1. Dates Site(s)
visited/
Venue
Details of the
Respondents
Main Observations/
Activities/ Discussions
Reflection
27
October
2014,
Monday
Palamp
ur
1. Bipin
Bhardwaj
2. Sakalani
Social Activist
Owner of Holiday Home,
Hotel
. Brief about the
organization, How India
has its own culture:
. Different and rich
Greatness of Indian
culture and its credibility
. Self-sufficiency and
development of Indian
villages since the
Colonial era
. Indian Trade
Example – In pre-colonial era India
was one of the largest exporter of
steel and London bridge is built by
Indian steel.
The perfect town planning in
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in the
Indus Valley Civilization and
foreign trade between Harappa
and Mesopotamian civilization
etc.
We had well developed port town
during Harappa civilization called
as Lothal which is now located in
Gujarat.
Self-sufficiency of Indian villages
were disturbed since the British
colonization when food crops
were replaced by cash crops for
the benefit of British.
Our trade was recognized all over
the world. There was demand for
Indian products in world market.
So the India was globally linked
through trade routes.
Many world recognized traders
were present during pre-

2. . Local Elections During
Chola period
. Different perspectives
regarding the concept of
development
independence period as well as
before British came to India.
We have discovered some
inscription on the wall of temples
in south India which was inscribed
during Chola period. These
inscription tell us about the
decentralization of political
representation and how the
election process debarred criminal
from the process of election.
Definition of development differs
depending on the various interest
groups like rich and poor which
are under consideration. For
example –In the case of tribal,
their view of development is
different from the government
perception of development
regarding tribal.
28
October
2014,
Tuesday
Himach
al
Pradesh
:
Chanda
d
1. Arvin
2. Sarika
3. Veena
4. Omkar Nath
Social Activist
and Coordinator
Coordinator’s wife
Samridhi’s Pradhan
Village Miller/ Veena’s
husband
.Model village is a
village which has basic
amenities with hygiene,
infrastructure facilities
and employment for the
people.
Today there was a discussion
regarding model village. The
organization Samridhi asked us to
do survey regarding model village.
Firstly, Model Village is a
sustainable rural community that
is able to generate and maintain
the resources necessary to
improve its level of wellbeing and
happiness without depleting

3. .Disaster Management:
Awareness campaigns
and timely weather
casting reports for
people.
economic, social & environmental
values.
To achieve this it requires villagers
to be aware of resources around
them to cater them for further
improvement in economic level of
village.
It will also arrest the migration of
young population from village.
So the concept of Model Village
strengthens the sustainability
pillars of Livelihood,
Infrastructure, ecological
sustenance, identifying and
sustainably accessing the
resources and Services.
The main difficulty is not to
convert those resources into
useful product, however difficulty
is with the marketing of that
product where villagers have less
communicable and human
resources, who has good
knowledge about marketing.
When I asked question to
Pradhan, what do you prefer,
government spending money on
ecological recreation or building
roads. She preferred ecology over
the roads. Because their daily life
depends on it. While road will
provide them the secondary and
further benefit.
Disaster management is the
major problem faced by Himachal
Pradesh. According to National
Disaster Management Authority,
H.P is prone to disasters like earth
quakes, Land Slides, Floods.
Moreover Himachal Pradesh fall in
seismic zone 4 and 5 which points

4. towards very high damage risk
zone and lack of preparedness and
preventive measures would have
serious consequences.
So as students of development
our group thought there should be
more awareness campaigns for
people and timely warnings from
Weather casting bureaus etc.
What we found out during survey,
there is no education or any kind
of exercise has been imparted on
villagers about how to response to
the natural disaster of any kind
like, floods, landslides and cloud
burst, which are more specific to
mountainous ecology. Recently
nearby that village landslide has
occurred where 6 homes got
completely buried under soil.
29
October
2014,
Wednes
day
Sambha 1. Nirmala
Rana
2. Milkiram
Rana
Village Coordinator from
Samridhi (Ex- Pradhan)
Ex Rtd. Army Captain –
villager
.Decline of Agriculture The major problems of village
samba are water scarcity and
Stray animals attack on agriculture
fields.
The problem of stray animals
attack is linked with depletion of
forest resources because due to
depletion, the animals from the
forest are coming to agricultural
fields for food.
Finally as result people stopped
cultivating their lands because of
two reasons: stray animals attack
and efficient working of PDS. So

