Lokayan - Seeing and Observing the Real India

Hapless People……. Sinking Society (A story of present day Maharashtra)

2007-05-03T22:55:00.000-07:00

Readers of this post may be aware of the two month long Padayatra in Maharashtra that went through 163 villages across 9 districts covering 944 kms in January-February 2006. (For those who came in later, catch the story on www.greenearthconsulting.org/drought.htm

The process that was triggered off in July 2004 has reached a significant milestone with the publication of the report on the Padayatra and the findings (a web version of the complete report is available at http://www.greenearthconsulting.org/Articles/Padayatra English Report Webversion.pdfThe process was truly mammoth with participation of over 12,000 individuals, 200 agencies and over 1,500 urban based professionals. The findings are heart-rending. We are presenting these to you with trepidation tinged with hope… Hope that you will take it on yourself to do something about the situation.

First the findings. What we saw broke our hearts.. We saw

Pain and suffering : hunger, endemic suffering

Discontent and haplessness : agrarian crisis, debt ridden farmers, irrigation systems that don’t work, reducing livestock.

Loss of livelihoods : educated youth driven away from farming, break down of livelihood systems, unavailability of labour opportunities.

Collapse of institutions : panchayats, gramsabhas, co-operatives, social structures.

Irregularity everywhere in implementation.

Inequity and inequality as an accepted way of life

An invidious grip of culture that keeps sections of population under subjugation and passes it off as ‘tradition’

Yet we saw hope. We saw people coming together. We saw individual brilliance. We saw people finding joy in small things in life. We derived and continue to derive energy and impetus from these pockets.

On analysing the findings, we have come to a conclusion that this is happening because of a serious lack of

Accountability at all levels – individual, institutions and government.

Information and knowledge.

Collective ownership and responsibility.

Unity.

True and visionary leadership.

We have come up

Picture shot memories of Haryana

2007-04-26T21:23:00.000-07:00

Vinita recently had the opportunity to visit Harayana. And here is something she wrote about it:

4-lane or 6-lane highways...

Petrol pumps every 50 m... Left and right...

Flowing canals that have to be crossed every now and then..

Dhabas with huge parking spaces and at least 20 to 30 cars parked..

Illuminated 'Gardens' in rows... All glittering with thousands of lights..

Wheat fields until the eye can reach.. Lined with eucalyptus...

Small channels bordering every field to carry water for irrigation..

Thick green grass on the borders of the road in April..

Homes of bricks.. No zopadi to be seen..

Fat buffaloes tied in front of the house in a separately constructed cow-shed..

Turbaned elders sitting infront of their homes and playing cards or inhaling deeply from the hukka..

Village ponds filled to the brim in the middle of April...

Women either busy working.. Carrying headloads.. Or with a veil over their faces..

Huge piles of cowdung cakes on the outskirts of every village...

Machinery of all kinds to help agricultural activities... like this wheat harvester

Commercialisation everywhere...

Golden harvest - huge piles of wheat in the graineries..

Towers of brick kilns blowing thick black smoke..

'Tubelight' of hope

2007-04-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

I have shared my pain and anguish with you…. Now is time to share something positive….

I walked into an NGO (Yerala Projects Society) office and found some women industriously doing something… they were preparing tube light ballasts……..(for the uninitiated, ballasts are those ugly boxes that sit on the middle of the tube light fixture…. Of course the new ballasts are electronic and much sleeker…) The wonderful thing about the set up was that the women were involved in a variety of tasks…. One was using a tension machine for winding copper wire….. some were attaching wires to the ballast… some were soldering the components on to PCBs…….some were assembling the ballasts – the PCBs in their plastic sheaths…. One was involved in testing and quality control of every PCB that was soldered…..

‘A common sight in any industrial unit’ you will say……. read on…….. all of these women were semi literate….. 4th standard in a government school does not really qualify as education anyway… one was illiterate…. She was the one doing the Quality Control!!!! These women had been trained intensively by the NGO…. All the women could do all the functions…… they did every thing by rotation….The women were not only manufacturing these ballasts, they had gotten started on the whole tube light assembly… The next foray was into small emergency lights……. The NGO has established a complete chain……

components are sourced in Mumbai and Delhi,
the PVC covers were made to design by a local manufacturer (the dies had been cut by the technical man in the NGO)
the ballasts were being marketed to tube light assembly manufacturers.
The tube light assemblies themselves were being marketed in Pune and Mumbai… at very competitive rates…

In spite of paying fair and just wages to the women, the NGO is showing a surplus… 25 women work in the unit …. They are unable to cope up with the orders that are flowing in!!! This has been on for 8 months now and the unit is definitely a ‘going concern’.

Now the kicker…….. all these women are HIV positive!!!!! They have contracted the disease from their wayward spouses……. Most of them are in the 25-35 year category………. To look at them and their children (who tag along) is gut wrenching….. knowing that death at an early age is certain… and yet fighting it out with dignity……. That’s great…. This effort that they are involved in has brought new life in them… their position in the family has improved……. They still live and eat separately but at least the abuse has lessened…. They have established a good camaraderie amongst themselves……. The work and the act of coming together for a few hours is a psychological booster……..

