From Dhule with warmth....

From Dhule with warmth....

It has been raining in Mumbai, just the right time for tea, bhajiyas and a little warmth.
Yes, this time it is the SHGs from Dhule who have come to the Mahalakshmi Saras Mart at Gram Vikas Bhavan, Kharghar.
You will be certainly surprised with the range of different products.
As I sauntered through the stalls , colourful rajaais and godhadis attracted my attention. One in shocking pink others in beautiful colours. I could not help holding one close to me and feel its warmth. Just right to overcome the cold feeling in the rains. May be that loving touch from the woman of the village made me feel so warm reminding me of my childhood.
Kushmanda SHG has brought organic lamps made from cow dung which made me look up. Earthly and simple, some of the cow dung lamps were coloured to add to their charm. The SHG was also making mosquito repellant and agarbattis, incense sticks.
Another enterprising lady from Jay Mahakali SHG has brought beautiful paintings in water colours for exhibition and sale. The riot of colours would make any gloomy day pleasant.
And the quilts made from original sheep wool are so unique. Now where can one find such genuine products in Mumbai?
There is a variety of rice and for those who love food straight from the villages this would be just perfect to stock up. There are quite a few varieties of organic dals to go with it. Ragi, rice, udad, paapads, kurdaaya, shevaaya, groundnut chutney, pickles and spices, wheat flour, flax seed are there in plenty as also organic jaggery .
Garlic buds for a healthy heart, sweet jagerry chikki which melts in the mouth and puranpoli flour are all waiting for you.

Full marks to Lamasa Art SHG from Fagane village of Dhule for discovering Lamasa Art and making it so popular.
Lamasa is a clay like substance, made by mixing and heating corn flour. It is coloured and used to create flowers, figures and objects such as paper clips, pencil caps, napkin holders, key holders, flower pots, decorative articles and jewellery.
It looks similar to porcelain but is harder despite looking delicate. So discover something new ways decorate your homes , wear colourful bangles in your hands or beautify your hair.
Come to the Mahalakshmi Saras Mart at Gram Vikas Bhavan, eat food made by SHGs of Dhule, soak in the warmth of their innocence and truly get the feeling " From Dhule with warmth."

Diversity of Wardha : SHGs products at The Mahalakshmi Saras Mart, Kharghar till 30th June 2019....

Diversity of Wardha : SHGs products at The Mahalakshmi Saras Mart, Kharghar till 30th June 2019....

Wardha, serene calm and imbibed with the patriotic zeal of Mahatma Gandhi has many stories to tell. Among them is the story of development of the women in Wardha from home makers to entrepreneurs managing successful enterprises
The town's association with the Mahatma has certainly led to it's social and economic growth. The spirit of service is also evident here due to it's association with Sevagram.
No wonder the women at Wardha caught up quickly with the principles of sustainable livelihoods enunciated by MSRLM. Of course the district had sanghatikas working for empowerment of women through the SGSY. They were transformed into Wardhinis under MRSLM and have been instrumental in creating sustainable institutions of the poor.
Today Wardha has a wide network of community institutions which include over 12500 SHGs, 895 VOs and 49 CLFs. It has become an ideal district due to the various initiatives taken by the administration.
Wardha already has a well-established shop, Wardhini, run by the SHGs of Wardha where they sell their products. Many of them have made good progress in packaging and branding.
The SHGs associated with the Wardhini shop make different products. These women have now come with their products to The Mahalakshmi Saras Mart, at Gram Vikas Bhavan, Kharghar.
The cloth bags of the Wardhinis, their clutches, purses are extremely popular. They have now diversified into making laotop bags, and purses of different shapes. These are not only colourful and tempting but also affordable.
The terracotta items which include pen stands, tulsi lamps which can be either hung or floated in water and lanterns are attractive in their brick red colour.
There is a wide variety in food products which include spices, chilli Powder, dhaniya powder, different kinds of paapad, kurdayi, made from rice, wheat, jowar, moong, udid, sago- sabudaana.
Lakshmi, a menber of an SHG from Wardha who had the opportunity to speak to the Hon'ble Prime Minister in his interaction with the SHGs has also come with her unique varities if tomato, paalak-spinach paapad. Potato chips, fish chakli, farsan, health ladoos are also available.
Wheat sargunde similar to noodles are also there in plenty. Fish pickles and mango pickles would certainly tempt you.
Goat Milk Soap which will make your skin sparkle and Neem Oil which will make it more healthy are also available. Ambadi a sour fruit with tangy juice and juice powder with or without sugar make one's mouth water.
Trinkets and hand made jewellery are worth a try along with the reshim-silk bangles. The hand made Zari work and exquisite earrings and jewellery are a must.
What stole my heart were the paper products which included interesting artefacts like envelopes, photo frames, jewellery boxes, basket, office utility items and several gift items. Agarbatti with different aromas will surely mesmerise you.
It would be wise to purchase organic turmeric powder which is healthy with high level of curcumin.
And don't miss out the handmade khadi cloth in pastel colours along with cool white bedsheets. Mahatma Gandhijii's lessons are here to stay.
Wardha SHGs have come with a huge variety of products which will add spice to your life. So just head to the Mahalakshmi Saras Mart, Gram Vikas Bhavan. We even have a SHG preparing delicious rustic food so you dont even have the bother of cooking. Eat and shop to your hearts content because each of the purchases you make will fill the heart of the SHGs with content.

