This project, titled "NGO initiative to get Panchayati Raj Institutions moving", was initiated by the Collective in February 2000 in Chennekothapalli and Roddam mandals as part of a state level network initiative in 15 mandals.

The Collective has been covering all the panchayats in Chennakothapalli and Roddam Mandals. It is a slow and arduous task as the Panchayats have been controlled for a long time by various political parties or feudal lords and have had no transparency.

The focus of this project has been creating awareness among the people on the effective functioning of grass root level democratic bodies. The focal activity of this project is conducting training programmes for members of Panchayati Raj Institutions with special emphasis on the marginalised people.

Under this project, the Collective has conducted training programmes and organised public and village level meetings. Up until the current year 2219 people have participated in the trainings conducted on Panchayati Raj. This includes 994 women, 16 Sarpanches and 146 ward members. The Collective has also organized People's Forum meetings where the elected representatives met the general public and also helped in enlisting about 1,500 voters. Experiments are on to promote model panchayats. The Collective also took the initiative in conducting district level Sarpanch training programmes as requested by the district Collector.

At the People's Forum meetings organised by the Collective, elected representatives met the general public. Four such meetings were held, with approximately 1,000 participants. In addition, 3 other public meetings were organised to share experiences of Panchayati Raj functionaries who were in office since 1995, with the newly elected functionaries. Totally 32 sarpanches and 103 ward members participated in these meetings.

To promote people's participation in the functioning of gram panchayats, 220 village level meetings were held, for which 6,000 pamphlets were distributed. This helped in enlisting about 1,500 voters.

The impact of the work includes : à

• Awareness of the Panchayati Raj Act
• Recognition of the role of voters
• Strengthening women and Dalits
• Wider avenues for CBO leaders
• Promotion of election in place of consensus

One of the main constraints that we have encountered so far is opposition from other sections while working with Dalits and backward classes.

Future plans include :

• Four model panchayats
• Coordination between gram panchayats and people's organisations
• Further capacity building for women panchayats
• More training on local self governance to elected representatives
• Support in conducting gram sabha and panchayat meetings

For this project the Collective has received support from NOVIB - Netherlands through the Centre for World Solidarity - Secunderabad