The Enterprises project identifies individuals from local communities and trains them for 6–9 months to form a cadre of community professionals called Micro-Enterprise Consultants (MEC). MEC are expected to provide hand holding support and capacity building services primarily to women entrepreneurs from rural areas in exchange for a fee. The Enterprises project is in the pilot phase in select districts of 7 States – Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Sikkim.
The PRI-CBO Convergence project identifies individuals from local communities and trains them to form a cadre of community professionals called Local Resource Groups (LRG). LRG are expected to work with community institutions and local governments to improve the efficiency and reach of poor centric programmes, promote participatory planning and inculcate democratic consciousness in local communities. The PRI-CBO Convergence project is in the pilot phase in select blocks of 7 States – Assam, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Sikkim.
Engineering support is put in place. In addition to one diploma/degree holder working on contract at the level of the Village Panchayat, there is a system of accredited engineers. Such engineers are drawn from amongst retired engineers, staff working in Engineering Colleges, Polytechnics/ ITIs, engineers working in NGOs etc. These engineers are paid for their work, at rates fixed by Government. The engineer from a government department or agency, willing to help the Village Panchayat over and above his normal work, is allowed and paid at 50% of the rate applicable to others.
To mobilize the workers and the public and to assist the local governments in carrying out its duties, Village Panchayats have been given the freedom to identify one public servant of their choice having the time and inclination to do social work from any government department are posted on working arrangement as NREGS co-coordinators.
