Jan Shiksha Evam Vikas Sangathan

Women's empowerment through community-managed Micro-finance Institutions is one of the key programs that PEDO has implemented in the district. After a series of droughts from 1984 to 1988, the tribal communities in Dungarpur suffered a lot due to their dependency on forest and subsistent agriculture for livelihood.

The voracious money-lenders took the advantage of the situation and imparted loans to the tribal at very high rates, mortgaging their lands. PEDO determined that it is best to collect the women in groups to raise their voices, as they become the worst sufferers. The land was lost, men migrated to the cities and the women were to manage the household, resource-less. And therefore, we realised to work on the issue and decided to work with the tribal women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs).

PEDO started with 10 Groups in 1986 and today has a network of about 3,318 women’s SHGs, with about 56,077 women SHG members. This network directly connects and benefits about 3.5 lakh people

PEDO has done three watershed development projects covering 22 villages, where all the following activities were carried out:

Drainage-line Treatment
Gully plugging & loose stone check dams (1130 UNITS)
Earthen Dams (11 Dams)
Farm ponds (17 Ponds)
Water Harvesting & Ground water Recharge
Masonry Check Dams (13 Masonry Check Dams)
Sunken ponds (3 ponds)
well Recharging (45 Wells)
Renovation of old structures (3 Masonry Dams and 4 Earthen Dams)
Field Bunding and Terracing (500 Hectares)

Empowering Women farmers through agriculture based livelihoods Project organized the women famers in to producers’collectives; build their knowledge and skill along with creation of accessible support systems to enable a greater and more strategic role of women in agriculture and allied activities, impacting and strengthening the livelihood base of the poor. The project have created multiple village-level farm school through trained agriculture and livestock resource persons, called as Krishi Sakhi and Pashu Sakhi. The project is implemented in 95 villages in four blocks of Dungarpur District (Aspur, Simalwar, Dungarpur & Bicchiwara) benefitting 14,700 women farmers. The program is spearheaded by 240 Krishi Sakhis and 8 Pashu Sakhis.

Participatory approach to human and land resource Development (PAHAL) PROJECT- 1991-1995 PEDO was the lead NGO in the project aimed on the principles that PEDO has developed over years on how to reclaim the wasteland and create small forests as common property resources. The project, initially termed and Dungarpur Integrated wasteland development project or DIWDP, was sponsored by government of Rajasthan and SIDA. Aimed to generate green cover out of the common wastelands in the entire district. PEDO managed the project in 60 villages in two blocks. Besides forestry and wasteland development project also had components of agricultural and livestock development. The emphasis was on planned development of common wastelands with community involvement and ownership of the ‘developed regions.’