Report on Village Study

Abhishek SinghDr. Anoop TripathiArun Kumar

Submitted to:Tata Institute of Social Sciences

July 2008

This field study in Guna District of Madhya Pradesh was a part of Training by TISS and supported by UNICEF

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Table of Contents

Abbreviations ..................................................................................................................................3

Introduction .....................................................................................................................................4

Objectives of the study ...................................................................................................................4

Methodology ...................................................................................................................................5

Focused Group Discussion ........................................................................................................5

Key Informant Interview ............................................................................................................5

Wealth Ranking...........................................................................................................................5

Observation .................................................................................................................................5

Personal In-depth Interview ......................................................................................................5

Informal Discussions ..................................................................................................................5

Ethical issues...................................................................................................................................6

Profile of the Village ......................................................................................................................6

Table: List of Infrastructure, Institutions and Resources.........................................................7

Observation and Findings...............................................................................................................8

Physical environment of the village ..........................................................................................8

Agrarian structure ......................................................................................................................8

Village social organization ........................................................................................................9

Migration ..................................................................................................................................10

Women’s lives ...........................................................................................................................10

Formal and informal institutions.............................................................................................12

Government interventions ........................................................................................................14

Service Delivery........................................................................................................................15

Key Issues .....................................................................................................................................18

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................19

Case Study.....................................................................................................................................21

Glimpse of the visit.......................................................................................................................26

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Abbreviations

ANM Auxiliary Nurse Midwife

AWC Anganwadi Center

AWW / H Anganwadi worker / Helper

ASHA Accredited Social Health Activist

NGO Non Governmental Organisation

EGS Education guarantee Scheme

ICDS Integrated Child Development Scheme

NREGA National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

NRHM National Rural Health Mission

JSY Janani Surakha Yojna

TSC Total Sanitation Campaign

ARWSP Accelerated Rural Water Supply Program

PDS Public Distribution Shop

BPL Bellow Poverty Line

SHG Self Help Group

PTA Parent Teacher Association

FGD Focused group Discussion

SDM Sub-divisional Magistrate

SGRY Swarna Jayanti Grameen Rojgar Yojna

FPS Fair Price Shop

SC/ST/OBC Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe

IAS Indian Administrative Service

SSA Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

NRHM National Rural Health Mission

MDM Mid Day Meal

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IntroductionIt is said that villages are the soul and heart of our country, India. Not surprisingly, the total count of villages in our country stands at whopping 6.38 lakhs. Out of this, the state of Madhya Pradesh contributes the second highest number of villages, with the number aggregating to more than 55000. The villages are predominantly rural, characterized by non urbanized pattern of growth. Though this trend has changed rapidly in the last one and half decade due to increasing connectivity and access to modern facilities, yet the rural urban divide is very clear. As one moves from the city locale to the interior areas in a district, the disparity with respect to lifestyle, access to basic amenities and sometimes the day to day struggle for survival becomes evident.

In order to understand such struggle and disparities, a weeklong component of village study was included as part of internship. The village was selected based on certain filters, which were:

y Location- moderately interior, not on the national highway.y Village planning exercise by UNICEF should have been completed before 31st

December 2007. It should not have been studied before (IAS trainees, students of social work and others)

y Village should have 15-20% SC, ST and OBCs.y A primary schooly An ICDS centery A fair price shop

During the selection of the village it was ensured that not much information was available about the village so that the study could not be biased by any preceding information and reports. The study was exploratory in nature, which dealt with various aspects of village social organization like:

– History of the village, how it was formed and how it evolved– Caste, class, religion, gender and its dynamics– Agrarian structure– Cropping patterns– Size of landholdings– Village economy– Formal & informal institutions– Intervention by the Government and its outreach– Changes in various socio-economic and cultural spheres of rural society and

processes and factors of social change, which provided us an insight of the manifestations of the rural life.

Objectives of the studyThe study was planned to provide the interns an opportunity to learn the ground realities. The focus of the study wasx To get first hand experience of how do people live their life in rural areas.x Exposure to facts of rural life and their socio-economic, political and cultural settingsx To understand the l inkage between people’s perceptions o f needs and the

programmatic intervention with regard to the flagship programmes.

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MethodologySince the type of study was exploratory and there were a wide range of issues to be comprehended, different methodologies were adopted as and when required. These methodologies included

Focused Group DiscussionIt was used with a purpose to obtain in-depth information on concepts, perceptions and ideas of a group. FGD was aimed to be more than a question-answer interaction. The idea was that group members discuss the topic among themselves with a goal to obtain as much useful information as possible. Team conducted FGD with the women group to understand gender relations and their health status and with youths to understand their issues.

Key Informant InterviewThe Key Informant Interview Guides were used to collect a broad range of perspectives on the intervention by the Government. Unstructured interviews were designed to collect information from the point of view of part icipants in their own words about the developmental process, level of their involvement in the interventions, and perceptions of its impact. Such Interviews were conducted with Sarpanch, Panchayat secretary, school teachers, chowkidar, PDS shop owner etc.

Wealth RankingIt was done through discussion with community members to obtain some of the key local criteria or characteristics of poverty and wealth, and then, by applying these characteristics in abstract, to determine a set of useful categories that make sense in local discourse. It was also useful to understand the dynamics of wealth and poverty in a given society: what characteristics and social relations enable or hinder prosperity, and what characteristics intensify poverty.

ObservationIt was an ongoing process. It offered an orientation to understand the process and structure of a social setting. Both participatory and non-participatory observation was used. Observation method helped to focus on community and ethnic groups, on person & the setting to know immediate impact of an event, aspects of everyday life and to get a inside view of reality

Personal In-depth InterviewIntensive individual interviews with a small number of respondents were conducted to explore their perspectives on a particular idea, program, or situation. About their experiences and expectations related to the program, the thoughts they have concerning program operations, processes, and outcomes, and about any changes they perceive in themselves as a result of their involvement in the program. It was useful to have detailed information about a person’s thoughts and behaviors and to explore issues in depth. Such interviews were conducted with the key service providers and some of the beneficiaries to assess outreach of Government programs and its benefits.

Informal DiscussionsInformal discussion provided an opportunity to share information so that the person can understand and discuss the issues pertaining to the village. It was intended to improve communication & rapport during the process of triangulating information and if an error was found, it could be corrected before a final decision was made.

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Ethical issuesAll interviews/ observations were conducted without disrupting or delaying the planned activities of the villagers for the day. The villagers were not asked to do anything out of the routine, to facilitate observation. Informed consent was taken for interviews. Notes and pictures were taken with expressed permission.

Profile of the VillageUmarthana is predominantly a Tribal village located in Chachoda Janpad (Block) of Guna District, bordering the State of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The village is 13 KM from Binaganj market situated on Agra - Mumbai National Highway 65km from Guna. It is one of the three villages under Umarthana gram panchayat alongside the road heading to Jhalawar district in Rajasthan, surrounded by hills from all sides.

The village came into existence when around 200 years back when few Bheel families from Rajasthan migrated to MP. Their further movement in the State was ceased by the then King, which forced them to settle in the valleys bordering the State of Rajasthan. This is the reason one can find mix of culture of both the States1.