This experience has resulted in learning for me…… the key one being that there is no need to constrain ones thinking while making choices for trades that one can teach women from rural and tribal areas….. women can adapt and adopt newer skills…. One needs patience, vision and lots of hard work in establishing the backward and forward linkages…. Never again will I say ‘let us look at imparting Income Generation skills that are not ‘alien’ to women’…. There is nothing alien…. Our vision is narrow……..

I leave you with words from Tagore….

Said the setting sun,
“Now who will do the rest ?”
Offered the small lamp,
“I will do my best”………..

Random observations in West Godavari

2007-04-14T16:35:00.000-07:00

Great blog post over at the Indian Economy blog. The author is hanging around the West Godavari district in AP and found time to blog with a bunch of very interesting and insightful observations.

Excerpts:

Gautam Bastian told me some interesting road factoids. Highways are intentionally made curved so as not to have drivers sleep off. Some well maintained roads in Orissa are oddly ill-maintained at certain stretches along the road. Turns out it is so because the road contract was given based on points marked on maps. The slight difference on the map between the parts of the road provided to two different contractors translates into no-man’s land in reality and nobody maintains it!

and

The decent hotel where I am staying in small-town Tadepalligudam has the clock faster by 20 minutes because the manager says it makes the staff more active!

See full article.

(By the way, the author of that post is an unrelated Naveen.)

Despair, haplessness everywhere: no succour in sight

2007-03-20T03:02:00.000-07:00

I have just recently come back from Yavatmal. This is the district in Maharashtra that is the epicentre of suicides by farmers. I had gone there with a 9 member team for studying the implementation of the relief packages announced by the Honourable Prime Minister and Chief Minister. What I saw will be part of a report that will be available soon. I wish to share what I felt…

I have come back with despair. To me it is increasingly evident that farming is not a sustainable livelihood option for 90% of the farmers in India. They can only get enough yield to survive and satisfy hygiene factor needs – food, clothing and primitive shelter. There is no surplus that can take care of the future, good education, good health and a higher standard of living. The main reasons are poor quality of land, sub-optimal use of rainwater, insufficient irrigation and appalling ignorance. A farmer is only an object of exploitation –

Moneylenders who charge 5% and upwards a month in interest.
Input (seed, pesticide and fertiliser) dealers who overcharge for outdated and poor quality inputs.
Food grain dealers who ensure that jowar which is bought from a farmer at Rs. 7/- a kg reaches the consumer at Rs.16/-per kg. Mind you there is little or no value addition : just transport from one point to another.
Petty government officials who expect favours for doing their jobs.
Bank managers who withhold credit till their palms are greased.

All these and other powerful persons in rural areas join hands in extracting the maximum out of farmers. No concession is given… No quarter granted…. Just like a sugarcane juice dealer passes the cane a number of times through the grind to extract the last drop and then use the fibre for fodder / paper boards.

The urban consumer is also responsible to a certain extent : after all would we be willing to pay Rs.50/- for a kg of wheat so that the farmer can get Rs. 20/-? We who do not blink twice before spending Rs.1000/- on a family day out?

The exploiters are careful. They know that it is of no use in killing the farmer. Remember that the Nazis knew that concentration camp inmates had to be fed and sheltered so that they could work. Dead inmates were of little use. This is what society at large is doing….. Keeping the farmer at a stage where he continues to grow food that is necessary for us all to live : but not letting him earn enough so that he can reap the benefits of development… that may be dangerous… What if, God forbid, the farmers daughter / son decides to move away from farming? How will we eat?

1. I think that it is time that all stakeholders radically revisit the development paradigms that they have been adhering to for the last 6 decades. Incremental measures are not going to make things better. Not at a pace that will make a difference anyway. We need to look at

Serious diversification from agriculture (and on farm labour) as the ONLY means of livelihood for rural families. This diversification could happen in industry or services.
For this to happen education must improve and become relevant. It is time for India to put to rest the ghost of Lord Macaulay and design an education system that will suit our needs.
Infrastructure must improve. What is the point of creating irrigation facilities if there is no electricity to pump out water? How can one start a value added business if there are no roads to truck out the produce?
Government spend must be made in the right areas and with long term vision. Short term politically expedient announcements must make way for mature decision making.

2. Consolidation of land holdings and co-operative farming should be promoted. This will enable use of technology and mechanised farming giving economies of scale. I am not personally in favour of contract farming. The equation is too skewed against the illiterate farmer. He gets lured by short term gains and often sacrifices long term interests : simply because there is no one to caution him.

3. Governance must be improved. The scale and extent of corruption is appalling. Almost no one believes that things can happen without a kickback. Measures like Right to Information Act are a step in the right direction. Many more are needed. Sterner and swifter means of dispensing justice are a natural corollary to good governance.

Foolish and utopian suggestions, I can almost hear you mutter. I forgive you for that. I seriously believe that this needs to happen

We should get ready for an armed revolution. Believe me this is on the cards. No populace can live under so much stress and not erupt. The storming of the Bastille and the Naxalbari agitation is a good pointer. There are stirrings.. we need to wake up before the beast awakens.

