Thematic Focus

BRLF attempts to support its partner CSOs in projects that primarily focus on building sustainable livelihoods through improved agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries and forestry. CSO partners also work on land and water resource development, local community institution building, better implementation of social security schemes, capacity building of panchayati raj institutions and community based organizations for enhanced participation, common property resources, value chain development in agriculture and allied sectors and skill development of rural youth, other government functionaries.

Other thematic focal areas of BRLF are integrated habitat improvement, food and nutrition security, capacity building of stakeholders, and knowledge development/research that facilitates and fosters sustainable livelihoods in the Central Indian Tribal belt.

BRLF has also undertaken various unique initiatives on certain pressing issues in the rural areas of India which affect the livelihoods of the rural population immensely. These are known as the flagship initiatives of BRLF.

Central Indian Tribal Region is critically afflicted with groundwater problems. Thus, augmentation, conservation and protection of water resources are the top priorities of BRLF in all of its projects. The rationale behind PGWM was to counteract the grim situation that has emerged due to over exploitation of ground water and take adequate remedial action to arrest the deterioration in agriculture output. To ensure the best handholding support to the partners for implementation of PGWM, BRLF has partnered with ACWADAM and three other resource agencies (ACT, WASSAN and PSI). Implementation of PGWM involves both high technical knowledge and community mobilization skills. With the resource agencies, which bring technical know-how to the initiative and BRLF partners, who have been working with the community for many years and are spread across the breadth of the country, working together, this initiative is a one of its kind in the country.

This a pilot and is being currently implemented in 10 locations in the country with support from 10 BRLF partners and the resource agencies. BRLF plans to generate evidence and knowledge from this pilot to make grounds for an informed national level strategy for groundwater management in the country.

As agriculture is one of the main livelihood activities for most of the tribes in the central Indian belt, BRLF has initiated a mandatory component on NPM as part of the existing approved projects to ensure sustainable agriculture, farmer profitability, soil protection, protection of insect and animal bio-diversity and ensuring safety of food and water sources.

For the successful implementation of Non Pesticide Management based Agriculture, BRLF has partnered with three resource agencies – Preservation and Proliferation of Rural Resources and Nature (PRAN), Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) and Safe Harvest. The resource agencies bring with them immense experience in implementing NPMA and marketing its produce in varied geographies of the country. These agencies provide knowledge support, handholding support for implementation, training support and marketing support to the CSO partners of BRLF under this initiative.

The pilot has been initiated with 13 CSO partners of BRLF in May 2016. Each partner has also formulated its scale-up plans for the project, to be implemented on successful implementation of the pilot.

The objective of this initiative of BRLF is to facilitate and strengthen the implementation capacities of the CSOs for successfully implementing the WASH programme in the Central Indian Tribal belt of India. Through this initiative BRLF aims at supporting its partners for implementation of Honourable Prime Minister’s Flagship Programme, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. The programme includes a selection of target villages, preliminary situational analysis, meetings with village institutions, distribution of IEC materials and training of local resource persons on construction of toilets.

BRLF has partnered with Utthan, a renowned name in the field of sanitation to provide technical support to 10 CSO partners in the implementation of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. CSOs will undertake pilots for the adoption of WASH in 2-3 villages in the intervention area. Under the partnership Utthan will conduct training and capacity building events for BRLF partners and also extend onsite hand holding support to BRLF partners for implementation of WASH interventions.

The Denotified and Nomadic Tribes constitute a very marginalised section of Indian society. They are socially as well as economically backward and have little access to the resources essential for a wholesome life and socio-economic development. To bring them into the mainstream and carry out a systematic assessment of the vulnerabilities and challenges these communities are faced with is the objective of this initiative. A consultation session was organised in Pune on 21st January 2016 to understand the current situation with a focus on communities in Maharashtra. Based on the findings of the study, specific interventions have been planned to improve the overall social and economic conditions of these communities.