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Participatory Poverty Appraisal

Kriti – SKS Co-Learning Model

Context

SKS NGO is a not for profit organization with a mission to work alongside the ultra poor (< 1 US $ a day income) located at the bottom of the pyramid. SKS has recently completed a pilot program based on the TUP model developed by BRAC, Bangladesh. One of the main tenets of the program is that cost effective targeting of the Ultra Poor is required to realize the mission objectives of Ultra Poor Program. SKS has developed a detailed process for targeting the ultra poor in rural areas.

Kriti Social Initiatives is a NGO working with urban poor on initiatives related to health care and livelihoods. Kriti is embarking on a program to work with the urban ultra poor. Kriti also believes that effective targeting is critical to success of the program and to that effect wishes to develop a robust and scalable model to identify urban ultra poor households.

Kriti has requested SKS NGO to engage with them to try and adapt the targeting methodologies developed by SKS for rural areas to the urban context and to run a demonstration / concept testing in the slums where Kriti is working.

Present paper is the output drawn out of 2 day field exercise comprising of field walk, focus group discussions, , case study analysis and Participatory poverty appraisal.

Specific Objectives

1. To share documentation about the end to end targeting process.
2. To contextualize the selection process to urban slums and help Kriti create required draft process and tools.
3. On site demonstration of Participatory Poverty Appraisal and targeting the ultra poor in the slum area chosen by Kriti.
4. Reflections and sharing experiences for a standard and replicable protocol in urban ultra poor targeting
   

Deliverables:

1. SKS shares the end to end targeting process document.
2. 2 day process demonstration involving 4 member team of SKS with hands on experience
3. Reflections, case studies and suggestions for standard protocol in urban ultra poor targeting
   

Preparatory Exercise:

Preparatory exercise comprised of

1. Sharing process documents evolved out of Narayankhed experience.
2. Interface with Kriti Team on step by step approach
   

1. Hardware and tools for the field
   1. Brown sheets and charts
   2. Markers
   3. Dot stickers
2. Information Dissemination about the event:
   Prior information to the prospective households of the targeted slum colonies through spread of word and contact persons and functionaries
3. Timings:
   Finding the times that are convenient to community to participate without encroaching upon their livelihoods works.
4. Secondary Information:
   Gather and collate secondary information about the slum, sub colonies, census and information from ongoing programs like DWCUA
5. Opinion Makers:
   List out opinion makers and try to elicit their opinion and information
   
   1. Corporation counselor
   2. DWCUA leaders and workers
   3. Teachers of schools and Aanganwadi
   4. health workers and doctors
   5. MFI line functionaries and center leaders
   6. other contact persons
6. Selection of meeting site:
   Prior selection of place to sit and conduct the PPA – preferably neutral place like school etc.,
   Assumptions:
   
   1. Business plan spelling out no., of households to be targeted
   2. Core values/assumptions like working only with women members, non transitory households, age group of 18-55 years (eg), caste allocation and other demographic characters. It should also be clear about duration of the interventions and key components of program
      
      1. Day I & Day II Demonstration of PPA and Poverty Ranking:
         
         1. Location: JNR Nagar
         2. Process:Wealth ranking and physical mapping of the colony for ultra poor households
         3. Time investment: 2 hrs.,30 minutes; 2 batches in day 2, each 2 hr.,30 mts.,
         4. Indicators evolved:
            1. Single women headed family
            2. Widows and destitute with no source of livelihoods
            3. Acute poverty during days of no work
            4. Alcohol effected families
            5. Non skilled labor households/beggars/rag pickers/domestic servants/utensil cleaners
            6. Chronic ill cases
            7. Old age persons’ households
            8. Family disaster cases
            9. Tenant houses and drainage bank hutments
            10. Type of house even if it is rented/own house and household articles, sanitation etc.,
         5. Indicators to use exclusion:
            1. Availability of PDS card
            2. Permanent own housing
            3. Skilled labor
            4. Couples with both members earning
            5. MFI loaners
            6. Transitory migrants
            7. Leaders and existing beneficiaries of government programs

Story of Chandraiah

Chandraiah’s story in a way reflects how India is double impacted, with de-ruralization and urbanization juxtaposed, reflecting upon quality life in metro slum.

Chandraiah was once a prosperous farmer in Mehaboob Nagar, father of 9 children and contented. Smitten by recurring drought and non paying agriculture, he left his village 3 decades back in search of livelihoods in Hyderabad.

His migration cycle was 6 months initially and gradually moved him away from losing enterprise of agriculture, as his migration cycles prolonged to years and decades. Now totally forgotten about his village and erstwhile livelihoods, he got naturalized as slum dweller in JNR Nagar. Out of 9 children, one son and 8 daughters, 3 daughters died due to lack of proper health care and wife died due to old age mal nutrition. His children have never seen his village and became second generation permanent slum dwellers, born and brought up in his dingy slum hutment.