Makarand

The Bhils and the Rajputs

2007-02-13T23:35:00.000-08:00

Vinita Tatke writes:

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet up with the Bhils and Rajputs in remote villages of Badgaon block in Udaipur district, Rajasthan. That is the place where Maharana Pratap fought the famous battle of Haldi Ghati. He is said to have defended Mewar against the occupation of the Moghuls. The battle field, which was famous for its yellow soil and hence called Haldi Ghati, now has red soil, reddened by the blood of the defenders.

The Rajputs are the royality here, while the Bhils the nomad tribe. Both are fighter tribes, however, the Bhils ruled in the forests while the Rajputs owned kingdoms and extracted taxes.

Here is an account of the relationship between the Rajputs and the Bhils, and the Bhil version of the battle.

Ambalal Gameti is a Bhil from the Kak Mandara village, also a member of the Village Development Committee. Seva Mandir, an NGO from Udaipur, has been working in this village for last several years. They have undertaken work on soil and water conservation activities and attempted to restore the common grazing lands to the collective ownership of the people.

Ambalal Gameti (Bhil) on the relationship between Bhils and Rajputs

The rest of this post is essentially a paraphrase of the words of Ambalal Gameti

I have seen the differential treatment given by the Rajputs to the Bhils during my childhood. The Rajputs were particular about not sitting close to a Bhil. Slowly, this behaviour changed. Today, the Bhils and Rajputs are together in many functions. The Rajputs treat the Bhils with greater respect. Though each community is engaged in their daily routine, they do come together on occassions especially to discuss issues of the village or work that is to be done in the village. However, the two communities do not enter each other’s homes, nor do they eat or drink water at each other’s place.

Sardar – Rajputs are the money lendors. 2% interest rate. Sardars sometimes charge 5 to 10%.

Rajputs are a proud people. They are very particular of their caste. They don’t like people proclaiming themselves as equal to the Rajputs.

However, when each caste is having its own function, then other castes are not allowed to participate.

Many people are going to the city and there they forget their castes.
Our traditions and theirs are different. We have different Gods. So there is very little opportunity to mix socially. However, in the issues related to village development, we do discuss.

Earlier, all village related work was done through the village Panchayat. We have not done any work collectively before Seva Mandir. It is only this time for the watershed that there has been an opportunity to come together.

The Battle of Haldi Ghati

Maharana Pratap had almost given up the battle and had run off from the battle field, when the diety of Bhils visited the Maharana in his dreams. The diety gave him confidence and told him not to loose hope. Maharana said that he did not have any funds, but the diety told him not to worry about it. An unknown entity called Vamasha then visited the Maharana and provided the funds. Vamasha told the Rana to prepare his army with the funds. The Bhils supported the Maharana and formed most of his army. Together, they were able to defeat the Moghuls.

Rana Punja, the Bhil leader, was thus rewarded with half the throne of Maharana Pratap. On one side is the Bhilu Rana and on the other side of the throne sits Maharana Pratap. Both have one hand on the throne. Babri Mandi has a photo of Bhilu Raja.

Today, the whole story is commemorated in a museum at Haldi Ghati.

"Honge" oil economy - sustainable development for rural India

2007-02-01T22:51:00.000-08:00

This is a very interesting article about how oil from the Honge trees can be used to produce diesel to give sustainable and continuous economic development for semi-arid parts of rural India. Dr. Udipi Srinivasa from IISc Bangalore has been running a pilot project in 7 villages around Kagganhalli in Karnataka.

Honge trees grow in large quantities in these regions, and are largely ignored by everybody because the oil from Honge seeds is inedible. But, it can be converted fairly easily into diesel which can be used to power water pumps, generators, vehicles, etc. And a liter of the oil, which is pretty much equivalent in performance to a liter of diesel, can be manufactured at half the cost, or less. The claim is that large tracts of semi-arid rural land in India can be used to plant such trees and generate renewable replacements for fossil fuels.

Read the full article. It is very interesting.

I often read over-hyped articles (especially in Indian newspapers) about amazing new technologies which are ignored by the rest of the rest of the world. These are "too good to be true" stories, which turn out, on closer inspection, to have some fatal flaw. Hence, I am skeptical of such claims. So I asked Makarand what his bullshit-meter says about this story and this is his response:

I am afraid that most of it is true... Not an over hype... There are other such similar things happening around... The problem is that while scientists do 'discover' these things few have the ability to look at it economically... Which is why Newton a great mind, almost a philosopher made some contribution to progress of mankind... but Edison, with a much lesser intellect, contributed a lot too simply because he made things WORK for all... He made as significant a contribution to every day life of humans simply due to his practical approach (my opinion entirely and would not like to argue on that too much)... Our guys are not able to get out of the lab and into the field where ones hands get dirtied in managing business... That is why we have a lot of scientists but few entrepreneurs..

Allow me to help you somewhat in your relentless pursuit of knowledge (I am not joking)...

You may also want to study some more about these types of fuels.. http://www.jatropha.de/ is a good site to visit.. The government of India (and a few state Governments) is gung ho on Jathropa.. They are promoting it on a large scale.. Last year the Government of MP actually issued a dictat for the District administration to bring Land under Jatropha..