P.S. A group of these women will be at Mantralay, Trimurti Praangan with their products for sale tomorrow, 28th June 2019.

DDUGKY and Skilling for health.....

DDUGKY and Skilling for health.....

It was not just a matter of chance that I got invited to the launch of the Western India Health Sector Skills Council at the Hinduja Hospital the other day. Two weeks back , MSRLM Umed had organised a multi-state, multi sector CXO meet of all Executives to introduce them to Deendayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana, DDUGKY, Government of India's flagship programme for rural skills. I happened to meet Ms.Bhavisha , Senior Manager, Special Projects and Academics, Hinduja Hospital there and understood the work they are doing for skilling in the Health sector. The invitation to the launch of the Western India Health Sector skills Council was a fall-out of that meeting.
Even as I got introduced as the guest of honour, many may have wondered at the relevance of my presence there. To me , of course all the discussions sounded like music since MSRLM undertakes skilling of rural youth through DDUGKY.
I knew I was at the right place.
The Health Sector Skills Council is a non-statutory certifying body under the Skill development ministry. It develops the national standards qualification pack and the national occupational standards, QP-NOS. It undertakes capacity building of trainees, trainers, assesors. It is also the assessing and certification authority. It provides job aggregation and placements support by working as the National Registry.

Health, as defined by the World Health Organization(WHO), is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmty. Modern day living has lead to a lot of change in the lifestyle of people resulting in various health problems. Health management is therefore the need of the hour. It is estimated that in the coming decade there would be a requirement of about 14.2 million health professionals. The IIMs of Bengaluru and Kolkata have already included health management in their institutes. These would necessarily mean  creation of high end management consultants and experts.
However at the ground level there is a dire need of service providers and health workers.
In a country dwelling and surviving on academics and glorifying traditional courses like engineering and medicine, vocational education and ITIs are not glamorous.options as yet.
There is another set of students who are drop outs or are unsuccessful in their school and college and have been unable to complete their atudies. DDUGKY is a programme through which skilling of such youth for jobs and placements is possible.
The programme is being implemented by the Maharashtra State Rural livelihoods Mission in Maharashtra and focuses on training and placing rural youth after completion of courses. Retail, hospitality, logistics, security are the popular sectors in getting skiller. Bed-side assistant is also popular and much in demand due to the need for geriatric care.
Health sector is refining itself with each passing day. Overall, the skilling scenario in the health sector can be broken up into three parts. About sixty percent of the workers are high end which would require a great deal of technical expertise qnd knowledge.
However DDUGKY can be the channel.for skilling middle level and field level health workers.
The Middle level health workers constitute about 25% of the work force and are those who do jobs like blood sample collection, eye check up, X-ray technician, ultra sound technician. Training them may be slightly challenging and difficult therefore the numbers maybe lesser . However for those skilled and working in this sector the salaries are reasonably good.
The bottom 15 percent are easy to train and have access to many jobs. However their drop out rates are higher as they drift to better options. Edulight, a Project Implementation Agency of MSRLM for DDUGKY has trained 433 candidates from which only about 300 got jobs and ironically  many of those who got the jobs left them.  Choosing the right candidate for training through proper counselling and mobilisation is the biggest challenge in the health sector which is service oriented and needs candidates with patience and tolerance.
