Indian NGO Research Articles

‘The Girls are Alright’: Beauty work and neoliberal regimes of responsibility among young women in Urban India

This article addresses the complex ways in which poor urban women’s educational and training needs are embedded in official discourses of capacity creation and are constructed in opposition to their community and kinship networks, an aspect that is very often overlooked when such programmes are designed. It argues that this oversight is not a coincidence, as neoliberal policies and discourses of empowerment construct young women as ‘subjects of capacity’. Where they are addressed directly, young women are framed as the single, autonomous subjects of liberalism who, once enabled, overcome ‘traditional’ kin and community attachments. Based on the ethnographic study of vocational training for beauticians provided by an Indian NGO, the article argues that such interventions are geared towards ‘community development’ and therefore reference broader social landscapes, but that the participants in training see themselves and the process as part of, rather than as opposed to, kin and community obligations. While education and training are more often than not conceived as stand-alone projects offering young women a way into employment and the labour market, the article foregrounds the class-based limits of such workist approaches and the entanglements between body work, caste/class, and histories of feminized poverty. It demonstrates how young women from lower-caste and lower-class backgrounds see opportunities in the beauty industry mainly as supporting their roles as responsible daughters, future wives and daughters-in-law realized within the complex economies of marginal urban communities. They are also acutely aware that while the actual work of the beautician allows some access to the world of ‘professional’ modern and classed notions of femininity and, arguably, a more dignified workplace than in domestic service, the pitfalls of an industry built on gendered, racialized and classist inclusions and hierarchies are noted too. Critiquing the mainstream feminist focus on access to the labour market, the article argues that young women are fully aware of their own precarious relationship with ideals of neoliberal constructs of autonomous subjectivities promoted by the state and its agents.

Agricultural Equipment Rental System

Agriculture forms the backbone of Indian economy and there is always a need of supporting and improving it .As a part of which some of Indian NGO's are with an initiative of supporting the farmers by facilitating them with the modern agricultural equipment's on rental basis .Modern agricultural equipment's make farmers work more efficient and easy .As a part of which there are some organizations that are set up to help those farmers who are in need of such equipment's ,where the organization owns the equipment's and rent those on request of farmers at liable amounts. At present, farmers need to travel to a place to borrow all the essential needs, which is a tiresome and not a cost-effective work. So, a smart digital farming is listed as the highest-ranking technology opportunity in the latest Global Opportunity report in terms of its expected positive impact on society. This paper is on digitizing the process of renting the agricultural equipment’s by the farmers .We aim at developing an application that farmers can use to get their equipment’s on rent and also check the availability and renting .We also allow them to book the equipment’s in advance .It also helps us to get the track of equipment’s that are on rent .We also aim at developing analytic for the state heads to make better availability of equipment’s and to keep track of the equipment’s as well, which could help in providing better support for farmers

Using evidence to improve and scale up development program in education: A case study from India

While the number of impact evaluations has increased in international development, the use of evidence has remained an issue. This study investigates and conceptualizes how a development agency can use evidence to improve and expand its development programs, taking the case of the Indian NGO “Pratham.” In a series of experiments with researchers, Pratham developed and refined their learning agenda to search for a better strategy to improve children’s foundational learning. Pratham has also regularly conducted a nationwide survey on children’s foundational learning. Data from the nationwide survey demonstrated the problem in children’s foundational learning, and evidence from experiments showed an option for an effective strategy to address it. The search, learning, and communication cycle using data and evidence, conceptualized from the case of Pratham, would enhance the effectiveness of development agencies to better support educational development.

