“Previously, we used to ask people what they are bringing in for the community,” says Sanicharwa Munda, an active member of Musungu village in Angara block, said, “but now we have begun contemplating how we may build upon our own current resources.”

Musungu in Ranchi’s Angara block is one of the 165 tribal dominant villages chosen to participate in the Gram Nirman initiative. The settlement is isolated and surrounded by forest, although it is close to natural beauties. The village has three surrounding hamlets, but the residents’ socio-economic situation is still poor, and people are fighting to meet their basic needs. The main source of income is rain-fed seasonal agriculture, and during the lean season, male counterparts used to go to other states such as Punjab, Chennai, and Karnataka to earn daily bread for their families in the village. Women, on the other hand, stays in the village to care for their children and fight never-ending battles for food, health, and education.

People in Musungu village have participated in Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) exercises along with the Caritas India team since the new phase of Gram Nirman began in the village in July 2021. The visioning exercise included participants of all ages, including males, females, adolescent girls, youth, children, the elderly, migrants, widows and widowers, and orphans. The exercise’s focus was on “what they already have as a resource in their village” and “how they could expand on that.

” The whole exercise created a sense of ownership among the community. ABCD tool provided an opportunity for the village communities to think and contribute to the development of their own village. They have mapped and come up with so many existing assets like natural assets, human assets, forest-based assets, physical assets, etc. The community has got a different perspective to look upon their existing resources, for some of them, it was an eye-opener. Based on the existing resources community itself has made the plan to strengthen and sustain the existing resources.

Following a thorough facilitation process by the Caritas India team, the community took the first step in strengthening their existing resources on March 7th, 2022, by completely refurbishing existing ponds (100 feet * 70 feet in size) with the community contributions. Under the able leadership of PRI members and ward members, villagers of Musungu has formed multiple teams including women and people living with disabilities with very clear roles, responsibilities, and deadlines. It was a strict guideline for everyone to abide by the set norms and in case of any failure, there was a provision of nominal monetary penalty by the Gram Sabha.

Previously, these ponds were only used for bathing and drinking purpose for existing livestock, but the plan now is to renovate them and use the water for irrigation of nearby agricultural plots, start fishery as a common source of income for villagers, and plant moringa along the pond’s edges to feed existing livestock as green fodder. Villagers have also planned to converge with MGNREGA for the deepening of the pond and create a boundary wall for the safety of village children.

It is mentionable that Gram Nirman is a direct implementation initiative of Caritas India that is supported by Caritas Australia and is based on an ABCD strategy with the goal of increasing community livelihood income for a dignified living.

Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) is a community-led data collection and planning tool that enables the community to map and then envision their own village development using existing resources. With the ABCD approach, Gram Nirman program works to facilitate improved access of various government schemes and programmes, enhancing the income of families through on-and off-farm livelihood initiatives, and making efforts towards availing recognition and empowerment of the people in the community. The new phase of Gram Nirman has been implemented in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and urban slums of East Delhi consisting of 4 clusters covering 165 villages and 18 urban slums from July 2021 onwards.

“This is just the beginning,” said Neelam Munda, Musungu village female ward member, “we are now planning to create bamboo-based elevated platforms for our goats, which will keep them clean and healthy.”