1. ReportonVillageStudy
Abhishek Singh
Dr. Anoop Tripathi
Arun 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
2. 2
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’slives...........................................................................................................................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
3. 3
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
4. 4
Introduction
It 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:
Location- moderately interior, not on the national highway.
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)
Village should have 15-20% SC, ST and OBCs.
A primary school
An ICDS center
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 study
The study was planned to provide the interns an opportunity to learn the ground realities.
The focus of the study was
To get first hand experience of how do people live their life in rural areas.
Exposure to facts of rural life and their socio-economic, political and cultural settings
To understand the linkage between people’s perceptions of needs and the
programmatic intervention with regard to the flagship programmes.
5. 5
Methodology
Since 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 Discussion
It 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 Interview
The 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 participants 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 Ranking
It 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.
Observation
It 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-depthInterview
Intensive 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 Discussions
Informal 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.
6. 6
Ethical issues
All 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 Village
Umarthana 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 States
1
.
The current population of the village is around 908
2
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 Bigha
3
, 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 FGD
2
Came out in Wealth Ranking exercise
3
Approx. 10 Bigha of land is equal to 1 Hectare
4
Data was not available but it was general observation and came out in discussions
7. 7
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 Resources
Facilities
Primary school Yes
Upper primary school Yes
High school Yes
Girls Hostel Under NPEGEL Yes
Model Cluster school Yes
Anganwadi Centre Yes
Sub Health Centre Yes
Forest Check post (Barrier) Yes
RTO Checkpost (Barrier) Yes
Vetenery clinic Yes
PDS shop Yes
Community hall Yes
Panchayat Bhawan Yes
Institutional setup
Sarpanch Yes
Panchayat secretary Yes
Panchayat with 3 standing committees Yes
ANM Yes
FSW Yes
Jan Swasthya Rakshak Yes
ASHA Yes
AWW Yes
Sahayika Yes
PTA Yes
SHG (Men) Yes 1
Head master (primary, upper primary &
high schools)
Yes
Mate (NREGA) Yes
RMP Yes 1
8. 8
Resources
Hand pump 6
Well (drinking water) 1
Well (NREGA) 12 (in progress)
Temple 1
Pond 1
Electricity 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 village
The 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 structure
The 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.
9. 9
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 organization
At 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
10. 10
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. Theseall 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.
Migration
As a result of insufficient agricultural opportunities and search for labour work, seasonal
migration 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 small
amount 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 lives
Women 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
11. 11
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 study
1
.
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 year
2
. 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 productive
3
.
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 register
2
(Source: survey register maintained by ASHA
3
Findings of FGD with Women group
12. 12
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 theformal 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 institutions
The 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
13. 13
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 Adhiniyam
of 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 Bheel
community. 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.
14. 14
There have been attempts in the past by the members of other community such as Ahirwars
and 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 Bheel
SHG 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 interventions
After 73
rd
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;
15. 15
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 road
of 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.
ServiceDelivery
The 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.
16. 16
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
17. 17
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 Bheel
community 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.
18. 18
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.
19. 19
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.
21. 21
Case Study
One 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 it
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
supported 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
greeting us as we passby, stray 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 hilltop
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 Ahirwar
community otherwise also known as
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 beegha
of 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
for one full week. “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.
22. 22
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
this he says wittingly “koi le kar kya
jaayega, 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
kitchen during rainy 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
is aware that she can be eligible for
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
out of 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 lift 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 time 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 roti
and bhaji. He returns back when it is 8.30 am
to have his share of four rotis and bhaji
along with keri achar (pickle made of raw
mango).
Mamta comes across as any other youthful
lady one would see in the village. She drops
the 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.
23. 23
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 village
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
is very supportive in his struggle for
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 crushing
sites. Gradually, he improved his skills and
became skilled at driving a tractor. During
one of these days on site 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 daily 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
24. 24
festival 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 raat humne kuchh nabhi khaya”
3
,
retorted Mohan emotionally. The three of us
looked at each other with bewilderness.
One of the happier occasions in the life of
this couple 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 benefit under this
scheme is rupees 1400 for institutional
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 liye phir 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
? He said
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”
9
He replied.
“Kya, kisne kaha ki nirodh ka iatemaal karne
se AIDS hota hai”
10
, we asked, not believing
what we had heard. He said “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.
25. 25
were mesmerised at the simplicity of the
offering, at the same time wondering
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
said hurling slangs at the secretary.
“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 e
discriminated 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) hai”
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 questions. We had only asked him
questions, had offered no solutions. We
could see despair in his eyes. “Saaheb mera
28 taareekh ko forest department ka
interview hai, mere paas jaane ke liye 400
rupye nahin hai. Mai 2 mahine se iski taiyari
kar raha tha. 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 . We decided to close the
discussion.
It was time to move out. One of his
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.
