Half a day with the padayatra
Half a day with the padayatra.
Kerwadi is a little over four hundred kilometers from Pune. At day break, an overnight bus dropped us off at the gates of an orphanage called Dreamland or ‘Swapnabhumi’. They have a guest house which was available to us and as I was to discover later it is a successful model for turning orphaned kids into productive individuals. But more about that later.
After a quick shower and tea, a waiting jeep drove us about thirty km. to Purna taluk in Parvabhi district. This is where we caught up with Anil Shidore and his team of ‘padayatri’s, they had already walked some distance to reach that point early in the morning and we joined them for a breakfast of ‘poha’ and tea.
The surrounding fields were green with standing crops, which to me, appeared to be turmeric and ‘jowar’. A small irrigation canal beside us, was flowing with clear water. “This isn’t the real picture of rural Maharashtra” Anil commented following my gaze. He had started his walk at sunrise on the first of Jan 2006 and intended to walk across some of the most drought prone districts in the state. What struck me as different about this ‘padayatra’ was that it was not just about creating awareness or finding fault with the government. The question being asked was; what could the local population do to help themselves?
‘Dushkal Hatu, Manus Jagu’ the refrain kept ringing from the midst of these tireless walkers. Roughly translated ‘Drive away the bad times, people wake up!’ Here was a group from the ‘city’ not just telling them but helping them change their lot. Couple of days earlier soak pits had been dug in a neighboring village to improve the sanitation after the padyatris had done a quick study and suggested a remedy. As we walked through the village I couldn’t help noticing that this was indeed a problem. Every small attempt to educate them about the need for sanitation and hygiene could help avoid a number of health related problems.
During the walk Anil mentioned that although the local press had covered the event. The news had not quite reached the national news papers. Some TV channels however had sent their camera crew a few days back but a lot more visibility for the cause was required.
The roads were bad, in some places even for walking. Some stretches of the road were strewn with rocks all over the place, yet the team kept trudging on. We stopped for a while under the shade of a huge mango tree and a brief review meeting; discussed issues and refined responsibilities.
Resuming our walk, we discussed a few of the obvious problems these villages face. Eight hour power cuts every day, water, sanitation, education and information! Quite often we hear about the digital divide. There have been some attempts in Kerala and Gujrat. Would it work here? Local politics and agenda can be a huge impediment as I had discovered in Kerala. We would also have to contend with the eight hour power cuts.
The Edusat, hand cranked radios, and the recent hand cranked laptops from MIT labs also figured in some of these discussions, but we had to find a way of implementing some of these technologies here.
Ranjit who was walking behind us chipped in with an observation about eChaupal the ITC initiative which also uses satellite links and is solar powered. Ranjit is an interesting guy, he recently quit his job at Symantec to join the two month long padayatra! He seemed to be enjoying every bit of it. I made a mental note to catch up with him after the event, may be one more link in the six degrees …
Sadanand from IBM was there in the bus with me when we left Pune. A tamilian brought up in Bombay he was very useful when a team of doctors visited some of the Tsunami hit areas of Tamilnadu. During the walk as we drifted from one topic to another we talked about drip irrigation for a while, and how effectively Israel had adopted an implemented this simple technology. Today the world not only acknowledges their contribution and expertise, but Israel also exports a lot of related equipment and expertise.
Politics apart, personally I think there’s a lot to learn from Israel. A miniscule nation, enormous natural and political constraints and yet (or is it as a result?) today they have emerged as leaders in areas ranging from agriculture to advanced technologies like lasers, semiconductors, storage… Aren’t we under sufficient pressure? Is it our complacency? How can we step out of mere discussions or token protests and deliver something meaningful to the society? What would it take to make our people self reliant?
At every village, we were received and greeted by groups of school children and elders. After welcome songs and speeches we were each give a bouquet of local flowers. When we reached Hayatnagar which is in Hingoli district there was a little band party as well! We went around the whole village before stopping at a community hall. The walk was over for the day, but a lot more had to be done. A meeting was scheduled at seven in the evening, but I wouldn’t be able to stay. So over a simple lunch with slices of huge eighteen inch diameter roti’s served by the villagers, I pondered about the tenacity of organizations like GreenEarth. Human societies have always had problems, yet every time, there are champions to pick up the gauntlet.
I had to return the same day and the journey served to reinforce the hardship our village folk have to go through to reach the nearest motorable road or hospital. First, three of us on a motorbike sped across a fifteen kilometer rock strewn, ditch filled stretch that threatened to throw us off every moment, then a similar distance by a shared auto which was stopped and fined by the local police for overloading and finally a rundown jeep. These were the regular means of transport. The state transport plied couple of times a day I was told, and almost always went empty!
Seemed like a clear case of disconnect between the needs perceived by the authorities and the reality experienced by the villagers.
Perhaps this disconnect exists in multiple areas, amenities, health, education, information… the list could go on but was there a pragmatic way to tackle them? Could this be done with an objective to enable our rural folk rather than just helping them.
Some of these might have been tried before but off the cuff the possibilities that come to mind are corporate support for:
Kerwadi is a little over four hundred kilometers from Pune. At day break, an overnight bus dropped us off at the gates of an orphanage called Dreamland or ‘Swapnabhumi’. They have a guest house which was available to us and as I was to discover later it is a successful model for turning orphaned kids into productive individuals. But more about that later.
