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SB 080720

The document discusses planning for village development and the need for data and information collection. It identifies the gram panchayat office as a primary source of demographic and socio-economic data about a village. Semi-structured interviews with villagers are also presented as an important method for collecting additional qualitative data to understand a village's needs and priorities.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
12 views54 pages

SB 080720

The document discusses planning for village development and the need for data and information collection. It identifies the gram panchayat office as a primary source of demographic and socio-economic data about a village. Semi-structured interviews with villagers are also presented as an important method for collecting additional qualitative data to understand a village's needs and priorities.

Uploaded by

dawit g
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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You are on page 1/ 54

Participatory Rural Appraisal

PRA Application in Rural Development Planning

R Ramesh

Prepared for the Participating Institutions of UBA


Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA)

National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj


Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India
Rajendranagar, Hyderabad- 500 030

1
Foreword

2
Preface

I would like to open this prefatory note with an amusing fable of Sherlock Holms,
which I am not tired of repeating in my training programmes on PRA over and over
again.
Sherlock Holms and Dr Watson went on a camping trip. After a long day‟s travel,
they had dinner, pitched their tent in a beach, and went to sleep. Some hours later,
Holmes wakes up and nudges his knowledgeable friend. “Watson, look up at the sky
and tell me what you see”.
“I see plenty of stars” replies Watson.
“And what do you deduce from that?”
Watson ponders for a minute.
“Well, astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially
billions of planets.
Meteorologically, I think we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.
Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful and that we are a small and
insignificant part of the universe”.
Watson asks back. “What does it tell you, Holmes?”
Holmes is silent for a moment.
Watson, you idiot! he says. “Someone has stolen our tent!”

Moral of the story: „Life is very simple. We insist on making it complicated‟.


Depending on our level of education and personality type, our tendency to complicate
things is incredible. We analyse things astronomically, meteorologically,
theologically, philosophically and so on, so that we are able to put to use all
acquisitions we got through our classroom algebra, calculus, factor analysis,
predictions, assumptions etc. We arrive at a conclusion that fits into „our reality‟ – a
reality that satisfies our assumptions, predictions, and academic-ego.

It‟s possible - and often it turns out to be so - the reality we constructed could be miles
away from the reality of a poor man, whose entire asset could be a small piece of land,

3
or a flock of sheep. I don‟t care to listen to him because he is illiterate….he has not
learnt the modern prediction models in statistics that I am proficient in. He cannot
juggle around with numbers applying Advanced Excel formulas. What we fail to
recognise is he does not have to ‘predict’. Someone who knows the reality does not
have to predict.

For instance when it comes to understanding about the situations and conditions in a
village, the simplest way to learn about it is listen to the villagers. Our basic premise
should be a person who has lived in that village for over 40 years certainly knows
about that village much better than a research scientist who visits that village for a
few hours. All that is required is respect him, listen to him - or rather listen to them - if
you want to learn about rural life – livelihoods, agriculture, seasons, crops, plants,
insects, technology use and so on. This is the starting point for mutuality of learning,
sharing of knowledge, skills and expertise. Such a discussion shall open up trust,
recognising and acknowledging what is in store for mutual sharing – between the
insiders [villagers] and outsiders [Higher Education Institutions].

How to learn from the villagers is what this handbook is all about? And that is what
PRA [Participatory Rural Appraisal] is all about. In this handbook, for the benefit of
those who have scarce understanding of rural development in Indian context,
functioning of Gram Panchayats, and why working with Gram Panchayats is strategic
and beneficial has also been presented in boxes all through. Let‟s begin the journey of
exploration and learning. This handbook is written bearing in view that the readers of
this handbook are very new to the concept, methods and tools of PRA.

Dr R Ramesh
Associate Professor,
NIRD&PR
June, 2020
Hyderabad

4
Contents

Section – 1:Planning for Village Development

- Data and Information


- Sources of Data
- A Project Proposal

Section 2: Introduction to PRA

- What is PRA?
- PRA Methods
- Menu of PRA methods and tools
- General PRA (vs) Thematic PRA
- Three Pillars of PRA

Section – 3:PRA Methods and Techniques for UBA

- PRA Battery for UBA


- Exercise – 1 : Transact Walk
- Exercise -2: Social Mapping / Village Mapping
- Exercise - 3: Problem Inventory / Analysis
- Exercise -4: Problem prioritisation (NSL Chart)
- Exercise 5: Solution Assessment through Direct Matrix Ranking
- Exercise – 6: Participatory Beneficiary Selection
- Exercise -7: Analysis Group Discussion (Development Seminar)

Section – 4:PRA Principles and Process

- Principles of PRA
- The Process of PRA

Section – 5:Semi Structured Interviewing (SSI)

- What is SSI ?
- How to Conduct SSI?
- SSI Individual Errors
- SSI Theme Errors

5
Section – 6:Using PRA Outcome to Write UBA Proposals

- What Does a Typical Proposal Contain ?


- Some Vital Information Reviewers Look for
- Deliverables
- Reporting and Documentation

List of Boxes

- Box – 1: What is a Gram Panchayat


- Box – 2: What is SSI
- Box – 3: What is GPDP
- Box – 4: Chance Encounters / Chain of Interviews
- Box – 5: Baseline Data / Information
- Box – 6: Saturation Approach
- Box – 7: Sources of Fund for a Gram Panchayat
- Box – 8: XV Finance Commission Funds for Gram Panchayat
- Box – 9: Six Helpers in PRA
- Box – 10: UBA Proposal Format
- Box – 11: Demonstration Mode

List of Annexures

1. Subjects listed in the 11th Schedule of the Constitution of India


2. The Vision you may provide to ponder over
3. Ministries / Departments and Major Deliverables
4. XV Finance Commission Grants to Gram Panchayat (2020-21)
5. XV Finance Commission: Drinking Water and Sanitation

References and List for Further Reading

6
Abbreviations

BDO - Block Development Office


FFC - Fifteenth Finance Commission
GP - Gram Panchayat
GPDP - Gram Panchayat Development Plan
HEI - Higher Education Institution
MHRD - Ministry of Human Resource Development
MoRD - Ministry of Rural Development
MoPR - Ministry of Panchayati Raj
NGO - Non-Governmental Organisation
NSL - Now, Soon, Later
PI - Participating Institution
PRA - Participatory Rural Appraisal
RCI - Regional Coordinating Institution
SEG - Subject Expert Group
SSI - Semi-structured Interview / Inquiry
UBA - Unnat Bharat Abhiyan
XV-FC - 15th Finance Commission

Note:
Gender:For ease of reading, I have chosen to use „he / him / his‟ to refer to male as
well as female.
Where I use pronouns such as we, our,ours,or you, your, yours the reference is to
„outsiders‟ meaning the „PRA Team from outside‟ like a Participating Institution (PI)
of UBA. Where I use pronouns such as they, them, their, theirs the reference is to
„insiders‟ meaning the „villagers‟ in the context of UBA adopted village.

7
SECTION - 1

Planning for Village Development

Data and Information


Imagine you are assigned the task of planning for village development. Where do you
begin? How do you get started? In order to plan, you need data and information about
the village in question. You need the details of population, households; various
occupations people are involved in, common infrastructure facilities available such as
school, anganwadi, conditions of drinking water supply, sanitation, primary health
care, conditions of road, electricity, and physical / electronic connectivity and so on.
So, you need data and information so that you can identify the shortfall / gaps and
plan for fulfilling the gaps.

Sources of Data

How do we get data &information? Who can give data? What is our source of data for
undertaking this planning exercise?
Gram Panchayat Office:There are many ways to collect data about Gram Panchayats.
We refer to Gram Panchayat here because that is the institution officially (and
constitutionally) recognised as local body, which is supposed to maintain data
pertaining to demographics and socio-economic development etc. This is one source
of data. We need to approach the Gram Panchayat Office with a check-list of what
data we need. Let us consider that this is one source of data.

Box – 1:What is a Gram Panchayat?In Indian conditions, generally a group of habitations /


villages make up a Gram Panchayat. Gram Panchayatis an elected body, which is expected to
take up development works pertaining to 29 subjects covered in the 11 th Schedule of the Indian
Constitution. See Annexure – 1 List of subjects covered in the 11th Schedule of the Indian
Constitution. Gram Panchayats (GPs) play a pivotal role in rural development in India. GPs
have powers to raise local revenue by levying taxes such as house tax, and service charges for
delivery of essential services such as rural water supply, sanitation including street cleaning
etc. GPs are eligible to get government funds from various Ministries / Departments for rural
development purposes. Many government programmes get implemented through GPs only.
This is called local self-governance.

8
Block Development Office:A cluster of Gram Panchayats make up a Development
Block. Each Development Block has a Block Development Office (BDO), who should
maintain grassroots level data, and keep track of various development schemes being
implemented in every Gram Panchayat. This can be another source of data.

