1 AL L YOU N E E D I S TO CARE E xperiences of SBI Yout h f or I ndia F ellows in Rural I ndia 2 MISSION SBI Youth for India is a fellowship programme initiated, funded and managed by the State Bank of India in partnership with M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation, BAIF Research Foundation and Seva Mandir. It provides a framework for India's best young minds to join hands with rural communities, empathise with their struggles and connect with their aspirations. The Programme seeks to help India secure an equitable and sustainable growth path by: Providing educated Indian youth with an opportunity to touch lives and create positive change at the grass root level in rural India. Providing NGOs working on development projects in rural India with educated manpower whose skill sets can be used to catalyze rural development. Promoting a forum for the Programme alumni to share ideas and contribute to rural development throughout their professional life. 3FOREWORD I have great pleasure in writing the foreword for this book which brings out the experiences of 27 well educated youth who have dedicated one year of their lives to the service of the rural people. As can be seen from the narration of experience of each one of them, they have gained immense insight into the developmental lacunae that hamper the progress of our villages besides forming their own views on how to make our country vibrant through an inclusive growth agenda. I am sure that whatever position these youngsters occupy in future, their work and actions will bear the imprint of the one year they spent as a SBI Youth for India Fellow. State Bank of India has always been a keen participant in all initiatives with social content. It is this commitment to the society and its progress that made the Bank conceive this programme to enable educated youth to volunteer for developmental service to rural/tribal people. It was indeed a new experience, as volunteering for such a social cause is still in its infancy in our country. This programme proves that the educated youth of India, who have imbibed the best of what modern education offers, are second to none in giving back to society, especially the under developed/underprivileged, by sparing their time to understand the problems and coming up with solutions. During my interaction with the Fellows during the inaugural session in March 2011 I had described how the co-ordinated efforts of an NGO and the Bank had resulted in a win-win situation for all by enabling farmers to generate additional income streams by engaging in subsidiary activities which turned them into borrowers with good credit records. This also vastly improved their standard of living. It is heartening to note that some of the Fellows have similarly come up with ideas to improve the economic condition of the rural people by building linkages with all stakeholders. I find that some others have worked to link modern technology to make their lives more meaningful and successful. Innovation has been the hallmark of the Fellows, who have come up with numerous innovative ideas. While inviting applications for the fellowship we had stated in our website: Ignite your ideas to impact rural development. Join the movement to transform rural India. The articles in this book show that they have really taken this to heart and put in their very best efforts to make the fellowship a highly successful one. I have been keenly following the media reports that have appeared time and again lauding the various trend setting initiatives taken by the Fellows. Comments in the social media have also been very encouraging. It is in this context that we felt that a booklet containing the good work of the Fellows should be brought out. Further, their experience when exposed to rural realities will be of educative value to those who opt to work in the rural space. Hence, two 4books, one containing the experience of the Fellows during the fellowship and another containing the brief outline of their projects, conclusion and results, are being published. I acknowledge the commendable efforts and services put in by Smt. Geeta Verghese whose passion for the programme has made it a resounding success. I also acknowledge the enthusiastic support lent by the partner NGOs to the programme. Smt. Arundhati Bhattacharya Dy. Managing Director & CDO State Bank of India Mumbai 5OVERVIEW SBI Youth for India is a fellowship programme initiated, funded and managed by the State Bank of India in partnership with three reputed NGOs. State Bank of India being an organisation with a pan-Indian presence has launched the initiative in an attempt to bridge the growing rural-urban divide in the country. Economic liberalization & the growth in GDP have apparently not touched 70% of the Indian population. Agriculture, which engages about 50 per cent of the nations youth, is showing signs of an acute agrarian crisis, which is sweeping across the country and has led to a large number of suicides by farmers. The declining agricultural productivity, falling employment opportunities in agricultural and non-farm sectors, poor health care services and inability to access quality elementary and higher education has enhanced poverty and distress amongst one third of the rural population. While economic opportunities have increased for people with education, skills and economic resources in the post liberalization era, a large number of illiterate and poorly educated people, particularly in rural areas are not in a position to benefit in the new milieu. This inequitable development has unleashed social tensions particularly in under-developed & tribal areas, which manifests in movements such as Naxalism. On the other hand, with 55 per cent of the Indian population below the age of 25, India can boast of the highest youth population in the world and this is a trend that is likely to continue for at least the next two decades. Such a demographic distribution gives us an indication of the energy, enthusiasm and idealism that is available for harnessing, provided there are suitable avenues that can attract young Indians. During the independence struggle, charismatic leaders were able to inspire the people with their vision and convert the struggle into a mass movement. Today, widespread cynicism has alienated the educated youth from participating in nation building activities. As a result, young people passing out of universities look for the earliest opportunity to start climbing the corporate ladder or to go abroad. While their value system has made them westernized & materialistic in their outlook, they also feel helpless & frustrated about their inability to act as change agents in society & find a higher purpose for their lives. In this context, it was felt that one of the ways to bridge the widening rural-urban divide was to organize & galvanize the youth, particularly the urban educated youth, so that they voluntarily get involved in various developmental projects in rural areas which people today perceive as being 6largely the responsibility of the government. Some countries like the USA have well-structured schemes (like Peace Corps or AmeriCorps) to enable volunteers to spend a brief period, doing development work with underprivileged sections of society before taking up their chosen profession. To translate our demographic dividend into a true development dividend, we also needed such initiatives, which would sensitize & provide avenues for the more privileged sections to become aware of ground realities and contribute through their personal efforts towards building strong cohesive communities; a pre-requisite for a stable socio-political environment, which in turn would lead to economic regeneration. The absence of a well-conceived programme, which provided interesting and meaningful work, had resulted in the nation loosing out on the services of a huge pool of energetic young people a wasted resource. To mobilize the educated urban youth to volunteer for development work, a programme on the lines of the Peace Corps was needed at the national level, which would be non-partisan & apolitical in character. It was felt that there would be greater acceptance if a respected and trusted organization like the State Bank of India took the initiative and professionals managed the programme. The SBI Youth for India fellowship was managed by the Bank in partnership with three NGOs viz: 1) M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation 2) BAIF Research Foundation 3) Seva Mandir. The first batch commenced the fellowship with an orientation at BAIFs campus in Pune on 1st March 2011. The Tata Group, MindTree and Capgemini have supported the programme by giving a sabbatical to their employees to take up the fellowship. There was a common programme design so that irrespective of the partner NGO that the fellows had been assigned to, they received the same inputs. Each fellow had a Mentor who was a senior official of the NGO to guide them in their project work. There were periodic training programmes/contact sessions with field visits and Guest Speakers, to provide the fellows with a broader perspective about issues relating to rural development The first batch of twenty seven SBI Youth for India fellows (which includes four women) have worked on rural development projects across seven states and one union territory of the country. In this book, the fellows have shared insights and experiences of their one-year long discovery of rural India. While living with rural communities they have learnt to appreciate the environmentally sustainable life style, the values and the wisdom of the people in our villages, and have thought deeply about the development model that the country needs to adopt. In the process, they also acknowledge that the fellowship has been a transformational experience for them. 7For State Bank of India, it has been a matter of satisfaction to provide the framework to enable these young men and women to become more caring and socially concerned citizens of the country. Geeta Verghese Coordinator SBI Youth for India 8CONTENTS SECTION I Snapshots of Rural India 1. An Hour in the life of a Sardine A true account - Satyanand Mukund 2. Kids in the woods 3. Story of a Bottle Gourd Farmer Haresh Bhere SECTION II Experiences in Rural India 4. My Experiences at Jawhar - Abhishek Prabhakar 5. Memoirs of YFI Journey - Achal Bajpai 6. My Experiences at Kotra - Aditi Narayan Rao 7. There is a wealth of wisdom in our people - Akshay Kapur 8. Dear Father I want to help us! - Ankit