Agriculture labour unions, dalit organisations and other NGOs who involved in the efforts of securing land for dalits and marginal sections are not in an equal degree involved in ensuring the development of those lands or resources. More so the engagement with government programs is generally found at low level. Coming together of these unions and organisation to act, as a watchdog to ensure the effective implementation of this program is also required. It takes the securing of land to a logical end of contributing to the enhancement of livelihoods of dalits and marginal sections. Based on this understanding the process of engaging civil society with the program was conceptualized.

This process was initiated in collaboration with Dalit Desk of CWS. A one-day workshop was organized on 19th of September 2005 in CWS conference hall. Representatives from Dalit groups, agricultural Labour unions and the media participated. In this workshop, initially the participants were presented with the background and concept of CLDP and the implementation arrangements envisaged in the process guidelines and the status of the programme till date.

Participants from various districts shared the ground level experiences about the programme. Based on the shared experiences group felt that the programme was not being implemented in a way to strengthen the livelihoods of assignees, but merely as a works execution programme involving contractor ship and corruption. There is no possibility of empowering the communities with the present way of execution of the programmme. Based on this the group felt the need to collectively engage with the programme.
 

Towards this end, a core committee was formed consisting of 10 members. As a first step it was proposed to come out with a state level status report incorporating the actual process envisaged in the programme guidelines, analysis of secondary data and implementation arrangements and also the field level findings.

Working committee members met at regular intervals (September 30th, October 5th and October 18th) for the preparation of draft status report and also for planning a state level workshop to share the report to a wider audience from government, media and other unions and NGOs

After the First state level workshop, working group members met on October 28th, November 24th and 29th for planning further actions like district level events, field level survey in selected villages, preparation of People's report on CLDP and Organising a second state level workshop on CLDP.
 

Through these regular meetings not only a group working constantly on the agenda was evolved but also sharing of responsibilities happened. (Minutes of some meetings enclosed)

State level workshop
 

On 19th October 2005, a meeting was conducted at Press Club, Basheer bagh with around 100 participants from various unions, NGOs and dalit organizations. First Draft status report was presented. Also participants from various districts shared their experiences. Government officials present (Mr. Raju,Principla secretary, Mr. Rajesham, Joint Commissioner, Rural Development and Mr. T. Vijay kumar, CEO SERP) accepted the findings and said that they will ensure effective implementation of the program. People's monitoring Committee was asked to nominate members to State level Committee on CLDP to be constituted by the Commissioner Rural Development for regular follow-up of the programme.

State level campaign
 

The respective unions and NGOs in 15 districts with the participation of assignees from the villages and respective government officials conducted district level meetings during the month of November, 2005. Also the representatives visited more than 200 blocks and interacted with the assignees on the implementation of the program. As part of solidarity building and support, around 1000 booklets on right to information Act and Employment Guarantee act are provided to various dalit organizations and agriculture labour unions, so that they can be used during their district and village visits. During the process information from 103 blocks was collected and compiled into a 'People's Report on CLDP'

Second state level workshop

On 30th November 2005 second state level meeting was conducted at Press Club, Basheerbagh. Around 200 members participated in the meeting with the representation from unions, dalit organisations, assignees, media and also members of Legislative Assembly. People's Report was presented in the meeting and the members of Legislative assembly responded to the findings and pledged their support to the initiatives of the committee. Representatives from different districts and villages shared their experiences. At the end of the meeting, several organisation came forward to become part of the peoples monitoring committee and take up this agenda in their respective districts. It is planned to constitute district level committees in a month and also organise orientation trainings for the committee members in December.
 

Meeting of PMC core group members with State level officials:

The core group members met Pl. Secretary, Commissioner and Joint Commissioner, Rural Development on 3rd December to share the outcomes of the meeting and also propose certain actions points for the future. IT was agreed in the meeting that CRD will communicate the members of district level committee and issue directions to the project directors to convene meeting with them in the first week of every month. And also it was decided to hold the state level committee meeting in the first week of every month. The CRD has to communicate formally to all the committee members, but was not done.

Orientation training on CLDP and roles and responsibilities of PMC members

Two day training programme was conducted for around 35 members representing unions and dalit organisations from 17 districts during 21st and 22nd December at Satyodayam, Hyderabad. Apart from orientation on objectives, planning steps and process in CLDP the tasks to be ensured at group, village, mandal and district level by the committee members were also arrived at. Eminent dalit activist like Mr. Bojja Tarakam, Kalekuri Prasad, MR. Neeliah from Ankuram Sangamam and Poram interacted with the participants. Also MR. Rajesham , Joint Comissioner, Rural Development interacted with the participants and responded to the observation made. He also came forward to visit villages in Midjil mandal of Mahabubnagar where the participants brought irregularities to his notice.

Visit to Midjil mandal by PMC members:

As mentioned during the training programme, Joint commissioner visited two villages, Chilveru and Gudiganipally of Midjil mandal in Mahabubnagar District along with PMC members (Ravi kumar(CWS), Vinay kumar(DBF), Sudhakar(DBSU)) During the interactions with the assignees and the visit, lot of irregularities were observed like using machines, drawing the money without the knowledge of the assignees by the WDT, absence of any plan with the assignees and their lack of participation. These findings were highlighted in the local media and action was initiated against the functionaries.

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