I feel however that we need to be careful about these technologies and prevent ourselves from going overboard... These technologies, though low cost are un-tested for large scale.. I personally am of the opinion that these should be used ONLY in small units, preferably for household consumption. The reasons are

Taking Jathropa type of crops on a large scale for cash purposes will destroy the agri balance...
We do not have any infrastructure to use on large scale.. In any case economies of scale do matter in production... All of us know, or should know, what happened when the Peoples Republic of China tried to make steel making a small kitchen unit...
Plants like Jathropa do not allow any thing else to grow in the vicinity.. These are called allelopathic plants.

I would feel that Jathropa must be used to line bunds and fields and to act as hedges.. Waste land can be used for that purpose since they are hardy and drought resistant...

So one may use but on small scale and at household only... Unless technological progress makes safe and large scale usage possible.. After all oil was discovered in the tar sands of Alberta province in Canada a 100 years BEFORE one came up with the technology to extract it !

Hope this was useful...

Makarand

"Water", widows and Manusmriti...

2007-01-28T20:42:00.000-08:00

Meetu recently posted a review of Water (Deepa Mehta's movie) in which she said, basically, that a good topic has been wasted because the movie does not really create the impact that it should.

Makarand is more forceful in his condemnation of the movie, and has a bunch of interesting things to say about the issue in general:

Saw WATER.. Also read your review... Recalled the questions that you had raised in the stairwell.. and felt that I had to respond..

I think that the movie was pathetic... A very important and sensitive issue was not handed well.. The story line was jerky and some of the characters crass.. There were also issues related to appropriateness (south Indian style flowers in the hair and dress in Benares is difficult to swallow... ) References to Gandhi were sad, disjointed, inappropriate and irrelevant... All in all I don't think that Deepa Mehta has understood India. She has tried to pick a sensitive issue and make it sensational... reading the brief on the jacket you will know what I mean... The Bajrang Dal raising objections just proves that they too are ignorant and operating on misinformation... they just managed to hype up the film..

having said all that... the issue is important.. I have something to say on that as well...

The verses of Manu referenced in the film do talk badly of widows but they must be read in context of the time that they were written.. {Tukaram the great Maharashtrian saint and social reformer said 'be kind to slaves'... we cannot turn back 450 years later and say that Tukaram was evil because he condoned slavery! all he was doing was being realistic and HUMANE at that time}... Manu's laws are around 1500 BC... 3500 years ago... They may appear to be wrong today but may not have been wrong in the context of the time then... What was the position of women then? ... they had no rights to property, profession or even name (let alone identity).. Their identity and status came from the man in their life (father / brother or husband)... what happens to a young widow then? she has been married off and hence her father would have nothing to do with her... for her in laws she was a burden... she had no skill / no property and no means of supporting herself... what could she do? just what thousands of women are doing now... commercial sex work! (while saying this one must not forget that not all women had to do it... Those who had grown up sons were cared for... only a small portion ended up in Benares... that too was 'just a financial matter of not spending on her upkeep and not tradition / religion' as John Abraham says to Seema Biswas.. I am not condoning Manu... I just think that the laws are not relevant NOW... perhaps they were then... did you know that the first three US Presidents were slave owners?

The reference to the 34 million widows figure in the census of 2001 in context of the film and the situation there is just humbug.. Yes there are 34 million widows (probably an equal number of deserted / destitute and bigamous wives)... but their situation is not that of the widows shown in the movie... Times have changed and well... The statement is clever... It is not untrue... but it is not the whole truth as well.. After all the moment we don't allow widows to participate in haldi kumkum, do kanyadaan and perform other religious functions we are oppressing them socially and culturally. ... in reality the situation of widows is BAD but not as bad as the film (for instance only in some remote pockets of karnataka will you still find widows, all of them very old, with shaven heads)... They do have much more rights and awareness.. also society is changing and we will be where the Western world is in a few decades...

Deepa Mehta is posturing as a 'film maker with a social conscience and a votary of women's rights'... I think that she is just a shrewd film maker but not a good one at that... if she wanted to talk of the issue, she would have set in today's time and referenced back to the 1930s and earlier... The movie contributes nothing to social debate.. FIRE did that to a certain extent... FIRE ultimately did well more for its salacious content than debate... I hope that the movie does not get an Oscar.. it will be shameful..

Hope this was useful... pardon the rambling...

RISC: Rural Infrastructure and Services Commons

2007-01-28T20:33:00.000-08:00

I found this rather interesting article on the Indian Economy Blog which talks about an initiative that is trying to prove that development does not necessarily mean urbanization. It first lays out the arguments as to why urbanization is "usual" path to development, and then goes on to suggest an alternative.

Excerpt: It is therefore argued that 'village-centric' development is not feasible because of resource limitations and because people naturally tend to migrate out of villages to cities. Furthermore, it not desirable since a vibrant economy depends on the aggregation of the population into units much larger than a small village. In short, investing scarce resources into villages is short-sighted and uneconomical.

Based on the above considerations, a model for rural development has been conceived called RISC – Rural Infrastructure and Services Commons. The RISC idea is to bring to the rural population the full set of services that are normally available only in urban locations. It works within the constraints of limited resources by focusing attention to and concentrating investments at specific locations to obtain economies of scale, scope, and agglomeration.

