Our Projects
In the Community Development Projects, major thrusts had been given to fundamental rights, local governance, and livelihood of the Marginalised & Vulnerable People with particular emphasis on Tribal Communities. In that process, the enhancement of Community knowledge, skills and the utilisation of resources of the Government and Panchayat were the key strategies of the CSRA. There were several ideas had been tested on livelihood issues and registered success for further scale-up.
01
Project "Sashaktikaran" (Empowerment)
The Project has been funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation India. The project aimed to create a participatory plan for sustainable livelihood options among the Tribal People in 4 panchayats and 29 revenue villages of the Birbhum district of Bengal. In the first phase, the objective of the project is to develop village cluster community institutions and micro plans for landscape management and explore sustainable livelihood options. In the first year, the project works have been carried out with a focus on project staff development, community institution building, knowledge development, leadership development, mobilization, and overall empowerment of the tribal communities through active participation in the Micro Plan Development process.
02
Project SOLAR
The SOLAR project was funded by the German Embassy of Kolkata and planned with the community to address the issues of food production, farm income, adversities of climate change, as well as subsistence farming through augmenting irrigation facilities with small-lift irrigation systems. The project was intrinsically focused on harnessing irrigation facilities for two villages with 149 numbers of deprived tribal households through deep excavation irrigation systems. The project facilitated a unique approach, that of “community-led Solar irrigation” which has brought water directly to the fields and met their drinking water needs too. The project has also fostered community ownership from the onset of project conception, to survey and implementation, right through to operations and maintenance.
03
Project : Improved Goat Farm for Tribal Women
In Covid 19 situation, employment and livelihood situation in rural areas was worsening. Goat farming is a traditional livelihood practice in the project area integrated into the farming system and represents an important asset for landless or/and smallholders. The Project has been funded by the Australian High Commission of Kolkata and it promoted the Goat Value Chain as a high-potential activity for 40 numbers of poor tribal women (4 women SHGs). It has been done through a systematic market assessment as part of a multi-pronged approach to support the competitiveness of goat farming to start-up small businesses which is an innovative model for increasing availability of improved breed varieties. The project has been implemented in 2 tribal villages in at Illambazar block of Birbhum District of West Bengal.
04
Project : Assertion of Land & Livelihood Rights of Tribal People with special emphasis on Tribal Women
The Project was funded by ActionAid India from 2014 to 2020. It had worked to benefit 3600 tribal households from 45 villages in the Birbhum District of West Bengal. It had given emphasis to issues of land rights, strengthening of local community-based organizations, and alternative livelihood with the use of traditional knowledge, skills, and resources. There were several ideas that had been tested to promote local democracy in collaboration with the Government and local self-governments, planning & participation in livelihood issues, and registered success on multiple fronts. Moreover, the right and protection of women was another issue that had been addressed with several community-based interventions. CSRA trained selected tribal women leaders and they had mostly undertaken community development activities.
05
Project "SOUL"
The project had been funded by the Indo-Global Social Service Society (IGSSS) and it was implemented from April 2019 to September 2020 at Rajnagar Block of Birbhum District with the target to benefit 2650 rural households with special emphasis on tribal households. The goal of the project was to improve the quality of life of poverty-ridden and vulnerable rural households by creating sustainable livelihood options in adherence to the principles of social and ecological inclusion. The core objectives of the project were (a) to improve the nutritional situation of women and children under the age of five with the increase of range of available food under the CMAM Model; (b) to increase the income of smallholder farmers and landless families through the adoption of diversified and innovative livelihood options; (c) to build skills and knowledge of communities are able to manage their natural resources sustainably; and (d) to strengthen CBOs function as self-sufficient, sustainable and democratic spaces for local participation in matters of access to nutrition, health, PDS, social security and livelihood support from Panchayat and Government.
06
Project: Revamping the Livelihood of Santhal Tribe through WADI Approach
The project had been funded under the IPAF of the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) in 7 poverty-ridden tribal villages in the Birbhum district of the State of West Bengal. The core intervention of the program was the establishment of the WADI (Orchard) of the selected fruit crops as a foundation for economic activity and utilization of the border of the orchard for the planting of multipurpose forestry. Results of the project were the following (a) 45 acres of barren land transformed into WADI and benefitted 348 tribal households; (b) 200 tribal women involved in that project; (c) Expert faculty from Visva Bharati and Bidhan Chandra Agriculture University extended knowledge and demonstration support to the Small and Marginal farmers; (d) 10 dug wells constructed for irrigation, 5250 nos. of fruit species planted and installed drip irrigation facilities; (e) tribal women-led microenterprise development process initiated.
Past Projects
Project "SEED"
Scheduled Tribe-Specific Rural Biotechnology Programme By Bose Institute, Kolkata
Project "Organic Farming"
Promotion of Organic Farming for Sustainable Agricultural Development through Skill and Knowledge Upgradation of Small / Marginal farmers and Women SHGs By Association of India’s Development (AID) – Los Angeles, USA
Project "Read & Learn"
Scaling up of Village Community Library based Accelerated Reading Programme By Asha for Education, Silicon Valley (USA)
Project "WBCSSP"
A Multi-Stakeholder Initiative for Ensuring Quality Education for Children and Youth Empowerment for Effective Social Transformation by DFID (Through PRIA)
Project "Community Forest"
A Multistakeholder Approach to Restore Forest Governance among Tribal People By Environmental Equity & Justice Partnership (EEJP)
Project "Children Rights"
Ensuring Children Rights through Innovative Interventions by enabling the community people to understand and address the essentiality of child rights issues in a wider perspective By CRY
Research Projects
Research Initiatives are built on the professional capacities of CSRA, it brings together a critical mass of expertise from across the NGOs, Academic and social forums with four key aims: address key research challenges; collaborate with experts & institutions; knowledge transfer; and influence policy issues.
SUBJECT: MGNREGS
Research, Documentation, Analysis and Knowledge Support to MGNREGS By Purba Bardhaman, Paschim Bardhamn & Birbhum Districts
SUBJECT: CRC
A Citizen’s Report Card (CRC) on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Birbhum District By DFID - India
SUBJECT: STREET VENDORS
Integration of Urban Informal Sector in the Public Policy Process - A Case Study of Street Enterprises By Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India
SUBJECT: CEDAW
Compliance with CEDAW - Ground Realities and Perception of Women in West Bengal By National Commssion for Women
SUBJECT: AGRICULTURE CREDIT
Access to Credit by Women Agribusiness Trade - Empirical Evidence on the Use of Formal and Informal Credit Sources in Rural West Bengal By National Commission for Women
SUBJECT: WOMEN SHG
Women Empowerment through Self Help Group Approach By Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India
SUBJECT: AGRICULTURE
Understanding Present Agriculture Practices in West Bengal with special reference to Small and Marginal Farmers By ActionAid India
SUBJECT: CHILD LABOUR
Current Trends in Child Labour – With Special Reference to Beedi (Tobacco) Making children By National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
SUBJECT: TRAFFICKING
Situational Analysis of Evolving Issues of Indo-Bangladesh Border in Dakshin Dinajpur District of West Bengal By ActionAid India