FOOD SECURITY AND VULNERABILITY PROFILE OF GUJARAT

REFLECTIONS FROM COMMUNITIES

WFPIFADCRS UNICEF

May 2001

MSSRF

Foreword

The Earthquake of Kachchh (January 26th, 2001) shook everyone. People, countries, local, national and international agencies generously brought relief and humanitarian assistance for the affected people. The people of Kachchh were already under the grip of severe droughts for the past two years. They also faced ravaging cyclone in 1998. With the district being the hot spot of natural disasters, it was pertinent to understand the vulnerability of the community in a comprehensive manner. The "Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Profile of Kachchh" is intended to provide critical information that will help in designing appropriate programmes for the community. The study has been a collaborative effort between Catholic Relief Services, International Fund for Agricultural Development, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, UNICEF, and World Food Programme, and was implemented by ORG Centre for Social Research. The study was undertaken in conjunction with the Nutrition Survey, conducted jointly by International Federation of Red Cross, Save the Children Fund UK, OXFAM and WFP, to provide complementary qualitative information on nutrition.

This is part of a larger study initiated by WFP in Gujarat, wherein four more districts are being covered. We intend to come up with an overall document of Food Insecurity and Vulnerability for the State of Gujarat, which will highlight the regional variation within the state for designing short, mid and long term intervention strategies to address issues related to food insecurity.

We are most grateful to the District and Taluaka Administrations of Kachchh for sharing information and views. The data and documents provided by the Department of Economics and Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Food and Civil Supplies, Directorate of Relief of Government of Gujarat, SEWA, CHETNA, VIKSAT, Gujarat Ecology Commission, Centre for Development Alternatives, Kachchh Navnirman Abhiyan also have helped us in developing a perspective of the district vis-à-vis the

state. The overall guidance and assistance provided by Ms. Patrice Engle (Unicef), Mr. Kenneth Maclean (CRS) and Mr. Shyam Khadka (IFAD) was critical to this survey instruments and improving the report. We are grateful to Ms. Christine van Nieuwenhuyse, Dr. R. R. Sharma, Dr. Deepti Gulati and Ms. Mette Sorensen of WFP for their valuable inputs in the report. We also appreciate the assistance and support provided by the Emergency Relief Operation Team of WFP, Bhuj, in conducting the survey.

Last but not the least, we share our deep respect for the children, women and men of the villages and the urban areas of Kachchh who spared their valuable times in this most difficult period of their life.

Catholic Relief Services, Mumbai, India

International Fund For Agricultural Development, Rome, Italy

M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, India

United Nations Children's Fund, New Delhi, India

UN World Food Programme, New Delhi, India

May 2001

Contents

Chapters Description Page No.

-- Executive Summery i - ixChapter I Introduction 1 - 4Chapter II

Characteristics and Determinants of Vulnerability

5 - 28

Chapter III

Intra-household Vulnerability and Gender 29 - 35

Chapter IV

Knowledge and Practices on Health and Nutrition

36 - 41

Chapter V

Infrastructures– Access, Utilisation and Vulnerable

42 - 53

Chapter VI

Targeting Food Insecure Households and Programme Recommendations

54 - 61

Annexure Tables 62 - 74

Executive Summary

1. Rationale for FIVP

With the onset of the earthquake and the following global attention, WFP realised the significance of carrying out a detailed exercise in the district of Kachchh to assist in formulating appropriate intervention strategies. The study was launched in late February and is now a collaborative effort with CRS, UNICEF, IFAD and M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation.

The broad objectives of the FIVP in Kachchh are threefold:

1) Beneficiary targeting . To identify who the most vulnerable groups are and to understand the various facets of their vulnerability. Emphasis is given to the pre and post earthquake scenarios of vulnerability.

2) General problem assessment . To identify the most binding constraints to improved access and utilization of food; identify priority sectors/sub-sectors for intervention; and to identify the appropriate role of food aid in each of those priority sectors/sub-sectors. In light of the recent disasters faced by the district of Kachchh, the problem analysis was to be made so as to highlight pre and post earthquake scenarios. Assessment of the overall impact of the disasters was a critical area of focus.

3) Participatory Community Baseline . Providing “baseline” information that will allow for meaningful designing of appropriate intervention strategies in Kachchh.

4) Provide critical health and nutrition information : The study also was to highlight critical issues pertaining to health and nutrition to complement the Nutrition Survey undertaken by IFRC, SCF-UK, OXFAM and WFP.

2. The Coverage

In all 30 villages covering 5 talukas were covered for the study. In addition, 2 urban areas were also covered, where only Health and Nutrition Knowledge and Practice focus group discussions were undertaken to provide the qualitative information for the Nutrition Survey. Apart from the primary survey, the study also consulted several documents (published and unpublished) on development and culture of Kachchh and Gujarat.

3. Livelihoods and Assets

Most of the households, especially the vulnerable ones combine multiple activities to survive. However, due to continuous drought the marginal and the small landholders no more find cultivation as a main source of income and have to depend on other sources of income for living. For those identified as vulnerable, in most of the cases being landless are involved in other activities, mostly selling their labour either to other farmers, to public works programs, to activities outside the area, or sometimes, artisan activities.

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Resource endowments: land ownership: Cultivation or agriculture labour is the most important economic activity undertaken by the people for a living in rural areas. A marked uneven distribution of agriculture land is prevalent across the studied talukas. Land ownership average varies from 2 acres to 30 acres. Only around 30 percent of the households practising agriculture have access to irrigation. Lack of irrigation and unproductive land are the characteristics for those identified as vulnerable.

Animal rearing is the next best income earning opportunity to the communities of Kachchh. Especially the Muslims in the Pachchham and Banni areas are into animal breeding as their major source of income. Among the tribes, for the Rabaries, livestock rearing is the most important occupation.

Agriculture and Farming Practices: During normal years agriculture provides support for 6-7 months and almost nothing in a crisis year, especially those not having irrigation facility. The problem, however, is not so prominent in the Mandvi and Nakhatrana talukas as irrigation is available and agriculture provides income throughout the year. The major crops produced in the district include bajri, jowar (minor millet), moong, math and gowar. Major cash crops like groundnuts, cotton, castor and jeera are produced in this district. Many landless and resource poor households enter into sharecropping with the landowners and in most of the cases the sharing pattern is tilted towards the owner rather than the producer.

Forest: With the steady growth of human and livestock population and increasing demand for agricultural land, there is a marked shortage of area under timber, fuel wood and fodder species. One of the most destructive activities leading to desertification in arid and semi-arid regions is the uncontrolled gathering of fuel wood. Moreover, every year several hectares of land are cleared for cultivation purposes. Thus the vegetative cover which protects the soil against erosion is gradually lost in Kachchh. The per capita forest cover in Kachchh 90.002 ha) is almost 30 fold less than the national average of 0.13 ha. During the summer and the drought months, when the natural fodder availability is low, the forestlands are overgrazed and lopping of tender leaves and twigs complements grass. The sale of firewood and charcoal also provide income to the households, particularly in Bhuj and Bhachau talukas. They also use the fruit of babul to feed their animals.

Pasture Land: Continuous drought in the district with the ever spreading of the babul (Prosopis Juliflora) weed has substantially reduced the pastureland of this district. The initiatives from the government to develop the pastureland, looking at the high dependence on livestock rearing, are also minimal. For those whose main income source is livestock rearing, acquiring grass today is a bigger problem than food.

Livestock Raising: The other valuable source of employment, income and food to the community is from the livestock. Livestock provide a significant portion of income to the communities. Breeding and selling animals and sell of animal products (milk, mava and wool) are two most important income sources for Rabari and Muslim communities. The entire population in the Banni area of Bhuj Taluka is solely dependent on livestock. The near extinction of the grassland had forced the people to use babul pods as cattle feed. Eventually, cattle breeders had to shift from the local cattle breeds to buffaloes, since the local breeds of cows and goats

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developed digestive problems from the leaves and pods of the trees, leading to an inability to ruminate. A large number of cows and goats die every year due to this problem, for which there is no answer to the local community. The community also reported a decline in the selling price of goats in the market due to this problem.

4. Characteristics of the Vulnerable Households

The following type of households were identified as vulnerable by the communities --

1. Scheduled Tribes2. Scheduled Castes3. Muslims4. Diseased, handicapped5. Widow and no earning member in the family6. Households engaged in hazardous occupation, e.g., salt pan

The reasons cited by the communities were --

1. High Indebtedness2. Landlessness3. Holding unproductive marginal land4. Water crisis5. Less livestock ownership6. Crisis of fodder / grass for livestock7. Fewer able bodied workers8. Lack of employment opportunities (farm and non-farm)

Considering all types of disasters that the communities face and the coping responses they adopted, Bhachau taluka is the most vulnerable among all the five sample talukas. Thus indicators such as high indebtness, lack of labour opportunities and migration are significant in Bhachau taluka. Anjar taluka could be designated as the second most vulnerable taluka.

5. Seasonality and Cropping pattern

The main crops grown during a normal year were Bajra (65%), Jowar (10%), Mung (5%), Castor (5%), Cotton (10%), and Til (5%). In Nakhatrana and Mandvi talukas, the villagers also grow vegetables like tomatoes, carrot, onion, cabbage and chillies. Area under groundnut cultivation has grown very significantly over the past few years.

During normal times the families depend on agriculture from June to November. For rest of the months, they depend on casual labour. While during the crises times, there is almost no scope for agriculture due to absence of irrigation facilities and therefore they mostly depend on casual labour.

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Females are engaged in embroidery, tie and dye etc., for eight months (November to June) in a normal year. Farm work becomes the most important activity during monsoon. Apart from Rabari and Koli communities, female migration was found to be almost negligible. Participation of women in government organised drought relief work, which provides almost 3-4 months of income, was reported to be high in most parts of the district. In absence of any drought proofing work, dependence on relief work has increased over the years. While men migrate to nearby town areas in search of jobs, women provide the necessary family support by working in government provided earthwork.

6. Hazard Impact and Coping practices

Drought, cyclone and earthquake were the three main natural hazards reported by the villagers. Over the last 22 years, the districts had faced 14 drought like years. The last two years, viz., 1999 and 2000 were the years of extreme water crisis and things would be even worse if the district does not receive normal rainfall this year. The problems faced due to drought situation were mainly loss of agriculture production, loss of agriculture labour work, which resulted in loss of income. Drought also affected the cattle rearing activities due to non-availability of grass and fodder.

The incidence of child labour has increased considerably due to the persistent drought situation. The children generally work as farm labourers and also as casual labourers. The girls were engaged in making bandhni (tie and dye). The children of the Koli families in Bhachau taluka were found to be working with their parents in salt pans. The members of the vulnerable households migrate to nearby urban and port areas in search of employment. The local people are now facing stiff competition from the migrant labourers of Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan as the supply is now more than the demand. Migration of women from upper caste families and the Muslims is very limited. Only ST and SC women migrate with their families.

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Some vulnerable households take grain in credit from the local traders / shopkeepers. The vulnerable households are the primary victims of the credit market, as they have to resort to local traders/shopkeepers for which they pay an interest of 3-5 percent per month. The credits are taken in the crisis years by selling or mortgaging jewellery to the moneylender in the nearby towns.

After the earthquake, the people helped each other in lifting the rubbles and to arrange for temporary shelter and food.

As consumption response to the crisis, the adult members, both women and men, reduced their meal size, whereas, the families try their best not to reduce the food intake of the children. Both the men and the women were taking meals only once during the initial three to four days after the earthquake. The women however reported of continuing the practice even for long to meet the requirement of her family and children.

7. Intra Household Food Distribution

People, particularly women, consume less food in crisis year. They compensate their diet with buttermilk and tea. Women go for fasting for 2-3 days in a week (Tuesday, Thursday and Friday). Similar consumption patterns were seen also in adolescent girls. Seasonal variation was observed in the consumption of chapati, i.e., bajra chapati in winters and monsoon and wheat chapati in summer. The people get wheat in PDS and food for work programmes under government’s Scarcity Work, apart from the market.

Both men and women have reduced their food intake, but ensured that the children get the same amount.

After earthquake the people consumed wheat chapati more as they received wheat flour from the PDS and NGO’s. During crisis years the food basket primarily becomes a cereal dominated one. They consume less vegetables and almost no pulses. The people in general have started eating more wheat because they want to save on the remaining store of Bajra.

8. Knowledge and Practices on Health and Nutrition

Awareness on water borne diseases: The villagers, prior to the earthquake, did not use any special means for the purification of drinking water as the water was already chlorinated by the Water Supply Board. After the earthquake the villagers have received chlorine tablets as most of the pipelines are damaged and the chances of contamination is high. The villagers in all the sample blocks of Kachchh district reported a rise in the cases of diarrhoea, vomiting and fever, which they attributed to the damaged pipelines due to earthquake. The villagers did not give their children boiled water as a precautionary measure as they are not aware of the advantages of giving boiled water to children

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Garbage disposal and diseases: The household garbage disposal practices were found to be mostly hygienic. Villagers generally throw their garbage at a distant place, away from the village.

Almost all the villages in the sample blocks did not have latrine facility and hence the villagers used the open grounds and the forests lying on the periphery of these villages for defecation. The faecal matters of the infants were thrown in the open grounds or in the forests.

9. Child Care Practices

Breast-feeding: Initiation of breastmilk within first hour of birth is a rare phenomenon. Women perceive the colostrum to be heavy and not palatable for new-born infants. In the Muslim community, the mother initiates the breastfeeding after the Quazi reads the prayer or the Azaan in the infant’s ear. If the child is born in the evening, the breast-feeding is initiated from the next morning, as customarily they do not give prayers in the evenings. In nearly all the villages, it was reported that the breastmilk is initiated from the second or the third day of the birth of the infant as they reported that there is no milk let down during the first two to three days. Nearly all the women participants in the period immediately following the earthquake reported reduction in lactation. They attributed this reduction to the shock due to earthquake.

Complementary Feeding Practices: The child is introduced semisolid foods between 5 and 8 months. The child is given semisolid diets like khichdi, chappati or rotla made out of either bajra or wheat mashed in milk and biscuit immersed in milk and dal along with rice. Solid diets are generally given after 8 months. They give foods like biscuits, puffed rice, chocolates, ice-candies, fruits depending on the availability. It was only in Mandvi block, that the participants reported giving banana to their children. Besides these, no additional food is given to the children.

Due to the earthquake, the women reported their inability to pay required attention to their children. The damaged houses has added to their worry of the stray dogs spoiling their cooked food that is being kept in the open. All such worries have adversely affected the childcare practices.

10. Health Seeking Behaviour

Majority of the respondents reported visiting the health providers. None of the participants reported going to the traditional faith healers. The villagers primarily depend on home remedies. They also consult ANM and doctors in PHC/CHC. Since earthquake, many villages received health care services from the NGOs as well as the Government. Due to these efforts no epidemic was reported in the district.

Prevalence of Diseases: The commonly reported diseases after earthquake were diarrhoea, fever, vomiting, cold and cough. According to the participants of the focus group discussions, the rate of all these diseases have now come down due to relief services and health services provided by government and the NGOs.

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Antenatal and Postnatal Care: The women reported administering tetanus toxoid vaccine in the third and the eight-month of their pregnancy. Although awareness was seen among the women about the IFA tablets, many of them reported throwing out the tablets or not consuming it regularly. Advice during the pregnancy is sought from the ANM and the elderly women of the village. The women lamented about the high expenditure and the problems faced by them when in transit to the PHCs. There were also exceptions. In Dhori village of Nakhantrana, the motivated women, who are members of self help group, go to the PHC for routine check-up during pregnancy despite it being 10 km away. 11. Existing Food Safety Nets and their Effectiveness

Public Distribution System (PDS): When we compare the overall functioning of the PDS in the state with other states like Rajasthan, Orissa, Bihar etc., the performance is definitely much better. In most of the places people reported lifting the commodities almost regularly, although many of them still do not know their quota eligibility. But the reason for use of the system is more out of compulsion rather than due to better service delivery. Persistent drought and the current earthquake have forced them to depend heavily on the supply through PDS. It would be improper not to mention the prompt response by the PDS in supplying free wheat and rice to the earthquake affected people in Kachchh. Supply of free rations to the families in the district has definitely checked the problem of widespread hunger.

But the system is not free from problems. People are not satisfied with the overall performance of PDS. The dissatisfaction comes from high travel cost due to distance, inadequacy of quantity and bad quality of food grains. In many survey villages, the PDS is located at a distance of 15 Km.

The supply of the food grain is also reported to be irregular and many a times the villagers find the shops closed after travelling long distances. The poor people lose their daily wage by forgoing their work and also do not get the supply.

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS): Prior to the earthquake, the AWCs used to give chana (roasted gram), sukhdi and sheera. In some villages of Bachhau and Bhuj talukas meethi bhaat was distributed and in some AWCs of Bhuj Taluka, laapsi and khichdi were also given. After the earthquake, with the WFP provided High Protein Biscuits for three weeks, followed by India Mix, a pre mixed micronutrients-fortified food.

All the villages have AWCs within the village and most of them are in government building. The villagers perceive AWCs as source of food distribution for children but they are not aware of other services that these centres are supposed to provide. The participants in the group discussions said that the food distribution at AWCs was not liked and the elders feel that the food was not in harmony with the taste of children and also the quantity is not adequate for children. Instead a combination of biscuits and dry snacks, appropriate for children’s palate, was suggested by the respondents especially after their experience of food (packed biscuit) distribution by WFP. All the villages reported large turnout of children for getting biscuits. The number of beneficiaries was in fact much higher than the norm of 60. At many places the AWW had to split the packets to satisfy everybody.

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Mothers' Meeting is a non-existent concept in most of the centres. Similarly pre-school education was also reported to be not functioning properly. The AWWs were found to have forgotten most of the things they learned in training that they got during their induction.

The pregnant women come for immunisation services as the ANM visits the centre to render this service. The centres are mostly perceived to be places for only distribution of food and a crèche so that the mothers can complete their household and other works.

Prior to the earthquake, all the villages had AWCs except for Simri and Paiya in Bhuj. In some villages, although physically existent, the AWCs were closed or not functioning. A few anganwadi centres have been closed since the past two years.

After the earthquake, the anganwadi centres have been severely damaged in all the sample talukas of Kachchh. In most villages of Anjar, Bhuj and Bachhau, Anganwadis were functioning from the tents provided by the international agencies like SCF (UK). The attendance of children below 3 years had declined as mothers are scared and also children were made to sit under the sun.

The Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Scheme: The scheme was started by the government of India to increase enrolment of children in government schools however it has an ingrained component of providing nutrition to children.

In Gujarat, cooked meals are provided to the school children. The meals in almost all the talukas in Kachchh are in the form of khari bhaat, khichdi, chana, lapsi and sukhadi. Since the study was undertaken in the post-earthquake period, all the school buildings have been damaged in the sample blocks and the scheme was thus not in operation. Even prior to the earthquake the scheme was not functioning properly.

It is surprising to note that the villagers in Amrapar (Anjar taluka) expressed that they do not know about madhyan bhojan (mid day meal) given in primary school of the village. The students confirmed the same. The mid day meal has not been functional in Bhimsar and Dhora villages of Nakhatrana taluka, for six months preceding the earthquake.

It is interesting to observe the enrolment pattern, which is the primary objective of the scheme. An analysis of enrolment in the study area displays that higher proportions of boys are enrolled as compared to girls. However, the exception being Senugra village in Anjar taluka where the number of girls enrolled is 199 as against 166 boys. It has also been observed that the dropout rate is very high among the girls in all the blocks. The commonly cited reasons by teachers, parents and elderly women of the villages for girls’ dropout are daily household chores, looking after siblings and engagement for marriage. Another factor deterring the girls from attending the school regularly is their engagement in economic activities like labour work due to persistent drought since the past few years.

The suggestion unanimously put forth by the teachers, parents and the students is re-introduction of the food grain distribution instead of cooked meal.

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It is to note here that the scheme does not benefit the Muslims who go to their religious school (madarsa) and girls who are not allowed to go at all. Some villages have Madarsa where the benefits are not reaching.

Food for Work Program: Under the Scarcity Work of the government, food for work was being implemented in parts of the district. Labourers received 2 kg of wheat and cash per day for the work executed. This scheme generally lasts for 3-4 months once the area is declared water scarce. Most of the participants in focus groups expressed their preference in getting part of their wages in the form of food grain. The villagers were sceptical of receiving the food grain through PDS as they opined that the quality of grains is poor in the ration shops and also the shops are too far.

12. Recommendations for Programming

Priorities for improving food security through asset creation

Priorities for the villages concentrate in three primary areas:1) Water harvesting structure and management2) Ssoil conservation and management3) Roof rain water harvesting structures4) Development of grasslands/pasture and grazing lands

Watershed development has the greatest potential in this area as a mitigating measure against drought. For maximum benefit to the people, a watershed based approach should be adopted by the agencies instead of village based approach. All the villages coming under a watershed should be taken under the intervention plan rather than taking up one or a few villages in ad hoc manner. This would enable a comprehensive watershed development. In identifying the watersheds, one can take the assistance of the technical agencies like Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad or RESECO, Gandhinagar. Availability of water for irrigation as well as for domestic purposes is a serious problem in Kachchh. While water harvesting structures can partially solve the problem of irrigation, for drinking purposes, construction of Roof Rain Water Harvesting Structures at the community or individual household levels could be a good alternative source of water for the villagers for domestic use. Development of pasture and grazing land and promotion of fodder intensive crops should be the priority under watershed development. Food Aid agencies, like WFP, CRS, CARE, OXFAM etc., can provide food grains as a component of the labour work.

Construction of shelter is now the most important and immediate need of the community. The study showed that the people are willing to accept food as wage (partial) for the construction work. In most of the villages people were in favour of constructing temporary shelters. They would prefer construction of permanent shelters after the monsoon. The communities also demanded some other activities under Food For Work. These are –

1. Land levelling for farming (demanded by small and marginal farmers)2. Uprooting the Prosopis Juliflora (Ganda Bavar, as is called locally) from the

agricultural fields and pasture/grazing lands for restoring their productive use

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3. Clearance of rubbles (government has already started cash for work under the scarcity work for this activity)

Grain / Seed / Fodder Banks

The concept of grain bank was new to the communities in the studied villages. Grain banks can promote food security to these households, especially the vulnerable groups, during times of crisis. Currently these households have to either borrow food grains from the traders or buy from the market at unfavourable price (after the earthquake, the communities have received free food grains from the government and non-government sources). Integration of the concept of fodder bank and seed bank with the grain bank can make the effort more viable. The first and the foremost requirement for such an initiative would be to provide a storage facility in the village. This can be done partly by providing food for work for the labourers in construction of permanent storage unit. The benefit of storage of grain/seed and fodder is not only in providing necessary support to the household in times of crisis, it can also improve the bargaining power of the farmers as often they sell their crops at the lowest price immediately after the harvest.

The self help groups of women can be given the necessary training for managing the grain/seed/fodder banks. These banks can also be utilised as food grain distribution points for food for work activities.

Priorities for improving nutritional status of children and women

The support to the ICDS should be continued. Some specific suggestions for better outreach of the services are -

1. The uncovered areas could be handed over to the NGOs having similar experience (SEWA, Kachchh Mahila Vikas Sangathan) for operation for a certain time period before those centres being handed over to the ICDS system in fully motivated and functional condition.

2. In those villages where the Anganwadi Workers had resigned for various reasons or had died in earthquake, efforts should be made to immediately appoint new workers.

3. Most of the AWW's were found to have received training once, at the time of joining. Discussions with them revealed that their knowledge on health and nutrition is limited, often constrained by them being illiterate. Training at regular interval (at least once every year) is necessary for ensuring effective functioning of the centres. The training also acts as a source of motivation. Well trained and motivated AWW's can also be used as resource persons for the training programmes. This can inspire other AWWs to a great extent.

4. Advocate temporarily broadening of entitlement criteria in the rural areas to include households adversely affected by the combination of drought and the earthquake

5. Pre school education is one important component, which is not working properly. Organising training for the AWWs and provision of pre-school materials to the centres can be some solutions for improving the service.

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6. To maximise the nutritional impact of food distributed to children and women through AWC’s, food provided should contain ample quantities of micro-nutrients. At the short term this can/will be achieved by providing a fortified pre-mix (Indiamix). Ways to improve the quality at the longer term need to be further explored. This could entail technical support to ensure sufficient local production of Indiamix to supply AWC – at least in rural drought affected areas -- and possibly, during a limited time (depending on how the drought develops) the provision of the vitamin/mineral pre-mix.

7. In Surendranagar district, SEWA has opened several Crèches and Childcare centres for the children of the salt pan workers, so that they do not go with their parents to the salt pans, which is highly hazardous for the children. This effort should be replicated in Kachchh for the salt pan workers. Similar efforts can also be appropriate for the females who go for labour work during crisis months/years.

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Priorities for investing in human capital through women and girl’s education

There is some evidence from the survey that demand for functional literacy (and numeracy) on the part of women exists and is stimulated further as women are engaged in activities, like, embroidery, tie-dye, beads-work, thrift groups etc.

Mid-day-meal (MDM) scheme for the school children was not functioning even before the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was no special effort to revive the scheme as was seen in case of ICDS. Wherever the schools have started functioning, the students’ turnout is sill low. At the times of extreme stress at the household level, regular provision of noon meal to the school children should be considered actively.

