Report of the Committee on Training for Watershed Development (Eswaran’s Committee), Ministry of Rural Areas and Employment, Department of Wastelands Development, GoI, 1997

Salient points of the report are –

Gender: The report specifically talks of the involvement of women in various committees connected with watershed development programme. Under the 1994 guidelines, it is only in the Watershed Committee, that the representation of women and members of SC/ STs had been ensured. The report provides that all adult women residing in the watershed area and getting benefit from it whether as a part of User Group, Self-Help Group or otherwise would be members of Watershed Associations. Women should be members of land based User Groups even if they are not landowners in the land records and also as agricultural or project labourers. Formation of separate Self-Help Groups should be encouraged for the activities, which could be undertaken by women. Activity based Self-Help Groups will provide the scope for undertaking the income generating activities. In case of Watershed Committees, at least one-third should be women representing different user, self help and women’s groups so that they are able to express their views freely on matters which directly affect them. The Committee also recommends that in all State and District Level Advisory Committees at least one-third members should be women. s regards Watershed Development Team (WDT), the Committee recommends that at least one member should be a women member.

Equity: The report lays down that the landless and other weaker sections of the Watershed Community have equal rights of access and use of resources available in the form of agriculture products viz. fruits, fuel and fodder etc. in the village common lands. Wherever community assets ate created in the form of community water resources, fishponds etc. A mechanism of sharing them with the rural poor namely the landless and other weaker sections should be worked out along with sharing of usufructs from village common lands. Some of the benefits which would accrue from Watershed development programme would be in the form of greater and equitable rights like generation of employment, higher agriculture production and availability of greater bio-mass especially fuel wood and fodder. This could help in better opportunities for non-farm employment for the rural poor and an increase in the general wage level due to increase in opportunities.

Administration: The Committee recommended that WDT should consist of 5 members instead of 4 at present. Out of which, at least one should be a woman. On an average, one member of the WDT should be available for two micro-watersheds.

Revolving Fund: The provision for revolving funds to provide support to members of Self-Help Groups on their giving matching contribution has already been raised from Rs. 50,000/- to Rs. 1,00,000/-. It has been observed that landless persons who form part of Self-Help Groups are not able to generate sufficient saving in order to get assistance from, the revolving funds on matching basis vis-à-vis land-owning class. The committee recommends that an amount of Rs 1,000/- should be made available to SHGs without requiring any matching contribution from them so that they are able to start income generating activities.

Cost of Works: In view of increase in the cost of works due to inflation, the Committee recommends that the limit of Rs. 4,000/- per hectare for treatment of wastelands may be revised to Rs. 6,000/- per hectare for watersheds having less than 8% slope and Rs. 7,000/- for watersheds having more than 8% slope.

Preparatory Time for Development of Community Organisation: Organising the community has to be done before any other activity relating to works could be taken up preferably in the first year of the programme so that the remaining period could be spent in the planning and implementation of the watershed development programme.

Duration of the Project: As the time for completing the community organisation, training etc. has been extended to one year, the Committee recommended that the period of implementation of the project may be increased from 4 to 5 years without involving any additional expenditure.

Inter-Development Coordination: Where one of the Departments of the State Government is a PIA, it is seen that the funds are placed at the disposal of these departments for undertaking the activities at their convenience without any integrated approach at the watershed level. The committee recommends that the practice of placing funds at the disposal of various line departments is not in accordance with the guidelines and therefore should be stopped forthwith. The Committee also recommends that the PIA, which could be one of the Departments of the State Government working in the district, should be responsible for proper coordination, planning and implementation of the programme through various agencies /line departments.

Remote Sensing and other Scientific Inputs: The scientific input available from the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) can greatly help in the preparation of suitable watershed development plans at the project level. The cadastral level maps can be generated wherever the PIA needs them for proper planning of the area. These facilities would be useful and the Committee recommends that these may be suitably used. The Committee feels that other scientific inputs would be necessary in any watershed development programme for optimal interventions and sustainable management in the post-project period, with due regard to maintenance of the water moisture balance, efficient use of water etc. The Watershed Development Programmes have been taken up by a number of Ministries Departments and External Funding Agencies. A watershed Atlas has been prepared by All India Soil and Land Use Survey Organisation on a scale of 1:1,00,000. The watersheds delineated in the Atlas have been codified. There is a need to develop a uniform system of codification of micro-watersheds. The Committee recommends that the Central Government should take up the codification of micro-watersheds. The database can be computerized and should be made available to all user agencies indicating what work has been done and by which agency. This information should be updated from time to time after the basis codification and data base work is completed. There is a provision of a basic survey in para-69 of the guidelines. The committee recommends that the basic survey should be made compulsory for every micro watershed, which is taken up for development. The survey should be completed before Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) exercises begin and watershed plans are prepared and finalised. The installments for PRA should only be given after the survey has been completed.

