Activity Report 2005-2008

Activity Report 2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

PARIWARTAN A voluntary organization endeavoring towards the equitable and sustainable development of the mountainous regions of India

CONTENT #

Title of the activity

Page No.

MAKING POSITIVE CHANGES IN LIVES AND MINDSETS

1

Barbed Wire Fencing around Forest Area

2

2

Installation of Wood Gasifier Based Crematorium

3

3

Tree Plantation Campaign around Sanjauli

4

4

Enabling Young Leaders to Combat Climate Change

5

ADVOCATING THE SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL INTERESTS

5

Pro-active protest to check illegal encroachments in the forest area

6

6

Adopting a Participatory Approach to find solutions to Waste related problems

6

7

A successful struggle to ensure Right to Food to the right people

7

8

Raising voices and taking actions to improve access to sanitation

7

9

Promoting the Gender Equality and Women Empowerment

8

BARBED WIRE FENCING AROUND FOREST AREA (May, 2006) An initiative to protect the new plants, trees and natural vegetation around the village Chalaunthi, financially assisted by H.P. Forest Sector Reforms Project (HPFSRP) under the Good Idea Fund Scheme of DFID-UK.

Village Chalaunthi is situated quite close to Sanjauli, one of the most densely populated and polluted settlements of the city. The air quality of the surrounding areas gets badly affected by the atmospheric pollution around Sanjauli. Efforts to improve the air quality through increasing the forest cover in the area have been made at number of times, but the ultimate results show no hints of success at all. This situation was worsening due to a constant decline in natural vegetation around the area, mainly caused by livestock and human beings. Bulk of garbage thrown everyday in the forest area by some local residents was also destroying the sensitive eco-systems of the area. It was hard to check the loss of vegetative cover and trees in that area due to many socio-economic reasons. In February 2006, Pariwartan decided to take a sincere action to restrict the human interference from damaging the natural vegetation in the local forest area. The organization discussed with the community members over finding an efficient solution to this problem and finally came up with an idea of putting a Barbed Wire Fencing around the forest area neighbouring village Chalaunthi. The organization made a funding request to Himachal Pradesh Forest Sector Reforms Project HPFSRP) which was being financially assisted by the Department of International Development of United Kingdom (DFID-UK). After the appraisal and approval of the project by HPFSRP with a budgetary provision of Rs. 96,000, Pariwartan started its intervention in the beginning of May, 2006. In order to restrict the entry of herds of livestock (mostly belonging

to

the

local

communities) in the forest area where overgrazing had already damaged the natural vegetation,

especially

the

young saplings, Barbed Wire was

fixed

interspacing

keeping of

10

an

inches

among the rows of wire. For longer sustenance, the angle iron bars holding the barbed wires were fixed into concrete instead of soil. Efforts of Pariwartan in this project met success. This Barbed Wire fencing now protects the vegetation cover and now the greenery flourishes well within the framework of barbed wire and the garbage is no more falling into the forest area.

INSTALLATION OF WOOD GASIFIER BASED CREMATORIUM (March 2007) A groundbreaking project on enhancing energy efficiency and improving the air quality, financially assisted by Himachal Pradesh Forest Sector Reforms Project (HPFSRP) with technical support from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi.

It has been estimated that daily about 20,000 to 30,000 dead bodies are cremated by Hindu tradition in India which requires around 400 to 600 Kg. of fuelwood per cremation in the form of whole wood logs to completely burn the body. Apart from the burden that this firewood consumption puts on the forests, burning of the firewood during the traditional cremation practices produces smoke and unpleasant smell that deteriorates the air-quality of the local environment. The residents of village Chalaunthi had been facing the problem of poor air quality for long time due to the cremations taking place in traditional way at the local crematorium i.e. Sanatan Dharm Shamshan Ghat, Chalaunthi. This Crematorium is the biggest cremation site of the district and is situated close to Sanjauli, one of the highly populated areas of district Shimla. The crematorium has six cremation platforms which cause severe environmental pressure as around 400 cremations take place at this site every year. The villagers of Chalaunthi were bound to face severe physical as well as psychological health problems as the location of the crematorium is such that the smoke and unpleasant smell from the “open-air” cremations goes straight into the houses of the village. In the year 2006, ‘Pariwartan’ decided to deal with this multifaceted socio-environmental issue and started discussions with various departments. The organization got success in March 2007 when it got financial assistance