The current population of the village is around 9082 with 222 households. Male constitutes 48% of the population against 52% of females. The villagers worship Hindu God. 95 % of the population is predominantly Bheel Tribe, who claim to be warriors under the light of the fact that they supported Maharana Pratap Singh in his battle against the Moughals. The other 5%of the populace is constituted by mainly Ahirwars (Schedule caste), Sao & Vishwakarma (OBC). There are 45 Antyodaya card 110 BPL card in the village. Others either have general card or they do not have any card at all.

13 households are women headed (widowed) and 209 households are headed by men. Average family size is 4 and average landholding is around 3 Bigha3, although most of the large land holdings are with few households. 93 households (42%) are completely landless.The land composes of black soil with rocky bed beneath having long fissures, which are interconnected. This results in poor water holding of soil making it inadequately productive for agriculture.

Occupationally people majorly work as wage labour since agriculture is highly guided by monsoon and single cropping pattern persevere. 75 household are dependent on Wage Labour, 86 families are marginal farmers and work as labour in other seasons, 6 households exclusively dependent on agriculture and all of these are headed by older people or women who are not in position to work as labour. Member from 44 households are in government service whereas 11 households are dependent on shop and other small business activities for their livelihood. Women are largely engaged in household activities though they support their spouses in farming during monsoons.

Literacy level of the village is good. As the primary school building is in the village and well within reach of the community, every single child is enrolled in primary though the enrolment in upper primary school is comparatively poor.4

1 As stated by villagers in FGD2 Came out in Wealth Ranking exercise 3 Approx. 10 Bigha of land is equal to 1 Hectare4 Data was not available but it was general observation and came out in discussions

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Umarthna is also a Gokul Gram village. The purpose of the Gokul Gram Yojana is to converge all development activities at a single selected village designated as Gokul Gram so as to quicken the process of generating rural employment and ensuring faster development. These are villages that have remained isolated from the development process for the last five decades. Although there was never a question of lack of resources, a comprehensive planning for the overall development of each village appeared to be basically lacking in all developmental efforts. It was recognized that the pitiable plight of the people living in the far-flung and interior areas of the State does require a special care. It is in this context that the Government visualized the concept of GOKUL GRAM for the comprehensive development of the villages.

Overview of the facilities and Institutions: Umarthana being one of the Gokul Gram villages, large institutional set up and infrastructure has been created in the village. The details are presented in the table below:

Table: List of Infrastructure, Institutions and ResourcesFacilities

Primary school YesUpper primary school YesHigh school YesGirls Hostel Under NPEGEL YesModel Cluster school YesAnganwadi Centre YesSub Health Centre YesForest Check post (Barrier) YesRTO Checkpost (Barrier) YesVetenery clinic YesPDS shop YesCommunity hall YesPanchayat Bhawan Yes

Institutional setupSarpanch YesPanchayat secretary YesPanchayat with 3 standing committees YesANM YesFSW YesJan Swasthya Rakshak YesASHA YesAWW YesSahayika YesPTA YesSHG (Men) Yes 1Head master (primary, upper primary & high schools)

Yes

Mate (NREGA) YesRMP Yes 1

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ResourcesHand pump 6Well (drinking water) 1Well (NREGA) 12 (in progress)Temple 1Pond 1Electricity Yes (irregular)Road connectivity Yes

Thus, the village has been benefitted by almost all the major schemes. Some benefits have definitely percolated down and some sections have harvested the fruits of development. But the development process has not progressed in leaps and bounds as one would assume. The observations of finer issues present a mixed picture which is described in the next section.

Observation and Findings

Physical environment of the villageThe village is surrounded by mountains and hillocks all around. This presents a very serene picture of the village. The village is divided into four hamlets with few houses scattered on the borders of the village. The village within is connected with all weather roads. Since the household are situated on contours, water logging does not happen in and around the village. The natural environs of the village are though very picturesque; the people have to negotiate in a very hard manner for existence.

All type of houses can be observed in the village. There are beautifully decorated pucca houses, semi pucca houses (concrete walls and floors), semi kuccha houses (pucca walls but kuchha floor) and kuccha houses. The houses have ventilation and are constructed on elevation. The houses appear to be arranged in an orderly manner. All the houses have small extension (veranda) in the front and Aangan (central open space inside the house) around which rooms are constructed on each side.

Cattle ownership is limited to the houses having larger landholdings in the village. Generally, these houses own cows, oxen and goats with one or two buffalos in very limited number of households. Larger houses have cattle sheds within the premise whereas some of the smaller houses have sheds constructed adjacently. Though lot of government land and common property is available in and around the village, cattle’s grazing is an issue in the village as the village is not highly vegetated because of the terrain. Cattle are grazed on the hilltops surrounding the village.

Agrarian structureThe Bheel tribes consider themselves to be warrior tribes and probably nature has also contributed in making them so. These tribal people with their sheer grit have converted some part into land suitable for cultivation over the years. This is despite the fact that the topography does not suit agriculture and the soil has very low water holding capacity. The rocky bed below the top soil is made of rocks which have fissures in them so water runs down deep below.

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The population of the village is primarily dependent on agriculture. The land holding pattern is marginal in nature (less than 1 hectare). In fact meager of the families own more than 1 hectare of land. Forty two percent households (93) are landless and another 8 percent own one or less than one Beegha of land. 45 percent of the households have land between 1 and 5 Beegha. Only 5 percent households have more than 5 Beegha of land. 1

In such a situation, these people depend upon subsistence agriculture and are able to grow only kharif crops such as Mucca, dhania, and jowar. These crops do not require high amount of rainfall and thus survive. In the recent years, soya-bean has been introduced which is a cash crop and has caught up with the farmers. The farmers are able to grow only single crop during the entire year which serves purposes of both consumption and cash in exchange. The agriculture is completely rain-fed in nature and one failed monsoon results in high level of food insecurity in the region.

The fruit of mechanization seen in the other northern states has not reached this village and the effects of green revolution such as use of high yielding variety of seeds; use of chemical fertilizers etc is nowhere visible. The farmers are aware that mechanization such as use of tractor will not be effective as the landholding is very small. Also, other support systems such as institutional credit, farm extension services etc are also not available at their disposal.

Village social organizationAt the very first observation, discrimination based on caste was not quite evident, but it was soon realized that the village is predominantly occupied by one caste; Bheel. Further probing and observation during our investigation revealed that there is a marked untouchability for the schedule caste (Ahirwars) and Saos. This was apparent in one of the incidences when during our conversation with one of the Ahirwar we offered him seat on Chowkidar’s cot who happened to be a Bheel. After his exit, the chowkidar expressed his discontent over the event. He shared that untouchability is prevalent since ages in the village and the people from the lower caste are never invited in their celebration. Even if they are invited they are made to sit separately. This was also quite obvious in housing pattern too, as the most of the houses of the Ahirwars were at the periphery of the village. On some occasions, it has resulted into conflict but being less in populace, the resilience by the lower caste was suppressed.

