Meet the Scholar
Vaibhav Sonone
2023 Commonwealth Shared Scholar
University of Leeds
Vaibhav is a development practitioner by profession and a public speaker. He belongs to a marginalised community in a rural part of Maharashtra State. Vaibhav has more than 8 years of work experience in the rural development space and largely his working area is the Central Tribal Region in India. Vaibhav’s research area is around climate change, adaptation, Indigenous communities, livelihood and gender. Presently he is working with a non-profit called PRADAN.
About the Poster
Community Climate Adaptation through Partnership: Strengthening Indigenous Livelihood and Building Resilience
This project aims to develop a climate adaptation prototype in Dhamanpani village, home to the Indigenous Gond community, which has seen about 90% distress migration and 80% of its population living with anaemia. Despite an average annual rainfall of 1200 mm, the region faces a stark dearth of water post-monsoon.
- Land development work of over 200 acres of land.
- Reducing migration to 53%.
- Witnessed 21 acres of barren land come under irrigation.
- Kitchen Garden (vegetable cultivation)- Out of 83 households, 68 of them started Kitchen Gardens in 2020 and this expands every season.
- This led to significant improvements in the haemoglobin level of the villagers which led to a drastic reduction in overall anaemic indicators.
- 2 youth entrepreneurs set up BioResource Centre which caters to 500 households
- Increased women's participation in Gram Sabha (Village Council)
- Round-the-year availability of drinking water
- 90% electrification
- 6 km approach road
- Increased cultivation area for both Kharif and Rabi seasons
- 100% employment under MGNREGS
- Improvements in health