from

the

State

Government under the Himachal Pradesh

Forest

Sector

Reforms

Project (funded by DFID-UK) for installing an energy-efficient and smoke-free cremation system at the

Sanatan

Dharm

Shamshan

Ghat, Chalaunthi. The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi

provided

its

patented

technology on ‘Wood Gasification’ to make the project a great success. The project was focused on reducing the fuel-wood consumption and making the cremations smokeless through the introduction of a Wood Gasifier-Based Cremation System. The project, which is the first initiative of its kind in the North India region, is contributing immensely in reducing the burden on the local environment by enhancing energy efficiency and maintaining the air quality of the surrounding area.

TREE PLANTATION CAMPAIGN AROUND SANJAULI (August 2007) A campaign on enhancing the local environment by planting 400 saplings of Deodar trees in the neglected forest area situated close to Sanjauli & Chalaunthi in Shimla, financially assisted by Himachal Pradesh Forest Sector Reforms Project (HPFSRP)

“Green” does not mean just a colour when it comes to describing the appearance of Shimla; instead it refers to the general state of mind. The lush green landscape makes it an incredible city where the ancient culture has been preserved in the vicinity of nature. But as the developmental process moves further, the environmental degradation takes place alongwith the growing factors like urbanization and industrialization. Now, the greenery of Shimla is no more in the same good situation as it used to be a couple of decades ago. It is due to increase in deforestation and lack of sufficient initiatives towards the afforestation. The village Chalaunthi is adjacent to Sanjauli, one of the most densely populated settlements of the city. The air quality of the surrounding area was getting badly affected due to the atmospheric pollution around Sanjauli. Pariwartan realized the critical need to restore the forest cover around the area and organized a Tree Plantation Campaign around Chalaunthi and Sanjauli. Pariwartan proactively took an initiative to cover approximately Two Hectares of forest land with the plantation of Deodar saplings. Deodar was chosen for the plantation due to its favourable characteristics such as its longer life (upto 300 years), its role in triggering

rainfall

etc.

Another

important

reason

for

choosing

Deodar species was that the tree is specific to Shimla and now the number of Deodar trees in the city is drastically reduced due to illicit felling.

Thus,

Plantation

with

Campaign,

this

Tree

Pariwartan

tried to increase its number by planting 400 trees in the local area. Inauguration of the programme was done by the Hon’ble Minister of Irrigation & Public Health, Shri Thakur Kaul Singh. Shri Narendra Kataria (Mayor, Municipal Corporation, Shimla) Shri J.C. Negi (S.D.M., Shimla) Shri Dila Ram Thakur (Village Pradhan, Chalaunthi) and local residents of Chalaunthi & Sanjauli area participated in this campaign with great enthusiasm. This idea of Tree Plantation was once again appreciated, approved and financially assisted by the Himachal Pradesh Forest Sector Reforms Project (HPFSRP). This symbolizes the trust forest department has on Pariwartan’s efficiency and the commitment of Pariwartan’s team towards its objectives.

ENABLING YOUNG LEADERS TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE (August 2008) An ambitious program to build the capacities of Young Leaders of Himachal Pradesh over the various aspects of Climate Change and mobilize youth-led actions against the climate change crisis.

