Executive Director’s Note
NITI Aayog, Gol selected and recognised Yadgir as one of two ‘Aspirational Districts in Karnataka’, from among 115 districts nominated across India. This mandate necessitates the district administration to work on improving key socio-development indicators in the district. Kalike has served as a key knowledge partner in helping the district administration make the required proposals and plans, and we will continue to provide support.
In 2018-19, the Kalike team advanced its work in many regards. An event promoting libraries in government schools was held in Yadgir district, to showcase the children’s and teacher’s efforts in making vibrant libraries in their respective schools. Bala-melas were organised as a platform for students to represent their best work and build confidence. The Early Childhood Development (ECD) program expanded to six districts under the aegis of the ‘Hyderabad Karnataka Region Development Board’ (HKRDB) and has subsequently reached around 13,000 anganwadis. We explored allied activities in the farm sector by collaborating with the Karnataka Milk Federation and Horticulture Department.
Kalike’s Mission 2020 culminates in the coming year. We have planned to review and consolidate our learnings from the initiative and have, consequently, begun groundwork on three major initiatives. We are launching an Elder Care program to care for the often-ignored elder generation. While we worked on restoration initiatives in Kodagu district of Karnataka (which experienced destruction on account of floods and landslides), we simultaneously developed a comprehensive program for Disaster Management to aid in relief and rehabilitation of the affected communities.
Learnings from Yadgir will be taken to new geographies so that programmes can be replicated and scaled up. We would like to thank our donors for having helped us actualise our vision, and the government agencies for their cooperation at every step of our journey, they have remained committed to the cause. Last but certainly not the least, we thank Kalike’s on-ground team whose firm conviction and persistent effort has made everything we are proud of possible. Let us remain focused and continue to empower the lives and future of the people we work with.
D. Shivakumar
Executive Director
EARLY
CHILDHOOD
DEVELOPMENT
We actively work alongside the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD) and Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) offering intensive capacity building to ensure health and education of children from 0 – 6 years of age. We do so by employing a two-pronged approach that focuses on pre-school education and nutrition. The former has grown beyond the range of Yadgir, where the Early Childhood Education (ECE) intervention was honed, and is now being scaled to five other districts under jurisdiction of the Hyderabad Karnataka Region Development Board.
Perspective and Knowledge Building
Material and Resource Support
Monitoring and Evaluation
Management and Information System
Establishment of District and Block Resource Centers
- Expansion to 6 district of HKRDB
- Growth monitoring for 3,333 children
- Facilitated 169 NRC admissions
- 7,164 trained (CDPOs, ACDPOs, Supervisors)
- Demonstration centers for future trainings in 1,385 AWCs
An intervention developed to augment quality of teaching, ensuring that children learn in a creative and practical space. It prioritises involvement of the child, locally sourced materials, and employing a teaching methodology that is age-specific so as to build and achieve tangible learning outcomes.
- EPEL Coverage of 14,100 children and 126 teachers from 100 government schools
- 18,849 students covered under Nali-Kali and LIP
- 147 SDMCs strengthened
- Functional library across 100 schools
- 21 teachers underwent the Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT) by Cambridge ESOL
WATER,
SANITATION and
HYGIENE (WaSH)
Establishing health, hygiene and sanitation by ensuring clean drinking water, raising the standard practices of hygiene and improving sanitation facilities. This intervention works on the levels of anganwadi, school and the community at large.
- 80 schools covering 18,290 children
- 2,160 adolescent girls across 30 schools impacted by MHM
- Cluster-based WaSH intervention plan facilitated in 19 villages from 5 GPs
- Sanitary infrastructure and water purifier across 80 schools
- 10,517 Individual Household Toilets (IHHL) constructed
LIVELIHOOD
Kalike’s livelihood intervention aims to create sustainable livelihoods by facilitating knowledge sharing, access to innovative technologies, improved market linkages and financial support. We adopt best practices to increase household incomes and mitigate challenges to agricultural productivity. This intervention is realised primarily through a decentralised network of Village Resource Persons (VRPs).
- 1,366 crop demonstration plots set up
- 2.5x times increase in milk production
- 2,743 farmers covered through demos and trainings of improved farming practices
- 30% increase in yield and reduced input costs through cropping
- 23 farmer groups formed
Enabling employment and building confidence and leadership among women and youth, so as to improve vocational skills, increase household income and forge better livelihood options. To accomplish this, we have developed a three-pronged approach
- Micro-enterprises and Enterpreneurship
- Vocational skill training
- Finishing schools
NEW
INTERVENTIONS
With the success of Kalike’s current interventions in Yadgir over the last half a decade, we have gained an in-depth understanding of the district. Further, the villagers have provided us with data and insight to guide us into the next phase of our efforts. In the upcoming year, we plan to spend resources on three new initiatives.
- Community Radio - Empowering the people of Yadgir by setting up its first community radio station, titled 'Kalike Dhwani 90.4 FM'.
- Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation - Quick response through essential aids in disaster affected areas with community engagement for long-term rehabilitation
- Elder Care - Addressing the basic health needs of the elderly in rural areas through theb National Programme for Health and Care of Elderly (NPHCE).
We hold clear conviction that people must be empowered and systematic change decentralised in order to sustain real transformation. Kalike focuses on strengthening community-based organisations across the board. To accomplish this, community strengthening is an inextricable aspect of all our thematic interventions. Kalike works closely with SDMCs, Balvikas Samithis, Gram Panchayats and similar bodies. In the reporting period, we bridged the gap and ensured maximum advantage of existing government bodies and frameworks for the individual as well as the community, at large. Let us examine two thematic interventions in particular.