Specific comments -- 1. An effort should be made to provide food regularly in schools. Villagers seem to

prefer dry ration instead of cooked food.2. Special hostel based education system should be explored for the children of

Rabari and Koli families who generally migrate for livelihood.3. To facilitate the MDM scheme, many of the schools do not have adequate

storage facilities. Support to the schools for storage will improve the service delivery.

4. A systematic approach is needed to identify the cost associated with the household activities that young girls perform. Some approaches to substituting for these labour activities include either developing alternative services to meet the needs such as village crèches (located near primary schools) or providing sufficient compensation for girls’ labour. Special incentives to girls, such as 8-10 kgs of cereals for 80 percent of days of attendance should be provided to serve as an incentive to send the girls to school on a regular basis.

5. To improve the enrolment and the attendance of the girl child with the added responsibilities of taking care of the younger siblings, crèche facilities should be provided in the village. To run these crèches the services of the older disadvantaged women or the self help groups in the village, could be utilized with the provision of incentives in terms of food grains. As an alternative to this the establishment of AWCs either near to the school or within the school building can be considered.

6. Non-formal education centres can be used as an alternative to the formal education system, especially for those children who are either engaged in gainful employment or looking after the household chores, especially the girl child. The instructors in these centres can be supported with food incentives.

7. The women, who are engaged in income generating activities, have expressed their willingness for getting functional literacy. Literate Anganwadi Workers could be motivated to undertake literacy classes for the women and food grains can be given to her as incentive. This initiative will also help the Anganwadi Worker in getting a forum for spreading Nutrition and Health Messages.

Priorities for investing in women’s training

Some programmes for women’s income generating activities and enhancement of their knowledge for more active participation in community decision making activities could be explored through food for work activities.

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1. Self Help Groups (SHGs) should be encouraged to enable the women to engage themselves in alternative economic activities, and get training related to health and nutrition.

2. The women in these areas have skills in embroidery, tie-dye, beads work etc., which can be strengthened by suitable market support for the products. Considering the interest level of the women in this area, alternative economic activities have a lot of untapped potential.

3. Literate Anganwadi Workers could be used as resource persons for providing functional literacy to the women who would be the members of the self help groups. These classes also could become the forum for the AWW to provide Nutrition and Health Education to the beneficiaries of ICDS. Food grain can be given to the AWW as an incentive for this additional effort.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

It would be unfair not to mention the recent calamity when we talk of Kachchh district of Gujarat. The district was hit by an earthquake on January 26, 2001 registering 6.9 on the Richter scale which itself speaks volumes about the possible damages in the area. Laliben lost her husband and children … Yunusbhai lost his wife and parents … little Nilesh lost both his parents … and the entire family of Rupabhai Ramjibhai was no more … a common sight across the district.

1.1 Rationale for Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Profile (FIVP)

The FIVP has been designed as part of a comprehensive strategy for support by the World Food Programme’s (WFP’s) Vulnerability Assessment Mapping (VAM) offices. The reason for selecting Gujarat stems from a study undertaken by M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation + WFP in which Gujarat was identified as one of the six most food insecure states in India. This finding made WFP initiate an in-depth investigation about the dynamics of food insecurity within the region.

The study was launched in end February and is now a collaborative effort of Catholic Research Service (CRS), (United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) including WFP. The broad objectives of the FIVP in Kachchh are three-fold:

1. Beneficiary Targeting: to identify the most vulnerable groups in the area and to understand various facets of their vulnerability;

2. General Problem Assessment: to identify the most binding constraint to improve access and utilisation of food; priority sectors/sub-sectors for intervention; and appropriate role of food aid in each of those priority sectors/sub-sectors;

3. Participatory Community Baseline: to generate “baseline” information in order to serve as inputs in designing appropriate strategies for Kachchh district of Gujarat; and

4. Provide Critical Health and Nutrition Information: To highlight the critical issues pertaining to health and nutrition to complement the Nutrition Survey undertaken by IFRC, SCF-UK, OXFAM and WFP.

1.2 The Conceptual Framework

The approach undertaken for FIVP is based on the conceptual framework developed by VAM:

Vulnerability = Exposure to Hazards + Ability to Cope.

According to this framework, ‘exposure to hazards’ is seen as a community level issue that is experienced by all households in the affected area whereas ‘ability to cope’ differs from household to household. The determinants of coping capacity by

households depend on levels of assets, income and consumption; ability to diversify sources of income and consumption to mitigate the effects of the risk that household’s face. In addition, availability and access to resources and infrastructure are important determinants of coping capacity.

The ability to diversify incomes and consumption depends largely on access to labour markets, markets for food, efficient credit markets and access of the household to public support (safety net) services. Understanding household coping strategies includes an assessment of both negative and positive strategies adopted by the household.

The concept of vulnerability varies with change in place and time, as there are numerous determinants of vulnerability and food insecurity. The concept of food security can be viewed as four-dimensional: availability of food, access to food, proper utilisation of food and its nutrients, and the vulnerability associated with risks that threaten food supply.

The food security base of those who are vulnerable is mainly dependent on their access to natural, physical and human resources on the one hand and their production, income and consumption levels on the other. Risk factors, which create food insecurity, can be numerous depending on the geographical location, socio-cultural environment, economic environment etc. The main risk factors can be identified with environmental/natural resources, economic, political, social and health.

1.3 The Approach

Based on the above concept of food insecurity, the basic objective of this analytical exercise is to display facts for programme development by WFP+CRS+UNICEF, India. This encompasses, identification of:

critical constraints and risks that determine household level food insecurity and vulnerability;

specific socio-economic groups who are most likely to be food insecure and vulnerable;

food insecure and vulnerable groups and an understanding of their relative levels of food insecurity and vulnerability; and

relative resource capabilities within these vulnerable groups particularly in the areas of (a) level and availability of human resources; (b) access to physical resources; (c) access to social infrastructures and (d) access to economic and social services.

The FIVP is based on multiple sources of information on food insecurity. First and the foremost an extensive survey based on participatory research methods has been undertaken in 30 villages spread over 5 Talukas in Kachchh district. The study was designed to capture similarities and diversities on issues related to food insecurity which would help build a state/country level profile in a cost-effective manner. In order to do so 9 instruments/schedules were used during the study, which are listed below:

Schedule 1 - Village Information Part A: Village overviewSchedule 2 - Village Information Part B: Resources and Livelihood overviewSchedule 3 - Participatory Baseline 1: Institutional presence Schedule 4 - Participatory Baseline 2: perception of importance of the institution

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Schedule 5 - Household Information and Vulnerable Focus Group: livelihood pattern across seasons Schedule 6 - Gender and Intra-Household InformationSchedule 7 - Health and Nutrition Knowledge and PracticeSchedule 8 - District Level GuidelineSchedule 9 - Block Level Guideline

Secondly, effort was made to supplement the primary information collected from this survey with the available secondary data (economy, natural resource base and people) and literature on the state of Gujarat and Kachchh district specifically.

1.4 The Coverage

As mentioned earlier, 30 villages spread across 5 talukas from the Kachchh district were covered under the study. In addition, 2 urban areas were covered however the information areas were limited to Health and Nutrition Knowledge and Practice. In the urban areas, focus group discussions were undertaken to provide qualitative information for the Nutritional Survey undertaken jointly by IFRC, SCF-UK, OXFAM, and WFP. The following table (Table 1) presents the geographical coverage in this study.

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Table 1: Villages Covered under FIVP in Kachchh District, GujaratTaluka VILLAGESBhuj Simri Paiya Kotay Bhuj City –

JogivasKhari Nana

VarnoraDhori Bhuj City –

Sejwada Mata

Anjar Sinugra Bita Valadiya West

Amrapar Anjar Town – Mafatnagar

Bita Valadiya East

Kumbhariya Kotda Anjar Town – Railway Station Road

Bhachau Kalyanpar Janan AmliaparGaneshpar Amrapar Jangi

Mandvi Kotdi Ratadia Nani Mahu

Nagrecha Dhokda Nani Bhadai

Nakhatrana

Ugedi Moti Aral VeharDhora Bhimsar Narainpa

r

Among the 10 talukas in Kachchh, these five talukas were selected as they were most affected during the earthquake, CRS’s relief operation was concentrated in these. Moreover, the village selection was also based on similar criteria such as most affected and a higher concentration of vulnerable population. The findings of the study have been presented in six Chapters. Chapter I presents an overview of the study and its objectives; the conceptual framework adopted; the methodology, sampling and geographical coverage.

Chapter II presents the profile of Gujarat and its disaster proneness affecting the food security of the inhabitants. It delineates the livelihood and asset base both at the community and individual levels in Kachchh district. This chapter aims at understanding vulnerability in terms of land and livestock ownership, the geographical location of vulnerable groups, their characteristics and coping mechanisms.

Chapter III deals with the intra-household dynamics of food security. It is analysed in terms of women’s access and control over resources and gender disparity on intra-household distribution of food. Chapter IV highlights the health seeking and hygiene practices in the community. It covers issues like drinking water, garbage disposal on one hand and health acre including ANC/PNC and childcare on the other.

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Chapter V tries to explain how vulnerability and food insecurity can be mitigated to a large extent by the availability and accessibility of various public institutions and schemes, and non-governmental organisations. Chapter VI presents recommendations under different heads as emerged from the study.

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TALUKAS COVERED UNDER FIVP STUDY IN KACHCHH

BHACHAU

ARABIAN SEA

GULF OF KACHCHH

JAMNAGAR

LITTLE RANN OF KACHCHH

RAJKOT

GREATER RANN OF KACHCHH

BHACHAU

RAPAR

ANJAR

BHUJ

MUNDRAMANDVI

ABDASA

LAKHPAT

NAKHATRANARapar Town

Bhachau Town

Mundra TownMandvi Town

Bhuj City

Anjar TownGandhidham Town

Kandla Town

Abdasa Town

Note: A total of 30 villages in 5 Talukas were covered in the survey

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CHAPTER II

CHARACTERISTICS AND DETERMINANTS OF VULNERABILITY

2.1 Food Insecurity in Kachchh -Gujarat

Gujarat is one of the food insecure states of India as brought forward by the study of the M S Swaminathan Foundation+WFP. In Gujarat, one of the main reasons of vulnerability is its disaster proneness. It is characterised by vulnerability due to drought, flood and other natural calamities. This has a direct impact on production and productivity of crops; and loss of livestock, human life and tangible loss that affect the economy of the region (National Atlas Map of India on Natural Hazards, WFP Study on Food Insecurity Analysis of Gujarat).

One of the objectives of the food insecurity and vulnerability analysis is to identify the districts, which are highly vulnerable in terms of food insecurity in Gujarat. One such district is Kachchh in Gujarat. On 26th January 2001, a severe earthquake had hit the district causing widespread devastation. Kachchh has suffered due to multiple factors - it has suffered due to continuing drought for the past several years and is also one of the districts having a high concentration of the SC and ST communities. This chapter describes the factors and manifestation of vulnerability as emerged from the Participatory Assessment conducted.

2.2 Socio-economic Diversity

An analysis of census displays that the composition of SC and ST across studied talukas varies. Bhachau has a high ST population (15.1%) as compared to others where the ST population is around 5 percent of the taluka population. In Anjar and Bhachau, SC population is the lowest (10%) and the highest in Nakhatrana (15%) followed by Mandvi (13%) and Bhuj (12%). This provides an indication of degree of vulnerability across talukas. Moreover, the higher proportion of SC and ST population in the studied talukas as compared to Kachchh district profile (SC and ST population is 12 and 8 percent respectively) reveals that these talukas are more vulnerable than others in the district.

2.3 Infrastructure and Facilities

Although the 1991Census shows that drinking water is available in all the studied talukas, its quality and availability in the advent of earthquake and the continuous drought over the last three years is worth noting. The study shows that the pipeline water has been affected due to drought and then by the earthquake. The water is unclean and dependence on other sources such as tankers and wells has increased. Bhuj is poor in terms of medical facilities ( 66.8%) followed by Anjar (79.3%). However, Anjar is well connected as 96.4 percent of the rural areas has pucca road. At the overall level, Mandvi is better off in terms of all these facilities.

Table 3: Infrastructural Facilities: Proportion of Rural Population Served by PercentageTalukas Medical Drinking

waterPost & Tele-graph

Approach by pucca road

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Bhuj 66.8 99.9 86.1 86.4Mandvi 90.1 99.9 92.6 73.9Nakhatrana 85.5 100.0 89.2 78.3Bhachau 87.7 100.0 86.2 77.1Anjar 79.3 100.0 89.2 96.4Source: District Census, Kachchh 1991

The educational facilities are also low in Bhachau and Anjar talukas as per the census. There is no intermediary school in these 2 talukas; they have the lowest number of primary and higher secondary schools.

Table 4: Educational Facilities (in absolute Numbers): 1991Taluka Total

populationPrimary Schools

Higher sec. Schools

Intermediary Schools

Bhuj 156206 161 11 1Anjar 89644 80 2 0Bhachau 96351 84 6 0Mandvi 109398 98 12 0Nakhatrana 116944 129 9 1

Source: District Census, Kachchh 1991

2.4 Identification of Vulnerable groups

The Food Insecurity Atlas of Gujarat defines several important and known characteristics of vulnerability of households in Gujarat by district and block. These characteristics include food availability and consumption, nutrition and health indicators, gender specific aspects, and prevalence of Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste households’ etc. These indicators were useful in the process of selecting vulnerable and representative districts for sampling. They also provide a context for understanding household vulnerability.

To measure the characteristics and prevalence of vulnerability of households in Kachchh district of Gujarat, various means of accessing food and strategies were adopted to expand or diversify access to food have been examined. A systematic methodology is adopted to identify the vulnerable groups within villages. First, households have been grouped (by the community) in accordance with their food self-sufficiency and their dependence on external sources for food. Second, their economic base has been measured by factors such as land holding, dependency ratio, livestock ownership, quality of land holding etc. Third, their social status has been ascertained through factors such as caste, tribe and gender.

The identification of vulnerable groups was based on a Hunger Ranking Exercise based on the following criteria --

Group 1: Households that could acquire sufficient food for themselves during normal times without assistance and were able to assist others. Group 2: Households that could acquire sufficient food for themselves during normal times without assistance of others but who couldn’t assist others.

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Group 3: Households that could not obtain sufficient food for themselves during normal times and fulfil their requirement with external assistance.

Group 4: Households unable to afford two square meals a day as compared to normal income groups and have excessive dependence on debts even during the normal year. They also have a large family size.

Group 5: Households opting for hazardous occupation (e.g., salt pans) due to lack of employment opportunities in the village.

To understand the vulnerability, focus group discussions were conducted with the men and women in the village. In the following, we will address socio-economic issues to describe the pockets and extent of vulnerability in the district.

2.5 Caste, Religion and Social Exclusion

The caste composition as obtained from the survey reveals that OBCs (Sutar, Mistry, Barot, Lohar, Kumbhar) are in minority with 2 percent representation, SCs

(Harijan, Bankar, Padhiyar, Shenghas, Bawa, Sadhu) and STs (Koli, Rabari, Wagari, Detania, Pardhi, Bhil) are more or less equally represented by 15 and 17 percent respectively and general castes (Brahmin, Lohana, Rajput, Jain, Ahir, Soni, Gadhvi, Patel, Thakkar, Bhansali/Mahajan) are in majority with 52 percent representation, whereas, Muslims (Sama, Khoja, Pasari, Munna, Mokha, Chauhan, Mocca, Memono, Kawar, Mehar, Abda) contribute 14 percent to the entire sample in the area. It needs to be mentioned here that the caste compositions in the sampled villages are a bit skewed towards vulnerable ones. Therefore the SC and ST representation is higher as compared to the district profile (12 and 8 percent SC and ST respectively).

2.5.1 Caste, Religion and Productive Resource

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It is well known that both ST and SC groups have been disadvantaged over time. Areas having SC/ST concentration are debarred from use of most of the infrastructure facilities and productive activities and are inhibited by unfriendly terrain (undulate land). SC households have been traditionally relegated to specific occupation groups and prevented from accumulating resources or controlling power. On the other hand, the poorer Muslim households are mostly landless and earn their leaving from casual labour and livestock rearing.

Scheduled Tribe: The people belonging to this category (mostly Koli and Rabari tribe) are mostly marginal landowners with unproductive lands. However, most of them depend on rain-fed agriculture. Coupled with this, fragmentation of land due to birth of nuclear families drastically changed their livelihood options. Being poor, they lack money to adopt modern farming techniques and are dependent on traditional practices, which makes it increasingly difficult for these households to sustain their living through agriculture.

Ownership of livestock varies across the tribes. For example, for Rabari tribes, major source of earning is livestock rearing as more than two-third depend on this, whereas other tribes such as Koli are entirely dependent on rain-fed agriculture since they have limited livestock. Both the groups, whose primary income is from livestock rearing and from rain-fed agriculture, resort to migration in difficult times. Agriculture being primarily rain-fed and livestock rearing being dependent on availability of fodder - both are susceptible to drought. This in turn has implication on migration.

At present, migration is the most preferred among alternative groups (50 to 60 % of income can be earned through migration). The Rabaris migrate with their cattle herd, as availability of fodder is a major concern for them due to continuous drought. Those who (the Koli tribe) entirely depend on the rain-fed agriculture are forced to migrate to supplement their meagre earning from agriculture. The Koli families, who are engaged in salt production, are highly exploited by the salt traders. Most of the vulnerable households from these tribes are highly indebted as they take both cash and grain loans from the merchants and sahukars (moneylenders).

Scheduled Caste: The majority of SCs are harijans. They are mostly landless or owning marginal lands, primarily unproductive, and without irrigation. Since income from agriculture is not enough to sustain the family, they have higher dependency on labour work. It is worth noting that due to caste discrimination, they are not preferred as farm labour in the village, which forces them to seek casual labour work outside the village thereby making them more vulnerable. Women and children in these talukas are also employed in the agriculture sector as labourer and their major occupation is farm labour (the rate paid to children between 11-16 years is Rs. 20-25/ day as against Rs. 40-50/day for adults and those above 16 years. This prima facie looks like wage discrimination but can be justified on the ground of harder labour work the latter group undertakes). The families are also involved in weaving throughout the year, which restricts their movement outside the village. Apart from employment in the agricultural sector, women and girls of SC households are involved in Bharat Guthan (embroidery works) and their contribution towards total family income is around 10% (like in any trade, middlemen eat away the major profit). Villages with mixed communities are mostly divided along caste lines and these people have minimum access to resources and infrastructure.

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Muslims: Farming, animal breeding and casual labour are the major occupations for these households. Mostly, the households are marginal farmers with unproductive patches of land without irrigation. Migration is very limited among these households. Women are mostly engaged in embroidery work and as agriculture labour within the village. They also undertake non-farm, selling of animals and milk products such as Mawa (sweet made out of milk) and wool, which is one of the major sources of income for these households.

2.5.2 Caste, Religion and Vulnerability

The Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Scheduled Castes (SC) and Muslims (Mocca, Memon, Manka and Chauhan) are among the most vulnerable in this district. Position of Tribal, Schedule Castes and Muslims in a mixed community is very poor in terms of access to and use of resources. This is true as during resource crunch situations, those having better influence within the community primarily access the external benefits.

In most cases, especially in villages predominantly inhabited by the Ahir and Patel community, the social exclusion is evident, as these upper castes dominate socio-economically, they control politics and decision-making. Due to their low economic and social status, SC members rarely are allowed to participate in the community level activities and decision making. They are invariably working as labourers in the field or are engaged in share cropping with an adverse terms of trade, especially because of the uncertain monsoon. Therefore, they continue in subordinate positions.

“… what can we do brother … we are surviving with great difficulty … Patels are rich and we are poor … we cannot even raise our voice against them as the government is also theirs (their influence is more). We are all alone and if we protest we would have to lose our source of income as we work in the lands owned by Patels” (Harijan men, Narayanpar village, Nakhatrana taluka).

Apart from caste, class also plays an important role in terms of household vulnerability. A few Muslims in Simri, Bhimsar and Paiya villages although stay in predominantly Muslim villages, do not possess resources as these are usually owned by the upper castes (Patels and Ahirs). In case of Muslims, the landlords own the resources. Due to lack of ownership of resources, the poor ones usually depend on the upper caste (Patels and Ahirs) and Muslim landlords for their livelihood. The lower caste and class are characterised by limited access to natural resources and suffer from asset poverty, which is the primary determinant of food insecurity in this district. In the absence of agricultural land or in possession of only marginal land holdings, the majority of these people depend on labour activities and migration.

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2.6 Livelihoods and Assets – Household and Community

Available natural resource base in the locality and non-farm activities in the surrounding areas significantly affects livelihood patterns of the people. This section describes the primary activities in which people of Kachchh engage in order to survive.

Most of the households, especially the vulnerable (ownership of 1-4 acre/s of agricultural land) combine multiple activities to survive. Those who undertake sustenance agriculture, cultivate their own land by using household labour. However, due to continuous drought, marginal and the small landholders are not able to depend on cultivation as the main source of income and have resorted to alternative sources. The ranges of alternate sources include working as wage labourer in agricultural land, casual labour, employment in public works programs, artisan activities etc.

2.6.1 Resource endowments: Land and Livestock

Kachchh encompasses 73 per cent of the arid area of Gujarat. The district is poorly endowed as more than half of its land is covered by saline mudflats (Greater and Little Rann of Kachchh). Low rainfall (326 mm), high rates of evaporation, less surface water availability for irrigation, lack of perennial river, alarming decline in ground water table and ever increasing soil and ground water salinity are the major impediments for the district. About one-fifth of its mainland is classified as barren and uncultivable. As a result the proportion of the net sown area to the to the total geographical area is as low as 14 per cent as against 51 per cent in the whole state. The area under forest is about 6 per cent, while cultivable wasteland accounts for 36 per cent of its land. Till 25 years ago the district was the home for about 40 varieties of tall and nutritious grasses. Increasing salinity, influx of Babul weed and overgrazing have caused almost near extinction of those exotic grass varieties. In terms of total land Bhuj has the maximum area followed by Nakhatrana and Bhachau; Mandvi and Anjar. At the overall level, total irrigated land is higher in Mandvi (12.0%) and Nakhatrana (6.8%). However, a large proportion of area (around 1/3rd) in all the talukas is not cultivable. The table below clearly brings forth that Bhachau is resource poor from all angles, lowest irrigated land (1.7%) and highest unirrigated land (56.3%), low common property such as wasteland. Also, Anjar taluka seems resource poor with high-unirrigated land (51.2%) and area not cultivable (33.5%).

Table 5: Land Use PatternTalukas Forest Land

(% of total land)

Total Irrigated

Land(% of total land)

Unirrigated Land

(% of total land)

Culturable

wasteland(% of total

land)

Area not available for cultivation(% of total

land)

Bhuj 17.1 5.1 36.1 9.9 31.8Anjar 4.1 3.0 51.2 8.3 33.5Bhachau

7.9 1.7 56.3 5.8 28.3

Mandvi 3.6 12.0 43.7 13.9 26.8

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Nakhatrana

16.3 6.8 24.8 17.5 34.6

Despite all the adversities, cultivation or agriculture labour is the most important economic activity undertaken by these people for a living. Around 65 percent of the state are employed in the agricultural sector.

A marked uneven distribution of agriculture land is prevalent across the studied talukas. Land ownership on an average varies from 1.5 acres to 30 acres. Only around 30 per cent of the households practising agriculture are having access to irrigation. Lack of irrigation and unproductive land is the characteristics of those identified as vulnerable.

Under harsh ecological conditions, dryland agriculture cannot provide a sustainable livelihood to the region. There is a high dependency on livestock in this region. The district supports 1.4 million of livestock population. In normal years, Kachchh contributes 8% of the state's cow milk production, 4.3% of the buffalo and goat milk production and 21% of the wool production of the state. The better breeds of cows, buffaloes and bulls are marketed all over Western India. Animal rearing is the next best income earning opportunity for the communities of Kachchh including the Rabaris and Muslims in the Pachchham area. Furthermore, upper castes Ahirs are also involved in livestock rearing. However, the studied vulnerable communities revealed a gloomy picture of the livestock ownership.

2.6.2 Land – Quality and Quantity

Land is treated as liquid asset, not only because it provides food support to the people, but also because it is used as collateral for taking loans. Since land is so valuable, it is in very high demand by the communities. As we have seen above, although land holding in the area varies from 1.5 acres to 30 acres, the average land holding among the vulnerable groups of Kachchh varies between 1.5 acres to 4

Cultivable Area (Irrigated+Unirrigated+Cultirble Wasteland) as % of Total Geographical Area

Bhuj 17%

Anjar21%

Bhachau22%

Mandvi23%

Nakhatrana17%

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acres. This clearly brings forth the skewed distribution of land holdings within the district. A look at the agricultural census data revealed that the total number of agricultural land holdings in the district have increased by almost 50 per cent from 1970-71 to 1990-91. But this increase is mainly due to the increase in number of marginal and small land holdings, which has increased by 79%. The census data also showed an increase in the total holdings by area. Large holdings have decreased by 17 per cent, whereas the marginal and small holdings increased by 53 and 36 per cent, respectively.

Further to the uneven distribution of land holding in terms of size, the quality of land is also skewed. Most of the upper caste Hindus and a few upper class Muslim communities own the best quality land. The landholding pattern in the studied district is not equitable - a few villagers possess large areas of land and the most fertile land, while the majority of the people possess small holdings which are either saline or uplands and less fertile. The Ahir and Patel communities primarily own the majority of land in this district and the vulnerable households tend to be the landless, marginal and small farmers. The land distribution pattern clearly depicts the inequality and vulnerability in Kachchh.