The health sector is burgeoning and is the largest sector in terms of revenue and employment.  It  has thrown up several avenues for jobs which need skilling. Till date MSRLM DDUGKY has trained over 1818 candidates, given jobs to 1469 candidates  and placed 643 candidates.
The proliferation of pathological labs for MRI, blood etc is leading to a high demand for professionals as each lab needs about 10-12 resources.
Medical care is becoming increasingly corporatised leading to requirements of qualified staff there too.
Preventive health care, insurance, non-tech jobs like hospital and clinic managers and clerks etc are also increasing
Back end jobs in healthcare are also increasing mainly due to the rules of the medical council to maintain records of patients and also due to the insurance industry where maintaining records is compulsory. Penetration of health institutes into 2 tier and 3 tier cities are also creating new opportunities. 25 per cent of the jobs in the health care industry are in hospitals.
Every bed in a hospital needs technical staff and backend clerical staff too. HEALTHTECH is another big area waiting for explosion. PRACTO, CHECK UP etc are companies which are doing very well
Medical transcription and medical outsourcing is another interesting area in the health arena. Companies like IKS are an example of how medical KPOs are big business employing nearly 9000 people in a single entity
Medical TOURISM is also growing. Lesser privileged countries prefer india due to low cost of treatment and rich countries prefer india due to excellent quality of doctors. Several big enterprises are managing medical tourism as a business.

Overall the health sector is in a boom. The health industry needs to acknowledge government programmes like DDUGKY for skilling and leverage it for the benwfit of all.

Mahatma Gandhi has said, it is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. This maxim is applicable for every individual who has to make efforts to maintain their health. For those into this business of health, William Osler rightly quoted, " It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease than what sort of a disease a patient has."
In the field of health services , the very first step in the occupation would be to be completely interested in it.

Pitru devo bhava and father's day....

Pitru devo bhava and father's day....

Today is father's day. My day began by reading a beautiful mesaage sent by my batchmate which stated, "पितरि प्रीतिमापन्ने सर्वाः प्रीयन्ति देवताः " "Pitari preetimaapanne sarvaahaa priyanti devataahaa", meaning, "If father is happy, all deities are pleased."
This famous shloka from the Mahabharata set me thinking about the rich cultural traditions of India. I delved a little deeper and found that all our scriptures emphasise on reverence to our fathers. In fact the above shloka from the Shantiparva of Mahabharata reads as ,
"पिता स्वर्गः पिता धर्मः पिता परमकं तपः | 
पितरि प्रीतिमापन्ने सर्वाः प्रीयन्ति देवताः ||२०|| 
My father is my heaven, my father is my dharma, he is the ultimate penance of my life. If he is happy, all deities are pleased!"

Dharma is a really broad term which essentially encompasses the path of law, of righteousness, of duty and is actually the right way of living.

We owe our existence to our father and mother, keeping them happy is therefore our foremost duty.

In fact the Garuda Purana says,
पितॄन्नमस्ये निवसन्ति साक्षाद्ये देवलोकेऽथ महीतले वा ॥
तथान्तरिक्षे च सुरारिपूज्यास्ते वै प्रतीच्छन्तु मयोपनीतम् ॥ 89.27 ॥
पितॄन्नमस्ये परमार्थभूता ये वै विमाने निवसन्त्यमूर्त्ताः ॥
यजन्ति यानस्तमलैर्मनोभिर्योगीश्वराः क्लेशविमुक्तिहेतून् ॥ 89.28 ॥
पितॄन्नमस्ये दिवि ये च मूर्त्ताः स्वधाभुजः काम्यफलाभिसन्धौ||
प्रदानशक्ताः सकलेप्सितानां विमुक्तिदा येऽनभिसंहितेषु ॥ 89.29 ॥

I bow before my father, in whom all the deities of all realms reside, truly he is my deity. 
I bow before my father who resides in the formless guise of Paramartha, who is worshipped by blameless yogis for liberation from all conflict (of samsara).
I bow before my father, in whom I see all Gods and who fulfills all my aspirations. He is the inspiration for achievements, and he relieves me from all worries. I pay my obseisance to my revered father. 

