Dhruvi Shah, CEO, Axis Bank Foundation talked to Rusen Kumar from India CSR on various CSR initiatives of Axis Bank. She says, “We constantly listen to and learn from rural communities to adjust our strategy. We have learned that building people-centric programmes enables change rather than imposing change, building capacity and ownership within the communities.”, Excerpts of an Interview:
What are the learnings for ABF in this journey towards the 1 mn-household mark? How long did it take to reach the 1 mn figure?
Our work on-ground can be characterised by one core element – trust. For all our projects on livelihoods, we have worked towards developing trust in the community. This trust is built by demonstrating impact and change through our work. Time and again, communities have witnessed the positive results of our interventions that have put their needs at the forefront and enhanced their role in bringing about systematic change.
Our support hand-holds the community for some time to enable them to gain the confidence and capacity to take ownership of their growth. For this, we promote and strengthen the formation of SHGs, Federations, and Community Resource Persons (CRPs) who can lead the community and supply them with the support, tools, and inspiration they need. Such leadership also unlocks resources and leverages government schemes at the right time to help the community.
We constantly listen to and learn from rural communities to adjust our strategy. We have learned that building people-centric programmes enables change rather than imposing change, building capacity and ownership within the communities.
If we ask about challenges – what do you think are the big ones? Is it bureaucracy (at the State/Centre) or the belief and traditional practices of people?
The world is evolving fast, and it is imperative that rural communities and local economies are able to equally reap the benefits of this progress. Today, rural communities are left behind due to their limited access to new knowledge, dated traditions, and lack of exposure.
They have the right mindset and intent to improve their lives. It is crucial to build on this motivation and develop their potential through capacity building, exposure, training, and creating leaders who can equip, inspire, and sustain growth.
Can you share some figures/data that underline the development brought by your work across the country, and in case you wish to highlight a particular region? Which are the regions where you are most active, in terms of the population ABF is working with?
We are supporting communities in over 10000 villages across the country. Our work is focused on establishing credible paths to steady livelihoods and building the capacity of rural communities to ensure long-term financial security.
Since 2018, we have been working in partnership with the Department of Rural Development – MNREGA cell, Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation (BRLF) and 13 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) led by PRADAN on a Mega Watershed project that improves access to water for farmers in Chhattisgarh across 1400 villages in 12 districts. This collaborative initiative will boost farm productivity, improve cropping intensity in 3.50 lakh hectares of land, enable farmers to undertake multiple-cropping cycles and launch other livelihood activities for over 1,00,000 small and marginal farmers.
The collaborative project is working towards developing land and water treatment measures covering 7 lakhs of catchment area, providing advanced tools and training to community members and CSOs, establishing seed banks, enabling women leadership, and introducing livestock rearing, fisheries, and vegetable cultivation to diversify livelihoods. These interventions ensure income-generating opportunities and secure the livelihoods of rural households.
What are people’s expectations of voluntary participation and contribution by corporations?
Rural communities are open to support from agencies like NGOs, social enterprises, and corporations,however, it is important to understand the needs and expectations of the community before designing systems for change.
At their very core, all rural communities strive toward improving their quality of life. They look at corporate support as a means to address their challenges of today, build their capacity to harness their resources better, capitalise on their skills and access government programmes that will enable them to boost their livelihoods and incomes.
For 10 years, we have been working on-ground with rural households to tailor support that works in tandem with their needs and aspirations. Through discussions with the community elders, farmers, women’s groups and grassroot organisations, we seek to understand the issues that they face and give them a platform to voice their needs. It is this dialogue that has enabled us to establish a strong connection with the community while designing programmes that work for their needs.
Through our work, we try to balance their needs of today while building their knowledge and capacity for challenges that may emerge in the long term. Strengthening their skills and systems not only enhances their lives but also brings about stability in their livelihoods, reduces risks and enables them to adapt to changing trends like digitalisation and climate change.
Since you focus on enhancing livelihoods in rural and remote areas of the country, what according to you are the most crucial factors that have impacted lives in the rural areas?
For years, agriculture has been the steady source of livelihood for rural India. In the last decade, we have witnessed the effect of climate change on the lives of farmers.
Largely, climate change has been viewed as unusually hot summers and varying temperatures. But for millions of rural communities across India, climate change has been disrupting something far more fundamental: their ability to earn a living and provide for their families. From erratic rainfall to flash floods, from decreasing groundwater levels to deadly heatwaves, the impacts of climate change have forced rural communities to search for new livelihoods. For many, that search takes them far from home. Unpredictable climate patterns have led to crop failures, an increase in pest infestation, reduced soil fertility and reduced crop yield.
To address these challenges, there is a need to advance the adoption of sustainable farming solutions that are nuanced to the farming region. Through our support, farmers are introduced to water management, better farming practices, preparation and usage of local bio-inputs, water-conservation techniques, and the revival of traditional crops such as millets, which are more climate-resilient. We also facilitate farmer field schools that serve as a learning and knowledge-sharing ground for small and marginal farmers to understand best practices for their soil to adapt to climate change.
What has ABF done to improve market access of produce (coming from rural areas)?
Direct access to markets provides farmers the opportunity to negotiate better and aim for higher price realisation for themselves.
Through our support, we have been enabling farmers to increase the cropping intensity by moving from single rain-fed crops – kharif to rabi to summer crops by increasing the access to water for irrigation and better soil management practices. This enables them to increase production while the establishment of seed banks, access to quality seeds and introduction to NPM techniques lead to high-quality produce. We also focus on facilitating credit linkages and building the capacity of farmers to effectively manage their produce. These building blocks boost the negotiation power of farmers.
As production is secured, support to Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) for the aggregation of quality produce is secured, fostering collective marketing and better price realisation for farmers. Our work on collectives has also enabled market access through SHG-led federations that promote new practices and buy back produce from the community. All these measures lead to the long-term security of the lives and livelihoods of the farming community.
(India CSR)
