The presentation is made with the purpose to sensitize people about rural tribal India. It is based on two months (May 2018-July, 2018) experience spent in Jhabua working with Shivganga. (As animations don't play, please look subscript for slide 20 and 46.)

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Img src: http://lepassagetoindia.com/german/experience-detail.php?id=MQ==

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—VERGHESE KURIEN, MILKMAN OF INDIA

3.  Jhabua is a district town of Madhya Pradesh,
150km from Indore
 Boundary area of Gujrat, Rajasthan and Madhya
Pradesh
 Jhabua-Alirajpur belt has a tribal population of
1.5 million*-mainly Bhil tribe with subtribes
Bhilada and Pateliya
 Historically, the State of Jhabua was ruled by
various puppet kings from 1584-1947
 Bhavra, the birthplace of Chandra Shekhar
Azad is in Jhabua-presently in Alirajpur district
 Jhabua has a rich biodiversity-Sagaun tree,
Mangoes & Sitafal among flora and jackal, fox,
hyena, rabbits, and rarely seen lion & deer.
 Also known for exotic Kadaknath species of
chicken

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 Bhils are traditionally very skilled archers-they
relate themselves to Eklavya.
 All the practices & traditions(e.g. Dirha, Halma)
of Bhil empowers community participation,
connection with nature and its preservation-
very much evident from terms like Jamimata,
Matavan, Babadev.
 Bhils worship deities like Sitlamata, Vaghdev as
well Hindu deities like Bholababa-Parvati mata
Ganesh & Kartikey
 They have several indigenous festivals like
Talavani-Jatra, Diwasa, Nave etc spread across
the year, they also celebrate Raksha Bandhan,
Diwali and Dussehra
 There 45 surnames of Bhils, each one of them
corresponds to one of panch tatva, the title
makes them the protector of that entity

5. 8.6% TRIBAL*
What do we know about them? Do we care enough to know?
FACT
*Census India 2011

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Img Src: https://www.mid-day.com/articles/when-rural-india-becomes-family/16598150
by PIYUSH GOSWAMI

7. Due to undulating geography, soil
doesn't retain rainwater.
WATER?
In Jhabua, the rainfall ranges between 0-
249mm, in months of Feb and July respectively.
Temperature ranged between 19.5°C-33°C.*
The people have to travel as far as 5 km to get
drinking water.

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There’s red soil and
patches of black soil,
with lots of stone
pieces.
Also, high water run
off.
Agriculture is difficult
job, also can be done
only for 4-6 months of
an year .
AGRICULTURE?

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There’s red soil and
patches of black soil,
with lots of stone
pieces.
Also, high water run
off.
Agriculture is difficult
job, also can be done
only for 4-6 months of
an year .
AGRICULTURE?
FOREST
RIGHTS?
The forests rights were snatched from tribal people by British to exploit the natural
resources.
Forest Rights Act 2006 gave them back legal access to a part of forest. Little they know.
The natural ally of forests were denied of their own resources. This adversely affected their
lifestyle which has never been same again. Little has been done post independence.

10. ECONOMIC
EXPLOITATION?
Every tribal family has loan as high as 10 lakhs. The loan accumulated
through generations, due to interest rate as high as 100% and
supplemented by financial illiteracy. In some cases they have been paying
back since 3 generations.[1]
To pay back loans, these children lose their childhood even before they
realize.

11. LOST
TRADITIONS
The continuous hammering for 300
years pre-independence and mindset of
looking down at indigenous traditions,
culture and knowledge has infiltrated
these tribal people as well.
Aided by decreasing demand in small
business sectors like pottery and
bamboo, and losing their traditional
knowledge has cost them their
livelihood.
They are accepting and using materials
and practices which are unsustainable
for them
They are forced to choose unsuitable
options for livelihood.
Tumri-Obtained from a plant, has medicinal properties similar
to Neem-was used for drinking water and milk
Tava-Made from black soil, especially to cook ‘Makke ki roti’

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There’s red soil and
patches of black soil,
with lots of stone
pieces.
Also, high water run
off.
Agriculture is difficult
job, also can be done
only for 4-6 months of
an year .
AGRICULTURE?
IMMIGRATION
Shrinking market for traditional
professions, burden of loan, declining
forest resources and difficult access, and
short period of agriculture force them to
go to urban areas and work as daily
wage laborers.
‘Majduri’ is not problem, ‘Majduri ki
Majburi’ is.
In every family 10-15 members including
young teenagers leave their village to
work in urban areas for almost 9 months
of an year.