If we close our eyes for a moment and ponder about all that our parents do for us since the time we were infants this shloka would become so relevant. Fathers stand by us as we roll, crawl, take our first baby steps, walk, run. They also help us to fire our imagination, set goals for ourselves and encourage us to achieve them. They are not daunted by our failures and such is their belief in us that they are forevet encouraging us in all our endeavours. They guide us and mentor us or silently support us till we reach our goals.
As children I don't think any of us remember being worried about anything with our fathers around. Depriving themselves of every little comfort they ensure that the smallest of our needs are satisfied. As children we rarely doubt the propriety of our father. In fact we have full faith in his ability and strength to guide us.
At times we are blinded by the brightness and the glamour of youth. On such occasions it is very easy to forget our duty towards our father.
Only somebody extraordinary like Maryada Purushottam Ram in Ramayana can put forth the thought,
" यतः मूलम् नरः पश्येत् प्रादुर्भावम् इह आत्मनः |
कथम् तस्मिन् न वर्तेत प्रत्यक्षे सति दैवते || २-१८-१६ meaning, A man can see his father as the cause of his existence, (so) why wouldn't he want to behave (towards his father) as if his father were visible God (pratyaksha devata).

Lord Ram is an example of that ethereally dutiful son. Maybe a bit too much to expect in modern times. However what prevents us from doing little things which makes our father and our parents happy?
For a country deep-rooted in the culture of " Matru-devo bhava, pitru devo bhava, acharya devo bhava, where our parents and our gurus, teachers are our Gods , Father's Day can just be a reminder of our glorious tradition.

We are a family of four siblings. Being the youngest, I have not only had the privilege of being my father's pet but also the pleasure of being pampered. At 91,  our father is more accomodating than any of us. He does not find it difficult to adjust with any of his children despite the fact that each one of us is  so different. My brother  who speaks less  or my sister who is homely and  simple. My second brother who is happy go lucky  or me who is really demanding. He manages to keep not only all of us but our spouses also happy. In fact he is more popular with each of the grand chidren. One look at him and my worries melt.
Many of you must be feeling similarly. So let's not limit our love and respect for our father to this single day. Let this be a reminder of the dharma or duty towards our father to be practised everyday.....
Let everyday be father's day.....

Durgaas from Yavatmaal at The Mahalakshmi Saras Mart, Gram Vikas Bhavan, Kharghar....

Durgaas from Yavatmaal at The Mahalakshmi Saras Mart, Gram Vikas Bhavan, Kharghar....

