The biggest challenge in this work was how to make participants feel that we are not evaluating their individual competence or performance. We had to convince them first that that the purpose of FGDs was not to judge them, whether they were working effectively and efficiently or not, but to understand their problems in working as ER or PS. They were told that we were not there on behalf of the government or any NGO to sanction any reward or punishment to their district/block/village or to them. We wanted to help ERs and PSs to work better and, therefore, we wanted to know what problems they faced in performing different activities and tasks. We also wanted to understand that in the field out of all the activities and tasks assigned to them which ones were more important to them.

Soon we realized that members of ZP and Block Panchayat are very frustrated people. They did not cooperate initially, certainly not so much as the members or GP. We had to involve them, listen to their woes, and give them time to express their frustrations. When they fought the election they thought that they were fighting for a post higher than gram pradhan. After getting elected they found that there was no role for them. They had no power to intervene in the programmes anywhere and they were not even respected by the gram pradhans. Once you listened to them they got ready to participate in the study. We also learnt that at the district and block level, one had more problems working with men. Women had the same power and funds but they looked more enthusiastic than their men counterparts. This was because most of them had come out in the field for the first time and even a minor role for them in society made them more enthusiastic and confident. They were less complaining, more confident and more cooperative.

In FGDs it is very important to tell the participants what the usefulness of FGDs is and how discussions will help the community. We have to convince them that this exercise is being done because this is useful to them in some way, may be by influencing the state policy. In the above case it was told that government wanted to help the ERs and PSs through better training. The government wants their suggestions regarding nature of training, place of training, content of training and related issues. Thus we are not doing only an academic exercise; what we learn in the sessions will be communicated to the government and appropriate action will be taken to help the ERs and PSs.