Link to full article

I asked Makarand what he thought of this, and this is his response:

I have had occasion to go through this mail (and the blog)... Nice one and thanx for forwarding it to me..

Interestingly this has been an idea that has been around for some time now... This is what the neo-Gandhians have been talking of when they talk of self sufficiency of a village. Gandhi had a concept that the village must be a self sustaining unit. He exhorted youth to go to the villages and work there.. I have some stories to tell you.. may be next time over coffee.. You may recall his famous speech in the Lahore Congress conference that "India Lives in her villages" and India is not a few under lawyers in Mumbai and Delhi..

The neo-Gandhians believe the same.. Only thing they say is that the villages must generate enough wealth within so as to enable them to talk on equal terms with other villages and fulfill the requirements that they cant fulfill within.. That means that a village may produce cotton and TRADE with another for onions if they don't produce any! That he called a 'village republic'...

Abject hunger in Jharkhand

2006-05-13T11:55:00.000-07:00

To most of us hunger pangs are that happen when our lunch is delayed by one hour… Have you imagined a situation where

People don’t remember when they had their last meal? And don’t know when the next one will come?

There is no food grain in the house for the next meal?

A meal comprises boiled roots, so bitter that they have to be cut open and washed in running water for a day before cooking?

Labour contractors feel the muscles of labourers standing in the market (in a main square in Ranchi) to ascertain their ‘working’ ability? Slave market anybody?

People DIE just because they have no food? Last year 13 people DIED, yes DIED, in this district of hunger. Administrative Nero’s are fiddling to determine whether the death was due to starvation or illness!

I came face to face with this situation (and worse) over the last week when I was moving around in the Lesliganj block of Palamu district in Jharkhand. A quick demographic calculation with a local activist group showed that

· 30% of the people in that area got 2 meals a day irrespective of what was happening around them… a large proportion of these were government servants, traders, money lenders and landlords.
· 30% of the people could manage 2 meals a day by slogging it out.. small rain-fed farmers, rickshaw pullers fall in this category.
· 40% went routinely hungry every day, 365 days a year, all their lives… most of these landless labourers, marginal farmers.

I heard about an old woman dying of hunger while her land (2 bighas) was mortgaged to a local money lender against a loan of Rs. 500/- A rickshaw puller dying simply because he was ailing and unable to work…

Even in this poverty, one section of the population stands out.. These are the Mushahars (rat (mushak) eaters (aahar))… This caste has gained a reputation of being worthless, lazy and untrustworthy. As a result they do not get work. They live by begging or catching and displaying snakes.. A typical Mushahar home (!) is a 5 feet by 5 feet by 5 feet structure of branches.. plastered with Palash leaves. This is a family dwelling! School, sanitation, food, drinking water…. are unknown concepts… it is said that a Mushahar will gladly write his life away for a full meal and ½ a bottle of hooch! This is one caste that still has no concept of tomorrow. These are our brethren… citizens of our nation.. 59 years after independence and self rule.

If you don’t feel that this situation is appalling, wait to hear more…. What can be worse, you may well ask… read on…

What is worse is the fact that very few people CARE. Fewer know about it and even fewer try to find out and understand. Let us look at how the system reacts… (I hope that for the sake of the poor, hungry these are only aberrations and that the normal situation is not as bad (wishful thinking?))

A BDO (for the uninitiated this person is a very important government officer in charge of ‘development’ at the block level ) was sitting on stocks of grain that had come as relief for the hungry because he did not have ‘explicit written orders’ to distribute it!

An NGO working on the issue of ‘food security’ reported that one very remote adivasi village, around 30 households, had only 9 kg of grain left! When asked whether he had DONE something about it, the answer was that he had ‘informed’ the local government officer… a week ago… When was he going to act? After people died?

A local politician sitting with a group of villagers was pointing to them one by one, smiling all the time, while saying “this one hasn’t eaten for 3 days… this one for 2 days… this one for a week”…

Where is the sense of responsibility? Accountability? Sympathy? Humanity?

I do not intend to arbitrarily spread gloom by writing this… I wish to share with you how a large part of India lives. I wish all of us to do something about it… to be sensitive and not ignore this reality… to open our eyes and spot opportunities to contribute… to be less profligate… to not haggle with small vegetable vendors and rickshaw pullers over a few rupees while spending a fortune elsewhere without a thought… to demand more accountability from officials…

All of us could say “There, but for the grace of God, go I”

Makarand

Moneylenders and landlords…. Strangling the poor

2006-02-22T21:11:00.000-08:00

“The Deputy Chief Minister has got it wrong. He should not be persecuting and prosecuting the moneylenders (reference is to the recent move of the Government of Maharashtra against money lending).. After all without money lenders how can agriculture survive”… these astounding words are from a young farmer, also a political activist, from Bhatumba a small village in the Yavatmal district of Maharashtra. We were shocked to say the least… One expects seeds, fertilizers, and labour to be essential for the practice of agriculture but MONEYLENDERS? That was a new one… We decided to explore… This is what we saw…

Over the last many years the credit situation in the rural areas has worsened. Frequent spells of drought, increasing inputs costs, poor use of technology have made agriculture unproductive. We have covered this in detail in an earlier report. Corruption, inefficiencies, political interference have made credit co-operatives and banks (co-operative) nearly defunct. Every 10 kms one will find a failed financial institution. These institutions are leaving rural areas in droves. Almost all the farmers are indebted and defaulters to a certain extent. Some of the ‘smarter’ farmers play the waiting game by deliberately defaulting on loans. As a large farmer with an outstanding loan of Rs. 400,000/- said to us “why should I bother to pay off the loan? All I need to do when the demand for repayment comes up is pay the bank officer Rs. 5000 under the table. That takes care of the problem for one year. Next year maybe the government will write off loans or else the same formula will work. It is cheaper to do this than to pay”.

