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America and
Rural India
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Report: Rural India Learning Journey
and Indian Americans
December, 2007
Dear Friends:
In December 2007, twenty-four Indian Americans including me, accompanied
by a couple of Indians, took time off for a week's visit to rural areas
in southern Tamil Nadu. We called it a "learning journey". Most
of the areas visited fell within what is geographically known as a rain
shadow region, i.e they get very little rainfall. The livelihood of the
farmers in these areas is heavily dependent on scanty rainfall. They all
suffer from acute shortage of drinking water and water for growing crops.
Three of us then branched off to spend an additional week in Karnataka
(in the Mysore region) and Maharashtra (in the Pune region), again, mainly
in the rain shadow areas. In the last leg we were joined by a fourth colleague.
Before proceeding further, it would be appropriate to quote from Alan
Greenspan's book, "THE AGE OF TURBULENCE", which was released
just a few months ago. This is what Greenspan has to say about rural India
(pages 320-1):
Rural India is mired in a level of poverty as bleak as anywhere
in the world outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Here is where a high concentration
of India's illiterate (two-fifths of the adult population) and most
of the more than 250 million Indians who live on less than $1 a day
reside. Half of India's homes have no electricity. Productivity on farms
is only one-fourth of what it is in non-farm areas. Rice yields are
half of what they are in Vietnam, and a third of what they are in China.
India's cotton's comparative yields are even worse. Wheat yields, which
so benefited from the enhanced seed of the green revolution of the 1970s,
are still only three-fourths of China's. Only in tea is India more productive
than its Asian competitors. Moreover, Indian road transport linking
farms and cities is so inadequate that output of perishable crops is
largely retricted to on-farm consumption; a third of crops is reported
to rot en route to market.
All that Greenspan says is substantially true. However, what impressed
me most from our trip is that things are changing.
Some of India's dynamic social entrepreneurs, otherwise known as NGOs,
are in action lending a helping hand to transform rural India. What we
saw and experienced gave us renewed hope that rural India is NOT a basket
case -- that many villagers in areas of scanty rainfall are pulling themselves
up, making heroic efforts to conserve rain water resources, and thereby
markedly improving their livelihood. But a lot, lot more needs to be done.
The following despatch will be the first of a series on my impressions
(and the impressions of my colleagues) of what's happening in rural India
and what the Indian American community can do to lend a helping hand to
make sure that rural India catches up with the rest of the country in
economic progress over the next decade or two. In preparing this, I have
drawn freely from the notes on our trip written by my colleagues, Uma
Balakrishnan, Vedanth Kadambi and Ram Krishnan
In southern Tamil Nadu, we met and were taken round by some of India's
outstanding social entrepreneurs -- who have remarkable achievements to
their credit in reducing rural poverty -- including the following:
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The Gandhigram
Rural University at Dindukal. We heard an eloquent speech by Prof
Palanithurai on what this deemed university is doing to train and
extend handholding support to rural India's panchayat leaders in the
areas of governance and development from below. An encouraging fact
mentioned by him is that 50 percent of Bihar's panchayat leaders work
with the university. The university has its focus on employment generation
in around 40 villages in nine panchayats.
We divided ourselves into two groups to visit a couple of villages. One
of them, with 300 families, subsists on flower growing on account of water
scarcity. Lack of public toilets is the first anomaly that strikes us,
the urbans, as we listen to the trials and tribulations of the women who
have to defecate in the fields nearby. There is an elementary school,
i.e. classes up to the V std, and after this children have to walk or
cycle their way to a high school 4 km away in the next village. The nearest
primary health centre is again 4 km away and medical emergencies have
to be taken there.
In stark contrast to the lack of amenities is the overflowing love in
their hearts as we congregate in the first village to partake of the breakfast
that the village women served us. This is followed by a group interaction
as we sit in a circle and talk to them. One of our group members remarked,
‘these people don’t need anything from us. See the women are
so well groomed and their faces radiate happiness.” It must be the
typically Indian attitude of accepting their lot stoically and smiling
in spite of all adversities!
Our journey has the right balance of theory and practice! I refer to the
various talks that we listen to from various volunteer officials who gave
us an insight into the work that is going on toward the economic and social
development of the villages. A noteworthy feature here is the group of
undergraduate students at the Gandhigram Rural University who are called
Samaaj Shilpis (community workers) and who act as a bridge between the
rural university and the villages.
