Project name:

Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture Empowering ‘Primitive’ Tribal Groups (PTGs): Community Specific Initiatives in Andhra Pradesh’

Project Title:

Tribal Educational Rural Development Society (TERDS)

Project field area:

Number and name of the villages, block, district etc.

Partners and their address:

Organization	Total Villages	District	Beneficiaries
8 NGO members organizations of PTG	94 PTG Villages/ habitations in 6 districts	Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam, Vijayanagaram East Godawari, Adilabad & Mahabubnagar	8 Primitive tribal communities: Kondh, Porja, Gadaba, Savara, Chenchu, Thoti, Kondaraddi

Total project period and starting date:

April 2008 to March 2013

Total approved budget for the period:

Rs. 46,96,815/-

Project Objective / overall Goal and Expected Results

Overall goal:Empowering ‘Primitive’ Tribal Groups (PTGs) in Telangana

Objective

To organize and further strengthen the civil society network constituting the PTG headed NGOs

To organize and empower PTG communities at village level by providing awareness to the primary stakeholders

To organize and empower PTG communities at village level by providing awareness to the primary stakeholders and enhancement of their livelihood

Result 1:

PTG communities will be given awareness on various government welfares schemes, land, PESA act, education, health etc.

Result 2:

Forming village development committees in PTG working villages, SHG groups are strengthened and facilitated with banks loans for livelihoods

Result 3:

Enhancement of livelihood opportunities by monitoring the better implementation of NREGS in PTG areas

Major achievements till date

Organized 160 village development committee meetings in 80 PTG villages to strengthen 2697 members from 80 Self Help Groups activities. Awareness created on Government program such as Health, Education and MGNREGS implementation

Rs 36 Lakhs of loan sanctioned to 33 women Self help groups of PTG communities.

Partners of PTG Network conducted 16 awareness campaigns on safe drinking water in 8 PTG communities. Provided awareness on water borne diseases and method to prevent those diseases. Partners provided inputs to improve sanitation condition in their places. 702 members were benefitted with this campaign

To provide awareness to staff, board members and selected community members on horticulture and agriculture activities in PTG areas. An exposure visit was organized to Orissa BADI, (Dullal organization at Baripada Orisa).

PTG network focuses on dropouts’ children, motivated the parents in identifying the school dropouts and gave counseling to them, then joined them in to schools. Total 54 school dropouts were rehabilitated in to schools among them 38 are boys and 16 girls.

PTG network has created awareness on tribal rights such as FRA,1/70 Act and Tribal sub plan. Organized 8 Mandal / ITDA level campaigns. 1110 members attended these meetings

289 families have filed petitions for claiming about 14,582 acres land under Forest Right Act. 120 community claims are filed for 327 acers of land under Forest Right Act. 177 families got land entitlements for 1,978 acres of forest land. 8 LTR cases were filed under 1/70 Act. These cases are for occupying Tribal land of 42 Acres. 132 families got land entitlement for 432 acres ROFRO land

Concerned staff member:

Joseph Christopher, Program Officer, TRC – CWS

Significant learning till date

Network partners are organizing communities, access government officials and attend mandal, district and state level meetings organized by the Department of Rural Development, Government of Telangana every month and raise issues concerning implementation of NREGS

The partners are able to identify and address the issues related to PTG community. 70% of PTGs in 80 villages are able to access health and government facilities. Partners are also working for the better implementation of the NREGS, so that there is a decrease in migration. Awareness levels have increased regarding the rights and entitlement of PTGs. Claims and lTR cases have increased. Village Development Committees (VDC) and Village Educational Committees (VEC) are functioning properly and community and members of VDC and VEC are able to identify the issues related to village development and education. The utilization of Government program and facilities was increased.