Securing the Commons in India: Mapping Polycentric Governance

Common pool land and water resources in India play vital, but often overlooked, roles in livelihoods and ecosystem services. These resources are subject to the authority of various government departments and are often managed in ways that result in uncertain tenure for the people who depend on these resources for fodder, fuel, water, and other products. An Indian NGO, the Foundation for Ecological Security, has developed a process for “commoning”—assisting communities to secure the commons by forming inclusive local institutions to manage the resources, and to work with the different government departments to gain stronger rights to the commons. This study examines how the polycentric governance of natural resource commons shapes the ability of communities to do effective commoning, with particular reference to appropriation and provisioning rules. Using participatory network-mapping in FES sites in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states, we identify the constellation of actors involved in the commons, the relationships among them, and community knowledge of these arrangements. The results reveal the complex flows of resources, information, and authority related to commons, with programs and agencies across different sectors, offering different opportunities and requirements, for commons management. The Net-maps show linkages that are present, and others that are missing or not well-understood, Net-mapping helps assess the extent of community understanding of the polycentric governance of the commons, and can help identify opportunities to strengthen participatory processes for planning and implementation.

Social and Financial Efficiency: A Study of Indian Microfinance Institutions

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) provides savings, credit, insurance and remittance facilities to more impoverished people without any collateral. MFIs have twin goals: social outreach and financial sustainability. Outreach refers to how many people are served by MFIs while the capacity of MFIs to serve longer is financial sustainability. The social and financial performance of MFIs is the most debatable issue in the Indian microfinance industry. Social efficiency indicates MFIs’ willingness to support a higher number of poorer consumers while financial efficiency indicates how long financial services can be offered to the poor by institutions. The success of these organizations is very critical for the continuity of funding support for donor agencies and the government. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA) techniques this paper calculates the efficiency of Indian NGO–MFIs. The research also uses Tobit regression to estimate the factors of the efficiency of MFIs. The data is taken from the Microfinance Information Exchange for the period 2009 to 2015. Results indicate that NGO–MFIs are financially more efficient than social ones. Regression findings show that the critical variable for the financial and social efficiency of NGO–MFIs is operational self-sufficiency (OSS). Very few empirical studies are available in the Indian context that discuss the efficiency of Indian NGO–MFIs. The present paper provides standards for performance measures of NGO–MFIs operating in India to assist in improving the performance and growth of microfinance firms.

Assessing longer-term effectiveness of a combined household-level piped water and sanitation intervention on child diarrhoea, acute respiratory infection, soil-transmitted helminth infection and nutritional status: a matched cohort study in rural Odisha, India.

BackgroundOpen defecation is widespread in rural India, and few households have piped water connections. While government and other efforts have increased toilet coverage in India, and evaluations found limited immediate impacts on health, longer-term effects have not been rigorously assessed.MethodsWe conducted a matched cohort study to assess the longer-term effectiveness of a combined household-level piped water and sanitation intervention implemented by Gram Vikas (an Indian NGO) in rural Odisha, India. Forty-five intervention villages were randomly selected from a list of those where implementation was previously completed at least 5 years before, and matched to 45 control villages. We conducted surveys and collected stool samples between June 2015 and October 2016 in households with a child <5 years of age (n = 2398). Health surveillance included diarrhoea (primary outcome), acute respiratory infection (ARI), soil-transmitted helminth infection, and anthropometry.ResultsIntervention villages had higher improved toilet coverage (85% vs 18%), and increased toilet use by adults (74% vs 13%) and child faeces disposal (35% vs 6%) compared with control villages. There was no intervention association with diarrhoea [adjusted OR (aOR): 0.94, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.74–1.20] or ARI. Compared with controls, children in intervention villages had lower helminth infection (aOR: 0.44, 95% CI: 0.18, 1.00) and improved height-for-age z scores (HAZ) (+0.17, 95% CI: 0.03–0.31).ConclusionsThis combined intervention, where household water connections were contingent on community-wide household toilet construction, was associated with improved HAZ, and reduced soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infection, though not reduced diarrhoea or ARI. Further research should explore the mechanism through which these heterogenous effects on health may occur.