At the age of 75 his lone livelihoods source is, residual muscle power, that enables him to do rag picking selling, earning a paltry Rs.50 a day (1 US$ a day). He picks up empty bottles from liquor shops at Rs.2 and sells at Rs.3 earning subsistence to keep his body and soul together.

When bottles are not available, only means of livelihoods is waste paper that he picks up from houses at Rs.4 per kg and sells to wholesalers at Rs.6 per kg., being old he is not taken for mason work that pays him more. His plastic roofed house is porous; un electrified and gets inundated in heavy rains. He buys pot of water from water tap owner for Rs.2, crawling in and out of 5 ft high plastic roofed house.

His story is reflection of how rural India failed him as farmer while urban India playing a reluctant host.

Kurmanna, slum dweller who made his way to graduation from ultra poverty:

Migrated from Mehaboob Nagar in search of livelihoods, Kurmanna graduated from casual labor to skilled labor and eventually became a watch man in Bungalow, nearby, earning Rs.3500 per month. (US$ 70), modest by any means in slum parlance. His journey to modest living from ultra poverty reflects how an enterprising mind can overcome the travails of urban slum life. He could muster a subsidized house under government sponsored housing program, a PDS card for subsidized food ration and a respectable life in urban slum parlance. He has total grasp over slum livelihoods, seasonality of work and wages.

He can mobilize rural poor, in need of work, for building construction and gets a cut for his service. He accommodates the migrant workers coming fresh from rural areas in rented houses in the vicinity of work site. He says that due to recession and slowing down economy, only 6 months of work is available in a year for an average stress migrant rural worker, fetching Rs.200 per male and Rs.180 per female.

The work is laborious carrying sand and concrete to building tops and at the end of the day the aching muscles invite them to cheap liquor. He says that alcoholism totally destroys the family harmony with women beating and wrangles. He deftly ranks the slum colonies on density of ultra poverty and his chosen indicator is make shift house on drain embankment. He says that Ambedkar Nagar in vicinity has maximum no., of such houses and constitutes one of the poorest habitations in Hyderabad.

When we told about our mission he was more than happy to support for the sake of his co slum dwellers.

Reflections and Suggestions:

Field Assistants and Community Resource Persons:

It is strongly recommended that the Field Assistants and Community Resource Persons (part time local acquaintances) be trained and involved right from beginning.



Existing Social Capital

Involvement of local groups like MFI centers and DWCUA as social capital are very useful to elicit information. MFI centers are available social capital that can be enlarged and used for information though not for selection. (6 MFIs are operating in these colonies). DWCUA groups are available in the colony that can be effectively utilized for information gathering



Timings of the event:

Early morning times with prior information are better for higher participation. Work hours start for them from 8.30 am and evenings are too tiresome for manual labor to sit and talk. There may be disturbance from drunkards also.



Secondary Information and Targeting the Colonies:

Targeting the colony on the basis of secondary information on poverty density helps to identify the ultra poor within compact zone.

Processing and making faire document::

Present exercise is super imposing physical mapping and poverty ranking with well being analysis on the chart. For better clarity of information, it can be by disaggregating the indicated thematic areas

Matrix I: Physical mapping which can indicate livelihood resources and other helpful centers and physical land marks

Matrix II: wealth ranking of the mapped out households as felt by the community with reasons there off

Matrix III: Segregation of list of households into Non poor, normal poor and ultra poor

Matrix IV: Any special disadvantaged section like physically handicapped, HIV effected etc., that can make lateral entry into final list.



Time Validity of PPA Information

There should not be long time lapse between PPA and finalization of the list through analysis as PPA gives the spot analysis that can vary as days pass on.



Time Investment:

Every sub component of the exercise should also be having time investment details to standardize the best practices. It also helps in evolving rapid appraisal models.



Community expectations and Gate Crash:

It is advisable to inform the community that it is a social and health survey and research exercise and no benefits can be guaranteed as rising expectations of the participants may lead to gate crash and pressures.



Ultra Poor Involvement:

Involvement of initially identified ultra poor in the targeting of their own kind of Diaspora has been extremely useful.



Rural and Urban PRA Comparison and Contrast:

Critical difference between rural and urban ultra poor targeting exercise is the size of the representative area, while in rural areas larger population is represented in one PPA, in urban context the size of representation of catchment households is fairly small confined to one or two streets. This is because of interpersonal information level in urban areas which is confined to limited area or no., of households.



Livelihoods Matrix:

To have better insight into livelihoods of the area, it is advisable to profile range of livelihoods with sub sector analysis that helps in drawing Livelihoods Action Plans. Livelihoods also become one of the criterions for wealth ranking. Eg., unskilled labor is poorer than skilled labor, rag picking is just above begging in earning scale