Watershed Development Plan: Each Use Group is required to prepare an Action Plan in consultation with and under the guidance of the members of the WDT and the Watershed Committee. There is no mention about the manner in which these plans would be approved by the watershed associations and then sent to Zilla Parishads DRDAs. The committee recommends that the Watershed Development Plan should be discussed in a meeting of the Watershed Association. The members of the WDT and Watershed Committee should give due publicity to the plan and then explain it to the members of the Watershed Association in the meeting. The suggestions given by members of the Watershed Association should be duly considered and if accepted, may be incorporated in the Plan. Differences of opinion should be sorted out in the meeting itself so that there is no cause of resentment for any individual or group and the works approved under the plan have full support of the watershed community.

Release of Funds: The Central Government releases funds directly to the DRDA Zila Parishads. DRDA Zila Parishad, in turn, makes available the funds to the Project Implementing Agency (PIA) in so far as these relate to administrative costs, training and community organisation. The funds relating to works are released directly to the watershed project account of the Watershed Committee. Thus huge amount of money is available in the accounts of Watershed Committees but the basic responsibility and accountability for these funds continue to be with DRDAs and Project Implementing Agency. The Committee recommends that the DRDAs/Zila Parishad may release the funds to the Watershed Committee in suitable installments keeping in view the pace of implementation of the works.

The DRDAs/ ZPs will ensure that sufficient funds are available with the WC for the implementation of the works programme and that at no point there is a stoppage of works only because the funds are not being released by the DPRA/ZP.

Responsibility for the execution of works
There is a need to clearly delineate the responsibility of the PIA and the Watershed Committee in the matter of execution of works. The committee felt that the WC may be entrusted with the responsibility of execution and supervision of works wherever outside agencies are not involved. However, where the execution of works requires the services of an outside agency, the responsibility for direct supervision should be that of a PIA and the DRDA/ZP.

Review of existing training arrangements for watershed development: As training is an important component of the watershed development programme there is a need for developing a system for organising training for different level of functionaries. Once a project is sanctioned, the Project Implementing Agency (PIA) should know what are the various tasks to be done in the matter of training and which institution has to be approached for this purpose. As such there is a need for detailed guidelines which have to be prepared at the State level for this purpose. These guidelines would help in a big way in ensuring that proper inputs are available. There is also a need for developing an institutional mechanism for providing training as soon as there is a change in the incumbent.

Identification of Trainees and Training Modules: Before designing any programme for training, it is essential that the persons who need to be trained have to be identified so that suitable programme could be evolved for different types of functionaries associated with the programme. The Committee feels that the personnel who require training can be divided into four groups, keeping in view the level at which they have to operate and the role and responsibility assigned to them in the watershed development programme.

At the micro-watershed level training may be imparted to the following:

1. Members of Gram Panchayat: The training could be for a duration of 3 days and may be given in an institution so that it has a proper focus.
2. Village Level Government Functionaries: These functionaries include Partwari, Gram Sevak, Secretary of Gram Panchayat, the Anganwadi worker, the school teacher, the samiti sewak, the forest guard etc., It would be useful to sensitise these persons in order to enlist their support. A one-day workshop within the Block to discuss various issues and components of the programme would be useful. These can be organized by DRDA PIA with the support of the concerned district officials.
3. User Groups: The user groups generally comprise of different category of farmers effected by the work activity taken up under the watershed development programme. These may also be formed of persons dependent on common property resources (CPRs) or of persons adversely affected by the development programme. The training programme of these groups could be of a duration of a few hours and the training cum interaction could be organized at a time when the day – to – day farm activities are over. These programmes could be held once in a week or fortnight and may be repeated as many number of times as may be necessary. The training projectors, VCPs, Video and Audio devices etc., may be provided by the nearby training institutions for this purpose.