Walia 9. Little Darling, the smiles returning to the faces.. - Anu Elizabeth Jacob 10. Loss of indigenous culture & tradition its implications - Arun Purushothaman 11. Journey of a mushroom cultivator -Bharath Vineeth Patapati 12. Mango the ultimate ice-breaker - Chetan Yaralagadda 13. Poems - Haresh Bhere 14. Learning from Dhuruva tribe - K. Balakrishna Reddy 15. My experiences at Vedaranyam - M.C.Karthikeyan Iyer 16. Nobody will need to steal limes anymore - Manish Kumar Dwivedi 17. Living in the moment - Midhun Rajagopal 18. My experiences in Dang - Parveen Sattar Shaik 19. Sweet Memories - Pruthvi Raj CC 20. Teachers and I - Sandeep Vishwanath 21. Dark side of the Moon - Santosh Choudhary 22. Heartless myth or hardnosed reality? - Satyanand Mukund 23. Sanitation issues in rural India - Shuvajit Payne 24. Development is a curse - Simran Singh Grover 25. What we sell is mud and what we buy is gold - Soumyashree Omprakash Sahoo 26. Devrayis and Warli art - Sourabh Potdar 27. Ah, they missed me -Suhasini Vavilala 28. Farming needs improved techniques - Taher B Sarthalwala 29. Kotra Escapades - Vaibhav Rathi 30. A home away from home - Vineet Kumar Singh EPILOGUE Were Not Stupid Were Just Poor 9 SECTION I SNAPSHOTS OF RURAL INDIA SBI YFI Fellow Satyanand Mukund is an engineer who has done his B (Tech) in Mechanical Engineering from NIT Jalandhar. He is on a sabbatical from Tata Consultancy Services. He is working with BAIF in Dharwar District of Karnataka. His project is on Labourers Experience of MGNREGS AN HOUR IN THE LIFE OF A SARDINE - A TRUE ACCOUNT After an hour of walking and sweating profusely under the hot mid-day sun, we were in search of transport to the nearest town. We saw a vehicle approaching far on the horizon; it was the ubiquitous Mahindra vehicle, called Maxx, I really do not know why they called it the Maxx, with the extra 'x'. The vehicle is usually expected to seat 11+1, the additional 1 being the driver. The vehicle groaned to a halt in front of us, I could spy three vacant seats in the bench style seating in the last row. I quickly clambered on to the vehicle and then surveyed the scene; there were already 5 people in both the front and the middle rows in addition to the driver. The bench style seats, which I am certain is a local innovation to maximise carrying capacity was built to carry 3 people on either bench. The conductor however, was having none of this. He quickly asked us to scurry to our respective corners, thus making room for 4 on either side. Grudgingly, I made way and precariously staked claim to a space enough for one half of my generously proportioned buttocks and heaved one almighty sigh of relief. To my naive mind, the vehicle now appeared full and I thought that we would be proceeding directly to the destination. But the driver had other plans, but more of that later. The driver now also took charge of the entertainment section of the journey; he put in a music disc with custom-filled songs. Usually, the author poses as a good judge of a fellow traveller and is most liable to make on-the-fly judgements and prides himself on the validity of such judgements. These judgements are usually made on the basis of anything from the colour of the victim's socks or the victim's choice of pickle with his curd rice. So, the author readied himself for a quick judgement about the driver, on the basis of the choice of songs. The first song was a remixed-version of a recent kannada number 'Ravi vermana... The author being unaware of the socio-political overtones of this song patiently waited for the next song. But then the driver being the man he was promptly stopped the vehicle for picking up a group of people, , who to my credulous eyes seemed to number at least half a dozen! I again 10surveyed the vehicle in a fit of panic and assessed the situation and concluded that the vehicle simply could not accommodate more than 2 people, who would probably have to cling for their dear lives to the sides of the vehicle. I am sure the reader is aware of the theory (which has been done to death,) of the glass of water and the two view points normally associated with this - the glass being either half full or half empty. But our driver had nothing but pure disdain for such minimalist views and his opinion being that such glasses are actually huge empty cauldrons and that there was space for more, always. He again asked the last benchers (of which the author was one) to kindly further displace their behinds to make way for this group. Please note that the author when faced with such dire personal hardship had shelved his plans of personality judgements, more so as the songs were switched off momentarily in the interest of stuffing the cauldron. The 3+3 benches were then easily converted to seat 5+5 and 2 others in accordance with the author's assessment clung on to the sides of the vehicle. The next song on that infernal disc was a racy, raunchy telugu number which went like this 'aa ante amalapuram ' , which was when the author decided to place the driver firmly in the category of a budding sadist , who had the gumption to enjoy such numbers in the company of men and women crammed in like sweaty sardines. A minor digression at this point the middle row had five people, who were good sized adults and in addition there was this young kid (henceforth referred to as the pipsqueak). This pipsqueak was forever threatening his good natured mother with physical gestures to convey an imminent urge to puke. The mother being good natured and also, probably, because she knew the pipsqueak on an intimate basis, shrugged off all threats of this variety. The pipsqueak then stole a glance in the general direction of the author, who in a furtive manner indicated his violent disagreement with the pipsqueak's intended course of action. This put paid to the pipsqueak's ambitious plans, at least for the moment. No sooner had the vehicle moved ahead on its journey, than two young women on the same stretch of the road signalled the vehicle to a stuttering halt. The author had now moved well beyond the first stage of panic and began to wonder at the audacity of the two parties involved in the latest act - the two ladies who clearly were not blind, and the driver who clearly knew the situation about the sardines in the can. The author's powers of reasoning had deserted him completely and there were absolutely no straws to clutch at now. The driver now displayed his deep reserves of enterprise and asked two of my fellow last benchers to clamber on top of the vehicle and the two ladies were accommodated in the seats which provided the safest possible seats under the circumstances. At this point, the racy telegu song switched over to a popular number from one of Yash Chopra's umpteen Swiss love stories. (A confession is due at this point the author attains a state of 11intense stupefaction when assaulted with visual or audio imagery of the Yash Chopra variety). There is an eerie calm or a state of being comatose when one is transported to Swiss locales in a Yash Chopra movie. I stirred myself from this reverie and focussed my thoughts on to a test of basic counting skills and arithmetic to put a definite number on this experience. I could count 25 people who had decided that this was to be their mode of transport for the next hour. What are the chances of this happening; 25 people on the same stretch of the same highway at more or less the same time, all having a premonition about a vehicle from the grand stables of Mahindra and all 25 of us fulfilling our premonition together. A fateful time of the day indeed! At this point, I would like to offer my heartfelt congratulations to the engineers at Mahindra who released a vehicle for 11 good sized adults into the market, but designed the vehicle to accommodate 25 good sized adults and a pipsqueak. To top this, also designed the vehicle to race at a speed of 70 kmph with this load- truly blessed is the organisation that employs such engineers. I now completely understand the reason behind the extra 'x' in the Maxx. This was when the darned Yash Chopra song switched to a timeless Dr Raj classic 'Gandada gudi' and the author was finally at peace with himself. The reader is now warned that the author will attempt to dissect the episode in a serious manner in the section to follow. The entire episode as depicted above is more or less true in nature; the exaggerations are obvious to the reader. But this episode is a perfect example of the Indian concept of 'Jugaad'. This is a term for an innovative fix to achieve results with meagre resources. This concept is apparently the latest fad in management circles, touted as the next big thing from India (South Asia). Management gurus wax eloquent about this and are selling this to their western counterparts. However, I beg to differ on this whole concept. Instead of trying to sell this concept as a management concept, what really is needed is a focus on the 'meagre resources' part of the problem. Humankind when pushed to the limits in the fight for survival will often resort to such tactics. The tactics adopted may very well be innovative and appreciable, but the idea of celebrating such tactics and propagating this as a way of life is akin to supporting the lop-sided nature of our development and the elitist stranglehold on resources. Just as war and hatred are not natural states of humankind, so is Jugaad not a natural state, it is very often a struggle for survival and should ideally shame the establishment in to tangible and democratic action. In this episode (where I have quite shamelessly chosen to see the humorous aspect completely ignoring the evident human angle of the struggle), the tangible and democratic action needed was quite evident to me. The stretch of the highway I refer to above is a National Highway, where state transport buses ply almost every 5 minutes. However, since most of these buses run on a 12longer route, they do not stop to pick up passengers on the wayside. I counted a minimum of 3 buses in the space of 10 minutes wherein the buses were almost empty. But since there is no designated stop for the buses, they refuse to stop for the passengers. Moreover, there are quite a number of people who travel as detailed above on a daily basis. Apparently, there is a paucity of state transport buses to plug the demand. However, as evidenced by me, in reality there is no such paucity in terms of the supply (given the fact that long distance buses ply empty). This supply gap is plugged by operators who flout all safety norms in order to maximise their returns per trip. Humorous though, it may have sounded it is exactly these sorts of practices that endanger human life. In Bangalore, a recent initiative by the State Government is revenue sharing with the staff. The drivers and the conductors of the city buses including the Volvo buses now get a straight cut (the percentage of which I am not entirely sure) of the revenue that they generate by the ticket sales on a daily basis. Ever since this incentive has been introduced, there has been a sea change in the attitude of the public transport staff in terms of customer friendliness, etc. I would like to point out that the Karnataka State Transport authority is one of the very few state transport authorities in the nation to have consistently generated profits. Returning to the point of the supply side gap in this case, all that is needed is a survey of where people want stops and then the frequency and routes of the buses need to be re-planned. This will not only result in increased revenues, but also increased road safety. 