The quality of land also differs across talukas within the district. In Bhachau Taluka (Khadir area), the soil is sandy and high on salinity and same are the features in Pachchham area in Bhuj taluka. This in turn makes the soil in these areas agriculturally unproductive. On the other hand, in Mandvi and Nakhatrana talukas the quality of soil is good. Coupled with this, the existence of better irrigation facility in these two talukas leads to a high productivity of land. The alarming fact is the increase in the soil salinity. As high as 477,000 ha of cultivated area suffers from salinity problems. Maximum salt affected cultivated area was recorded in Anjar Taluka (86%), followed by Bhachau, Lakhpat, Mandvi, Abdasa, Mundra, Bhuj and Rapar (Kanzaria, 1994).

The scantiness of ground covers and low density vegetation lead to severe soil erosion. It has been estimated that in Abdasa, more than 50 per cent of the land suffers from soil erosion, followed by Anjar, Bhachau and Rapar. (ORG Report, 1994).

The district is characterised by both uplands and low lands. Major proportions of upland are found in Nakhatrana and low land predominates in the rest of the district. Soil erosion is an acute problem for the villages of the Khadir area (parts of Bhachau) surrounded by greater Rann of Kachchh. Also, the land productivity and cultivable land have been affected by the spread of Babul (Prosopis Juliflora - Ganda bawar) weeds, which is evident across the district.

2.6.3 Agriculture and Farming Practices

Agriculture is the primary occupation and primarily rainfed. Agriculture supplemented by livestock rearing is one of the primary sources of livelihood for the community, although it is increasingly unsustainable for many rural asset poor households.

In the district, three types of share cropping practice are in operation: 1) people who do not have land or possess marginal land, generally lease lands to

carry out agriculture and can be categorised as most vulnerable. The landowner provides all the inputs and the produce are distributed 20:80;

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2) people who do not have land and lease in lands from the landowner and produce crops with own inputs get half of the total harvest;

3) three parties are involved - one provides the land, second provides the labour and inputs and the third party provides the water. Under this kind of arrangement, each of the parties gets a third of the produce.

In the studied village, it has been observed that the first type of share cropping is more prevalent as an arrangement between lower and upper castes; and second and third arrangements are usually among upper -upper castes. These cropping arrangements do not change during crisis years. On an average, agriculture provides up to 6 months’ of family income in a normal year and gets almost nothing in a crisis year especially to those who do not have irrigation facility. The major crops produced include bajri, jowar (minor millet), moong, math and gowar. Major cash crops like groundnuts, cotton, castor and jeera are also produced in this district.

The quality of land has implication on the cropping pattern in the Talukas. In Bhachau, Anjar and Bhuj where the soil is sandy and highly saline, only Kharif crops are taken. Whereas, the good quality of soil and irrigation facility in Mandvi and Nakhatrana talukas allow both Kharif and Rabi crops as evident in Table 6.

In talukas like Bhachau, Anjar and Bhuj, the main crops grown during a normal year were Bajra (65%), Juvar (10%), mung (5%), castor (5%), cotton (10%), and til (5%). In Nakhatrana and Mandvi talukas also the crops grown are same. However, the villagers also grow vegetables like tomatoes, carrot, onion, cabbage and chillies. They also grow groundnut as a cash crop. Crops such as groundnut, bajra, mung, til, castor and cotton are grown in low land, as these crops require sufficient quantity of water. While, the crops such as Jowar and Guvar are grown in uplands of Nakhatrana as it requires less water. During normal times, the families depend on agriculture from June to November either working in their own farm and if need be as farm labourer. For rest of the months, they depend on farm labour and casual labour primarily due to lack of irrigation facilities. This is shown in the table below.

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Table 6: Agriculture PracticesName of the taluka

Kharif Season Rabi SeasonMajor activities

Period Worker participation

Major activities

Period Worker participation

Bhachau,Anjar, Bhuj

Ploughing land, Land preparation & Sowing

Weeding

Harvesting

June-July

August-September

October-November

Men in land preparation and sowing

Men, women and adult boys and girls in weeding

Men, women and adult boys and girls in harvesting

Rabi Crop not produced(During the rest of the six months i.e. From December to May, the village people work as casual labour in the nearby villages or towns)

They work as farm labourer

Mandvi and Nakhatrana

Ploughing land, Land preparation & Sowing

Weeding

Harvesting

June-July

August-September

October-November

Men in land preparation and sowing

Men, women and adult boys and girls in weeding

Men, women and adult boys and girls in harvesting

Land preparation and sowing

Harvesting of the Rabi crop

December

March-April

Men in land preparation and sowing

Men, women and adult boys and girls in harvesting

In Kharif and Rabi seasons, men alone are involved in land preparation and sowing whereas women and adolescent (boys and girls) help in weeding and harvesting. In Bhachau, Bhuj and Anjar since the irrigation facilities are limited, the Rabi crop is not taken up and the villagers go out as casual labour. However, children below 12 years do not work.

During the crisis period, the production of grains goes down by 75-85 per cent in Bhuj, Anjar and Bhachau talukas due to scarcity of water coupled with limited irrigation facilities. Limited irrigation facilities, decline in rainfall and cultivation on the uplands and sandy lands in Bhuj, Anjar and Bhachau talukas changed the cropping pattern in the districts. Many farmers are adopting drought resistant variety of seeds for cultivation. Farming practice is changed from mono cropping to multiple cropping to reduce the risk of low rainfall on agriculture. The problem, however, is not so prominent in Mandvi and Nakhatrana talukas as irrigation is available there and agriculture provides income throughout the year.

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2.6.4 Livestock

As mentioned earlier, the other valuable source of employment, income and food to the community is from the livestock. There was an increase of 50 per cent in livestock population in the district over a span of 30 years between 1962 and 1992. Taluka wise comparison of livestock population shows that the increase was more in Bhachau, Rapar and Anjar. This can be partly explained by the reduction in soil fertility in these talukas and hence less dependence on agriculture. There is also a shift in terms of type of livestock rearing. The numbers of sheep and goats have increased significantly, whereas the cattle population has gone down. The shift in the herd structure is indicative of increased stress among species, which are less drought resistant. It is well known that sheep and goats have the ability to survive prolonged periods of drought and semi-starvation and are less prone to extreme weather conditions. A study showed that due to prolonged drought like situations in the district, the mortality rate among cattle was more than that of small ruminants. Nevertheless, livestock provides a significant portion of income to the communities at large. Breeding of animal and sell of animal products (milk, mava and wool) are two most important income-generating activities for the Rabaris and the Muslims. The entire population in the Banni area of Bhuj Taluka is largely dependent on livestock, as Muslims, Rabaris and Ahirs who have livestock primarily inhabit this area. They are dependent on selling of milk and its products such as ghee and mava.

Another concern in the livestock rearing is the unruly growth of babul trees. This had two effects, firstly desertification and secondly, the maturing pods of the tree is food for cattle and the excretion of the cattle work as fertiliser thereby leading to rapid growth of this variety. This had a major influence on the alarming decline in the indigenous grass and other plant species in the Banni area (Bhuj). Moreover the cattle breeders had to shift from local cattle breeds as the leaves and pods of the trees affected their digestive systems. A large number of cows and goats dies every year due to this problem, for which the local communities still do not have any solution. The community reported a decline in the selling price of goats in the market due this problem.

2.7 Typology and Geographic Location of Vulnerable Communities

The present analysis is confined to rural areas. As the nature of occupation in rural areas is predominantly agriculture, the primary attributes are related to land holding, quality of land, access to irrigation facility, productivity etc. which determine the extent of vulnerability.

Table 7: Features of Vulnerable GroupBhuj Anjar Bhachau Mandvi Nakhatrana

Labourers Less

livestock ownership

Large family size

Muslim Widow

Widow

Large family size

Labourers

Marginal land holders

Livestock ownership

Salt workers

Marginal land holders

High indebtedness

Labourers Scheduled

caste (Harijan) Scheduled

tribes (Rabari) Widow Less livestock

ownership.

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Labourers

Some of the common and well-know indicators of vulnerability can also be witnessed in Kachchh district. These include ownership of land, size of the livestock, women headed household (widow), caste (SC and ST) and religious minority (Muslims). Since these indicators vary across talukas, the indicator representing the vulnerable groups also varies. The land ownership pattern and fertility across talukas have been given in detail in section 2.6.

Considering all types of differences and disasters people face, and coping responses they adopt, Bhachau taluka is the most vulnerable among all the five sample talukas. About 50 percent of the households were identified as food insecure in Hunger Ranking. This can be further substantiated by the fact that the inhabitants work as salt worker which is a hazardous activity and fall into Group 5. For example, in Jangi and Ambliyara villages of Bhachau taluka, the entire village is migrating to the salt pans in order to earn their livelihoods, as there is lack of employment opportunity. Child labour is on the rise in the salt pans as children also migrate with their parents and are engaged in salt pans. The taluka is marked by high indebtedness, lack of labour opportunities and migration.

Anjar Taluka is the second most vulnerable (35%) Taluka among the five sample talukas. There are few families that are large and with a single earning member. There is also a large concentration of SC community in this Taluka. The landless labourers complained that the opportunities of getting regular employment in the nearby port of Kandla and Gandhidham has reduced significantly as the contractors hire labourers at a much cheaper rate from Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Bihar.

It needs to be highlighted here that Banni area within Bhuj is highly vulnerable (30%) due to the people’s dependence on livestock which is getting affected year after year due to livestock depletion and the area has a major water problem thereby fodder production has got affected. The primary occupation of the inhabitants of this area is livestock rearing and the problem of drought has affected the area the most. They need to buy fodder from outside to feed the cattle and sell their products in turn to earn living. Since the fodder prices are going up due to continuous draught in the area, their income is being affected.

Mandvi and Nakhantrana were least vulnerable with approximately 20-25 per cent households identified as food insecure.

2.8 Characteristics of Vulnerable Groups

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The major characteristics of the food secure and insecure households as defined by the community members themselves is somewhat uniform across different communities in Kachchh district (Table 8). The major characteristics of food insecurity and vulnerability in Kachchh as identified by the communities are landlessness (landless farmers depending solely on labour work), marginal or small land holdings (unsustainable agriculture productivity due to lack of irrigation and unproductive land), scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, Muslims, higher dependency ratio, high indebtedness, earning through hazardous occupation etc.

Table 8: Main Indicators Identifying Food Insecure Households Indicators of food insecurity No. of villages identifying

this as an important indicator

High indebtedness 14Landless and depend on labour work only

7

Widow and no earning member in the family

5

Marginal/small land holding 4Less livestock 3Large family size 3Diseased/ handicapped 2Households engaged in hazardous occupation

2

It is surprising that high indebtedness was identified as an indicator of food insecurity by all. This is possibly because indebtedness leads a family into a debt trap and further susceptibility. In the Mandvi block, the issue of high indebtedness as one of the reasons underlying food security has been stated by the most. It might look contradictory if based on the profile of the Taluka, which is irrigation rich and higher land use. The crux lies in this only – a large proportion comprising Harijans, Rabaris, Kolis and Muslims are marginal landowners and due to available irrigation facility they till their own lands. Because of this, they take loans from moneylenders and banks to purchase seed, pesticides and irrigation equipment and are indebted.

Other important indicators of vulnerability as identified by the sample villages are lack of productive agricultural land, absence of able-bodied persons, size of the family, land and livestock size.

In Bhachau and Anjar talukas, one can witness a direct relationship between landlessness, able-bodied workers and migration. The vulnerability of landlessness is well explained in the following quote:

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“Harijans and Bava communities do not own land. Ahirs are the only community who owning land in the village. We have to work on Ahir’s land. In share cropping, we suffer a lot. Many a times we have to sell our goats to fulfil our food requirements.”

- A resident of the Beta Valadia East village

Continuous drought has resulted in loss of fertility in land, and thereby productivity. Along with it, the irrigation sources have depleted over time. Subsequent change in climatic pattern has forced people to shift their occupation from farm labourers to casual labourers. The villagers have resorted to working in the salt pans in order to sustain themselves and their families. It is not only the main earning member but also the entire family migrate to salt pans in Gandhidham, Vadia, Mundra, Vondh, Bhachau, Chadvada and Chirai.

2.9 Natural Hazards and Vulnerability

"Kachchh maan to loko ne bahuj taklif che…. ben gaya das varas maan ame saat duhkaar ane ek vavajodu joyu che… aa dhartikamp to sau thi vadhaare kharab hatu… suun kariye.. eij bhagwan ni ichha che… Kachchh upar eni daya drashti kyare thaye…. Kadaach Kachchh na lokoye gaya janam maa koi motta paap karya che." [People in Kachchh have been endowed with lots of suffering. Sister, in the past ten years we have witnessed seven droughts and a cyclone… no doubt, this earthquake was the worst of all. What to do… may be that is what the God has in store for us. We are awaiting His kindness. Probably, the people of Kachchh have committed some very serious sin in the previous birth.]

In arid and semi-arid lands, rainfall is the most important factor limiting the crop productivity. Rainfall data of 23 years (1972-94) showed that the district received an average annual rainfall of 3266 mm. The distribution of this meagre rainfall was highly variable and erratic within the district, leading to protracted droughts. Within a span of 23 years, severe, moderate and mild meteorological droughts were recorded for 6,3 and 5 years respectively. The following table shows the extent of drought in the district --

Table 9: Taluka-wise average rainfall and drought years in Kachchh district (1970-92)Taluka Avg. Rainfall

(in mm.)Total Drought Years

Moderate to Severe Drought Years

Abdasa 345 13 10Anjar 309 12 10

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Bhachau 278 12 10Bhuj 326 13 9Lakhpat 290 16 13Mandvi 347 14 10Mundra 386 14 9Nakhatrana 321 15 11Rapar 330 12 9District Total

326 14 9

Source: Gujarat Water Resources Development Corporation, Bhuj, Kachchh

The lack of rainfall resulted in persistent drought situation in the district. The problems faced due to drought situation mainly were loss of agricultural production due to dependence on rain-fed agriculture, drying of irrigation sources thereby loss of agriculture labour work and loss of income. The dependence on agricultural production for sustenance and surplus sale to meet household expenditure affected the district the most. As rightly captured by vulnerable groups in Mandvi and Nakhatrana talukas:

“The well off people in our village can afford to hire tractors and even water from other farmers who have irrigation facility. But we are adversely affected by the drought situation, as we can not afford to avail such facilities.”

Drought also affected the cattle rearing activities due to non-availability of grass and fodder as has been highlighted in Banni area of Bhuj Taluka. A case of Vasarbhai who purchases bales of dry grass at Rs. 1 - 1.20 per kg for his cattle explains the situation in the area.

" … government has been rationing grass too. After earthquake, we have also received it free from the government and the NGOs. We have to mention in our ration card the number of cattle head and each animal gets 15 kg. a day. This is less than what is needed. We also do not receive the grass regularly. During extreme crisis our cows and buffaloes eat the pods of babul and the cows develop a digestion problem which is not curable."

Drought, cyclone and earthquake are the three main natural hazards experienced by the people in Kachchh district. Not only the marginalised section of the community, but also by those who were economically well off felt the impact of the hazards. The cyclone happened in 1998 followed by a drought, which has continued till date, and the worst hit earthquake on January 26, 2001. The impact Cyclone and drought of 1998 and the recent earthquake are the main natural calamities mentioned by the respondents. It is quite expected that the recent earthquake is on top of their mind. These calamities have both social and economic impact.

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Table 10: Occurrence of Hazard and its ImpactTaluka

Type of hazard/s

Year Worst year in the memory

Social Impact Economic impact

Bhuj Cyclone

Drought

Earth-quake

1998

1998

2001

2001

Increase in migration

Decline in social functions like marriages

Food intake pattern has changed. Harmful eatables like bawad fali consumed as a coping response in villages like Paiya

Increase in diseases related to water consumption

Decrease in food in-take immediately after earthquake

More deaths More women

and children died in earthquake

Migrants have come back

Less job opportunities

No scope for savings

Lack of fodder availability sub-sequentially leading to a fall in income from the livestock

75% crop failure Selling of livestock Mortgage of

jewelry Decrease in the

availability of farm labour. Those hiring labour are themselves engaged as casual worker

Increase in the indebted persons

Relief work Focus on house

construction

Bhachau

Cyclone

Drought

Earth-quake

1998 1998 2001

2001

Decrease in the social occasions like marriages

Fall in the standard of the food consumed

Increase in the diarrhoea, vomiting and ailments like headache in the people

Shift in focus on activity. Major concentration on reconstruction of the houses

Relief work a preferred option

75% crop failure Income from

livestock affected Decrease in the

availability of farm

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Taluka

Type of hazard/s

Year Worst year in the memory

Social Impact Economic impact

Increase in the rate of the school dropouts due to migration

Decrease in food in-take immediately after earthquake

More deaths More women

and children died in earthquake

Migrants have come back

labour. Those hiring labour are themselves engaged as casual worker

Increase in indebtedness among the people

Anjar Heavy rainfall

Cyclone

Drought

Earth-quake

1995

1998 1998 2001

2001

Breakdown in the family

Increased health problems

Change in food intake i.e. switching over to the items available at cheaper rates

Incidences of adol. labour on rise

Decrease in food in-take immediately after earthquake

More deaths More women

and children died in earthquake

Migrants have come back

Relief work a major preoccupation

Increase in the proportion of person taking debts

Livestock Lack of fodder

availability Decrease in the

availability of farm labour. Those hiring labour are themselves engaged as casual worker

Mandvi

Cyclone

Drought

1998 1998

2001

Decline in the social occasions

increase in adol. labour

60% crop failure lack of adequate

casual labour work

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Taluka

Type of hazard/s

Year Worst year in the memory

Social Impact Economic impact

Earth-quake

2001

Decrease in food in-take immediately after earthquake

More women and children died in earthquake

Migrants have come back

increase in the proportion of indebted persons

rise in the proportion mortgaging their jewelry

Nakhatrana

Hailstorm

Cyclone

Drought

Earth-quake

1994

1998 1998 2001

2001

Decline in the elaborate wedding celebration

School drop out on account of involvement in embroidery, tie and dye and other activities like taking care of the siblings

increase in adol. labour

Decrease in food in-take immediately after earthquake

More women and children died in earthquake

Migrants have come back

Damage of crops Loss of livestock Rise in the

mortgage cases

2.10 Coping Strategies

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The coping strategies as seen during the study are adopted at multiple levels and are situation dependent. The common strategies at the community level is support to one another whereas at the household level, it is resorting to non-farm work near and far away areas depending on the degree of crisis, undertaking hazardous occupations, child labour, migration, asset selling, resorting to the credit market, cutting down consumption, etc. This in turn gets reflected on the source of food between normal and crisis years (Fig. 3).

During the normal years, the primary source is own production (45%), followed by purchase in the market, both private (20%) and PDS (35%). On the other hand during drought years, dependence on own production reduces to 5 percent of the total consumption need of the family, the private market plays a more important role (35%), people resort to relief work (5%) and most importantly the role of credit market becomes crucial with 20 percent of the need being fulfilled from this source.

Food insecure and resource poor households have the tendency to borrow grains from the local petty shop owners, who often charge unfair prices. Natural calamities like earthquake, makes the community dependent on external source such as government and NGOs involved in relief work as the dependence on own production and credit is completely missing. The support from the government and the revival of the PDS were very significant achievements of the earthquake relief operation. However, the study observed that the long distance of the PDS outlets from the villages often work as disincentive for the poor households in accessing them as there are villages that are 15-18 km away from the nearby Fair Price Shops.

The coping mechanisms commonly adopted by the community are explained in details below. The heads under which these are covered are livelihood response including agriculture, labour and livestock, migration response; cropping response; expenditure response, consumption response, asset selling and community response. For some households coping just continues …

Case 1: Coping an Endless Journey …

A family of landlords with thirty acres of fertile land grew multiple crops till the drought attacked the area. The crops started failing and the income reduced. The parched land failed to yield any crop with the passage of time. The only option that

A: MarketB: Public Distribution System (PDS)/ ration shopC: Own productionD: CreditE: Drought Relief/ Food for Work programF: Government / NGO

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remained with most of the villagers of Ganeshpar was migration to a neighbouring town or village.

This family of the affluent farmer Nagjibhai [name changed] now decided to migrate to Chobari, a village that was located nearly twenty kilometres away from Ganeshpar. The eldest son of the family migrated with his wife and two children to work as casual labourer and earning a daily wage of rupee fifty-sixty. His younger son worked in the village fields as a farm labourer. His daughter was the youngest in the family and was studying in the primary school studying in class VII. Things were improving!

One fine day, the parents decided to pay a visit to their elder son in Chobari and stayed with him for sometime. On the morning of 26th January 2001, the earth shook vigorously and the eldest son with his family perished. The roof came down heavily on the elderly couple.

Nagjibhai fractured his leg and his wife acquired innumerable stitches on her forehead. More awaited them at Ganeshpar ...

Nagjibhai's daughter had by now been shifted to the civil hospital at Palanpur. Her right arm and feet had to be amputated. The younger son was safe as he was working in the farm.

Today, life has become a bundle of insecurity for the younger son Jayesh. At the tender age of twenty, with barely an education till class VII, Jayesh has a broken home to support. He tries looking at the future that is blurred.

" Paani na lidhe aa badhu thayu che, jo aaaje saari varsaad padyu hot to maara parivar maa badha loko sukhi hot… pan maara mota bhai jato rahayo.. mari naani ben upar aatli badhi taklif padi…. aa badha na kaaran kon…. paani ne?" [Water is responsible for all this. Had there been good rains, my family would have been happy and content. But I have lost my elder brother…..my younger sister incurred so much of suffering…. whom would you hold responsible… water right?]

They have travelled enough and do not know what lies ahead!

2.10.1 Livelihood Response: Agriculture, Livestock and Labour

Over the years, the vulnerable groups are becoming more vulnerable due to land fragmentation with the rise in nuclear families. Further, due to worsening condition in the area, those who were marginal landowners became farm labourers and then casual labourers over the years.

Case 2: Is that an Alternative?

Sophamaacin to chaar mahina sudhi chale che. Ame to ene sona ni jem rakhiye che. Ame to chaanda par thodi thodi lagaaiye. [Sophamacin

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(Sophramycin) lasts for nearly four months. We use it very cautiously as a person handles gold. We apply a very little amount of it over the wounds.] Devender

Devendra Harijan is a 21 year old resident of the Betavaladia village in the earthquake ravaged block of Anjar. This village in the district of Kachchh has many institutions like an anganwadi, post office or a PDS it has not helped to me to provide food for sustenance. He migrated to a neighbouring village in search of livelihood.

Two years back, Devendra was a free man in the village. He like the other young men roamed about tension free in the streets. After all, he had three members from his family to take care of his needs and wants. His father and brother were employed as labourers in a nearby salt pan at a village by the name of Joganinar. Both of them combined used to earn around rupees seventy per day. His sister-in-law also earned around rupees forty to fifty per day.

Today, two years later, things are no more the same for Devendra. He talks of dragging his life on with the judicious use of sophamycin, in an attempt to heal his wounds. His father has lost his eyesight completely by working in the salt pans. His brother is no longer fit for working as a casual worker in the salt pan and his feet have developed soars that have made him incapable of undertaking labour work of any nature. His sister in law could have still supported the household had there been good rains. But it was not so and she had to stop working in the field due to drought.

What is the alternative? Salt pans?

Devendra goes.. goes to the salt pan that has gifted his family with pain and suffering, the salt pan that has snatched away the permanent source of income from his family.

“Had the land and the God been merciful on us... things would have been so different …”

said Devendra and left for his work

In Bhachau, Anjar and Bhuj talukas only kharif crops are produced as the irrigation facility is limited in these talukas. In these talukas, vulnerable households i.e. land ownership of marginal or small holdings are engaged in agricultural activities in their own land. Those who do not have land work as farm labourers in the lands of upper caste groups. However, Harijans are not preferred as farm labour and they undertake casual labour work primarily and only weeding as farm labour (this is a lower paid activity).

During the normal and crisis years, men work in land preparation and sowing whereas women and children provide help in weeding and harvesting. It is worth noting that in the crisis period, children between 12-14 also work with their parents. During the crisis year, SC (Harijan), ST (Kolis and Rabaris) and Muslims who own marginal lands also work as farm labourers.

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During the Rabi season (December-April) in a normal year the vulnerable groups work as farm labourer in or nearby villages whereas in the crisis years they work as casual labourer even in far off places and migrate for 2-3 months at a stretch. They come back to the village around June-July for the festive season and work as farm labour in their villages (discussed in detail under migration).

In Mandvi and Nakhatrana due to good soil and irrigation facilities, they undertake cropping in both the seasons. In both Kharif and Rabi seasons, children between 12-14 years work in the crisis period whereas in a normal year men work in land preparation and sowing whereas women and children provide help in weeding and harvesting.

