Back ground to the study In response to impoverishment resulting from increasing water scarcity in India, the Rajiv Gandhi

foundation since 2001, has been implementing a programme aimed at water conservation and recharge of overexploited ground water aquifers across 9 districts of Rajasthan. Being directly implemented by the foundation in the foundation in the Alwar,Bikaner, Dausa, Jaipur, Karoli, Pali,Sawai Madhopur and Jallore districts of the state, the programme started as part of a nationally envisaged project. The project identified and trained volunteers to form a green crops. The green crops are dedicated to promoting rainwater-harvesting in rural communities. The green crops works to words 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Spreading awareness in rural areas regarding benefits of water-harvesting Helping people assert their to water and achieve it Mobilizing community supports and participation Strengthening existing network of water harvesters Alleviating poverty through environmental regeneration Improving gender equity through participation of women as stakeholders Promoting volunteerism in the development sector, initially focused on water

Two key aspects of the green crops initiative are capacity- building and community contribution. Volunteers to the crops are put through rigorous and continued trainings so that they can efficiently educate and mobilize the communities they work in. the community on its part contributes one-third of the cost of the structured constructed. Apart from being a catalyst in harnessing community support for water-harvesting, the scope of the volunteers work has broadened with time to encompass strengthening of village institutions such as jal sabhas, jal samitis, mahila jal samitis and self-help groups. As part of the green crops initiative, a much more comprehensive watershed development project covering 28 villages was initiated in the jamwa ramgarh block of jaipur district, in the year 2001-2002. The projects spanned 17 micro

watersheds and approximately 9272 hectares of land. This project went beyond water-harvesting structures and also treated the watershed with loose boulder check dams, farm bunds and nallah treatment. Pasture developments work was carried to improve livestock based livelihoods and reduce pressure on forests. However after a Mid Term Assessments, the work was concentrated primarily on water-harvesting works as land ownership and encroachment issues were resulting in inter and intra village conflicts on pasture land. Women were organized into self-help groups and area implementation plans prepared for the project village supported by DANIDA, this project concluded in December 2004.

To continue the work RGF signed an MOU with GTZ( german technical cooperation) in February 2006. This project assisting the communities to mobilize publics and private funds and services and managing their resource in a sustainable way. Efforts has been initiated to develop short-term livelihood models based on sustainable natural resource management. In its seven and half years the NRM Programme in rajisthan has covered 115 village, constructed 250 water harvesting structure worth Rs.3.2 crores and trained 69 green crops volunteers. This study seeks to evaluate the Rajiv Gandhi Foundations Natural Resource Management Project in Rajasthan. 2. Objectives of the study The major objectives of the study are: 1. Community perception of the water conservation project To quantify the extent of peoples participation in construction of the structures To elaborates the extent of the community participation in maintaining the structures

 To map how and who controls the access to the water-harvesting structures and the benefits accruing thereof. 2. Cost benefit analysis of the water-harvesting structure constructed in villages To elaborate the type of benefits that has accrued to the community. To identify the primary and secondary beneficiaries of the project. To identify the various categories of beneficiaries. To quantify the benefits accrued to the community from the structures. 3. Physical status of the sampled water harvesting structures To ascertain the current status of the structure. To identify factors that have led to maintenance or neglect To arrive on further activities needed to be undertaken to maintain the structure. 4. Learning and future course of action. To aggregate knowledge generated in the implementation of the present programme To study possibilities of dovetailing government programmes to strengthen the present programme. To prepare a checklist of activities to be undertaken by the community and RGF if they feel a need to construct water-harvesting structures. 3. Method and approach For the present study, mixed methods with concurrent triangulation design were adopted. Information about the overall benefits of the programme to individual/households and the physical status of the water-harvesting structure was collected through questionnaire surveys. Focus group discussions were used to elicit communitys perception about the programme, possible future direction of the projects, functioning of village level institutions (jal sabha & jal samitis)and willingness of the communities to participate in future in programme.

Because a significant number of structures were constructed only in jaipur, pali, and karoli districts the study included only these districts. As one of the objective of the study was to undertake the cost benefit analysis of the structure, the structure were classified on the basis of cost and a 20percent stratified random sampling with proportionate allocation was done 3.1 Research design Developed independently after discussions with the RGFs Natural Resources Management team,the research design for the study flows from the objective started in the ToR. The inclination of the research design was toward learning from grass roots workers and villagers rather than straight jacketed data collection technique. The study focuses on two key and dependent aspect of the project viz. Durability of the physical infrastructure and Communitys capacity to sustain them The status of the water-harvesting structure was ascertained through site visits and discussions with people technically conversant with water conservation structures. The communitys perception about water-harvesting project was detailed through focus group discussions and beneficiary interviews. The varied objectives of the study require different data collection techniques. Annexure II provides summary of different objective and data collection method. 3.2 Research tools As mentioned before, the different objectives involved different strategies of data collection. For the present study, mixed method with concurrent triangulation design was adopted. In this both qualitative data was collected based on the

survey questionnaires developed by the team. The qualitative data was collected through focus group discussions of the stakeholders. 3.2.1 Survey questionnaires Designed to collect information about the overall benefit of the programme to individuals/households, the survey questionnaire was administered to beneficiaries of the water-harvesting structures.the information collected pertained to crop yield ; well recharge , land use pattern and beneficiaries perceptions about the programme. The other set of questionnaire detailed the physical status of the waterharvesting structures. The information was collected through field observation and interviews with RGFs technical resource persons. The questions included the present status of structures in terms of durability and usability and kind of benefits derived from the structures. 3.2.2 Focus group discussions The focus group discussions were conducted to elicit communitys perception about the programme. It was also useful in collecting information pertaining to the future direction of the project. The FGDs were conducted in all the village where sampled water-harvesting structures existed. The issues discussed in the FGDs were relatedto functioning of village level institution (jal sabha & jal samitis)and willingness of community to participate in future in this programme. The issue of community ownership was given special importance. The FGD checklist was designed as an illustration of the topics of discussions in the FGD, the field workers were encourage to go beyond the topics of discussions while interacting with community members.