0834-A1
J.C. Kala[1] and K.K. Kaushal
Poverty is more than inadequate income or human development - it is also vulnerability and lack of voice, power and representation. This multidimensional view of poverty calls for a multipronged approach for its amelioration. A study commissioned by the World Bank has very aptly recommended action on three complementary and synergistic fronts for poverty alleviation - promoting opportunity, facilitating empowerment and enhancing security.
This paper analyses how the US$100 million Tamil Nadu Afforestation Project, funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and launched in 1997-98, has evolved into a comprehensive poverty alleviation programme for the forest-adjacent villages where a high proportion of poor people live.
A firsthand account by the implementing officers, the paper shows how the project amply provides the above-mentioned three elements at the local level for sustainable poverty alleviation. This is despite the fact that this project has nothing to do with the World Bank or with the recently published study mentioned above. Regeneration of forests, improvement of basic infrastructure through integration of line departments and promotion of alternate livelihoods provide ample economic opportunities. Establishment of Village Forest Councils and delegation of sufficient powers to these, has empowered the poorest of the poor. Tree assets, promotion of alternative income-generation activities and water harvesting structures have provided security by reducing vulnerability to natural variations, particularly drought. In this project the development of people and forest regeneration go hand in hand in a synergistic way which makes it a scintillating example of "win-win" logic and worth replicating elsewhere in the world with suitable modifications.
Tamilnadu, the southern state of India has a geographic area of 13 million hectares, which constitutes 3.96 % of the land area of the country. The total population of the state is 55.86 million (1991 census) accounting for 6.60 % of the country's population. The recorded forest area is 2.26 million hectares, which makes 17.40 % of the land area of the state. But the actual forest cover as assessed through remote sensing is only 1.71 million hectares- a mere 13.13 % of the land area. Not only that half of this actual forest cover has a crown density of less than 40%(Anon 2000).
There are 15822 villages in the state of which 1405 are forest abutting. The total population of these forest villages is estimated to be 3.11 million. Though no separate consumption or income data are available but it is a known fact that forest communities are the poorest of the poor. Because of remoteness, thin and scattered population the modern development and amenities have not reached them. Moreover the development departments do not reach these areas. Rigid state control and indiscriminate removal of bamboo and other trees by industries in the past degraded the forests, aggravated poverty of forest communities and jeopardized the ecological and hydrological balance of the area. Therefore any forestry project should have not only community forestry but also poverty alleviation of abutting communities within its ambit.
Even after over five decades of planning the battle against poverty in India is far from over. One of the main reasons for this failure is that we narrowed the definition of poverty to mere low consumption, which in fact is only one of the symptoms of this obnoxious malady. All the poverty alleviation programmes were based on this narrow understanding of the concept of poverty and could not make a lasting and real impact in spite of spending billions of dollars.
Now the accepted view world over is that poverty is more than inadequate income or human development - it is also vulnerability and a lack of voice, power and representation. With this multidimensional view of poverty comes greater complexity in poverty reduction strategies because more factors - such as social and cultural forces - need to be taken into account.
A closer look on the international approach to reducing poverty reveals that it has evolved over the past 50 years in response to deepening understanding of the complexity of development. In the 1990s World Bank commissioned a study to devise a comprehensive and effective strategy in the light of the cumulative evidence and experience of the past decades-and in the light of the changed global context. Based on the study of earlier programmes and interview of poor people world over, the study group proposed a strategy for attacking poverty in three ways: promoting opportunity, facilitating empowerment, and enhancing security. These three elements of the comprehensive poverty alleviation strategy as outlined in the World Development Report2000-2001: Attacking Poverty (Page 6 - 7) are reproduced below
I. Promoting Opportunity. Poor people consistently emphasize the centrality of material opportunities. This means jobs, credit, roads, electricity, markets for their produce, and the schools, water, sanitation, and health services that underpin the health and skills essential for work. Overall economic growth is crucial for generating opportunity. So is the pattern or quality of growth. Market reforms can be central in expanding opportunities for poor people, but reforms need to reflect local institutional and structural conditions. And mechanisms need to be in place to create new opportunities and compensate the potential losers in transition. This requires action by the state to support the build up of human, land, and infrastructure assets that poor people own or to which they have access.