Against this backdrop is the undeniable truth that very few farmers can undertake agricultural activities without accessing credit. This is especially so because inputs have to be bought most of the time and labour paid regularly. Often it is a matter of survival for the family till the harvest comes in. In this scenario is it any wonder that the moneylender becomes an important input into agriculture. We saw rates ranging from 5% to 20% a month.. In 2004 apparently there was no credit available even at 25% a month. With interest rates at these levels how much cash profit can the farmer expect from rain-fed, small and marginal landholding?

Farmers are turning to women's self help groups as an avenue for accessing easy credit and at much more affordable terms. Compared to the moneylenders the normal SHG rate of 2% per month makes the loan almost FREE. Accessing credit then becomes the sole purpose of forming SHGs of women! These SHGs exist only on paper and are run by men themselves. We have seen 19 SHGs groups of women in one village of less than 1000 population…. None of these were meant to mobilize and empower women. None had regular meetings though savings records and minutes were impeccable. This puts paid to the entire concept of women's empowerment that the SHGs are supposed to (and touted to) foster. The banks are slowly strangling this line of credit as well by linking default of men to women's SHGs. Genuine groups also suffer because of these policies as all of us would have seen some time or other. Families are thus pushed back into the welcoming arms of the moneylenders. In the next report we will look at women's SHGs, their economic activities and ultimate impact on lives in more detail.

Another pattern we have seen in Yavatmal is that of concentrated landholding. Few families hold most of the land, a few are small farmers and rest are landless labourers. In Bellora, a village of around 2000 souls (350 families), for instance, 75% of the land was held by 8-10 families with the remaining 25% being held by another 25-30 families and the rest being landless. There were no other livelihood opportunities in the village. Still there was no significant migration. When investigated, we realized that the actual act of farming is managed by the landless for the landed gentry. They are employed on monthly (Rs. 900 + one bag of jowar) or yearly terms (8000 + 12 bags of Jowar) basis. The landowner does nothing but supervise leaving himself free to indulge in politics or other pursuits. In reality the landless are bonded but don’t realize it. The landlords are taking care to ensure that the landless are kept at an optimum level… just enough to prevent revolt and not too much to make them independent… The landless rarely have any disposable income left to think of education or health of their children who are consequently consigned to the same fate… They drop out of school at a young age and get into the workforce. The invidious cycle is thus self-sustaining…

Is it any wonder that most farmers want their children to get out of agriculture and get JOBS?

The tribal belt : fight is for mere survival

2006-02-14T01:31:00.000-08:00

The homepage of the website of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, government of India has lovely pictures of tribals in their traditional costumes and enjoying their traditional dances. From the time that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister we have seen photographs of dignitaries enjoying cultural activities with tribals. One has been conditioned from childhood to associate innocence, a care-free attitude, colour, gaiety and festivities with tribal groups. This is true, to a certain extent…..but it is not the whole truth…

The assessment teams which had been present in the area for a few days before the arrival of the Padayatra did not see any gaiety… They found hunger, malnutrition, illiteracy, exploitation in almost all families they spoke with. In these villages a typical Aandh tribal family of 6 lives on yield from rain-fed agriculture. The area is hilly and soil poor : this contributes to abysmal levels of yield when compared with other areas even in Yavatmal district. The yield is normally adequate to feed the family at subsistence level for around 4 months. Almost none of the produce is sold and the family has very little cash income for meeting other requirements. Degrading forests means that access to Non Timber Forest Produce is also negligible. In any case forest guards do not take tribal forays into forests lightly. To survive the tribal families are forced to migrate for sugarcane cutting. The tribals are exploited even more in this fundamentally exploitative business. A couple gets an ‘advance’ of around Rs. 6000/-. They are employed in the backbreaking sugarcane cutting work for 5 months and at the end of that they end up getting an additional amount of Rs. 2000 or so as wages. This translates to a princely amount of Rs. 30 per day where 16 hours of labour is the norm. A labourer from Marathwada would get 25% more for the same work. But then the Aandh tribal is illiterate and ignorant and can be exploited easily.

We do not need to belabor the point… it is clear that the Aandh tribal is involved in a daily fight for survival.

Now this is not unknown. Everyone, including government of India and Maharashtra knows that tribals are a special groups and need special attention. After all does the government not have all those departments and schemes for tribal development? In the budget speeches, year after year, we are told that the government is spending more money on developing the tribals. Schemes and programmes are announced with fanfare… At the ground level the assessment teams were not able to find a single tribal family in 4 villages which has knowledge of these schemes let alone having benefited from them. The tribals have been left to their fate : at the mercy of exploiters of all hues.

