CORE PROGRAMME

The core programme is the direct intervention of CASA among the reference community. Under this programme CASA focuses on the building and strengthening of Community Based Organization that are pivot for addressing issues affecting the life of the reference communities through a process oriented approach that are owned and managed by the community itself. It led to emergence of a large number of grass root level organisations of men and women for facilitating development action for change. These organisations thus acquired the capacity to understand and analyse the context and plan for addressing the issues of collective concern. It also led to the emergence of new leadership among men and women of deprived communities and other interest groups.

The approach termed as the People Action for Transformation (PAT) is the cutting edge of the core programme, which facilitates people’s action. This approach has strengthened and promoted people’s movement on different issues like untouchability, casteism, violence against women, inequality, deprivation, land rights, food security, etc. There are visible changes in favour of the poor, Dalits, tribal and women in the programme area.

Programmatic Intervention

Institutional & Organisational Development
The focus around institutional strengthening and organisational development is an important area for the various institutions, which has emerged at village, block, district and state level.  The strengthening process enables the organization to take over the processes and work on their own. Several meetings for strengthening the regional forums, promoting the mass based organisations and for addressing area specific issues have been conducted at village, block and district levels. The VDAs, POs and PAT units made great endeavors to ensure effective implementation of the government schemes. The village level organisations, the Block Level Federations, and District Level Federations, which have become the members of Regional Forum, are nurtured to continue their activities. Many Mass Based Organisations have participated in District Level Campaigns and other Issue Based Initiatives. To strengthen the interface linkages, district level meetings have been organised by regional forums in which issues were analysed, plans evolved, and the area specific issues were addressed. Efforts have been put in  to synergise the organisations in many districts towards evolving a State Forum. During the year the review and planning meeting of CASA, State Secretariat, Jharkhand was organised on 21st &  22nd July 2010 at HRDC, Ranchi. This was the first programme to be conducted in Jharkhand after formation of Secretariat. The CASA state secretariat will facilitate macro issues which will help in policy change through pressure groups, identification of network and rapport building with the network; Focus was on understanding of issues/networks. In Tamil Nadu, 5 Regional Forums, Child Right Forums, Disaster Management Action (DMAF) Forums have been linked  to State Forum.  PAT units which have already been handed over to the people are independently functioning and have taken up many activities as planned and prepared by them in the action plan. These institutions works on the rights of women from the Dalit and tribal communities addressing the issues of, atrocities , alcoholism, superstition and corruption, RTF, Land rights and Social Security Schemes. On 09th August 2010 a One-day rally was organised at Raipur under the banner of “Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan”. The rally was led by the state level network and platform.  The Presidents of these networks and leaders of various mass based organisations shared their views on the issues of forest rights, displacement and coercion by the State. On 04th and 05th March 2011, National Peoples Convention was organised at Bhopal, in which more than 350 representatives participated from different People’s Organisations supported by CASA along with top, middle and first line managers from State, Regional and Head Office of CASA for the launching of National People’s Platform.
Perspective and Capacity Building
Capacity building on various development issues and also skills related to organisational functioning is an important aspect in the long run. Keeping the broader objective of enhancing skills and knowledge of the people’s institution and other stakeholders, capacity building initiatives at various levels has been taken up. Several programmes have been conducted in all the zones to enable the members to analyse the strength and weakness of their organisation. Awareness campaign on PRI was conducted in several places as a result of which the number of voters in the PRI election has increased, number of cancelled vote decreased in comparison to earlier elections and number of women voters also increased. Awareness on Right to information Act was created among the members of VDA, SHG, Mahila Mandal and other CBOs through meetings, practical experience and sharing. Some of the groups were also encouraged to file the RTI on certain issues. Several Capacity building workshops on Social Audit, Right to Food, and Climate Change etc were also conducted for the staffs and members of POs. In different meetings various policies and legislations related to Forest Rights, Environment Rights, Tribal & Dalit Rights, Food and Employments Rights have been discussed along with local issues. These meetings enabled the People’s Organisations at various levels, to equip themselves with updated knowledge and information about contemporary global issues and also about various legislations and policies promulgated by the Central and State Governments towards ensuring livelihood right with dignity. The Capacity Building Programmes conducted at Regional Level and District Level have penetrated down at various levels by People’s Organisation at their own cost. The capacity building initiatives have enabled the stakeholders to stand in between the gaps of government officials and the community so that their issues are addressed thereby enabling the poor to have easy access to their rights.  