Going to Scale: A Case Study of an Indian Educational NGO

Effective programmes introduced by NGOs in developing countries have the potential to benefit a large number of people if they are scaled up, but instances of successful scaling-up are relatively rare. This paper uses a case study of an Indian educational NGO that has scaled up rapidly and effectively in order to explore the reasons for choice of scaling-up strategy, the particular barriers to scaling-up in the education sector, and how these barriers can be overcome. It finds that, while a high-functioning NGO can successfully overcome many of the internal organisational challenges posed by scaling-up, external barriers such as the difficulty of building relationships with key stakeholders like government officials and school teachers pose significant challenges. While these difficulties could in principle be mitigated by moving from an expansion-based to collaboration-based model of scaling-up, low accountability and governance of the NGO sector make it difficult to detect the quality of potential partners. The case also shows that India’s recent law mandating CSR has increased funding availability for scaling-up, but its requirement for corporate donors to preferentially support local projects has also created some challenges by constraining NGO ability to harness economies of scale during scaling.

Trust in humanitarian operations: a content analytic approach for an Indian NGO

Trust between partners, a key element enabling coordination across supply chains, has recently started gaining attention in humanitarian operations literature. Yet, empirical examination of this concept is scant. Borrowing from extant literature on trust within organisational behaviour stream, this paper aims to empirically verify trust formation types: companion, competence and commitment, in a disaster relief supply chain using primary and secondary data from an Indian Humanitarian relief organisation (HRO). Further, we identify variations in trust formation during disaster relief activities and developmental programmes, and between upstream and downstream partners of a humanitarian relief organisation. Based on the results of our content analysis, we contend that while companion based trust is significantly more prevalent during developmental programmes, competence based trust is important during both disaster periods and otherwise. We also find that there are significant differences in the trust formation between upstream and downstream partners and the HRO. This study has significant theoretical and practical implications on identifying the role of trust in humanitarian operations.

Genomics for Ruminants in Developing Countries: From Principles to Practice.

Using genomic information, local ruminant populations can be better characterized and compared to selected ones. Genetic relationships between animals can be established even without systematic pedigree recording, provided a budget is available for genotyping. Genomic selection (GS) can rely on a subset of the total population and does not require a costly national infrastructure, e.g., based on progeny testing. Yet, the use of genomic tools for animal breeding in developing countries is still limited. We identify three main reasons for this: (i) the instruments for cheap recording of phenotypes and data management are still limiting. (ii) many developing countries are recurrently exposed to unfavorable conditions (heat, diseases, poor nutrition) requiring special attention to fitness traits, (iii) a high level of expertise in quantitative genetics, modeling, and data manipulation is needed to perform genomic analyses. Yet, the potential outcomes go much beyond genetic improvements and can improve the resilience of the whole farming system. They include a better management of genetic diversity of local populations, a more balanced genetic progress and the possibility to unravel the genetic basis of adaptation of local breeds through whole genome approaches. A GS program being developed by BAIF, a large Indian NGO, is analyzed as a pilot case. It relies on the creation of a female reference population of Bos indicus and crossbreds, recorded with modern technology (e.g., smartphones) to collect performances at low cost in tiny herds on production and fertility. Finally, recommendations for the implementation of GS in developing countries are proposed.

Are NGO MFIs Successful? A Comparison between India and Bangladesh

MFIs formed as societies and trusts which primarily provide credit services to their clients are called NGO MFIs. NGO MFIs providing microfinance do not have a specific legal and regulatory framework governing their formation or activities. They are civil society organizations that generally are established under state-level societies and trust acts. NGO MFIs are funded by donor support in the form of revolving funds and operating grants. This paper aims to compare the financial performance of NGO MFIs in India and Bangladesh. The study is primarily based on secondary data. The variables, such as institutional characteristics, financing structure, outreach indicators, overall financial performance indicators, revenue and expenses, efficiency and risk and liquidity have been considered to analyse the financial performance of 16 Indian NGO MFIs and 23 Bangladeshi NGO MFIs. The Mann-Whitney U test has been used for analyzing the data. It is found that the Indian NGO MFIs stand better than that of Bangladesh in many aspects, though Bangladesh is the place of origin for the concept of microfinance and Microfinance Institutions.