Government Web portals: There are web portals of the government that maintain data
sets Gram Panchayats in the entire country. For example, egramswaraj.gov.inand
www.missionantyodaya.nic.inare databases of the Ministry of Rural Development,

Government of India. This web portal is supposed to be dynamic, and provide updated
data of all the 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats in the country. By and large, this data is
dependable. Yet, we need to bear in mind that Mission Antyodaya is a massive data
collection expedition, covering about 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats – almost every year.

Household Survey: Alternatively, we can also go for a household survey. This is a


popular way of collecting grassroots level data that mostly NGOs, social science
institutions, and social researchers

Participatory Rural Appraisal: Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA for short) is an


approach to collect data or to learn about situations and conditions in rural areas. This
has a menu (or basket of) methods and tools. Depending on the type / nature of data
required for our purpose, we can choose appropriate PRA methods and tools for data
collection in a given village. We shall see more about PRA tools, methods, principles
and applications as we go.

Why PRA?At this moment, it might occur to us now that why do we go for fresh data
collection if Gram Panchayat or the BDO office or Mission Antyodayacan provide the
data we need. Why do we talk about PRA, when household survey is a popular

9
method of data collection, familiar to many of us?The reasons are: first of all, we do
not know how old is the secondary data available in the records of GP Office or BDO
office. These offices maintain data but we do not know how updated they are for our
purpose. It happens, often that they refer to household data of Census 2011, when you
are in 2020.

Mission Antyodaya / eGramSwaraj data are, by and large, updated and dependable.
Yet, we need to bear in mind that Mission Antyodaya is a massive data collection
expedition, covering about 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats – almost every year. It is
possible errors can creep in. However, this web portal can serve as a good starting
point, or can serve for the purpose of cross-checking the data we collect from other
sources.

This does not in any way provide face to face contact with the villagers. You are still
facing your computer screen only. A cat with gloves does not catch mice. To do
village work, you need to get away from your computer screen, and face the villagers.
Household surveys take time - going door to door - collecting data - then computer
aided data entry back in the office - data cleaning - data analysis using Excel spread
sheets –and draw inferences as to get to know the findings etc. It‟s time taking.

The concept of PRA tells you to go to the village – away from your comfort zone: Go
to them. Discuss with them. Ask them. Listen to them. Learn from them. Unlearn.
Relearn. Feel uncomfortable. Learn to listen. Make direct observation. They say: what
the eyes do not see, the heart does not grieve about. The problem you identify in this
process, most likely is going to be the real and the most pressing problem of the
villagers. Seek local solutions. As how they have been dealing with it in the past – for
so many years? Facilitate local solutions. Resist the temptation to instantly offer your
advice or expertise.

10
Do your homework, and go back to them in order to present how you think your
technical expertise can solve the problem that was identified. Check and weigh the
social acceptability, technical feasibility, financial viability, and what scheme of the
government can help resolve the problem in hand. Find out: how villagers can
participate / contribute? Determine your role in the project. By now, you have got the
data / information you needed. You have also got closer to the community members
you are dealing with. Now, prepare your UBA project proposal for support by the
UBA. This is the approach PRA proposes. In this process you may have to use a
battery of PRA methods and techniques, which we shall learn in the upcoming section
in this handbook.

The following diagram shows the attitude change required for a PRA practitioner. It
puts across attitude that does not favour community participation, and those that
encourage participation. It‟s wrong to assume that rural people know less because they
are less literate compared to you. Recognise that they have abilities that have enabled
them to survive and contribute to agriculture, animal husbandry, natural resource
management, and so on. S/he cultivates his own rice, vegetables and fruits. And
possibly, you are dependent on him/her to remain hunger-free. They have earnestness
to give momentum to the pace of progress they make in life. They have their right to
decide, and self-respect.

Attitude Change Required

Wrong Attitude Right Attitude

 Mud-headed
 Earnestness
 Orthodox
 Ability
 Unchanging
 Right
 Traditional
 Self-Respect
 Hesitant
11
A project Proposal
A rural development agency visited a village. After studying the village, floated the
following project to a sponsor. It is pictorially presented for easy understanding.

Picture - 1 Picture - 2

Picture –3 Picture - 4

Picture – 5 Picture - 6

Source: D+C, 2004

12
SECTION - 2

Introduction to PRA

What is PRA?

PRA is a set of methods and techniques that development practitioners use in the field
to be able to collect data and information. It is fairly quick. Easy to collect any data /
information you need in a rural or tribal village. The PRA process enables you to get
closer to the rural community, which makes way for you to plan – „plan in a
participatory mode‟, using the data the villagers gave you.

PRA is a sort of semi-structured inquiry carried out in a village, by development


practitioners in order to acquire data and information about rural life – fairly quickly‟.
PRA is a favourite tool with many NGOs, and it is part of planning exercise in many
government programmes over 2 decades now not only in India, but also in many
developing countries.

Box – 2: What is a semi-structured Inquiry (Interview)?


If PRA uses semi-structured Inquiry, does it imply that there is something called fully-structured and
something else called: unstructured Inquiry? The questionnaires used in household surveys are, often
fully structured – meaning all the questions are pre-determined and it is presumed to be complete. One
demerit in using such fully structured questionnaires is that anything that is not pre-determined
obviously gets omitted. There is no way the Inquiry can accommodate such unanticipated responses.
Therefore, we remain ignorant about it. On the other hand if we are unstructured, meaning going with
no questionnaire at all, we may fail in sequencing our line of questioning, and consequently we may
miss collecting some data / information that did not occur during the [jumbled]course of our inquiry. In
the case of semi-structured interviews we have a check-list of, often open ended questions, which are
in a sequence. Since what aids the inquiry process is only a check-list, anything that we may have
failed to pre-determine in our checklist can be accommodated during the inquiry. The inquiry often
progresses like a seamless conversation, where the next question we ask is determined partly by what
we have in the check-list, and partly by what the response was to the previous question.

PRA Methods
PRA has a menu of methods, which are often called „tools / techniques or methods of
PRA‟. There are certain principles that PRA facilitators need to bear in mind and
practice during the course of inquiry / interviewing (see Section – 4).

13
Menu of PRA Methods / Tools
 Transect Walk
 Social Mapping
 Seasonality Analysis
 Ranking Exercises
o Wealth / well-being ranking
o Direct Matrix Ranking
o Pair-wise Ranking
o Preference Ranking
o Ranking Criteria Matrix
 Institutional Diagram / Venn Diagram
 Livelihoods Analysis
 Focus Group Discussion
 Chain of Interviews
 Case Studies
 Linkage / Mobility Map
 Problem Analysis / Problem Inventory
 Causal Diagram / Problem Tree
 NSL Chart (Now – Soon – Later Chart)
 Future Visioning
 Do it Yourself
The menu of PRA methods and tools presented above is only an indicative list. PRA
practitioners world over have come out with / innovated methods and tools depending
that type / nature of data they are trying to elicit. The concept of PRA renders the
flexibility to adapt, improvise and innovate methods and tools depending on what data
/ information we are trying to elicit from the community in question. What it cannot
compromise is only of the principles and the basic premise of PRA such as respecting
the villagers, listening to them, and learning from them. We shall see more about the
methods and techniques in the subsequent sections, and a suggest battery of PRA tools
that Participating Institutions of UBA can put to use.

14
By now, we have understood that PRA is a set of methods and techniques to collect
data and information about a situation relatively rapidly.And that it is „an approach‟
which has certain principles, when put to work: (i) brings reliable data within a short
span of time; and (ii) enables getting closer to the community. Before we learn about
the principles of PRA, we‟d better learn the PRA methods and techniques that are
appropriate to the PIs of UBA. The PRA for UBA is presented in the subsequent
section.
General PRAs Vs Thematic PRAs
General PRAs
This is going to a village in the vicinity with an open mind, forgetting what subject
you have specialized in. Maybe, you are professionally trained in Electrical
Engineering, Computer Science, Agricultural Economics, or Corporate Management.
But, we keep all that in the backburner, and conduct a general PRA allowing any issue
to emerge during the discussion with the villagers. It means we go to the village with
open mind so as to understand the situations and conditionsas presented.It can also be
called „Situation Analysis‟. We conduct all the PRA exercises explained above, and
record whatever priority the community members expressed. Turn their needs and
priorities into a workable proposal, and submit to UBA for support.

The point is, in General PRA, you do not restrict your discussion / focus into one area
such as Agriculture, or Animal Husbandry or Computer Science or Electrical
Engineering etc. Instead, the focus is on overall development, as prioritized by the
community you are working with. NGOs working for overall village development
generally follow this approach. This is fighting the war as it presents itself. You
refrain from choosing (your war) what you think should be the focus.

As a Higher Education Institution with specific areas of specialization, and you as a


specialist in a given subject, may not feel comfortable to work on any problem that the
community members throw at you. But, that is what general PRA is. On the contrary,
if you believe working within your professional competence would be meaningful to
initiate action, you‟d better choose Thematic PRAs.