We visited a school -- Sowbhagya Illam (Children's Home) -- run by the
Gandhigram Trust for indigent and abandoned children which has a strength
of 170 -- 120 girls and 50 boys. We had a taste of the nutritious food
being served to the children. The school depends wholly on donations.
-
Dhan Foundation (Development
of Humane Action) of Madurai -- which
"has been working on identifying various development needs
[of villagers] and enabling the local community to take charge of
the challenge to find solutions for it...The development needs brought
to focus so far are, creating safe drinking water sources through
reviving the life saving ponds, bringing light to the remote households
by providing access to electricity, stabilizing the livelihoods of
the dry land farmers through construction of farm ponds, support to
set up multi purpose community resource centres, life saving surgical
and health care support to the poor, opening new avenues to the under
privileged children through education program and bringing back the
lost glory to the green fields of rural areas through rehabilitation
of tanks."
Dhan has set up the Kalanjiam Foundation which works with 3.5 lakh poor
families organized into 22,300 kalanjiams (self-help community banking
groups) spread across 6000 villages in 11 Indian States. This has been
a highly successful program in organizing women into mutuality groups
which has facilitated poor women to take control of their own development
by partnering with banks, government departments, insurance companies,
markets, to break the shackles of poverty and improve their lives.
We visited some of the Kalanjiams. Each of the women we met looked
so ordinary, and yet each one has a tale of extraordinary grit and
success as they overcame the trampling of a male dominated, poverty
ridden existence. We visited the Vaigai Vattara Kalanjiam Women's
Self Help Group and learnt how microfinance is changing their lives.
One amazing woman we met was Chinna Pillai Amma --the president of
a federation of Kalanjiams consisting of 40,000 women -- an "untouchable",
supposed to be practically illiterate. She spoke to us and answered
questions on what the women were doing to transform their lives. We
came back convinced that this so-called illiterate woman had leadership
qualities of an unusual order.
The next day at Ramanathapuram we added two new Tamil words to our repertoire,
Oorani and Eri. Ooranis, we learn, are natural ponds in existence for
centuries where rain water collects during a very brief monsoon. Eris
are large water bodies similar to lakes. It’s an ongoing task to
desilt these ooranis and maintain them so that the village preserves its
only storehouse of drinking water for the whole year! Yes, we never can
see a single tap or plastic pipe that carries water as there is no running
water in these villages. Women walk a distance of 2 -3 kms daily to fetch
water for their daily needs! We visit the underdeveloped villages to understand
the tank fed agriculture development. A highlight of this day is an impromptu
sponsorship of the deepening and development of an oorani in Sengottaipatti
village by the visiting group members. All the families in this village
of 320 families (1400 persons) belong to scheduled castes ("untouchables").
The existing oorani requires deepening, a draw well and fencing. Cost
Rs 4 lakhs -- the villagers will contribute 1 lakh by way of labor, Dhan
Foundation will contribute Rs 80,000 and the remaining 320, 000 the visiting
group agreed to donate.
19th December sees us reach Tuticorin, one of Tamil Nadu’s driest
regions. We visit the village of Kurlayampatti, in Vilathikulam panchayat.
The members of the SHG (Self Help Group) at the Bharathiyar (a Tamil poet
and freedom fighter) Community Centre greet us. This is a thatched, temporary
building and this centre focuses on water, agriculture and renewable energy.
In the village of Veludupatti the locals enthrall us with their native
folklore dance called oyil kummi. And so it goes on, endless village roads
and dirt tracks, endless agendas that need to be done to bring about self
sustainability to these clusters of hamlets.
-
Vivekananda
Kendra in Kanya Kumari -- India's lands-end. The Kendra is run
by dedicated volunteers who look into sustainable development in the
fields of water management, cost- effective construction technologies,
sustainable agriculture, holistic health and renewable sources of
energy . We learnt that sustainable architecture can build you a house
that can benefit the entire planet! The Gramodaya Park for Right Living
educates us on the need to have an environmental, social and spiritual
consciousness.
We found every village visited to be different. Some are in a really bad
situation. Some have made modest progress. Basically the villages all
require water, education, health and livelihood. One of the members of
our team, Vedanth Kadambi, had the following observations to make:
"I have learned something that I did not know before - the
Indian villages, in spite of all the difficulties they experience (lack
of water, lack of power, education, etc.), consist of people who are
joyful and trying to do their best under extremely difficult circumstances.
