PACS programme focuses on strengthening Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to evoke civil society action in the poorest areas spread across six states in India. The rights-based approach of PACS has been a catalytic strategy to evoke CSO response in these poorer districts. The various processes have witnessed active partnerships developed at many levels: villages, blocks, districts, states and the nation. The partnership processes have ensured that hitherto excluded and marginalized people from isolated areas are included wherein they take part actively and, in most cases, lead the processes.

PACS programme covers almost all districts of Bihar and Jharkhand (except 3 in Bihar and 2 in Jharkhand). Currently, the PACS programme has reached out to 94 districts (87%) of the identified 108 districts. These districts were identified by the Planning Commission of India against a set of key development indices, and deemed to be the most economically backward. The growth of the CSO projects has been gradual and steady. When the project began in 2001-02, the number of projects was 16. By 2007, the total figure was 185. PACS has sanctioned 178 projects (82 network, 85 individual and 11 multi-state projects, which is also a network) till date. Of these, 42 projects have been closed while 36 projects have received extensions. At present, 172 projects are in various stages of progress, wherein 585 CSOs are involved.

The capacity building initiatives are being carried out at the project level, programme level and at the central level, which cover a wide variety of issues, viz., the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) week, workshops and seminars on RTI (Right to Information), gender, training for resource mobilization, etc. In a programme like PACS, where the focus is on capacity building (CB) as against service delivery, the quality issues in capacity building were carried forward. The gaps in capacity building initiatives are discussed at the Programme Support Teams (PSTs) and, accordingly, the revisions in capacity buildings are made. More specifically:

The total number of poorest districts in the six constitutes nearly half of the poorest states (47% - 108 out of 229). In the districts reached, PACS is reaching out to 24% of the total blocks (201 out of 841 blocks), 38% of the total villages (54,176 of 143,183) and the real reach in terms of total coverage is 15% (2940 of 19,467) villages. The programme has also reached out to the vulnerable and marginalized sections of people belonging to urban slums: about 131 slums and 10 municipal corporations. Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have the maximum urban outreach.

The state-wise PACS programme coverage has been intense, from 100% to 65%. In Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh and UP, 100% of their identified poorest districts have been covered. Bihar and Madhya Pradesh has been covered 65% and 80% respectively. Bihar has the maximum number of districts identified as the poorest (34 out of 38).

PACS Programme is mostly known as the programme for the poor, marginalized and socially excluded people. This has been achieved by reaching out to the remote areas and as well as nurturing the growth of various CBOs and grassroots organizations and make them the voice of the poor and the excluded. PACS programme reaches out to 83% of the socially excluded and poor people. Out of this figure, 60% of the programme beneficiaries belong to scheduled castes and tribes. Seventeen per cent of the general population are economically vulnerable. In Bihar, more than 78% of the project beneficiaries are from socially excluded and economically poor sections; out of this, over 40% belong to scheduled castes and tribes. In Jharkhand, more than 87% of the project beneficiaries are from socially and economically vulnerable sections.

The PACS programme has reached out to over 9 million households and approximately over 45 million population1 spread across six programme states. More than 83% of the populations reached are from scheduled castes (38%), scheduled tribes (21%), other backward castes (23%) and 17% from the general class which are economically vulnerable and marginalized.

A large number of community based organizations evolved during the PACS programme implementation across the states. Collectivization of people to secure their basic rights and entitlements became the key operational strategy of the projects. In the process, so far, more than 40,000 CBOs have emerged. Broadly, the CBOs can be divided as Self Help Groups (mostly women) and issue-based groups aimed at achieving social status and rights. Over 13,000 CBOs have been formed to address special needs or specific purposes.

The functions and character of SHGs formed under the PACS programme distinctly differ from the functions of other SHGs. This is mainly due to the training and capacity building of these groups on rights-based approaches to development and the need to transform these groups into vibrant social change-making institutions of people. Secondly, major networks (issue- based) have also realized the need for forming SHGs to initiate sustainable development efforts, including entitlement realization. For instance, the SHGs formed by Ekta Parishad in Bihar reiterates the need for building active “peoples collectives” and SHGs becoming one of the most interactive institutions of people. A notable feature is that the SHGs formed within the last 3 to 4 years have become fully “rights based” in their approach to securing rights and entitlements.

Women’s empowerment has been a major thrust area in PACS programme, as it is generally known that in the poorest areas, it is the women who suffer more and face greater discrimination and stress. Social inequalities - gender discrimination being a major issue - are a known obstacle to welfare and development of the marginalized sections of people.

Vulnerability of women, especially/even among the disadvantaged and marginalized communities, has always been an important hindering factor in reducing poverty or overcoming marginalization. Women’s empowerment was the central theme in a majority of the projects, and most other projects addressed this aspect in some way or the other. Various approaches were used by the CSOs towards different aspects of women’s empowerment in social, economic and political spheres.

