Mahila Krishak Shashaktikarn Project | 2012 and on going

Empowering Women farmers through agriculture based livelihoods Project organized the women famers in to producers’collectives; build their knowledge and skill along with creation of accessible support systems to enable a greater and more strategic role of women in agriculture and allied activities, impacting and strengthening the livelihood base of the poor.  The project have created multiple village-level farm school through trained agriculture and livestock resource persons, called as Krishi Sakhi and Pashu Sakhi. The project is implemented in 95 villages in four blocks of Dungarpur District (Aspur, Simalwar, Dungarpur & Bicchiwara) benefitting 14,700 women farmers. The program is spearheaded by 240 Krishi Sakhis and 8 Pashu Sakhis. 

This program was initiated in one of the panchayats, Surata, two of the initially targeted villages have been completely solar electrified. Remote and scattered settlement patterns have made it impossible to provide basic amenities like water supply, sewage, drainage and electricity. PEDO had, in the past experimented with solar powered lights and decided to take it up to provide lighting to these homes as a pilot project. The lights are purchased by PEDO, and a group of local youth has been trained to install and maintain the lights. Half of the money for the lights is paid by the community and rest has been managed by PEDO through corporate funds. 

12 Handloom Centers Employed about 200 tribal women, where they were trained to produce good quality products. All the necessary raw material, machinery and marketing support was provided to these women. The centers were handed over to the women’s collective to operate independently. The program aimed at developing entrepreneurship amongst the tribal women. These women had clientele like Fab India and other major brands. 

Information technology has been used for multiple projects by PEDO and the major one has been in the elaborate Microfinance operations. Ministry of Information Technology-Government of India and UNDP supported PEDO in introducing IT based accounting system. PEDO termed it as MITRA or Mobile Information Technology for Rural Advancement. The project’s concept was to develop a Mobile phone based management Information System for Women’s Empowerment through Microfinance. This project established a transparent and easily accessible Management Information System (MIS) to develop an ownership of Women’s Institution. This concept was later adopted by the Government of  Rajasthan and been applied statewide for microfinance projects.  Strengthening federation of elected Women Leaders towards Advocacy and Action| 2012 and on going The project aimed at increasing participation of women in decision making through orientation of Elected Women Panchayat Leaders and members, The project is implemented in 10 Panchayats in Bicchiwara block  The project included enhancement and betterment of leadership abilities of the women for increase in political participation and decision making. Information dissemination about the social protection schemes was also an integral part of the project, so as the needy persons are identified properly and benefits are transferred to the fullest.PEDO also helped the leaders in understanding the administrative setup at the levels of the State, District, Block, Panchayat and Village and understanding their role in this setup.