15
Thematic PRAs
Thematic PRAs put to use your area of expertise. In other words, you can explore how
your knowledge and expertise can be beneficially used in solving specific problems
posed by villagers.

If your institution is specializing in a given theme, for instance you could be from an
Engineering College, or Management School, or Agricultural College or Veterinary
University, or from Arts and Science College / University, you can choose to work in
what you are specializing in. Please refer to UBA compendium on „Capacity Building
for Community Engagement‟. You shall find in this compendium various modes of
working with rural people. In such situations you may go for Thematic PRA exercises.

Agriculture College: A PRA team from an Agriculture College would set the focus
of all his PRA exercise to revolve around agriculture, seeds, fertilizers, pests,
pesticides, irrigation, agricultural credit, agricultural marketing, post-harvest
processing of activities, technologies to convert biomass / agricultural residues into
usable products and bio-energy etc. This can be demonstrated in a village or in a
cluster of 2 - 3 villages, which can become a model for scaling up. Stubble burning is
a serious problem in Western India. The UBA Institutions can take up such issues.

Veterinary University:A PRA team from Veterinary University shall focus all his
PRA exercise on animal husbandry related activities such as types of animals, breed,
animal feed, yield, diseases, income through milk and other milk products, veterinary
services, local practices in feed production and animal health care, marketing and
earnings etc.

Management School:A PRA team from a Management School may focus on banking
habits and practices, financial inclusion, insurance, credit, sources of borrowings,
interest rates, repayment terms, financial institutions involved – formal / informal,
savings, household economy etc. Or they can focus on local products, how many
households are involved, source of raw materials, quality, design, target consumers,

16
demand, transport, marketability, profits, individual enterprises, collective enterprises,
government support, network etc.

Engineering College:A PRA Team from an Engineering College may focus on water
sources, water table, rain water flow, water conservation / storage structures, water
quality, water for various uses, waste wastage, water budgeting etc. Or They may
focus on technical structures / infrastructure available for drinking water supply, Over
Head Tank, Sump, distribution pipe lines, tap connections at household level,
common water collection points, drainage system, wastewater disposal system, storm
water disposal / storage structures, rainwater harvesting structures, pump room, source
of power to pump water, how much is the monthly electricity bill, possibilities for
solar application etc.

Arts and Science College: A PRA Team from an Arts and Science College can go
into the areas of how social support / social assistance programmes of the government
reach the needy such as aged people, destitute widows, and disabled people and so on.
Identify the number of people who are eligible but are not getting old age pension,
disability pension etc. Guide and handhold them, so that they get those benefits.Other
possible areas are: improving the functioning of anganwadi, local school, child
nutrition, organizing health camps, Animal health camps, studying and improving
SHG accounting system;help the Panchayat to set up e-panchayat system; setting up
citizen service centre, if absence of it came up in the problem analysis exercise (see
Annexure 2 for more examples).

Computer Science: Those working in computer science field should go into a web
portal of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR)called „eGramSwaraj‟. Thisweb
portal that aims at bringing in better transparency in planning at the village level,
progress reporting of works being carried out in those villages, and a work-based
accounting.It includes village profiling, action plan creation, activity output, financing
and accounting, and a Public Fund Management System (PFMS) Dash Board, which
is an on-line payment system. This is a marvelous initiative of the Government of
India from the perspective of good governance (such as transparency, accountability,

17
and faster reporting of development works taking place in a village). However,
Panchayats might find it difficult to work with such portals. If you, as a technical
institution,can familiarize yourself with such web portals, you would be in a position
to build the capacity of your adopted Panchayats as „e-panchayats‟. This e-panchayat
can become a school of practice for other Panchayats to learn from.
Three Pillars of PRA

 Hand over the stick  Facilitate


 „They can do it‟  Don‟t rush
 „Use your own best judgement at  Ask them
all times‟  Have fun
 Sit down, listen, learn, respect  Be nice to people
 Unlearn  Embrace error
 Relax

Behaviour
Attitudes

Methods Sharing

They
 Interview  Observe  They share their knowledge and analysis with
 Map  List each other and with us
 Model  Compare  All share experiences of living, food...
 Rank  Count  Organisations, trainers share their training
 camps, experiences with others NGOs,
 Score Estimate
Government, Universities, Donors..
 Analyse  Act
 Partnership
 Diagram  Monitor
 Present  Evaluate
 Plan

Source: Robert Chambers, Whose Reality Counts: Putting the First


Last, Intermediate Technology Publications, 1997, London, P.105
18
SECTION - 3

PRA Methods and Techniques for UBA

The Participating Institutions (PIs) of UBA adopt villages with a view to addressing
the development challenges in the vicinity of the Institution applying appropriate
technologies / management models and so on. How relevant are our interventions in
the village? Are we really addressing the real pressing problems of the villagers? Or,
we are trying to develop a solution to a non-existent problem in the village? Imagine
how hilarious it would be to the villagers, when we go with a solution to a problem
that does not exist in that village.

PRA helps identify real problems of the villagers. It throws open the magnitude of the
problem, and how important it is for the villagers to address it. The PRA process
brings to light facts, which in our language we call „data and information‟ that we can
put to use for writing meaningful proposal seeking support from UBA for
implementation. We come to know the importance and urgency associated with each
problem the villagers put across, along with their priority in terms of urgency. This
helps prepare a three-year perspective plan for the village we adopted, and take up
problems –preferably one at a time.

Box– 3 What is GPDP? Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP for short) is a
development plan of the Gram Panchayat. It is prepared through a participatory process
involving all the stakeholders matching people’s needs and priorities with available resources.
This is a comprehensive plan. It encompasses almost all the areas of village development.
Therefore, it is often prepared as a five year perspective plan, broken down into Annual Plans
for the Gram Panchayat in question. Preparation of GPDP is mandatory for Gram Panchayats
in India so as to obtain government funds meant for various spheres of rural development. The
Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) has issued Guidelines for Preparation of Gram Panchayat
Development Plan (GPDP, 2018). It’s available in the website of the MoPR. This document

PRA Battery for UBA


The following is a battery of PRA methods and tools that PIs of UBA can put to use in
the adopted villages. This list is suggestive. The PI can adapt, change, and improvise
methods depending on the context, and the purpose of PRA. The list of books for
19
„further reading‟ given at the end of this handbook shall help learn more, if someone is
interested.
1. Transect Walk
2. Social Map
3. Problem Inventory / Analysis
4. Problem Prioritization (NSL Chart)
5. Solution Assessment
6. Analysis Group Discussion

Let‟s try to understand each one of these exercises, briefly. Then we can see how to
actually conduct these exercises in the village.

EXERCISE – 1: Transect Walk


What is this? This is a guided walk that „outsiders‟ (in our case it is the PIs or HEIs)
take along with the „insiders‟ [villagers]. Take a walk, visit and observe the village.
This is not a hurried walk. Stop where required, discuss, ask and understand.

20
Who participates? A team of villagers walk with you – of course, upon your
invitation - in all the streets, lanes, agricultural fields - visiting and observing
everything, and all that is happening on the way. Depending upon what do you think
should be the focus, sensibly choose your participants / know who are all coming with
you. If your focus is „farming‟ ensure that at least 2 – 3 participants are farmers.

The purpose: The villagers walk you through the village streets, lanes, farms, etc.
where you walk along with them observing, discussing, and getting an idea of the
settlement patterns, common infrastructures, institutions / facilities available, farm
practices, animal husbandry and so on.

Outcome Expected:This helps you form a mental overview of the village. You can
draw a map, if it can be of use / necessary. This will prepare you to get down
facilitating the villagers to draw social map, which is the next important PRA exercise
you shall be conducting in the village for data collection. Thirdly, by the time you
complete your transect walk, you would find you know the names of all those who
walked with you, their background, interests, and concerns that you need to „probe‟
during subsequent PRA exercises such as „problem analysis‟.

Caution:Observation does not mean watching and assuming. Remember observation


always involves discussion. Observe. Ask. Discuss. Seek clarification. If you take a
„power-walk‟ watching and assuming, that‟s not going to help understand the village.

Box –4 Chance Encounters / Chain of Interviews:During Transect Walk, it is possible we chance


upon a farmer involved in dairying; or a family involved coir-thread making /basket making / mat
weaving / pottery etc. Or a woman involved in floriculture; or a group of women collecting water from a
common water collection point; or labourer coming back home after finishing his shifting duty in a
private mill in the town and so on. This is called ‘chance encounter. Make direct observation of what
they are doing, and pick up conversation about the livelihood activity they are involved in. You can
request them if you can try your hands in coir-making or basket making. Have some fun. They
appreciate it. You can get a feel of how hard or difficult it is. We may miss some vital information, if we
ignore such chance encounters and walk blind-folded.