5. .Samridhi - Nirmalaji
. Caste discrimination in
the village
. Role of cooperative
societies for the credit.
.Government Audit and
Inspection
people are dependent on PDS for
food grains rather than cultivating
their fields.
Main Crops – Corn, Rice, Wheat
Basically Samridhi works for SHG
groups. Women are formed in to
10 members group and they used
to prepare pickles and daily usage
products. The organization
Samridhi helps them by marketing
their products and profit is shared
with members of SHG. Samridhi
provided employment for women
in the village and at a same time
the standard of living and
livelihood of poor is increased.
Harijan are invited to upper caste
marriages but they have to carry
their own utensils.
In village samba SHG groups are
more dependent on Cooperative
societies for credit rather than
national banks because of
collateral documents asked by
national banks. Actually the
interest charged by cooperative
societies is comparatively high
than national banks. But then also
people are interested to go for
cooperative societies because
Collateral pressure is less compare
to national banks.
Money which is invested by
Samridhi, Hence they should have
complete control over it without
any interference by any
government authority. While
government always interfere and
tell the members where to invest
and how much to invest.

6. .Samridhi and labor
laws
.Electricity Rates, LPG
Connection
.Equality among Male
and Female members in
household.
Government will always try to
interfere and find some mistakes
in the working to extract money
illegally. However the members of
Samridhi are not so much
educated to understand all the
rules and regulation of
government. There should have
officer who brings awareness
through training to these women.
Shareholders of this self-help
group are very poor. They wanted
to work for organization because
they find it attached with their
ecology. How are you going to
apply labor laws to such
organization? It’s a seasonal
business hence they cannot
employ on permanent basis.
One of the cheapest electricity
state, because of hydroelectric
power station – Tehri Dam. Each
household is connected with
electricity. Rural electrification is
almost completed in and around
village.
LPG connection is also there in
each household. Still they use the
biofuel which is available in forest
for free for heating water, cooking
food.
They are not aware of health and
environmental problems by using
biofuels.
As women are involved in
agriculture activity and also
started working in SHG, we can
find less differences in male and
female members in household.
Women are respected and get
involved in society. Some socio
cultural practices are still there.

7. .Disaster Management
.Depth of the River
basin
Those male members who
supported their partners to do
something on their own and gave
freedom in home, are successfully
working outside the house. E.g. in
SHG.
Awareness among villagers is very
less regarding the action to be
taken after disaster.
As it is a remote place, it will take
time to receive external help.
Which can convert disaster into
catastrophe.
Ancestors had imparted some
knowledge regarding how to act in
earthquake conditions. E.g. saving
your head.
Because of climate change and big
dams new kind of disaster has
been emerged during these days
like cloud burst, unseasonal
flooding. Villagers are absolutely
unaware of this kind of situation
and response to them.
Government should step in not
only helping them in these
situation but also to increase the
awareness about responding to
these disasters
Sand and stones from the river
belt has been taken away
(Khanan) for the development
(Carrying out construction activity)
of other distinct areas. Hence
after each monsoon season its
depth has been increased. Hence
people lost irrigation benefits
from the river. Earlier rivers were
flowing with the level of villages.
Now the river basin has been gone
down by 100-400 feet.
However it is scientifically proved
that as Himalayan are young
mountain series hence inundation

8. due to flow of river is greater than
any other part.
Hence government should invest
in decreasing the flow of river. By
building Bandh and afforestation
to maximize the percolation of
water.
30
October
2014,
Thursda
y
Sambha 1. Amit
2. Shushil
3. Vasundara
4. Pallavi
B.com Student/NSYU
Vice - President
B.com Student –
Palampur College
Anganwadi Aunties
Kabirpanti houses (Home
Maker)
. Lack of awareness
about how does
reservation to caste in
education institution
work.
.Discrimination among
upper caste (Brahmin
and Rajput) and lower
caste (Kabirpanthi and
Harijan) in village
.Unequal distribution of
resources among upper
and lower caste.
He does not know how the caste
reservation works. He was of the
view that only the reserve number
of seats can be occupied by the
schedule caste population. While
the population of schedule caste
was significant in that village.
Lower caste people won’t get
invitation from upper caste to
participate in their marriage
ceremony. Because sometime in
the past they asked upper caste
not to discriminate lower caste on
eating food. Lower caste wanted
to eat food with upper caste side
by side. But the idea was rejected
by upper caste, because they
refused to give them the same
status what the upper caste has in
society.
As lower caste were the landless
laborer during pre-independence
era. They got land during
government program of
distribution of land to landless.

