Community Participation

Empower and involve People for Sustenance of programs

Community Participation Projects and Assessment of its Impact

Community Participation- Effective and Total involvement of the Stake holders-has been the main reason for the successful implementation of many of the projects I had undertaken.

Starting from the Andhra Pradesh Participatory Tribal Development Programme (APPTDP) funded by the IFAD which initiated me into the concept of community participation, all successful projects like the drives against Child labour and Pothurajus/Jogini systems, construction of over One lakh Individual Sanitary Latrines/toilets in 6 month, formation of drinking water committees etc taken up in Nizamabad district; The BeBold campaign for stigma reduction in HIV sector; the supply of daily drinking water in the city of Hyderabad etc taken out by me were rooted on the basic premise that involvement of the stake holders and total community is essential for successful and sustainable implementation of any Program.

1. Andhra Pradesh Participatory Tribal Development Programme (APPTDP)

Under the Andhra Pradesh Participatory Tribal Development Programme (APPTDP), Village Tribal Development Associations (VTDAs) were to be formed in all the villages selected under the program and all activities were to be routed through the respective VTDAs for their total involvement. Hence during my tenure (1996-98) as Project Officer, Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), Bhadrachalam, Andhra Pradesh, over 400 VTDAs were formed in the project area. I brought in “OUTREACH,” an NGO, to strengthen community mobilization and to build their capacity to effectively play its role. I organized about 200 training classes and 25 exposure visits for the office bearers of the VTDAs and thrift groups as a part of their capacity building program. I brought out informative journals for the use of the community and to make administration more transparent.

With the active involvement of VTDA members and total participation of the community 132 minor irrigation tanks, 94 lift irrigation schemes, 67 irrigation bore wells were completed which helped to bring over 3500 acres of land under irrigation. These brought about very significant changes in the living conditions of the Tribals and the Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) living in the project area. The expenditure under APPTDP increased from Rs 57 lakhs in 1995-96 and Rs 327 lakhs in 1996-97 to Rs 570 lakhs in 97-98 due to

(a) making people actively participate in all stages- planning, selection of beneficiaries, implementation and monitoring

(b) regular monitoring of the progress of the schemes using computers (in 1996)

(c) increased awareness and transparency brought in through regular meetings with them and dissemination of information through journals like “Sabari Sravanti” and “Spurthi” published by the ITDA

(d) involvement of all through the conduct of regular Governing Body meetings.

All village action plans were prepared with the active involvement of the villagers by using the PRA techniques extensively. For this capacity building trainings were taken up for all the staff and for the VTDA chairmen and liaison workers.

Using the VTDAs and the thrift groups under it, we had started the implementation of cooked midday meals in schools in 1996, much before the mid day meals program of the Government of India.

The lessons learnt in the APPTDP led to the formation of AP Rural Poverty Initiative Program (APRPIP) etc later.

2. Drive against Child labour in Nizamabad

The drive launched by me against Child in Nizamabad District with the total involvement of the community is considered as one of the most successful interventions against child labour in the country. In a very focussed drive to eliminate child in Veilpur -a highly child mandal (taluk) in Nizamabad district of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state-we could get ALL children between the age of 5-15 years to join the schools and retain them so long with the total participation and involvement of the community. The testimonial to the success is the documented retention of all school going age children in schools even after 12 years of its initial implementation. The total involvement of the community can be judged from the fact that they were willing to collectively write off personal loans worth Rs 37 lakhs to release the children kept as bonded with them. The drive to eliminate child labour in Veilpur was started in June 2001 and Veilpur was declared “child labour free mandal” on 2^nd Oct 2001, with all children in the age group on 5-15 going to school. Even today, 13 years later, the community vigilantly ensures that no school age child in the mandal is out of schools. In an area which was highly prone to child labour because its economy was dependent on a flourishing beedi industry, this is no mean achievement.