II.Facilitating Empowerment. The choice and implementation of public actions that are responsive to the needs of poor people depend on the interaction of political, social, and other institutional processes. Access to market opportunities and to public sector services is often strongly influenced by state and social institutions, which must be responsive and accountable to poor people. Achieving access, responsibility, and accountability is intrinsically political and requires active collaboration among poor people, the middle class, and other groups in society. Active collaboration can be greatly facilitated by changes in governance that make public administration, legal institutions, and public service delivery more efficient and accountable to all citizens-and by strengthening the participation of poor people in political processes and local decision-making. Also important is removing the social and institutional barriers that result from distinctions of gender, ethnicity, and social status.
III.Enhancing Security. Reducing vulnerability-to economic shocks, natural disasters, ill health, disability, and personal violence-is an intrinsic part of enhancing well being and encourages investment in human capital and in higher-risk, higher-return activities. This requires effective national action to manage the risk of economy wide shocks and effective mechanisms to reduce the risk faced by poor people, including health- and weather-related risks. It also requires building the assets of poor people, diversifying household activities, and providing a range of insurance mechanisms to cope with adverse shocks from public work to stay-in-school programs and health insurance (Anon2001).
A strategy comprising the above three elements is undoubtedly the most comprehensive and effective one for sustainable poverty alleviation. In this none of the elements can be said to be more important than others but they are deeply complementary. There cannot be any simple universal blueprint for implementing this strategy. Progress in reducing the scourge of poverty is possible by tackling one element and leaving the other two untouched. For instance wage work will improve the income of the poor and may improve the well being also if is for long period but once this is withdrawn the people will relapse into the same vortex. Hence for sustainable alleviation of poverty actions will be necessary on all the three fronts- opportunity, empowerment and security - because of complementariness and synergism among the three.
Tamil Nadu Afforestation Project (TAP) is a Japan Bank for International Cooperation funded100 million $ Joint Forest Management (community forestry) Project being implemented in Tamil Nadu state since 1997-98. In the project, degraded forest micro watersheds along with abutting hamlet or habitation or revenue village are selected. The forest area is divided into three zones - Lower zone or Utility zone, Middle zone or Asset creation zone and Upper zone or Eco-restoration zone. Normally, the area for all three zones is 250 ha. in which the zone-wise gap planting is taken up. The uniqueness of the project is that it has a provision of 12000$ for village development alone under buffer zone activities over a period of three years. The aim is to reduce the dependence of villagers on forests by alternate income generation activities.
In each of the identified management units, the people's representative body called Village Forest Council (VFC) is formed which is fully involved in the planning and execution of works, protection, harvesting and benefit sharing in the management unit with focus on degraded forests. One male member and one female member from each household provided that they are willing are enrolled as its members. Any person who opts out from the membership of VFC is not entitled for any benefit. The VFC meets as and when called for but in any case atleast once in three months.
Each Village Forest Council elects an executive committee in such a manner that one hamlet elects atleast two members; each VFC elects a minimum of 5 and maximum of 15 members to the Executive Committee. The panchayat (local government body) members of the management unit are co-opted as ex-officio members of the Executive Committee (EC). The members of Executive Committee elect its President from themselves who is also President of VFC. The Forest Ranger concerned is the member secretary of the Executive Committee who facilitates the election process of the members and President of Executive Committee. The Executive Committee is responsible for day-to-day activities of VFC and meets at least once a month. A Memorandum of Understanding is signed in the beginning between the District Forest Officer (on behalf of Forest Department) and VFC President. This gives the details of the roles and responsibilities of the Forest Department and VFC - the partners in Joint Forest Management. All the VFCs are being registered under Societies Registration Act 1975.
