Adoption of Amkota Village, Morigaon District, Assam

IDBI Bank Mumbai sanctioned a financial assistance of Rs. 35,55,200/- (Rupees thirty five lakh fifty five thousand two hundred) by way of grant towards ‘Adoption of Amkota village, Morigaon district, Assam’, with the purpose of transformation of the village into a Model Village by undertaking a set of planned interventions. The project has been funded as a CSR initiative of IDBI Bank. The grant shall be released to RGVN over a period of three years with effect from August, 2014.

The planned interventions and the cost estimates against each are as follows:

• Provision of Drinking Water
  Water filters
  Installation of a deep bore tube well
• Sanitation:
  Construction of low cost toilets
• Health:
  Health camps
  Health Kiosk
• Education:
  Renovation of School Buildings
  Providing playground / recreation materials
• Infrastructure:
• Construction of a Community Hall
  Reading room centre & informatics centre
  Provision of drains / lanes
  Solar Lanterns
• Services
  Setting up of a yarn Bank

A sum of Rs. 15,57,050/- was released as first installment against which the following progress has been made till March, 2016.

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CRISIL – RGVN Association (2012 – Sept 2014)

CRISIL launched a national financial awareness initiative called ‘Pragati – Progress through Financial Awareness’ in 2012 across rural areas of Assam in partnership with RGVN. Twenty five financial literacy workshops were held covering 1000 beneficiaries, which included self help groups, students and small entrepreneurs. Information on financial planning, cash management, savings, insurance and budgeting were given in these workshops through various materials like handouts, banners, Power Point presentations, movies and budget books developed by RGVN in the local language for the beneficiaries.

In 2013, the programme was scaled up across two more North Eastern States – Sikkim and Tripura in addition to Assam covering 21 districts focusing on financial literacy and linkage with banks.

In this phase, 50 full-day financial literacy training workshops were held across the three identified states and 90 half-day training workshops were held across Assam. Total 3500 beneficiaries comprising of women self help groups, tea tribal workers, fishermen folk and youth were covered. In this phase, 15 grass root level trainers (CRISIL Mitras) were developed.

CRISIL CSR Committee visit and Feedback:

In 2014, a field visit was organised for the CSR Committee of the Board of Directors of CRISIL on July 24th and 25th in Guwahati, Assam. The visit comprised Roopa Kudva, Managing Director & CEO, Ms. Vinita Bali, CRISIL Board member and former Managing Director and CEO of Britannia Industries, Dr. Nachiket Mor, CRISIL Board member, former Executive Director of ICICI Bank,  Mr. V. Srinivasan, Chief Operating Officer, CRISIL Limited and Maya Vengurlekar, Senior Director, CRISIL Limited.

A series of interactions were held with various stakeholders at Guwahati and Morigaon District, to give a complete overview on the Pragati initiative. The objective of these interactions was to build an understanding on

• Socio-economic profile of the communities and the need for financial awareness,
• Process followed by CRISIL Foundation and RGVN for implementation of the training
• Topics covered in the training – by observing a live training programme
• Issues, constraints, challenges that exist – through interactions with trainers and local bankers

After the visit, the CSR Committee provided key insights into the existing structure of the programme which have helped in shaping up of future strategy for this initiative.

CRISIL CSR Initiative in Assam for period Oct 2014 – Dec 2017

A. Approach -Empowerment of rural women by strengthening their financial capabilities:

CRISIL’s CSR initiative will now include running a full life cycle Financial Inclusion Programme for rural women in the state of Assam. This will include the following 3 stages:

Stage 1: Training

• Make rural women knowledgeable on various household financial matters like tracking monthly household expenses, improving monthly savings by reducing or avoiding wasteful expenses and creating individual financial goals.
• Familiarise them with simple financial products to achieve their financial goals.

Build up a network of CRISIL Mitras in the districts CRISIL works in order to provide regular financial counselling to rural women so that their participation in household financial decisions increases and is sustained.

Stage 3: Linking women to financial service providers

Facilitate channelling of individual and household savings to the formal financial network like the banking sector by connecting them to business correspondents.

B. Plan – Key Highlights:

• Reach out to 100,000 women by December 2017
• Training sessions delivered by CRISIL Mitras will be the central approach for outreach
• The financial awareness workshop to be the starting point of the planned intervention
• Beneficiaries will be assisted in financial goal setting and planning; the engagement would last through the financial planning life cycle of the beneficiaries
• Hand-holding and guiding beneficiaries to access and use all relevant financial services and tools over a period of 8 to 10 months as against only bank a/c opening
• Impact assessment to measure the extent of progress made towards financial goals by beneficiaries

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IFCI CSR

RGVN has collaborated with IFCI for the construction of low cost toilets and distribution of solar lights in semi urban areas near Guwahati, Assam. The project includes:

• Construction of low cost toilets. 210 toilets were constructed between 2011 and 2012. Around 130 toilets were constructed during the 2012-13 phase.

• Distribution of solar lanterns in non electrified or partially electrified houses. 250 solar lanterns have been distributed during 2011-12, and around 150 were distributed in 2012-13.

• Community Meetings for the dissemination of information and rapport building with the community.

• Awareness Camps on sanitation, health and hygiene.

• Number of people benefited: Direct beneficiaries: 740 Indirect Beneficiaries: around 2000 people.

HCCBPL

RGVN has tied up with Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd., for the overall development of 3 villages adjoining their factory in Byrnihat, Meghalaya. The area is bordering Assam and is around 25-30 kilometers from Guwahati. The project includes:

• Access to Sanitation: 81 low cost toilets have been constructed. Awareness have been brought about through informal gatherings and programmes.

• Access to Safe Drinking Water: 4 ring wells have been constructed and one spring well renovated.

• Construction of 3 pathways

• 1 Medical kiosk set up & several health camps organized.

• Scholarships to underprivileged meritorious students: 54 students have benefited during 2010-11 and 2011-12.

• Need Based Vocational Trainings on Carpentry, Masonry ,  Basic Computer Education, Tailoring, Mushroom Cultivation and Mobile Repairing.

• Around 5000 people benefited from the initiative.

In the next phase, RGVN is now working towards making one of the village as open defecation free.

CRISIL extended support to RGVN to conduct 25 Financial Literacy Programmes in Assam in 2012-2013 and 50 Financial Literacy Programme in Assam, Sikkim and Tripura in 2013-14.

NABARD also supported RGVN to conduct 50 Financial Leteracy Programme in Upper Assam.

150 Street plays on Financial Literacy were organised in Jharkhand. This initiative was supported by NABARD.

Baseline Surveys and Impact Assessment for IOCL.

RGVN conducted Baseline Surveys and impact assessments for Guwahati and Digboi Refinery of Indian Oil Corporation Limited for identifying the needs in the villages near the Refineries and undertake development work in the areas.