After a quick shower and tea, a waiting jeep drove us about thirty km. to Purna taluk in Parvabhi district. This is where we caught up with Anil Shidore and his team of ‘padayatri’s, they had already walked some distance to reach that point early in the morning and we joined them for a breakfast of ‘poha’ and tea.
The surrounding fields were green with standing crops, which to me, appeared to be turmeric and ‘jowar’. A small irrigation canal beside us, was flowing with clear water. “This isn’t the real picture of rural Maharashtra” Anil commented following my gaze. He had started his walk at sunrise on the first of Jan 2006 and intended to walk across some of the most drought prone districts in the state. What struck me as different about this ‘padayatra’ was that it was not just about creating awareness or finding fault with the government. The question being asked was; what could the local population do to help themselves?
‘Dushkal Hatu, Manus Jagu’ the refrain kept ringing from the midst of these tireless walkers. Roughly translated ‘Drive away the bad times, people wake up!’ Here was a group from the ‘city’ not just telling them but helping them change their lot. Couple of days earlier soak pits had been dug in a neighboring village to improve the sanitation after the padyatris had done a quick study and suggested a remedy. As we walked through the village I couldn’t help noticing that this was indeed a problem. Every small attempt to educate them about the need for sanitation and hygiene could help avoid a number of health related problems.
During the walk Anil mentioned that although the local press had covered the event. The news had not quite reached the national news papers. Some TV channels however had sent their camera crew a few days back but a lot more visibility for the cause was required.
The roads were bad, in some places even for walking. Some stretches of the road were strewn with rocks all over the place, yet the team kept trudging on. We stopped for a while under the shade of a huge mango tree and a brief review meeting; discussed issues and refined responsibilities.
Resuming our walk, we discussed a few of the obvious problems these villages face. Eight hour power cuts every day, water, sanitation, education and information! Quite often we hear about the digital divide. There have been some attempts in Kerala and Gujrat. Would it work here? Local politics and agenda can be a huge impediment as I had discovered in Kerala. We would also have to contend with the eight hour power cuts.
The Edusat, hand cranked radios, and the recent hand cranked laptops from MIT labs also figured in some of these discussions, but we had to find a way of implementing some of these technologies here.
Ranjit who was walking behind us chipped in with an observation about eChaupal the ITC initiative which also uses satellite links and is solar powered. Ranjit is an interesting guy, he recently quit his job at Symantec to join the two month long padayatra! He seemed to be enjoying every bit of it. I made a mental note to catch up with him after the event, may be one more link in the six degrees …
Sadanand from IBM was there in the bus with me when we left Pune. A tamilian brought up in Bombay he was very useful when a team of doctors visited some of the Tsunami hit areas of Tamilnadu. During the walk as we drifted from one topic to another we talked about drip irrigation for a while, and how effectively Israel had adopted an implemented this simple technology. Today the world not only acknowledges their contribution and expertise, but Israel also exports a lot of related equipment and expertise.
Politics apart, personally I think there’s a lot to learn from Israel. A miniscule nation, enormous natural and political constraints and yet (or is it as a result?) today they have emerged as leaders in areas ranging from agriculture to advanced technologies like lasers, semiconductors, storage… Aren’t we under sufficient pressure? Is it our complacency? How can we step out of mere discussions or token protests and deliver something meaningful to the society? What would it take to make our people self reliant?
At every village, we were received and greeted by groups of school children and elders. After welcome songs and speeches we were each give a bouquet of local flowers. When we reached Hayatnagar which is in Hingoli district there was a little band party as well! We went around the whole village before stopping at a community hall. The walk was over for the day, but a lot more had to be done. A meeting was scheduled at seven in the evening, but I wouldn’t be able to stay. So over a simple lunch with slices of huge eighteen inch diameter roti’s served by the villagers, I pondered about the tenacity of organizations like GreenEarth. Human societies have always had problems, yet every time, there are champions to pick up the gauntlet.
I had to return the same day and the journey served to reinforce the hardship our village folk have to go through to reach the nearest motorable road or hospital. First, three of us on a motorbike sped across a fifteen kilometer rock strewn, ditch filled stretch that threatened to throw us off every moment, then a similar distance by a shared auto which was stopped and fined by the local police for overloading and finally a rundown jeep. These were the regular means of transport. The state transport plied couple of times a day I was told, and almost always went empty!
Seemed like a clear case of disconnect between the needs perceived by the authorities and the reality experienced by the villagers.
Perhaps this disconnect exists in multiple areas, amenities, health, education, information… the list could go on but was there a pragmatic way to tackle them? Could this be done with an objective to enable our rural folk rather than just helping them.
Some of these might have been tried before but off the cuff the possibilities that come to mind are corporate support for:
- Drip irrigation and related technologies
- Bio Gas
- Vocational and language training
- (A little far off, but..) Hand cranked radios and satellite datacasting for information updates (agriculture, health, education)
On a more ambitious note it might be fruitful to explore the possibility of replicating the ‘Dreamland’ or ‘SOS Children’s village’ model. If we could spawn some serious dialogue on this topic leading to the initial steps, it would almost be a dream come true!
Maybe we should start discussing how.
- Devasis Dasgupta
posted by Vinita Tatke at 9:50 AM
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