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

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

1. Pain and suffering : hunger, endemic suffering


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


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


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


5. Irregularity everywhere in implementation.


6. Inequity and inequality as an accepted way of life


7. 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

1. Accountability at all levels – individual, institutions and government.


2. Information and knowledge.


3. Collective ownership and responsibility.


4. Unity.


5. True and visionary leadership.
   

We have come up

Picture shot memories of Haryana

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

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……

1. components are sourced in Mumbai and Delhi,
2. the PVC covers were made to design by a local manufacturer (the dies had been cut by the technical man in the NGO)
3. the ballasts were being marketed to tube light assembly manufacturers.
4. 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

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

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

OR

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

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

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

1. Taking Jathropa type of crops on a large scale for cash purposes will destroy the agri balance...
2. 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...
3. 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