Food systems are broken. Globally. Greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, water pollution, soil and land degradation. Climate changes – rising temperatures, humidity, and wind speeds. Impacting unequally. Some are more vulnerable. A billion people are hungry. Can something be done? Yes, natural farming-living is an option. Farming and food system inspired by and in sync with natural ecosystems. Focus on interactions between plants, animals, humans, and the environment. Serving people, nature. Across various geographies, contexts, levels, and scales. Participatory learning-based knowledge co-creation.
Can we do more to create systems of support? Can we have spaces in our learning-workplaces safe enough to express one’s struggles, anxieties? Can we teach how to handle failure? Manage stress? Can we let them appreciate that they are not alone? And they are understood, cared for with compassion, empathy? At every level, in every situation. Can we work on ‘happiness’ and offer spaces? Not alone. Together in solidarity, capacity, saying ‘we are here, we care’.
Uncomfortable with the ways of the ‘rich’, I left Naandi. Uncomfortable with the ways of ‘powers that be’, I had to step out but not from the self-help movement of the poor, vulnerable and marginalized. To take charge of their livelihoods, lives, and destiny. This helped me in joining the SH movement in various states, and later in national efforts through NRLM, and NULM. Joined in the NRLM effort, starting with co-authoring Framework for Implementation, National Rural Livelihoods Mission. A 3-lakh Crore Mission over 18 years to cover 10 Crore PVM families, starting with women, into self-help movement. Then, as part of the working group of the planning commission, on NRLM and Mahila Kisan Sasakthikaran Pariyojana, MKSP, the mission was endorsed. On 11 November, 2011 at 11:11 hrs. A National Rural Livelihoods Project with World Bank Support was taken up to support NRLM’s efforts in intensive blocks. Chipped in Project implementation plan and Community operational manual. By 2011, I was on board fully to co-lead NRLM. Anchoring CORE NRLM and Leading nurturing its Capacity across, including HR, resources, partners. integrating support, technical support, missions, state anchors, and resources to states. Annual Action plans, processes, costs, timelines. GEF’s SLACC, UNDP’s GOALS, and BMGF-CARE supplemented. Restructured, revised NRLP. North-east Special Package came in. Revised Framework 2.0. Chaired pre-EC meetings. Remained standing invitee to NRLPS meetings.
By 2016, NRLM went to all states. SRLMs, NRLP Society came into being. Graduated from Resource blocks, to intensive blocks, towards all blocks. Groups to VOs to CLFs. SERP, Kudumbashree, Pudu Vazhvu, Jeevika, and RGMVP as national resource organizations. NIRD as National resource centre, with pool(s) of National, State resource persons – 1000+. Local resource persons crossed 100,000. Apart from 50,000 staff and HR. Manuals, COM, 10-year processes, protocols, participation, inclusion, saturation, communitization, and convergence. Round Tables, and Writeshops. Social, Engendering, FNHW, Financial, Funds, Institutions, PIP-PPA-Tracking, Livelihoods, Accountability, and Audit. HR-staffing-rationalization-HRM-Performance-Learning Processes. Generalist integrators and specialists.
Continuing in self-help, livelihoods, collectives, and enterprises. N-way is added. Can we be there in the next 5,000-10,000 days and more?
Yes, we can. If we coexist, flow with our akshauhinis. In N? kshetradharmayoga for 7L.
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