SB 080720
SB 080720
R Ramesh
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Foreword
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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!”
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,
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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
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Contents
- What is PRA?
- PRA Methods
- Menu of PRA methods and tools
- General PRA (vs) Thematic PRA
- Three Pillars of PRA
- Principles of PRA
- The Process of PRA
- What is SSI ?
- How to Conduct SSI?
- SSI Individual Errors
- SSI Theme Errors
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Section – 6:Using PRA Outcome to Write UBA Proposals
List of Boxes
List of Annexures
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Abbreviations
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.
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SECTION - 1
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.
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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.
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
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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.
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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.
Mud-headed
Earnestness
Orthodox
Ability
Unchanging
Right
Traditional
Self-Respect
Hesitant
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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
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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 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).
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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.
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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.
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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,
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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,
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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
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
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
Let‟s try to understand each one of these exercises, briefly. Then we can see how to
actually conduct these exercises in the village.
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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‟.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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SECTION – 4
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.
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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.
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
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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
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iii) People – Based
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.
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• Begin with the traditional greeting and state that the interview team is here
to learn.
• Let each team member finish their line of questioning (don‟t interrupt).
• Each interviewer should have a list of topics and key questions written down in
his / her notebook.
The following are some of the mistakes we generally make, that we should avoid.
• Repeating questions
• Helping out informants when they appear temporarily lost for word by
o Interrupting
o Suggesting answers
• Pretending to be dumb
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• Focusing on lead informant
• Improper place for interviewing (some people don‟t participate because of it)
• 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
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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Annexure - 1
45
Annexure - 2
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
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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
Enrolment Camps
Pradhan Mantri Jan DhanYojana
AadharCardenrolment
Rural Postal Life InsuranceScheme
Soil HealthCard
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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
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Annexure – 3
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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.
50
Annexure –4
(Rs.crore)
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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 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
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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
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.
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References and List for Further Reading
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.
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