The program officially started with the general introduction by all the participants in short. After the introduction session, all the present participants were provided with the introduction of WRRN and UNDP and about the project. Mrs. Kabita Gaire gave detailed information about the project and working headings and the major objective of conducting the project in respective CFUG.
Before coming to visit, the CFUG group were given with the information about the program and were asked to provide us with the issues that needed to be addressed regarding the proper functioning of CFUG. Hence, all the participants were asked about the issues persistent in the CFUG regarding capacity building, existing laws and policies and management of community forest after the briefing of motive of the visit. One of the interesting facts of the meeting was presence of women which was more in number in comparison to men. With the encouragement of a greater number of female participants, all the members were given chance to speak up about the issues related with CFUG and the issues discussed in the event are enlisted below:
- Lack of availability of training related to women empowerment.
- Lack of information about the changing rules and regulations by local and central level of government.
- Not getting enough recognition and market value for their generated product i.e. ginger.
- Facing discrimination among educated and uneducated groups.
- Lack of knowledge and involvement of women in record keeping activities and lack of double record system in the CFUG.
- Lack of availability of agricultural equipment to collect and store agricultural products
- Lack of coordination between CFUG and local government.
- Lack of safety equipment for the maintenance of hygiene.
- Prevalent of Forest fire
- Lack of equipment for use during the disaster.
- Provision of triple tax system.
- Administrative hurdles for proper management of forest due to unclear and changing government policies
After the discussion about all the issues, Ms. Bharati Pathak spoke about her happiness of how Bungdal CFUG has been achieving success gradually regarding forest management techniques and women empowerment along with financial stability. The works done and achievements achieved by women led enterprise group was really appreciative. The enterprise composed by local women who were unaware about the business world has now started to compete with other working groups and has learned a lot about marketization as well. Being involved in different kinds of capacity building trainings, value chain related trainings, business plan preparation training and marketization trainings, the group has now the knowledge of running an enterprise in a sustainable manner. By seeing the gradual improvement in the CFUG, Ms. Aarati Pathak who was engaged with the Bungdal CFUG from its starting phase, was seem to be very happy and expressed her happiness towards all the members of Bungdal CFUG and women enterprise group for the continuous efforts towards their community forest for its conservation, protection and proper management.