In all the talukas, in the normal year the incidence of farm labour is low and casual labour is limited. On the other hand, during the crisis year, farm labour declines further and casual labourer increases. Table 11: Agriculture and Labour Response

KHARIF SEASONTaluka

Major activities

Kharif season

Worker participation during normal year

Worker participation during drought year

Bhachau, Anjar, Bhuj

Ploughing land, land preparation and sowing

Weeding

Harvesting

June –July

August-September

October -November

Men in ploughing, land preparation, sowing in their land

Men,Women and adolescent girls and boys in weeding in their own land

Men, Women, adolescent girls and boys in harvesting in their own land

Farm

Men in ploughing, land preparation, sowing in own and others’ land

Men, Women, adolescent girls, boys and children above 12 yrs.in weeding in own and others’ land

Men, Women, adolescent girls, boys and children above 12 yrs. in harvesting in own and others’ land

Farm labour declines and casual labour increases

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labour by men and women and adolescent boys in limited number

Mandvi and Nakhatrana

Ploughing land, land preparation and sowing

Weeding

Harvesting

June –July

August-September

October -November

Men in ploughing, land preparation, sowing in their own land

Men,Women and adolescent girls and boys in weeding in their own land

Men, Women, adolescent girls and boys in harvesting in their own land

Farm labour by men and women and adolescent boys in limited number

Men in ploughing, land preparation, sowing in own and others’ land

Men,Women and adolescent girls, boys and children above 12 yrs. in weeding in own and others’ land

Men, Women, adolescent girls, boys and children above 12 yrs.in harvesting in own and others’ land

Farm labour declines and casual labour increases

RABI SEASONTaluka

Major activities

Rabi season

Worker participation during normal year

Worker participation during drought year

Bhachau,

land preparat

December

Rabi Crop not produced

Rabi crop not produced, as most

30

Anjar, Bhuj

ion and sowing

Harvesting

March- April

(During the rest of the six months i.e. From December to May, the village people work as casual labour in the nearby villages or towns) They work

as farm labourer

of them are landless. In order to support their livelihood they are engaged in casual labour. Majority of times only the men migrate in Block Bhuj, Bhachau to nearby towns for casual work. It was seen in the Anjar block that the women also migrate to work on the Mundra port from December- March or April Women and children in the Block Bhuj and Bhachau go to the nearby orchids or casual work during crisis year

Mandvi and Nakhatrana

Ploughing land, land preparation and sowing

Weeding

Harvesting

December

March- April

Men do land preparation, sowing

Men, Women, adolescent girls and boys in harvesting.

Farm labour by men and women and adolescent boys in limited number

Men do land preparation, sowing

Men, Women, adolescent girls , boys and children in harvesting.

Farm labour declines and casual labour increases

Note: adolescent implies boys and girls aged 14 years or more

In the crisis year, due to surplus labour in the market, the wage rates are low. In normal years, they used to get Rs. 50 for doing casual

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work but now (due to crisis) it has come down to Rs. 40 however there is no change in farm labour rates.

Labour work – farm and non-farmAt the household level, people occupy themselves in labour work in order to earn their livelihood. In the normal year, only 20-30 percent population in the talukas of Kachchh district is engaged in labour activities but in the crisis year percentage of labour activities increases to 60 percent. It is an irony that during crisis year when labour work is the main source of income, the rates available are low due to surplus labour.

Women and girls from the Muslim communities and those from the SC households generally engage themselves in embroidery work, tie-dye and bead work. SC households (Vankar caste) are mostly engaged in weaving activities. Other non-farm activities like carpentry, blacksmith etc. are also prevalent among SCs (Harijans), OBCs (Suthar and Lohar) of this district.

During drought affected years, the government generated local employment for 3-4 months via relief work (called Rahat/Achhad Kaam in local language). It has been seen that women of vulnerable households participate in large numbers in relief work as the male members migrate to nearby town areas either due to limited opportunity under these programme or they are paid better for the labour in urban areas.

In the normal year, most of the SCs are involved in casual labour whereas STs are primarily into livestock rearing (Rabaris) and work as casual or farm labourer (Kolis). Muslim are livestock dependent group and produce milk and milk products in normal years.

In the crisis years, SCs continue doing casual labour but in a larger number, Rabaris get engaged in farm labour or in relief work, Kolis go to salt pans and undertake hazardous work, and Muslims are engaged in casual and relief work and they also sell cattle to meet expenses.

Child labourIn the years of need, incidence of child labour increases considerably and they generally work as farm labourers in order to support their families in almost all the talukas surveyed. The children (above 15 years) of the Koli families in Bhachau taluka were found to be working with their parents in salt pans, which serve as a helping hand for the family. In the normal and crisis years adolescent boys and girls work whereas in crisis years, children between 12-14 years also work from SC, ST and Muslim families. The adolescent girls were engaged in making bandhni (tie and dye) in the Mandvi block by Darbars (upper castes – Rajput community) even in normal years as they do not go to school due to religio-cultural reasons.

Women’s participation in workforceIn all the talukas women’s contribution is quite significant however differing but definitely increases in crisis years. In a normal year and crisis year, women’s participation in Mandvi and Nakhatrana is lower than other three talukas. As expected in all the talukas, workload of women increases but with varying degree.

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In most affected districts of Bhuj, Anjar and Bhachau, the workload of women in crisis years increases more than those in Mandvi and Nakahtrana.

Table 12: Women’s Occupation – Normal Vs. Crisis Years Percentage

Occupation

Bhuj Anjar Bhachau Mandvi Nakhatrana

Normal

Crisis

Normal

Crisis

Normal

Crisis

Normal

Crisis

Normal

crisis

Agricultural practices

10 10 5 10 10 5 10 5 10 5

Casual labour

5 15 10 15 15 30 5 20 5 10

Embroidery

10 20 5 0 5 5 0 0 10 20

Dairy products

10 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Tie & dye

0 0 5 10 0 0 10 10 0 0

Bead work

0 0 10 15 0 0 0 0 0 0

TOTAL 35 50 35 50 30 40 25 35 25 35

In Bhuj, in a normal year women’s involvement is half of that of men, which turns into equal partnership in crisis years. Women’s involvement as casual labour increases as agricultural activities and dairy production (mawa) comes down due to the crisis. Their involvement in embroidery work also increases in crisis years.

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In Bhachau, women’s participation is less than half of that of men, which becomes almost equal in crisis years. Women’s involvement even in crisis years as casual labour doubles as compared to normal years as agricultural production decreases in crisis years. The people migrate to salt pans to work as casual labour.

In Anjar, women’s participation is less than half of that of men however it becomes equal in crisis years. Here women are involved generally in craft work whereas in crisis years they start working as agricultural labourer and are also involved as casual labour and continue doing craft such as bead work.

In Mandvi, in crisis years women’s role in casual labour increases by 4 times and involvement in agricultural practices decreases however, they continue doing tie and dye craft. The craft work is encouraged in the area as women and adolescent girls are not allowed to go out of their houses.

In Nakhatrana, women’s role in casual labour increases as agricultural practices declines. Their involvement in embroidery doubles in crisis year primarily because of NGOs support.

Credit market and Hazardous workCase 3: Salt Pans Ate Us

Vavajoda ma jeevan ni baddhi punji ane maanha jata rahya ane hun niradhar thayi gayo [The cyclone has taken away the savings and loved ones from my life, today I am left all alone without any one to love and support me]

Moti bhai Koli, a salt worker in the Bhachau block, laments at his fate whenever he recollects the cyclone that left a trail of deaths and destruction behind. On the fateful day, he along with his wife, three children all below twelve years of age, his widowed mother and younger brother had in the routine manner gone to the agar [area where salt is produced]. The day was progressing well when fury struck. All the members perished as the water flowed in the salt pans ... The cyclone snatched away from him the last straw… his home.

He received an ex-gratia payment of rupees eighty thousand from the government, the amount that was to become his support in the future. He opened a fixed deposit with the amount he received as compensation. Today, Moti bhai can no longer go to the agar. He has lost his vision partially. His hands and feet have the chandi (sore) from the terra firma containing salt. He drags the cart of his life by the support of the interest he receives from the fixed amount of the ex-gratia payment.

The credit market also reflects the crisis situation, as in the normal year the credit taken is usually around 20-30 percent and it increases to 70-80 percent in crisis years. In normal years, credit is taken for mostly social occasions such as marriage or death, whereas loans in crisis years are usually incurred to fill up the gap in the food requirements. The vulnerable households are the primary victims of the credit market, as they have to resort to local traders/shopkeepers for which they pay an interest of 3-5 percent per month. The credits are taken in the crisis years by selling or mortgaging jewellery to the moneylender in the nearby towns.

In Mandvi taluka, villagers take credit for purchasing agricultural equipment and seeds for the coming year. After buying the equipment and seeds, they use the excess amount for purchasing food grains in the crisis years. In the Bhachau taluka, people face problems in getting new loans as their previous loans get accumulated

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to a level that they lose credibility in the credit market. These kind of borrowings also resulted in a adverse terms of trade for the borrower as they usually repay immediately after the harvesting.

Credit market can pose terrible threats on food security - during normal times, salt pan workers in Bhachau and Anjar get rupees 35 to 40 for 6 hours in a day. However, those who had taken the debts, get paid only rupees 25 per day as the contractors deduct the rest of the money against the advance that they received. Thus, it is dual exploitation, on the one hand they resort to hazardous jobs and on the other, they get paid less for the same. A case in hand is Kolis in Jangi (Bhachau taluka):

“We are so poor that we can’t even afford to live in our own village to earn two square meals per day. Most of us are either Landless or own marginal unproductive lands. Since we are unable to sustain ourselves from agriculture and have to work in salt pans, which is hazardous to our health. We usually take loan for our migration from the contractors of the salt pans. To repay the debts, we have to work on the salt pans of the same contractor with a minimal wage. This is a trap and we cannot come out of it as we are unable to get anything from our agricultural land.”

"Kya kare bhai, hamare buzurgo ke paas thodi si zamin thi aur khaane wale baarah teraah muh. Sab ki shaadi ke liye aur pet paalne ke liye unhe bahut saara karzaa lena pada. Uske bhugtaan ke liye hamaari saari zamin chali gayee. Zamin chali gayee ….. aur majoori hamare hisse aa gayee." [What can we do brother, the proportion of land owned by our forefathers was very small to feed twelve to thirteen hungry mouths. They incurred heavy debts for the sake of meeting with the responsibilities of feeding them as well as social obligations like marriages. In order to meet with these expenses they had to sell off the piece of land possessed by them. Our land is gone and today we are nothing but ordinary labourers.]

Out of all the vulnerable groups, it can be inferred that Kolis are the most affected by the credit market due to their involvement in the salt pan and continuous borrowing from the contractors. The entire family migrates, they live in the middle of nowhere in the desert in temporary grass and bamboo huts and there are no facilities for educating children. The terms of trade are so adverse for Kolis that they get bonded to the occupation.

2.10.2 Migration

Human resources are abundant in the district, especially among the vulnerable groups. Non-farm employment has a significant bearing on the livelihood of these families. The major non-farm activity available to the community is labour work mainly within the district and sometimes they go outside the district and even state. Apart from agriculture, migration is the major source of family income for majority of the families.

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The juvenile sex ratio in the district shows that it is lower than the state average and can be explained by the fact that the IMR among girls is higher than the Gujarat average. But the sex-ratio among adults is higher in the districts as compared to the state is possibly due to men migrating alone. The studied talukas also reveals the same.

Area Female-Male Ratio Juvenile (0-5 yrs.)

IMR

1981 1991 1991 Male Female TotalKachchh

999 964 926 79 81 72

Gujarat 934 927 945 78 74 82 Source: Population Census

The migration pattern in the studied talukas reveals that those who go to salt pans migrate with the family for 7-8 months but come back during the monsoon season (June-July) and stay till Diwali (a festival In India - October). In September, the men go to the salt pans to start the work by digging bores and the entire family joins after Diwali. The Rabaris who migrate with their herd also come back during the monsoon season and stay in the village till Diwali and then migrate after the festival. When they come back during the monsoon period, they (both men and women) work as farm or casual labour available within the village. Those who go to cities like Surat, Vadodra etc. go with the family but come back for Diwali. However, in general it has been seen that usually men migrate alone as casual labour except those who go to salt pans, Rabaris of Bhachau, Bhuj and Anjara and not of Mandvi and Nakhatrana migrate with family. In the latter Talukas, since the agricultural opprtunites are better, the Rabaris are absorbed in farm work or as farm labour. In general, Muslims are not seen to be migrating.

When they migrate (primarily SCs and kolis), they are engaged in construction work in nearby towns, in industries (cement factory, GMDC, salt factory etc.) and Kandla port as labourer. The men and women commute daily except GMDC where women do not work (stone breaking being a hard work for women). The geographical pattern displays that people from Mandvi and Nakhatrana talukas do not usually migrate possibly due to better land quality and irrigation facilities.

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Table 13: Migration Pattern

Talukas Migrants (%) Period of migration

Place of migration

Employment opportunities

Bhachau No migration during normal year

During drought conditionsOnly 5% population migrate

Men, women and children above 14 years

-

from Dec - Mayfrom July- Sep(In June they wait for the rains. If no rains then they again migrate)

-kandla, Rapar, Bhuj,Bachhau, Gandhidham , Bombay, Surat, Chobari,

-

Work: in hotels in sweet

shops in salt pans Work

as truck drivers

as porters in coal

makingBhuj No migration during

normal year

During drought conditionsOnly 5% population migrate

Men, women and children above 14 years

-

from Dec- Mayfrom July- Sep(In June they wait for the rains. If no rains then they again migrate)

-

Bhuj, Dhori,SomrasarChinar, Madhapar, Khavda

Bhujodi, Kukma+

-

Work in wadis (fields) having irrigation facility

Casual labour

Anjar during normal year only 5 % population migrateDuring Cyclone only 5 % population migrateDuring drought conditionsOnly 5% population migrate

Men, women and children above 14 years

-from Dec-May

from Dec-May

-Anjar, Doodhai, Dhaman,

Anjar, Gandhidham, Kandla

-Casual labour

Casual labour

Casual labour

Mandvi Do not migrate(generally work in near by villages)

Nakhatrana

Do not migrate(generally work in near by villages)

Muslim women work as casual labour within the village whereas women from SC and ST go out of the village. SCs also work as casual labour in hotels, truck driving

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and coal making (which has been stopped, as it is illegal). They do not migrate for longer period.

The period between December-May and July-September are the migratory periods. In Bhuj and Anjar, migration work involves casual labour whereas people from Bhachau taluka undertake hazardous occupation such as working in salt pans. In salt pans ST (kolis) work whereas SC, ST (Kolis) and Muslims are undertaking casual labour work.

Mostly the households migrate to nearby towns within the district depending on the availability of labour work. A number of them (Kolis) also migrate to places like Bombay and Surat for labour work. The length of the period of migration actually depends on the agricultural practice and the monsoon and in case of good monsoon, most of them do not prefer to migrate. For instance, Rabari communities (ST) who are dependent on the livestock, migrate with their animals to eastern Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa etc. whereas Kolis from Bhachau, Anjar and Rapar who are dependent on rain-fed agriculture, go to nearby Little Rann of Kachchh to work in salt pans. Kolis (in the salt pans) and Rabaris do the longer migration (with their herd). The latter also work in farm while they travel with their herd.

As approximated by the villagers, an individual earns a minimum of Rs 1200/ - per month from migration related labour work and Rs. 2000/- in case of others who are engaged in industries. Migration of women from upper caste families and the Muslims is very limited. Only the women from the ST and SC households migrate with their family.

2.10.3 Cropping Response

Bajra, castor and Mung are the main crops sown in normal years whereas in crisis years it is bajra and jowar; groundnut production is only restricted in Mandvi and Nakhatrana.

Table 14: Change in Cropping PatternBhuj Bhac

hauAnjar Mandvi Nakhatra

naCrisis Year

Bajra 4.5 4.5 3.5 14.5 13.5

Jowar 4.5 6.5 2.5 9.5 8.5Gowar 5 9.5 8.5Castor 12.5Isabgol 4.5Groundnut

17 13.5

Cotton 32.5 17.5Normal

yearBajra 19 17 12.5 32.5 27.5

Castor 15 21 20 27.5 20Mung 20 15 25 20 12.5

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Groundnut

40 27.5

Gowar 19 20 11 22.5 17.5Jowar 19 22.5 7.5 22.5 17.5Jeera 22.5 11

It is worth noting that vulnerable groups do not grow wheat as they receive it through PDS and after earthquake they are consuming more of it due to the relief whereby they have received 20 kg. of wheat per family. Most of the crops are produced less in crisis years due to water problem. This includes Bajara, production declines by 1/4th to 1/3rd; castor which is not taken up in the crisis years at all with the exception of Mandvi where the production declines by 1/3rd; jowar production declines by ½ to 1/3rd; gowar which is not grown in crisis years in Bhuj and Anjar whereas in other talukas its production declines by 1/4th in Bhachau, ½ in Mandvi and Nakhatrana. Jeera is not grown in Mandvi and Nakhatrana as they grow groundnut during the same period and it fetches more income. Groundnut is grown in Mandvi the most followed by Nakhatrana as it requires irrigation. However, due to crisis, the production of groundnut has declined and being replaced by a another cash crop, variety of cotton which is drought resistant. Isabgol (a herbal product with medicinal values) is taken primarily in crisis years and is not taken up in normal year as it is a long-term crop thus, multiple cropping is not possible.

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2.10.4 Expenditure response

Most of the expenditure is on non-food items and the bulk is spent on social occasions by all SCs, STs and Muslims. The expenditure on food in Bhuj is higher as compared to other talukas due to their dependence on purchase of food from the market. Therefore, during the crisis period the expenditure head, which is curtailed the most, is social occasion as also seen above. It is alarming to note that their expenditure on health during the crisis period also comes down as they do not go to a health service provider for minor ailments. The expenditure on education decreases marginally however that on travelling increases due to migration to cope with the crisis.

Table 15: Expenditure – Normal vs. Crisis

Variables Bhuj Anjar Bhachau Mandvi Nakhatrana

Normal

Crisis

Normal

Crisis

Normal

Crisis

Normal

Crisis

Normal

crisis

Food 50 75 35 65 20 58 25 60 35 62Non-food

50 25 65 35 80 42 75 40 65 38

Health 3 3 10 5 10 5 10 5 10 5Clothing 5 2 15 3 15 5 20 5 15 5Education

2 2 3 2 3 2 5 3 5 3

Travelling

5 8 7 10 5 10 5 10 5 10

Social occasion ( marriage, deaths and festival)

35 10 30 15 47 20 35 17 30 15

2.10.5 Consumption Response

The last and the final resort to cope in the crisis are to cut down on consumption. As evident from the survey, during the normal times, the families reported to consume full meals, which consists of bajri rotla, vegetables, pulses and rice. However, during the drought period, there was a change in the consumption pattern and they generally consumed bajrarotla, wheat roti, chilly-garlic chutney and occasionally potato and onion. During the crisis year, when there is unavailability of vegetable, they suffice their diet with rotla and red chilly chutney (chutney is consumed in 25 gm. both in the normal and crisis years).

Irrespective of the situation i.e. the villagers eat wheat in summers and bajra in winter (1 wheat rotla is 15-200 gms. of wheat and 1 bajra rotla is 250 gms.). Out of

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the two cereals, bajra is preferred. However, there is a general shift in the eating pattern due to decreased self-production of bajra. Bajra is especially preferred during the winters because it is filling and is perceived to be producing warmth to the body. One can also observe an increase in food in-take during winter due to extra farm work they undertake.

Not only in terms of quality, the quantity of food also gets affected during crisis period. In a normal year in summers, consumption of males was 4 wheat rotlas/day, women ate 2-3 wheat rotlas/ day, children had 1½ -2 wheat rotlas/day and elders had 2 wheat rotlas/ day whereas in the drought year the consumption of males was 3-4 wheat rotlas/day, women ate 2 wheat rotlas / day and the consumption of children and elders remains as that in normal years.

During winter and monsoon in a normal year, consumption of males was 4-5 bajra rotlas/day, women ate 3-4 bajra rotlas/ day, children had 2-3 bajra rotlas/day and elders had 2 bajra rotlas/ day whereas in the drought year the consumption of males was 3-4 bajra rotlas/day, women ate 2-3 bajra rotlas / day, children and elders eat 1-2 bajra rotla/day.

There is not much difference in the consumption pattern between normal and crisis. But, during the initial days, after the earthquake, the consumption of the people had drastically reduced for 4 to 5 days. During this period, the coping mechanism adopted was more severe, they took only one meal during the first 2-4 days and women continued the practice even longer (till relief reached them) to meet the requirements of family and children. Most of the times, women did not get full meals, hence, they satisfied their hunger by having buttermilk and tea. During this period, men consumed 2 bajra rotlas and there was no change in the consumption pattern of the children whereas women consumed just 1 bajra rotla. The adolescent girls followed a similar consumption pattern as their mothers.

During the FGDs, the women stated that due to earthquake and the destruction of their houses, they were so scared and tensed that they were not in the mood to eat. Also the food they had stocked in their houses was spoilt. She expressed that if there were nothing left after serving her husband and children, she would remain without food. Women said that they would cook rotlas depending on the availability of the flour.

“After a day or two of the earthquake, we received flour, pulses, oil and vegetables (onion and potatoes) from the government and the NGOs. Thus we could manage to get meals for our families”.

Women during the discussion, Kachchh

2.10.6 Asset Response

In most of the talukas, it was seen that people were selling jewellery and land in order to overcome the crisis faced. In Narayanpar village, Rabari women who are dependent on selling milk and cattle rearing were severely affected by drought due to scarcity of fodder and they were not able to meet their day to day expenses. Thus, the women resorted to selling their jewellery, which are the only assets they possess. As mentioned above, in Vehar village of Nakhatrana taluka, the harijans (schedule caste) have sold their land to Patel’s (upper caste) in order to pay off their debts and then work as farm labourer in their own lands. Whereas Muslim primarily sell their cattle (Hindus do not sell due to religious reasons) and also jewellery.

2.10.7 Community response

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During the recent earthquake, the community mostly acted as a homogeneous unit. The community helped each other in the rescue work, people helped one another in lifting the rubbles and to arrange temporary shelter and food.

In other times of crisis, intra-community loans are taken for buying the household commodities in nearly all the talukas.

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CHAPTER III

INTRA-HOUSEHOLD VULNERABILITY AND GENDER

WOMAN is an integral part of the family system. An individual holding warmth, compassion, tolerance, sacrifice and emotional strength is esteemed. In the Hindu mythology, both men and women have been given an equal place. Woman is known as Annapurna, the one who feeds others and is never scarce of food.

From the place given to a woman in the mythology, one can infer that the status of women in India must be very high. However, in reality things are quite in contrast. This section tries to bring into light some realities of intra-household (gender only) issues and its implication on food insecurity.

3.1 Tasks Performed by Women

Women in the Kachchh region are responsible for all the household work. The main household chores performed by women are cooking, washing clothes, collection of fuel wood, fetching water, bringing fodder, milking cattle, mortaring the walls with cow dung and taking care of the children. However, there is a difference in the activities carried out by the women during normal times and crises years. The activities carried out by women during normal year, drought years/months and post-earthquake period are shown in the Table 16 presented below.

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Table 16: Activities by Women in Normal Vs. crisis yearsActivity Bhachau Anjar Bhuj Mandvi Nakhatrana

Normal

Drought

Earth-quake

Normal

Drought

Earth-quake

Normal

Drought

Earth-quake

Normal

Drought

Earth-quake

Normal

Drought

Earth-quake

Water fetching Clothes washing

Cooking Farm Labour (Kharif season)

(declined)

(declined)

(declined)

(declined)

(declined)

(declined)

(rabi also)

(declined)

(declined

Fuel wood collection

Casual Labour (Dec. – May)

Salt pans (KoliVal.

Beta(east)

Relief (pond & well

)

Embroidery (sel

(self

44

f use

)

use)

Bead work Tie and dye Sell milk & milk prod.

(declined)

Constructing temporary shelter

45

Thus, during difficult times apart from doing household chores, women engage themselves as casual labourer which is an added burden on them. During the field visit, (after the earthquake), it was observed that a major portion of time was spent on cooking and mortaring their walls with cow-dung. In the earthquake-affected villages, women devoted more time towards rebuilding and arranging the household goods in the temporary structures.

The women were asked to rank the household activities performed by them based on their perception of the activities as easy, difficult and most difficult to perform. Women expressed that tasks like cooking and cleaning of house are very easy whereas collection of fuel wood, fetching water and fodder besides plastering the houses with cow dung is very time consuming. The latter activities require them to walk long distances. Childcare is also perceived to be time consuming by the women, as they have to give the children ample attention. The women found milking cattle to be a strenuous job due to backaches they suffer in turn.

The women found washing clothes as the most difficult activity during normal times as due to problem of water availability in Kachchh. After earthquake, availing water was all the more difficult as the pipelines were damaged. The women working on farms found their work to be very difficult. The primary reason is that this is an additional task they need to perform after completing the household work. They also found the labour work to be physically strenuous but did not have an alternative means to support the family.

3.2 Involvement of Women in Income Generating Activities

The women in the sample talukas of Kachchh are engaged in various incomes generating activities besides the regular household chores. The women and the adolescent girls in Anjar, Bhachau, Mandvi and Nakhatrana are engaged in embroidery activity. The women and girls devote their afternoon or leisure hours in this activity.

In Simri village of Bhuj Taluka, the women are engaged in making mawa, a milk product. Besides embroidery and milk products, women in Anjar Taluka are also involved in beadwork.

Table 17: Skills of Women Bhuj Anjar Bhachau Mandvi Nakhatrana Embroidery Mava making

(a milk product)

Embroidery

Tie and dye

Bead-

Embroidery Tie and dye

Embroidery

When we have work, when we go for majoori (labour work), then we do not think of doing bharat guthan (embroidery). It is only during times like this (crisis) that we undertake embroidery work. After all, there is so much of time at our disposal. We do this work only when we are free. There is nothing very special about it (embroidery), our grandmothers also used to devote their time in these activities.

