BAIF: The self-help approach
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COMMENTS 
One pregnant crossbred cow changed Noorjahan Mehboob's life. Hundreds of others are being aided by BAIF's holistic approach to rural development
Noorjahan Mehboob, a landless agricultural labourer living in Manakikere village in Tumkur, Karnataka, made a pitiful living from agricultural and construction labour.
Things changed dramatically when she joined the Transfer of Technology for Sustainable Development (TTSD) Project of the Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF). BAIF gave her Rs 10,000, and with an additional Rs 750 contributed by the other members of the project, Noorjahan bought a crossbred pregnant cow. In four months she sold 1,050 litres of milk to the co-operative society and earned a net profit of Rs 2,220.
Noorjahan is one of the many people whose lives of abject poverty have! changed for the better through BAIF's interventions.
Started in 1967 by Dr Manibhai Desai, BAIF, located in Urulikanchan in Maharashtra, works to eradicate poverty through a holistic approach to rural development. With a huge network today, BAIF now implements multidisciplinary programmes in livestock development, water resource management, tree-based farming systems, community health and empowerment of women in 10,000 villages spread across Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The focus is on socio-economically backward families.
The TTSD Project was started in 1996. The project was implemented in 192 villages in 11 field clusters in six districts. The project focussed on the Jana Utthan (advancement of people) approach, which works towards reviving traditional knowledge in income-generation activities.
The Jana Utthan appro! ach first identifies the poorest households in a particular community. Then the village community representatives and the families together prepare a micro-level plan based on the family's assets. The micro-level plan aims to assure food security and find out what an individual household needs to rise above the poverty line. The families constitute a People's Organisation (PO) to support each other by managing input supplies, training, services and monitoring. The POs are directly linked with mainstream organisations like government departments, banks, markets, etc.
BAIF's Livestock Development Programme is supported by the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) scheme, as dairy husbandry continues to be the most popular and effective programme among the poor. The Comprehensive Tribal Development Project, implemented by the Dharampur Utthan Vahini, a sector of BAIF in Gujarat, works with 11,478 poor tribal families over 140 ! villages in Dharampur. Over 4259.6 hectares of wasteland have been developed under this programme.
Contact: BAIF Development Research
Foundation
BAIF Bhavan
Warje, Pune 411 029
Maharashtra, India
Tel: 91-20-523 1661/523
1662
Email:
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