The Dumka district (pop. 1.2 million) is located in northeastern India, in Jharkand State. World Vision is focusing on Kathikund, an area comprising 197 villages and a total population of 66,600 where 60 per cent of the population live on about NZ$2 per day.

Income generation and development potential

About 90 per cent of the people earn their livelihood from agriculture. Poor infrastructure prevents farmers from accessing markets. Owing to water scarcity, unproductive farming practices and insufficient land to cultivate, crop yields are low. This forces 30 to 40 per cent of people (mainly marginal farmers and teenage boys of 14 or 15 years) to migrate to cities in search of work – a transience, which also renders them vulnerable to HIV and AIDS infection and transmission.

World Vision is working with the community to:

• Develop irrigation schemes
• Train people in more effective, sustainable farming practices
• Teach small-business skills and offer access to low-interest, small-business loans

Health

Seventy per cent of the people have no access to safe water. Drinking water drawn from open wells, ponds and streams causes diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases. Almost 60 per cent of children in Kathikund suffer from malnutrition.

World Vision and the Dumka community are addressing the following:

• Improving people’s access to clean water
• Promote people’s understanding of hygiene
• Addressing malnutrition, malaria, tuberculosis and kala-a-jar (a chronic and potentially fatal parasitic disease that attacks the liver, spleen, bone marrow and lymph nodes)

Education

Kathikund has 96 primary schools, 14 intermediate schools and one high school. Education facilities are inadequate, while there is a shortage of skilled teachers. Children are kept out of school to help with household chores, while long walking distances to schools prohibit attendance.

World Vision is working with the community to:

• Release children from enforced labour to attend school
• Strengthen the educational infrastructure and promote literacy
• Provide vocational training opportunities for children who drop out of school, especially girls

Sustainable development

With the financial support of WVNZ, World Vision India started researching the need for an ADP in Dumka in 2006. World Vision’s partnership with the Dumka ADP is envisaged to stretch over a period of 15 years. During this time, the community works towards increased self-reliance. Once this development goal has been achieved satisfactorily, World Vision will withdraw from the ADP - allowing the community to direct its own development.

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