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ornamentsWomen in these talukas are primarily involved in farm labour in Mandvi and Nakhatrana blocks as can be explained by the land quality and irrigation facility; as casual labour (including relief work) in other talukas. In the crisis year, in all the talukas, agricultural labour comes down and the casual labour work by women increases however, in Nakhatrana the casual labour work by women does not change as much as in other talukas. There is an increase in embroidary work in Nakhatrana and Bhuj blocks followed by Anjar and Bhachau whereas the dairy related work increases in Bhuj block during crisis years. Tie and dye work also increases but restricted to Anjar and Mandvi.

NB: Normal year, Bhuj CB: Crisis year, Bhuj NH: Normal year, Anjar CH: Crisis year, Anjar

NA: Normal year, Bhachau CA: Crisis year, Bhachau NM: Normal year, Mandvi CM: Crisis year, Mandvi NN: Normal year, Nakkatrana CN: Crisis year, Nakhatrana

In Vehar and Ugedi villages of Nakhatrana taluka, the NGOs like Self-Employment Women’s Association (SEWA) and Kachchh Mahila Vikas Samiti (KMVS) are encouraging women in taking up handicrafts as a means of income. It is encouraging to note that, these NGO’s have also formed the women's groups in these villages. In few of the villages, the women have also formed thrift groups. In the same villages, the women (mainly Harijan women) are engaged in shawl weaving. However, this is not a regular source of income for them as it is highly dependent on the demand by traders.

The women in Anjar taluka make bead ornaments. The trader comes from the nearby areas and takes their work for sale in Mumbai, Surat, Ahmedabad and Vadodara. The presence of NGOs have helped the women in bargaining power as can be seen in Bhuj as opposed to the case in Anjar.

Case 4: NGOs Enhance Bargaining Power

In Bhuj block ( Simri village) the women are engaged in embroidery but don’t get a justice in being paid by the trader. They get a meager amount of Rs. 10-12 for embroidering 1 meter of cloth and for embroidering 4-meter cloth they get Rs. 40 by the trader. On the other hand in village Khari, Bhuj block due to the interventions done by NGO Janvikas Trust the women are getting Rs. 65 for embroidering a meter

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of cloth. They are able to embroider 3 pieces ( 1 m measurement) in a month.

In Anjar block Kotda village the women are involved in bead ornaments and tie and dye which they sell to trader and get a minimum amount of Rs. 5-10 for doing the bead ornament. The market price of the similar work ranges from Rs. 20 – 50. For tying 5m cloth they are paid a petty amount of Rs. 20-25.

In Mandvi block in villages like Nani Bhadai and Dhokda the women and adolescent girls are involved in tie and dye activity. For tying 5 meter cloth they get a minimum amount of Rs. 25 by the trader. These women want to form a Mahila Mandal but are restricted by the men as they are from the Darbar community.

3.3 Women’s Role in Income and Expenditure

The overall findings reveal that despite contributing nearly forty per cent to the family income, women perceive themselves as a secondary bread earner of the family. The income earned by a woman is usually handed over to the head of the household, in majority of cases the person is the husband.

“We do not spend a penny with out the permission of our husband. Traditionally all women in the village give their income to the husband or the head of the household. We don’t mind giving the money to them. We get our share or the money that we want to spend from them when we need it”.

-Women, district:Kachchh

“We are involved in embroidery work. We work on 4-5 meters of cloth for which we are paid an amount of Rs.40. The women in our community do not have any say in spending the amount, which they earn, without the consent of their spouses. We can’t even save money as whatever we earn, goes in the hands of our husbands. If we express a desire to do something on our own, it’s totally ignored”.

-Women artisans, Simri, Bhuj

Since the money is handed over to the husband or the head of the household, women find it difficult to save money for themselves.

“The women here are involved in beadwork. They make bead ornaments. The money they get for bead ornaments range from Rs.15 to Rs.40. These ornaments are marketed in Surat, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Vadodara. As the men do the marketing of these bead ornaments, the income from these works is acquired by men and never reaches the women. The women are not even aware of the actual price of the work done by them as the agent comes from nearby areas and takes the beadwork (pays them according to piece rate).

A woman participant, Dhori, Bhuj At the household level, women are the most vulnerable one, as they do not control over resources, even resources she herself produces.

However, the situation changes with an external development intervention. In Dhora village of Nakhatrana taluka the picture is different. The Muslim women here are involved in embroidery activity under the guidance of the Kachchh Mahila Vikas Samiti. They get Rs.150 for embroidering half a metre of cloth. In a month, a woman earns approximately Rs.450. Women reported that they control the income generated by them. The economic stability and the attitudinal change, which these

48

women have gathered, has empowered them in different areas of life. The men of the village acknowledged that in present crisis period, the income earned by the women members of the household was a major support for them.

3.4 Women’s Access and Control over Resources

The primary objective of this section is to determine the access and control over resources by women. In the earlier chapters we have seen that intra-community vulnerability exists in the study area, this section will attempt at highlighting the same. It is interesting to determine the intra-household dynamics on this issue. Women were asked whether they have access to all the resources in their households. They opined that they have access to land, money, jewellery and commodities in home like utensils, food grains etc. However, land holding and land ownership predominantly lies with men primarily due to patriarchal system prevalent in India.

The issues related to cultivation of crops, such as what needs to be grown in the fields, entirely depends on the decision of the male members. They also take the decision of buying and selling of food grains. Jewellery is possessed and worn by women but the decision of selling or mortgaging the jewellery lies with men. Thus, despite the access to resources, women do not have a control over it, which highlights their lack of bargaining power within the household.

3.5 Women in Decision Making

Although women contribute significantly to household income, men dominate the decision making process both within and outside the family. During the discussions, women indicated that they have very little role to play in decision making process. Decisions regarding borrowing money, child’s education, migration, healthcare, sale and mortgage of land and jewellery, sale of livestock, grain etc. is taken by men. Women’s decision-making is limited to household chores. She usually takes decisions on daily purchases, preparation of food etc.

Women do not have any role in the community level decision-making process. She is allowed to work in activities carried out under village development, but her opinion is not sought regarding wage fixation, work to be undertaken etc. In few villages in Bhachau and Anjar talukas, some women were selected as Sarpanch but during their tenure, their husband or father-in-law participated on her behalf.

Generally, men determine the level of participation of women in the labour work. Darbar community women in Kachchh have restrictions on any kind of labour activities outside their house.

"The woman in our community, despite of all the talents she possesses, has to compromise with what her husband says. They are not allowed to go out of their ‘phadias’ (cluster) for doing any job. The women here are engaged in the work of Bandhni work and agarbatti making. The trader comes from Mandvi and takes away the work done by them and pays them. Income generated by women is entirely taken away by men."

Women (Jadeja community), Nani Bhadai, Mandvi

In the Darbar community of Mandvi and Nakhatrana talukas, women do not come in front of men, nor do they talk loudly or express themselves openly before the elders. In these families women have no role in decision making. It is only in unusual

49

circumstances i.e. in women headed household, she may be forced to take decisions on her own.

3.6 Intra-Household Distribution of Food

In general, the pattern of food distribution in the household is to serve the children first and then the male members. The women members usually eat after serving the members. Women ensure that every body gets their share of the meal.

Table 18: Dietary intake of families/meal (appx. in cooked form)Food items Major

nutrients available

In normal year Drought year After earthquake

Bajra chapati/ rotla (200 gms.). eat bajra chapati/rotla during winter and monsoon.

Energy, protein, invisible fat, vitamin B1, vitaminB2, folic acid, iron fibre

2 chapati/ rotla for women, 3-4 for men, 1-1.5 for children

1-2 chapati/rotla, 3-4 for men, 1-1.5 for children

1-2 chapati/ rotla, 2-3 for men, 1-1.5 for children. (Occasional as they are more dependent on the food kit which they got from the NGO’s after quake)

Wheat chapati/ rotla ( 150 gms.during summer)

Energy, protein, invisible fat, vitamin B1, vitaminB2, folic acid, iron fibre

3-4 chapatis/ rotla for female, 4-5 for men and 1-2 for children. Occasional and seasonal dependence on wheat.

2-3 chapatis/ rotla for females, 3-4 for men, 1-2 for children. Occasional and seasonal dependence on wheat.

Same after earthquake but entirely depend on wheat rotla/ chapati as they have received wheat flour in the food kit obtained after quake.

Rice (occasional)

Energy, protein, invisible fat, vitamin B1, vitaminB2, folic acid, iron fibre

200-300gms/ men, 100-150 gms/women, 100 gms/ children

Occasional but prefers kichari in crisis period.

None

Khichdi (prepared out of rice and mung dal)

Energy, protein, invisible fat, vitamin B1, vitaminB2, folic acid, iron fibre

300-250 gms for men, 200-250 gms for women, and 100-150 gms for children. Kichari consumption is less in normal year as they prefer to eat more chapati

Amount is almost same but more consumption of Kichari in the crisis year. They eat kichari for dinner

Almost same

Vegetables (brinjal, cabbage, onion leaves, brinjal, tomato)

Carotenoids, folic acid, calcium, fibre, invisible fats, vitaminB2, iron.

250-300 gms. for men 150 gms. for women, and 50-100 gms. for children

150-200 gms. For men, 80-100 gms. for women, and 50-100 gms for children

Less or none

Butter milk Protein, fat, 400-500ml. for 200 ml. or less 100-150 ml. for male

50

Food items Major nutrients available

In normal year Drought year After earthquake

vitaminB2, calcium.

men, 200-300 ml for women, 100-150 ml for children

for men, 100-150 ml for women, 100-150 ml for children.

and female, 100-150 for children

Milk ( for tea and giving milk to children)

Protein, fat, vitamin B2, calcium.

1 kg. - 1 ½ kg. 500-700 ml., give milk occasionally to children due to shortage of milk.

Less than 500 ml.

Potato Energy, protein, invisible fat, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, folic acid, calcium, iron, fibre.

250 gms for men, 150 gms women and 100 gms for children

Less as there is availability of other vegetables for consumption.

Increased as the availability of other vegetables has decreased due to quake. The only vegetable easily available is potato so people are consuming it more

Pulses Energy, protein, invisible fat, vitamin B1, vitaminB2, folic acid, iron fibre

150 ml for male, 100 ml for female and 50 ml for children

Occasional None

Red Chilly Chutney

Proteins, fat minerals, fibre, carbohydrates, calcium, phosphorous, iron

20-25gms./men and women, 5-10 gms./ children.

Same as normal year.

Same as normal year.

During the normal times, the consumption of rice was about 300 gms in case of men. However, during drought, the consumption reduced to 100 gms or became occasional. In few villages, the people stopped consuming rice. Whereas, in some of the villages, the case was just opposite. In a few villages, people disliked rice but still were consuming only rice and buttermilk as a coping mechanism during the earthquake as they received rice in relief. Women consumed 75 to 100 gms of rice during the normal times. They mentioned that the consumption of rice reduced substantially during the drought period. They eat rice occasionally so that the quantity taken per meal remains the same as normal days. During earthquake, in some of the villages the women were consuming only rice or khichdi (preparation of rice and moong dal) and buttermilk instead of rotlas.

During the normal times, the consumption of vegetables (like brinjal, guvarfali, cauliflower, onion, potatoes, cabbage and tomatoes) was about 100-150 gms by men. During drought, the consumption of vegetables came down to 50-75 gms. During this period, their consumption was limited to very few vegetables like brinjal, onion, tomatoes and potatoes. After the earthquake, they received onions and potatoes from the PDS and NGOs.

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It can be seen very clearly that women followed by adolescent girls are most vulnerable in terms of accessing food within the household, which has much to be blamed on the age-old culture in the country, women as an image of sacrifice. However, on probe, this does not seem to have an overt implication on their health, as their consumption of cereals is not very low. Moreover, they do not consult doctors on the matter of nutrition and have accepted it as a way of life.

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CHAPTER IV

KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES ON HEALTH AND NUTRITION

4.1 Introduction

This chapter attempts at understanding the prevailing practices of communities especially vulnerable sections in terms of hygiene and health care that can augment nutritional insecurity.

It is well-accepted fact that the various practices in terms of feeding behaviour, childcare, hygiene behaviour, health seeking behaviour etc. influence the nutritional status of individuals. The practices are primarily cultural in nature, are not static and get affected by several factors. For instance, in Kachchh, the persistent drought followed by cyclone and the earthquake has affected the health seeking behaviour.

We have seen above that the study area has gone through natural calamities which have forced the inhabitants to alter their dietary pattern which in turn has implication on nutritional status of the community at large and specific members within the household such as women and adolescent girls. Drought has also forced them to resort to unhygienic sources of water and other calamities have made them practice unhygienic waste disposal and priorities of work changing according to the situation give little time for childcare. The following will deal with these issues in details.

4.2 Drinking Water

Nearly all the villages surveyed in Anjar, Bhachau, Mandvi and Nakhatrana talukas receive drinking water through pipeline and some villages also receive water through tankers regularly. Except for the Nana Varnora, all villages in Bhuj taluka also access drinking water from wells located in the radius of 1 km. of the village. Moreover, during the drought period they continue to drink water from the pipeline preferably but the scarcity through this source (supply usually once or twice in a day) forced villagers to get tankers and also draw water from the well although it is highly saline (please refer to Annex IX). Due to drought, they have to walk 1 km. to get water from the well. They use the pipe and tanker water for drinking purposes and the well water for washing purposes.

Due to the earthquake, water supply is interrupted for 4-5 days on a regular basis. During that time, pipe-water was contaminated however they continued to use the same but in a few villages water was chlorinated with individual initiatives like sarpanch of the village. Some in Bhuj resorted to use of well water and some villages in Bhachau and Mandvi have received tanker water. The pipeline was repaired within 4-5 days after the earthquake and the well water was not affected due to this calamity. The study revealed that women shoulder the responsibility of collecting water except the Darbar community (known as Jadeja’s or Rajput’s) as women from this community are not allowed to go out of their houses. Men and younger boys

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undertake all outside work including fetching water from wells and ponds. This is a feature irrespective of the situation, normal, drought or earthquake years.

The villagers were not practising purification of water as they reportedly get chlorinated water. They continued the same practice after the earthquake also, which in turn resulted in sharp rise in diarrhoea, vomiting and fever. This was primarily due to damage in the pipelines during the earthquake and villagers were receiving contaminated water for nearly a week after the earthquake. The villagers are unaware of purifying water by boiling it.

NGOs and ANMs came to the rescue by supplying ORS and other medicines to the people residing in the quake affected villages.

Had the social organisations not been there, the number of deaths and diseases in our villages would have been far higher than what it is today. Just imagine our plight … our houses razed to the ground, our near and dear ones either hurt or dead and the health of the survivors … in a poor condition. At this hour if someone comes with help to you and that too with something like medicines… that person or the sanstha (organisation) becomes your God.

- A resident of Senugra village in Anjar taluka

NGOs involvement was evident in villages of Bhuj, Anjar and Nakhatrana; and ANMs involvement was witnessed in all the talukas with the exception of Bhachau as the women complained about ANMs visiting infrequently even after the earthquake.

The urban information was covered in 2 slums each of Anjar and Bhuj. The urban population is engulfed with the problem of unclean drinking water through pipelines with a common tap for the inhabitants of the slum. Incidences of diarrhoea, cramps in the stomach, vomiting, headaches due to indigestion and fever have been reported as very high in pre and post earthquake period.

4.3 Iodised Salt Use

In 1988, the prevention of food and adulteration act was amended to fix the minimum iodine content of salt at 30 parts per million (ppm) at the manufacturing level and 15 ppm at the consumer level (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 1994). The Government of India has advised all states and union territories to issue notifications banning the sale of edible salt that is not iodised. However, the ban was lifted in September 2000 (National Family Health Survey- 2 [NFHS], 1998-99). Gujarat has nearly a third the households that consume non-iodised salt. The proportion is slightly higher when one looks at India as a whole (NFHS-2, 1998-99).

The primary cause of concern is the fact that the level of awareness on this issue is not very high within the rural population. An attempt was made to find the proportion of population aware of and utilising iodised salt in their regular meals.

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The rapid test kit was used for measuring the iodine content of the salt consumed by the people residing in the five FIVP sample talukas of the Kachchh district. The process undergone is as below:

Minimum 2-3 households were taken as samples for carrying out the test. The following steps were undertaken in carrying out the salt test: A drop of the solution was put in the little quantity of salt that was

taken from the selected household An attempt was made to see if the colour of the salt turned purple

as this would determine the presence of iodine in the salt In case the salt did not change colour a drop or two from the

alkaline solution was put in the salt. This would determine the salt’s being alkaline by nature

If the salt did not change colour despite the presence of both the solutions, it determined the absence of not only alkalinity but also iodine from the salt

Out of a total of fifty-four samples, only twelve samples had traces of iodine. The rest of the samples were either inadequately or non-iodised. Those samples containing iodine were reportedly purchased from the local shops located within the village. In the post earthquake period however the salt being used by the villagers is iodised as it has been provided as a part of the food kit by the NGOs to the villagers. The salt purchase is based on availability and they are not aware of the serious consequences of not consuming iodine from health and nutrition points of view.

4.4 Garbage Disposal and Diseases

One can witness some differences in disposing faecal matter in urban slums and rural areas both in the period of before and after earthquake. In the present scenario, both in the urban and rural areas, there are no latrines and therefore people go outside for defaecation. Since villages are spread out, one can go far away but the restriction of space in urban areas make it more unhygienic.

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Urban slumsAlthough some of the urban slums in Bhuj were provided with latrines by the government, they were non-functional as the latrines were not provided with water tap and were further damaged by the earthquake.

In one of the slums, the dwellers had built private latrines, which had broken down

due to the earthquake. As mentioned above, due to lack of space, the urban slum settlers go to nearby areas even the lane next to their houses for defaecation. This increased the incidence of various diseases in the area.

A common site in urban slums is accumulation of water and garbage around the corner of houses. The residents complained of indifference on the part of the municipality as regards to garbage disposal. This is turn attracts flies and becomes a host of numerous diseases like fever, cholera, malaria, stomach ache, diarrhoea and vomiting.

The women in urban slums are aware of diseases caused by flies and mosquitoes and to avoid these, they mop floors with phenyl and also keep water vessels covered. They also know that it is important to wash hands after defecation and most of the times they use soap at home for washing hands.

Rural areasIn almost all the villages, garbage is disposed of outside the village periphery. The garbage is disposed off in an open area, far away from the village settlements. This practice has not been affected either by drought or earthquake. It is interesting to see that the garbage is sold off. In few villages like Nagrecha, Kotdi (Mandvi block) and Jangi (Bachhau block), villagers sell the garbage for Rs. 100-150 per truck annually to be used as manure by farmers.

Villagers as a normal practice go to open fields for defaecation and continue to do the same during drought years or after earthquake. They understand the implication of this system of garbage and waste disposal. The villagers expressed the need to spray insecticides/pesticides in the village at regular intervals to check the breeding of flies, mosquitoes and other harmful insects.

4.5 Health Seeking Practices

The Crude Birth Rate (Census 1991) in Kachchh district is 34.37 as against 33.56 in the state; and the morbidity per 1000 population (1992-94) in Kachchh is 61.34

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The pigs perform the functions of the municipal corporation. They clear off the garbage by consuming. Though the locality stands fair chances of contracting other diseases due to these pigs still they are the one’s who temporarily keep our area clean.

-Residents, Jogi

A woman from our slum had to be hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis complains seven eight months back. She was in the hospital for more than a week. She was administered saline bottle. The condition is very bad in our locality.

as compared to 55.00 in the state. This highlights the fact the morbidity is higher in Kachchh districts due to reasons discussed above.

Apart from the prevalent diseases in the area due to unhygienic practices mentioned above, some commonly reported diseases after earthquake are diarrhoea, fever, vomiting, cold and cough. However, their incidences have reduced due to relief and health services provided by the government and NGOs. Since the earthquake was so fresh in their mind, they primarily tend to relate their health problems to the post-earthquake time. However, on probe, it was found out that the diseases in the drought area are not any different than in the normal year as they continue to drink pipe water.

Treatment seeking behaviour is more marked by area, urban-rural rather than the time period. In urban areas of Bhuj and Anjar, people go outside for treatment except diarrhoea and in Anjar they go to civil hospital also. In urban slums, however, the residents approach doctors immediately on detection of the ailment. They go to doctor or the ANM for medication of even minor ailments. Some like those in Jogi Vaas slum of Bhuj resort to Registered Medical Practitioners for treatment. It needs to be highlighted that the civil hospital in Bhuj where women used to primarily go for deliveries have collapsed totally due to earthquake. However, the urban dwellers were not unhappy,

“ … it is good that it has collapsed … we never got good attention there” but continued going there because of low cost of treatment.

In Anjar, people preferred to go to the civil hospital, as the treatment is cheap. For major ailments, they prefer to go to private doctors, as they perceive the quality of treatment to be better.

On the other hand, the villagers primarily depend on home remedies such as SSS (Sugar and Salt Solution) with lemon, liquid diet for diarrhoea in the initial days, then they go to the governement health providers, ANM and doctors in PHC/CHC. It is worth mentioning that none of the participants reported going to the traditional faith healers. It was found in some (4-5) villages that the people depend on home remedies like exposing the child to the smoke of ajwain and turmeric powder in case of respiratory problems; giving SSS during diarrhoea and giving the baby massage on lower abdomen and back to give relief from diarrhoea; body massage with goat’s milk to a child suffering from fever etc. This treatment-seeking pattern has remained same, in drought years and even after the earthquake.

4.6 Antenatal and Postnatal Care

In normal years, pregnant and lactating mothers are given nutritious foods like green vegetables, ‘sheera’ made of wheat flour, pure ghee and milk. However during the drought conditions, families are not able provide these nutritious foods and the women are given milk and rotis made out of bajri and wheat in all the vulnerable groups. The earthquake has made their situation worse as women including pregnant did not have food in the initial days.

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As far as the workload is concerned, pregnant women do not need to undertake heavy work due to the support system in extended or joint family system. However, the women working as labourers said that they work till the ninth month. Whereas, the women working as salt labourers are primarily from Ambaliayara and Jhangi villages of Bhachau block who stop going to the agar (Salt Pan) from the third or the fourth month of their pregnancy. They said that it was a difficult task working in the salt-fields and besides the pains and ailments caused to them could also be detrimental for their unborn child. Thus, they stopped working for this time period even at the cost of income.

The indicators of ANC as per NFHS II shows that 86.4 per cent of pregnant women receive at least one antenatal check-up, 72.2 per cent receive 2 or more TT, and 78 per cent are given IFA in Gujarat. All these indicators for Gujarat are higher than the national average. The women in the study area also corroborated some of these facts –

advice during the pregnancy is sought from ANM and elderly women of the village;

tetanus toxoid vaccine is taken by some in the third and the eight-month of their pregnancy; and others in the fourth and the seventh month.

However, it is worth investigating whether there are more villages like Kotai, Bhuj taluka where women do not consume IFA tablets and throw these away despite being aware. The women of Kotai feel that they consume enough of milk products and do not need this supplement.

Local dais available in their own village or nearby villages usually perform the deliveries in all the vulnerable groups. However, in case of complications, as and when reported by the dai, the women are taken to the nearest PHC. Preference for local service provider for delivery is primarily due to high expenditure and problems faced by the pregnant women in travelling to the PHC. A deviation to this is the case of Dhori, Bhuj taluka where the women go to the PHC for pregnancy related complications and delivery despite it being 105 km away.

As part of the post-partum care, one can observe various practices in the field. For example, in the Muslim community, the women are given fish and chappati after delivery as they believe that fish and rice is both medicinal and also help in proper lactation.

The vulnerable women in all the villages of Kachchh gave ‘Sheera’ made with lots of ghee, brinjal curry and bajri’s chappati as medicinal treatment for a period of six days after the delivery.

4.7 Childcare

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“Ben ame to maniye che ke rotla ane maachli nu shaak aapvu joiye. Aava khorak thi tandarusti jaldi paacha aavi jaaye che.” [Sister, we believe that a diet of fish and chappati helps in regaining the energy and health very fast. That is the reason we provide the mother with this diet]

Childcare is being addressed in terms of breast-feeding and complementary feeding practices within the community; and immunisation. Across all vulnerable groups, colostrum is not given either due to religious or social reasons. No difference has been witnessed in breast feeding practice in normal and drought years with the exception of earthquake when the feeding frequency was reduced due to less breast milk (as the mothers curtailed eating during the initial days after the earthquake).

Breast FeedingIn India the breast feeding practice is guided by both cultural and religious practices. It is a common practice of not feeding the colostrum, which has also been found in the study. It displays that breast milk is initiated on second or third day after delivery. Although the reason extended is lack of breast milk in the initial days but the reasons are more deep-rooted. There is a common belief that the stored milk is not good for the child as it is impure or very heavy for a child to digest. Thus, the child is given goat’s milk, ghutti, honey and gur (jaggery) to clean the stomach. Similarly, the study shows that during the first two to three days, the infant is fed goat’s milk as it is perceived to be lighter and easier to digest for the infant.

Similarly in the Muslim community, the mother initiates the breast-feeding after the Quazi reads the prayer or the Azaan in the infant’s ear. If a child is born in the evening, the breast-feeding is initiated from the next morning, as customarily they do not give prayers in the evenings. Some also said that in case of Quazi’s unavailability the next morning, the father can read prayers in the infant’s ear. In Nagrecha (Mandvi block), the women of the Muslim community said that they initiate breast-feeding only after the naming ceremony of the child, i.e., on the same day or the next day and till then the infant is fed honey and water or goats milk. It is noteworthy that the girl child is breastfed for a longer duration than the male child as women feel that the male child is strong by birth whereas a girl child calls for attention, as she is physically very weak. Thus, women opined that if a male child were breastfed for a year and a half, the girl child would be fed for two and a half years. The breast-feeding was not stopped during the earthquake however, the feeding declined after earthquake due to decline in mother’s milk (she had stopped eating for 3-4 days along with men and continued doing so for a longer period).