13. SCHEMES?
PMGY (Pradhan Mantri Gram
Awas Yojna)
is a prime example of policies
made without caring about
ground context.
The gap between policy maker
and problem surface is huge.
The impact of such policies
adversely affect the social
structure of society.

14. SCHEMES? These people require a lots of informal space for storage and
various household functions.

15. SCHEMES? Various local identities left unaddressed.

16. SCHEMES? Various integral needs left unaddressed.

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SCHEMES?
The kitchen used to be inside the
house, being integral part of family
time. Having traditional Chula, the
kitchen can’t be under concrete
roof.
Tribal people share a very special
bonding with their cattle. They treat
them as their children and keep
them inside the house. The pucca
floor of PMGY houses doesn't allow
this, thus affecting the bonding.
The PMGY houses are out of
context and are affecting the daily
lifestyle of these people.

18. UNSUSTAINABLE
TRANSITION
Losing forest rights snatched their natural building
material, they used stones and mud and later shifted to
concrete, which is not suitable for their need and climate.

20. SOLUTION?Providing financial aids?
Making schemes and programs?
Providing the conventional education?

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The tribal people
of Jhabua took
the responsibility
in their own
hands.

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They are bringing the change themselves
By reviving their culture and traditions
And following certain principles
अक्षय विकास
(Sustainable Development)
स्िािलंबन
(Self-reliance)
स्िाविमान
(Self-esteem)
परमार्थ
(Highest good of others)
धमथ
(≠ Religion)

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REVIVING TRADITIONS
Towards Sustainable development
Halma
Halma is an ancient
tradition of Bhil tribe. It is a
community event in which
people come together to
help members of
community or root out any
problem of the community.
It is done selflessly without
any payment of transfer,
inducing the feeling of
‘Parmath’

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Halma
To deal with water
scarcity, tribal people
of Jhabua have made
several ponds, check
dams, planted trees,
dug trenches on hill
slopes, all through
Halma.
Pond made by villagers at Saadh village

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Halma
In 2009, with the help of an NGO
Shivganga, which has been constantly
working with the tribal people of Jhabua,
they started scaled up version of Halma,
where they made trenches of
3m*.6m*.6m on the slopes of local hill
range named Hathipava.
Since then every year people from more
than 1000 villages come to Hathipava for
Halma.
In Feb 2018 around 12000 people
gathered on Hathipava for Halma, which
included 500+ participants from different
colleges of India like IIT Roorkee, IIT
Mumbai, IIT Delhi, TISS Mumabi etc.
Trenches at Hathipava Hills

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Halma Hathipava Hills at present
1 lakh 11 thousand
trenches has been dug on Hathipava
hills through Halma
30k trenches
were made in 2018,
which would hold
1 crore 8 lakhs
liter of water.
A direct effect is visible in 5 villages
at the foot of hills. It has also
substantially increased the water
level in the town of Jhabua.
The success of this Halma gave the
people a confidence that they
themselves can bring changes.

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Halma Villagers, assisted by Shivganga are making pond in Chhagola
village of Jhabua, June 12 2018

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Halma The same pond brimming with water, July 29 2018. The
pond was made just in 9 days, with a cost of just ₹ 2 lakh.

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Halma
Halma to plant 13k trees around a pond which was again
built 2 years ago through Halma. They are creating
Matavan-forest are protected and nurtured by villagers.

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Halma
270 families adopted 10 saplings each of different fruit-
giving trees, July 13 2018. The saplings were donated by 170
people across the world under the campaign ‘donate a
sapling’ ran by Shivganga.

32. Halma
51Ponds
200Wells
350Hand pump recharging
70000Trees Planted
All of these through Halma
Today, Halma is spread across 1300+ villages around Jhabua, in some
cases with a different name.
Taking inspiration from Jhabua, Halma was also conducted in Lucknow
for Gomati cleaning, Banswara-Rajasthan and Jhumri Taliyah of
Jharkhand.
Halma as a huge potential, now when we’re facing severe problems
related to environment, pollution and scarcity of water.

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SOCIAL CAPITAL GENERATION
Towards Self-Reliance
Harsingh Singhar of Chhagola is narrating
plans for development of their village
Working with organization, youths from
villages has came upfront to lead a team of
their village and make development plans (like
locating suitable places for pond construction)
for their village.
The organization Shivganga in partnership
with institutes like TISS Mumbai, SGSITS
Indore organizes several professional training
camps like ‘Gram Engineer Varg’, ‘Gram
Shashktikaran Varg’, Skill development
Training, Social Entrepreneurship
development training, financial literacy etc.
Today, after getting such professional
trainings, there are 350+villages, in which
there’s a group of youths, who hold meetings
and make plans for their village development.