CLIMATE CHANGE has emerged as the most critical and threatening challenge before the world in the 21st century. Despite of several policy-related initiatives taken in order to tackle this challenge, the conceptual understanding and approach towards “acting locally” has not been realized yet so far. It is unanimously believed that aware and motivated Youth, well-equipped with “in-depth” knowledge over the aspects related to climate change, will be of immense potential for making the communities aware & sensitive towards the environment and for taking actions in defense of the earth. United Nations underpinned the role of youth in tackling with the climate change challenge and declared the theme of the INTERNATIONAL YOUTH DAY 2008 as “Youth and Climate Change: Time for Action”. Considering the capacity building of youth over the Climate Change as the most basic step towards the promotion of sustainable actions for combating this problem, Pariwartan organized a 2-day long training program for the Youth Leaders from district Shimla from August 12 to 13, 2008 at the Rotary Town Hall, The Mall, Shimla. The training program christened as “Enabling Young Leaders

to

Combat

Climate

Change” is the first of its kind program in Himachal Pradesh and the organization aims to replicate the same at other parts of the state. In order to maximize the outreach of the program,

the

organization

partnered with relevant Govt. Departments, Business Groups, NGOs,

CBOs,

Educational

Institutions, Media and Youth Associations. The resource persons for the training were renowned

subject

matter

specialists

from

Forest

Department,

Non

Governmental

Organizations and Environmental Advocacy Groups. 50 trainees belonging to 16-25 years age-group attended this training program with great enthusiasm and interest. These young leaders are now acting as Awareness Promoters and Change Makers over various aspects related to Climate Change, its impacts and consequences at local level. By joining this youth movement against climate change, these participants have also become a part of the INDIAN YOUTH CLIMATE NETWORK (IYCN), a coalition uniting Indian youth and Indian youth oriented organizations who are concerned about climate change.

PARIWARTAN ADVOCATING THE SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL INTERESTS Adopting a Participatory Approach to find solutions to Waste related problems Shimla town was originally developed during the British reign in India with a carrying capacity to inhabit around 25,000 people, a majority of whom was the administrators, employees, service providers and general residents of the British Summer Capital of that time. At present, the city has a total population of over 2 Lakh people which apart from posing a threat to the environmental carrying capacity of the area. On an average, more than 70 tonnes of solid waste is generated in the city everyday and this problem aggravates due to lack of proper waste management systems and a casual approach of the people as well as the local administration. In the year 2005, Pariwartan’s think tank came up with an idea to solve the problem- which was based upon making tasks easier by reducing the work load at each unit. Pariwartan advocated the division of 25 wards of Shimla city into 5 different waste management zones and each zone constituting 5 wards. Earlier, the waste collection and disposal was used to be conducted in 25 wards altogether. The Municipal Corporation accepted this framework and adopted the same, which helped in solving problem to a greater extent. Pariwartan pioneered in setting up a participatory approach to make the masses and policy makers aware and sensitive about the sustainable waste management in Shimla. Pro-active protest to check illegal encroachments in the forest area Land encroachments done in an illegal and unauthorized way is a big socio-environmental problem of present time which almost all the cities are facing. Sometimes, problems like this become more complex to deal with; especially when further revelations expose the involvement of a land-mafia in the encroachment. Shimla too, has been facing this problem for past couple of decades. It is indeed a difficult task for the district administration and the municipal corporation to keep an eye over the illegal encroachments going on in every area. Such a case of illegal encroachment across the Sanjauli-Dhalli Bye Pass Road in Shimla was observed and highlighted by Pariwartan in the year 2006, where some parts of the roadside land were being illegally captured by some people. About 80% of the land of this newly constructed 4 km long Bye-pass Road belongs to the state government. In the leadership of Shri Het Ram Thakur, the organization mobilized the local communities and raised voice against these illegal land encroachments and supported the municipal corporation in exposing off the real culprits behind this. The pro-active approach and the immediate actions taken by Pariwartan brought out great results when the municipal corporation inspected the area and the guilty were set to enquiries and court-cases were lodged against all the wrong-doers. Pariwartan got immense help from Print and Electronic media, through which the entire issue was brought in light and a serious warning was issued to all accused.