As mentioned earlier, the average land holding is quite small and farming is conducted annually during the monsoons. Main source of livelihood of major household is wage labour. Thus poverty is quite perceptible. However, one can find disparity in the poverty level. It was observed that education among the Bheels was better than other castes since preceding generations. As a result people from many households got enrolled in Government services, which resulted in their improved economic status. These were the people who are informed and have access to the benefits of Government schemes. Some of the better off families took benefits of the Government loan schemes and mobilized resources to buy vehicle or Tractors, which they have given on rent. This has opened new avenues of income and reduced their dependency on agriculture. Improved economic status provided the opportunity to the next generation to gain access to higher education. Accordingly, there was upward movement in their class. This is also reflected by difference in living standard, as they eat better food, take 3 times meal a day and reside in Pucca houses.

1 Information drawn from the wealth ranking exercise

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The segment of household which has improved their social status over the period has also created assets apart from the village land holdings. Some of them have also taken up the role of money lenders giving loans on interest or property collateral. During the loan period farming produces are owned by the money lender. In case of failure to repay the loan, the land is acquired by them. Over the period of time, this has lead to greater land holdings in the hands of few people further percolating landlessness & poverty among the poor.

On the other hand, the households whose elderly generation were uneducated, which included few of the Bheel families also, were still struggling to move out of their dejected state. Unemployment is prevalent. Landlessness, especially among the schedule caste has added to their woes. Many of these families don’t have the BPL card. These all together have piled up food insecurity among the underprivileged families. One of the outcomes is high seasonal migration. The need for money sometimes reaches the levels where children have to dropout from school to work for additional income in the family. Though, the students belonging to schedule caste and tribes are offered scholarship by the Government but in some occasions, even that money was used to meet the needs of the family. Loosing on education has resulted in low endowments of the younger generation adding to the gravity of their paucity.

It was observed that the women of the household usually serve food to the children and male members of the family first. Its only when the others are through women had their meal. This is the practice across all class and castes. Sometimes in the poor families, by the time its turn for the women to eat, the food is over. Such practice is concedes to the gender roles accepted in the social set-up and food scarcity haunting the poor families.

Having better access to information and resources, better off people have occupied important positions in the village and taken up the role of decision making. This has lead to marked centralization of power in the hands of few people. Concentration of power has resulted in discrimination and exclusion within same caste too. Benefits of scheme like well construction and wage payment under NREGA, when observed, in one way reflected this. Having the privilege of decision making power and first hand access to developmental schemes, they make the most of the benefits filtering out the poor and needy. Consequently, the schemes, meant to benefit the poor do not really reach them as a result of exclusion by the dominant & powerful people in the village.

MigrationAs a result of insufficient agricultural opportunities and search for labour work, seasonalmigration as well as distress migration is a common phenomenon. Sometimes the whole family, except older and ill, migrates to nearby areas in search of wage employment.Apparently it seems that they have earned some money but the fact remains that a very smallamount is saved after the expense. The usual places of migration are Kota Rajasthan and other nearby areas. Among the youths the fascination of city life and chances of getting permanent/semi permanent job in the cities leads to their migration in cities like Indore, Kota, Delhi, etc.

Women’s livesWomen constitute more than half of the total population, which makes the sex ratio favourable. Despite high percentage of women and consequent high sex ratio, they suffer from all-round neglect, deprivation, exploitation and overall low status in the society. Sometimes, their individual existence is also ignored. Though son preference is not very evident, discrimination between boys and girls occurs at the household level. This

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discrimination can be noticed in issues such as food, clothing, opportunity for education and treatment during an episode of illness connoting in neglection of girl child from the time of birth.

Puberty is considered as coming of marriageable age for the girl child. Therefore, girls are married at an early age much before the girls attain the legal age of marriage. In case of boys also, legal age is not a consideration for marriage. If a favourable match from the same caste is found, the boys are married irrespective of the age, though the trend has changed in the recent years. Anemia is rampant among the adolescent girls. The first child bearing happens within first year of marriage and the birth order is of above three. Use of family planning methods is negligible evident from the fact that only 10 couples were using any modern method at the time of this study1.

Though dowry does not manifest in the same manner as it does in the urban settings, it is prevalent among all the castes dwelling in the village. It is more rampant among the OBCs and the SCs. This trend is also catching up with the ST community. There have been few incidences of conflict related to dowry case and is considered as an accepted norm in the social set up. Demand for dowry does not depend upon the economic status of the family but the existing trend and it is presumed that marrying the girls at an early age minimises the demand for dowry. There are other social evils pertaining to women in the village and one of the critical issues is that of the purdah system. Women after marriage are required to cover their face both inside and outside the house. This system is rampant among women of all castes in the village.

Though the government is increasingly stressing on the education of the girl child, educational standard of women is very low. The enrolment of the girls at the primary school level is high but there is a significant drop in the enrolment at the upper primary level. During the discussion with the Panchayat Secretary, it was informed that only 12 applications were received for selection of ASHA, though the minimum eligibility was only fifth grade. It was also found out that only seven girls in the village could complete higher secondary during last academic year2. Providing functional skills to the girls to make them economically independent is also unthought-of.

The roles for women and men are very clearly defined in the social setup of the village. Men in the village within all castes perform economic roles which are considered to be productive. Women members help the male members in agriculture and earning wages apart from performing the daily household activities. However, their contribution in agricultural labour is not considered as productive in nature. This is primarily because men consider it to be their domain and also because they consider this labour to be irregular and not involving hard work. This is despite the fact that women also spend 8 – 10 hours in the field during the time of sowing and harvesting. Clearly, there is no standard definition of hard work and interestingly women also do not consider this work to be productive3.

NREGS has contributed significantly in involving women as part of labour force in the village. Almost half of the women from the landless households have worked under the scheme along with their husbands. Earning of wage labour by women is considered to be a productive economic activity as it brings cash in the household. Women are not allowed to

1 Source: SHC FP register2 (Source: survey register maintained by ASHA3 Findings of FGD with Women group

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work if the husband is not working together. However, participation of women of relatively well to do households in this scheme is nil. Among these households working of women as wage labourers is considered as a taboo. Higher educational status among women also seems to be a barrier in participation in such schemes.

There is discrimination between men and women in terms of payment of wages for the similar jobs except under NREGS. In many cases, wages are paid to the husbands in case they are working together. Anecdotal evidences of sexual exploitation at the work sites were noted but evidence could not be established owing to the sensitivity related to the issue. But these are often ignored or explained on the ground of fate. Women’s ownership of the property in terms of land and house is rare. Women’s’ individual existences are also ignored. They are mostly not called by their name. They are addressed by their villages’ names or according to the name of the eldest child.

Women’s participation in the formal workforces is also very low. Only three women have been able to break the male dominance in employment and are engaged gainfully. Their engagement is as contractual teachers under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan. Interestingly, these three women belong to the well to do households in the village viz. Sarpanch, Ex Head – Master and the Patwari of the village. Despite such women belonging to the supposedly higher class in the community, the stereotype roles that they perform have not changed. Such women are also required to perform the reproductive roles in the household.