There is something so delightful in the first drop of rain. The pitter patter sound and the whiff of fresh wet earth engulfs us in a sea of emotions and cushions us with hope.
MSRLM provides that cushion to self help groups from rural areas. Just like that fresh drop of rain it brings freshness into the life of rural women through social and financial inclusion leading to sustainable livelihoods.
Supporting small enterprises of SHG women is one among the several mandates of MSRLM.
Many of the SHGs produce handmade goods or create handicrafts. They need support for marketing and branding apart from backward and forward linkages which is provided through MSRLM.
The Mahalakshmi Saras Mart at Gram Vikas Bhavan, Kharghar is one such initiative for providing market linkages to women SHGs from rural areas to market their produce. Every ten days SHGs from a new district come for the exhibition.
This week SHGs from Yawatmal are there with their products. On my visit there two days ago, I was greeted by a group of bubbly women waiting to show all their goods. That their products may not be of urban standards or may not have a great finish didn't matter to them. All that mattered was they had got this opportunity to.come to Mumbai.
When I questioned them about the lack of finesse they weren't dissapointed or upset. In contrast they enthusiastically expressed a desire to learn. Their simplicity was so overwhelming.
Yawatmal, derives its name from "Yawat", meaning mountains and "maal" meaning a string or a row. It is also known for its famous Durga Utsav which is second only to that of Kolkaata.
The SHG women empowered to be Durgaas under the Mission through MSRLM Umed looked resplendent and full of life like those rows of  hills.
They showed me the various kinds of bags, purses and artificial jewellery they have brought. A lot of them have brought the popular goat milk soap beneficial to the skin. There are a lot of food products like masalas, papads and pickles.
Mumbaikars would love the unpolished tur daal, the authentic, organic turmeric ( smells divine) and mahuwa laadoos. Some SHGs have brought hand made godhadis, quilts, handmade brooms and 'toplis",  small little baskets. They also have pure honey and chyawanpraash.
So this weekend just drop in at the Mahalakshmi Saras Mart, Gram Vikas Bhavan, Kharghar and buy authentic products made by the SHGs of Yawatmal. You may be often getting drenched in the rains  . How about getting drenched in a rain of emotions for a change????

P.S The Yawatmal SHGs will be there till 20th June 2019

Farmer and Woman Farmer.....

Farmer and Woman Farmer.....

I spent half my evening yesterday poring over various dictionaries to find the feminine gender of the word "farmer". My school lessons in grammar on masculine and feminine gender didn't come to my rescue. There used to be something known as the "neuter" gender- neither masculine or feminine. That too had changed to being known as " common" gender now.
Yes the word "farmer" appeared as common gender just like a teacher or a doctor.
We are certainly gender neutral when we think about doctors, they could be male or female . However when we think about teachers it is more often than not female.  And when we think of farmers, in all likelihood we think of a man.
A woman maybe spending a lot of time on the fields , participating in many of agricultural activities from sowing to harvesting. Yet she is never considered as a farmer. She maybe the farmer's wife, sister, daughter or a farm woman but certainly not a farmer.
This is mainly because women are absent at the higher end of the value chain in agriculture. They could be labouring in the fields but are rarely seen in the markets or places of auction. That still remains the forte of the men mainly because average women are not equipped with those skills.

The National Rural Livelihoods Mission therefore came up with the Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana, MKSP, which looked at capacitating the technical and management skills of the women through continuous capacity building of the women as farmers. Therein too women farmers had to be christened as "Mahila Kisan".

Under MKSP, women are provided financial support for mechanisation, for purchase of equipments or use of technology suitable to them to reduce their drudgery. This has led to the creation of over 4 lakh women farmers in Maharashtra.
My mind has therefore been in a flurry since yesterday after I attended a meeting to discuss the state annual credit plan and the targets for distribution of crop loan to farmers. There was a mention of small and marginal farmers but women found no place in this discussion. There was no data on the number of women farmers who had received loans. SHG financing was not a part of the discussion. Women from SHGs would certainly be taking loans for agriculture. In fact project proposals by women SHGs for loans are often neglected during the period of distribution of crop loans.
This again brings me to the thought of subsitnece farming wherein the whole family of the farmer maybe working but it is the male who ultimately gets recognised as a farmer and women are relegated to be support providers. So while women's role in farming is largely accepted, it wouod normally be at the lower end of the value chain.
Programmes like NRLM may have brought about a change. Women farmers who are members of SHGs have certainly benefited through capacity building. They have better access to information, they understand input and output, including seed variety, pest management, sorting and grading and moisture content, post harvesting activities etc.
Yet the single most important reason for their recognition of men as farmers is their right and title to land. While a lot of reforms have been made to ensure the names of all the woman of the household are entered into the record of rights yet in reality this is still a distant dream.
Women who hire land for cultivation are therefore not recognised as stakeholders. This is one of the main reasons for women having limited access to finance as the title to property are clearly not theirs.
Access to finance and banking by women therefore gets restricted.
Also their recognition as farmers gets jeopardised due to lack of managerial, mechanical and technical skills. At times norms and traditions are a hindrance , for example women farmers are denied access to auction of farm products in Maharashtra. Also the patriarchal approach of restricting women as helpers or labourer exists. This is due to lack of awareness of the important role women play as farmers and also due to the lack of sensitivity of every stakeholder.
Their ideas on land preparation, cropping patterns, pest management, harvesting, post-harvest, marketing are rarely recognised.