A successful struggle to ensure Right to Food to the right people Government of India launched the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) in order to help the poor people, especially those living Below Poverty Line (BPL). In this scheme, BPL people were issued Ration Cards so that they could get food items on affordable prices from the controlled rate shops. But even this genuinely “pro-poor” scheme did not remain unaffected by the evil of corruption. In Shimla, some undeserving people have got themselves wrongly identified under the IRDP scheme and thus deprived many poor and deserving people of their right to food. Pariwartan, once again under the leadership of Shri Het Ram Thakur, decided to reach upto the root of this unfortunate issue through using the Right to Information Act. After getting the authentic information, Pariwartan observed and analyzed the critical manipulations done in the list of beneficiaries under the IRDP scheme and raised the issue upto the office of Hon’ble Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. As a fruitful result, the Chief Minister ordered a detailed probe to reveal out the faults made in the IRDP beneficiary selection survey. The investigation committee discovered that a huge part of the survey was wrongly conducted, due to which many right and needy people could not get themselves entered in the list of beneficiaries i.e. Below Poverty Line and some people had been unfairly included in the same. Pariwartan demanded the government to take strict measures to check this kind of irregularities, as a result of which, the Government ordered to cancel the entire survey and re-conduct the survey with utmost sincerity and honesty. Raising voices and taking actions to improve access to sanitation Chalaunthi village is adjacent to Sanjauli, one of the biggest commercial and residential settlements of Shimla city. Most of the working people, especially the outsiders, find it more convenient to live in Chalaunthi where the accommodation is cheaper and the place is situated quite close to Sanjauli. The accommodation facilities are somehow ample in Chalaunthi, but facilities like drinking water and proper sanitation are still inadequate and this creates environmental havoc. About 20% of the total population of the village (mainly including the immigrants) does not have access to toilets which results in open air defecation and degradation of the local environment. The existing number of public lavatories was insufficient to cater to this big demand. In January 2007, Pariwartan raised voice to increase the number of public lavatories in order to check open air defecation which was also contaminating the natural water resources of the village. The local member of Legislative Assembly, Shri Harbhajan Singh Bhajji understood the criticality of the situation and allotted the budget to the Municipal Corporation for building more public lavatories. Later on, Pariwartan also demanded to solve the problem of poor drainage of waste water in the village. As a result of strong involvement of the local community in dealing with the issue, the Municipal Corporation constructed proper drainage system in the village.

Promoting the Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Pariwartan, although not directly involved into women-centric issues, supports the equal rights for women and advocates the capacity building of women to improve their livelihoods and effectively participate in the socio-economic decision making. Underpinning the significance of promoting awareness over women rights, Pariwartan facilitated the local women welfare association- Mahila Mandal to organize a one-day workshop in the village Chalaunthi. The objective of the workshop was to create awareness among the womenfolk of Chalaunthi over the various women-specific rights stated in the Constitution of India, with specific focus on social and economic empowerment of women. The workshop was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Member of Parliament from Mandi, Smt. Rani Pratibha Singh. Participants of the workshop were- Women of village Chalaunthi, personnel from the Department of Social Justice, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh, representative of the Banks providing loans to women for economic self-reliance, lecturers from the Himachal University and Journalists from local Media.

PARIWARTAN …from awareness to awakening

CONTACT US Postal Address P.O. Box # 27, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh (INDIA) Registered Office Chalaunthi, Sanjauli, Shimla- 171006, Himachal Pradesh (INDIA) Phone +91 9816637634, 9817075488, 9418901188, 9857192386 E-mail [email protected] Website www.pariwartan.bravehost.com

ACTIVITY REPORT (2005-2008) Prepared by- Richa Sharma & Navneet Yadav All Rights Reserved by Pariwartan