CYSD is organizing a round table on “Democratizing the Urban Governance: a case of Bhubaneswar” on 23rd April, 2022 between 3.00 PM – 5.30 PM at CYSD premises, Bhubaneswar. The brief Consultation is intended to discuss on the role of citizens/ward committees in identifying the area-specific issues and how they connect with the BMC to address it.
Guest:
Miss.Sulochana Das, Mayor, BMC, Bhubaneswar
CYSD@40:Foundation Day message by Sj. Naveen Patnaik, Hon’ble Chief Minister, Odisha
CYSD@40:Foundation Day message by Dr. Rajeev Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI AAYOG
An one-year Fellowship initiative aims at providing multifaceted opportunities to nurture a new set of skills and perspectives that are critical in the development / social sector.
A tribal youth returnee migrant, Sushant Singh, who hails from Ankura village in Keonjhar district turned into a successful Mushroom Cultivator in his locality, does not wish go back to resume his job in an Organic Plastic Company based in Sahapur of Mumbai. His hard work, ability, innovation and experimentation pulls him to stay back in native place.
Ankura is a remote village in Patna block of Keonjhar district. Sushant is the second son of Mr. Paramananda Singh, a smallholder farmer of the village whose primary source of income is cultivation. Being a poor farmer, he was facing much difficulty to maintain his 8 membered family out of the income from agriculture. Sushanta could realize the financial need of his family and after completion of higher secondary education in 2004 he decided to find a job to reduce the financial pressure on his father. One fine day, without thinking for higher study, he left for Mumbai in search of a job. Fortunately, with the support of his friends, he was absorbed in an Organic Plastic Company over there with a meager remuneration of Rs. 1800/- per month. After two years he returned to his home and chose to join a Security Agency in Joda, an industrial town of Keonhjhar, but the job did not satisfy him. Again he made of his mind to rejoin the Mumbai based Organic Plastic factory and resumed work there.
But, he had to work for 12 hours per day to earn a salary of Rs. 9000/- per month. He tried to supplement the income of his family to the extent possible, but always feeling loneliness due to detachment from his family for long time. So he visited his home in March 2020, but could not go back Mumbai due to Covid pandemic lockdown and shutdown declared by the Government. But, Sushant never imagined that the Pandemic would bring a turning point in his life and livelihoods.
In the meantime, with the support of Give India, CYSD had initiated imparting reskilling training to selected returnee migrants on Agri allied sector including women members of SHGs is different rural-tribal districts of Odisha. While the members of Maa Tarini SHG of Ankura village were undergoing Mushroom Training at the Rural Livelihoods Training Centre (RLTC) of CYSD based in Saharapada block of Keonjhar, Sushant got to know about it from Ms. Malati Sethy, a member of the SHG. “Where there is a will there is a way”. Sushanta’s curiosity to know more about CYSD and on mushroom training could not break him to visit the RLTC. He witnessed the group undergoing the training and interacted with the CYSD programme team too. The programme activities, production process and the environment of RLTC attracted him very much. In December 2020, Sushanta joined a 7-day training course on Mushroom Cultivation at RLTC. He completed the training successfully with all sincerity demonstrating his capability for which he was appreciated by the Trainer.
As practice makes a man perfect, Sushant initiated mushroom cultivation at his backyard in a small way with 5 beds and the result was wonderful. Out of 5 beds he produced 5 kgs of Mushroom and earned RS. 1000/. This one thousand rupees motivated Sushant’s family for undertaking mushroom cultivation in large scale. Presently he is preparing 8 beds a day and getting 9 – 10 kgs of mushroom. This is how, he is earning around Rs. 1500/- per day excluding the material cost. During last 3 and half months he has been able to save Rs. 45000/- in the bank after meeting the family requirements. Now, he plans to develop a permanent shed for mushroom cultivation. Seeing is believing. Observing the success of Sushanta, 50 poor families from the Panchayat have initiated mushroom cultivation following his guidance. Ankura village and adjoining villages have become a “center of mushroom growers” now. His determination and dedicated effort has established a position for him in the society, being called as ‘Mushroom Guru’ in his locality.