The economic empowerment or attaining a responsible position though has added to the prosperity of the family yet it has not added significantly to the change in the roles that women typically perform. The example of the Women Sarpanch Kamlabai, who is illiterate, is a case in point. It was observed during the meeting that her husband was responding to the queries posed to her. All this time she was busy with cooking meal for the family. When the group wanted to meet her outside her house in the absence of her husband, she refused to oblige. On one other occasion of brief meeting with her, she responded in a very guarded manner. Her own understanding of her role as a leader of the community and especially of women is very limited. She accepted the fact that it is her husband who supports her in her role as a Sarpanch to the extent that her mobility is also completely dependent upon him.

Participation of women in decision-making is generally very low in the area. Decision-making is mainly the responsibility of men especially in economic matters pertaining to family. Ownership of property is male centred. Sale and purchase of property is completely the prerogative of the older men in the village. They may or may not consult the female heads of the families. The decision in other family related matters, non economic in nature, are very occasionally shared and taken in consultation with female heads. However, female headed families command greater role in decisions like delivery, marriage, education, etc. It is important to note that decision-making roles of women do not change much with change in the structure of the families.

Formal and informal institutionsThe selected village has institutional set up which comprises of the locally elected Panchayat body with four different standing committees as mandated by the Madhya Pradesh Panchayati Raj Act. These four committees are Village Forest Committee, Village Vigilance Committee, Village Sanitation Committee and Village Protection Committee. The Panchayat Secretary also belongs to this village. The other institutions include one self help group, one

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Parent Teacher Association (PTA), NREGS mate and functionaries of the government facilities such as AWW, ANM, School teachers and Head Masters etc. Thus this village has a concentration of institutions and human resources as has been envisioned under the Gokul Gram scheme.

The benefits of having such a good institutional set up are reflected in the infrastructure that is available in the village. Also, as the village shares its border with the neighbouring state of Rajasthan so it has received attention from all circles. In such a situation one would assume that development activities have benefitted the needy and poor families. However, despite such efforts not much progress is visible.

The benefits of the local governance are being hijacked by the Sarpanch and the Panchayat Secretary. The analysis of the data provided by the Secretary clearly reveals that the benefits of the government schemes are largely concentrated to the fewer households which have affiliation to the Panchayat members. Incidentally, these are the households which have either large landholdings or have caste affiliation or have one member in the government service. The selection of the beneficiary is not done in the gram sabha but through individual consultation. The AWW, AWH, ASHA all are related to one of the Panchayat members. One can clearly see a direct relation between the prosperity of the family and its representation in the various panchayat bodies and other institutions.

The women empowerment aspect through transfer of leadership and representation in the Panchayati Raj institutions also remains a farce. Under the Panchayati Raj Act of MP, quorum in a gram sabha is completed only when at least one third women attendance is registered. During focused group discussion it was found out that women are hardly aware of this rule. Some of the women recollected about putting their thumb impression on documents presented by their husband or a member of the Panchayat, but mostly they are unaware about the contents of such documents. According to such women illiteracy is one of the hindering factors in expressing their reservation or resistance. However, even the very few women who are literate are not very forthcoming and cannot resist the pressure of the male members in such situations.

Similar is the case with other institutions present in the village. Under Jan Shiksha Adhiniyamof the Madhya Pradesh Government, PTAs have been constituted at the Primary and Upper Primary schools. More than half of the representation in these PTAs is of women members. In the village the PTA has 11 members out of which 6 members are women. However, it was noticed during discussion that the PTA rarely meets and more so the representation of the women members in such meetings is few and far between. In fact, whenever such meetings occur, husbands of such women represent in the meetings and this practice has got intitutionalised over the years.

The village has one male Self Help Group (SHG) and does not have any female SHG. This group was formed three years back and comprises of 15 members all belonging to the Bheelcommunity. All the members of the group contribute 100 rupees on a monthly basis. It is important here to note that the membership is exclusively limited to the Bheel community of the village. Though the group meets on a monthly basis, the meeting just revolves around collection of money and lending. The trust component among the members was missing and it was evident that the SHG is just another mechanism to ensure benefits of government schemes such as SGRY.

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There have been attempts in the past by the members of other community such as Ahirwarsand Telis to form SHGs, which have been sabotaged. This has resulted in conflict among the Bheels and the Ahirwars and Telis. One of recent incident of conflict was the case of the right to use the water of pond for irrigation purposes. The pond was constructed by the irrigation department for improving irrigation facility in the village. For revenue purposes, the Gram panchayat auctioned the right to the SHG for fisheries. After getting such right the BheelSHG members did not allow community members from the other caste to use the water for irrigation. It was claimed that the water was poisoned by the Ahirwar community which resulted in loss to the SHG. It led to tension in the village which could be diffused after the intervention of the local administration.

Such issues are not isolated incidents of conflict. But, the incident also points to the fact that there is a complete absence of informal village structures to resolve the matters of conflict. Conflicts do occur in the matters of use of common property resources such as pasture land and hand pump for consumption of water. Such conflicts are aggravated by the presence of social evils such as untouchability in the village. But due to the minority status of these people in the village, the proceedings are completely dominated by the Bheels in the village and the decisions are in their favour.

Government interventionsAfter 73rd Amendment of constitution the three tier Panchayats came into existence and it became the Local program delivery mechanism of different Government scheme. The responsibility of these PRIs was to improve programme delivery by identifying right holders and reaching the benefits to them in time at their door step. For fulfilling the above objective various schemes under different programmes are being implemented in the village.

In Umarthana, 12 wells were given to beneficiaries identified by Gram Sabha under the Kapil Dhara scheme. This was covered under NREGS and provided employment to the villagers. As claimed by Panchayat secretary the total sanction in NREGA was 32 lacks for the Umarthana Panchayt out of which work of 12.62 lac was completed. The NREGA is doing well but due to fund constrain the work has not been completed as yet. But it has raised hope in the villagers for getting second crop in the farms as they will not run out of water and meet their irrigation needs in summer time also. This ambitious scheme of government has generated both employment and created assets as well.

In past three years only 2 houses have been allotted under the Indira Awas Yojna as after completion of Gokul Gram activities the Panchayat has proclaimed that every person in the village is having shelter. But this is not the true picture in Umarthana. Separation in the families has lead to a situation where some families which have separated have become shelter-less. But they are not getting the IAY sanctioned from the Gram Sabha. The Panchayat Secretary said that “If some body wants to take house under IAY scheme so they have to write to SDM for the same and SDM after proper enquiry can ask Panchayat to give list of beneficiary under IAY scheme and the funds will come in next release.

There are 11 widows who are getting pension under National Family Benefit Scheme. These were identified by the gram sabha. But there is not a single old age pension sanctioned in the village. For Old age pension two criteria is laid by Government, first that the person should not have any land holding and second he/she should not have son. Secretary said that based on these criteria they could not identify any person in the village. But the picture is not rosy as it seems there were few old aged people in the village whose sons are working outside;

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they seldom visit their families in village leaving their old aged dependents on the mercy of God.

Apart from this the Panchayat has created infrastructure under different scheme like, CC Kharanja road in the village worth Rs 4.5 Lakhs, Community Hall costing Rs 1.74 Lack, Boundry of School, and Panchayat Bhawan Campus costing Rs 1.95 Lack, CC kharanja roadof connecting road to Dabri Tola in Umarthana costing Rs. 1.03 Lack. Periphery road CC kharanja in North of the village costing Rs 2.5 Lack, Stop Dam maintenance costing Rs. 62 thousands. One vetenary hospital has recently been sanctioned for a cost of Rs. 4 lakhs under the BRGF scheme.

