Doctor didi’s creating social capital in Jharkhand

Doctor didi’s creating social capital in Jharkhand

Subject : Governance

Concept:

• Doctor didis are part of a team (pashu sakhi) of around 1,000 women in all 24 districts of Jharkhand who have been recruited since October 2013 for the last mile of livestock management.
• These women, formally called community animal caretakers and informally known as doctor didi, go door to door when called.
• They advise farmers on health checks of their livestock, vaccinations, deworming, hygiene, breeding, feeding and management of animal waste.
• The project was established under the National Rural Livelihood Mission, with the goal of building a line of community resources.
• In 2017-2018, the Jharkhand Opportunities for Harnessing Rural Growth (JOHAR) took charge of the project and the World Bank started financing World Bank data says up to 57,000 farmers are now benefiting.

The Pashu Sakhi Model

• There are no strict criteria for Pashu Sakhi except that the women should live in the village they serve.
• The pashu sakhis receive a 30-day training program (Introductory, Practical, and Higher) at three levels (Introductory, Practical, and Higher) in seven-day installments on how to care for poultry, goats, and pigs.
• After training, they provide technical expertise on livestock care, advise villagers on the economic benefits of raising livestock for sale, and connect farmers with producer groups and traders, giving them better access to markets to sell their products to sell.
• About 30 pashu sakhis are also trained with 45 days of additional training in animal husbandry. These are called as master trainers.

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission

• It is a centrally sponsored programme, launched by the Ministry of Rural Development in June 2011.
• Aim:
  • To eliminate rural poverty through the promotion of multiple livelihoods and improved access to financial services for the rural poor households across the country.
  • To reach out to all rural poor households and impact their livelihoods.
• Functioning:
  • It involves working with community institutions through community professionals in the spirit of self-help which is a unique proposition of DAY-NRLM.
  • It impacts the livelihoods through universal social mobilization by inter alia organising one-woman member from each rural poor household into Self Help Groups (SHGs), their training and capacity building, facilitating their micro-livelihoods plans, and enabling them to implement their livelihoods plans through accessing financial resources from their own institutions and the banks.
• Implementation:
  • It is implemented in a Mission mode by special purpose vehicles (autonomous state societies) with dedicated implementation support units at the national, state, district and block levels, using professional human resources in order to provide continuous and long-term handholding support to each rural poor family.
• Support Provided:
  • There were 63 lakh SHGs comprising seven crore women members in the country which had been granted Rs. 3 lakh crore in loans and the non-performing assets (NPA) amounted to only 2.3%.
  • The outstanding loans were to the tune of Rs. 1 lakh crore.
  • The government plans to take the scheme to 10 crore women.