13SBI YFI Fellow Midhun Rajagopal is an engineer who has done his BTech (Production Engineering) from Government Engineering College, Thrissur. He was previously working with MRF, Puduchery. He is currently working with MSSRF in Wayanad, Kerala. His project is on Development Model for Forest Dwelling Tribes Kids in the woods - Interaction with tribal children Once during a field trip to a tribal hamlet, I took some time off to visit the nearby anganwadi. There were just three children present there, busily engaged in some outdoor activities. I came to know from the anganwadi teacher that it was difficult to get kids to attend anganwadis, once the honey collection season started. Majority of the colony inmates were forest-dwellers who travelled deep into the woods in search of honey and other forest produce which they could trade for a living. They would have disappeared into the forest by the time the anganwadi workers reached there, taking their kids along with them and would return only by dark, if not staying in the forest at night. That didnt mean that kids whom their parents had left behind would come to the anganwadi willingly. The teacher would have to go to each and every house and gather them by force. In case anyone saw her coming beforehand, they would escape into the forest announcing the teachers arrival aloud, warning others in the process. They would rather spend their day playing or roaming in the forest than being constrained to a closed space, even if it meant sacrificing an assured meal. The teacher recalled how she had lost a regular student the previous week after she had scolded him for not taking a bath or washing his clothes and sent him back, handing him a soap bar. He apparently took that as an insult and didnt show up again. 14 Kids in Kumazhi colony However, most of the children attend elementary school despite skipping anganwadi. Thanks to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan scheme, they have schools with classes up to 4th standard within walk able distance. The real challenge lies in getting them beyond 4th standard. By the time they finish elementary school, majority join their elders in their trips to the forest so that they too can contribute their share towards the family income. Lack of nearby upper elementary schools is another factor that prevents them from continuing with their studies. Before leaving the hamlet that day, I caught up with some teenagers who were roaming around the place. Whether attending school or not, everyone had a readymade answer to the question Which class do you study in. But thanks to their nave expressions, it was easy to make out who was telling the truth and who was not. Having spent some time with them, I noticed one thing no matter how they chose to live their lives, these children seemed way happier than any child you would come across elsewhere. It reminded me of the age old conundrum - Is happiness relative? 15SBI YFI Fellow Haresh Bhere is an engineer who has done his M Tech (Power, Electronics, & Electrical) from IIT, Delhi. He is on a sabbatical from Tata Motors. He is working with BAIF in Jawhar Block of Thane District in Maharashtra. His project is on Supply Chain Management for Vegetable Business. STORY OF A BOTTLE GOURD FARM ER Thi s i s not j u st a st or y, i t s a t r ue st or y. Thi s i s what I wi t nessed at t he Agr i cul t ur e Pr od uce M ar ket i ng Commi t t ee m ar ket (APM C* ), Shahapur (Di st : Thane, M ahar asht r a, Indi a). That s wher e I und er st ood t he (r eal ) gr avi t y of t h e si t uat i on, r at her t han som et hi ng p er cei ved and pr oj ect ed by t he medi a, wh i ch st r engt hened m y choi ce of a p r oj ect - t o w or k i n t h e ar ea of veget abl e busi ness. Let s l oo k at t he backgr ound f i r st . A f ami l y w or ks on t he f ar m f or 2-3 m ont hs and no w i t s t i me t o t ake t he pr odu ce t o t h e mar ket . In t he pr esent case, t he pr oduce/ veget abl e i s Bot t l e Gour d (Lauki - Doodhi Bhopl a-Sor ekai : Baba Ramdev Baba has made i t qui t e f amou s t hese days! ) Thi s f ar mer has a 19 year ol d so n, wh o i s st udyi ng F.Y.B.A. , l et s cal l hi m X. He i s on summer vacat i on now , so hi s f at her has asked hi m t o go out an d sel l t h e Bot t l e Gour d, i n t he APM C mar ket . Qu i t e exci t ed, he get s one Bori and f i l l s i t w i t h, ar ound, 55 Bot t l e Gour d. (Thi s wei ghs 30-35Kg). Then he pu t s t he bor i i n a t em po an d t r avel s f or about 45 mi nut es. Pays 20 Rs as bo r i t ra nsport a t ion char ge and 10 Rs as hi s f ar e. When he ent er s t he mar ket t he t r adi ng sessi on has al r eady begun: Ki t i l a d e n a r ? ( W h a t s t h e se l l i n g r a t e ?) 4 r u p a y e l a e k . ( 4 Rs p e r p i e c e ) Wi t ho ut even gi vi ng a second gl ance t he t r ad er l eaves. Af t er some t i me anot her t r ader comes al ong and asks f or t he r at e. Thi s t i me X says: Tumhi ki t i l a ghenar ? (How much do you w ant i t f o r ?) Shekdyal a 75 r upye. (75 Rs f or 100 pi eces) Tul a dyaychya ai vaj i j anavar al a khayl a deen me. (Rat her t han sel l i ng i t , I w i l l t hr ow i t t o t he ani mal s.) 16 That s how t he second t r ad e ended. Now t he young chap i s get t i ng f r ust r at ed and begi nni ng t o l ose hi s t emper . Par t i cul ar l y, as t he t r adi ng i s t aki ng pl ace i n peak summ er i n t he mi ddl e of Apr i l , at ar ound 1 o cl ock. Negot i at i ons cont i nue f or anot her hour , whi l e he hopes t o get a goo d pr i ce he i s al so st ar t i ng t o l ose hi s pat i ence. Fi nal l y t he t r ade t oo k pl ace. Guess ho w m uch he sol d i t f or : 4 Rs/ Pi ece. No 3 Rs/ Pi ece. No 2 Rs/ Pi ece. No Then w hat ?.1.5 Rs/ Pi ece Nope, He sol d i t f or : 1 Rs/ pi ece. Now let s do some mat hs: 20 Rs ( bor i t r anspor t at i on char ge) + 20 Rs (hi s t o & f r o f ar e)+ 5 Rs (Cost of Pl ast i c Bor i )+ 2 Rs( APM C f ees) 47 Rs he had t o spend and he got 55 Rs. That i s he got 8 Rs i n hand. (We have not even t al ked abou t t he cost of pest i ci de, seed, f er t i l i ser and l abour cost , et c... ). You can i magi ne t he expr essi on and emot i ons of t he guy w hen he w al ked ou t of t hat m ar ket . What pur ch asi ng p ower w i l l he have? Won t he di e of h unger or under t he bur den of l oans? And now af t er compl et i ng h i s gr aduat i on, w i l l he pr ef er t o be a w at chm an, a secur i t y guar d, a door man, or THE FARM ER? I guess w e al l know t he answ er . P. S: Al most f o r got t o ment i on, on my way back home, I bought t he same Bot t l e Gou r d f r om t h e l ocal r et ai l m ar ket f or 6 Rs/ Pi ece! ! ! * APM C i s a gover nmen t body whi ch r egul at es t r ansact i ons i n agr i cul t u r e pr od uce; i t s a f aci l i t at i ng body bet w een f ar mer s and t r ad er s. APM C mar ket i s a pl ace wher e onl y wh ol esal e t r ansact i o ns t ake pl ace. 17 SECTION II EXPERIENCES IN RURAL INDIA SBI YFI Fellow Abhishek Prabhakar is an engineer who has done his B (Tech) in Chemical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering. He is on a sabbatical from Tata Motors. He is working with BAIF in Jawhar Block of Thane District in Maharashtra. His project is to Address the impact of Climate change on tribal marginal farmers through eco-system approach of conservation, revival, and promotion of indigenous crop germplasm (seeds) through community led initiative. MY EXPERIENCES AT JAWHAR After spending almost a month at BAIFs campus in Pune, interacting with some veterans in the field of rural development and attending numerous lectures on the subject, I was very excited to go to the real field and correlate the things which I had become aware of during the theory sessions. Initially while in the process of selecting the project for the fellowship, I had a preconceived agenda to work on supply chain of mango & cashew in Jawhar area of Thane dist. On my first day at Jawhar, I visited a village along with a field worker, to understand the dynamics of cashew collection as it was the cashew season at that time. On the way back, we stopped at one of the WADI (orchards of cashew & Mangoes) in Chowk village. The field worker took me to a hut built inside the WADI. There was no one inside but to my surprise it was very well organized, with some earthen pots filled with rice grains and some banners explaining about organic agriculture. Out of curiosity, I asked the worker accompanying me to explain the things to me. However, the owner of the WADI was not available and we had to wait there for some time before he finally came. He was a young man and during the interaction he willingly answered all my queries. I came to know about the basic technicalities and economics of agriculture which I was unaware of before; he also explained about the indigenous seeds and the need for sustainable agriculture in a very comprehensive manner, which some what motivated me to take up a project 18in indigenous agriculture. Subsequently, we talked about his personal life and how he had reached this level. To my surprise, he was just 25 and his name was MAVANJI PAWAR. He had worked in a chemical factory in Silvassa from the age of 15, and continued working there till he was 20. But because of recurring health problems, he decided to stay back in the village and earn his living through agriculture and allied activities. He had tried various innovative and different practices in agriculture and in the span of 5 years through his hard work, innovativeness, and hunger to learn had become a village resource person for various innovative agricultural activities. His belief in what he was doing was commendable and really motivated me to select my project for the fellowship (Conservation, revival and sustainable use of Crop genetic resources) which gave me an opportunity to work with him and learn from his experiences and in the process give my inputs to enhance his initiatives. 