Though the importance of these structures cannot be denied, it also points out to the fact that malpractices are happening and funds are being siphoned off by the Secretary and the Sarpnach acting in connivance. It also raises questions on the participatory planning process being adopted in the village and functioning of the gram sabha. Two examples are necessary to be quoted here. First is the case of the model cluster school building which has been constructed six months back. This is the building in which we were staying during our village stay. After the first heavy rain, the water started dripping from the ceiling indicating at the quality of the construction material being used.

Second is the case of the vetenary hospital which has been sanctioned under BRGF. The village already has one vetenary clinic which remains closed most of the time. When the case of second hospital being built in the village was discussed with the community, everyone expressed their dissatisfaction. When the same concern of the community was shared with the community he informally accepted that since there was pressure to spend the BRGF fund, he got the vet hospital sanctioned. From these two examples one can understand how the role of gram sabha is being hijacked and the needy people are still not geting the benefits.

Service DeliveryThe government in the recent years has initiated schemes and progarmmes to improve the economic, social and overall well being of the people. These development schemes are primarily aimed at reaching to the sections which have perennially remained deprived and marginalized. Some schemes are further focused on women and children to improve their nutritional, health and social status. Such schemes include NRHM, ICDS, SSA, TSC, MDM, AWRSP, PDS etc. These schemes have been implemented in various forms and versions over the years with an overall objective to improve the quality of life of the rural people.

For improving the health status of the population in rural areas GOI launched the National Rural Health Mission in the year 2005. The overall objective of the scheme was to improve the health status of people, women and children in particular, and promote healthy lifestyle and behavior through a process of decentralized planning. The sincere efforts put in by the government machinery are definitely laudable as some concrete results have started pouring in from key sectors. One of such sector is reduction in the IMR and MMR through promoting institutional delivery. Institutional Delivery is being promoted through implementation of Janani Suraksha Yojna and Janani Express. The scheme has caught up with the rural populace as in the first three months of the year 31out of the total 33 deliveries happened in a hospital set up. The other two deliveries that were conducted at home were assisted by skilled personnel.

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However, critical investigation reveals that NRHM has reduced to a maternal and child health programme from an umbrella programme. Due to intensive focus all the efforts of the sub health centre at the village remain focused on pregnancy, delivery and immunization whereas the sub health need to provide other essential services such as education, counseling, disease surveillance, promoting hygiene and sanitation and convergence of other national programmes. These services are in limited focus at the sub health centre level despite the fact that the competency of the ANM and the FSW to deliver such services was found to be satisfactory.

Another important scheme which aims at improving the nutritional status of children and women is the Integrated Child Development Scheme being implemented since more than last three decades. This scheme has adopted a life cycle approach and reaches to children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant and lactating mothers and adolescent girls offering range of services to these groups. There is one ICDS centre in the village function from the school building. A total of 124 children thirteen pregnant and lactating mother were registered at centre at the time of observation.

It was observed that the centre has merely become a point for administering standard nutrition and no other services are being delivered. In fact, during the entire week of stay, the centre did not open at the prescribed time 8.00 am in the morning and closed immediately after distribution of dalia or laddu. Only 20 – 25 % attendance was observed among children and none among pregnant and lactating mother raising the issue of credibility of the scheme, though no grade III and IV level malnutrition was among children.

Pre-School education for children in the age group of 3 – 6 years is another important component of the programme. Despite the focus, this aspect was completely missing at the centre. None of the children present at the centre could recall alphabets or numbers during investigation. Similarly, no education or counseling services to the adolescent girls are being provided at the centre. The centre did not have any record of the number of adolescent girls. Provision of immunisation services through this centre appear to be appropriate probably because of the attention it has received from the health department. Referral services have become limited to promoting institutional delivery. This is primarily because of the incentive component in JSY for the ICDS worker.

The record keeping at the centre was also very weak. The various registers on the basis of which the periodic reports are submitted were updated and some records were as old as 4 months. The AWW had no clue about the updation of registers and serious discrepancies were observed in the purchase registers and cash book. Supportive supervision by the sector supervisors is also not adequate. It was found out that the last two visits made by sector supervisor were in the month of January and May respectively.

The sanitation scenario is poor. Open defecation is quite prevalent as only meagre number of household are equipped with toilet facilities. The school do have toilet facility but only one of the three toilets is in working condition. Although, some toilets were constructed under TSC program but all of them have been demolished and were never used. The reason quoted by the people was that the toilets constructed were of poor quality providing cover and protection for the namesake. Some of the more affluent families shared that they are willing to use a toilet if Government provides an interest free loan to construct a descent toilet, which they would repay in instalments. Conversely, the poorer families expressed their incapability to contribute their share of money for the construction of toilets under TSC. This adversity

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has all together has lead to complete failure of TSC program in the village. As for the AWRS Program, PHED department installed 6 hand pumps in the village. Out of these 4 pumps are out of order. Water from one of the working hand pump is not palatable and the other one is at distance from the habitation. Women have to cover quite a distance to fetch water for drinking and other usage.

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan is the flagship programme which has been in focus since its launch. Under this the entire focus of the scheme is to increase access by constructing schools at the habitation level. Accordingly, the village has one primary school, middle school, high school and one hostel for girls under NPEGL. However, since the schools were closed not much could be observed at the village level. Discussions were held with teachers residing in the village and they were of the opinion that Sarva Siksha Abhiyan has been able to contribute significantly in improving the educational level in the village. They opined that the enrolment in the schools has increased considerably and there is pressure to retain children especially girls in the schools. However this information could not be triangulated with the school records.

Mid day meal has been introduced as a measure to reduce classroom hunger and improve school attendance in schools. As a policy step, mid day meals have been served during summer vacation also to retain the interest of children and reduce drop out after reopening of schools. It was observed that the mid day meals were being served regularly in both primary and middle school during our village stay. This scheme has gained attraction of children and as informed has helped in increasing the retention in the school. The hunger aspect of scheme remains to be explored.

The general observation was that the educational level has improved as its importance was recognized by the preceding generation. As a result of this, the literacy level among males is considerably better than females. This has also resulted in male members from the Bheelcommunity being placed in government jobs. However, despite the concerted efforts the educational levels in girls has not improved in the desired manner and high drop out rates can be observed in transition from grade V to VI and from grade VIII to grade IX. Thus improving the transition rates still remains a huge challenge. Quality issues in education could be established as the institutions were closed at the time of this study.

Recognizing the need to improve the food security in the country Public Distribution System was introduced in the country in the late fifties. The objective of this scheme was to ensure availability of food grains at the household level with a special focus on such households which face acute food shortage during the lean period and face starvation deaths. Under this Fair price shops were opened in all parts of the country proving food items for consumption. Under the same scheme FPS shop was opened in the village 2 decades ago.