This has been acknowledged by

media reports – Eenadu, the leading Telugu did a cover story on the success of Veilpur in its Sunday magazine of 10^th April 2010 and other articles that appeared in the media;

books written subject matter experts- Prof Mahavir Jain, Sr Professor in the V.V.Giri National Institute of Labour, New Delhi and a person who served as Amicus Curiae for Supreme court in many Child labour cases wrote a book “Elimination of Child Labour –A possibility” in March 2006, based on their assessment of Veilpur experiment after he and his team visited Veilpur many times to closely know about the successful drive against child labour;

streams of visiting teams, both domestic and international, and ILO officials to Veilpur;

faculty at the VV Giri National Institute of Labour, who takes sessions on “the Veilpur model to fight child labour” even today in their training programs on child labour to NGOs and Government officials etc;

the letter appreciation from Dr Abdul Kalam, the then President of India.

The latest testimony being the invite to me as a guest speaker in the World day against Child labour celebrations at the India Habitat Centre organised by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on 12^th June, 2014.

More information on some of these are available at the following sites in the internet:

Some Press clippings:

3. Shubrata: A program for the construction of 1 lakh Individual Sanitary Latrines:

Community participation and total involvement of stake holders was the reason behind the the successful implantation of another very ambitious program, named “Shubrata”, to construct “ONE LAKH (100,000) Individual Sanitary Latrines (ISLs) in six months” started in Nizamabad district of Andhra Pradesh state, on 1st June,2002. By 31,December 2002, 105,500 latrines sanctioned were completed and were being put to use. On public demand, another 70,000 ISLs were sanctioned which were completed in due course of time. In addition, 276 schools were provided with compound walls, bores and toilets and another 789 schools with toilets in 2001-2003. 1168 Habitation level District Water committees were formed in the district to ensure participatory management of drinking water distribution.

The successful completion of the campaign was due to the overwhelming participation of the people. This picked up as a people’s movement, with total involvement of leaders of all political parties, elected representatives, caste elders, NGOs, voluntary organizations, press and media and above all, the women’s self help groups.

The availability of good toilets in BPL houses triggered demand in other sections (not-BPL) of the society. They were also forced to construct toilets in their houses. In some villages, volunteers stood with sticks to deter people from doing open defecation in the fields. People had begun to understand its health implications!

Technical studies conducted by independent agencies (nisciet,UNICEF,press etc), during the implementation of the project and after one/two years of the completion of the project have shown OVER 87% UTILIZATION of these toilets and a remarkable reduction of water borne diseases in the area. Assuming a daily output of 1 kilogram of solid waste from an average family of five members a day, due to the over 100,000 ISLs constructed, the environment was saved from pollution from 100 tons of human excreta per day!

A team, under the leadership of a Director, Rural Development Dept of GoI, visited the district in 2003 to assess the program and acknowledged its success.

Perhaps this may be the first time such large number of individual sanitary latrines were built in such a short time anywhere in the world.

Some of the reports are available at the following sites:

Some press clippings can be seen at:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29991445/HORN/Shubrata%20PressReports.doc or https://db.tt/ndScn9wx

Reports of Habitation Drinking Water committees can be seen at:

and Dial Your Collector Program at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29991445/HORN/DIALUR%20COL1.doc

4. The Be Bold campaign:

The Be Bold campaign taken up in Andhra Pradesh has made significant impact on the reduction of incidence of HIV; reduction of stigma associated with HIV/AIDS and hence increase in off take of health services by People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHAs) in the state of Andhra Pradesh, which had one of the highest prevalence of HIV in the country. During my tenure as Project Director of AP State AIDS Control Society (APSACS) from June 2006 to March 2008, I brought out some innovative initiatives under the umbrella of the year long “” campaign launched on 1st December 2006, World AIDS day. The campaign sought for the control of the spread of HIV by focused efforts involving people and mainstreaming it; reduction of its associated stigma; and management/treatment of HIV infected people. The campaign was very successful that the Prevalence of HIV among general population has come down from 2% in 2005 to 0.88% in 2007 and down to 0.59% in 2013, according to the National Sentinel Survey conducted annually by NACO. This could be attributed to the success of the Be bold campaign: which helped to identify more PLHAs & prevented inadvertent spread of disease by them, significant increase of condom usage among commercial sex workers, better access to health care facility, improved awareness and reduction of stigma. The campaign was so successful that UNAIDS, the UN body leading the fight against HIV/AIDS has treated the Be bold campaign as one of the best campaigns in the world against HIV/AIDS and I was invited to The International AIDS conference in Mexico in 2008 to make a presentation.