19SBI YFI Fellow Achal Bajpai is an engineer who has done his B (Tech) in Mechanical Engineering from The Institute of Technology, BHU. He is on a sabbatical from Tata Motors. He is working with Seva Mandir in Jhadol Block of Udaipur District in Rajasthan. His project is on Impact Assessment of MGNREGA on Asset Creation MEMOIRS OF YFI JOURNEY Well once again, the dead line is crossed and I am not dead. On this fine Sunday morning in December, amidst bright sunlight, chirping birds and shouting children, I feel vexed about what I am doing. Rather than enjoying the moment, I have to produce a write-up about my experiences of the past nine months. First thing that came to my mind is What the hell, and then I realized that I have not changed (not for the better in any case). This habit of last minute rush (I still prefer to call it Principle of maximum efficiency where your Work Efficiency, more precisely Result Efficiency increases anywhere from ten to hundred times) starting from my childhood days has continued and has stood the test of time from my college days to my workplace, till now. Hold on! Now I realized there is something else too, which has not changed, and again for no good remaining unfocussed and deviating from the subject. Yes and so now, I would like to take you directly to my first days experience in this fellowship at the BAIF campus in Pune. Orientation at Pune: Stepping into the BAIF campus seemed like stepping into a new realm of life, especially when one realized that one is getting rid of those greasy, muddy, distorted, broken and failed parts of warranty yard which are so intrinsic a part of an automobile factory, for a year. And honestly, the feeling of getting a chance to observe the cultural and geographical diversities of my nation and doing something for it was one of the biggest enthusing factors. After unloading about two tonnes of load from my shoulders, which I was carrying from the BAIF campus gate to the third storey room of the hostel, it was great to interact with a noble and simple looking guy -Bala Reddy. More than the appreciation, it was the hidden fear that surfaced after hearing his qualifications and achievements as a research scholar. After informal interactions with a few other fellows, I found some really good people who have left it all their company, salary, career, etc. for this program. And yet again, amongst them more than seventy percent were engineers (I am getting fed up of finding engineers everywhere I go - I suppose with this rate of producing engineers, the day is not far off when we will study Indian 20anthropology under the classification of Engineers and Non-engineers). Within the short span of five days, although we were not able to form a very cohesive group, but there were few bonds established and memories created, which I believe will be lifetime ones. Arrival at Seva Mandir : After a long and tiring journey, we finally reached our hotel only to find that one needed to share a room with three more persons whom you barely know - definitely not a great feeling for anyone. I was no different. Anyways, just after putting my luggage, I moved out to do the favourite activity of my life eating. There was a full market of around thirty shops of Bhelpuri, Dabeli, Pav Bhaji etc. The Bhelpuri I ate that day was the most delicious I ever had, I guess more so because I was famished. The mornings of my stay at the hotel were an absolute nuisance. To get ready by 8:00 am, after sharing the washroom with three others, watching one of them wake up at 4:00 am and work on his laptop, and one wake up at 5:30 am to start getting ready with all kinds of possible noises that he could make and amidst all this there I was, a poor person trying to sleep. But then the human body is a marvellous creation. It adapts to every situation and I being no exception to the principle, devised new ways to sleep amidst all these abnormalities. Nevertheless, those initial fifteen days of the Udaipur Orientation were packed with guest lectures and field visits. Although I now feel that those lectures were useful, but for me, finding lectures useful while being attentive to them is a hard proposition. But then the field visits were incredible. Interacting with villagers and roaming in open fields was exhilarating. The usage of centrifugal pumps in wells, building of mini dams (anicuts), and the awareness amongst the people about restoration of water table level amazed me a lot. I feel people in urban areas must learn from the attitude of the rural people and try to imitate practices for sustainable and equitable growth. Stay at village Nichla Talaab: Till today, I consider those two days as the best part of my whole stint at the fellowship. Living in that kuchha-pucca house, eating food cooked in a Chulha, interacting with villagers, attending their meetings and their love and affection are few of the memories that will remain preserved in my heart. I dont know how those people could shower so much of love and affection on unknown strangers like us. I am actually getting short of words to describe 21that feeling. This is something you dont normally associate with urban areas. While leaving them, I felt like I was missing something badly. Project Location experiences: Finally I arrived at my Project location Jhadol, a slightly better place because you can get most of the items of your daily needs. A statement by one of my SBI YFI fellow colleague sums it up, Ye to mast jagah hai, aisa lag raha hai jaise delhi me aa gaya hun (This place is awesome, its like I have arrived in Delhi). Well, I guess, thats what happens after prolonged exposure to an undeveloped location (as per our standards). Working on my project on MGNREGA, it felt satisfying to understand the complex psychologies and socio-economic conditions of the villagers. Meeting so many people in so many villages was awesome. As soon as you realize everybody here is just the same, the next moment you will find something interesting about the person or the area that makes you to again realize how wrong your initial perception was. It has been a continuous learning curve for me until now. Besides the villagers, the discussion I had with the Sarpanch, and other Government officials like BDO, NREGA Sachiv, Jr. Engineers, Asst. Engineers, etc. (etc, I must say is a strange word - when you dont have anything more to add, you just like using this word) were very fruitful. I have always felt that to get a clear picture of the situation, one should look at both sides of the coin and with this experience of the last one year, it has only been strengthened. Even government officials and Sarpanchs come across so many problems and pressures in their day-to-day working and to simply blame them for anything that is wrong will definitely not solve the problem. There are a few Sarpanchs who I felt are doing a tremendous job, despite a meagre salary of around 3000 Rs. Well, before coming here, I think most of us were managing a specific area or hardly about ten to twelve people and getting around 15-20 times the salary of that Sarpanch. Shouldnt we ponder over statements like Since the Sarpanch is a representative of the people, why does he need any salary (yet of course he has to do everything right in the first instance)? I feel this tendency to blame the government for every ill happening in this country needs to be changed. Well, dont mistake me for a blind supporter of this or that government, neither am I giving a clean chit to every act of a government; but the point I am trying to make is that how many times are our reactions based on pure logic and deep thought instead of an outside 22impulse. And as soon as that incident is over, everything goes back to absolute normalcy again. With every terror attack, every disclosure of a new scam, every new Jan Andolan; our nationalistic feelings rise to a maximum, get displayed in social networking sites and then again dies down as fast as it was aroused. Well, to sum up the proceedings, I would like to say just one thing about my stint here I dont know what are the best ways or thoughts that I came across, neither have I figured out what are the best ways to resolve the prevailing chronic issues here, or what are my takeaways from this stint, or whether I have made any difference by being out here; but the thing I realize and I care about is that I have changed as a PERSON, with a bit more compassion and understanding of realities. 23SBI YFI Fellow Aditi Narayan Rao has done MA (Economics) from Christ Autonomous College in Bangalore. She is working with Seva Mandir in Kotra Block of Udaipur District of Rajasthan. Her project is on Socio-economic Impact of MGNREGA on Wages and Migration MY EXPERIENCES AT KOTRA When I reached Udaipur, to work with Seva Mandir, I was placed in Kotra. Initially it was not such a good feeling. I felt like just running away. Never had I thought that I would reach a place so far and so remote. Everything seemed so different here. Kotra is the most backward and remote place in Rajasthan. Its a tribal belt, located on the Gujarat border with lush green forests all around. The challenges were many. The local transport in the area was not up to the mark. A few Jeeps plied along fixed routes. The service was infrequent and these vehicles always exceeded the maximum capacity of passengers. People were made to sit on the roof and to hang onto both sides of the jeep. There were times when I had to sit in front with four other passengers, plus the driver. The driver would wait until the vehicle filled up. I would have to tell the driver about half a dozen times Bhaiya chalo, Bhaiya chalo (Brother, get going). He would simply glare at me. The field work during summers with rising temperatures was terrible. One had to keep climbing to reach the JFM/pasture land sites. I had a feeling that I would collapse anytime and kept sweating profusely. Once the rains began, I was able to appreciate the beauty of the place. The river behind my room was in full spate during the monsoons which was a beautiful sight. There have also been times when going to the field was a lovely experience. For example, to reach a particular village one had to cross several streams of water. Talking with people was another challenging task. For the first few months I took time off to understand the people and the field area. During my project on MGNREGA, it wasnt easy to talk to the workers. Sometimes it was due to the language barrier and at other times the people were not forthcoming- especially the women. Initially they were not responsive and one had to really build a rapport with them. Slowly, I began to feel more comfortable. The attitude of the people also changed. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice they were to me. Once I had gone to meet a person who was helping me with my field work. It was breakfast time. He insisted that I was to be his guest, and that I must eat something. Only then did we start on our field work to the project site. As I 24began to establish a rapport with the people living here, I was able to understand issues and problems of the people. With very limited access to healthcare and education, options to develop are limited. Occasionally, the residents themselves came up with constructive suggestions. At one site, a young girl said that a computer centre should be started whereby all the girls could become computer literate. For me personally, the journey so far has been a wonderful experience. I have survived its ups and downs, and shall always cherish the time I spent here. 25SBI YFI Fellow Akshay Kapur is an engineer who has done his BE (Electronics & Communication) from CITM. He was previously working with Grail Research in Delhi. He is currently working with BAIF in Udaipur District of Rajasthan. His project is on Watershed Management THERE IS A WEALTH OF WISDOM IN OUR PEOPLE If only when people saw others, they could see how they are the same, instead of how they are different, the world may change It is sometimes funny how experiences, when they become our teachers, often make us eat our own words. Even as I write, I wonder if it may happen yet again this time. It seems just yesterday when I decided to leave my job and enter a program that would supposedly help me to help my rural brethren. My reasons for doing so were many, so many that it is hard to pinpoint one of them as the reason but the bottom line was that somehow I managed to convince myself to take the step. There were questions of course, from others, from family and last but not least from my own self. Questions that were rooted in fears and inner contradictions riddled with self-doubt and coloured in uncertainty. The most common one, Will this benefit your career? (In essence, how will it help me make more money in the future?)- A concern, I found reflected across the tiny set of humanity that had leisure enough to give my life choices a thought and me advice. I quenched their fires of criticality (or at least I hoped to) through stories of how this will help me in my higher studies, how the best universities value this stuff and how this will be a great learning. As for me, I was not sure of any one of them, not that these things are not so, It was only that I wasnt sure if those were really my reasons. (Though it is funny how I started the whole thing and by the end of it, partly by repetition and partly due to blind acceptance of others, I started believing it in parts too) There were other queries, like why are you doing this? A question I declined to answer to most people initially, but as most things in life, this too was not to be. This question it seemed was a tenacious little prick and had the knack of cropping up at the most uncomfortable of places (especially when meeting important personalities and delegations) and to add to the confusion I found 26myself giving a new answer each time, each one more and more unbelievable. I have a feeling that I havent heard the last of it, but till our next duel, Ill be content saying that I still dont know enough about it to put it into words. I have my doubts about my motivations, my conscience constantly pits my actions against beliefs, judging, unforgiving and ever so critical. Was it twists in personal life, or a genuine want to serve others? Was it a pure scholarly pursuit of learning, or a self-serving charade for getting into institutes of higher learning? Was service to others supreme or were the actions rooted in a want of appreciation? I cant answer any of these questions and the best part is that after this one year I dont need to, I dont care to. Predictions were made, oracles prophesized and many experienced elders commented that it was a mere phase, a break I needed from the routine and I would be back to their worldly ways soon. It may happen or it may not, so they can go to bed with a smug, self-satisfied smile that says I told you so for all I care. They may see, understand and judge the world, may share a million memories but it will never compare. All the academics in the world may write as much as they want, in as many fancy words as they can about this country and its people, their plight and their struggles but it will always be wanting. For it cannot and never will hold comparison to what is out there to be seen, to be felt, and to be heard on our own. Gone were all the definitions and differentiations, washed away in a deluge of experience, no more was I able to see others as rural or urban, rich or poor, literate or illiterates, upper castes or dalits. Everywhere, all I could see as far as I could see were people. People, who may dress, look or talk differently but were the same. Same, in their needs and wants, their hopes and aspirations, their obstinacy and inertia, their efforts and struggles. Gone were all delusions of uplifting them, wanting to make them more like us and it was replaced by shame, shame about my own superfluous sense of superiority that had led me to believe that my way of life was something better and worth being forced upon them. This was just neo-white mans burden, the white man being replaced by an army of formally educated, reasonably challenged, factory line products that are following in his steps. The system of exploitation still runs just that it has newer perpetrators and no tags. 27 There are problems in our society, misconceptions, hunger, in adequacy but show me a society that has not battled with them at some point or the other in history and I will show you a world that is eternally struggling. Battles may have been won or lost, but the war goes on. Yes, there are evils in our society and yes they must be dealt with. But are the systems and societies we are so proudly trying to replicate really free from them. Does evil not lurk within them under a different shroud? Are they really immune to those basal weaknesses of human existence or is it just in our heads? Are they not wrought with their own problems, living off other civilizations like parasites, their excesses and consumptive lifestyles bringing nothing but self-decay, beset with gradually dwindling populations, mindlessly destroying the very resources and things that sustain them. Such ways may seem attractive when seen through the spyglass of our short lives but when pegged at the helm of history, compared to lifetimes of civilizations do they not seem insensible and vain? The grass always seems greener on the other side. And what works elsewhere may never work here. We are unique, as like everyone else, no better, and no worse. Their elixirs might become our poison. Yes we want progress, but does progress mean simply replacing our problems with theirs? There is a wealth of knowledge in our people and it is limitless. Will we let it be our guide? Do we have the strength to break our self-imposed chains of vanity, pseudo-superiority and fearful obstinacy? History stands witness - time and again, language, literature and accumulated knowledge may have been the muse of the elitists but intelligence never was and never shall be; only through it will freedom come. Freedom from our weaknesses, as a society. Not through criticism or rejection but only through deeper understanding. So quell the heat of your blood that pushes you to save the world and help the poor, for thou art poorer than them, you cannot help but only serve and serve you must but only after you have understood them yourself. Step out of your wells my brethren, walk the same paths as them, eat the same bread as them, sleep the same space, breathe the same air, shake out of your trance of knowledge only then may you even start dreaming about service. Rise sons and daughters of Bharat*, knowledge may lie in knowing but wisdom resides only in doing. Strengthen your wills, give up your fears, 28move out and only then shall we have the right to dream of a better tomorrow. *Bharat in Sanskrit means seeker of true knowledge 29SBI YFI Fellow Ankit Walia is an engineer who has done his B Tech (IT) from Maharaja Agarsen Institute of Technology. He is on a sabbatical from Capgemini. He is working with MSSRF in Thiruvaiyaru in Thanjavur District of Tamilnadu. His project is on setting up a Farmers Helpline using IVR DEAR FATHER - I WANT TO HELP US! A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart...Unknown quote. Can someone ask for more if he has got an angel in his home, I have overheard many parents say that their whole life-time honorarium is the values and education they have given to their children. In return, some children treat their parents as a burden but some as absolute beings. During the fellowship period, I came across an incident during a career awareness program which will always touch my heart whenever I remember those wet eyes of that daughter. One day a father came to the village resource center with his daughter which in itself seemed natural to me at first. There was some curiosity in the girls eyes but the father appeared relaxed. The girl could talk in simple English but the father could not. The girl wanted to know more about Biotechnology and its career prospects. From my previous knowledge, where one of my friends had worked in a good Bangalore based Pharmacy Company, I told them that the course had good career prospects if she was to get admission in a decent college. The girl was not satisfied with my answer and she wanted to know more about the colleges and placements. We knew one Biotechnology professor, so we rang up the professor to get answers for her queries. She talked with the professor for a while and his opinion was that India is still growing in