These families are still engaged in the very primary struggle for survival. We cannot really expect them to scale the ladder of development when they have not even taken the first step.

One of the most poignant aspect that the assessment team has spotted is that Children in these families have no dreams.. Its not strange… How can they dream on empty stomachs? Who will teach them to dream : their parents have no emotional space left and they have no teachers in schools built for them…

The situation is such that life of the poor in Marathwada seems to be easier! As a nation we have spent close to 60 years in empty promises to people like the Aandh tribals. It is time that we, civil society, corporate and government, wake up and contribute to upliftment of the tribals. Not dole mind you… sensitive and sensible development programmes.

Government funds get wasted… poor remain poor

2006-02-07T01:16:00.000-08:00

After walking through 79 villages and undertaking in-depth assessments in 28 villages the Padayatra (www.greenearthconsulting.org) team has learnt a lot. We are in the process of documenting these separately. In the next 3-4 sitreps we intend to discuss some of the key learnings that come up and more importantly the way ahead… we would also welcome a dialogue with the readers of these sitreps..

The one aspect that hits the observer in the face is the vast amount of government funds being spent in the villages in the name of development. Even if one does not go back 50 years while calculating amounts spent, even the last decade would be adequate. Thousands of rupees (if not lacs) have been spent per head on development by government. There is no evidence that this has helped. Some examples would perhaps make the point clear.

· An average of 4.3 drinking water schemes, each worth lacs of Rupees, have been implemented by government in every village of Maharashtra over the last 45 years. In spite of these the number of tanker aided villages is steadily rising and was close to 25,000 last year.
· Home sanitation blocks have been built in a number of villages at an average unit cost of Rs.3500/-. Invariably the block is made with substandard material and cannot be used.
· School buildings have been built but no teachers appointed – classrooms lie vacant.
· Grampanchayat offices and sub centres are built – they are never opened.
· MP / MLA / Grampanchayat funds are used to built giant concrete entrances to the villages – where children in schools starve because the mid-day meals don’t reach them.

One can go on, but the point is clear : government funds are not targeted at the necessary aspects and / or are not reaching those in need. Why is this happening? There are a number of reasons that have come to fore

· Awareness at the grassroots about these schemes and decision making process is limited. Many a times decisions are taken by the uninformed or the corrupt.
· Local self governance institutions are weak in the face of the bureaucracy, especially at the cutting edge. Thus one finds that the gramsevak (servant!!! of the village) lords over the elected panchayat and decides what is to be done.
· Administration, especially at higher levels, looks at the macro picture and fails to see the realities at micro-level. They have no time and more importantly no access to these realities.
· Peoples leaders prefer to do something that is grand and lasting (hence the Community Centres and Giant Arches) rather than what is necessary.

One wonders whether the intention of government is to address the issue, spend the money or make it appear that the money is being spent.

It would take a team of trained economists, many months of research to find out the efficacy of the rupee spent by government. Trotting out the Late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s famous quote of 15 paise of every rupee spent reaching the poor has become a poor joke and an excuse for this situation. This should not be acceptable… This must change.

We feel that an AUTONOMOUS SOCIAL WATCH INSTITUTION must be set up in the state. This institution will have the task of undertaking social audits in each and every sector of development. It will be answerable to people and will make its reports available to the people of the state. One of the areas that can be studied are government schemes and programmes.

Is ANYONE reading this INTERESTED IN SUPPORTING THIS SOCIAL WATCH INSTITUTE?

The institution will need volunteers to undertake the studies…

It will need money to become self reliant so that its integrity is not compromised by a funding source.

Any takers? Please get back…

The wettest belt in Marathwada : agriculture is still in a crisis.

2006-02-07T01:12:00.000-08:00

The Padayatra (www.greenearthconsulting.org/padayatraprogress.htm) crossed the Godavari, also called Ganga by the locals on its way into Parbhani district. The Padayatra reached the village Dhanora Kale after a well deserved day of rest (1st January) and reflection.

This is arguably the wettest patch in Marathwada. The mighty Godavari, flows almost perennially through this region. The left canal of the Jaikwadi dam reaches out to the villages in the area. Dhanora Kale has actually NO DRINKING WATER PROBLEMS… over 25% of the land is irrigated… the land is fertile and the black cotton soil actually goes down upto 60 feet before hitting stone… people are not hungry but they are hapless… this is the way we see it …

The landless labourers do not see anyway of coming out of the trap of surviving on the edge. Most of them are in subtle (and in some cases overt) bondage and manage to earn just enough to keep body and soul together.. nothing more… that is the way the system keeps them on the edge..

Small farmers are exploited at all turns… sometimes one feels that small farmers are like mere objects of exploitation… getting an update in the 7/12 (land record) costs Rs. 15/- in bribes… bank officers will not release any payment (sugarcane, cotton or compensation for natural calamities) without a cut, pesticide and fertiliser dealers mark up prices by 28% for items bought on credit… one could go on… but you must have got the point…

Even large farmers are staggering under debt… every farmer of the 500 we met in Dhanora Kale has mortgaged his (women don’t own land in this highly feudal and patriarchal area) land and has a loan outstanding..