Under this FPS shop there are 190 number of different card holders. Out of the above card holders 110 number of cards are in BPL category whereas in Antodaya 45 cards have been issued. The number of general cardholders and households not having cards could not be obtained. Through these cards the beneficiaries can get wheat, sugar, Rice and kerosene Oil as per the scheduled rates. The antyodaya cardholders get wheat at Rs. 2/kg and the BPL cardholders get Wheat at Rs 3/kg. Kerosene is available at a rate of Rs. 10.10 per lt and sugar at Rs. 13.50 per kg. Similarly, rice is available at Rs. 4.50 per kg.

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The FPS owner informed that quota has been fixed on each card beyond which items cannot be procured. For example, for antyodaya card holders a quota of 34 kg wheat and 1 kg rice has been fixed. For the BPL cardholders quota of wheat is 18 kg and rice is 2 kg. For sugar and Kerosine oil, the fixed quota is 3 kg and 4 litres respectively. The shop gets an allotment of 19 quintals of Wheat, 1.5 quintals of rice, 1800 litres of Kerosine oil and 5 quintals of sugar in month. The allotment of rice is less as rice is not a staple diet in the area.

Some issues that emerged during our observation and discussion was that the supply is very erratic and the shop opens only for 3-4 days in a month. People have to stand in long queues for their turn and sometimes one entire day is wasted. The quality of the grains is also sometimes sub standard and so the beneficiaries have to purchase it from the open market at higher prices. During one of the data triangulation exercise, it was noticed that a lot of houses have both Antyodaya and BPL cards as well cards in fake names. On the other hand there are more than 75 households which do not any kind of card. One can clearly understand that these are the households which fall in the poor or poorest of poor category and have been institutionally denied access. The purpose of providing food security through PDS to such households has completely got defeated.

Key Issues

� Being on the hilly terrain with rocky bed the land is not suitable for agriculture. � The land has got fragmented over the years due to population pressure and the farmers

practice mono - cropping which has resulted in decreased yield. � Limited opportunity to earn livelihood by means other than agriculture results in

migration� Untouchability is deeply ingrained in the minds of the people. The situation gets

exacerbated as 95% of the population comprises of one community.� Limited upward mobility within class is observed. The poor have remained poor.� The benefits of education have also remained confined to the upper class within the

Bheel Community. � Other communities have restricted access to the services such as ICDS, NREGS, PDS

etc.� The power to take decisions on issues of common concern remains largely in the

hands of the prosperous upper class.� Women enjoy low social status in the society with no or limited decision making

capacity.� Education and employment have not been able to address the issues of early age at

marriage, higher birth order, purdah system and dowry.� The economic independence of women does not lead to any change in the roles that

are typically performed by them.� The benefits of local governance has largely remained confined to the large farmers

and upper class families� Despite concerted efforts to improve service delivery of services are poor and it lacks

focus of on quality such as in case of Education, ICDS, PDS etc.� Government schemes by design do not exclude the poor but as the systems have been

captured by few powerful individuals, poor are getting excluded.

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Conclusion

The village study was a wonderful experience exploring different aspects of the rural life. Over the years government has been attempting to improve the human, social and economic capital by investing in schemes and programmes which aims to benefit the individual as well as the society at large. It was heartening to learn that different developmental program by the Government does have made a difference. This is quite evident by the presence of required infrastructure and services in place. The education and health standards have improved over the period of time and community is being benefitted through various schemes. It was also reflected in the awareness level of the villagers about the major Government’s developmental interventions.

Despite of all this, the condition is not very promising. The issues of access, exclusion, marginalization and deprivation are still visible in all forms. The caste, class, power and the gender dynamics further aggravate the situation. The schemes meant to benefit the marginalized have failed to deliver in true spirits. The advantage have been captured by the stronger & dominant people being better informed and having greater access to services. This has lead to concentration of power in limited section of the community. The deprived stratum of the society is continued to be discriminated based on their caste and class and filtered out of the benefits of Government programs. The condition of women is even more dismal as the gender power dynamics continues to play its role in the society. As a result the disparity in development in the community has continued to amplify.

Summarizing the above discussion, as a development professional we feel that the though the Government programs are in place and people have information about it, they are yet not aware of their entitlements. Thus to ensure that those are benefited for whom these programs are intended, implementation should be with more rights based approach with efficient monitoring mechanism at all levels.

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CASE STUDY EK DIN ZINDAGI KA……..

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Case StudyOne of the important components of the five week field internship was one week village stay and prepare a case study of one of the poorest of the poor family. In fact the purpose of this case study was also to live one day exclusively with the poorest of the poor household and understand what i t really means to be poorest of the poor. This case study is an outcome of the day the group spent with one of such families. This family was identified through a participatory method of wealth ranking and discussion conducted with the community during one of the rainy nights in the village of Umarthana.

Umarthana is one of the three villages in the U m a r t h a n a G r a m P a n c h a y a t . T h i s picturesque village is located on the foothills of the mountain range which surrounds it from all the fours geographical directions. This village is predominantly inhabited by the Bhil tribe which consider them to be the warrior tribes. Folklore has it that they suppor ted the warrior Maharana Pratap against his war with the Mughals. One can sense the resilience of these people in their eyes as one enters the village. One of the older men who is also the chowkidar of the girls hostel in the village aptly puts it in simple words: Everyday is a struggle for survival.

As we start taking a walk around the village along with one of the local youth, we can see the expanse of 150 households with hamlets of 8 – 10 huts scattered on each side of the village. There are houses of all kinds; pucca, semi pucca, semi kuccha, kuccha and of thatched roofs. Children play on the streets, women busy with household chores, older men smoking beedi sitting on the veranda g ree t ing us a s we pas sby , s t r ay dogs following, streets flowing with mud water and the fragrance emanating from the soil after the first rain as we move ahead. As we are on the verge of completing the walk we

can see few houses located at a distance from the village and three houses located on the hilltop of the small hillock at the backyard of the model cluster school. We start wondering why these houses are situated at the hilltop when there is plenty of land around the village to build a small house. During the next few days of our stay at this village, we realised that these houses are not very far from the village but not very close either. Among the three houses on the hi l l top resides the family of Mohan Ahirwar whom the residents of Umarthana consider as one of the poorest of the poor.

Mohan Ahirwar belongs to the Ahirwarc o m m u n i t y o t h e r w i s e a l s o k n o w n a s chamars and it supposedly forms the lowest ladder in the Hindu caste system practised majorly in the northern parts of the country. He is the youngest among the seven siblings and was married four years back. Mohan is in his early twenties (twenty two he recalls) and is married to Mamtabai who is from the same community. The couple has one child and they have lovingly named him Krishna. Krishna will complete two years in the month of September.

His father died one year after his marriage. Everything was going on well when one fine day soon after the death of his father began the conflict for possession of the four beeghaof land. Young Mohan could not keep up with the day to day struggle and was forced to move out of the household. He had no place to go. He felt all alone that day. He stayed on the small extension of his house f o r o n e f u l l w e e k . “Thankfully, it was summer time”, he says. His family moved to this hilltop after he constructed a one room hut with thatched roof. He faces occasional threat from the secretary that his house will be demolished as it is built on government land.