34. SELF-EMPLOYMENT GENERATION
Towards Self-Reliance
To generate employment, people of
Jhabua, along with Shivganga, are
endorsing small cottage industry like
Bamboo.
Jhabua used to place known for
bamboo.
Aided by Shivganga, they have been
training themselves in this field for
past few years.
bamboo

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Shivganga has set up
a bamboo workshop
in June 2018, where
youths as young as 13
years take the
training and surprise
with their skills
bamboo

36. Rakesh Bhuriya, a 13 year old kid, and his delicate work.
When he was warned that delicate cutting could rupture the bamboo piece, he
replied “No worries, I’ll make another’
Such spirit makes us think that not always conventional education is only
education that we should think about.
bamboo

37. They have been training themselves in
product like these.
bamboo

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After proper training the tribal people of Jhabua joined their
human resources with the professional skills of Shivganga to
float a social-entrepreneurial venture-JHABUA NATURALS
Bamboom is their first product, available online.
bamboo

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bamboo
The latest training session, organized in Indore, 1 August 2018. The
trainer were Dr. Parag Vyas, an internationally reputed designer of
bamboo, alum of IDC, IIT Mumbai.

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SOCIAL CAPITAL GENERATION
Towards Self-Reliance
Farm of Dariyav Singh of Kheda villages
Organic
Farming
The tribal people of Jhabua, to protect
their Jamimata from harmful chemicals,
are shifting to organic farming.
This would not only protect the land but
also humans dependent on it. This
would also increase their production
eventually.
Thus shifting towards SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT

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Organic
Farming
Farmers taking the training to make organic insecticides and fertilizers
in a training session organized by Shivganga, 11 May 2018.

42. Organic
Farming
Dariyav Bhai and Bapu bhai, two farmers made fertilizers at their farm
after the training, 7 June 2018.

43. Organic
Farming
Dariyav Bhai of Kheda village, through organic farming, he is cultivating
11 different crops in his farm.

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Organic
Farming Nana Bhai of Hatyadeli village showing
the saplings of new crop to be cultivated.
The tribal farmers motivated
by the results of organic
farming and underlying
thought of protecting their
motherland have joined the
forces with Shivganga to be
agriculture vertical of JHABUA
NATURALS.
At present a pilot of 40 farmers
is going to start home delivery
of organically grown vegetables
in the city of Indore.

45. REVIVING LOCAL CULTURE
Uplifting Self-Esteem
Tribal people of Jhabua are reviving their
culture.
The people getting aware about the
significance and function of their tribal
culture, which has been seen as inferior.
The tribal keep on organizing various
events through out year like ‘Kanwad
Yatra’, ‘Ganesh Pooja’ which involves
community participation and interaction
among various age-groups.
Among many small things, they play their
local games like ‘Baigan Badhi’, ‘Neta
Kaun’ and other indigenous sports like
Kabaddi and Archery.
Kanwad Yatra 27 July 2018.

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REVIVING LOCAL CULTURE
Uplifting Self-Esteem
Maangilalji owns a self-built house
of brick, mud, bamboo, wood and
fire-baked tiles.
While discussing why he would
prefer this house over PMGY
houses, he made a valid point, “I
can repair and rebuild this house
whenever it requires, whenever I
want to.”
By getting aware and informed
about traditional techniques, they
don’t feel inferior against modern
or urban counterpart.

47. They have creating some
buzz…genuine buzz!

48. What we know
about them?
Take a moment
And let us ask
ourselvesNow
What we think
of them?
We need to
learn!

49. We need to visit rural India, see it, experience it, help
with our professional skills and learn their wisdom!

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Rural IndiaShould be self-Reliant, full of self-esteem and moving towards
sustainable development.

51. ABOUT
The presentation is made with the purpose to sensitize people about rural tribal India. It is based on two
months (May, 2018-July, 2018) experience spent in Jhabua working with Shivganga.
CREDITS
CONTENT AND DATA:
SHIVGANGA
PHOTOGRAPHS:
SHIVGANGA AND SELF-TAKEN
OVERALL COMPLIATION:
KUMAR HARSH
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIECTURE & PLANNING
IIT ROORKEE
Kumar Harsh