PACS programme was built on the logic that realization of entitlements is an important milestone in the path of poverty reduction. The communities / poor people were able to seek and realize their entitlements internally (for example, women getting space within the family, or the marginalized getting space within the village activities) and externally (deprived families accessing the welfare and development schemes of the state, or the community getting development projects implemented as per their demands, in the village). The former would largely fall in the social and cultural change domain, whereas the latter would be the result of economic and political empowerment.
So far, more than 600,000 persons from approximately 330,000 families were able to access entitlements by way of securing benefits of schemes, pensions, housing assistance, educational scholarship, etc. If we look into the incremental benefit analysis, we can see that the entitlement benefits will amount to a monthly incremental addition of Rs. 270 plus on an average. This is one of the significant gains of entitlement realization. The absolute amount of value mobilized is higher in Jharkhand and the lowest is in Maharashtra and Bihar. Men are the highest number of beneficiaries of entitlements as they are mostly seen as the labour force of India. However, the situation is changing as it can be seen that the women have benefited more in Bihar.

The state-wise analysis shows that the monthly incremental benefit is high in Bihar with an average of Rs. 500 plus per month. More than 32,000 persons belonging to more than 24,000 families have benefited from the entitlement access. In Jharkhand, analyses show that the monthly incremental benefits received by each family is Rs. 140 plus. More than 320,880 persons belonging to more than 139,279 families have benefited from entitlement access. The absence of a local self-government in Jharkhand is a major hindrance in enhancing the entitlement rate. In Maharashtra, the analysis shows that the monthly incremental benefit received by each family is Rs. 250. Over 63,000 persons belonging to about 40,000 families benefited from the entitlement access. In MP and Chattisgarh the analysis shows that the monthly incremental benefit received by each family is more than Rs. 350. Approximately 49,000 persons belonging to more than 40,000 families benefited from the entitlement access. In Uttar Pradesh the analysis shows that the monthly incremental benefit is high but marginally lower with a average of more than Rs. 400 per month. Approximately, 130,000 persons belonging to more than 76,000 families have benefited from the entitlement access.

Results

The benefit of entitlement realization has just begun. The processes put in place by the programme through strengthening various types of CBOs would have the capacity and vision to access entitlements in the long run. The rights-based perspectives of the CBOs are vital in continuing the entitlement access efforts beyond any project.

What the programme shows is the empirical evidence of evolving a rights-based approach in a civil society strengthening programme for civil society action in the poorest areas.

The approach within a short span of time proved that collectivization of people and concurrent capacity building initiatives are critical for effectively implementing a rights-based programme for people in the poorest areas.

Rights and entitlement approach within a programme area through CSO partnership can evoke all-round developmental inputs, as has been demonstrated by the PACS programme. The developmental transformation is all round, viz., in the areas of education, health, income generation, social dignity, reducing domestic violence, etc.

Way Forward

The poorest areas need greater investment in evolving noticeable changes within a defined time period so that the changes can continue to yield positive results.

Building donor networks (area and issue specific) that cut across a region should be encouraged. This process is expected to result in evolving creative synergetic partnerships with various donors and CSOs and being able to reach out to the most marginalized. The initiated processes will enable the donors to act in a concerted manner and collectively address the basic issues.

Developing thematic expertise and resource agencies can offer the empowered poor the capacity to seek better livelihood and investment options. The poor need to be encouraged in building partnerships with private actors through active CSO partnerships that can offer direct returns to the poor, based on the local market dynamics and business partnerships.

Advocacy needs to be strengthened to develop partnership programmes with the government. Large-scale donors like DFID, USAID can facilitate the development of joint programmes, which is an alternative option to the state-based PSU programmes developed by bilateral agencies and state governments.

The large-scale programme needs to more clearly spell out the overall programme framework, dimension, and the scope and content so that the programme fits well within the goal statement, offering enough flexibility for the local situations to innovate as well as remain creative.

New approaches are being attempted (cluster hubs). Models/approaches designed should have demo-pilots for wider replication purposes. Projects working in close geographic proximity (clusters) have an opportunity to work together for collective strategy building, capacity building and implementation, advocacy and sharing of experiences.
Campaign-based approaches are successful in initiating local governance; however, these do not leave a lasting impression or bring about creative changes. The campaign activities should be followed up with action programmes to demonstrate the change in a visible manner. For instance, the PRI strengthening work done by PACS programme in Bihar should have demonstrated leadership building by adequately training the elected PRI representatives, demonstrating people’s planning processes and evolving blocks and district level plans, etc.

Taking the media as a close partner in rights-based advocacy and campaign work is extremely important.

Research leading to policy advocacy is an important issue that needs adequate attention. There is definitely positive movement in the ability of the poor to access their entitlements at the grassroots. However, issues related to attributability remain pertinent in the absence of scientific research running parallel to the implementation of various activities.

The National Fact Sheet on the next page is intended to provide the readers a glimpse of broad level quantitative results and facts.