Bio-Technology and though there is a lot of scope in research work, placements after a bachelors degree are not as good. I could see uneasiness in the girls eyes and she was disheartened. She told her father what the professor had said in Tamil. Her fathers facial expression did not undergo much change, he still appeared content. I think he still wanted his daughter to pursue the same course. Now, the girls eyes became moist. I enquired more about how they earned their living? She told us that her aged father was a small shop owner. I realized that the girls family was not well off and they were living in near penury. I asked her why she wanted to go for Bio-technology. She was not sure and she was hiding her moist eyes from me. I tried to empathize with her by saying that when I started 30engineering, I was also not sure why I was doing it. I was good in maths and science. I liked computers, so I choose Computer engineering. My colleague at the village resource center who was documenting and acting as a translator, was looking at me hopefully. I sensed that he wanted me to suggest some good career option for the girl. I paused to look at the girl and her father with admiration. I realized that like every other normal rural dweller, they also had self-respect and did not want to talk about their problems especially in front of a stranger. I thought to myself about how justifiable would it be to have a compromise between her interest and the employment opportunities that were available. I thought for a while and asked her if she would like to go for Engineering in computer science which could provide her a job in the current Indian IT industry. She could then work for a while after graduation and once she had earned some money and could support her family well, she could go for masters in Bioinformatics because one of my friends after electronics and communication engineering was doing his PhD in Bioinformatics. Although Bioinformatics is not completely similar to Biotechnology it also used the concepts of Information Technology and Biology. Once I had said this, I could see a bit of a light on the girls face. I dont know whether my suggestion was the right or the wrong one. But, I was asking myself the same question regarding Compromise how justifiable is it? Some people can always find a way to satisfy themselves with hopes. My friend, I feel the life of a poor person is a series of compromises, though there may be exceptions. Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist Movement, said For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else. 31SBI YFI Fellow Anu Elizabeth Jacob has done MBA (HR & Marketing) from Asian School of Business Management. She was previously working with BS Transcomm. She is currently working with MSSRF in Pillaiyarkuppam, in Puduchery. Her project is on Conducting Spoken English Classes and setting up of a Tailoring Unit LITTLE DARLING, THE SMILES RETURNING TO THE FACES.... Teachers remember the brightest, the naughtiest and the most popular students, but a huge majority goes unnoticed , in which I fall - the fourth king in the nativity play, the background tree in the school skit, the nonexistent person who sits somewhere between the bench the teacher teaches to and the one she looks at with suspicion and interrogation. I didnt like or dislike those days of anonymity as I had a world of my own in which I became quite comfortable. I open my eyes and in front of me are 25 students waiting for me to utter a word. After a few minutes of a silent stare war, I retreat to the whiteboard to scribble something. Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water... One day Babu came well in advance to the Resource Centre and asked me if I could teach him. Today class? said Babu. I looked at him and then slowly took out reading exercises, in a final attempt to reach out to him. I knew I had given up on Babu and maybe that was why I was surprised at his persistence. I was about to discover that he was not ready to write me off just yet. The Ant and the Grasshopper.... I started reading out loud. For the children to open up, they should be genuinely convinced that I am there for them. I started out with high hopes of teaching them grammar, conversational English, essay writing and after many unsuccessful attempts I was desperate to breach the enemy lines of doubt and caution. So I asked them about the films that they watched. Suddenly there was an epidemic of smiles, many volunteering names of popular actors, others mimicking behaviours in popular roles with their dialogues, the class suddenly had transformed and the claustrophobic walls had vanished. Even Babu and his friend, who were playing with a ball in the rear of the class, dragged their chairs to the front row. I was slowly seeing some light; for once I felt that they were actually listening. Little Darling, I began to sense that the ice was slowly melting... 32 Now I want you to read this story . With a little bit of a pause, a little bit of a struggle he started The Ant and the.....Grassoope...One summer day, a mary rasshopper was dancing, singing and playing the .....(Violin) ...wiolin wid all is heart... With children its essential to keep them focussed, study thus should be defined as play, thats how I came across teaching through games. With some basic word building and sentence construction games thrown in, group learning was encouraged while keeping the spirit of competition intact. The word building games became quite popular; it was a common feature at the beginning of every class for the children to loosen up. The previously fluctuating class was now becoming stable, giving hope for a perceivable difference. Babu on the other hand was passive, not contributing to the class and the other children who were eager to learn were given individual attention. Babu struggled with any word longer than 5 letters and needed constant coaching, but soon I found myself phasing out the corrections and supplementing with encouragement. I could actually see him getting more confident with each conquered word. Lets go to the next story, do you think you can read it by yourself. Babu says an eager yes Fox and the grapes....Moral: It is easy to scorn what you cannot get. Pleased with him, I was about to cheer him, when Babu continued The Bear and the two travellers.... Babu was finally reading confidently. He nods as the milkmaid nods her head spilling the milk she was carrying, caws as the fox asks the crow to sing making the cheese fall and feigns the same disappointment the farmer has when he cuts open the goose only to find no golden eggs. Babu is taken to the magical land of fairy tales and I can see him beaming as he triumphs over every new word. As no language can be learnt out of context, hence I try to expose the children to English through science and technology, health and nutrition, environmental awareness and biodiversity. So why do you like the classes held at MSSRF, Village Resource Centre? He answers with a smile I can ask questions without the fear of getting scolded. Having been a student myself, I know the wonders of individual attention. An extra effort from our end, a desire to take a chance and not to give up hope. I have learnt my lesson; I will try harder, push myself further and pick myself up faster than I fall, because its worth the effort. Little Darling, the smiles returning to the faces.... and I say its alright...... 33 SBI YFI Fellow Arun Purushothaman has done BSc (Botany, Zoology & Chemistry) from Regional Institute of Education. He was previously working with Extreme Multimedia Solution. He is currently working with MSSRF in Wayanad, in Kerala. His project is on Mitigation Strategies for Climate Change LOSS OF INDIGENOUS CULTURE AND TRADITION ITS IMPLICATIONS When we walk around the towns of Wayanad, we can see indigenous tribals living and working in close proximity with the settler population of Wayanad. Their knowledge of nature has sustained them for generations, and is a model of man and nature living in coexistence. The present demographic scenario has made way for settlers to encroach into their habitat and these tribal people are being forced to try and assimilate our way of life. We can question what has made them turn away from their roots or whether they were uprooted from their culture in the name of rehabilitation and development and now find themselves standing stranded along the path to nowhere, no different from us, with a cultural identity crisis that they cannot comprehend. Mainstreaming and empowerment is a quagmire for people who are exploited at every level of life. While they struggle to survive in this fast changing brave new world, we know that the day this generation of tribals adapts to our way of life, a long and old indigenous culture and tradition will be lost for ever. A question we would not like to ask, maybe we all know that we were part of their cultural extinction in one way or the other, or we simply stood by watching. So is it our ignorance or cultural sophistication that has led us to brand them as primitive tribes? Starting my SBI YOUTH FOR INDIA fellowship in M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Agro-Biodiversity centre in Wayanad was like opening a new phase in my already wandering life, entirely different from things that I had learned and worked with for the past 7 years. Here I was a technology consultant to an R&D company out in the wilderness of Wayanad. The MSSRF Field visit helped me to understand and interact closely with these indigenous tribes and their way of living (A confession: it took MSSRF 8 to 9 years to establish a rapport with some of these communities and to understand their situation and for me to claim that in two months I got to know them is a bit of an exaggeration. My acceptance and access to these communities was not because of my good looks but because of their good faith in MSSRF). 