The Government order sanctioning the funds from JBIC soft loan gave the objective of the programme to increase the tree cover through involvement of people. But once the programme was launched it was continuously reviewed, modified, and broadened in consonance with the feedback from people and field officers. Though it was never explicitly intended even at later stages but broadening of the project in response to field needs evolved it into a poverty alleviation project. The amount for buffer zone (development of forest dependents) was increased to 12000$ from 6000$. The individual grants were converted into interest free loans so that VFC can build up its corpse fund and extend loans to the remaining forest dependents for acquiring productive assets. The VFC president was made joint signatory for drawl of funds and submission of accounts. One landmark order came from the state government for involvement of all other line departments like Public Works Department, Electricity, Health, Agriculture Animal husbandry and Tribal Development etc. for holistic development of these micro watersheds on priority basis. Not only that the involvement of other departments is monitored and guided by the state level committee headed by Chief Secretary and at the District level by the Collector. All department heads at state and district level are members of these committees. Initially slated to end in 2001-02, spurred by its success JBIC has extended the project till 2003-04.
TAP has nothing to do with World Bank or its development report, which came out recently, and this project was started in 1997-98 itself. But as analysed below the intelligent and alive broadening and implementation of this project has transformed it into a comprehensive poverty alleviation programme from a mere greening project. At the local level, it provides all the three elements of comprehensive poverty alleviation strategy devised by World Bank study group.
1) Tree Assets: In the forest area of around 250 ha of each micro watershed 77000 saplings are planted with deliberate emphasis on non-timber forest products (NTFPs) yielding species like, Azadirachta indica, Phyllanthus emblica, Syzizium cumini, Tamarindus indica, Bassia latifolia, Terminalia bellerica,. In addition 25000 saplings are distributed to the villages for growing in their own lands. The village Forest council members are given the right to collect NTFPs and a share in the final harvest. Assuming a realistic survival of 50% of saplings to become trees - there will be 38500 trees in the forest area, which will be yielding various kinds of NTFPs.
This produce they can sell directly or sell after processing and value addition. Already many of the older VFC's are getting more than 4000 $ annually from MFP sale.
2) Water harvesting structures: In the forest area water harvesting structures like percolation ponds and check dams are made which help in raising the water table and recharging of bore wells in the adjoining agriculture lands. In the state like Tamilnadu where the annual rainfall is not more than 700 mm and that too mostly in monsoon season, these water-harvesting structures have caused complete transformation of the village economy. In most of the places the cropping intensity has increased and people have shifted to the cultivation of high water use crops like sugarcane and rice.
3) Improvement of basic infrastructure
There are instructions from the government to all other departments to dovetail their developmental and infrastructure activities in TAP villages on priority basis. There is a committee at the state level headed by the Chief Secretary and at the district level headed by the District Collector to guide, steer and oversee the coordination by all other departments. There is substantial improvement in the basic infrastructure like road, electricity, water, school etc., in most of the watersheds. From the project funds also 30%buffer zone amount is spent on creation of community assets like community halls, threshing floors etc.
4) Promotion of alternate livelihoods:
From buffer zone funds, village youths are imparted free training to enable them become drivers, electricians, television mechanic etc., Apart from that the ladies and other elders are trained in various village level avocations like rope making, pappad making, tailoring, embroidering, beedi making etc., so that they get steady income from alternate sources and need not do wood cutting for their livelihoods.
5) Literacy:
The forest villages have high incidence of illiteracy. After adoption of the watersheds the people have been motivated to admit their children to the schools. Wherever schools were not available, the same have been got opened through the education department or charitable organizations. Adult education classes were taken in some of the villages.
6) Provision of milch cattle and other productive assets:
The forest dependents are given interest free loans from the buffer zone fund to buy high quality milch cattle. Similarly skilled ladies and persons are given loans to buy tailoring machines, tools etc.