They are not looking for a dole out from others. They are trying to
lift themselves with their own efforts for the most part and need some
assistance and direction at times. It was a pleasure to see them and
talk to them. Let us do our best to help them in every way we can. We
will have discharged our duty to ourselves and to the rest of world
through the support we provide them.
"I believe that many of us (including me), would not have known
how to begin the process of starting the process of understanding the
problems the villagers face, even though we had all heard of some of
their difficulties. I had expected to see grinding poverty in the villages
with starving children and gloomy faces looking for help from the government
and others for everything. What surprised me more than anything else
was the cheerfulness that I saw - something that is not seen in the
urbanized communities of the world (India and USA included). It shows
that affluence is not by itself the answer to a happy life. I had read
earlier in a newspaper that Indians were by and large, the happiest
people in the world. I had assumed that the results of the survey that
the newspaper cited were completely wrong! It may be that the survey
is right and the reason is probably the state of mind of the people.
They are happy with what they have and will try to improve themselves.
However, they are hopeful of the future and will do their best. That
is the spirit - that which will lead to success fast if their energy
is channelized properly. The old woman at the first village to whom
I spoke near Dindigul is right. She has got her children educated even
though she has next to no money. One of them who is about to earn a
bachelor's degree and told me that she wants to go on for a Master's
degree thereafter. These are the types of people who will become the
leaders of India in the next few years".
What can we Indian Americans do to improve living conditions in the villages,
in whichever State or area of India, we or our ancestors hail from?
There are three things we Indian Americans can do:
STEP 1. Visit our own village in whichever part of India we or our ancestors
hailed from, or if we are from a city or town, a village, say, 50-60 km
away. Use the time to learn about the village -- how do the inhabitants
live, where they get their supply of water, is there a school, a health
clinic? Do not offer any money or any other form of help. You are on a
fact finding trip. Try to meet the sarpanch or panchayat leader. Make
some contacts; get their cell phone numbers before returning.
The link below has one or two villages visit suggestions for a list of
11 large cities. If you are from a city or area different from these 11,
contact us and we will try to help you:
STEP 2. On your return to the US, we recommend you spend the next
2-3 months learning more about developmental issues. You can contact one
or more NGOs working in the area or nearby and learn about their programs.
If there are other Indian Americans working close to the village of your
choosing, you should contact them. You are also welcome to to get in touch
with us.
This link shows a list of 27
overseas pioneers who are working in India.
CATALYST is a magazine published from New York which focuses on
India's rural development needs. Issue
4 of this magazine looks at the overseas pioneers of Indian origin
working in the villages of India. Also look at the October
2007 issue. You may view other issues at http://www.afhd.org.
STEP 3. Partner with an NGO or an Indian American pioneer. Let
the villagers provide you guidance. In general, any project should involve
the villagers who should be able to provide 20-30 percent of the cost
by way of labor or cash.
A colleague who was instrumental in making a success of out Tamil Nadu
rural learning journey program, Ram Krishnan of Minnesota who is himself
involved personally in the development of the villages in and around Vilathikulam,
is connected with some 60 overseas pioneers of Indian origin working in
different parts of India. It's our fervent hope that we will be able to
find at least 2500 pioneers of Indian origin soon -- three for each district
of India.
The best thing to have happened in India's rural transformation is the
creation of Self-Help Groups (SHG). Practically all the SHGs in South
India consist of women. They are still not that common in the North of
India. A typical SHG has 20 women who save Rs 50 every month and place
it in a savings account. The SHG performs four key functions:
- First, by saving money they extricate themselves from the clutches
of the money lender.
- Second, they start loaning money amongst themselves at a monthly interest
rate of 1.5 percent per month (money lenders charge an annual rate of
70 percent or more).
- Third, after saving over a period of two years or so, they start engaging
in revenue producing economic activities useful to the SHG and the village
community.
- In the fourth stage, they become a key part of the Grama Sabha and
participate in the development of the village.
A majority of the SHGs in South India are somewhere between stages 2
and 3. There are, of course, a very large number of villages still to
be covered in the South as also in the rest of India.
Cheers,
Ram Narayanan
US-India Friendship
Read a 13-page description of the day-by-day story of our Rural
India Learning Journey 2007.
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