While conveying his gratitude to CYSD, Sushant shares, “It gives me immense satisfaction when 50 fellow farmers offer their compliments to me and share their feelings on enhanced income. There is no need of unemployed youth to go outside for just hand to month earning, but better to be self-reliant in respective village. I am committed to extend all possible support and cooperation to the poor farmers towards bringing new hopes and openings in their life and livelihoods”.
The journey of the organisation in implementing Education programme started in 1988 with Non Formal Education (NFE) Programme for the drop-out children and the non-starters un National Literacy Mission (NLM). Since then Education has been the focus in CYSD’s development strategy designated to expand and improve the outreach, enrolment, retention and quality education for the children, contributing to fulfilment of the ‘Right of the Children’ and realization of Sustainable Development Goals.
The strategic interventions intend towards supplementing and complementing various initiatives of the mainstream agencies, in terms of facilitating access to education for the deprived and marginalised groups, and improving the quality of education for the children, especially the disadvantaged in the state in general, but focus has been on tribal districts.
The organisation’s intervention in promotion of quality elementary education so far, has been on identification and mainstreaming of the out-of-school children (girls and other vulnerable groups); promotion of mother-tongue based multilingual education; development of contextual teaching-learning materials; capacity building of teachers, facilitators and various committees; bridging learning gaps of children through supplementary education; strengthening educational governance at the grassroots and facilitating community led monitoring; creating opportunities for children to participate and nurture their talents; and facilitating the grievance redreassal mechanism at the grassroots level towards protection of the rights of the children.
The 2nd round conversation of Odisha Civil Society Organisations in response to COVID-19 second wave was convened on 23rd May 2021.
The discussion was based on some key agenda points, like CSOs preparation for upcoming Cyclone YAAS, Response to Covid-19 Pandemic, and strengthening GO-NGO Coordination/Collaboration. The decisions taken were:
Cyclone YAAS Preparedness
Covid-19 Response
Around 127 CSOs representatives participated in the conversation.
Mamata, an Anganwadi Worker from a remote village in Koraput called the Citizen Support Centre (CSC) with a hope that her query could be properly responded. She had received an Oximeter and a Thermometer from the Government to help people in her area during COVID pandemic. However, she didn’t know how to use those.
Mamata, after learning about the CSC immediately dialled on the toll free number to clear her queries. Her call was answered by one of the CSC team members. The call receiver informed her about the usage of the equipment clearly. She was also advised to watch two informative videos on the subjects prepared by CSC and disseminate the video with other AW workers and Ashas to help them learn the art of using the equipment. Instantly, CSC team member shared the videos on Mamata’s personal WhatsApp number to ease the learning process.
Certainly, the case of Mamata evidences that the tireless efforts of CSC has been reaching the unfathomable areas and yielding fruitful results as envisaged. Like Mamata, 25 other ASHAs, ANMs and volunteers have got their queries clarified after reaching out to the CSC.
Since the first phase of COVID-19 pandemic, CYSD has been supporting the district administration in South Odisha to deal with the situation. In order to address the second wave of the pandemic, GO and NGO level Coordination Committees at each block and district levels have become vibrant to deal with emerging issues, the role of CYSD being instrumental.
CYSD’s programme team in south Odisha has been making all-out efforts towards sensitizing the rural-tribal villagers about Covid appropriate behaviour, such as maintaining social distancing, mask wearing and hand washing, Now the organization is deeply engaged in extensive awareness drive to persuade the tribal people to get vaccinated as an effective preventive measure where the roles of youth leaders, CRPs, grassroots volunteers are crucial. Through organizing orientation programmes at the block level for frontline workers – Anganwadi Workers, ASHAs and ANMs, the team is persistently equipping them to contain the outbreak.
While serving the community, the life of those involved in doing door to door survey to identify infected cases and referring them to the hospitals, without proper protective kits, the frontline workers’ is at risk. Taking into consideration the fact, in first phase, CYSD has distributed Safety kits, Oximeter, Digital Thermometer, Mask and Sanitizer to 233 frontline workers covering 6 GPs in three blocks of Koraput, Rayagada, Malkanagiri districts.
