[1] The document is a monthly report submitted by consultant Manoj Kumar about his work with Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society (JEEVIKA) in May 2012. [2] The report provides details of the consultant's activities which included meetings with JEEVIKA staff in Patna, Gaya and Khagaria to understand the organization and its interventions. The consultant also visited self-help groups and their village organizations in project areas to observe their functioning. [3] Key observations from these interactions and visits included issues around attendance and participation of women, lack of transparency in meeting proceedings and record keeping, low awareness among community members about their roles and entitlements, and absence of proper

1. Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society – JEEVIKA
( Monthly Reports)
Name of the Consultant : Manoj Kumar
Contact Details : a.E-mail : manojirmaprm24@gmail.com
b.Mob. No. : +91-74881-16811
Month : May’2012
Theme : Social Development Assignment : Publid Distribution System (PDS)
Project Areas : Khagaria, Purnia, and Gaya
Reporting Office : SPMU,Patna Reporting Officer : CEO /SPM-SD
Summary of Reports
1. Action Points
2. Tour and Activities details
3. Observations and Feedback
4. Initial Suggestions
5. Specific Issues
1. Action Points
Formal joining was done on 22nd of May and accordingly following action points were
decided for the month of May’2012:
Sr.No. Agenda Place/Offices Persons to interact Duration
Mrs.Archana
1 Overview of the assignment SPMU,Patna Tiwari,SPM -SD one day
Understanding JEEVIKA & it's SPM,DPM,Mgrs-SD,
2 interventions SPMU,DPCU,BPIU and other staff two days
Literature Review of relevant basic Patna and Project
3 documents areas Not applicable 2-3 days
Understanding V.Os and it's V.Os' office
4 functioning Project Areas bearers,C.Cs,A.Cs, 5 days
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2. 2. Tour and Activities’ details
Tour
Sr.No. Period details Activities
1.Interaction with DPCU staff
a.DPM (Kamal Kishore) b.Trg.Mgrs.
(Santosh,Mukesh & Sagir) c.Livelihood mgr.
d. BPM-Dobhi and others and
Gaya understanding how JEEVIKA works at
24-25th
1 (Bodhgaya grassroot level .
May’2012
& Dobhi) 2.Visiting Mahkar village and meeting with
Sri Seeta VO members for more than 2
hours.
3.Observing distribution of rations in the
VO.
1.Interaction with DPCU/BPIU staff
a.DPM b.Mgr.-SD c.Livelihood mgr. d. A.Cs
,C.Cs and others.
2.Visiting Maarar village alongwith A.C and
Khagaria
holding meeting with 2 V.Os members for
(Maarar
close to 4 hours
26th-31st ,Mehsodi
2 3.Visiting Mehsodi & Ramganj villages and
May’2012 and
holding meeting with Bandhan V.O's
Ramganj
members twice on 2 consecutive days for
villages)
more than 7 hours.
4.Looking at documents at VO level.
5.Understanding the process from
members' perspectives.
3. Observations and Feedback
Concerted efforts were done to have first hand exposure to functioning of women
institutions at the grass root level in the form of SHGs and their federated structure of
Village Organisations (V.Os) as promoted by JEEVIKA. During the visit to offices and women
institutions and the interaction with different stakeholders the consultant stayed focussed
to understanding of the system and making observations which can be summarised as
below:
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3. (A) Attendance
(i) Low attendance of women in the meeting
(ii) No tracking system of attendance
(iii) Possibility of fake attendance
(B) Participation
(i) Women’s participation in the decision making process is subject to influence of the
agency
(ii) Non-sharing/non-availability of informations limit their capabilities to reinforce their
willingness to participate.
(iii) No rotation system in office bearers
(C ) Proceedings of the meeting
(i) Meeting is held in a way that there is huge scope of manipulations
(ii) Minutes are maintained , but,it’s hardly read out to members or if it’s read out it’s
done in a way that they never know if the writings match with what exactly
happened in the meeting.
(iii) Minutes are maintained like customary norms only. One person ,usually book-
keeper, prepares it and takes the signatures of the women at convenient time.
There’s no system of checking the contents of the minutes.
(iv) Manipulations in Book of accounts figure.
(v) Records-keeping not proper.
(D ) Awareness
(i) Committee members not aware of their roles and responsibilities
(ii) Members not aware of who is/are in what committee
(iii) Committee members /members, in general, not aware of the process of delivery
system
(iv) Committees not aware of what are expected of them
(v) Members not knowing what they have to expect in what form and in what way :
(a) what time they have to get the ration and other products
(b) What producs they have to get from the PDS
(c) How to make demand ?
(vi) Members don’t know what amount of theirs are deposited with the group .
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4. (vii) Financial Literacy almost nil.
(E ) Monitoring
(i) Absence of proper monitoring .(Needs to be strengthened and be result oriented )
(ii) Absence of tracking system and proper mechanism of following ups.
(iii) Frequent review of VO’s functioning not happening.
4. Initial Suggestions
A. Training, Hand-holding & Capacity Building
(I) Participants : V.Os and C.Cs/A.Cs
(II) Contents :
a. Processes of PDS. The entire supply chain.
b. Accounting and functional financial literacy
c. Leadership development
d. How to approach govt. System and get works done.
e. Right to Information
f. Right to Service act of Bihar
g. Safe transactions of the amount
h. Enabling to make use of informations available, do it’s proper analysis ,and
take decisions based on this.
B. Developing procedures and systems
a. To liaise with Supply Offices for on time & hassle free delivery of
informations and products.
b. To ensure seamless flow of communications among stakeholders
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5. 5. Specific Issues
A.Bandhan VO of Mehsori village of Khagaria
- VO and officer bearers and functionaries are of Mehsori village ,while all
beneficiaries are of Ramaganj village.
- Therefore there is conflict between VO and beneficiaries on regular basis.
Suggested solutions – a. License to be transferred to Ramaganj VO
b.Surrender of license by Bandhan
c.Operational expenses to be borne out by Ramaganj VOs by
collecting it
from beneficiaries and transferring it to Mehsori VO i.e. Bandhan
d.Transfer of list of beneficiaries to Ramaganj dealers (seeming most
viable)
B. Anomalies in accounts keeping
This was found that the book-keeper has made wrong entries in the accounts book. Upon
asking members said there had been Rs 170 that was spent on snacks for the meeting, while
entry was found to be Rs 350. This gap was found on every meeting.
Prima facie this hints towards fraud either by the book keeper alone or by him in gloves with
some other office bearing members/higher-ups.
Action – This was brought to the notice of CC and AC.
__________________________________________
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(Manoj Kumar ,manojirmaprm24@gmail.com,+91-74881-16811)