Project Sashaktikaran - II
The Sashaktikaran—II, which translates to Empowerment, represents the second phase of a project backed by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation in the UK. This initiative is currently being executed in the Mohammad Bazar Block of Birbhum District and is expected to be completed in 2026. The project engages over 20,000 tribal individuals in community-driven development (CDD) by implementing micro plans that include GPDP, enhancing local governance, and ensuring effective management of natural resources.
Core Focus
The Shashaktikaran - II (Empowerment) project is designed to foster the Adivasi Communities' ownership over natural resources, development initiatives, and panchayat funds. To facilitate this ownership, CSRA is dedicated to enhancing the community's specialised knowledge and capacity to analyse, plan, and execute projects independently, in partnership with key stakeholders such as the Panchayat and Government. The project encompasses three primary components: Strengthening Local Governance, Water Resources Management, and the Promotion of Climate-Resilient Agricultural Practices.
Project Micro Solar Irrigation & Drinking Water
CSRA is executing the SOLAR project funded by EKOenergy's Climate Fund to assist 850 small and marginal farmers across 7 villages of the Santhal tribe. These villages are situated in predominantly rain-fed, underdeveloped, drought-prone upland regions of the Mohammad Bazar Block (Coordinates: 23°59′31″N 87°34′19″E) in the Birbhum District of West Bengal, India. This initiative aims to tackle food insecurity, the impacts of climate change, and the challenges of subsistence farming by improving irrigation facilities through micro-irrigation systems. The project plans to install 7 units of enhanced 3 HP DC solar pump systems to fulfil the irrigation and drinking water requirements of each village. It actively involves the community, especially women, in the planning, execution, monitoring, and management of their irrigation infrastructure. The goal is to enable the cultivation of over 325 acres of farmland and shift from single cropping to double cropping.
Core Focus
CSRA is focused on leveraging irrigation facilities for the underprivileged households of the Santhal tribe through solar irrigation systems. It advocates for a “community-led irrigation” strategy to deliver water directly to the fields and promote community ownership. Additionally, water resource management and groundwater recharge methods have been developed in partnership with local self-governments and community members. Comprehensive training, demonstrations, and exposure visits are key elements of the project aimed at effective climate change adaptation practices, supported by mobile-based weather report sharing and crop planning.
Project Stone Workers' Empowerment
CSRA is actively engaged in securing the rights of over 4000 workers employed in the Ballast Stone Quarry and Crushing units across 18 villages in the Mohammad Bazar Block of Birbhum District, with the support of the Azim Premji Foundation. The organisation is raising awareness among stone workers about their rights in the workplace. Additionally, collaboration has been established with the Government Health Department to ensure early detection and compensation for workers affected by silicosis. Efforts are also being made to connect workers with social security benefits and to promote the formation of workers' collectives.
Core Focus
CSRA is dedicated to enhancing the awareness of Stone Workers about their rights in the workplace and fostering collective dialogue with employers and other key stakeholders regarding wages, social security, and working conditions, through legal provisions. Furthermore, the organisation is collaborating with the Government Health System to ensure early detection, certification, and compensation for workers suffering from silicosis, in line with the 'Silicosis Relief, Rehabilitation and Treatment Policy – West Bengal.'
Project Land Rights & Agroforestry
CSRA is addressing the issue of land ownership within the Santhal tribe, focusing particularly on women in 30 villages of the Santhal tribe located in the Mohammad Bazar Block of Birbhum District, West Bengal. This initiative is supported by the Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility (IPAF) through the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for the period from 2024 to 2026. Additionally, the Tebetebba Foundation from the Philippines is providing knowledge and monitoring assistance for this project.
Core Focus
The primary aim of the project is to foster the involvement of multiple stakeholders, enhance capacity development, document processes, and facilitate collaborative actions among women and youth to assert their rightful claims for better land governance. With the assistance of land experts, the organisation offers training to community youth and women in collaboration with local self-government (Panchayat) authorities regarding tribal and women’s land rights. This includes organising community-driven participatory sessions for the application, mapping, verification, and recording of rights (ROR) related to land. CSRA is also promoting climate-resilient agricultural practices and encouraging agroforestry among farmers, women, and youth.
Project SOLAR
The SOLAR project was funded by the German Embassy of Kolkata and planned with the community to address the issues of food production, farm income, adversities of climate change, as well as subsistence farming through augmenting irrigation facilities with small-lift irrigation systems. The project was intrinsically focused on harnessing irrigation facilities for two villages with 149 numbers of deprived tribal households through deep excavation irrigation systems. The project facilitated a unique approach, that of “community-led solar irrigation”, which has brought water directly to the fields and met their drinking water needs too. The project has also fostered community ownership from the onset of project conception, to survey and implementation, right through to operations and maintenance.