Rajasthan is the largest state of the India which is diverse in geographical and traditional scenario across the areas. The main geographic feature of Rajasthan is the Aravali Range, which splits the state into two geographical zones – desert on one side and topographic belt on the other. The climate in Rajasthan is generally dry. The soil and vegetation alter with the varying topography of the state and the availability of water. The main crops are wheat, barley, pulses, gram, and oilseeds. Rajasthan is the second largest producer of oilseeds and edible oil in the country apart from agriculture.  Owing to poor rainfall, surface water resources do not exist while groundwater resources are often deep and brackish. Natural vegetation is, therefore, only seasonal.

Looking at the above issues, Caritas India has taken up the program called SAKSHAM which is based on the Natural Resource Management (NRM) and enhancement of Good Governance covering 3 districts in Rajasthan. In the proposed area the source of income is agriculture and livestock management. Due to less rainfall, the target community suffers in less production and nutritional quality of agriculture crops, lack of food security and lack of access to government schemes by the underprivileged community.  Rajasthan is the state where high caste system prevails in all the areas and only upper caste dominate the developmental work.

In a review meeting with the partners, it was felt that Micro Planning is the tool through which all the village people can come together to discuss their own village development plan and submit in Gram Sabha meeting. Preparation of Micro Plan is the only platform where all caste come together to discuss and decide the village development plan.

Acknowledging the significance of micro-planning for village development, Caritas India organized a 5 days training with its 3 Rajasthan and 2 Uttar Pradesh implementing partner in Jeevandhara Samaj Kalyan Santhan (JSKS) Dausa, Jaipur Diocese. Total 30 participants including Program Officer and field staff underwent the training.

Micro planning is community-based and comprehensive planning approach where community prepared the development plans for themselves considering the priority needs of the villages. Where all the section of the community participates and prepare the plan and makes it an integral component of decentralized governance.

The SAKSHAM program comprehensively deals with the village people, PRI members for agriculture development and enhance good governance practices in the target villages. The program mostly working with the PRI members, panchayats and district level authority to decentralize the government resources. It was observed that in the intervention area upper caste system dominates the low caste community which hinders them to not to participate in the developmental planning process. Therefore, Micro planning was one of the key tools to utilize bottom-up approach with word members, Sarpanch and government to access developmental schemes at the village level.

Caritas India engaged ASK India, an organization having its expertise in capacity building to train and facilitate the community in developing village development plan. Amit Khemari – Asst. Manager and Subir from ASK India took sessions on micro planning.  Nutan Kumar, Caritas India State Officer who looked after overall program ensured that the project staff gets the clarity and replicate the same at the ground level.

The importance of organizing this training is to enhance the partner’s staff knowledge and capacity of working with the villages and dealing with PRI members, KVK, NABARD, and district rural development department, etc.  Also, it was to educate the partner staff about the concept of micro-planning, process, steps, norms and golden rules to conduct the exercise at the grass root level. Khaliwada village of Jaipur district was selected to carry out the exercise and demonstration with the PRI and key members. From this exercise, participants knew how to do carry out micro-planning at the village level with challenges in a village dynamic.

All the ward members of Khaliwada village led the process and the activity with the help of partner staff. Various PRA techniques were used to collect the data and prioritize the issues for micro level planning. In the three days, long exercise 50-60 participants were there including male and female.  The planning and presentation process went for 3 days in the village and in 3rd-day final micro planning was handed over to the PRI members by the staff. Importance of Gram Sabha in Rajasthan was explained to the villages members and how Micro-planning helps them to easily access to village development plan.

At the end of 5^th day, partners prepared a plan of action to complete the micro plan in their respective areas and submit to Gram Sabha. At least 20 micro planning will be prepared and submitted in the upcoming Gram Sabha meeting which is going to held on 1^st May 2018 in Rajasthan and the Uttar Pradesh State of India.