Complementary Feeding PracticesThe complementary feeding starts at the fifth or sixth month with the child being given semisolid diets like khichdi, crushed chapatis and biscuits soaked in milk in all the vulnerable groups. Solid foods like biscuits, puffed rice, rice, dal, bajri chapati are given from the eight-month onwards.

Due to the earthquake, the women reported their inability to pay required attention to their children. Their damaged houses have added to the worry – stray-dogs spoiling their cooked food that is being kept in the open. All such worries have adversely affected the childcare practices. In the period following the earthquake, the women reported reduction in lactation due to the fear and shock.

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ImmunisationAll the participants were aware of the significance of immunisation, mostly aware of tetanus toxoid called ‘dhanur ni rasi’ and polio drops called ‘lakwa na teepa’. The vaccines such as BCG, DPT and Polio drops are commonly administered to the child as was evident from the immunisation cards.

“Vaccines are generally given to the children. ANM visits our houses and administers vaccines to the child. Therefore we do not have to bother about it much”.

Their primary source of information was reported to be the ANM. Despite the earthquake, the ANM is continuing her immunisation service in the village and caste discrimination has not been witnessed. She actually goes door-to-door to disseminate information and provide services.

The ANM is well aware of the cases in the village - in Nani Bhadai (Mandvi block) an incidence of night blindness was reported in one family. A child aged 3 years is suffering from night blindness but the elderly women of the family said "… the mother suffered from jaundice during the pregnancy period, the child is suffering from eyesight problem". The ANM of the village informed that the child was suffering from night blindness due to vitamin A deficiency.

Thus, it can be concluded that the community is engaged in some unhygienic practices of waste disposal leading to minor ailments. These features are common across the country but a possibly of higher degree in the study area due to proneness to disasters. Also, the consumption reduction by pregnant and lactating mother to cope in the crisis situation is not advisable.

The childcare practices are much better in Gujarat than the national average as evident from NFHS II. It reveals that 51.9 percent of children aged 12-35 months in Gujarat is given at least one dose of Vit.A as against a national figure of 29.7 percent; and 84.7 percent of children between 12-23 months in Gujarat are given BCG injection as compared to 71.6 percent in the country. The breast-feeding practice needs to be addressed to improve the nutritional status of children.

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CHAPTER V

INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES ACCESS, UTILISATION AND VULNERABILITY

5.1 Introduction

In order to have a better understanding of the problems faced by the villagers in the selected talukas of the Kachchh district, discussions were held with the communities to identify the factors, which contributed most to their vulnerability and food insecurity and have been analysed in the earlier chapter. Further, attempt was made to explore the available resources, access and user-ship rights with these communities. This chapter displays the perception of the community in Kachchh with regards to infrastructure facility in the context of vulnerability.

While reading this section, one needs to keep in the background the recent earthquake that rocked Gujarat in January’2001. During this time period they were preoccupied with the problem of reconstruction and rehabilitation due to the damage of their houses, property, loss of income and above all the deaths of their near and dear ones. Therefore, shelter, food and access to health institutions were the major concerns reported by the villagers in the post earthquake phase.

5.2 Natural Resource Endowment

In this section, we will deal with water, forest and pasture land. The agricultural land is not covered here as it has been dealt with extensively in the previous chapter. In general it has been seen that upper caste people are more respected due to higher land ownership. Therefore, in case of social occasions, upper castes have the first right to use community resources such as community hall.

“… we are harijans and the village is dominant by Ahirs and the Sarpanch is from the same community … if Ahirs and we need the community hall for any social occasion in the same time, we do it in our own locality and keep our respect and give the hall to Ahirs for use …we will give first preference to upper caste people”

Harijans, Amalia village, Chachau block

However, there is no pronounce restriction on the lower caste with the exception of their entry in temples and flour mills (food for all so they cannot touch it).

5.2.1 Water

Scarcity of drinking water is a major problem in almost all the villages covered under the study. The ground water in Kachchh has declined over the years. Depletion of potable water has implication on water borne diseases and fluorosis due to salinity of water.

Table 19: Ground Water Situation in KachchhArea Actual (in Mcm/year) Change (%)

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1984 1991 1997 1984-1991

1991-1997

1984-97

Kachchh

802.93 517.07 627.00 (-) 35.60 21.26 (-) 21.91

Gujarat 20377.04 14444.66 16060.35 (-) 29.11 11.19 (-) 21.18Source: Narmada and Water Resources Department

The status of drinking water quality in Gujarat reveals that the water in Gujarat and Kachchh in particular is excessively saline (compared to the WHO permissble limit for TDS is 500 mg./L). It is not potable in Kachchh primarily due to the vicity of desert.

Table 20: Villages affected by flouride, nitrate and salinity problemsArea Excess % of villages having excess

No. of villa-ges Surveyed

Fluoride Nitrate Salinity Fluoride Nitrate Salinity

Kachchh

997 74 5 64 1.4 0.5 4.41

Gujarat 19111 2826 785 1048 14.79 4.11 5.48Source: Narmada and Water Resources Department

In Gujarat, percent of the districts are affected by excessive fluoride, 15 percent are affected by excessively saline and 4.41 percent of villages in the sate have excessive nitrate. This well explains that potable water scenario is not too promising in the district.

In most of the villages, pipelines and tankers are the primary sources of drinking water. The pipelines have been giving unclean water after the drought, which has further accentuated in the post-earthquake period (this has been discussed at length in the previous chapter). Water supply was reported to be almost regular, excepting for a few days immediately after the earthquake. Today Kachchh has one of the largest rural pipeline network in the country covering about 95% villages. In some villages like Khari (Bhuj taluka), Ambaliayara (Bachhau taluka) people have constructed ponds and wells under the drought relief programme, however, the lack of rain has left them dry.

Except for Dhokda village in Mandvi taluka, the responsibility of collecting water lies with the women. The deviation is witnessed in Dhokda due to caste system. The predominant caste residing in the villages are Darbars, a community that has restrictions on the movement of women outside house. In some villages like Dhokda (Mandvi taluka), the only source of drinking water is a bore well which is not accessible to the villagers due to absence of electric supply which is essential for drawing water. The villagers are not able to make it functional due to lack of adequate financial resources.

5.2.2 Forest

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Forest is important for both environmental and economic reasons particularly for those whose livelihood depends on forest resources. In Gujarat, actual forest coverage is 6.4 percent against the desired level of 2 percent for climatic and hydrological stability norm of 19.27 percent (FSI, 1997).

In Kachchh, the share of forest in the total gross area is much lower than the state average.

Table 21: Forest cover in Kachchh and GujaratArea Total geo.

Area (Sq. km)Forest Area

(1991)Forest Area

(1993)Forest Area

(1995)Forest Area

(1997)Sq. Km

% Sq. Km

% Sq. Km

% Sq. Km

%

Kachchh 45652 1249 2.74

1252 2.74 1546 3.39

1846 4.04

Gujarat 196024 11907

60.7

12044

6.14 12320 6.28

12578

6.42

The contribution of forest products in supplementing income as well as providing consumption items for these people is important. The forest provides the food and income support from sale of non-timber forest produce (NTFP) like Gundar, Ber, etc., which are only available to vulnerable groups. Sale of timber product like firewood and charcoal provide a chunk of the family income to households in Bhuj and Bhachau which is primarily prevalent among SCs . The children of SCs are involved in collecting edible gums. In addition, the entire community get fruit of the babul trees to feed the animal after boiling as they believe that this stops the harmful effect of the fruit in terms of causing dizziness, numbness of the jaw and decline in the ability to chew. These fruits are also consumed by children as part of the coping mechanism and also out of fun as they like the sweet and sour taste of the fruit.

With the steady growth of human and livestock population and increasing demand for agricultural land, there is a marked shortage of area under timber, fuel wood and fodder species. The shrinkage of tree cover on the village common lands and village forests, which acted as a buffer between the rural habitation and the forests, has exposed the forests to human population.

It needs to be mentioned here that the forest coverage in the studied area is primarily of babul trees which is spreading rapidly increasing the forest coverage however declining the soil fertility and increasing desertification. This has implication on the livelihood of SCs as Ber and Kaira trees are declining as the SCs earlier used to get Rs. 10 per day by selling the fruits of these trees. The forest is also a source of employment to the SC communities (both men and women) as they are employed in nursery raising but limited to 20-30 days in the monsoon season. However, villagers argue that the ability to rely on forest has been substantially reduced.

The growth of the forest (Babul trees) has implication on the vegetative cover which protects the soil against erosion is gradually lost in Kachchh. The per capita forest cover in Kachchh 90.002 ha) is almost 30 fold less than the national average of 0.13 ha. During the summer and the drought months, when the natural fodder

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availability is low, the forestlands are overgrazed however due to drought the fodder is not available in forests also.

5.2.3 Pasture Land

Continuous drought in the district with ever spreading of the babul trees has substantially reduced the pastureland of this district. The initiatives from the government to develop the pastureland looking at the high dependence on livestock rearing are also not evident. The grass provided under ration to the ‘maldharis’ is meagre considering the requirements.

In Moti Aral village of Nakhatrana taluka the men reported:“There is a big pastureland of about 1000 acres which is 5-6 kms from our village. Earlier during the normal times, when the rainfall was good, there was abundance of lapda grass (a species of grass) growing here. There was no problem of fodder for the animals. However, at present, the animals eat Ganda bawad, as there is nothing available now.

It is ironical to note that it is easier to gather food than getting fodder for livestock rearing. Due to vast stretch of dry lands with thorny shrubs, cattle owners have to walk hours to graze their cattle. Most of them feel that if the drought continues, it will be increasingly difficult for them to stick to animal rearing as the main source of income.

5.3 Public Infrastructure and Development Schemes

Nearly all the villages covered under the study have access to facilities such as private doctors, local dais, primary schools, Fair Price Shops of the Public Distribution System, and institutions like DRDA [Indira Awas Yojana, Sardar Awas Yojana, Gokul Gram Yojana and watershed development], Panchayat, NGOs etc. Some of the villages like Janan (Bhachau taluka) also have veterinary services. Local organisations such as Mahila Mandals and Yuvak Mandals, working for the welfare of the village, were limited to a few villages like Khari, Simri, Narainpar. This section brings out the importance and influence of these services for the studied population. These facilities have been dealt in detail and within each section, the opportunities and problems have been indicated (for details please refer to Annex VII and VII).

The importance of public services can be well-gauged by the fact that in most of the villages, panchayat, school and water supply have been opined as extremely important by villagers. Villagers from Simri, Khari (Bhuj), Kalyanpar, Janan, Ganeshpar (Bhachau), Bhimsar, Vehar, Ratadia and Nani Mau (Mandvi) expressed that NGOs are also very important for them. Although in the post earthquake, NGOs and various other organisations can be seen working towards rehabilitation of villages, this was not same before the earthquake.

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The top five high importance and influence services are water, electricity, school, Panchayat and ICDS. PDS and NGO/CBO are important but have medium and low influence on the villagers. The public health institutions such as PHC/CHC, Sub-centre are of high importance but of middle and low influence. It is surprising that relief work is neither of high importance or high influence despite the timing of the fieldwork. The mid-day meal scheme is of low influence but of high and medium importance. Fodder depot/bank is of high importance but varying degree of influence. The importance and influence of money lender is low primarily as the villagers are less dependence on them due to their inability to pay off loans. Telephone is of low influence but of high and medium importance.

Table 22: Institution Importance and Influence Matrix High

importanceImportant Low

importanceNo importance

High influence

Water Supply = 20School = 13Electricity = 13Panchayat = 11ICDS = 11NGO/CBO = 3CHC/PHC = 3Fodder Depot = 2PDS = 2ANM = 1Sub-Center = 1Pvt. Dr. = 1DPAP = 1Vet. Service = 1Bus Service = 1Road = 1

Water = 2Post Office = 2School = 1PDS = 1Bank = 1NGO/CBO = 1

Post Office = 1ICDS = 1

Medium influence

Water supply = 6Electricity = 6Sub-Center = 6School = 5ANM = 5Panchayat = 4CBO/NGO =

NGO = 4Elcetricity = 3ICD = 2Panchayat = 1ANM = 1MDMS = 1School = 1Relief = 1Water = 1

Post Office = 2ICDS = 1PDS = 1

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2PDS = 2Cooperative = 2Relief = 1Fodder Bank = 1Bus = 1DPAP = 1Post Office = 1

Bank = 1

Low influence

ICDS = 7Panchayat = 5PDS = 4School = 4Telephone = 2Electricity = 2NGO/CBO = 2ANM = 2Govt. Scheme = 2Water =1Post Office = 1Bus Service = 1Forest service = 1

ICDS = 5 Panchayat = 4CBO = 3School = 2Telephone = 2ANM = 1PDS = 1DRDA = 1Fodder Depot = 1Forest Deptt. = 1Post Office = 1

PDS = 3Panchayat = 2Electricity = 2Telephne = 2Coop. Bank = 2Forest = 2CBO/NGO = 2MDMS = 1Money lender = 1Post Office = 1

No influence

However Taluka wise analysis (refer to Annex II-VI) reveals the relative importance and influence of each services. The response to fodder bank is limited as the groups were not aware of the concept. This is not to say that the need for fodder is not high. Moreover, across the talukas it can be seen that mid-day meal scheme has neither been of high importance or influence. Bhuj:Most of them perceive that water supply is available regularly without any problem and it is most important and highly influencing for village. The villager also feel that the institution like school, electricity and ICDS also most important and highly influencing for villages of Bhuj block as it is available to the people without any problem. The public health systems, CBO/NGO, Panchayat are important for the

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villages. The Institution like PDS and Panchayat are most important for the villagers but has low influence because people seldom get grains and travelling expense is higher in case of PDS; and the panchayat has not benefited the villagers in leveraging government schemes. ICDS is primarily important or of low importance but of medium influence possibly due to caste discrimination. Fodder bank did not feature out as either important or influencing institution in the taluka.

Anjar:Water and electricity feature out as highly important and influencing. ICDS is of high importance and its influence is equally divided into high and low influence due to varying experience of a particular village. Panchayat is clearly of high importance but its influence differs. ANM is high on importance and her influence is high to medium. Post office is of high influence and of higher or medium importantance. NGO/CBO clearly are neither of high importance or high influence due to absence of any such institution.

Bhachau:The top three highly important and influencing institutions are water, electricity, and Panchayat. ICDS is of high importance but primarily of high or low influence as in some it is working well. School is either high or medium influence and so is the importance (experience from village to village differs). PDS are primarily of high importance but medium influence again due to reasons mentioned above. Public health system is of high importance and high or medium influence. NGO/CBO are of high or importance but differing influence.

Mandvi:Water is of high importance and influence. Schools are of high importance however its influence is equally divided on high and low influence. A part of Bhachau with Darbar and Muslim population do not send their children to schools whereas in other parts children go to school, thus this divided opinion. Panchayat and ICDS are of high importance and its influence is varying as it has some joint Panchayats and experiences in ICDS varies in villages. PDS is not of high influence but is of high importance or important. The quality of supply from the PDS is the reason in differing influence. Relief work is of medium influence but is highly important or important. Public health system is of high importance and differing influence. Some places have ayurvedic clinics, thus the importance and influence of private doctor is high.

Nakhatrana:Water supply, electricity, school and ICDS are both of high importance and influence. Panchayat is very important but of medium and low influence due to the fact that the villagers have not benefited from various government schemes through the Panchayat. PDS has not come out to be an important institution, as they do not depend on PDS due to its inaccessability from the village. NGO/CBO are very important and their influence is either high or low depending on the beneficiary villages. The public health system seems to be of high importance but differing influence.

5.3.1 Public Distribution System (PDS)

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The villagers receive wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene oil in almost all the villages from the PDS. Women in Betavaladia East, Anjar taluka, told that they also receive Palmoline oil, which was not liked by them. Although PDS is identified as an important source for purchasing grains at subsidised rate, it just explains the dependence and non-satisfaction:

“Amara paase paisa nathi etle ame tyan thi laiye chieye. Jo amaara paak saaro hoye to ame tyan thi koi divas na laiye” (We are poor therefore we have to buy from that place (PDS). If our harvest turns out to be good, we shall never buy anything from there.)

This is a common opinion of all villagers in Bhuj, Anjar, Bhachau, Mandvi and Nakhatrana talukas. The dissatisfaction from PDS is three-fold, the travel cost due to distance, inadequacy of quantity and bad quality of supply. In many survey villages, the PDS is located within a distance of 15 Km. Due to this reason, women expressed that additional expenditure is incurred on commuting to the ration shop. To allocate expenditure, they usually hire a tractor and go together.

They also stated that the quantity they received from the PDS does not suffice their need. They need to spend additional amount on buying the food grains and other daily items from the private grocery shops located within the village and many a times these commodities are bought on loan from these shops. These loans often remain unpaid due to lack of financial stability. Sometimes jewellery is mortgaged in case they are unable to repay loans. This in otherwords speaks for the lack of purchasing power, especially among the vulnerables, who in tha absence of hard cash mostly depend on the merchants for food loans.

“Look I have given my silver ear rings to the Khangi dukanwala (private shop owner). It is still with him and I know I am not going to get them back. It is nothing new in our village. Another woman in the group have given her silver bangles, bichiya (ring worn customarily on the second finger of the toe by married women) and ear rings for purchasing groceries from the private shop. The wheat, sugar and oil that are available at the control shop are not enough to satisfy 5-6 hungry mouths. We have no problem if our ears, hands and feet are not adorned with jewellery.” A village resident, Kotdi, village, Bhuj taluka

At the overall level, it can be concluded that the quality and quantity of wheat and rice are bad and inadequate respectively. They take the supply out of compulsion and not choice because of their deteriorating condition due to prevailing drought situation. The supply of the food grain is also irregular because of which the shop is seldom open therefore villagers travel and find the shop closed. They lose their daily wage and also do not get the supply. Even the supply received after the earthquake - wheat (20 kg.) and rice (5 kg.) received by each family is full of dust particles and of low quality. The villagers opined that increase in quality and accessibility will encourage them to avail PDS services further.

5.3.2 Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)

As the term suggests, it is an integrated nutrition project for mother and child, promoted by the GoI. At the village level, the project is implemented through

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Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) and run by Anganwadi Workers (AWWs). In AWCs some of the food given are chana (roasted white gram), biscuits, sukhdi and sheera. In some villages of Bachhau and Bhuj talukas meethi bhaat is distributed and in some AWCs of Bhuj Taluka, laapsi and khichdi are also given.

This section aims at highlighting the nutrient distribution and also looks into the functioning of AWCs at the village level and analyses the level of satisfaction and expectations of beneficiaries. ICDS are reaching the community through 35,933 AWCs as of March, 1998.

All the villages have AWCs within the village and most of them are in government building. The effect of drought on AWCs or its role has not changed.

The villagers perceive AWCs as source of food for children but they are not aware of other facilities that these centres are supposed to provide. They also opined that the centres should provide food to the children and have learning and playing activities to keep them occupied. Thus, the groups provided feedback on the food mainly. It reveals that food distribution at AWCs in the present form is not liked and elders feel that these are not in harmony with the taste of children and also the quantity is not adequate for children. Instead a combination of biscuits and dry snacks, appropriate for children’s palate was suggested by the respondents especially after their experience of food (packed biscuit) distribution by WFP. The quantity of food is handful and less for children,. Children remain hungry and cannot ask for more.

Apart from complaints on nature and quantity of food, one can also witness caste discrimination. The women of Ganeshpar and Bachhau blocks complained of discrimination by the anganwadi worker on the basis of caste. The AWW in one of the centres is from upper caste (Ahir) who does not inform the lower caste (harijans) women about various services offered at the centre such as immunisation.

There is a ben (sister) who runs an anganwadi here. She is a widow. She runs anganwadi not in the panchayat building but in her own house. She does not call us for meetings. She does not even take the initiative to immunise our children. Nobody comes to give us any sort of information. She is from the Ahir community… ben. A Harijan woman of Ganeshpar

village

Another problem cited by the respondents is pilferage. One of the AWWs operates from home instead of the AWC (which is in another place) to increase the accessibility of foodgrain received from the government as nutrition package.

On the flip site, an AWW of Kalyanpar village initiated a non-formal education centre which failed to register a sizeable number of women and the programme had to be discarded thereafter. According to the AWW, lack of interest and initiative act as hindrance in the successful running of the centre.

Mothers' Meeting is a non-existent concept in most of the centres. Similarly pre-school education was also reported to be not functioning properly. Adolescent meetings also were not held. However, pregnant women used to come for immunisation services as the ANM used to come to the centre to render this

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service. The centres are perceived to be places for only distribution of food and a crèche so that mother can complete their household work.

Prior to the earthquake, all the villages had AWCs except for Simri and Paiya in Bhuj. Although physically existent, some AWCs were closed or not functioning. For example, in Nagrecha (Mandvi), Kumbharia (Anjar), Janan, Ambaliayara (Bachhau) the anganwadi centres have been closed since the past two years. In Kumbharia, the marriage of the anganwadi worker and the subsequent resignation of the helper, the mother of the anganwadi worker led to its closure.

After the earthquake, the anganwadi centres have been damaged in all the sample talukas of the Kachchh district. In most of the villages of Anjar, Bhuj and Bachhau talukas, Anganwadis were functioning from the tents. The attendance of children has declined as mothers are scared and also children are made to sit under the sun.

However all is not gloomy - in the village Jangi lying slightly far away from Kalyanpar, the anganwadi was reported to be functioning well both before and after the earthquake. The women stated that they found the various services like immunisation and provision of nutrients up to the mark. The women in the Jangi village unlike the other villages showed satisfaction as far as the services of the anganwadi are concerned.

After the earthquake, ORS packets and medicines were distributed which is not a normal feature. The immunisation did not get affected as the ANM came immediately after the earthquake and had given immunisation shots to both children and pregnant women. It is worth noting that the villagers are not satisfied with the AWC and AWW if they are asked about all the services that AWC is supposed to provide however, it has contribution in their lives as they send their children for food and turn to work at home.

5.3.3 The Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDM)

The scheme was started by the government of India to increase enrolment of children in government schools however it has an ingrained component of providing nutrition to children. The concept behind the scheme is that children will remain in class and not go home for food as ready to eat food is provided within the school premise. However, over time its form has changed due to logistics and practical problems in providing cooked food which take considerable time of both teacher and other staff. As simply put by a teacher in Nani Mau village of Mandvi taluka,

“Pet bhari jamo man muki bhano [eat properly, read properly] … is that not the reason for introducing the mid day meal in schools?”

Commonly expressed meals in almost all the talukas are khari bhaat, khichdi, chana, lapsi and sukhadi. Since the study was undertaken in the post-earthquake period, all the school buildings have been damaged in the sample blocks and the scheme was thus not in operation. However, the mid day meal scheme was functioning in all the blocks prior to the earthquake as stated by the villagers.

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It is surprising to note that the villagers in Amrapar (Anjar taluka) expressed that they do not know about madhyan bhojan (mid day meal) given in primary school of the village. The students confirmed the same. The mid day meal has not been functional in Bhimsar and Dhora villages of Nakhatrana taluka, for six months preceding the earthquake. The reason attributed towards this is primarily the inferior quality of meals provided.

It is interesting to observe the enrolment pattern, which is the primary objective of the scheme. An analysis of enrolment in the study area displays that higher proportions of boys are enrolled as compared to girls. However, the exception being Senugra village in Anjar taluka where the number of girls enrolled is 199 as against 166 boys. It has also been observed that the dropout rate is very high among the girls in all the blocks. The commonly cited reasons by teachers, parents and elderly women of the villages for girls’ dropout are daily household chores, looking after siblings and engagement for marriage. Another factor deterring the girls from attending the school regularly is their engagement in economic activities like labour work due to persistent drought since the past ten years.

The scheme is not free from complaints. One can observe complaint on quantity and quality of food; and also caste discrimination.

The residents of Kotai and Narainpar villages of Bhuj and the Nakhatrana talukas respectively have reported caste discrimination. In Kotai, the people belonging to the Ahir community refrain from sending their ward for the mid day meal as the cook is a harijan. On the other hand, in Narainpar, Harijan parents lamented that their children are forcefully fed the khichdi and khaari bhaat infected with insects and dirt.

The suggestion unanimously put forth by the teachers, parents and the students is re-introduction of the foodgrain distribution to students. This needs to be looked with a pinch of salt as the experience in other areas distributing wheat reveals that it is very little (3 kg. per month) and works as a meal for the family and not the child. Few of the parents in all the sample blocks also suggested dry and preservative nature of food in packets that can be provided under the mid day meal scheme. This would also save the wastage of cooked food as is happening in the present case.

It is to note here that the scheme does not benefit the Muslims who go to their religious school (madarsa) and girls who are not allowed to go at all. Simri, Nana Vernora and Paiya villages of Bhuj taluka have madarsa where the benefits are not

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Ben (sister) even if you offer a stray dog, the nature of food they provide our children in the school…. the dog will run away by just looking at it.

