Samarthan promotes participatory development and participatory governance through direct field action, capacity building, research and advocacy. It also has a large network of grassroots groups (NGOs/CBOs) to demonstrate examples of participatory governance as well as to amplify voices of the poor, dalits, tribals and women in policy-making platforms. Samarthan is also implementing Livelihoods projects in the districts of Sehore and Panna to strengthen socio-economic and political position of the poor in the governance structures. Our programmatic interventions can be broadly classified into
- Rural Governance Programmes: Under the Rural Governance programme, Samarthan works on strengthening the Panchayati Raj Institutions of Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. The interventions under the programme include capacity building of elected representatives, gram sabha mobilisation, conducting social audits, participatory research on contemporary issues like National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Right to Information Act, Education, Health etc. , and policy advocacy on different aspects of strengthening the rural governance institutions.
- Urban Governance Programmes: The urban governance programme of Samarthan is relatively new. Samarthan has intervened in Small and Medium Towns by building capacities of the elected representatives of the urban local bodies, conducting ward level micro planning, and strengthening ward and mohalla sabhas in towns. Our more recent interventions have been on enabling municipalities access JNNRUM and UIDSSMT
Rural
Working on the initiatives of the 73rd Amendment, under the Rural Governance Programme, we aim to strengthen the Panchayati Raj Institutions of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Our interventions include building the capacity of elected representatives, gram sabha mobilisation, conduction social audits, participatory research on the Nation Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the Right to Information Act (RTI), Education and Health. We also work with policy makers to advocate for different aspects of strengthening the rural governance institutions.
Urban
Working alongside the ideals of the 74th Amendment, the Urban Governance Programme initially intervened in small and medium towns by building the capacities of the elected representatives of the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). We have further conducted ward level micro planning and aim to strengthen the ward and mohalla sabhas in towns and are working alongside the initiatives from the JNNRUM and UIDSSMT schemes. Samarthan is currently operating in Bhopal to assess the access to municipal services as well as using the community to monitor services.