The “0/7 initiative” under the campaign yielded very good results with Out Reach Workers (ORWs) tracking 7335 identified HIV+ve mothers and ensuring 5032 assisted live births, out of which 4957 mother-baby pairs were administered Nevirapine. This is significantly high compared to the same figure of 2800 MB pairs in 2006. During the twelve months from December, 2006 – November, 2007, total HIV tests conducted was 15,32,952 as against 5,98,029 tests conducted during the twelve months of 2005-06. The total tests conducted during the campaign period (from 1st December, 2006 to 31st March, 2008) was 18,09,117. Patients on ART increased from 2287 in Dec 2006 to 28,749 in March 2008.

The campaign also helped to converge the activities of State AIDS Control Society with those of the health department in the state and to mainstream PLHAs with the general population of the state. The innovations like the testing of Chief Minister and his cabinet collegues for HIV; convening a joint session of Legislative assembly and Legislative council of AP to discuss issues related to HIV/AIDS in the state and gathering of over 7000 PLHAs in one venue etc made the campaign bold, innovative and highly effective.

Further details are available at

5. Emancipation of Pothurajus and Joginis.

An unusual and innovative intervention put to an end to the barbaric system of Pothurajus prevalent in the district for over 700 years and to the pathetic plight of Jogins in the district of Nizamabad, in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state. Pothurajus are the priests of the Scheduled castes in the district and are “ordained to perform “ many barbaric like dancing around the corpses, self flagellation etc in addition to conversion of young girls to Jogins- dedicated to Gods, but used as common property resource- prostitutes- in the villages. In a swift and covert move, I got the the hairs of these people cut to mainstream them and give deliverance to them from the burden of a barbaric tradition which they could not overthrow for over 700 years. In the process i could also put an end to conversion of young girls to Jogins. This was widely appreciated and got me the “Red and White award for act of social courage”. The National Human Rights Commission member Justice D.K. Ramaswamy had come to do an on the spot examination of the steps taken and in his report to the commission complimented the efforts. He then Governor of the state, Dr C. Rangarajan had also attened one of the related programs and appreciated the efforts to put an end to these outdated practices.

More details are available at:

6. Cuddapah to Kadapa:

After initiating many infrastructure projects like the 8 lane 162 Kms Outer Ring Road (ORR ) around the city, and completion of the Laserium in Lumbini Park and two major lake side Parks, I was posted by the then CM of Andhra Pradesh, Dr YS Rajasekhar Reddy as the District Collector of his District, Cuddapah, with a clear directive to bring about a very fast transition of the district and the HQ town.

A power point presentation of the transition can be seen at: (pl note the dates mentioned) (may take a few minutes to load):

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29991445/HORN/efforts%20to%20make%20CUDDAPAH%20TO%20KADAPA.ppt or https://db.tt/SThRap1Y

7. Asok Sagar and Asok Nagar:

These are two very rare incidents, where a lake has been renamed in the name of the Collector by the people of the district and a village (that too in his own constituency) is named after the Collector by Chief Minister of the state. The following links may be seen:

1. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29991445/HORN/AsokSagarNagar.wmv or

https://db.tt/uQvVGnX2

2. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29991445/HORN/IndurIE031106_1.JPG or https://db.tt/peZ98KrR

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29991445/HORN/Asok%20Sagar%20Calender.jpg or https://db.tt/hNjIGdzu

4. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29991445/HORN/Asoksagar.jpg or https://db.tt/4qcNEsFV

8. Daily water supply to Hyderabad City: As MD of Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, (HMWSSB) I could ensure daily water supply in the city of Hyderabad from 14^th November, 2008 after a gap of 24 years! I could also complete three big Sewerage Treatment Plants to treat and purify over 602 Million Litres of Sewerage water daily.