Women, Betavaladiya(West),

Saheb ame to garib maanas chieye .. amaara thi kasu na karaaye . Patel na maanso amaara chokrao ne je aape ae loko ne khaavu pade che .. jeevda to aej .. amne to kyan khabar che ki kone kahvu joiye?[We are poor people. What can we do? Whatever is offered by the Patels to our children has to be eaten by them ... even with insects. How do we know whom we

reaching them. They are aware of mid-day meal scheme. At the overall level, the enrolment has not improved due to the scheme as seen in the study area and expressed by the teacher. The food being of low quality is not consumed with satisfaction and not consumed at all by upper caste children.

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Case 5: Caste System Takes Over Public Benefits

In village kotai with a large population of 1000, has a primary school and the mid day meal programme is being implemented here. The probe to find out the impact of the scheme on enrolment revealed an interesting picture. Students come regularly to school but do not take the meal. The reasons as stated by the teacher is,

“Ae loko to maldhari che … e loko ne to dahi, kheer ane chash game che . to tame vicharo kevi reete e loko ne laapsi, khicdi ne badhu game?[They are maldharis who are accustomed to having milk products like curd, kheer and butter milk. Now you only tell me how can they like the taste of laapsi or khichdi?]

However the parents retorted, "Ame amaraa chokrao ne koi divas tyan na mokaliye. Ahir na chokro koi divas harijan na haath nu na jame. Je banaave che ne ae ek harijan che."[We will never send our children there (school). The children of Ahir (upper caste) will never touch the food cooked by a harijan. The cook is a harijan.]

Can the scheme address these caste issues?

Moreover, on the operational front, a Sanchalak (coordinator) is employed by the taluka panchayat and usually of the village. The teacher and the Sanchalak administer the beneficiaries however the Sanchalak takes the decision on type and quality of food. At times there are differences of opinion between the teacher and the Sanchalak on this issue and that of the latter prevails. The villagers indirectly hinted that the Sanchalak takes some share out of the scheme. On the flip side, the Sanchalak complained that they are not paid for commuting to the place from where they collect the ration for the scheme.

5.3.4 Adult Literacy and Training

The study shows that literacy among the women is very low in Kachchh and none of the villages has any adult literacy programmes as reported by women. The women who are literate enough to do their signatures give credit to their children. Except in Khari (Bhuj), Vehar (Nakhtrana) and Dhora (Nakhtrana), there is no programme relevant to training of women for income generation. However, thrift co-operatives are present in villages of Simri, Khari and Ganeshpar (in Ganeshpar it is non-functional after the earthquake).

Entrepreneurship training is an important scheme for the women of this area. The women are involved in embroidery and tie and dye known as bharat guthan and bandhani, traditionally inherited from their mothers and grandmothers. These women do not possess skills to market their produce in the market except Simri, Khari, Kotai and Dhori villages where an NGO is assisting in doing the same. Mahila mandals are existing in Ganeshpar, Khari and Moti Aral. In Moti Aral, have started functioning very recently (4-5 months as reported by the women). In the absence of a scheme, private traders exploit the women. The raw material is provided by a private person who pays a miserly amount of Rs. 50-60 for embroidery of large clothes like saree, chania choli or bed sheets.

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5.3.5 Food for Work Programme

In some places, food-for work program has already been undertaken in the district. In Khari, relief work in the form of watershed development with primary focus on check dam construction, has been undertaken by an NGO (Jan Vikas Trust) under the name Jeevan Sukh Jal Straav Vikas Samiti. In Bhimsar village, during the drought year (1998-2000), a pond for irrigation purpose and road have already been constructed by the government. Also, the villagers in the post earthquake period have shown a keen interest in the concept of food for work. The salt workers in the Bhachau taluka also showed keenness towards the food for work. They wish to be involved in labour work of any nature but working in salt pans. The villagers suggested that relief work would enable them to get employment within the village.

In villages like Kumbharia, the villagers said that they had heard of digging of ponds and construction of roads undertaken as relief work however, none of the villagers were involved in this work as construction had been undertaken by labourers hired from other places.

In Dhori, the women feel that their embroidery and tie and dye work can also be used as a source of income generation. They opined that it could be brought under the food for work programme where they can be partly paid in the form of food grains.

Most of the participants in focus groups expressed their preference in getting half-foodgrain-half-cash mode of payment, but they were sceptical of receiving through PDS as they opined that the quality of grains are poor in the ration shops and in the second place the distance and timing of PDS is always difficult. The demand for the food for work not only remains confined to the post earthquake period but also in the other crisis period like droughts and cyclones.

5.3.6 Non-Governmental Organisation

The non-governmental organisations covered under the study were present in the normal years, some came due to drought and some were involved after the earthquake. The information about the NGOs after the earthquake is not known but their operations are. They are very crucial especially for women involved in craftwork.

“… we have been trying to live through hard times … be it drought or earthquake … we somehow try to meet both ends … if some organisation like Kachchh Mahila Vikas Samiti extend us some help then we can also have a source of income … sister you know that we can do embroidery but who will take it to the market …”

Women, Nanimau village, Mandvi taluka

In the normal years, Kachchh Vikas Trust (KVT) in Simri village has been running saving schemes for women through Mahila Mandals in the Bhuj taluka. However, they were not of much help in the drought and earthquake and in fact they were thrown out by the villagers after the earthquake due to lack of credibililty on their deliverables. Jan Vikas Trust (JVT) in Khari village, Bhuj taluka started their operation during the drought years. They constructed check dams as relief work (50% of villagers were employed for 6-7 months in 2000) and work with women on

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income generation activities and savings through Mahila Mandals. The NGOs have been able to bargain fair prices in the market as against the exploitation by the traders, which has been discussed above. The NGOs in this taluka have become very active after the earthquake and distributed essentials like blanket, tents etc.

Whereas in the Anjar taluka, NGOs are not present and in Mandvi there is no NGO in with income generation interventions, however a lot of village women and adolescent girtls are involved in craft work. The implications of an NGO have been discussed above.

Along with the drought, Manav Jagruti Mitra Trust engaged themselves in child and youth welfare activities such as library and sports clubs in Kalyapar village of Bhachau block. In Janan village of Bhachau block, Sarwa Sewa Sangh started their operation on animal husbandry (cattle, fodder and veterenery serives) along with the drought. In Ganeshpar village of Bhachau block, Nilpar Trust and Sushil Trust started their operation on fodder and veterinary service during the drought season. However, these NGOs’ increased involvement cannot be seen after the earthquake.

In Nanimahu village of Mandvi block, Swami Narayan Trust started operation during drought and provides fodder but their enhanced operation after the earthquake cannot be witnessed. The villagers have opined that a fodder bank is useful, as it will take care of the animals (cattle) during the crisis years.

In Ugedi, Dhora and Vehar villages of Nakhatrana block have SEWA and Kachchh Mahila Vikas Samiti started their operation during the drought years with women only. They were engaged in income generation activities and have formed Mahila Mandals (income generation) and Mahila Samitis (savings) in the village. Unlike in Anjar and Mandvi blocks due to the involvement of NGOs in this area in income generation activities, women have gained.

In Nakhatrana block ( Vehar, Dhora, Ugedi ) there is a involvement of NGOs like SEWA( Self Employed Women’s Association) and KMVS( Kachchh Mahila Vikas Samiti) the women are paid very well for the embroidery work which they do Rs. 450 for embroidering 1 ½ meter of cloth. Their involvement after the earthquake was witnessed in Vehar village with relief service such as food, utensil kit, blanket, bucket distribution etc.

In Janan village of Bhachau block, a youth group is in existence since 4-5 years and have been active after the earthquake in providing relief work. In Narayanpar village of Nakhatrana block, has a youth mandal but are not active in village development. But mahila Mandals have not been active in relief work after the earthquake.

Case 6 : Looking for Help and Living in Hope

A remote village called Amrapar located in the earthquake ravaged Anjar block saw a hundred per cent damage in terms of property and households on January 26, 2001. Those outside the village survived.

Our day began with discussions that involved various issues of concern like food,

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sanitation, water, and education et.al. "Please ensure a job for me," a voice from the crowd, the voice of a young woman of twenty-eight, clad in a black attire with a child clutching on to her tightly. She said" Mara jeva abhagyashaali to koi na hoye.. ben."[There is no one as unfortunate as I am ]. Other hushed her, " Radsho nahin..upparwalo badhu saru karshe..ben" [Please don't cry.. the Almighty is there to take care of things].

The woman in tears was Vali ben Vala, a twenty-eight year old widow from the Ahir community. Married at an early age of thirteen years, she today has three very small children to take care of. The eldest among the three is eight years old followed by two younger children aged six years and two and a half years respectively.

She lost her husband in the earthquake. Both Valiben and her husband Valabhai Gagal were farm labourers and their combined income earned their household approximately rupees eighty per day. He died at a nearby village called Dudhai, where he had gone to make arrangements for the family's future by opening a bank account. The entire structure collapsed and so did his family's future.

Today, Valiben lives in a separate house in Amrapar, away from her relatives who she feels are themselves vulnerable as far as providing economic support is concerned. Crushed under the rubble of fate, Valiben today awaits economical support at least to provide her with some compensation for all that has been lost.

5.3.7 Panchayat

Panchayats are based on population norms, there are some villages where Panchayat is constituted by 2-3 villages whereas in others each village has a Panchayat. In the field it has been seen that problems in terms of resource allocation arise in case of the former type of Panchayat, commonly known as Juth Panchayat (group panchayat). The preference on resource allocation in case of external aid always gets diverted to the village where the Sarpanch lives. A few cases is presented below:

1. Nana Varnora, Dhori and Khari villages in Bhuj have panchayat located in the village because of which an anganwadi, a community hall and a school each in Khari and Dhori, a panchayat room in Dhori and a community hall and two madresas in Nana Varnora have been constructed over the last 5-10 years. In Khari and Dhori, contract labourers from outside were employed whereas in Nana Varnora, village people were involved.

2. Unlike Bhuj, all the villages covered under the study in Bhachau Taluka have a panchayat within the village. Thus, all the villages have school, panchayat, anganwadi, concrete roads, a community hall and a well constructed within the village in the normal years.

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3. Except for Amrapar in Anjar Taluka, the panchayat is located in all the villages of Anjar. As Amrapar village falls under the collective or the joint panchayat, the village has not received any facility through this institution. In other villages, Anganwadi, school, panchayat office community hall and road within the village has been constructed.

4. All the villages except Amrapar in Bhachau Taluka have panchayats. However Amprapar has benefited in terms of Anganwadi, village road and bus stand.

5. Moti Aral in Nakhatrana has a collective panchayat functioning from Nani Aral located approximately 3-4 kilometres away. Consequently, no developmental work has taken place in Moti Aral through the panchayat. Like the other talukas, other villages in this Taluka have a school, community hall and a panchayat building as the primary services of this institution.

6. In the Mandvi Taluka, no services have been provided through the panchayat to the residents of Nagrecha village. The Sarpanch is from the near-by village and is a Ahir whereas Nagrecha is primarily inhabited by Muslims thus the lack of interest. In other villages studied (predominantly Hindus), community halls, roads, panchayat and anganwadi buildings have been constructed through the panchayat.

However, all the facilities that have been provided to the villages are during the normal year. No special help has been extended to the villagers during the drought or the earthquake. Although they recognise that Panchayat is important but they are not satisfied with their performance and lack of aid after the earthquake.

Another important dynamics observed in the field is the effect of constitution of the Panchayat. In Vehar village although the Sarpanch is from Harijan caste, the majority of the members are Rabaris and some are Ahirs. The village is also inhabited by Rabaris predominantly. The Sarpanch is a token member (selected on reservation grounds) and the harijans are not even allowed to participate actively in the community level decision making.

The government programmes have not reached many villages. The villagers attribute it to the caste, religion and in case of collective panchayat to the preference to the village where the panchayat building is located. Thus, things like diversion of funds have also been reported during the study.

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“.. we have a joint panchayat, the Sarpanch and other members of the panchayat belong to Ahir and Harijan community. Our village has Muslim in a mjority because of which the Panchayat does not divert any government or non-governmental aid/help. All the benefits from the governemnt goes to other villages … one of our villagers is a member of the panchayat he is not listened to at all …”

men’s group, Paiya village, Bhuj Taluka

During the study, it was observed that the villagers are unaware of the various government schemes designed for them. They are also not aware of the opportunities available to them. The women in particular are absolutely ignorant about the opportunities they can avail of. Presently, panchayat elections have not taken place in Gujarat since the past two years. The functions are being taken care by the ex-sarpanch commonly known as maji sarpanch. Thus, the governement benefits through Panchayats are not reaching the villagers.

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Chapter 6Targeting Food Insecure Households and Programme

Recommendations

The characteristics and location of vulnerable households emerging from this analysis will assist in targeting the most food insecure households and persons.

The poorest areas with the most food insecure and vulnerable households in Kachchh are clearly in the rural areas. The following paragraphs describe the characteristics of the vulnerable households.

More remotely located households: Distance and access to public infrastructure is closely linked to asset levels and vulnerability. Distance from a health sub-centre, ICDS centre and PDS outlets are strong indicators of households that are not able to access services. Govt./IFAD/CRS/MSSRF/UNICEF/WFP and their partners should attempt to target their activities to more distant areas. Kachchh is a sparsely populated district and there are villages having a population that is less than the norms for operating an Anganwadi Centre or a PDS outlet.

Landless households and those with marginal land holdings and few assets: Landless households are completely dependent on labour demand and are highly vulnerable. When agricultural production fluctuates, especially under extreme drought conditions, many are forced to migrate. Households with marginal land holdings are also equally food insecure. With hardly any production of food grains, the households are forced to diversify their sources of income and primarily depend on labour opportunities in nearby town areas and drought relief work (known as scarcity work) organised by the government. These households have high rates of migration and low levels of skills. Govt./IFAD/CRS/MSSRF/UNICEF/WFP and their partners can assist in increasing their consumption levels, and contribute to their asset base by providing employment opportunities and supporting the development of an improved productive environment. Scheduled Caste (SC): Households from scheduled castes have lower asset levels, and from the survey it is clear that many of them are discriminated against in access to services in villages. The difference in the quality of land owned by SC communities and upper

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castes was observed during the survey. Most of the lands leased out in the name of SC households as a part of land reform are degraded, fallow and undulating.

Scheduled Tribe (ST). The survey data also confirm general findings that households in Scheduled Tribe communities are associated with lower assets, poor access to health and nutrition services and high food insecurity. Most of the STs are either Pastoralists (Rabari) or Salt Pan Workers (Koli). In two Talukas, Mandvi and Nakhatrana, it was observed that Rabaris have shifted from their traditional occupation of animal herding, which was highly migratory in nature, to farming. With the availability of irrigation water on rent and share cropping system with large landholders, Rabaris of these two Talukas have become an integral part of the mainstream Hindus. The Rabaris of the eastern Talukas, however, have remained pastoralists. Their livelihood security is extremely jeopardised because of the acute fodder crisis. The other major ST community, Koli, living in Anjar, Bhachau and Rapar talukas, is primarily engaged in the hazardous occupation of salt production. As Kolis live mostly away from their villages, in the salt pans, they are deprived of most of the services necessary for leading a healthy and normal life. Moreover, most of them are highly indebted and are almost working as bonded labourers.

Minority Community: Muslims constitute a significant proportion of the population of the district. Those who live in the Northern part of Bhuj Taluka (Banni and Khavda areas) are primarily animal breeders and fully dependent on selling milk, milk products and animals (goat, sheep, buffalo, cow, bullock etc.). Increasing pressure of livestock coupled with acute crisis of grass and fodder for the animals have made these communities highly vulnerable. Muslims in other areas of the district were either landless labourers or marginal landholders. Very few Muslim farmers were found to own land beyond 5 acres.

Disadvantaged Head of Household: All villages surveyed identified those households with handicapped persons, diseased household heads, elderly heads of households, and female-headed households (where the woman has been widowed, divorced or abandoned) as being particularly vulnerable. Female-headed households generally represent a small percentage of households, though in areas of migration this can be higher. Female-headed households should be targeted with income-generating activities or food for work, and they

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should be given priority for supplementary feeding programs for themselves or their children. There were complaints of diseases like Tuberculosis, stiffness of legs/joints, short sightedness etc. from men and women engaged in salt pans and bauxite/lignite/coal mines in the district.

Vulnerable Women and Children: Many rural women in Kachchh are underfed and undernourished, and this particularly so in crisis years. In times of crisis, they are worse off than other household members because they deprive themselves of food, and yet work harder. Women and children in all of the above households merit targeting. As an extreme coping strategy adopted by the vulnerable households, many children in the age group of 10-14 years have dropped out of their schools and are working to earn daily wages for their families. These children are from all social groups and work even in government supported drought relief programmes.

Many of the programmes that are most effective in changing the conditions of women, due to the nature of economic and social constraints imposed on them, are those that target women exclusively, through group formation and participatory needs assessment.

Recommendations for Sectoral and Sub-Sectoral Priorities

Priorities for improving food security through asset creation

The evidence provided in this report underlines the extent of village and household vulnerability in the district of Kachchh. The district has experienced drought for two consecutive years, preceded by a cyclone, apart from the recent devastating earthquake. Many households have resorted to extreme coping measures to meet basic needs such as deep indebtedness, food intake reduction, household migration, child labour, extended months of work in hazardous salt pans, bonded labour practices etc. A significant number of households are undermining their long-term food security.

The survey results show that there are some consistent priorities across villages. The over-arching need is to address the shortage of water (for drinking and irrigation) and shortage of grass/fodder for the animals. Agencies should work to identify the means to support village development of water harvesting facilities. For development

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of water harvesting facilities, watersheds should be the basis for targeting instead of villages.

Lack of markets and income-earning alternatives are common constraints felt by the communities. Agencies should seek means to support programmes that can help in upgrading the skills through training and development of market linkages.

The three main priorities identified by the community can be categorised as:

1. Water harvesting structure and management2. Soil conservation and management 3. Livestock productivity including increased fodder availability

through development of grasslands/pasture and grazing lands

Watershed Development: Watershed development has vast potential. Development Support Centre (DSC) of Ahmedabad, headed by Anil C Shah, carried out a study of the impact of watershed development in May-June 2000 – a year of very severe drought – in eight drought-affected districts of Gujarat [Shah 2000]. The study compares drought in a village in each district with the benefit of watershed programme for the last four to five years, utilising at least 70 per cent of the total budget allocated under the programme, with adjoining village without the benefit of watershed development programme. The study analyses access to drinking water, area under crops in kharif (monsoon) and rabi (winter) seasons, yields of main crops, fodder and animal husbandry, milk yield, local employment, migration and food security.

The findings show that the incidence of drought is less severe in watershed villages as compared to the adjoining non-watershed or ‘control’ villages. The study concluded that the “overall impact is not only positive but also impressive...to a large extent the participatory watershed scheme launched in 1995-96 by Ministry of Rural Development has been found to mitigate the impact of drought.”

Amita Shah and Gani Memon conducted a quick review of watershed development projects being implemented since 1995-96 in Gujarat. They examined their initial impact at the household level based on a primary survey covering 120 households in four micro watersheds selected from Rajkot, Surendranagar, Amreli and Bharuch [Shah and Memon 1999]. Even though the project had barely completed 4 years

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of its implementation, irrigated area almost doubled since the project intervention. Since increased irrigation had been used mostly for growing cotton during kharif, which gets extended up to rabi season, there is, in effect, an increase in cropping intensity. Increased irrigation had led to a substantial rise in average yield per hectare from all crops combined. Thus the total net returns from all crops increased by 63 per cent. As many as 87 per cent of the households reported that the project had direct benefit on drinking water facility (in Surendranagar and Bharuch, this response was echoed by all the respondents). The majority of landless households (71 per cent) reported increase in availability of employment opportunities, mainly on the project activities.

The above paragraphs amply show that effective planning and implementation of watershed development could play a major role in increasing the livelihoods security of rural communities. Watershed activities, the development of grasslands in and around Banni area, and the development of pasture and grazing land should get priority as the district contributes around 8 percent of the state’s cow milk production and 4.3 percent of the buffalo and goat milk production. The district also contributes more that 20 percent of the state’s wool production. To keep its contribution at these levels and to provide livelihoods to those who solely depend on them, a comprehensive plan is required to develop grazing lands so that livestock pressure on grasslands is reduced. The import of fodder in drought years is only a temporary solution and many villages reported not even receiving the fodder rations.

The many benefits of water harvesting structures, soil conservation measures and development of pasture/grazing land are –

1. Arresting the run off and harvesting rain water.2. Use of the harvested water for drinking (with some purification

measures) and irrigation purposes.3. Recharging the ground water, which is otherwise extremely

depleted and is confined to only certain pockets of the district.4. Arrest top soil erosion and holding water for longer duration.5. Generation of local employment opportunities for labourers so

that the incidence of distress migration is reduced.6. Increase in agricultural productivity, increased availability of

grass/fodder, increase in milk production, increased availability of biomass.

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7. Restoration of natural resource base that is conducive to sustainable development.

The challenge lies in identification of areas for intervention. A village based approach often ignores some or many villages coming under a watershed, and hence the village based watershed development only partially improves the watershed. Agencies planning to implement watershed projects should try to select all the villages falling within a watershed to develop a plan that would replenish the water and land resources of the entire watershed.

There is another important angle in the village based approach. It has been observed that if the main village or the village where the Sarpanch resides does not fall under the project, the involvement of the Gram Panchayat gets minimized. In Kachchh the survey team came across villages that are 30 km away from the Gram Panchayat and hence hardly receive any development inputs through the Sarpanch. These aspects should be kept in mind while selecting villages or cluster of villages for watershed development.

The district has an organizational capacity to undertake watershed development activities. Vivekananda Research and Training Institute is a leading NGO in watershed development activities. Apart from VRTI, other agencies, like, SEWA, Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology (GUIDE), Sahjivan, Anarde Foundation, Kachchh Mahila Vikas Sangathan, KEECELL etc., are implementing watershed development projects of various scales in the district. It should be noted that the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) of the Government of Gujarat implements watershed programmes through NGOs (called PIA’s).

Watershed development should be taken up as food for work activity. Food Aid agencies, like WFP, CRS etc., can provide food grains as a component of the labour work required for the constructions. The cash and material components can be provided by DRDA under their watershed programmes. If directly implemented through the NGOs, the cash and material components will have to be arranged by them from other funding sources.

SEWA has initiated a noble effort of conserving every drop of rainwater for domestic purposes through Roof Rain Water Harvesting Structures. These structures at the community level and individual levels are constructed depending upon availability of

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community infrastructures, number of pucca houses, settlement pattern etc. These structures were also observed to be storing water supplied by tanker everyday in some villages. Promotion of these structures can generate employment during construction and at the same time creates lasting asset for the community to cope with the severe water crisis.

Apart from watershed based activities through DRDA and NGOs, WFP could also expand its ongoing Tribal Development project through forestry activities in Kachchh, which is being implemented presently in Eastern districts of Gujarat by the Department of Forestry. The only hindrance could be the norm of tribal population laid down jointly by WFP and the state government. The forest department can also become a partner in the initiatives of the development of the grasslands in the district.

Construction of shelter is now the most important and immediate need of the community. The study showed that the people are willing to accept food as wage (partial) for the construction work. In most of the villages people were in favour of constructing temporary shelters. They would prefer construction of permanent shelters after the monsoon. The fear psychosis of staying in a concrete house is still very high and hence people will not stay in any permanent structure for some more time. The aftershocks of earthquake that lasted for more than two months made the people more shaky.

The other activities under Food for Work demanded by the community are –1. Land levelling for farming (demanded by small and marginal

farmers)2. Uprooting the Prosopis Juliflora (Ganda Bavar, as is called locally)

from the agricultural fields and pasture/grazing lands for restoring their productive use

3. Clearance of rubble (government has already started cash for work under the scarcity work for this activity).

Priorities for improving nutritional status of children and women

Many documents on food insecurity in India indicate that health problems of women and children, experienced by vulnerable households, can be partially addressed through basic behavioural changes brought about by nutrition education, health facilities,

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provision of supplementary nutrition and other social services. For example, many illnesses can be prevented through better sanitation practices, deaths of children can be reduced through improved maternal feeding practices, and health of children can be improved through vaccinations, vitamins, and oral rehydration therapy (ORT) etc. The village surveys indicate that knowledge regarding good nutrition and health practices is limited across all vulnerable households regardless of location or specific characteristics. Many women and men simply do not know that basic behavioural changes can significantly affect their wellbeing.

The most promising entry point for promotion of better health and nutrition messages and providing supportive services are the ICDS centres.

The survey indicates that ICDS centres do not exist in every eligible cluster (village or habitations). Even where there are ICDS centres, concerns about the quality and accessibility of the services were expressed by the communities. Access to the centres can be restricted due to distance or social barriers, therefore currently a considerable number of very vulnerable women and children are not able to avail of services. In Kachchh the population norm for establishing an Anganwadi Centre is 400. The villages that marginally fall short of this number are deprived of this facility. There are also some villages with more than 500 population and without any functioning AWCs, though the sanctions are there. Some AWCs were also found to be not functioning for several years. Some possible solutions to improve the services are –

1. The uncovered areas/Anganwadis could be handed over to NGOs who have experience in this area (SEWA, Kachchh Mahila Vikas Sangathan). These NGO’s might return the centres to government after they have become fully functional.

2. In those villages where the Anganwadi Workers had resigned efforts should be made to immediately appoint new workers. In many villages, the communities were found to be passive about reopening centres, as they had never received good services from the AWWs. Re-motivating the community in these villages is going to involve some effort, for which local NGOs could be used.