34MSSRF Wayanad has undertaken 20 or more projects which focus on a vision C4, not to be mistaken for the explosive C4. Here the 4 Cs stand for conserve, cultivate, consume, commerce and this vision of C4 is reflected in every project undertaken by MSSRF, Wayanad. As a newbie, even I raised questions out of my idealism rather than intellect, as to why tribal populations have food security issues when the whole forest is a feeding ground for these people. Immense knowledge of forest resources, awareness of animal behaviour, prediction of climatic conditions, expertise in sustainable cultivation and their own set of beliefs makes them forest dwellers. Nevertheless, these qualities do not help them to fight exploitation of all sorts, starvation, superstition, illness or death from disease in their community. Only few Individuals and NGOs have tried to learn the core issues affecting these indigenous communities. The intervention of NGOs into their ground has been criticized by many, due to the rampant exploitation of these communities by people from different strata of society. The need based study of development models are rarely undertaken by government organizations and some of the NGOs, as they rarely take into account the emotional and cultural psyche of these communities. Majority of the tribal population in Wayanad have now been exposed to the way of life of rural and urban settlements. However, the period of adjustment and other communities accepting them into the mainstream will take much more time and until then, these forest dwellers will have to struggle to find ways to live and fit into the newly allocated land given to them in the name of government rehabilitation programmes. Moreover, what government forgets is that each individual of a displaced community is a warehouse of traditional knowledge (though all tribal people are not experts in traditional knowledge, especially the younger generation and the reason is that they want a good life like us and we cant blame them). The humanitarian and commercial value of this knowledge is unknown as we are yet to explore or to accept these peoples traditional knowledge as a science or to prove that their theories are backed by scientific proof and till then these peoples knowledge will be termed as traditional knowledge. These questioning, conflicting views will lead to an understanding of the implications of many government acts in their actual context. Biological diversity is the sum total of a nations wealth. The tangible, mutual benefits from Biodiversity is still unaccountable considering the intake by the human population of ecological services that have economic, aesthetic or recreational value which has made biodiversity a commodity for commercial exploitation. As many as 1.6 billion people rely on forests for livelihood and 80 per cent of the people living in developing countries rely on traditional medicines derived from plants. Biodiversity also provides critical indirect benefits to humans, which are difficult to quantify. A system 35of governance was never adopted in the first place or adequate resources have not been allocated to protect this fragile biodiversity and the indigenous tribal population that is spread across the country. As a nation of rich biodiversity, enactment of Biodiversity Act came in 2002 after much of our nations wealth had been patented by developed nations. The Biodiversity Act is still in the initial phase of implementation and the benefits from this Act have not reached the people it is intended to. The exploitation of Biodiversity and its natural resource is high and to curtail this kind of practice, empowering the biodiversity management committee is necessary. How far this kind of empowerment happens is not known. Justifications and reasons for the slow pace can be many, unless laws and its implementation at the grass root level are reviewed and the problems and issues studied we are unable to see any use of such a Biodiversity law and its purpose is amorphous. As time moves on, we lose and have lost many of these gifted knowledge holders to death, disease and other conditions and this loss is irreparable, in terms of the knowledge lost. Exploitation of their traditional knowledge is not a new phenomenon in our scientific world and this exploitation has lead to distrust in many of the indigenous communities. This kind of exploitation and many other cases have led to enactment of the Biodiversity Act, 2002. We know many of the pharmaceutical companies have made use of this traditional knowledge before this biodiversity law was enforced and are still doing it. No one knows exactly how much these companies have benefited from this. Bio-piracy is a situation where indigenous knowledge of nature, originating with indigenous people, is exploited for commercial gain without permission from and with no compensation to the indigenous people themselves. Some studies have already shown 3, 00,000 samples of cultivars kept under long-term storage in national gene banks have gone out of cultivation and many among the 140 native breeds of farm livestock face threats to their survival. The lack of resources and educationally qualified people to work in the field, governments lack of understanding of the situation and some of the government acts and policies have become a real hindrance in creating a free and fair environment for indigenous tribal community to approach NGOs or Govt organizations for a knowledge sharing mechanism. These knowledge holders need to be seen as an unexplored market for commercial, pharmaceutical and many other sectors. Government can bring in groups of NGOs, scientists, social scientists and other socially accountable people related to this field, to come together and work on a policy framework to enable public and private companies to pool in resources to tap the wealth hidden in the knowledge holders. The collaboration with indigenous tribes 36can be mutually beneficial for scientific communities, as well as the tribal communities. One of the interesting things that I found with every tribal community was that they have their own traditional system for sustainable cultivation. We are almost never very much concerned with the word sustainable cultivation and greed drives our economy and sustainability has become just a hippy buzz word as we continue to push unsustainable products into the fast moving consumer-oriented market. We need to protect our natural bio-diversity from mass exploitation and extinction, to accelerate efforts for conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and for fair and equitable sharing .We also need to empower the communities living in these biodiversity hotspots to fight these Bio pirates and other people with vested designs on our biodiversity resources; to understand the tribal people and their culture and help them to map their Biodiversity register, in order to document their knowledge in front of the world. The peoples bio-diversity register will provide a social and scientific validation of the data provided by the experts. When we look at recovery of threatened and endangered species or management of invasive species or the study of accelerated disappearance of species, the knowledge of these indigenous people can be the greatest assets that we have. Now, in the name of relocation of tribals from critical habitats we are not doing any good either for them or for us. Already the mass influx of settlers into these forest habitats in Wayanad have led to degradation of wildlife habitats which in turn leads to increased incidents of man animal conflict in recent years. With these concerns and the conflicting demands of different stakeholders, the biodiversity conservation and culture of indigenous people face grave challenges. This fellowship was a blessing in disguise to understand my frustration against the atrocities towards indigenous people and the farming community. In the end I realize that change is inevitable and so is development. All these years I was wrong in blaming the government and its policies. Now I have really understood that it was my inability to understand the ground realities that made me a talker all this time. Now having done this fellowship, I am a doer. But this one year is less, now the only question is that once I am back to my real world, will I be able to cling on to my understanding of social commitment that I have learned in this one year? 37 SBI YFI Fellow Bharath Vineeth Patapati has done Masters (Information Systems) from North Eastern University, Boston, USA. He was previously working with Jan Swasthya Sahyog, Chhattisgarh. He is currently working with MSSRF in Jeypore Block of Koraput District in Odisha. His project is on Food Security JOURNEY OF A MUSHROOM CULTIVATOR Name: Dhanurjay Wifes name: Hemalata Family: 4 children. 2 daughters and 2 sons. Tribe: Bhumia Place: Nuaguda village, Kundra Block, Koraput District, Orissa Introduction Our conversation with Dhanurjay is interrupted by the ring of Dhanu's mobile phone. Dhanurjay excuses us to take the call. Dhanurjay: "Who is this"? Customer: "My name is Bhakto from Kundra block. I wanted to know whether you have any mushroom to sell. I need 4 kgs" Dhanurjay: Sorry sir, I dont have anything left today, I sold it just now to the staff of MSSRF. Please come tomorrow evening and I will provide the 4 kgs that you want." 38This is a conversation between Dhanurjay and a customer on Dhanurjays mobile phone regarding a potential sale. It has taken 4 years for Dhanurjay to reach this stage from the time he and Hemalata started cultivating and selling mushroom commercially. The real journey started in 2000 when a volunteer from a NGO called PRAYAS mentioned about mushroom cultivation as an attractive off-farm activity to Dhanurjay. Dhanurjay visited PRAYAS and learnt about the basics of mushroom cultivation and started practicing it on a small scale. The real impetus came in 2007 when he got trained in spawn mushroom cultivation technique at MSSRF, Jeypore. Since then, he has come to realize that mushroom cultivation as a sustainable income generation off- farm activity can complement his traditional livelihood activity i.e. Farming. As there are no irrigation facilities and farming is basically rain-fed here, people are forced to migrate to cities to earn money working as laborers. So an off-farm summer activity like mushroom cultivation can go a long way in helping a family to sustain themselves during the summer months. Basically they carry out this activity for 2 months. The type of mushroom grown here is paddy straw mushroom. Mushroom cultivation is a summer activity for them as it is difficult to cultivate mushrooms in winter due to moisture. The economics The family cultivates 80 beds in 2 months. Cost of production per bed is Rs 150 Quantity of mushroom per bed on average is 4 kg. Selling price of 1 kg is Rs 100 i.e. for 1 bed the sale value is Rs 400. The average profit earned per bed is Rs 250 (400 150) 39 The market Dhanurjay sells the output normally in Kundra, Lima and Sagarguda blocks. He goes to the nearby market on his bicycle to sell the produce. He sells a minimum of 6 kg