Rajiv Gandhi Foundation: Focus on institutional capacity building to boost rural economy

Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) has taken up astate. Many of the interior villages lack basic
number of initiatives to strengthen the villagefundamentals services like education and health. Due
institutions and thus, enhancing their capacities forto the lack of resources and scattered nature of
inclusive development in the respective regions.habitations the government service delivery is not
Institutional Capacity Buildingfunctioning in a proper way. Looking into the dire
Facilitating village institutions and developing theirneed RGF started health and education interventions
capacities on various aspects is the keyin the selected villages.
implementation strategy. Capacity building is done atHelp Line
two levels, first to develop the institutional base ofOne of the major problems faced by the community
the community in each village institutions in the formresiding in the Dang area is lack of proper health
of Jal Samittee and Jal Sabha are developed andfacility. The habitation here is scattered in small
they are capacitated to take appropriate measureshamlets and the terrain is very difficult, because of
for efficient use of their natural resources andthese reasons institutionalization of any services is
develop democratic values at the community level.very difficult. The local community was suffering a lot
Secondly, technical capacities are developed in termsespecially in case of pregnancy. Due to lack of any
of improved agriculture, efficient water and resourcehealth facility in the nearby area the mother have to
utilization and participatory management.be carried long distances on cots by their men folk.
Livestock DevelopmentMany of the mothers died because of untimely
In order to assess the current status of livestocktreatment and lack of proper care. Looking into the
and scope of potential development in the projectmagnitude of the problem RGF started a helpline
area, BAIF was commissioned to undertake a study.centre in our Chobeki Milan Kendra. One phone has
The study focused on improving basic veterinarybeen installed in the centre and number is given in all
services, augmenting the productivity of thetargeted villages. All pregnant women from  project
livestock, improving the livestock holding pattern andvillages were registered in field office.
working on the fodder demand and supply gap.Watershed Development
RGF started working on breed improvement throughRGF has initiated one mini watershed of 600 hectare
artificial insemination. In collaboration with BAIF fivein Rahir village of Karoli district. A topographical survey
sub centres are established, which are working onof the entire area has been conducted, based on the
artificial insemination of cow and buffalo in the area.finding of the survey RGF is in the process of
These centres are catering to our project areas andconducting extensive participatory planning. The
villages coming in the vicinity of 20 km around themajor focus would be on drainage line treatment, in
project villages.situ soil conservation, livestock development,
Integrated Development Programmeproductivity enhancement, efficient water usage and
Dang area of Karoli district is categorized as mostother capacity building aspects.
deprived and resource poor area of the Rajasthan