De capability approach als normatief-evaluatief kader voor sociale interventies: Kwalitatief onderzoek in India met inzichten voor de Vlaamse en Nederlandse praktijk

De capability approach als normatief-evaluatief kader voor sociale interventies: Kwalitatief onderzoek in India met inzichten voor de Vlaamse en Nederlandse praktijk

Where silence speaks-insights from Third World NGOs

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to unpack the conflation between the silence and purported passivity of the Third World NGOs (TNGOs). Explaining the invisibility of their voices in the critical and post-development perspectives, it locates the inquiry in the context of the action of these TNGOs.Design/methodology/approachThe paper follows the phronetic research approach, which involves a case study of a locally developed Indian NGO. It uses phronetic inquiry along with Ashis Nandy’s notion of “silent coping” as the conceptual framework. To explain the purported passivity of TNGOs in the texts under global circulation, the paper uses Walter Mignolo’s discussion on “texts in circulation”.FindingsThe uncertain nature of action – that it begets further action possibilities; precludes the prospect of visualizing such action spaces in the context of their generation. This emergent nature of local action spaces makes it difficult to capture them within the dominating global discursive structures, thereby creating local spaces of agency for the TNGO actors. Selective appropriation of artefacts and texts from the global circulation and the creation of alternate stake structures at the local level support the realization of such action spaces. Further, such local artefacts and texts do not travel into texts circulating globally, thereby rendering the TNGOs invisible and silent in the reading of global texts and leading to the TNGOs being framed as passive.Originality/valueThis paper locates the voices and acts of the TNGOs and highlights the mechanisms that enable them to silently cope with structures of discursive domination, thereby contributing to post-development studies and post-colonial organizational analysis.

Poverty Reduction in India through Palliative Care: A Pilot Project.

Poverty Reduction in India through Palliative Care: A Pilot Project.

L'evoluzione dei Participatory Guarantee Systems per l'agricoltura biologica: esperienze mondiali a confronto

This paper highlights the importance and the emergence of Participatory Guarantee Systems (pgs) for quality assurance of organic products worldwide. The study provides an overview of several experiences of networks that have adopted pgs. As such, the paper represents a valuable instrument considering the different facets that these models have assumed over the years, in different countries and contexts, in response to different needs. The first network described is the Brazilian Rede Ecovida de Agroecologia. It is interesting to note that in this case the work and the products of the network are officially recognized within the national legislation. On the contrary, Certified Naturally Grown was founded from the need of diversification from the American National Organic Program. Finally, the Indian ngo Keystone Foundation, which promotes and stands for the protection of both cultivation and indigenous cultures. In Italy the CampiAperti association represents one of the best-organized network of producers and co-producers based on pgs principles. The Italian experience offers the chance to a widespread remark, also by Genuino Clandestino movement, on the need for policy adjustments to the variety of productive practices as well as looking at the several experiences of small processors. In this respect in Italy policymakers are starting to discuss a number of measures aimed at protecting family farmers and their production habits. For example, Regulation n. 19/2014 of Emilia Romagna Region recognizes and defends the application of solidarity economic activities. This regulation enhances the importance of peasant agriculture and its practices and it also recognizes the participatory guarantee as a model that ensures environmental and social sustainability and animal welfare as well as workers’ rights. Specific interest in this topic has also come up on the European agenda. In 2013 the EU launched an online public consultation on organic agriculture and the regulation of organic production. This survey contains some questions regarding EU citizens’ willingness to accept alternative certification schemes. Furthermore, in 2014 Horizon2020 published a call entitled Small farms but global markets: the role of small and family farms in food and nutrition security. This call recognizes the importance of the contribution of family farms, and in particular smallholder farms, to food and nutrition security. This is why, we have to encourage and develop the growing also at EU policy level for alternative safeguarding models for organic agriculture.