per day. Average buying capacity of a customer is between 250g to 1 kg per customer and he has 10 to 12 customers per day. Other avenues for sales include, getting pre-orders for marriage ceremonies. Sometimes people also come to his village to buy the mushroom directly from him. After he has purchased a mobile phone, he has started receiving orders on his cell phone which saves him time. Interestingly, there is no involvement of middle men in this supply chain. Impact on his family's quality of life The family consumes 250 gm per day of the mushroom cultivated thereby providing good vitamin B source for the kids. Based on the data above, we see that he earns an income of at least 15000 in 2 months from this activity. This money has gone into his daughters education, buying of a mobile phone and the rest has been invested back into farming activities. Encouraged by the earning capacity of this activity and the appreciation that he is receiving from his customers, for the quality of mushrooms cultivated, Dhanurjay is planning to expand his business. Dhanurjay has not yet reached the Jeypore market (biggest town in the district) so the potential to expand is huge. But again, expansion depends upon the availability of adequate quantity of mushroom. My understanding Poverty when looked at from the Centres point of view is a State issue, but poverty when looked at from a familys point of view is an individual issue. The question is how a rural family can pull itself out of poverty by collective action, without depending too much on the Government. Rural families involved in agriculture are directly or indirectly dependent on the 40Government for debt, MSP, etc. And those are factors which are sometimes not in the control of the farmer. Dhanurjays story tells us how a tenacious farmer by diversifying into a non-farm activity can enhance his income which can then be reinvested for his familys wellbeing and also in farm activities. The question is, if this mushroom cultivation process is so simple why arent others in the village doing this? Is it the question of lack of awareness or is it that they are happy with what they already have or is it simply laziness? One critical difference that I found was that Dhanurjay was better educated than the others in the village. He has studied till the 12th class. Education creates hope in a person and makes him aware of the outside world and the opportunities that it provides. So the whole development issue boils down to a person having access to good education. I am also working with students and teachers on developing school vegetable gardens in two Government primary schools, to provide nutritional supplement for the children along with the midday meal. Even though I am confident of developing a school vegetable garden with the participation of all the stake holders, I dont have answers on how to tackle the education issue. I can say that in these two primary schools the quality of education provided is not up to the mark. Overall, the children are interested to learn but you also need self-motivated and committed teachers to teach them. How will you get the best teachers to teach at the primary school level in a tribal village? How will you involve the parents of the students in the education process? The school management committees are at present there to look after administration issues but not to take a look at the quality of the education that is being imparted. How will you reduce the burden of the teacher who not only teaches but also takes care of all other administrative things like mid-day meal schemes and construction of class room and other work related to the schools functioning? Even after 8 months I have only questions but no answers when it comes to school education. The real development of the people will only happen if we are able to tackle the issue of education in rural India. 41SBI YFI Fellow Chetan Yaralagadda has done his Masters in Urban Planning from Cleveland State University (USA). He was previously working in the Office of Field Services (CSU). He is currently working with BAIF in Kalghatgi Taluk, in Dharwar District of Karnataka. His project is on Integrated Development Approach for Tree Based Farming System, particularly for Chikoo and Mango trees'. MANGO - THE ULTIMATE ICE-BREAKER. Its the month of April and we are just settling down in the BIRD-K campus of BAIF in Surishettikoppa village of Dharwar district in Karnataka. The mercury level has reached around 40 degrees Celsius and people have started feeling the heat. But for me, its more than manageable because in my home town in Andhra Pradesh the average summer temperature is around 47 degrees Celsius. Initially people who work in the campus are reluctant to speak to me. For them, I am an outsider who is here for some vague project and will leave once the work is done. While that is true to an extent because I would leave the village one fine day, yet I am not here to do some study but to lend my hand in whichever way possible. One hot summer day, a group of people are working on segregating, packing and loading Alphonso mangoes in a truck. BIRD-K campus is used by the local farmers of the area for dumping all the mango produce and from here, the segregated and packed fruit is transported to different procuring agencies. Seeing this, I went and picked up one good looking raw mango from the segregated crate and started eating it while leaning against the back of the truck and watching the activity of packing the mangoes. I noticed that only one worker was loading the crates into the truck while the rest of the people were segregating the fruits. At one point he lost his balance slightly, while lifting the heavy crate into the truck and instinctively my hand reached out to hold the falling crate. This was when I realized how heavy each crate was. Slowly while loading the crate into the truck the man gave me a strange look, saying something in Kannada. It was then that I felt that I ought to help in loading a few crates in order to compensate for the free fruit that I had eaten. But after half an hour of loading crates they slowing started asking me some questions in Kannada, which I replied in broken Kannada to which they started laughing because the answers I gave were funny and irrelevant to the questions that they had asked. All this was interpreted to me by one of the workers in broken Hindi. I started enjoying the interaction with them and did not realize how fast 42the time had passed while listening to their small talk while they occasionally cracked jokes among themselves. It took almost five hours for six people including me to complete the work that day. From the next day, I noticed a change in the way they responded to me while interacting with me and as the days passed by, the relationship matured with frequent exchange of eatables and other items between us. Now after nine months of staying here and looking back at that situation, I feel amused at how my initial greed to have a free mango had initiated a process of icebreaking. Development- Urban Materialism versus Rural Human Values & Relations Development is the word which has really confused me after having spent some time in the village- is it measurement of materialistic possessions or is it measurement of human values and relationships in a society. If it is about materialistic possessions then the unquestionable kings are urban people but if it is about human values and relationships then the undisputable winners are rural people. But here is the catch; with obtaining money, rural people can also get into the race for materialistic possessions whereas urban people can never be able to gain the kind of human values and relationships which is such an integral part of rural society. Let me simplify this with one example; Assume that if representatives of a credit card company were to come to our office in an urban area and state that they are ready to issue group credit cards for all the individuals working there with the one and only clause being that if there is one default in payment then its going to affect the entire group of individuals in the company. In this scenario, how many of the individuals in that company would come forward to take up that offer- in my opinion not even 2 percent. Now, if the same concept is applied in rural areas, there will be scores and scores of people coming forward to avail of that opportunity. The concept is otherwise called as financing of Self Help Groups (SHG) in rural areas. So my question here is where do people have trust, empathy and genuine human relations among themselves and are continuously engaged in the best practices of human values, I conclude, it is undisputedly the people from rural areas. 43SBI YFI Fellow Haresh Bhere is an engineer who has done his M Tech (Power, Electronics, & Electrical) from IIT, Delhi. He is on a sabbatical from Tata Motors. He is working with BAIF in Jawhar Block of Thane District in Maharashtra. His project is on Supply Chain Management for Vegetable Business. POEM S BY HARESH BHERE I wr ot e t hi s p oem w hen t he movement agai nst co r r upt i o n was at i t s peak. Her e I am not commen t i ng on , wh et her w hat ever was done w as r i gh t or no t , or t he w ay i t w as done was r i ght or not . Thi s poem i s j ust a wr i t t en expr essi on of what , one p ar t i cul ar Indi an yout h t hi nks. ( ) | 1 1 ... 1 | 2 | , | | , | , 4 1 | 0 | 4 3 | + 1 | c c ... 7 c | ... 5 c | ( | 6 44 Thi s poem i s abou t a per son who was l i vi ng a di f f er ent l i f e (In t hi s case cor por at e l i f e). Now he i s exper i enci ng a di f f er ent l i f e (Commun i t y w o r k) and he i s t r yi ng t o anal yze b ot h t he si t uat i ons. Thought s, just af t e r joining SBI YFI + | 4 4 | | ... 1 4, 4 | 4 2 | | 4 4 + | 3 45Skill Definitions: A picture is worth more than a thousand words, ask me and I will say a description of a situation is worth more than 100 definitions/dictionary meanings of skills/qualities. Here are some from my personal observations. Negotiation Skill: Its a hot sunny day at the Taluka ST (State transportation) Depot. The time is 1:30 in the afternoon. People are furious, on account of waiting for a bus with a scheduled time of 12:00 oclock. Finally the bus comes and starts the journey. After an hour or so, in the middle of the road a breakdown occurs. Now, imagine the situation of being a passenger. After 20 minutes of arguments, the passengers begin asking for their money back from the bus conductor, so that they can m