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His dingy house which he constructed on the hilltop with support from his wife has one small room which can accommodate not more than the family themselves. The house does not have any door. On enquiring about th is he says wi t t ingly “k o i l e k a r k y ajaayega, de kar hi jaayega”1. One can see some neatly lined up utensils, two cots, one smoke chulha, one radio and few clothes arranged orderly in one of the corners. One of the other corners of the room is used as ki tchen dur ing ra iny season. On other seasons food is cooked outside the house. As he stays outside his own family very few guests frequent his house.

M o h a n h a s c o m p l e t e d f i r s t y e a r o f graduation and he is hopeful of securing good marks. His wife is educated upto class fourth and can read and write letters. He wants his wife to complete class tenth as he i s a w a r e t h a t s h e c a n b e e l i g i b l e f o r government job under the reserved category. But he does not know how to start afresh as there are no adult learning schools in the village. “Lekin baccha bhi chhota hai aur ghar ka kaam bhi rehta hai”2 he says in a state of despair.

“His struggle started not when he was forced o u t o f his household but when he was studying in class eight”, he recalls. It had not rained in the area for three continuous years and there was immense pressure from his father to earn a living to support the family. He had no other option but to work as a labourer. He got employment in construction work and would get 10 -12 rupees as daily wage. His other brothers would also work as labourers. “He could l i f t a Tagad (ewer) filled with soil in three attempts and his nimble hands would betray his motivation to earn a living for the family”; he recalls this with a smile. But this did not deter him from continuing his studies.

1 What one will take, one will only give. 2 But the kid is small; wife has lot of chores to do.

On a typical day, his day starts with the rising of the sun. Mamta, his wife, gets before him and gets fresh. After this she goes to the hand-pump to fetch two pots of water. By this time Mohan gets up and freshens up. By the t ime he returns back, Mamta has cleaned the house and lit the chulha with firewood and prepares tea for him. After having tea he goes out to take a bath. Once this is done, he takes a walk around the village to catch up with his very few friends while during this time his wife prepares rotiand bhaji. He returns back when it is 8.30 am to have his share of four rotis and bhajialong with keri achar (pickle made of raw mango).

Mamta comes across as any other youthful lady one would see in the village. She dropsthe pallu of her sari to cover her full face when she notices us strangers in her house. Mamta carries a frail figure but is very agile moving all over the house. It is morning time and Mohan hesitantly asks Mamta to prepare three cups of tea for the three guests. Then he looks towards us for our approval (we realised later that because we presumably belonged to the upper caste the couple were apprehensive in offering us a cup of tea). She carries out all the household chores with deftness and shares the work load with her husband. Mohan says “wo acchhi gharwali hai”3, he laughs. But we could not see the expression in the face of Mamta because of the pallu, the body language did not changed either. All the while when this discussion happened, she kept her face covered very adeptly.

Mohan leaves for the daily wage work at nine in the morning. The day when we were doing this study he had a work in his hand of fixing up the roof of one of the villagers in the neighbouring panchayat. But before moving out he promised us that he will sit with us whole night if required to complete this study. We continued with other activities in the village. It is evening time when he

3 She is a good housewife.

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returns back. He looks tired after a hard day of work. We offered him a packet of biscuit which he accepted readily and proceeded with the discussion.

Mohan works as a daily wage labourer and migrates to Kota in Rajasthan which is around 150 kilometres from his vil lage whenever he does not get work in the local area and the need for money reaches the frantic level. This migration happens during the non agricultural period i.e., after dussehra festival uptill the month of May. “Kota mein lagbhag roj kaam mil jaata hai, wahan per bahut saari building ban rahi hai”1, he says. He earns 100 rupees as wage which is paid in cash to him. But he has to spend his night below one of the flyovers as he cannot afford to rent a house there. In one stretch he spends 10-15 days in Kota and after meeting all his expenses saves 700 – 1200 rupees.

He returns back to his village with this saving as he knows his wife would be hard of cash by now. On asking why he does not stay for a longer period in Kota as he can earn more “mujhe apne chhote bachhe ki yaad aati hai aur mera pariwar gaon me akele rehta hai jinhe dekhne wala koi nahi”2, he quips. The dejection of lack of support system was quite obvious by his expressions. On other days, when he is not in Kota, he looks for employment in the adjoining areas. Though the wage is only 50 rupees, he knows he can spend time with his family which is equally important to him. His wife i s ve ry suppor t ive in h i s s t rugg le fo r existence; he says with a broad grin, his wife giggles too.

He has a story to narrate about his migration to Kota. He started learning driving when he was working on one of the stone crushingsites. Gradually, he improved his skills and became skilled at driving a tractor. During one of these days on s i te when he was

1 He gets work in Kota almost every day, lot of buildings are being constructed over there.2 I miss my child and my family stays alone in the village, there is no one to look after them.

loading the crushed boulders, one boulder hit him on the head and he fainted. The owner of the crusher rushed him to the hospital but refused to pay for the expenses. The accident was serious in nature and he had no one to help. His wife mortgaged the silver jewellery for 1600 rupees and took a loan of another 2000 rupees from the school head master at a interest rate of 3 rupees per hundred per month. Mohan recovered after two weeks. After recovering he knew that he had to repay the loan at the earliest to minimise the interest payment on loan. He started looking for employment in the nearby Beenaganj market and adjoining areas but would get a job of a day or two. He knew this would not suffice. At this time he migrated to Kota and stayed there for three and half months at a stretch. When he came back he had sufficient cash to repay the loan and the mortgage. Thus began his seasonal migration to Kota.

The earning through the dai ly wage is sufficient to meet the day to day expenses. Nearly sixty percent of the income goes towards meeting the food expenses in the household. Food stuff is procured on a bi–weekly basis on cash payment. The diet comprises of rotis, one bhaji and homemade pickle. Mohan has 4 rotis in the morning and three rotis in the evening meal whereas Mamta has three rotis in both the meals. (We were surprised to know that these are the only two meals which the couple takes in the course of twenty four hours). “Bachcha bhi derh (1½) roti tod deta hai”3, One of the fewer occasions when we hear the voice of Mamta. Rice is a delicacy and is cooked when guests are at home. In fact guests are treated with few more delicacies such as chicken, dal- baati in ghee etc. even if loan has to be taken from the money lender. Once in 3 - 4 months, guests mainly in laws, visit him.

There have been occasions when the family had to sleep empty stomach. One of the recent occasions Mohan can recall is the

3 The child also eats one and a half bread in a day

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fes t ival day of “Gyaras”1. “Saara gaon puree, bhaji aur mithaiyan kha raha tha, aur humare pass khane ko kucch nahi tha”2. He and his child had recovered from a week long illness and spent all his savings on treatment. He had bad experience in the past of taking loan so he decided to arrange two rotis from the neighbour for the small child. “Us r aa t humne kuchh nabh i khaya”3, retorted Mohan emotionally. The three of us looked at each other with bewilderness.

