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**_The KundRm_** _PoJect_

1982 to 79 percent in 1985, the FPAI's share decreased from 39 percent in 1982 to 1 percent in 1985. The community's contribution to this cost ranged from 20 percent to 41 percent between 1982 and 1985, mostly in the form of labor. These figures indicate that while the Project, on the one hand, is successful in motivating the community to contribute labor and cost for its own welfare, it also helps the community members to increasingly take advantage of the government's development and family planning facilities.

# _Success_ **_oftde Project_** _and_ **_Its Lmitadons_**

Increasing contraceptive prevalence in the Project Area through active involvement of community members was the main objective of the Kundam Project. There are some quantitative data for assessing its impact on contraceptive prevalence. No such data are available for assessing the Project's success or failure in acting as a catalyst in Kundam block's overall development efforts. The socioeconomic setting of Kundam block is not at all favorable to high contraceptive prevalence. Hence a rise of contraceptive prevalence in the Project Area from below 20 percent in 1980 to over 60 percent in 1985-much higher than in the Control Area, in Madhya Pradesh state, and India as a whole-can be considered as a significant achievement of the Project.

The fbllowing two strategies of the Project seems to be mainly responsible for its success in raising contraceptive prevalence: (i) mobilizing a large number of men and women in the community through various committees and clubs to participate in educational/motivational activities related to promotion of family planning;. (ii) extending the Project's efforts to other developmental activities that would, according to the community members' perception, fulfil their health and other needs.

The formation of the Project Implementation Committee as well as the village-level committees and clubs went through meticulous and innovative planning. The inclusion of influential local government finctionaires, panchayat members, and other social/politica **l** eaders in the 17-member Project Implementation Committee not only enhanced the credibility of the Project to a considerable extent, it also worked as an incentive to the community members to join the village-level committees and clubs with the hope of making personal contact with people in power. The activities of various committees and clubs and active participation of both the young and old in them attest to the success of the community health workers in creating rapport with the villagers and dealing with the constraints related to village factionalism.

One positive aspect of the Kundam Project is that it worked through the existing organizational structure of the government, rather than creating an independent structure of its own, as in Matlab. The main reasons why the government bureaucracy did not have a dampening effect on Its activities are the following: (i) it took great care in allocating the roles of local government personnel in the Project in such a way that would encourage them to support the Project activities; (ii) its activities were supportive rather than competitive with the government; and (iii) the final decision-making power of the Project was vested in the project coordinator who was a staff member of the PPAI headquarters at Bombay. One lesson learnt from the Kundam Project is that for successful community mobilization, the leadership should come from a nongovernmental organization but the latter should adopt strategies which would ensure a fruitful collaboration with government agencies responsible for providing services. The strategies would vary according to organizational structures of the NGOs and government as well as with the nature of the project and local social structure.