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EXERCISE – 2: Social Mapping / Village Mapping
What is this?This is „village map‟asdrawn by villagers on the ground (not to scale) –
using rangolipowder or chalk piece etc. This is an Ariel view photograph of the
village showing all the streets, lanes, institutions, common infrastructure, houses etc.

What is depicted in the Map? Village Map, first of all, depicts all the streets, and
lanes in the village. This is followed by marking the locations where various
institutions such as Panchayat Office, School, Anganwadi, Health Centre; and location
of other common infrastructure in the village i.e. water tank, hand-pumps / common
water collection points, street lights, community hall etc. Then, they depict all the
houses street-wise. This is people‟s map. We can copy the map on a chart, if we
require.

If there are 240 houses, all the houses are drawn. Yes, it takes about 3 – 4 hours. If
Gram Panchayat has more than one hamlet / village, you‟d better do it separately with
relevant participants. Each house is numbered (and a card is prepared assigning a
number along with name of the Head of the Household, which makes it easy to make
any further reference to that house). Once social map is ready on the ground, any
information can be collected, depending on the purpose of PRA.

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For instance, you want to know the hand pumps that are working / not working, the
villagers can count and tell you; if you want to know houses with / without toilet, they
can tell you; if you want to know houses that has water tapconnection, they can tell
you; if you want to know houses that have school going children; aged persons getting
/ not getting Old Age Pension, they can tell you; if you want them to identify in the
map houses that has cow / buffalo / sheep, they can identify; if you want households
that are wage earners; households that are big farmers etc. Thus, social map can give
you any information you wish to draw from it.

Who participates?In drawing social map it is good to involve young men, women,
and middle school level children also. They can actively involve in drawing the map.
When it comes to collecting data from a completed social map, it is good to involve
some aged persons also.

The purpose: Collecting data regarding population, households, caste (if required),
occupation details, institutions available, common infrastructure facilities available /
not available; and household details depending on the type of data we are looking for.
If we are looking for „child labourers details‟, we can ask the local people to identify

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houses that has child labourers / school-age-children not going to school; if we are
looking for households without a functional water tap connection, they can identify; if
we are looking for households that have toilet, but not using, they can identify. Thus,
social map can generate a wealth of information, you need.
Outcome Expected:Social Map that the villagers drew on the ground can be copied
on a chart paper for our use, if we require. It is good to hand over a copy to the
Panchayat Office for their future use. The household data and common facilities
related data you needed about the village can be obtained from social map.

Caution:Soon after landing in a village, if you ask people to draw a map of their
village, they shall get intimidated. They have to be slowly facilitated into doing this.
Explain clearly - one step at a time. Do not give a bundle of instructions. First of all,
get them started with main streets, followed by all the lanes, then common facilities,
and finally to draw every house. Our facilitation must make it easy – without
confusing the villagers. After they complete drawing the map, you can appreciate and
show them that they could draw a map of the village, which perhaps, they never tried
before.
Box –5 Baseline Data / Information:The data generated from social map could serve as a
baseline data. Baseline data is about the stage a village is in, in different spheres of
development, beforewe initiate an intervention / introduce project. For example, Social Map
may show that at the time of entry of the PI, hardly 40% of the households used toilets. That
means 60% of the households were not using toilet at the start of the project. This comes to
light through PRA ‘’Baseline’. This baseline indicates that there is project intervention required
to change 60% of the households to use toilet. Similarly, it might come out in PRA social map
that some school-age children were not admitted in the school, and a few others ‘dropped out’.
We need to identify how many (count) children, and identify their houses in the Social Map.
Maybe, some 13 of them were not admitted at all, and 20 of them, who got admitted, dropped
out after a short while. This is our PRA baseline information. We need to take steps to make
100% school enrolment, and ‘zero dropouts’ in the school.

EXERCISE – 3: Problem Inventory / Analysis


What is this?This exercise is conducted with a view to facilitating the villagers list
out all the problems / issues they face with reference to lives and livelihoods. It can
relate to lack of water for irrigation, or non-availability of quality seeds, quality issues

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in drinking water, poor school education, or absence of primary health care facility
etc. People list out all the problems.

How is this depicted? We initiate this exercise asking the people to tell you one or
two pressing problems in the village. When one of the participants raises an issue, if
others too felt that to be a serious issue, they tend to join in describing and explaining
how lack of „that facility‟ affects lives and livelihoods in that village. That issue is
written down in a card (post card size card) and is kept in front of everyone. Then
someone comes up with a second issue, third issue, fourth issue and so on. Have
patience. Allow them to decide, analyseand judge what issues are important.

List of problems (pasted on a wall) identified by people using postcards / sticky notes

Who participates?Ensure you have relevant participants from village. When you
discuss on issues related to agriculture find out how many of the „insiders‟are into
agriculture; similarly, when you discuss about problems in anganwadi or primary
school, take a look at the number of mothers / parents that are present, or even school
going children, who can give authentic information.

The purpose:Through semi-structured interviewing, you need to identify the


problems of the local peoplefrom their perspective through their lived experiences,
and priority. It is their problems, they are listing. You are only facilitating – not
prompting or assessing / judging.

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Outcome Expected:Since you ask one of them to write one card for every problem,
you shall have as many cards as there were problems narrated / analysed. Thus, you
may end up with say, 8 – 15 cards – each card contains a problem.

Caution:Having participants not directly concerned with an issue may not provide
quality information. Ensure you have the right participants. Let them say. Let them list
out. Let them analyse. Let them explain. After all, it‟s their problem. Facilitate the
discussion. Refrain from prompting and suggesting solutions.

EXERCISE – 4: Problem Prioritization (NSL Chart):

What is this?This is an attempt to classify (the problems identified) based on urgency


and importance. All the cards (each containing a problem) are to be placed into two or
three boxes as shown in the picture below.

A Typical NSL Chart


NOW - N SOON - S LATER - L
(3 – 6 months) (6 months – One year) (Beyond one year)
 100% IHHL coverage  Survey and count HH  All office / school
and declare „real ODF‟. without drinking water tap buildings and premises
 The toilets in the connection / those with to have roof-water
primary school and illegal water tap harvesting structures.
anganwadibe rendered connection and those who  1000 tree saplings be
usable with water line use motors for sucking planted in common &
facility. water from pipeline. private lands.
 Renovate all ponds, and  Regularize illegal tap  Survey number of
water storage structures connection & remove persons eligible for old
in the village. water taps where pumps age pension and
 Groundwater recharge are used for sucking water disability pension and
pits be made in 20 from water distribution help them apply.
strategic points in the lines.
village.

How to carry out this exercise?We draw these boxes on the ground with a piece of
chalk or in a chart paper. First or all, the facilitator clarifies that since all the problems
cannot be addressed straight away instantaneously, we need to decide on the timelines.
Therefore, he writes NOW, SOON, LATER on the top of the chart. But, it is the

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community members who have to define the period that can make NOW; the period
that can make SOON; and the period that can make LATER.

Once this is clear, the facilitator takes one of the „problem cards‟ – one card at a time -
reads out the problem written up there, and places it in front of the community
members (local participants). Then he asks about the urgency of „that problem‟ in
relation to other serious problems they have written in other cards. The community
members start discussing and giving their opinions on how serious that card [„that
problem‟] in question is. After a thorough discussion the community members have to
decide unanimously, which of the three boxes „this card‟ goes in. Is it under N or S or
L?
This way every card is discussed. All the cards get classified into one of the three
boxes in the chart. It gives an idea to the PRA team that they have to write a project
proposal that addresses „the top problem‟mentioned under NOW. The other problems
can be taken up subsequently. This is a continuous engagement. Therefore, it may go
up to 3 to 5 years to resolve all the problems written up in all the cards.
Box – 6 Saturation Approach:The Government of India aims at putting to use, saturation approach to
achieving model villages in the country. Saturation simply means reaching 100% in every aspect of
development. For example, the Jal Jeevan Mission of the Ministry of Jal Sakthi aims at providing
Functional House Tap Connection for drinking water supply to 100% of the rural household by the year
2024. If you identify 30% of the households do not have access to piped water supply in your adopted
village. Make plans and officially move to ensure that yourvillage achieves 100% in providing piped
water supply connection. To make up fund insufficiency, use the Rural Water Supply Scheme of the
government. This way, you ensure, 100% of households have access to piped water supply; 100% of
the households have and use toilets; 100% of school going children are in school; 100% of children of
less than 4 years of age are enrolled in anganwadi; 100% immunization against seven vaccine
preventable diseases; 100% institutional delivery and so on. Zero hunger. Zero malnutrition. Zero drop-
out.

Who participates?It depends on the problem being discussed. We can have 12 – 15


local participants, who understand all these issues being discussed. You can have a
mix of men, women, young, old and school going children.