Policy Analysis, Interpretation, Sharing and Dialogue
Right Based Approach demands policy intervention at various levels.  At Micro level, community has been engaged in monitoring of schemes and policies and identifying gaps in the whole processes, at Meso level network shared the findings with the State authorities.
Various policies related to Food, Water, Agriculture, Land, Employment and Livelihood have been discussed in different programmes conducted in each (N/S/E/W) Zone at Regional Level and District Level. All Regional Level Forum leaders, MBO leaders, District Level Leaders of the District Level Federations, some NGO and Church Leaders participated in the programmes. These programmes have helped the organisation leaders to understand and critically analyse aspects of social security schemes and legislations. In MP, District Level Public Dialogue programme was also organised. The programme was organised basically to share the draft bill of National Food Security Act with the participants including government authorities. A State level consultation on rights and entitlements on relief code was organised in Orissa. The main objective of the programme was to streamline policy level advocacy at State level on revision of Relief Codes and Disaster management Rules. NGOs from Orissa Progressive Alliance (OPA) a State level forum, civil society, activists, media and government representatives attended the programme.
To advocate policy advocacy in favour of the poor and marginalised and to  identify gaps in the implementation of RTF and BPL, a BPL analysis was done in Gujarat,  which included the BPL analysis for 30 villages of the two talukas and 123 villages of Narmada, 10 talukas  & 4 districts of Tapi, Surat, Dangs and Valsad. From these findings it has been decided to have a meeting with the Chief Minister wherein our critical analysis and findings on BPL will be put forth before him which will help those falling below the poverty line to be included in the BPL list. A brief report on the findings was presented to the tribal welfare minister during the Adivasi melawa in January 2011. Further, the BPL study was shared at the Gujarat assembly and key concerns have already been highlighted.

Access to Sources of Livelihood and Advocacy at Various Levels  

This component plays a vital role in facilitating and supporting the poor and the marginalised in accessing their sources of livelihood. A cooperative stage is developed among the groups & institutions to amplify the voices of the vulnerable and pressurise the authorities by demanding for their rights. Towards advocacy, campaign on MNREGA to target 100 days of employment with improving social audit process was conducted in many places in the form of mass rallies from village to district level recommending improvement in weak implementation of MNREGA schemes and the defunct Social Audit process. Campaigns were also conducted against the improper implementation in social security schemes like PDS, MDM etc. Concerning the Panchayat elections, in different states “People’s Manifesto” was prepared incorporating local demands and submitted to the political parties. In South Zone, Government schemes worth       Rs. 25,55.000 were mobilised for development activities. New Job Cards have been obtained for the left over families in MNREGA. Around 14000 voters have been included in the electoral list and around 540 people have benefited from the medical and eye camps. A consultation on Health Policy was conducted in Taljhari (Jharkhand) to share the information on  health rights. Seminars on Fundamental Rights, climate change and global warming were also organised. National level initiatives have been taken to influence Government to promulgate the ‘National Food Policy’.
CASA has been undertaking extensive range of activities at various levels through its direct programme to meet the objective of ensuring right to life and livelihood with dignity for poor and marginalised. CASA has remained relevant till date since it is a learning organisation through the vicissitudes of time by adopting a process of organisational and contextual assessment on a periodic basis. However lot more is needed to be done in this changing context, CASA is looking forward to strategically handling these situations and challenges ahead.