SKS NGO India 2010

©©Grace
2010 Chen
Grace Chen
 With a population of over 1 Billion, 35% of which fall un-
der the poverty line, India has one of the largest popula-
tions of the poor in the world. While micro finance has been
able to lift up many of those in poverty, the ultra poor have
been unable to utilize the resources available through micro
finance.

© 2010 Grace Chen

 The ultra poor are defined as the bottom 5% of the poor whose
lives are characterized by chronic hunger, persistent poor
health, and illiteracy. In India about 10 million of these fami-
lies exist. Swayam Krishi Sangam’s Ultra Poor program tar-
gets these extream poor who live on less than $1 a day.

© 2010 Grace Chen

 The ultra poor lack the ability and confidence to join
mainstream micro finance and require a more holistic ap-
proach to create sustainable change in their lives. These
households often include widows with a large number
of children, the elderly, the disabled, and other severly
marginalized groups.

© 2010 Grace Chen

 The SKS Ultra Poor program, modeled after the highly suc-
cessful BRAC program in Bangledesh, aims at the social, health,
and economic advancement of the ultra poor.

The program seeks to graduate members to mainstream devel-

opment programs after a period of18 months and constantly
tracks their progress during this time frame. Upon graduation,
many members will often chose to join micro finance organiza-
tions to sustain existing business or diversify income by start-
ing new businesses.

© 2010 Grace Chen

 The Ultra Poor program is involved in 4 different aspects of
intervention. They include livelihood training, health develop-
ment, social development, and financial literacy.
Livelihood
This is the first of four interventions and includes the selec-
tion and transfer of livelihood assets and training in asset man-
agement, such as livestock- rearing or running a general store.
This is followed by comprehensive skills training and access to
saving services.

© 2010 Grace Chen

 Health Development
Health development includes monthly visits by a trained pro-
fessional, information sessions, health screenings, and health
training for select ultra poor members to create a cadre of
paraprofessionals and barefoot doctors within the commu-
nity.

Social Development
Provides members with the opportunity to conduct group
meetings and discuss important social concerns in an open
forum. The forum is also used to create awareness about and
increase member’s participation in various government pro-
grams targeting the ultra poor.

Financial Literacy
Provide members with basic financial literacy through guid-
ance on maintaining cash flow, budgets, and setting up goals
and savings. Members are also informed about opportunities
to grow their business through various financial institutions
and products that are available within their reach

© 2010 Grace Chen

 We spent two weeks in the CYSD Pryas compound in Bui-
peri Guda in the Koraput district of Orissa. CYSD stands
for the Center for Youth and Social Development.

Although not affiliated with SKS, CYSD has close ties with
SKS and often hosts SKS staff when they visit the area.

Pryas is one of CYSD’s projects and is really cool. They have

managed to create a completely organic and self sustainable
entity by utilizing and reusing the resources around them.

© 2010 Grace Chen

 As research volunteers, we partnered with SKS NGO
to learn more about the health and money habits of
the Ultra Poor members. We shadowed field officers,
observed weekly SKS Ultra Poor meetings, conducted
village profiles and interviewed individual villagers.

© 2010 Grace Chen

 The Swayam Krishi Sangam team in Boipari Guda is
comprised of nine field organizers, four health field
organizers, and one lab technician. Since the vast
majority of Ultra Poor members are female, health
field organizers are all women while all field officers
are all men

The team covers 113 villages and 1,000 members

each week. Of these members, 900 have been trained
*
and 762 assets have been transfered.

*as of 7 July 2010

© 2010 Grace Chen
 Each day each volunteer would shadow a field officer. Depend-
ing on the day, officers may have two to four village visits.
During each visit we would take photographs of the program
members and take notes on various aspects of the program
which we used to compile a list of recommendations.

© 2010 Grace Chen

 Out team conducted 43 interviews and village member
profiles which we compiled into a word document. In ad-
dition to this, we have compiled a short media clip to raise
awareness about the Ultra Poor Program and SKS NGO.
The afternoons were spent compiling and analyzing the
data into a final report which we presented in person to
SKS management after returning to Hyderabad.

© 2010 Grace Chen