Program and Projects : Completed Program and Projects

Jan Utkarsha programme was successfully accomplished and was terminated on its Project Completion Date i.e. 31st March 2011. The programme was supported by the Tribal Development Department of Government of Maharashtra. The main objective of the program was to enhance the livelihood opportunities and bring about improvement in the quality of life of the poor tribal families in a sustainable way. The issue of malnourishment and poor health being critical and was given due focus along with empowerment of women.

Adivasi Development Programme, Maharashtra (ADPM) commenced in June 2000. ADPM aims at providing livelihood opportunities and improvement in the quality of life of nearly 14000 tribal families from Peint and Surgana blocks in Nashik District and Mokhada block in Thane District of Maharashtra, over a period of 11 years. The project has been sponsored by Government of Germany through KfW (Germany) and NABARD (India)

This project has been sponsored by the then Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) , renamed as Hindustan Unilever Limited, (HUL) in June 2007. This project started in the year 2002 and was completed in the year 2007. The main aim of this project was to undertake watershed activities, strengthening natural resource base and conduct cattle development as an allied activity. It is implemented in Parkhed, Tal.Khamgaon, Dist.Buldhana

MITTRA has been engaged in the development of tribal people through Government sponsorship. It’s approach and programme has been widely accepted as a unique model. However there was a need for a rapid up scaling of the tribal development program.

To understand the malnutrition status of the tribal areas, and establish the major factors leading to malnutrition

Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) aims at establishing a large number of micro-enterprises in the rural areas, building upon the potential of the rural poor. Emphasis is given to cluster approach wherein a few key activity inputs lead to development of the Swarojgari (Participants) to undertake viable enterprise - resulting in increasing his income to a level that is more than the poverty line.

The program is designed and implemented as a Special Project under SGSY (Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana). The grant funds are routed through the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), to MITTRA, for implementation. Credit is mobilized through participants’ own savings and through bank linkage. The program implementation started from January 1st, 2004.

The program is designed and implemented as a Special Project under SGSY (Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana). The grant funds are routed through the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) to MITTRA, for implementation. Credit is mobilized through participants’ own savings and through bank linkage.

NABARD Supported Holistic Watershed Development Programme (NHWDP) was launched on 2nd October 2006 in six distressed districts of Vidarbha. The six distressed districts are Yeovatmal, Washim, Wardha, Amravati, Akola and Buldhana. The Watershed development measures are being taken up in 90,000 ha in these 6 districts as a participatory programme for micro level infrastructure development with regard to sustainable management of soil and water resources. The programme is launched with one day willingness shramdan (Volunteer Labor contribution) by the community. The project not only aims for soil and water conservation measures but also incorporates support for overall development of families through integraed activities like livestock development, Wadi (horticulture plantation), women’s development and providing improved livelihood options to the landless families. The project is being implemented on a cluster (2500-3000ha watershed area) basis in order to ensure efficiency.

Holistic watershed development is a key to improve the natural resource base of degraded area. Soil erosion, land degradation, ground water depletion, shortage of safe drinking water, declining biodiversity are problems faced by majority of people. People living in rural areas face erratic monsoons and capricious market prices. Rural poor farmers have very little control over their destiny. Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP) is designed on the approach of watershed management to improve the natural resources through community participation thereby supporting to improve livelihood of poor.