tigers haven't been easy,'' says S S Rajput, Chief Conservator of Forests, Bhopal. The challenge is to show Pardhi tribe that it is profitable to protect wildlife than poach it. The need is to co-opt them in the Indian state rather than fight them. . . .more

The Initiative

Started in Nov 2009, rehabilitating the Kanjar in Jhalawar district of Rajasthan is a joint initiative of IFFDC (http://www.iffdc.org.in) and Rajasthan Mission on Skills & Livelihoods (www.rajasthanlivelihoods.org) with support from UNDP. The project aims to not only develop a comprehensive understanding of the tribe's past but relate to it in devising inclusive livelihoods options for the stigmatised community. The specific objectives of the initiative are:

1. to sensitize and mobilize Kanjar families towards improvement in their living standards.

2. to strengthen the linkages of community groups with other agencies to improve their access to productive resources in Jhalarapatan and Gangdhar blocks of Jhalawar district.

3. to respond to contemporary poverty related issues, including health and primary education, of women and children.

4. to enhance state-civil society-community partnership towards policy advocacy.

Plotting Kundli as an idea to understand social dynamics

Kanjar offer a formidable challenge in ameliorating their plight. There are wide array of inter-related issues that impact their lives - from cultural isolation to social stigma, from resource poverty to low incomes and from official apathy to economic exclusion. Understanding inter-relationships between issues and the manner in which these influence an `intervention' is critical to designing livelihoods programs for them. `Kundli chart' as a `concept' is being piloted to understand how each of the variables impact the outcome and to get a sense of the combination of factors that need to be tweaked to create a tangible impact.

The `co-production' idea

Speaking of the Bhils, the Pindaris and the Thugs, Gandhiji had said: `...all are our own countrymen. To win them over is your and my work. So long as we fear our own brethern, we are unfit to reach the goal.'

In response to Gandhiji's remark, the idea of Co-production is being mooted to bring Kanjar into the mainstream. Co-production is a concept that gives responsibility to people who are regarded as `the problem', and makes them feel useful when they had been condemned as useless - and by so doing transforms their lives. It is not same as `participation' because co-production means `reciprocity'. The point is that practically everybody does have something to give and both they, and the community around them, are better for the giving.