Minutes of phone conversation with Mehar Singh regarding updates about the his recent site visit of the PEAK project.

Meher’s contact information: 011 49 89 66655421 (home)

011 49 178 2014396 (mobile)

PEAK (Peoples Empowerment And indigineous Knowledge) is a project based in the Almora and Nainital districts of Uttaranchal.

Minutes:

Mehars’ recommendation – Reetu had done commendable work in the areas of women’s empowerment and has a good reach within the community.

According to Mehar, even the remote villages have electricity 24/7 (mostly) and do not really suffer from major water scarcity issues. Communication and transportation on the other hand are not as developed as to be convenient. He spent 2 days visiting two villages in the Almora district and spent time meeting and talking with the volunteers, workers of Adhaar, CAC and Buniyaad and also the women of the community.

-  Reetu has registered CAC and Adhaar as two separate organizations. The motive behind having two organizations instead of one is that if FRCA clearance is not granted to one she can always try again through the second.

-  Mehar gave Reetu all information and paperwork she would need to apply for FCRA clearance. It is still not confirmed if she will apply for FCRA clearance and consequently funding for both CAC and Adhaar or just on of them.

-  Given Sahyog’s controversial past in Uttaranchal and the fact that Reetu currently for the record is a salaried employee of Sahyog, it is also worth keeping in mind that the government might not be favourable to the granting of FCRA clearance.

(Refer: http://www.aegis.com/news/ips/2001/IP010806.html)

-  From his discussions with the women of the community (the population of men in the areas is small due to their mass exodus/out-migration to the cities), Mehar found a mismatch in the needs of the community and the goals of Reetu’s PEAK project as a whole viz. recourse/access to higher education (schools only go as high as class 8) vs. preservation of indigenous knowledge

-  Preservation of indigenous knowledge involves the systematic and scientific verification and validation of the credibility of the practices be it agricultural, medical etc. So this segment of the project may pan out to be one with long-term impacts.

-  Reetu’s work in the area of women’s empowerment has had very positive results. Dalit woman are now more aware of their rights to the local forest resources which are their primary sources of livelihood. They have also found a voice against discriminatory behaviour towards them like untouchability etc.

In all a good project but may need a little more scrutinizing as far as the conciliation of the projects’ and Asha’s interests is concerned.