PARTICIPATORY LEARNING AND

ACTION (PLA)

Dr. V.D.GADKAR
Regional Director I/C
NIPCCD Regional Centre, Lucknow

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 PARTICIPATORY LEARNING AND
ACTION (PLA)
PLA is a process of interaction with the
community which helps in analysis of local
situations.
This leads to :
• Sharing of information
• Identification and prioritisation of needs and
problems
• Planning and acting together on the
identifies needs and solve problems.
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PLA seeks to understand the
survival strategy of the
community, appraise it and
show way to enhance the
capability of that effort to
ensure sustainability.

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The Where

• Self-Help Group
• ICDS
• Family Planning
• Community Development etc.

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The How ?
• Resource Mapping
• Transects
• Trend Analysis
• Chapati Diagram
• Seasonality etc.

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 1. Mapping
To obtain an over view of resources
available with the community in the form
of social, economical, demographical,
geographical details of the area where
community lives.

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 Mapping

Resource mapping
Social mapping
• Village layout •Village
•Houses resources
•Census
•Beneficiaries, etc •Land
•Soil types
•Infrastructure
•Forest, etc
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 Mapping can be done on the
ground as well as on paper
Mapping can be done on the ground
Advantages
• It is visible to several people
• It is quick and easy
• It can be generated a good deal of discussion
and highly participative
• It can contain a lot of information on
population, health, land use, soil types, etc.

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• It can be altered or corrected easily
• It can be developed further if required
• It is liked by most villagers particularly
the older people and women (especially
who are skilled in the art of applying
rangoli).

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Disadvantage
• It cannot be carried away unless it is
also copied on paper or photographed.

Mapping on Paper
• It can be carried away or left with the
villagers as a document of their village –
Produced by them.
• It is also participatory
• Here coloured paper/pens cut out in
different shapes can be used as background
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Disadvantage of Mapping on Paper
• It is limited size – No scope of
extension
• This offers only a limited space for
the people to surround it and
participate.

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Steps for Mapping
• Gather a group of people (25-30)
• Brief the people well about the exercise
and purpose of it.
• Selection of place
• Involvement of people
• Sequencing
• Start with drawing the roads
• General Feature of village
• Depict individual houses
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8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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• Keep them interested
• Work in sub-groups
• Use locally available materials
• - Stones
• - Rangoli powders, seeds etc.
• Copy the map on a chart
• Analysis/assessment the summary use for
focused group for discussion for strategy.

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DON’T
• Do not take it for granted that the map will appear on
it’s own. The exercise needs to be facilitated.
• Don’t be too strict or rigid for place, alignment for
colour etc. Let the group decide.
• Don/t make map too small.

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 2.TREND ANALYSIS

The changes that has occurred over

a specific period of time in a
village/Hamlet/Urban, the reasons for
the change, the impact it had on the lives
of the people
Studying Changes/No changes –
Over a period of time.

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Earlier Present Reasons Impact
Open well Hand pump 1. Intervention of 1. Lower
government. incidence of
used for is 2. Effort of the water borne
drinking installed community to diseases.
mobilize the 2. Availability of
water resource. sufficient
3. NGO, have water
facilitated 3.Easy
community in availability
mobilizing. (accessibility)
4. Safety for kids
5. Less time/less
work in
fetching water
6. More time
availability
for other
activities.
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Negative
• Water Logging
• Over use of Ground Water
Resources
• Maintenance Problem.

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 SEASONALITY

It is an exercise that gives us

information on rainfall,
occurrence of diseases, work
availability, migration, food
intake, debts etc. in different
seasons in a given year.
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 PURPOSE
Most of the activities in village
follow a set pattern which is
determined by the season. The study
of a seasonality diagram thus
provides a wide range of information
presented in seasonal perspective.

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 Process/Methodology
1. Gather a group of people (25 – 30)
2. Brief the people well about the exercise
and purpose of it.
3. Involvement of people
4. Ask for local names of months of festivals,
unnecessary, correlate them to the months
like January, February, March ……
5. These months should be written on the
horizontal line.
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6. The vertical line have the issues listed out.
7. Probe – use the 7 helpers – what/ how? Why?
When? Where? Which? Who? – go on depth.
8. Use locally available materials
- Stones
- Seeds
- Sticks
- Rangoli powder etc.
- Chart paper
- Pen/pencil, eraser
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9. Copy the diagram on a chart.
10.Analysis / Assessment the summary
and use for focused group for
discussion for strategy.

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 APPLICATION IN VILLAGES
• To know the season wise diseases of
women and children:
- Diarrhea
- Malaria
- Eye infection, etc.

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• Availability of food in the
community
• Mobilization of locally available
food in the community
• Availability of community people
for HNE

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 Analysis
Month Diseases of children
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November 26
 DO’s and DON’Ts
1. Enjoy the 1. Don’t rush into
Programme and things.
everyone else
(Villagers included to
enjoy it too)

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