A dual approach of capacitating women and sensitising men should therefore go hand in hand keeping in mind this difference in gendering of agriculture.
The challenges and concerns of women entrepreneurs’ are different from male entrepreneurs. The gaps in participation of women in value chains of selected commodities, their constraints in moving upwards in value chains and in market linkages need to be identified. Special efforts have to be made therefater for their inclusion in every step by designing specific policies and programmes. Empowering women as farners socio-economically will hasten the speed.
Credit plans for agriculture need to consider the specific concerns of women and men and formulate policies for mainstreaming of gender.
Including the participation of women in mainstream agriculture will lead to utilization of the women's potential appropriately leading to the growth in GDP.
It has been proved beyond doubt that women's participation in any economic activity has led to increased growth upto 25 percent.
The need of the hour is to recognise this potential and treat women as major stakeholders in agriculture.

The FAO has stated that, ‘Closing the gender gap in agriculture would generate significant gains for the agriculture and society. If women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30 percent and raise total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5 to 4 per cent (FAO, 2011).
The standing guidelines for ensuring 30 percent participation of women in all
central sector programmes (DAC, 2011) and the gender budgeting approach of checking what percentage of funds and
benefits are allocated for women and are actually availed by women beneficiaries under each sector are some of the
monitoring mechanisms introduced for enabling the women farmers to access development support and services.
However as pointed out by Geethakutty et al 2014  even Central sector programmes of agriculture such as RKVY do not keep any priority for farm women empowerment

MKSP, the only project specially envisaged for women farmers in the State is being implemented by the Department of Rural Development.
Isn't it high time that some of the real focus in agriculture actually shifts to women farmers? Till then all discussion on credit plan for agriculture would only be mere lip service not only to women but also to society. 

The end of elections, of Desh ka Mahatyohaar, the country's biggest festival.....

The end of elections, of Desh ka Mahatyohaar, the country's biggest festival.....