Women and children don’t really matter in the overall scheme of things!!! they have no voice and a substandard quality of life… girls (even 8 year old) get married off early… women go out only for work and nothing else… education standards and access is abysmal…

One could go on about the situation but that is not the point… we need to look at the root causes of the illness in society… We feel that some of the main cause of these issues are

· Almost complete absence of any form of just and fair governance.
· Lack of knowledge and even access to knowledge.
· Unreasonable and unfair policies of government.
· A scattered and un-empowered society.
The question to be asked is when are we going to think of changing this? If we wait for much longer… it will be too late… even in the land of the mighty Godavari… the time to act is NOW…

Touching hospitality in rural areas

2006-02-06T04:03:00.000-08:00

Posted by Makarand.
I am back from a village called Dhanora Kale in Parbhani district. I was there to try and understand the issues facing the people of this village. This was a precursor to the Drought Padayatra that was to reach the village on the 2nd of February. I was accompanied by 3 colleagues including one woman. We stayed in the village for 3 days and 2 nights.

From the first moment what struck me was the warmth with which we were received by the people. We had no prior contact with them. They were aware of the Padayatra but nothing more beyond that. At the outset people looked at us with disbelief when we told them that we planned to stay in the village.. after all we clearly looked like urban folk and we were talking of staying in a place with no electricity, no latrines, no bathrooms, drinking water that had to be pumped out using hand pumps… Clearly not our cup of tea… or so they thought..

I will not bore you with what work we did or what we found… that is not the purpose of this note…

What was most striking was the way in which we were accepted into the fold… true that we were watched closely for the first day or so… to check out that we had no ulterior motives. Each section of the populace – the upper castes, the marginalized, children and women watched us closely… from a distance… we had made it clear that we had nothing to offer… only our ears to lend…. once we rang true the walls broke down… we found ourselves being invited into the peoples homes… our food was taken care of by various groups who took extra care to ensure that poor urban folk did not have to eat the terribly spicy food that is the normal fare… there would always be somebody to help us around… we never faced any rejection.. we could wander anywhere in the village and enter any house we felt like… we were always welcome… children flocked round us all the time… waiting to catch and fulfill any wish that we made… hot water for bathing, sugarcane, berries, drinking water, tea… just about anything.. we were given place to stay in the village school… arrangements were made for dhurries and light… we found ourselves talking with women on issues that are invariably taboo… reproductive health issues, dowry, child marriages, sex determined abortions… we discussed casteism, feudalism and caste based bonded labour with the men from all castes… the reception was overwhelming… the village then got together for welcoming the Padayatra… the villagers made arrangements for feeding 250 people in the morning of the 2nd and another 30 in the evening… all at their expense… this was not a funded programme…

I felt that we were accorded this reception mainly because we represented something different.. we represented some hope … a chance that some one would listen and then may be help… It is known that people like us normally never go into any village… if they do, it inevitably is some senior officer going in for ceremonies or inspections…

I really felt sad when eventually I had to leave… we had grown to be fond of the people and I daresay they were fond of us too… On the way back I got thinking about what would happen if 4 villagers were to enter my housing society? (I live in a place where one has to go past 2 security men and a phone to get to the elevator)… I found myself posing a lot of questions to myself… I wish to share these with you as well..

· Would I open my doors to these people?

· Would I spend time with them?

· Would I Show them around?

· Would I take them to my neighbours and then would they open their doors?

· Would I allow them to sleep under my roof, partake meals at my table, use my bathroom?

· Would the children playing in the parking lot of my society even talk to these people with respect?

· Would we bare our hearts, our trials, our tribulation and (god forbid) our emotions?

If I were honest to myself the answer would be a resounding NO… the reasons are not far to seek..

· Our minds are not geared to accept anything out of the ordinary… to us ordinary means anything or anyone like US.

· We are not trained to TRUST people implicitly… We demand proofs of trustworthiness before we can lavish trust on others.. why even maids who have been working in the building complex for 6 years have to carry photo identity cards…

· We think in stereotypes… our perceptions of people are all based on external inputs and appearances.. I have seen well dressed people saunter in without the security men asking them any question but woe betide any common man who tries to enter…

The sad part is that we lose a lot of learning in the process… we do not get an opportunity to understand a world different from our own safe cocoon… the tragedy is that we pass on these values to our children…

Should we not change? Should we not welcome the opportunity to learn about others? Can we make this happen? Can we teach our children to be broadminded and trusting? I have no doubt that this MUST be done… The question is how?

I am planning to experiment and start with myself and my family… I do not speak from naiveté … I know that it is tough… close to impossible… but I plan to try… I welcome your ideas, comments and inputs… may be just maybe we can change the way we view the world … a bit at a time…

Welcome to the Lokayan Blog

2006-02-02T23:32:00.000-08:00

This is a blog about citizens sharing what they are seeing, observing and experiencing in their explorative journeys in different parts of India. This is not about tourist places. It is about the people living there, their occupations, the difficulties they face and the solutions they find.

Members of Maitri, Pune and Green Earth Consulting, Pune will contribute to the blog.