The purpose:ThePRA team gets a sense of what is urgent in the opinion of the
villagers. You tend to propose a project that is in the priority of the people. When a

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real pressing problem is taken up and discussed towards solution every local person
tends to participate.

Outcome Expected:Havethree lists of problems identified by local people. No.1


(NOW) is a list of problems that if resolved within 3 – 6 months people would feel
relieved of „one pressing problem‟. This problem and data related to that problem
gives strength to the PRA Team (Participating Institution) to write a Project Proposal
for submission to UBA. A probable list of development works / development
priorities that people might come up with is presented in Annexure -

Caution:Problem Analysis and Problem Prioritization exercises generally raise the


expectations of the people on the PI. You need to be wary of this fact, and clarify your
position and intension that (i) you are trying to lend a hand in resolving one or two
pressing problems in the village; (ii) you have your limitations of funds and powers,
and strength of connections and technical expertise; and (iii) people should make full
use of the PI‟s strength as a technical institution in order to resolve issues. However,
villagers should not develop unreasonable / far-fetched expectations to become
dependent on the PI, which will take them nowhere. This is ethics in development
transaction.

Box – 7 Sources of fund for a Gram Panchayat: This is called Resource Envelope in GPDP.
Gram Panchayats lay out a five year perspective plan and annual plans. The GPDP preparation
process identifies not only the needs and priorities of the villagers, but also government
schemes that can financially and technically support implementation for resolving issues. Funds
for implementation are made available by various departments of the government. An indicative
list of issues / problems and relevant department of the government / scheme that can come in
handy so as to resolve that issue is presented in Annexure – 4. Besides this, the Gram
Panchayat also has the power to raise local revenues by levying taxes (such as house tax), and
services charges on water supply, sanitation and waste management services rendered by the
Gram Panchayat. To know about other sources of funds see Box – 5.

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EXERCISE – 5: Solution Assessment through Ranking Criteria Matrix

What is this?Problems have been analysed and priorities have been set by the people.
Now, let them come out with possible solutions. Or what do they think can resolve the
issue. This can be done on the ground, or on a chart paper.

How is this exercise carried out? We can go for a Ranking Criteria Matrix. This is a
PRA method, where all the solutions are listed, and matched again certain acceptable
criteria. Let the people come out with their own criteria. The PRA Facilitator (team)
can add at the end, if people agreed to add your criteria to their list of criteria. You can
ask if they want to consider the criteria to be not only socially acceptable but also
technically sound and financially viable and manageable. How about the sustainable
maintenance arrangement? What kind of management model shall fit alright? etc.

Ranking Criteria Matrix


Solution Solution Solution Solution Remarks
(Option-1) (Option-2) (Option-3) (Option-4)
Criteria -1
(Community 2 3 4 1
Acceptance)
Criteria -2
(Technical easiness to 4 3 4 4
use)
Criteria -3 (Fund
1 2 2 1
support from scheme)
Criteria -4
1 1 2 1
(Maintenance)
Score 8 9 12 7
Rank III II I IV
Score: 1 = Very Poor; 2 = Poor; 3 = Good; 4 = Very Good
Who participates?All those who are concerned with the problem in question can be
invited to participate.

The purpose:Selecting the most suitable solution for implementation in order to


resolve a pressing problem identified through „NSL Chart‟.
Outcome Expected:The most suitable solution to the problem in question emerges
through people‟s consensus based on their scoring and ranking.

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Caution:Clear understanding of the method is important. The PRA facilitator can start
the participatory analysis of the solutions based on the criteria evolved by people, only
after making sure that everyone has understood the method, and purpose of the
exercise. People can suggest if there are any other more scientific way of assessing the
appropriateness of the solution.
EXERCISE – 6: Participatory Beneficiary Selection
What is this?This is an optional exercise, where individual beneficiaries are to be
selected for the purpose of a particular project. Best examples can be (i) selection of
youth for skill training; (ii) selection of progressive farmers, who are willing to try out
a high-yielding seed variety for actual field experimentation; (iii) selection of artisans
or crafts persons to try out an improved technology application in place of a traditional
tool so as to reduce drudgery / enhance productivity or reduce cost.
How is this exercise carried out? If we have the cards (with names and house
number) prepared during Social Mapping exercise, those cards can be used to call out
the names. The community members can decide, who all deserve a given scheme/
benefit. The concerned person(s) can also express their willingness. Make sure there is
no inclusion or exclusion error. In the sense, analysis must be thorough so that a
person who deserves does not get excluded or vice versa.

Who participates?Depending on the nature of project, the PRA team should make
sure the relevant members / representatives of households participate. This can even
be a larger group going even up to 30 – 40 local people.

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The purpose:Selection of beneficiaries with the approval of the community members,
and willingness of the prospective beneficiaries.

Outcome Expected:Selectlocal people who really deserve certain assistance, and not
include someone who would not participate / does not need support.

Caution:This is a very sensitive exercise. At times, everyone might want to get


included. Use people‟s criteria in selecting participants / beneficiaries. The criteria
must be clear and acceptable to most present. When someone slightly above the cut
off of selection might challenge the list of beneficiaries as erroneous or prepared with
vested interest. You need to be prepared to deal with such challenges with patience
and ingenuity.
Box – 8:XV Finance Commission Funds for Gram Panchayats:Central and State Finance
Commission Funds are other major sources of funds for Gram Panchayats to implement plans
that people prepare through GPDP exercise. This is made available in addition to the scheme
funds from various departments of the government. The XV-FC has worked out the total size of
the grant to be Rs.60,750 crore for the period FY 2020-21 to the Rural Local Bodies (which
includes also Block Panchayats and District Panchayats also). The total XV FC allocation for
various states of India for the period 2020 – 2024 is given in Annexure– 4 & 5.

EXERCISE – 7: Analysis Group Discussion(Development Seminar)


What is this?All these PRA exercises have been conducted in different locations of
the Gram Panchayat. In this final sitting with the villagers, almost every one
belonging to the village – irrespective their participation and non-participation in the
previous PRA exercises - is invited to participate. Everyone should get to know the
entire process and the outcome of the series of PRA exercises conducted in the village
over a period of 2 – 3 days. In GPDP this is called Development Seminar.

How is this exercise carried out? The outcome of every PRA exercise – starting
from Social Map, Problems listed; Priority that got into each cubicle of the N-S-L; and
the problem that got to the top in the list of priority issues to be addressed.

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Who participates?This is almost a Gram Sabha, including the school going children.

The purpose:The purpose is everyone should come to know the problems listed,
priority arrived at, the solutions considered, and the final solution that is most likely to
be taken up for implementation.

Outcome Expected:The data generated through all the PRA exercises get validated
by larger group of people. The problem picked up for writing up in the form of a
proposal for UBA support gets ready.

Caution:This is a larger group with people of varying interests – political, religious


and other affiliations. Therefore, the crowd must be handled carefully without getting
into local conflicts and political differences / controversies.

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SECTION – 4

PRA: Principles and Process

Principles of PRA
PRA is flexible, adaptable, and it encourages improvisation and innovation as far as
application of methods and tools are concerned. The actual practice of PRA process
should follow certain principles so as to ensure quality outcome. Outcome in terms of
enthused community participation, and obtaining reliable data and information, we set
out searching.

In this section we shall see (i) Principles of PRA, (ii) Semi-structured interviewing
and common mistakes to avoid while interacting with villagers; (iii) and Process to be
adopted / avoided. There is nothing sacrosanct about all these. However, these have
come about from practitioners as „good practice‟, which helps improve community
participation, strengthening trust, and enhance reliability of the data being shared by
the community members with an external team like a PRA team from a Participating
Institution of UBA.

The following are the principles of PRA, in brief.

 It is a field-based appraisal undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team:


PRAs are conducted amidst community members who serve as key informants.
A multi-disciplinary team of 3 - 4 subject specialists from different disciplines,
depending on the topic of inquiry – can make up the outsiders‟ team.
 Flexibility and Informality: This is about reversal of role [outsiders as
learners and villagers as teachers, who know about that village]; it is about
informality and having fund; it is about semi-structured interviews; it is about
adapting / improvising PRA methods and tools depending on the expertise of
insiders [villagers] and the data required by outsiders.
 Right Attitude and Behaviour: This is about Openness; Humility; Curiosity;
Acceptance; and Sensitivity. This is about showing respect; being friendly;

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sharing; interacting; being patient; not lecturing, listening, learning and de-
learning and relearning.
 Optimal Ignorance and Appropriate Imprecision:This is about avoiding
unnecessary details, over-collection of data nor aiming at accuracy / precision.
The PRA team asks itself: „what kind of data / information is required, for what
purpose, and how accurate does it have to be?‟ Thus, we choose to be optimally
ignorant, and appropriately imprecise. We‟d better to be approximately correct
than precisely wrong.
 On-the Spot Analysis: The data generated during participatory discussions,
undergo analysis on-the-spot, in the presence of owners of the data – the
villagers. They have all the chances to correct us, if we seem to have
understood / recorded something wrong.
 Off-setting Biases and Being Self-critical: This is about being alert (self-
critical) that we [outsiders] may inadvertently interact only with the elite and
the articulate in the village, not realising that the poor, and the marginalised
remain away voiceless from being heard / consulted. The PRA team needs to
reflect on what is said and not said, seen and not seen, who is met and not met,
and tries to identify possible sources of error and how they influence the
interpretation of the data / information gathered.
 Triangulation: This is cross-checking the accuracy and reliability of the data
being gathered. One way of doing this is cross-checking with any secondary
data available with Gram Panchayat, BDO etc. Another way is making a direct
observation of the places / things / people being referred to in the discussions.
A third way is we use different PRA tools in different settings in the same
village, where you can look for consistency of / contradiction in information.
Fourthly, we use different PRA tools to gather different types of data, where
there are changes of overlap. Such overlap can serve as a way of cross-
checking data. Fifthly, PRA team (outsiders‟ team) is a multi-disciplinary team,
and so it‟s possible any member of this team may point out data inaccuracy /
contradiction, if any felt and seek validation before we actually use it.