One of the happier occasions in the life of t h i s coup le was when Mamta became pregnant. After nine months of pregnancy, Mamta gave birth to a healthy baby boy. But this was not as simple as it appears. When the labour pain started in the night, Mohan needed 4 0 0 r u p e e s i m m e d i a t e l y f o r transportation to the Beenaganj hospital which is nearly 13 kilometres from the village. He requested his elder brother for this sum as loan which was granted to him after repeated requests. When he returned from the hospital after a normal delivery, his brother instead of expressing happiness asked him to return the 400 rupees which Mohan had taken from him. Mohan had received rupees 1350 after paying for other delivery related expenses under Janani Suraksha Yojna ( the benef i t under this scheme is rupees 1400 for insti tutional d e l i v e r y a n d r u p e e s 2 5 0 t o w a r d s transportation cost). He returned the sum to his brother from this amount and paid the other loan which had accrued on him for the treatment during the pregnancy period. “Mujhe bachche ke janma ki khushi manane ke l iye ph i r se 1000 rapaya udhar lena pada”4, this time he looked towards us with a smile on his face.

Suddenly, Kishna, his kid, takes our attention to him with his squeech. Mamta hands him a

1 Festival celebrated on 11th day of full moon cycle 2 The entire village was feeding on delicacies, we had nothing to eat.3 We did not eat anything that night.4 I had to take a loan of Rs. 1000 to celebrate the birth of my child.

piece of roti, leftover of the morning meal. We ask him “abhi tak sirf ek bachha hi hai”? “Haan Saheb, abhi is se jyaada pariwar ko nahi khila sakta. Lekin mai jo khud nahi kar paaya, mera bachha karega”5? H e s a i d assertively. “Pariwar niyojan ka kaun sa tarika istemal karte ho”6? “Kuchh nahi saaheb, 20 dino tak patni ke pass nahi jaata hun”7. He said. We were bemused. “Nirodh kyun nahi istemaal karte ho”8? we reasoned out. “Saaheb agar AIDS ho jaayega, to ilaaj ka kharcha kahan se aayega” 9He replied. “Kya, kisne kaha ki nirodh ka iatemaal karne se AIDS hota hai”10, we asked, not believing what we had heard. He sa id “maine kahi padha hai isko, nirodh se AIDS hota hai. Uske Ilaaj mein bahut kharcha hota hai. Itna paisa kahan se laaunga”11. We could not believe our ears. This is what government programmes do after years and fortunes of spending.

It was late in the evening and it was time for evening meal. We were offered food by the couple. The three of us looked at each other with indecision. One of us said “Humara khana to ban gaya hoga”12. Mohan could gauge our confusion and said “Koi baat nahi saa, wo tum hume subah mein kha lena, abhi garibon ka khana kha kar dekho”13. One of us asked light heartedly “kya khilaoge”14. His wife said “Jyada to kuchh nahi banaya hai, lekin jo bhi hai, achha lagega”15. We

5 Has he had only one kid? Yes Sir, I cannot feed more members at this time. But what I could not do, my child will do.6 Do you use a method of family planning?7 Nothing sir, I stay away from my wife for twenty days.8 Why don’t you use condom?9 Sir, if I contact AIDS who will bear the expense of treatment.10 What, who said using condom can lead to AIDS.11 I have read somewhere that using condom leads to AIDS. The treatment is very expensive. From where I will get such money. 12 Our food would have been cooked.13 Does not matter sir, that you eat in the morning. You eat the food that poor people eat. 14 What will you serve? 15 Nothing much is cooked, but whatever it is, you will like it.

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were mesmerised at the simplicity of the o f fe r ing , a t the same t ime wonder ing whether this would add to the burden of the family.

After finishing the meal we continued with the discussion. We asked “Rojgar guarantee mein kitne din ka kaam mila hai?1” His eyes lit up. “Saaheb hum dono ne 36 din kaam kiya hai, paisa sirf 10 din ka mila hai”2. Why? asked one of us. “Secretary bolta hai ki dene ke liye paise nahi hai, lekin usne apne rishtedaron ko paisa de diya hai”3. He s a i d h u r l i n g s l a n g s a t t h e s e c r e t ary. “Sarpanch bhi Bhil hai, wo pehle Bhilon ki baat sunta hai”4. We inquisitively asked “Indira Awaas ke baare mein suna hai? Gaadi ka loan milta hai, uske baare mein suna hai? Tumhare pass garibi rekha wala card hai?5 Emotions started running high at our end. “ Saheb, card ke liye arji diya hai. Secretary kehta hai ki jab agli baar BPL survey hoga to tumhara naam indira awaas mein aayega. Aur Gaadi wale loan ke baare mein to nahi suna hai. Janpad mein koi baat hi nahi sunta. Din bhar ki majdoori bekaar karke jaata hun, khaali haath waapas aa jaata hun. Sab log bolte hain doosre babu se baat karo.6 ”. We stopped at this point. We realised education can inform but cannot empower.

It was quite late by now. All of us were tired. But during the discussion, apart from other issues, one thing was evident. Ahirwars or

1 How many days of employment you got under NREGS?2 Sir, both of us have worked for 36 days, have received only 10 days of payment.3 Panchayat Secretary says there is no money to pay, but he has paid his relatives.4 Sarpanch is also from the Bhil Community, he favors the Bhils.5 Have you heard of Vehicle loan? Do you have a BPL card?6 Sir, I have applied for the BPL card. Secretary says that when the next BPL survey will be done, his name would be included in the list of BPL and Indira Awaas. I have not heard about the vehicle loan. No one gives a hearing at the Block Panchayat. I waste a day of wage and return empty handed. Everyone says that go to other clerk.

Chamars as they are called in the village and Saos also known as Telis, by the Bhils and V i s h w a k a r m a s i n t h e v i l l a g e , a r ediscriminated on the basis of caste. We asked “ k y a i s g a o n m e i n c h h u a c h h u t(untouchability) h a i ”7? “Nahi”, he replied thinkingly. On second thought he said “ wo hume chamar bolte hain, humare haath ka paani nahi peetey hain, na hi hamre ghar aate hai”8.

Mamta, his wife, by this time was making the bed. The kid had slept cosily in the arms of the mother. Mohan was tired answering the quest ions . We had only asked him questions, had offered no solutions. We could see despair in his eyes. “Saaheb mera 2 8 t a a r e e k h k o f o r e s t d e p a r t m e n t k a interview hai, mere paas jaane ke liye 400 rupye nahin hai. Mai 2 mahine se iski taiyari k a r r a h a t h a . Lekin lagta hai nahi jaa paunga”9. One of the group members could not bear it anymore. He handed him a 500 rupee note quietly without consulting any of us. We were not surprised because we knew a few moments more and it could have been a n y o f u s . W e d e c i d e d t o c l o s e t h e discussion.

I t w a s t i m e t o m o v e o u t . O n e o f h i s statements kept haunting us “dacoit kaun banta hai saaheb, hum jaise padhe likhe naujwan jinhe kaam nahi milta, wahi bante hai”10. We thanked the family and prayed for their wellness in the future. After all it was THE DAY for us but just another day for Mohan and his wife. We left the house, reached our room. No one talked to each other, all gazing at the roof in the darkness. and probably thinking “Why is God not equally kind to all of us?”

7 Is untouchablity practiced in this village?8 They call us chamar. They do not drink water from our hands. They do enter our house either. 9 Sir, I have to appear for an interview conducted by Forest Department. But I do not have 400 rupees to travel. I was preparing for this for last two months. But it seems that I will not be able to attend it.10 Who turns out a dacoit, sir, people like us who do not get work, turn out to be dacoits.

Glimpse of the visit