9. Other infrastructure projects and some failures:

Apart from the above mentioned programs where there was involvement and participation of stake holders and community, some other infrastructure projects (not with much community participation) I was associated include:

(a) the Computerisation of the Mandal Revenue offices- a project to computerise the 1100 Mandal Revenue Offices (Thehasil offices) of Andhra Pradesh started in 1998 and its associated the Multi Purpose household Survey (MPHS) scheme to issue unique id numbers (precursor to the Aadhar number) to all the 6 crore people of AP- as its first Project Director and Deputy Secretary (IT) of AP in 1998. This project was way ahead of time, when there was hardly any penetration of computers in non-metro areas of the country, we setup 3 computers-in a server and 2 clients configuration -in all MRO (thehasil) offices, compiled the socio economic data of all 6 crore people living in AP and gave them unique id numbers. This was a big challenge as most of the staff in the revenue department resisted the change, many old offices were in dilapidated stage and in many places we had to restore the electricity connection to get the project going! The MPHS part of the project fizzled out as the Government found it very difficult to keep the data updated after three rounds of verification. Attempted computerisation of land records, but it is still work in progress!

(b)Conduct of Afro-Asian games and construction of stadia: As the Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Sports Authority of AP (SAAP), I was played a key role in the conduct of the First Afro-Asian games in Hyderabad from 24^th October -1^st Novemeber 2003. Many stadia had to be spruced up and upgraded and two modern Astro-turf hockey stadia were constructed in 78 days, beginning from land clearance. It took less than 100 days from project design to completion! For the efforts, I was one of the 9 official members of the Indian delegation which went to Jamica in December 2003 for the successful bidding of the Commonwealth games 2010 held in New Delhi. These stadia built have gradually gone past its glory! I went on to organize the only WTA women’s Tournament held in India (at Hyderabad), World Billiards championships and Asian TT championships apart from many national championships in Hyderabad during the years 2003-2004.

(c) Construction of Lumabini Laserium: The first multimedia Laser show arena in the country was constructed in Lumbini Park, Hyderabad. This has a film projected on a water screen with Laser lights and dancing musical water fountains to add effects. This was inaugurated on 25 Jan 2005 and still draws about 3000 people daily/weekends. The film we made in 2004 is still running without any modification!

(d) Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Program (R-APDRP): The Program for the reforms in the distribution wing of the power sector was originally scheduled to be from 2008-2011. But the first RAPDRP- enabled-town went live and the first RAPDRP Data Centre was opened by Secretary (Power) on 7^th April, 2011, during my tenure as Directordealing with RAPDRP in Power minister. The progress of implementation of RAPDRP was improved significantly, with its closer monitoring and improved MIS. Part A projects for all states were sanctioned and awarded. By October 2011, data centers were ready in 3 states and 63 towns were integrated to the center.

10) The success of the "Catch The Rain" campaign, he had initiated in 2020 onwards was totally due to the Community participation. PM Modi's concept to make Jal Andolan a Jan Andolan was seen in full manifestation in this campaign.

11) Arth-Ganga Concept put forward by PM Modi at the National Ganga Council meet in 2019 was taken up in a big way when the pillars of Arth Ganga were deliberated and finalised in 2022 by Asok Kumar. He started the DGC forum meetings (District Ganga Committee 4M (Monthly Mandated Minuted and Monitored) meetings from 6th April 2022. From almost NIL meetings till then, the 139 District Ganga Committees started fixed day monthly meetings and had done 2070 meetings till December 2023! Minutes of these meetings are uploaded on a portal every month and monitored for the follow up actions action taken. This has led to a massive increase in community participation and involvement in Namami-Gange Activities. Acknowledging this, UNEP led consortium had recognized Namami Gange as one of the ten Ecorestoration flagships off the world in December 2022, at CoP 15 on Biodiversity at Montreal.

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