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Box – 9 Six Helpers in PRA: The PRA process constantly uses six helpers viz. What? When?
Where? Why? Which? How? This is called ‘probing’ or ‘key probes’. Thus, in a PRA exercise
whatever information people share with the PRA team, all such data are subject to discussion by all
the sections of the people who have assembled. Probing and on-the-sport Analysis are part of PRA
process. It helps us have all our doubts clarified before we can admit a piece of information as ‘true
and valid’. Trust and respect are important in PRA. At the same time, it does not mean we need to
take any information without adequate probing. It’s possible the information being shared could be
a fact, rumour, hearsay, or false. People might talk what they think you like listening to. If they
sensed you like listening to ‘negative stories’, they might fabricate such stories and tell you. Use Six
Helpers of PRA appropriately so as to ensure the data you gather is reliable, and not figments of
imagination of people who have gathered.

The Practice of PRA Process


We have been repeatedly indicting that if principles of PRA are not adhered to, the
process of PRA tend to go wrong. When the process is wrong, the outcome tend to be
wrong. If the outcome had come through devious or short-cut methods, it may not
yield the result we desired to achieve.Thequality of participation and the quality of
data may become questionable. The data may become unreliable / irrelevant to the
context from where it appeared to have emerged.

PRA Process
Every village is different in some way or the other. People follow different cultural
practices, and social mores. Therefore, it is almost impossible to prescribe the right
way (process to be followed)forconducting PRA exercises, except some general
prescriptions such as people in every culture like to be respected; deep inside,
everyone is honest and treat people accordingly and so on. However, the following
can be taken as a general protocol for generating reliable data through a PRA process.

(i) Atmosphere-Based

 Is the whole atmosphere of information generation informal, free, conductive


and non-threatening?

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 Is the place chosen for conducting PRA exercise a common place where all
could assemble? Is there any place-specific barrier to assembling and
discussing?

 How does the seating position look? Who seem to occupy superior place? (It
should be either that the “villages” take the superior position or the outsiders”
and the “villagers” occupy positions of equality. The outsiders should never
occupy the superior position.)

(ii) Team-Based

 Is there „role reversal‟ (outsiders as learners, villagers as teachers)?


 Is there any „role confusion‟ and „role change‟ among the PRA team
members?
 Is there „rushing‟? or is the learning process gradual and progressive?
 Is there coherence between successive questions or are they jumbled?
 Does the facilitator/interviewer establish proper eye contact with every
participant or does he/ she focus on only one or two informants who are
seemingly active?
 Do “they” do it?
 Are adequate probing and crosschecking of information done?
 Are the six helpers in PRA, viz., what, when, where, how, who, and, which;
adequately and continuously used?
 Is the information generated triangulated?
 Is the facilitator really sensitive, or dramatic or pretending to be dumb? Is the
discussion too lengthy?
 Is shoulder-tapping done whenever necessary, as a way of indicating to our
team members that there is a digression / deviation taking place?
 Is there a natural starting and natural withdrawal? * Are „chance encounters‟
(during Transect) made use of or ignored?
 Does the team share the information with the villagers?
 Are the responses and answers properly judged? (Since the responses may be
fact/ opinion/rumour/ false)?
 Is there any language-related barrier? You may speak the same language, but
still not understand each other because of the difference in slang?
 How is the Team Mix? (Is the team multi-disciplinary?)

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iii) People – Based

 How is the Villagers Mix? (young? old? men? women? mixed?)


 What is the „outsiders‟, „villagers‟ ratio? Locals should be more, and outsiders
can be a small team.
 Do the villagers, do, say, show and map with natural involvement and
willingnessor with reluctance and because they got caught into it?
 Are locally available materials used in the exercises?

A continuous reflection over the process would enable us to handle the PRA methods
with ease, confidence and ingenuity. All these would enhance the quality of the PRA.

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SECTION – 5
Semi-Structured Interviews (SSI)
What is SSI?
PRA uses semi-structured Interviewtechnique. This is also known as Semi-structured
Inquiry. The expression „semi-structured‟ implies that there is something called fully-
structured and something else called: unstructured Inquiry? The questionnaires used
in household surveys are, often fully structured – meaning all the questions are pre-
determined and it is presumed to be complete.

One demerit in using such fully structured questionnaires is that anything that is not
pre-determined obviously gets omitted during the course of inquiry / interview. There
is no way the Inquiry can accommodate such unanticipated responses. Therefore, we
remain ignorant about it. On the other hand if we are unstructured, meaning going
with no questionnaire at all, we may fail in sequencing our line of questioning, and
consequently we may miss collecting some data / information that did not occur
during the [jumbled] course of our inquiry.

In the case of semi-structured interviews we have a check-list of, often open ended
questions, which are in a sequence. Since what aids the interview process is only a
check-list, anything that we may have failed to pre-determine in our checklist can be
accommodated during the interview. The interview often progresses like a seamless
conversation, where the next question we ask is determined partly by what we have in
the check-list, and partly by what the response was to the previous question.

Facilitators of PRA exercise generally use Semi-structured Interview technique. But,


using SSI requires skills in setting the tone of the discussion, ingenuity to skills and

How to do Semi-structured Interviewing (SSI)

• The interviewing team consists of 2-4 people of different disciplines.

• Ensure horse-shoe shape seating so that eye-contact with everyone is easy.

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• Begin with the traditional greeting and state that the interview team is here
to learn.

• Begin the questioning by referring to someone or something visible.

• Conduct the interview informally and mix questions with discussion.

• Be open minded and objective.

• Let each team member finish their line of questioning (don‟t interrupt).

• Carefully lead up to sensitive questions.

• Assign one note-taker (but rotate).

• Be aware of non-verbal signals.

• Avoid leading questions and value judgments.

• Avoid questions which can be answered with „yes or no‟.

• Individual interviews should be no longer than 45 minutes.

• Group interviews should be no longer than two hours.

• Each interviewer should have a list of topics and key questions written down in
his / her notebook.

SSI Individual Errors

The following are some of the mistakes we generally make, that we should avoid.

• Failing to listen closely

• Repeating questions

• Helping out informants when they appear temporarily lost for word by

o Interrupting
o Suggesting answers

• Asking vague questions

• Failing to probe, (use Six helpers)

• Asking leading questions

• Too long an interview

• Pretending to be dumb

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• Focusing on lead informant

• Appearing to be intimidating or overbearing

SSI Team Errors

• Interrupting each other during the interview or long gaps

• Switching to a new topic suddenly

• Failing to close the group (meaning some people leaving half-way)

• Failing to plan and prepare fully

• Failing to give sufficient time for group discussions

• Improper place for interviewing (some people don‟t participate because of it)

• Too many/too less informants

• Lack of process observations (if the PRA team is following the principles)

• Methods / tools not mutually understood (e.g. when you can‟t explain clearly
how to do map, or how to do ranking exercises people tend to leave)

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SECTION – 6

Using PRA outcome to Write UBA Proposals

The series of PRA exercises helped you come up with a wealth of data about the
village, and on the pressing problem that the people report about. You also have
solution suggested by community members – of course incorporating your technical
expertise with the approval of the villagers.

The concept of Village Adoption by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) entails


development practice that is reflexive, and socially useful. It involves moving from
ideation to action. It‟s about experiential-learning (i.e. experiencing and learning). It
enables us to be practical thinkers and reflexive doers. It aims at: (i) Initiating
socially useful action; and (ii) sharpening the professional competence and
development facilitating skills of the Faculty members as well as the students
involved in this exercise.

What does a typical proposal contain?