9. .Political view of lower
Caste People
. Problem of low
salaries to Anganwadi
Workers
But the size of that land is very
small which can only sustain the
family without any economic gain.
Now the land is fragmented
among their children and they
almost become landless
individually.
These lands got degraded over the
period of time and there was no
efforts made by any government
authority to reclaim the land and
make it fertile.
There is no irrigation facility
available hence they are
depended on monsoon.
Hence the economic resources of
these people got degraded which
placed them at the bottom of
society again.
As these lower caste people got
land during congress regime,
Hence without knowing about the
candidate they cast their vote for
congress always.
Punchayat Pradhan belongs lower
caste family. She was also placed
by the upper caste people.
However these upper caste
wanted her to give resignation as
she acted independently without
listening to upper caste people.
Upper caste in this village
supports BJP candidate.
Anganwadi workers believe that
they are doing the work similar to
teacher in school, Hence they
should be paid in equal with
teachers. But we found one
contradiction, we visited this

10. .Maintaining the data
about the schemes is
done by workers along
with the awareness they
create among pregnant
women.
.Programs handled by
Anganwadi workers
. Criticism of Samridhi:
People want to join SHG
center many times and we didn’t
find any student in Anganwadi
which is enrolled with 30
students.
They were also concerned about
their credibility. As these workers
are not government employees.
Still villagers consider them as
government servant because of
lack of awareness.
The main task of workers is to
take care of children and pregnant
ladies, make them aware of health
care and its services available in
vicinity. They also provide them
nutrition through government
scheme like ICDS, WIFS.
People are mostly unaware about
the other governmental beneficial
schemes. Hence they could not
draw benefit from the centers.
Most of the time money allocated
for scheme has not been spent.
- Integrated Child
Development Program
- Beti Anmol Yojna
- Nutritional program for
adolescent girls
- Janani Shishu Surksha
Yojana
- Mother Teresa Program
- Remarriage assistance
- Mukhya Kanyadan Yojana
for BPL
- Weekly Iron and Folic Acid
Tablet distribution
As Samridhi has policy to have 10
women members from each
village. Samridhi extends its

11. but there is a cap-10
members
shares to those who wants to
work with the organization.
Many lower caste women wanted
to be a part of it, but somehow
because of filling the quota of
each village they were not
admitted to the organization.
31
October
2014,
Friday
Sambha 1 Sanjay
2 Neeta Singh
3 Balder Singh
4 Damodari
Devi
Care World Welfare
Society worker
Private School Teacher
Govt. School Headmaster
(Middle School)
Govt. School Head
teacher (Primary)
. Concept of SHG lead
to Women Employment
.Problem with
agriculture fields
. Problem with private
school
The NGO, Care World Welfare,
which works for SHG groups and
Conducts health checkups for
village people. The SHG groups are
involved in candle making,
papads, weaving, instant stick
making. So in this way CWW is
providing employment to BPL
women.
But the women from these
communities who works for SHG
has to do lot of work, They could
not get sufficient time to take rest.
They could not give attention
towards household. Hence these
women are unhappy with the
organizations.
According to survey of CWW the
major problem faced by samba is
stray animals attack on agriculture
fields.
It is very difficult to run a school in
remote area, where the
population is low and people

12. .Teachers are not
happy with Right to
education act
.Condition of public
schools
could afford their children paying
higher tuition fees for the school.
Hence these school always
needed external funding. In case
of private school at Samba it is
supported by Swami Vivekananda
Trust financially.
The act says that student should
get promoted to upper class
without clearing the previous
standard. This will lead future
problem for students. They will
fail after completing their 8th
standard. This also created extra
burden on teacher, As well as the
learning capacity of each student
is different hence those who take
more time to learn will get stuck
in studies.
There is a provision for 25% poor
children to be enrolled in private
schools. In remote villages this
condition make the private school
more paralyzed because of lack of
funding.
Condition of these schools are
much better than private school,
because funding is not a problem
with these schools. Quality of
teachers are better than private
schools in remote villages. As
number of families try to enroll
their children in these school to
get free education.
1
Novemb
er 2014,
Saturda
y
Sambha
/Haldra
1 -
2 Sanjay
Guleria
3. Anita
Kumari
Rtd. Vidhan Sabha
Deputy Sec.- Villager
Shraddha Founder
Panchayat Pradhan