Reeva Sood-A Great Sociologist with a Charitable Thought

Mrs. Reeva Sood was born on 23 May 1958 and is working for the welfare of society for a long time. She hold Masters in Sociology from Meerut University and diploma in Adult Continuous education and Extension from Delhi University, Diploma in Hospital Management from YMCA Delhi, Diploma in Personal Management and Labour Welfare and Diploma in Naturopathy from Delhi. She has been dealing with gender issues in socioeco - nomic development in urban as well as in rural sectors of society for more than 19years. She is a part of various activities on health and training projects in Haryana, Delhi and across different parts of India and have done significant work in Self help groups, Micro Credit, Small entrepreneurship, Health, Education and Community empowerments. Apart from this she is associated with World Bank International Fund for Agriculture Department, United Nation Development Programme, German Society for International Corporation, United State Agency for International Development, many Asian Regional Association and Indian NGO's.No Abstract.

PO77 Evaluation of young breast-cancer sufferers’ survival: novel initiative by Indian cancer NGO

PO77 Evaluation of young breast-cancer sufferers’ survival: novel initiative by Indian cancer NGO

145 Identifying deficits and needs in palliative care: experiences of Indian cancer NGO

145 Identifying deficits and needs in palliative care: experiences of Indian cancer NGO

Remedial teaching in Indian under-resourced communities: Professional development of para-teachers

This paper presents a summative evaluation of a professional development program for para-teachers within an Indian NGO. The program aimed to support para-teachers in well-structured learner-centered enactment by introducing planning and reflection of daily lessons. The study investigated lesson plans, enactment and pupil outcomes to assess the extent to which para-teachers could plan and enact well-structured learner centered lessons. The study suggests strong evidence that the program was successful in helping para-teachers achieve greater quality of lesson planning, enactment and pupil learning.

Open Governments, Open Data: Getting the Technological Toolkits Right

A the world, governments and local authorities are beginning to release their data for public consumption and reuse. As Joel Gurin writes in his article, “Open Governments, Open Data,” open data promises to be a “global force” that has the potential “to shape economic development, international investment decisions, and international relations.” However, as anyone who has worked with data knows, simply releasing or having open data is not enough. The challenge comes in formatting the data to be workable and computable, which allows the data to deliver insights. With constant advances in computing and mobile technology, open data offers even more promise in the hands of average end-users when combined with the right tools. On one end of the spectrum, some authorities have made great strides in pushing for open data, but have developed limited means to visualize or drive home the impact of their data. For example, NGOs like China’s Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, which developed the China Pollution Map Database, have pushed Chinese government departments at all levels and regions throughout China to release 97,000 environmental supervision records of polluting enterprises in China. However, a perusal of the website demonstrates its limitations: visualization is only possible within the website’s limited platform, and individual records can only be searched and accessed on a one-by-one basis. These limitations become frustrating when trying to gather aggregate data to tell a story about a particular region or company. Likewise, IPaidABribe.com, an Indian NGO that collects corruption data, provides aggregated, summary-level data on corruption nationally and

Place-based education and pre-service teachers: a case study from India

Case studies of successful place-based education that involve international partnerships are rare. This article reports on an inclusive educational collaboration between pre-service teachers at an Australian university and primary and secondary school-aged children in a slum area of Delhi, India. Encouraged to undertake teaching that affirmed and extended the children's existing linguistic and cultural knowledge, the six teacher candidates collaboratively planned and implemented exemplary programmes geared to the children's interests and needs. This highly inclusive teaching and learning took various forms: a photographic project in the community, the collection of family portraits and stories, a dance and drama performance, and rich conversations on topics ranging from popular culture to politics. Using data drawn from observations of teaching, teacher candidate interviews and written reflections, and artefacts of student learning, this article analyses the processes and outcomes of this highly successful teaching. Essential to the success of this initiative was focused preparation that stressed cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity, a rejection of deficit notions about children and families living in slums, knowledge of Indian socio-political complexities, and a commitment to the building of equitable and ethical relationships with the Indian children and NGO staff. It is anticipated that this analysis will inform further attempts at place-based collaboration in the service of quality education.