UBA National Coordination Team seeks proposals from Participating Institutions
(PIs) to come up with proposals that the UBA can consider for financial support. The
financial support helps the PIs to move out to the village, identify problems that the
community feels are important, and what we, as HEIs or concerned learners, can do
about it – in resolving the issues being raised. This proposal must emerge from the
community in question. Social acceptability of a solution requires that you take up an
issue that the people feel is urgent. Thus, it is more about social acceptability than
about our having a technical solution. Unless your technical solution is workable / or
exciting, it is unlikely to get accepted by the community members.

One weakness with many of us is as the saying goes, for someone with a hammer in
hand everything would look like nail. For someone who has specialized in developing
mobile applications, s/he has a tendency to think that anything can be solved through a
mobile app. There is nothing wrong trying to reach a solution from the stand point of

41
what one thinks s/he is good at / has expertise in. Yet, this should not be limiting us
from respecting the local knowledge that gets generated through PRA, and thinking of
solutions that is simpler, out-of-the-box, which the villagers are likely to put to more
sustainable use.

Because of this reason the UBA asks all the PIs to be familiar with PRA methods and
techniques. Familiarity with PRA tools and techniques comes in handy while trying to
arrive at community-based solutions, and solutions that the villagers are most likely to
accept. The chances of project success become high (a) when people realize that your
intervention is likely to resolve certain long-standing problems in the village; (b) when
people own up the project concept and strategies; (c) and when people participate as
partners in development, rather than as recipients of certain benefits that an external
agency has planned offer – as charity or so.
Box-10: UBA Proposal Format
1. Project Title: (Give an appropriate and easily understandable title to your project)
5. Subject Expert Group: (Please make sure it goes to the relevant SEG)
6. (a) Name of village where is to be implemented: (This is where you shall conduct your PRA)
(b) District and State of village:
7. (a) Collaborating organization (if any):
8. Objectives of the project (50 words):
10. Brief plan of activities (100 words):
11. Need of Customisation Development with proper assessment for viability of the outcome (50
words):
12. Role of your Institute (50 words):
13. Cost of facility: (Please make sure you do not exceed the ceiling fixed by UBA, unless you have
own source of funds to meet the excess budget if you propose. In such cases indicate so.)
14. Breakup of expenditure: (This is important so that a reviewer knows what expenditures are involved
and if you have been realistic – underestimated or overestimated etc.)
15. Project deliverables (product/process/improvement/ capacity building etc.)
16. Availability of funds from other sources: (This is required, especially when the overall budget
exceeds the ceiling given by UBA)
17. Duration of the work (in terms work plan): This cannot exceed more than six months in most cases.
18. Impact of the Project on Village: (what change you intend to bring about amongst your beneficiaries
/ villagers as a result of your intervention? How your work is going to correct a problem or add value to
the existing conditions?)
Note: I have omitted Name, Contact details etc. of the PI, RCI etc. because obviously you shall provide
those details.

42
Some Vital Information a Reviewer Looks for
Please ensure while writing a proposal, who does your project benefit? How many are
likely to benefit through the solution being proposed? What are the key deliverables?
How is it likely to change the situations and conditions that are existing? What value
does your intervention add / what problem does it resolve? It happens, often enough, a
student has a solution, and he is looking for a problem village. There is nothing wrong
in this approach. For instance, you have a technical solution to remove excess fluoride
or arsenic from drinking water. Find villages that are suffering from fluoride / arsenic
in drinking water, and help resolve. Instead, if you recommend it for any village
irrespective of presence or absence of fluoride / arsenic in water it becomes the story
of our proverbial „mobile app developer‟.

Deliverables

Any action project / development proposal has inputs in the form of data, funds, time,
technical and other resources. All these are deployed with a commitment that, and in
anticipation of certain desired „outcome‟. This is called „deliverable‟. These
deliverables must be clearly stated in the UBA proposal. This (i) helps reviewers of
your proposal to easily understand how clear you are about what you are trying to
achieve; (ii) helps you to keep track of / monitoring if the activities being
implemented are moving in the desired direction; and (iii) later on for an evaluation
team from UBA or third party to report about your actual achievements against what
you originally set out addressing.
Box – 11: Demonstration Mode
Based on field-based observations, you or your students would have come out with some innovative
solutions / equipment that solves a rural problem / problem in agriculture etc. If you have a specific
proven model or prototype of a technology that you would like to see how it works in a village, do it.
Demonstrate to the world that it works in your village. For example, you have developed an innovative
water-saving technology / energy-saving technology / Micro Finance model / e-governance model etc.
Mobile-based Marketing Information System; Waste management technologies; Wastewater
management technologies etc. Demonstrate in the village that it works. This will (a) solve a rural
problem; (b) give you credit that it works in a village, and it’s possible you can scale it up with the
financial assistance of relevant Ministries of the Government such as Department of Science and
Technology (DST) or Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), or Ministry of Jal Sakthi etc.

43
Reporting and Documentation

The series of PRA exercise shall give a wealth of data / information about the adopted
village. This will serve as baseline data. During the course of implementation of your
project in the adopted village, make it a habit to observe and write at least one-pagers
every time you visit the village – along with your students‟ team, of course. Use your
mobile phone very liberally, with the consent of the villagers to take photos, record
videos, and record discussions etc. All these will help you, when you are to write your
intervention, and the outcome. Keep a Field Work Journal - a simple note book
dedicated for the purpose of recording all the project interventions, and every small
change that happens in the village because of, and after your intervention. Make report
writing, and documentation part of your field work. Share.

44
Annexure - 1

Subjects listed in Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution of India

1. Agriculture, including agricultural extension


2. Land Improvement, Implementation of land reforms, and land conservation
3. Minor irrigation, water management and watershed development
4. Animal husbandry, dairying and poultry
5. Fisheries
6. Social Forestry and farm forestry
7. Minor forest produce
8. Small scale industries, including food processing industries
9. Khadi, village and cottage industries
10. Rural Housing
11. Drinking water and sanitation
12. Fuel and Fodder
13. Road, culverts, small bridges, ferries, waterways and other means of
communication
14. Rural electrification, including distribution of electricity
15. Non-conventional sources of energy
16. Poverty alleviation programme
17. Education including primary and secondary schools
18. Technical training and vocational education
19. Adult and non-formal education
20. Village Libraries
21. Cultural activities
22. Markets and fairs
23. Health including hospitals, Primary Health Centres (PHCs), and dispensaries
24. Family Welfare
25. Women and Child Development
26. Social Welfare including welfare of the handicapped, mentally retarded and
aged people
27. Welfare of the weaker sections, and in particular of SC/STs.
28. Public Distribution System
29. Maintenance of Community Assets

45
Annexure - 2

The type of vision you may provide to ponder over

 Safe drinking water available to all households / piped water supply toall
 Open-defecation-freeVillage
 Child-labour freevillage
 100% anganwadienrolment
 100% school enrolment – no drop out and 100%transition
 100% mothers and children are covered under immunization
 Malnutrition-freevillage
 Put in Place a Waste Management System (composting, Bio-gasoptions)
 Use of solar powered motor pumps for rural watersupply
 Management of household waste water through appropriate simpletechnologies
 Making institutional / communitylatrines functional (at schools,
anganwadi, panchayat office, local clinic, local bus stop, sanitary
complexes ifany)
 Help set up e-panchayats (e-governance at Panchayatlevel)
 E-seva centres atPanchayat
 GPDP in PlanPlus
 Labour budgeting for full utilization of funds under MGNRES
formaintainingcommonassets
 Water saving, water conservation, and maintaining water harvestingstructures
 Measures to achieve SDGs or any of the Goals of SDGs e.g. Hunger-freevillage.
 Electricity connection forall
 LPG forall
 Hut-less village(PMAY)
 Skilling mission for theyouth
 Actions to Improve Own Source Revenue (OSR) ofPanchayats
 Taking up many no-cost / low-costactivities

46
Mission Indradhanush Scheme
 This is for children either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated against seven
vaccine preventable diseases which include diphtheria, whooping caugh, tetanus,
polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B. Identify and facilitate with health care
workers, andhospitals.