My day suddenly feels empty, my mind unbusy and there is nothing much to do. Almost a vacuum as the celebrations of the largest festival of the country, Desh ka Mahatyohaar ended day before yesterday.
In a flashback , I go back three months to March 2019 when we had been called to Vigyan Bhavan to attend the training for appointment as Election Observers. The air then was full of expectations and excitement high as we clamoured to know the constituencies to which we would be going. Those who were allocated constituencies were busy discussing the best mode of travel while those kept on reserve were either joyful or woebegone.
Preparations for the largest festival of democracy began more than a year ago but had heated up over the last six months.
A festival which needed to prepare for 90 crore people in diverse geographies, with different sets of awareness and literacy, being rural and urban amidst trying weather conditions needed great acumen. Plains and hinterlands, , hills and valleys, islands or deep jungles had to be taken into consideration.
A festival which not only had to educate people about the importance of voting but also about new technologies like the use of VVPAT machines to verify their vote. And executing all this with such precision that there was no room left for complaint.
A normal citizen who comes to vote will find it difficult to imagine and understand all the the effort that goes into the conduct of smooth, free and fair elections.
The logistics are diverse and massive.
In fact the preparations for elections begin almost a year before the actual process with the preparation of error free electoral rolls by the Electoral Registration Officer. This perhaps is the most thankless job with individuals neither bothering to ascertain their names in the rolls nor making an attempt to include themselves despite the fact that ECI and Chief Electoral Officers of the states constantly advertise to ensure the same. In fact Booth level officers are appointed for the door to door survey. Yet many times citizens fail to register themselves as voters or do not bother to check their names when they shift their place of stay. They end up complaining bitterly on the day of poll. Ensuring that one's name is included in the voters list and one also votes is the primary duty of a cutizen.
The next inportant thing done by the District Election Officer is the Identification of polling stations to facilitate the process of voting. Therafter a sequence of activities keep happening . Acquiring EVMs and VVPATs and checking them thoroughly by the technical experts in the presence of political parties is not done once but twice. They are kept ready to be used on announcement of poll. The flurry of activity after the announcrment of poll is inconceivable.
The Election Commission does not have permanent staff for conduct of polls but requisitions the services of officials as and when required.
This is a mammoth task as lakhs of people are needed for every step from registration , to conduct poll, for counting and for sealing the EVMs and other records after poll.
So the exercise for requisitioning services of people to procurement of goods and election material is done by the district. Alongside are the statutory provisions for accepting nomination forms, conducting a scrutiny, accepting and rejecting nominations, making a final list of contesting candidates, displaying them on the notice board. EVM ballot unit, control unit and VVPATs are prepared in the presence of representatives of political parties. Orders have to be issued to the staff and training sessions organised  according to the roles assigned to them. The Presiding Officers PROs who actually conduct the poll at the polling booth are provided 2 trainings including a hands on training. The other polling officers trained according to their roles.
Security arrangements are made in consultation with the police.
A Transport plan is also prepared for the safe travel of the election staff and the election material.
Efforts are also made to ensure that voters have assured minimum facilities by way of water, electricity, ramp, furniture, help desk, signages and toilet. Special efforts are made for facilitating persons with disabilities, senior citizens and women. Voter slips are distributed by Booth level officer to facilitate easy location of polling booth by voters. Help desks at the polling booths are also set up.
This year the ECI took specific steps by setting up a helpline 1950, a website , www.nvsp.in, various apps like #GoVerify, # GoCall, # GoRegister, # GoVote. These proactive measures show the sincerity and seriousness of the ECI to ensure that elections are inclusive. 
Software like the ERONET for error free electoral rolls, CVIGIL citizen vigilant app to capture live violation anywhere with a facility to upload along with a brief description are revolutionary. 
The Voter helpline app which gives all information to the voter about his name, polling station, way to reach has become the 7th highest rated app. A single window system, SUVIDHA was established to issue permissions to contesting candidates in 48hours. This Suvidha portal actually became a great facility in knowing the live result trends appropriately. The information was available to everyone at the fingertips.
The counting of votes is also undertaken meticulously at the centres identified and approved by the ECI. The strong rooms are sanitised in front of the candidates or their agents and after storage of EVMs are  sealed in their presence. They are even permitted to deploy their representatives during the entire period of storage outside the strong rooms where machines are stored. Central Police Forces guard the strong roons to ensure impartiality and non-interference by the State Police.
The Election Commission of our country not only emphasised on conduct of free and fair elections but ensured that no stone was unturned to facilitate that. The task is mammoth but transparency was ensured at every level.
Aspertions about the tampering of EVMs are therefor irksome. At every step and every level political parties are requested to remain present. The first and second level checking , the preparation of the EVMs for the poll, the setting up of EVMs and mock poll at the polling booth are all done in the presence of the representatives of the political parties who are also present throughout the poll.
For those of us who work in government getting the opportunity to work at least once for elections is certain. It has been my good fortune to get the opportunity to work for the conduct of elections in various capacities as Electoral Registration Officer, Assistant Returning Officer, Returning Officer, Deputy District Election Officer and Election Observer during the last twenty-five years. Each experience has been memorable and a great learning. What the election process teaches us best is team management. The election law, rules, acts are so well-thought and perfectly written that if one reads them and follows them to the 'T' then one can never fumble.
This time as the Counting Observer for four assembly constituencies of Karnal in Haryana, I was stationed at Panipat. Observing the process in all the four assembly constituencies was possible due to efficient team management by the District Election Officer and the Assistant Returning Officers with whom I worked in close coordination. The personal touch given by each officer to increase the efficiency of the counting staff and make them work positively was clearly evident. This is possible only due to the systems set in place by the Election Commision of India  and my head can only bow in respect to the ECI which does everything possible to uphold democracy. As Kenneth Blackwell has rightly stated, " We have a system that allows us to manage a free and fair election , free of intimidation, and that's what we all have delivered on election day, and we're very very proud of it."