13. . To keep away the
Animals from attacking
the agriculture fields. We
got different responses
from different people.
- Shradhha
Foundation
- Villager
- Rtd. Secretory
. Implementation of
government schemes
Solar Fencing is the solution for
staying away the animals from
agriculture fields. As fencing will
have minimum electric shock,
hence animal won’t come after
they come to know about this
system.
But this need very extensive and
strong wiring because power of
animals are so strong that they
can enter the field by force.
It will damage the whole system
and reconstruction cost is also
very high.
Villagers on their own cannot
implement this project on their
own, IT will need government
financing.
Whole village should have been
fenced by government by
protective wires. Individually they
are capable of doing this thing,
but they are waiting for
government to invest in it.
The main reason for animals
coming in fields is, decreasing fruit
plants in forest. Hence
government should invest in
raising the fruits plants which is
native to ecology.
The real poor are not getting the
benefit form government
schemes. For example one family
got Rs: 70,000 from the scheme
called Indira Awas Yojana (House
building Scheme). But the family is
not willing to take money because

14. . Election of Pradhan:
Actual power is with few
upper caste people
.Animal Mela
.Census of Sambha
of some wrong perceptions like if
family takes Rs: 70,000 their name
will be removed from BPL list.
Moreover people are not aware of
provisions like Unemployment
allowance in MGNEREGA.
Since Samba village is a reserved
constituency. Schedule caste
elected representatives are being
controlled by the other upper
caste people like Rajput’s and
Brahmins for their own benefit.
Once in a year it has been
arranged. May 13 to May 21.
Where cows, oxen, cattle are
exchanged. This Mela arranged at
Bhavarana, which is 25 km away
from the village.
Child Population (29) - ICDS
(0 to 6) Months - 1 M, 1 F
Total - 2
(0.5 to 3) Years - 5 M, 7 F
Total - 12
(3 to 6) Years - 7 M, 8 F
Total - 15
Population (468)
Male – 236
Female – 232
Category Wise Population
General - 153 M, 152 F
Total - 305
Schedule Caste - 65 M, 66 F
Total - 131
Other Backward Caste - 11 M, 7 F
Total - 18
Migrants - 7 M, 7 F
Total - 14

15. Adolescent Girls Population
11 to 14 Years - 12
15 to 18 Years - 10
Total - 22
2
Novemb
er 2014,
Sunday
Dharam
shala/M
cloed
Ganj
N/A N/A Tourist place which is very well
developed. SHG in these villages
can market their products at such
places where tourist visits on daily
basis. Hence their material will get
carried away in different corners
of the world.
3
Novemb
er 2014,
Monday
Chanda
d
1. Bipin
Bhardwaj
1. Social Activist
.Model Village Concept
.Concept of Swaraj
We had discussion with Bipinji on
our field exercise and our findings.
We discussed about the model
village.
To build model village, first we
need to identify the resource
available in and around their
village.
Then make the sustainable effort
to access to those resources.
This will generate the identity for
the village and it will lead to the
path of self-autonomy.
It has two concepts
1. Management (Extraction
and preservation) of
resources by themselves
2. General assembly should
take all the decision about
the management of these
resources and elected
body implement those
decision.
This will lead us to inclusive
participation, making this
democracy a working democracy
where there is respect for each

16. AZIM PREMJI UNIVERSITY
Masters in Development (Semester 1)
FIELD PRACTICE COMPONENT (Daily Reflective Journal)
Name - Kuldeep Haridas Ulhe
Semester 1 - Section 1, M.A. Development
Date - November 18, 2014
Filed Work - Village – Samba, Taluk – Palampur
District – Kangra
State – Himachal Pradesh
.Agro – Forestry
.Bureaucratic
Dependency
and everyone’s idea about
development. This makes the
community sustainable and
progressive.
As decline in agriculture resulted
into people shifted their focus on
agro forestry. They are interested
in planting teak so that it will give
them bulk income after its
maturity.
Bureaucracy has been
decentralized and it reached up to
the grass root level. It is now
interfering with daily life of
people. Hence the people are
made depended on government
for each and every problem’s
solution.
It is difficult to find the people
directly interacting with socio
economic needs of the community
and solving the issue on their own.
Hence we do not find the old
practice of solving the problems
and innovative local based
solutions.

17. Main Task - Study about socio, political and ecological components
Study about the concept of Model Village
Disaster Management at Local Level
Duration - 27th
October to 3rd November.