BalSwachhta Mission
 Clean school andanganwadi
 Clean Surrounding likeplayground
 Clean self (personal Hygiene / childhealth)
 Clean Food and Safe DrinkingWater
 Clean and functionalToilets
 Adequate school infrastructure and sportsfacilities

PoshanAbhiyan
 ICDS –Anganwadi
 Nutritional Status ofchildren
 Follow-up on the progress of children with poorBMI
 Orientation to mothers on nutrition from localvegetables

Pension Schemes / National Social Assistance Programme of GoI


 Atal PensionYojana
 National Disability PensionScheme
 National Old age PensionScheme
 National Widow PensionScheme

Enrolment Camps
 Pradhan Mantri Jan DhanYojana
 AadharCardenrolment
 Rural Postal Life InsuranceScheme
 Soil HealthCard

47
Camps
 General Health Camps
 De-addiction Camps
 Eye Camps (General and in schools)
 Personal Hygiene / Menstrual Hygiene Camps
 Immunization and De-worming Camps
 Ensuring 100% toilet-use by 100% of the rural residents
 Awareness + Action Camps on Communicable Diseases and Prevention of
Epidemics
 Animal Health Camp & preparing quality animal-feed, forage crop cultivation

Livelihoods Enhancement / Diversification


 Backyard country chicken development (Provide them the facilities)
 Identify candidates from villages for appropriate skilling under DDU-GKY
 Agriculture development programme – Organic agricultural practices
 Introduction of high yielding seed varieties (cereals, pulses, and vegetables)
 Horticulture development
 Annual / Periodical Krishimela / Rural Crafts Mela

48
Annexure – 3

Ministries / Departments and Major Deliverables (Indicative)

Sl. Issues in Question Ministry / Department


concerned
1. Drinking Water (Ministry of Jal Sakthi)
 Piped water supply for every household
 Pipe-line extension for covering uncovered Department of Drinking
households Water and Sanitation
 Creation of new Over Head Tank, Pump Room Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM)
 Renovation of water supply infrastructure Dept Rural Water Supply
 Drainage systems Water Quality Labs.
 Water quality surveillance / Testing Labs District / Block Water and
Sanitation Mission
 Addressing water quality problems
 Rain water harvesting
2. Sanitation Swachh Bharat Mission-
 Household latrines / repair / making it functional (Gramin)
 Converting single pit toilet into double pits
 School and Anganwadi toilets District SBM-G office
 Water supply for toilets in (village) institutions Block SBM-G office
 Setting up solid waste management system
 Setting up wastewater management system
 Faecal sludge management system
 Setting up Faecal Sludge Treatment Plants
 Environmental sanitation
3. School Education Department of School
 Universal Education for All (SSA) Education & Literacy.
 School enrolment / preventing drop outs
 Transition from class to class (including girls)
 School infrastructure / smart school infrastructure
 Quality of Education
 Parent Teacher Association / Panchayat level
Education Committee
 WASH (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene) in schools
 Noon Meal Scheme – quality / attendance.
4. Agriculture Ministry of Agriculture &
 Soil health card Farmers Welfare
 Seeds, fertilizers, pesticides
 Organic Agriculture
 Agri. Extension Services
 Composting and bio-manure production
 Crop Insurance
 Horticulture / tapping horticulture potential
 Value chain development
5. Water Conservation Department of Rural Devt.
Water conservation, water storage structure, (MGNREGS)
watershed, pond renovation, rainwater drainage.

49
6.  Village Roads (MGNREGS) Department of Rural
 Housing for all the poor Development
 Wage Employment for all eligible and willing (Block Devt. Office)
 SHGs & supporting micro enterprise activities
 Bank linkage and bank account for all Ministry of Skill
 Pension for old, widow, and disabled Development &
Entrepreneurship
 Placement-based and self-employment skills for
(State / District level Skill
all eligible youth in the villages
Development Mission)
RUDSETIs
7. Animal Husbandry Department of Animal
Dairy, sheep / goat rearing, poultry enterprises Husbandry, Dairying and
Fisheries in coastal villages / or in-land fisheries Fisheries
Animal health camps / immunisation services
Breed improvement
Animal feed / fodder

You have Departments under various Ministries at State / District / Sub-district levels. You
can go into the website of relevant Ministry to get to know the details of schemes a given
ministry is implementing for rural development. The following is an indicative list.

 Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports


 Ministry of Panchayati Raj
 Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
 Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
 Ministry of Human Resource Development
 Ministry of Tribal Affairs
 Ministry of Women and Child Development
 Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
 Ministry of Power
 Ministry of Finance
 Ministry of Food Processing
 Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

50
Annexure –4

XV Finance Commission Grants to Gram Panchayat (2020-21)

(Rs.crore)

S.No State Grants RLB (Rs.crore)


1. Andhra Pradesh 2625
2. Arunachal Pradesh 231
3. Assam 1604
4. Bihar 5018
5. Chhattisgarh 1454
6. Goa 75
7. Gujarat 3195
8. Haryana 1264
9. Himachal Pradesh 429
10. Jharkhand 1689
11. Karnataka 3217
12. Kerala 1628
13. Madhya Pradesh 3984
14. Maharashtra 5827
15. Manipur 177
16. Meghalaya 182
17. Mizoram 93
18. Nagaland 125
19. Odisha 2258
20. Punjab 1388
21. Rajasthan 3862
22. Sikkim 42
23. Tamil Nadu 3607
24. Telangana 1847
25. Tripura 191
26. Uttar Pradesh 9752
27. Uttarakhand 574
28. West Bengal 4412
All States 60,750

51
Annexure - 5
XV-FC: Drinking Water and Sanitation
The recommended grants for Rural Local Bodies(i.e. Gram Panchayats) under the Fifteenth
Finance Commission (XV-FC) are in two parts, viz. Basic and Tied Grants, in the ratio of
50%:50%. The Basic Grants are untied and can be used by RLBs for location-specific felt
needs. The tied Grants are to be used for the basic services of (i) sanitation and maintenance
of Open Defecation Free (ODF) status and (ii) supply of drinking water, rain water harvesting
and water recycling. The XV-FC has worked out the total size of the grant to be Rs.60,750
crore for the period FY 2020-21 to the Rural Local Bodies. A maximum of 25% of this fund
can be divided for use at Block and District Panchayats. The remaining 75 – 85% funds will
be available with Gram Panchayats.

The Tied Funds: Water and Sanitation


The Swachh Bharat Mission-G has elevated its focus towards ODF-Plus with a new National
Rural Sanitation Strategy 2019-2029. Besides SBM-G the Government of India has resolved
to ensure that all 18 crore households across all villages will have potable water supply by
2024. To accomplish this daunting task, the GoI has launched the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM),
in partnership with States, to not only provide tap water connection; but the goal is that every
home gets drinking water in adequate quantity of prescribed quality on a regular and long-
term basis. The Govt. of India has announced a plan of spending more than Rs. 3.50 lakh
crores on Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in the 5 years to come - until 2024.

The tied grants, meant for basic services are for the following purposes:
 Sanitation and maintenance of ODF status
 Drinking water supply
 Rain water harvesting and water recycling

In Sanitation Front
1. Taking up ODF completion and sustainability activities, including construction of
toilets for households left out in the baseline of SBM-G, and new houses;
2. Identify households without toilets and facilitate construction of toilets
3. Taking up continuous engagement of ODF communities for ensuring ODF
sustainability

52
4. Create facilities for Solid Waste Management
5. Create facilities for Wastewater Management
6. Sweeping of streets/ public places / Litter bins / Plastic Ban / drainage cleaning

In Drinking Water Front


The Jal Jeevan Mission is a flagship scheme of the government which seeks to not only
provides functional household tap connections for all, but also seeks to promote the holistic
management of local water resources. For the first time, this water supply programme
addresses the need to sustain water sources with conservation and reuse measures made
mandatory to the scheme designs. In other words, Jeevan Mission has been designed to
incorporate an integrated approach with end-to-end measures: from supply to reuse and
recharge.

1. Planning and Implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission: Making arrangements for 100%
coverage of Functional House Tap Connection (FHTC) so as to ensure 55 lpcd in
every rural household / every village, including Schools and ICDS centres.
2. Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance for source sustainability
3. Drinking water source development and augmentation of the existing sources
4. Making arrangements to provide at least 10 lpcd safe water to the households in water
quality affected areas (esp. Fluoride and arsenic affected areas)
5. O&M of piped water supply schemes and raise the service level
6. Use of Technological intervention for treatment to make water potable /Grey water
management
7. Geo tag all water supply assets and linking FHTC to Aadhar.
8. Activate Village Water and Sanitation Committee (VWSCs)/Paanisamiti.
9. Rainwater harvesting (structures)
10. Water Safety and Security Plan

With the help of Implementation Support Agency (ISA) working at village level, model
management contract may be developed so that water supply services at village level can be
provided by young entrepreneurs/ Self Help Groups on either standalone or cluster-based
models. The same can be used for grey-water management. This will help in bringing in
newer technology, robust management practices and recovery of user charges, thus bringing
in long-term sustainability.

53
References and List for Further Reading

Government of India, (2018).Guidelines for Preparation of Gram Panchayat


Development Plan (GPDP). New Delhi: Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

Chambers Robert, (2015).Rural Development: Putting Last First. New Delhi:


RoutledgePublications.

Chambers Robert, (1997).Whose Reality Counts? Putting the First Last.UK: ITDG
Publishing.

Chambers Robert, (2017) Can We know Better? Reflections for Development. UK:
Practical Action Publishing.

Jules N Pretty, (1995). Regenerating Agriculture: Policies and Practices for


Sustainability and Self-Reliance. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd.

Narayanasamy N, (2009). Participatory Rural Appraisal: Principles, Methods and


Applications. New Delhi: Sage Publications.

54

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