7) Wage work:
Out of 60000 $ spent in each programme micro watershed, around 36000 $ go for wage work of planting or civil structures (remaining for materials). The local people do this wage work. In initial 3 years this substantial wage employments available at their doorstep gives a big boost and enables them make full use of the infrastructure and productive assets.
The forest villages generally constitute only a hamlet of the village panchayat and therefore do not have any control or say in the panchayat affairs leaving the forest people absolutely meek and powerless. But the formation of VFCs has provided the real chance for their empowerment. The entire planning, execution and monitoring of the programme is done by the village Forest Councils, whose day-to-day affairs are looked after by its Executive committee headed by an elected President. The annual NTFPs revenue of some of the VFCs has already crossed 4000 $ and from the initial money of 12000 $ for buffer zone some VFCs have developed a corpse fund of 24000 $. The VFC President and the concerned Range Officer jointly sign all the accounts and fund applications. VFC Presidents are exofficio members of District Level Joint Forest Management Committee, which is headed by District Collector. This imparts more prestige and glamour to the post of President. Consequently the post of VFC President has become so much coveted that people have moved up to high court to get it.
Women empowerment is given due emphasis and one third of Executive Committee members have necessarily to be women only. In each village 1-2 women self-help groups are formed and they are encouraged to undertake economic activities individually or jointly by providing credit from buffer zone fund.
Improvement of village infrastructure and diversification of income generation activities have enhanced the security. The reclothing of the forests and water harvesting structures have reduced the vulnerability to drought, which is the most common risk. The drought proofing of these areas has gone a long way in improving agriculture income on a sustained basis. The training in alternate livelihoods has also made significant contribution in reducing the vulnerability to the natural vagaries. The forest trees are perennial assets available for generations and by their nature each successive year their yield increases and susceptibility to natural vagaries decreases. Besides the tree species yield NTFPs even in worst of the drought years. Even last year when the receipt of rainfall was the lowest in the century, the Neem seed collection proved to be a good source of income for the poorest of the poor. Thus restocked forests provide households a means for diversifying their subsistence and income-generating activities, optimising their labour resources during different seasons, and "insuring" against the risks of agricultural failures. Not only that in most of the villages group insurance has been provided to all the VFC members from public sector insurance companies for three years.
Thus TAP amply provides the three elements -opportunity, empowerment and security at the local level for effective poverty alleviation. No other government programme in India has such a comprehensive approach for poverty alleviation. Integrated Watersheds Development Programmes have multisectoral integration for promotion of economic opportunity but they are unable to empower the poorest of the poor. Most of other states in India are also implementing community forestry projects but they lack in integration of other line departments and the amount spent for alternate income generation is very low. Hence these projects are not able to make a lasting and real impact on forest conservation keeping poverty reduction aside.
As the name suggests Tamilnadu Afforestation Project was conceived, sanctioned and launched as a mere community forestry based greening project. But the flexibility, participatory approach, continuous monitoring, review and readjustment broadened it into a sustainable poverty alleviation project for the forest communities. This project very vividly demonstrates the role of forest development in sustainable poverty alleviation, which is hitherto not adequately appreciated in the developing countries. Further it emphasizes that the ultimate solution for forest conservation in India and other developing countries lies in not mere community forestry but broadening the approach to alleviate poverty in the most comprehensive and sustainable way through promotion of opportunity, facilitating empowerment and enhancing security. It also underscores the need for present day foresters to comprehend social and economic issues in addition to the technical ones for taking up forestry projects successfully. However, growing of trees and poverty alleviation are long drawn processes hence the duration of forest development projects should not be less than 10 years.
1. Anon, 2000. State of Forest Report1999, Forest Survey of India, Dehradun India
2. Anon, 2001. World Development Report 2000/2001 Attacking Poverty, The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Washington, D.C. USA.
| [1] Principle Chief Conservator
of Forests, Government of Tamilnadu, Pannaigal Building, Saidapet, Chennai,
India. Tel: 91-044-4348059 (O); 91-044-6151161; Email: [email protected]
|