Based on the recommendations contained in the Report of the Technical Committee chaired by Dr. C. H. Hanumantha Rao released in 1994, the Common Guidelines (1994) were issued by the Ministry of Rural Areas & Employment (now Ministry of Rural Development) and the watershed approach was adopted for implementation of all Area Development Programmes viz. DPAP, DDP, IWDP and the watershed component of the EAS w.e.f. 1st April 1995. Taking the above into consideration, Government of India had constituted a Committee on Training under the Chairmanship of Shri V. B. Eswaran to go into all aspects of training under the Common Guidelines.
The report released in 1997, presents a review of the existing training arrangements for watershed development and suggests a system for organizing training for different level of functionaries. The need for detailed guidelines, to be prepared at the State level for this purpose is suggested. There is also a need for developing an institutional mechanism for providing training as soon as there are changes in the incumbent. Once a project is sanctioned, the Project Implementing Agency (PIA) should know the various tasks to be undertaken as regards training and the institutions to be approached for this purpose.
Before designing any programme for training, it is essential that the persons who need to be trained are identified so that suitable programme could be evolved for different types of functionaries associated with the programme. The Committee feels that the personnel who require training can be divided into four groups, keeping in view the level at which they have to operate and the role and responsibility assigned to them in the watershed development programme. At the micro-watershed level, training may be imparted to members of gram panchayat, village level government functionaries and user groups.
The report specifically talks of the involvement of women in various committees connected with watershed development programme. It also states that the landless and other weaker sections of the Watershed Community have equal rights of access and use of resources available in the form of agriculture products viz. fruits, fuel and fodder etc., in the village common lands.
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