Kalahandi: Changes & Challenges

Kalahandi, a district in Orissa, India is infamous for chronic drought, distress migration and starvation deaths for past few decades. The origin of problem is rooted in fragmentation within society, weak decentralized governance, inadequate service delivery mechanism, weak social infrastructure, rampant corruption, depleted water harvesting structures and thereby steadily declining area under irrigation, lack of institutional credit, rampant deforestation, low employable skill, weak linkages (institutional, technology, market, etc.) to name a few. OXFAM (an international NGO) had played some meaningful role in building community based organization (CBO) to facilitate the process of empowerment of the disadvantaged community. The continuation of community empowerment process has been shouldered by SVA (Sahabhagi Vikas Abhiyan, an NGO working in Western Orissa). The present study examines different socio-economic facets of empowerment of the disadvantaged community in the region; and also attempts to focus on few of the challenges lying in the process. The study is likely to help professionals working on socio-economic empowerment of poverty stricken communities across the globe.