3. Pre-school education is an important component, which is not working properly. Organising training for the AWWs and provision

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of pre-school materials to the centres would be useful in improving the service. Food incentive to the AWWs and the helpers could also be explored to improve/expand the services.

4. In Surendranagar district, SEWA has opened several Crèches and Childcare centres for the children of the salt pan workers. Thus, children do not go with their parents to the extremely hazardous salt pans. This effort should be replicated in Kachchh for the salt pan workers. Similar efforts can also be initiated for children of women who go for labour work during crisis months/years.

5. In almost all the villages, women have handicraft skills. Forming thrift cum income generating groups and linking them with AWC could improve the functioning of the centres. Active AWW can become resource persons for all these initiatives and can in turn get extra incentives. The Director of DRDA showed his willingness to provide an incentive of Rs. 1,000 per year for each AWW involved in mobilising women’s group.

6. To lessen the problem of inaccessibility, adolescent girls from areas which are not covered by any centre should be registered under the AWC. They should be trained and given responsibilities to provide selected ICDS services, especially nutrition, to the beneficiaries in the communities to which they belong. In order to create interest they can be given food grains as an incentive for service.

7. To generate interest among the beneficiaries, a regular supply of food and other services has to be guaranteed. Awareness campaigns regarding the importance of IFA tablets, Vitamin A etc. should be undertaken as mere supply of these items is not enough to guarantee utilization. It was observed during the survey that women do not use the IFA tablet as they have a misguided notion of negative effects.

8. Migration limits many women’s ability to consistently use the ICDS services. Efforts should be made to ensure that migration does not impede access to ICDS services. One option could be to provide cards to migrating women and children so that they can access services where they migrate. This could be difficult to implement in cases of inter-state and district migration. A more challenging solution might be the provision of seasonally mobile ICDS centres especially functioning in the most important places of migration.

9. Caste problems do exist and hamper optimal utilisation of ICDS services in some villages. This is a sensitive issue, and has to be considered on a case by case basis. In general, the problem seems to be the non-utilization of the service by the upper caste community as a result of SC staff (the reverse also occurs). Service of the registered adolescent girl from the same community could be explored to increase coverage.

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10. Mothers' meeting should be held regularly, preferably monthly, to generate awareness on the benefit of the use of IFA tablets, consumption of nutritious foods and on mother and childcare.

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Priorities for investing in human capital through women and girl’s education

Families in Kachchh do not value education for their girl children. Girls get engaged for marriage at a very young age and after that they are withdrawn from the schools. A girl, who is engaged, cannot attend the school if her fiancé also goes to the same school. In Dhori, the primary school runs in two shifts – girls go in the morning shift and the boys in the afternoon. For the last three years, due to drought, women members have started working outside the village and this has led to withdrawal of their girl children from the school to look after their younger children and also for performing household chores.

There is some evidence from the survey that demand for functional literacy (and numeracy) on the part of women exists and is stimulated further as women are engaged in activities, like, embroidery, tie-dye, beads-work, thrift groups etc.

Mid-day-meal (MDM) scheme for the school children was not functioning even before the earthquake. The coordination between the teachers and the sanchalak is lacking and hence the programme implementation is far from satisfactory. After the earthquake, there was no special effort to revive the scheme as was the case with ICDS. Wherever the school has started, the students’ turnout is very low. In many villages the community suggested dry ration to be provided instead of cooked meal to increase the enrolment. Some women also suggested extra ration as additional incentive for the girl child to enable her for attending classes.

The children of the Rabari and Koli communities migrate with their families and hence remain out of school for the majority of the months.

It is worth noting that any programme aimed at the improvement of women's status cannot be successful without an accompanying plan to sensitise the other half, i.e., men, the decision makers. In other words, programmes on women's empowerment should always have an IEC component to sensitise the community on gender issues.

The following recommendations could be considered for improving the education services.

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8. An effort should be made to provide cooked food regularly in schools. Any interruption in the service adversely affects the objective of the scheme. As there is demand for dry ration in many villages, the decision for the service type might/should be flexible and be left to the village community to decide.

9. Special hostel based education system should be explored for the children of Rabari and Koli families who generally migrate for livelihood.

10. Supplying fortified food to the school children might/should be actively considered. It is worthy to mention that the Govt. of the neighbouring state (Madhya Pradesh) is actively considering passing an order for the fortification of wheat flour with Soya flour for the whole state. To implement this at a similar scale needs substantial effort and resources. However, one could experiment with in one or two talukas. Fortification of wheat flour with locally available Pearl Millet (Bajri) and Soya Bean can also be explored to increase the micronutrient base of the food.

11. In order to increase the participation of the community in the education process, motivator groups should be formed at the village level for girl’s education. The teacher of the village can be the leader of the group. Village Education Committee should be formulated to monitor the Mid Day Meal distribution and regularity of functioning of the school. The Village Education Committee could also help in awareness creation on the need of education among the community, especially the girl child. If these committees already exist, efforts have to be made to strengthen them.

12. To facilitate the MDM scheme, many schools do not have adequate storage facilities. A good supply would facilitate continuity in distribution. Some of these structures could be provided through food for work.

13. A systematic approach is needed to identify the cost associated with the household activities that young girls perform. Some approaches to substituting for these labour activities include either developing alternative services to meet the needs such as village crèches (located near primary schools) or providing sufficient compensation for girls’ labour. Special incentives to girls, such as 8-10 kgs of cereals for 80 percent of days of attendance should be provided to serve as an incentive to send the girls to school on a regular basis.

14. To improve the enrolment and the attendance of the girl child with the added responsibilities of taking care of the younger siblings, crèche facilities should be provided in the village. To run these crèches the services of the older disadvantaged women in the village, who at present are not engaged in any gainful employment, could be utilized with the provision of incentives in terms of food grains. As an alternative, the establishment of AWCs either near to the school or within the school building could be considered.

15. Non-formal education centres can be used as an alternative to the formal education system, especially for those children who are either engaged in gainful employment or looking after the household chores. This would apply especially to the girl child. The instructors in these centers could be supported by food incentives.

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16. The women, who are engaged in income generating activities, have expressed their willingness to pursue functional literacy. Literate Anganwadi Workers could be motivated to undertake literacy classes for the women and food grains can be given to her as incentive. This initiative will also help the Anganwadi Worker in getting a forum for imparting Nutrition and Health Messages.

Priorities for investing in women’s training

Some programmes for women’s income generating activities and enhancement of their knowledge for more active participation in community decision making activities could be explored through food for work activities.

4. Self Help Groups (SHGs) should be encouraged to enable the women to engage themselves in alternative economic activities, and get training related to health, nutrition. SHGs can also be utilized to provide short term financial assistance to needy members to help them avoid traders and moneylenders. Existing and newly formed SHG could be supported with food at the initial stage of formation and a linkage could be established for the formation of the grain/fodder bank at the village. Most of the SHG in the studied villages have their own generated fund but it is necessary to address the requirement of the group as a whole. Hence, additional food support should be given to strengthen the viability of these groups in addressing the difficulties of the deprived groups. The district has two reputed and competent NGOs capable of leading in this initiative, viz., SEWA and Kachchh Mahila Vikas Sangathan.

5. From the survey, it was revealed that there is tremendous scope for alternative economic activities in the study area. The women in these areas have skills in embroidery, tie-dye, beads work etc., which can be strengthened by suitable market support for the products. Considering the interest of the women in this area, alternative economic activities have a lot of untapped potential.

6. By virtue of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment, the Gram Panchayats of all the villages of India now officially should have one-third women members. In Gujarat, the five-year term of the Gram Panchayats ended in 2000 and fresh elections are yet to be conducted. Most of the elected women members are actually a proxy for their male counterparts and hardly get any opportunity to actively participate in community development. Recognising this as a serious bottleneck agencies should design comprehensive plans to increase the capacity of women to more fully engage in the development process. This should start with literacy classes that aim to impart functional literacy on management issues related to ICDS, Mid-Day Meal, and special programmes on income generation for women etc.

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The next step could be handing over the supervisory responsibilities of these programmes through government orders. CRS/WFP can use food as the leveraging agent for training and orientation of these women Panchayat Members. A collaborative effort between WFP/CRS/UNICEF and the Ministry of Rural Development in evolving a replicable model will definitely assist government and UN commitment towards creating efficient democratic institutions for local governance.

Grain Banks / Seed Banks / Fodder Banks

The concept of grain banks is new for the communities. Grain banks can promote food security for these households, especially the vulnerable groups, during times of crisis. Currently these households have to either borrow food grains from the traders or buying from the market at unfavourable price (after the earthquake, the communities have received free food grains from the government and non-government sources).

Agencies also should explore the possibility of supporting seed banks as a sub-component of grain banks. Building the capacity of the community to store and preserve the best suitable seed varieties would help the community to continue their cultivation activities without heavily relying on market forces. A proper storage of seeds also would prevent from its loses arising out of pest/rodent attacks and also from consuming them during the months/years of stress. Institutions, like M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, can provide the necessary technical inputs for promoting the concept of seed banks.

In Gujarat, the concept of fodder bank is being promoted to address the fodder crisis. A well-planned and executed fodder bank will generate maximum response from the communities in the villages where dependence on livestock is very high. Linking fodder bank with the development of pasture/grazing land can provide sustainable solution for the families whose livelihoods primarily depend on livestock. 1. SHGs can be encouraged and trained to start the grain/seed/fodder bank, and

manage it for the members who are interested.

2. There may be need to create awareness on the advantages of this concept among the community members.

3. Agencies should contribute at the initial stage of formulation of the bank. The contribution should be according to the preference of grains by the local people and also be based on the capability of the people to contribute the type of grains.

4. Grain banks could be successful in the villages from where the Fair Price Shop is at some distance and bringing food is a problem.

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5. Local NGOs and CBOs should be encouraged to initiate this concept among the communities. WFP/CRS and other interested agencies can work in partnership with them to provide base supplies.

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ANNEXURES

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ANNEXURE I TOTAL NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS IN THE STUDY AREA

Taluka Village Total Households

Major caste groups

Bhuj Simri 50 Sama (Muslims)Khari 173 Ahir, HarijanPaiya 140 Mokha and

chauvan(muslims)Nana Varnora 248 Mocca, memano, kewar,

mehar, abda(muslims) Kotay 270 Ahir, harijan, koli,

rabariDhori 1050 Ahir,harijan, muslims

and other castesBhuj City – Jogivas - Jogi, Rajput, Muslims,

WaghriBhuj City – Sejwada Mata

- Muslims

Anjar Sinugra 650 Harijans ,Muslims khoja, and other castes

Bita Valadiya East 270 Ahir, harijan and other castes

Bita Valadiya West 200 Ahir, harijan andothers Kumbhariya 117 Harijan, muslims and

othersAmrapar 170 Ahir, harijan and othersKotda 949 Ahir and othersAnjar Town – Mafatnagar

- Maheswari, Muslims

Anjar Town – Railway Station Road

- Muslims

Bhachau Kalyanpar 240 Koli, ahir and othersGaneshpar 127 Ahir ,harijan and othersJanan 239 Brahmin, Harijan,

Suthar, Darbar, Wajir, Rabari, Gadhvi, Koli, Muslim, Manka, Bava, Lohar, Patel

Amrapar 170 Ahir, harijan and others

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Taluka Village Total Households

Major caste groups

Amliapar 650 Koli, ahir, rabari and others

Jangi 1300 Ahir, rabari, harijan, muslims, koli and others

Mandvi Kotdi 350 Sodha, harijan, rabari and others

Nagrecha 130 Muslim, jadeja, koli, brahmin, harijan

Ratadia 400 Gadhvi, darbar, patel, gosai and others

Dhokda 85 Jadeja, harijan and others

Nani Mahu 30 Jadeja, bavaNani Bhadai 200 Darbar, goswami

andothersNakhatrana

Ugedi 320 Rabari, muslim, thakar and others

Dhora 60 Muslim and othersMoti Aral 72 Muslim, jadeja, sodha

and others Bhimsar 32 Muslim , rabariVehar 160 Ahir, harijan, goswamiNarainpar 75 Patel, harijan and

others

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ANNEXURE II

INSTITUTION IMPORTANCE AND INFLUENCE MATRIX FOR BHUJ

High importance

Important Low importance

No importance

High influence

Water supply(2,3,4,5,),School (5),Electricity (5,6,)ICDS (6)

School (2),

Medium influence

Electricity (3,4,),Sub center (5),Water (6),PHC(6),School (6),CBO (6),NGO (6),

Electricity (2), Jan vikash NGO (2),Panchyat (4),ANM(4),ICDS (4),

ICDS (2), Post office (2),

Low influence

PDS (4,6,), Panchyat (5,6,),

Panchyat (3), ANM (3),School (4),ICDS (5),PDS (5),

MDM (2), Cooperative bank (2), PDS (2,3,), Panchyat (2),Forest (4),CBO (4),

No influence

Village code: 1- Simri*, 2-Khari, 3-Paiya, 4-Nana Varnora, 5-Kotay, 6- Dhori.

*None, in the village no institution are functioning.

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ANNEXURE III

INSTITUTION IMPORTANCE AND INFLUENCE MATRIX FOR ANJAR

High importance

Important Low importance

No importance

High influence

Water (2 ,3,4,6,)Electricity (2,3,5,), ICDS (2,3,5,),ANM (2),School (3,4,6,),Panchyat (4,5,6),CBO (6)

PDS (1),Post office (4),Bank (6),

Post office(1),

Medium influence

School (2,5,),Panchyat (2,3,),ANM (3,4,),Fodder bank (4),Co-operative(4,6,)Sub Center (5),Water (5),

MDM(1),NGO(1),

Low influence

School (1),ICDS (1,4,6,),DRDA (1),Panchyat (1),

Telephone (4),CBO (5),DRDA (6),

Electricity (1),Telephone (1),Sahukar (4),Forestry (4),

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Telephone (2),PDS (4,5,),

No influenceVillage code: 1- Sinugra, 2-Bita Valadiya East, 3-Bita Valadiya West, 4-Kumbhariya, 5-Amrapar, 6-Kotda.

ANNEXURE IV

INSTITUTION IMPORTANCE AND INFLUENCE MATRIX FOR BHACHAU

High importance

Important Low importance

No importance

High influence

Water (1,3,4,5,6),Electricity (1,3,),Panchyat (1,2,3,5,6),CBO (2), School (3,5,),ICDS (3,5,),CHC & PHC (3),Veterinary service (3),Fodder depot(3),Road (4),PDS (5),

CBO (1) ICDS (2),

Medium School (1), School (2), PDS(1),

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influence ANM (1),PDS (3),Electricity(4,5,6),Bus service(5),PHC (6),

Electricity (2),

Post office (2)

Low influence

Water (2),Post office (5),School (6),ICDS (6),

ICDS (1,4,),CBO (3),Panchyat (4),School (4),

No influenceVillage code: 1-Kalyanpar, 2-Ganeshpar, 3-Janan, 4-Amrapar, 5-Amliayara, 6-Jangi.

ANNEXURE V

INSTITUTION IMPORTANCE AND INFLUENCE MATRIX FOR MANDVI

High importance

Important Low importance

No importance

High influence

Electricity (1,2,),Panchyat (1,2,6),School (1,2,6),ICDS (1,5,),DPAP (2),Fodder depot(3),Water (3,6),Private Doctor(3),Sub center (3),Bus service (5),

Water supply(5),

Medium influence

Water (1,2,),ANM service

Relief work (3),Water (4),

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(1,5,),Relief work (1),PDS (1),DPAP (1),Panchyat (3),Electricity (6),

Electricity (5),

Low influence

ICDS (2,6),Electricity (3),NGO(5),School (5),Panchyat (5),ANM service(6),

Fodder depot(1),ICDS (3,4,),

PDS (3),School (3,4,),Electricity (4),Panchyat (4),

No influenceVillage code: 1-Kotdi, 2-Nagrecha, 3-Ratadia, 4-Dhokda, 5-Nani Mahu, 6-Nani Bhadai

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ANNEXURE VI

INSTITUTION IMPORTANCE AND INFLUENCE MATRIX FOR NAKHATRANA

High importance

Important Low importance

No importance

High influence

School (1,3,5,6),ICDS (1,3,5,),Water supply (2,3,4,5,6),PDS (2),Electricity (3,4,5,6),NGO (5),Bus service (6),

Post office (3),

Medium influence

Water (1),School (2),Panchyat (5),Post office (6),

Bank (1),ICDS (2),NGO (2),

Low influence

Electricity (1),Panchyat (3,4,),Govt. Scheme (3,5),Telephone (3),Bus service (3),School (4),CBO (5),Forest Dept. (5),ICDS (6),ANM

Panchyat (1,2,),Telephone (1),Forest (2),Post office (5),CBO (6),

Post office (1),CBO (3),Telephone (6),

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service(6),No influenceVillage code: 1- Ugedi, 2-Dhora, 3-Moti Aral, 4-Bhimsar, 5-Vehar, 6-Narainpar.

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ANNEXURE VII

OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS OF KACHCHH DISTRICT

Opportunities

Number of villages Specific benefits

Bhuj Bhachau

Anjar

Mandvi

Nakhatrana

Water Bore 2 3 2 1 2 Drinking water’s

regular supply will be facilitated The water in the many villages of the Kachchh district as a whole tastes saline. Therefore, steps can be taken towards desalinization of the water.

Desalinization

3 2 -- 2 1

Overall scope / opportunities

5 5 2 3 3

Agriculture Clearing

the babul trees growing around the agricultural lands

4 4 6 4 5The crops and the soil texture will benefit as the babul tree soaks the available surface water

Loans from the govt. institutions esp. bank

3 5 4 4 5For facilitating agricultural practices

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Opportunities

Number of villages Specific benefits

Bhuj Bhachau

Anjar

Mandvi

Nakhatrana

Forest Nursery 4 2 3 5 2 It will generate

employment opportunities during the monsoons

Protection from the wild animals (forest dept.)

6 6 6 6 6It will help retain the existing crops from the wild animals. It will thus help in saving at least the existing income.

Overall scope / opportunities

10 8 9 11 8

PDS Within

the village

3 1 2 2 3

Better quality foodgrains

6 6 6 6 6 The distance as well as the quality will encourage the villagers to access the PDS, the largest food security net.

Overall scope / opportunities

9 7 8 8 9

MDM Foodgrai

ns 4 6 4 4 5 The enrolment as

well as the attendance of the students will increase with the

Dry snacks

4 6 4 4 5

Better 4 6 4 4 5

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Opportunities

Number of villages Specific benefits

Bhuj Bhachau

Anjar

Mandvi

Nakhatrana

quality of the food

provision of foodgrain.

Increased quantity

4 6 4 4 5

16 24 16 16 20ICDS Responsi

ble AWW 3 3 3 2 1The beneficiaries feel that the dry snacks if provided will act as an impetus towards larger enrolment.

More Quantity 4 6 5 5 5

Dry snacks

4 6 5 5 5

11 15 13 12 11Relief work Pond

deepening

3 2 3 3 4This will help in the extending employment opportunities to the people in the grip of drought and other natural hazards like the earthquake/ cyclone.

Road construction

4 -- 2 3 3

Clearing rubbles 2 3 3 4 2

Check-dam

3 3 2 3 2

12 8 10 13 11Cottage industry Tailoring 4 2 2 4 4 Income generation

opportunity involving the inherent skill of the women in the villages of the Kachchh district.

Papad making

3 3 2 3 3

Embroidery

4 3 3 3 4

Tie & dye -- -- -- 3 3 Incense

stick rolling

3 2 2 4 4

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Opportunities

Number of villages Specific benefits

Bhuj Bhachau

Anjar

Mandvi

Nakhatrana

Candle making

-- -- -- 1 --

Packaging

-- -- -- 1 --

15 10 9 19 18Fodder bank Initiate a

fodder bank

4 2 5 4 6 The cattlefeed will be taken care of during the crisis years.

Grain bank Initiate a

grain bank

1 3 4 3 2 It will strengthen the food security net even during the crisis years. It however calls for support from the govt./NGO as presently their economic and social status is not healthy.

Seed Bank Initiate a

seed bank

3 5 6 3 3 The villagers despite their inclination need the support from the govt./NGO, as presently their economic and social status is not healthy.

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Opportunities

Number of villages Specific benefits

Bhuj Bhachau

Anjar

Mandvi

Nakhatrana

Food for work*(proportion of cash and foodgrain)

60:40 3 2 2 3 4 The FFW will meet with the two-fold purpose of providing food and money at the same time. It should however be a long-term programme to provide the long term source of income generation.

50:50 1 -- 1 1 --4 2 3 4 4

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ANNEXURE VIII

PROBLEM ANALYSIS OF KACHCHH DISTRICT

Problem/s Number of villages by the talukas

Specific issue/s

Bhuj Bhachau

Anjar

Mandvi

Nakhatrana

Water Irregular water supply

3 3 2 2 4 This problem is mainly due to the drought & low water table in the region

Saline in taste

4 3 2 3 5

Accessibility

3 2 3 2 -- A minimum of 1 km. to be covered for fetching drinking water

Overall water problems reported

10 8 7 7 9

Agriculture Dependenc

e on monsoon

4 4 5 3 3Except for Nakhatrana & Mandvi the farmers in the other talukas are heavily dependent on rains.

Lack of adequate irrigation facilities

4 4 5 3 3

Inadequate fodder

6 6 6 -- 2

Wild growth of babul trees

6 6 6 6 6

Destruction of crops by wild pigs and Nilgai

6 6 6 6 6

26 26 28 22 20Forest Growth of 6 6 6 6 6

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babul Closure of

nursery due to drought

5 3 3 5 4

Loss of income from the forest resources due to restrictions imposed by the forest dept.

6 6 6 6 6

Panchayat Inactive with regard to implementation of programmes & schemes

4 3 2 3 2 Joint panchayat, the reason for preference

Casteism 4 2 1 -- 1 Benefits from the govt./ pvt. schemes denied

Contractual labour’s hiring marring the job opportunities of the villagers

5 6 6 6 6 The villagers denied employment opportunities due to the work being handed over to the contractor

13 11 9 9 9Employment opportunities (Labour)Reduction in the farm labour

6 6 6 6 6 Drought has led to a loss in the crop production, hence no work for the farm labourers

Absence of industries

6 6 5 3 4

12 12 11 9 10

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PDS Distance 5 3 2 4 5 PDS located in the

radius of 15 kms. inferior quality

6 6 6 6 6 Dirt & insects a common feature in the wheat and rice given through the PDS

irregularity 4 2 1 2 5 Irregular opening & availability of the shop keeper in the PDS poses inconvenience for the beneficiaries as they suffer income loss for the day

quantity 6 6 5 5 621 17 14 17 22

ICDS improper /not functioning

3 3 2 2 2

lack of adequate quantity

4 4 5 4 3

the nature of nutrients provided

4 3 3 4 3

no programmes for adolescent girls

4 6 6 6 6

need for greater attention to the lactating and pregnant woman

4 5 3 3 4

casteism 1 2 1 -- -- closure of AWCs

1* -- 2 2 1

need for health counselling

4 5 6 6 6

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MDM casteism 1 1 1 -- -- Dominant as far as the

cook is concerned irregular

attendance3 2 4 5 5 Involvement primarily in

the farm work inferior quality

4 6 6 6 6 Insects and half baked

inadequate quantity

4 4 5 2 3 Lesser than needs to be given

nature of food(cooked food not very convenient)

4 6 6 6 6 Dry food packets emerge as the consensus

lack of preference for the meals provided

4 5 5 4 4 Laapsi, a component of the MDM is not liked by the students

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ANNEXURE IX

GLOSSARY OF LOCAL TERMS USED

LOCAL TERMINOLOGY ENGLISH EQUIVALENT Aerinda Castor Ajwain Omum

( Trachyspermum ammi ) Bajri Pearl millet (Pennisetum

typhoideum Ber Zizyphus

( Zizyphus jujuba) Ben A way of addressing women

in Gujarat

Bhai A way of addressing men in Gujarat

Bharat guthan Embroidery Bhage Share cropping Bhandani Tie and dye Chaura A kind of pulse Chokrao Children Chutney Paste of dried red

chilly eaten with chapati. This paste acts as a substitute for vegetables for these people.

Dai A women who delivers babies in the village. She is usually not trained.

Darbar Upper caste community

Diwali A Hindu festival in October/November widely celebrated in Northern and Western India

Dhani Husband Ganda Bawar Prosopis Juliflora Gehun Wheat ( Triticum aestivum )

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Gunder Edible gum Gud Jaggery Isabgol medicinal plant

used as a laxative Jeera cumin seeds

( Cuminum cyminum Jowar Sorghum vulgare Khaari Bhaat A rice preparation salty in

taste Khichdi A preparation made of rice

and pulses with turmeric and

salt Laapsi Wheat porridge (sweet in

Taste) Magfali Groundnut (Arachis

hypogaea ) Majuri Casual labour Math A kind of pulse Mung A kind of pulse Patel Upper caste

community Phadia Cluster of the community

inhabited by a particular community.

Prasad Part of the offering given to a devotee in temples

Quazi Muslim priest Rahat kaam Relief work Rotla Chapati / a

preparation made by flattening wheat or pearl millet flour which serves as a meal .

Sheera A sweet dish made of wheat flour,

sugar and lots of ghee Sukhdi A sweet preparation made

by Crushing chapatis to a

Powdered texture

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Sukhi Kheti Cultivation done on land which has scarcity of water

Taluka Block Til Sesame Vadi Orchid Vavajodu Cyclone

115