Moreover, in order to equip the local health systems / centres, Asha Kiran Hospital at Lamataput of Koraput district has been supported by CYSD with 5 Oxygen Concentrators which will be instrumental in supplying required quantity of oxygen to critical Covid patients of the region.
At this critical hour of life and death, CYSD has made efforts to reach out to the people of the state through Gram Sathinis, SGBV Warriors, CRPs and youth leaders using WhatsApp groups with information on Covid appropriate behaviour and various government declared entitlement packages available.
Despite the second wave of Covid-19 Pandemic, the entire humanity did not forget to observe the World Environment Day. This year’s theme of World Environment Day “Reimagine – Recreate – Restore” reminds us to rethink for our planet’s ‘Ecosystem Restoration’. Ecosystem restoration broadly speaks about preventing and reversing the degradation of ecosystem – to go from exploiting nature to healing it i.e. landscapes, lakes and oceans to regain their ecological functionality. As we know, healthier ecosystems, with richer biodiversity, yield greater benefits like more fertile soils, bigger yields of timber and fish, and larger stores of greenhouse gases.
Keeping the above background in mind, CYSD, in its south Odisha operational area, has observed the World Environment Day (5th June). The purpose was to spread awareness among the people in the community, especially the tribals about the threat to our environment owing to rising pollution level & climate change; and the necessity of improving the quality of forest through forest protection and regeneration. Reducing disaster vulnerability and addressing climate change concerns being one of the most important thematic interventions of the organization, efforts were made towards forest protection and regeneration through organizing village/community level meetings, creating awareness, initiating plantation and seed dibbling drives.
The Day was celebrated in 20 villages under 7 Blocks – Kundura, Boipariguda, Dasamantpur, Laxmipur and Narayanpatana of Koraput District, Khairiput Block of Malkangir District and Kolanara Block of Rayagada District. A total of 250 members including Foresters, PRI members, village leaders, members of Producer Groups, Students and VDVKs members participated in the programme adhering the Covid-19 protocol behaviour.
The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has unpredictably spread with the new transformed feathers in the country, giving unexpected surge of positive cases. The pandemic this time is quite extensive, reaching to the rural and tribal areas. In Odisha, the alarming spike has reached more than 12,000 a day.
Learning from last year’s experience, CYSD has geared up its response in extending all possible support towards minimizing the impact of this deadly virus. With a strong presence in the rural-tribal areas, CYSD through its large Community Based Organizations (CBO) network, dedicated Community Resource Persons (CRPs), Warriors of SGBV (Sexually Gender Based Violence), Grassroots Volunteers, Gram Sathinis and Youth Leaders to assess the likely impact, especially on vulnerable sections. This could help the organisation measure the deficits in existing local level healthcare facilities / systems; and extend its support in the form of life saving equipment/s required for emergency medical care. In last week (3rd June), CYSD has organised a block level orientation programme on “Use of Oximeter and Digital Thermometer” for frontline workers, especially ANM & Asha workers from 18 GPs of Thakurmunda block, Mayurbhanj district. A total of 26 ANMs, 12 Ashas, 15 health staffs, 4 staff from CHCs participated in the orientation programme. The programme focussed on the importance of early identification of positive cases, referral to COVID Care hospitals and mass mobilisation for taking vaccination through conducting door to door survey.
Joining the orientation programme, the Block Development Officer (BDO) of Thakurmunda Shri Shyamasundar Tudu appreciated the dedicated work of ANMs and Asha workers during the pandemic and motivated them to keep their spirits up. The Block Medical Officer and Programme Manager led the technical session for door to door survey.
As part of motivational process, the participants learned the technique as to how to mobilise the disagreed population with the support of PRI representatives. Technical support in terms of use of Oximeter and Digital Thermometer was extended by CYSD team. Required hygiene kits (for self-protection), oximeter & digital thermometer supported by CYSD were handed over to all ANMs & Asha workers by the BDO for use while dealing with community people and undertaking survey work.
Expressing his deep sense of gratitude, the BDO openly shared that CYSD is the only organisation which has joined hands with the Thakurmunda Block Administration for several years in multiple developmental initiatives including addressing emergencies like the current biological disaster.
