Immersion Districts

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1. Barwani District

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Participants: Sunny Talreja , Tulasi Vigneswhara Rao, Amandeep Mittal, Viral Hingarh, Abhiroop, Dushyanth Reddy, Amitava Bandyopadhyay, Subedh Thakur, Anuj Sharma

We left IIM Indore by Tempo Traveller at 6 a.m. in the morning. It was a pleasant 3.5 hours drive to Barwani district headquarters. We took the National Highway from Agra to Mumbai initially, and then took the diversion via Anjad to reach Barwani at around 9:30 a.m. We found it a bit difficult initially to find the NVDA Guest House arranged for us. From Barwani town, the Raj Ghat Road leads to the banks of the Narmada River. We went directly to the river bank, had breakfast at a local eatery. Although Barwani town is relatively urbanized, we found ourselves to be in an increasingly rural setting as we moved closer to the river Narmada. So much so that we had to hitch-hike a ride on a tractor trailer back to the Guest House!

Barwani district is divided into 7 blocks. Each block is further sub-divided into constituent villages. 2-3 villages are governed by the smallest unit of local self-governance in the Indian administrative system – the Gram Panchayat. The village also has a sizeable tribal population, most of whom are employed as contract labourers in local farms. The Panchayati Raj has evolved from the traditional Indian system of local self-governance in rural India. Mahatma Gandhi was instrumental in incorporating it into the Indian constitution post independence.

Some of the villages visited by us were Thekri, Kuan, Mandwara, Borlai, Kasrawat and Balkuan. Of these, Kasrawat, being located near the Narmada river bank, was vulnerable to riverine erosion and inundation following the Narmada Valley Project and the Sardar Sarovar Dam Project in Gujarat. Thekri, Borlai, Mandwara and Kuan villages were situated on the main State Highway connecting Barwani with Anjad and Manawar.

The local civic administration is executed through the Gram and Mahapad Panchayats. Some issues of concern for the village administration are improving the condition of rural women, such as reduction of child mortality, mortality during childbirth and education and empowerment of the girl child. A few schemes launched by the government to counter these issues are the Mukhyamantri Kanya Dan Yojana, Tikakran Yojana, Prasuti Yojana, School Education Scholarships, etc. There are other schemes and provisions also like the Gram Awas Yojana, Swarojgar Yojana, Kapil Dhara Yojana, grants and loans for irrigation. Plans to generate energy locally using renewable means are also underway. Apart from traditional farming practices, initiatives such as horticulture, fruit cultivation, teak plantations are also encouraged.

The NREGS and SRGS, dealing with rural employment and sanitation respectively are also being implemented presently. However, they are not without their own sets of challenges. In case of the SRGS scheme, the problem of farmers wanting to stay in the vicinity of their field proves to be a handicap in the construction of permanent toilets and latrines. In case of NREGS, The problem of identifying appropriate work opportunities for labourers, the delay in disbursement of wages and the ad hoc process of selecting and delegating work to the applicants have proven to be stumbling blocks in its smooth implementation. We further learnt that the single most effective plan in rural India in the recent past has been the Pradhanmantri Gram Sadak Yojana, which has improved connectivity of rural and urban areas significantly.

2. Burhanpur District

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Participants: Gaurav Mathur, P Guru kiran Varma, Puppala Kartik, Mayur Parashar, Siddhartha Sinha, Ashwani Raj, Samrat A. Shinde, Anjani Kumar, Ram Prasad Panda

The purpose of the visit to Burhanpur was to explore how better utilisation of existing resources can eliminate the socio-economic deficiencies. It was a 5 day visit and the group was exposed broadly to the following areas –
Agriculture - The district had large banana plantations and the drip irrigation technique had reduced the water requirements by 80%. They also used crop rotation and cotton was generally used with bananas. Apart from these, maize and papaya were also cultivated. Papaya is used to extract papayne used in pharmaceutical industry.

Government Schemes – The group learned about schemes like NREGS, SSA, BRGF, IAY and TSC. We visited many places where these were implemented and also came to know about the challenges in implementation. At one of the schools, we shared mid-day meal with children. Some of the other schemes covered were – Kapil Dhara, Nirmal Neer, Nirmal Vatika, and Nandan Falodyan.

Elections – We visited polling booths and learnt about the election process of gram panchayats and were briefed about the intricacies of the operations. We also learned about the hierarchical structure of the village panchayats.

Forest Management – Burhanpur has 55% of the area covered by forest which makes the role of Forest officers significant. Meeting with the District Forest Officer gave us an idea about the issues faced by the people living there and the measures Forest Department took to tackle them.

Self-Help Groups (SHGs) – By meeting the members of some SHGs, we learned how they create employment and empowerment for women in rural areas and about the government initiatives which had helped them. We came to know about the practices they followed and the challenges they faced in terms of marketing their products.

Watershed Management – Burhanpur has received only 40% of the average rainfall over last 3 years but that has not hampered agriculture significantly because of water conservation practices. We went to see check dams, stop dams, wells, etc in different parts of the district. Drip irrigation has also contributed in prevention of ground water level depletion.
Based on our observations, we made suggestions to the collector on the following areas –

Agricultural training institutes - Investment in these would foster enthusiasm for higher learning in families of farmers.

Tourism – Maintenance and promotion of tourist destinations like Asirgarh Fort, Khuni Bhandara, Moti Mahal, Shahjahan’s tomb etc. Due to the hilly terrain and dense forests there is ample opportunity for Burhanpur to host adventure tourism activities.

Awareness – A person should be trained as a point of contact regarding government schemes for villagers. He would be outside government machinery and would specialize in a particular scheme.

Wasteland Management – Options like cultivation of Drumstick as cash crop on wasteland should be explored.
Marketing of products made by SHGs – Co-operative(s) of SHGs should be formed to market their products. Contract manufacturing can also be considered.

Overall it was an enriching experience and we heartily thank Burhanpur district administration for their hospitality and co-operation.

3. Damoh District

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Participants: Amit Kulkarni, Siddharth Setia, Sakshi Jain, Himanshu Narang, Aditya Radhakrishnan, Muhammed Fazal, Atul Mehra, Devendra Dilip Maydeo, Nadeem Abdul Majeed, Rishita P

Damoh is about 500 Kms from Indore in the North East direction. Around 40% of this district is covered by dense forests and it has around 1400 villages. Their main occupation is Bidi making, nearly all of the households are involved in this business; farming is also done on a large scale here due to the presence of black cotton soil. Limestone is also found in abundance here and there is only one major industry in this district, “Mycem cements�.
Despite of many seasonal rivers flowing through this region there is a big problem of water in this district and it is one of the reasons behind the slow growth of this district. Currently a lot of work is being done for solving the water problem but the problem is that all this work and funds are being distributed at many sites and thus projects are of very small scale (some are just small check dams). Government needs to pool in these funds and invest in bigger projects like bigger dams and etc.

There are about 2286 state government schemes; most of them implemented using the help of around 3400 NGO’s. The problem is the awareness about these schemes among the villagers. Most of the people including the government officials know only a few schemes and thus the implementation of these schemes and the work of different NGO’s is questionable. Government is also implementing some schemes for the people below poverty line, it is funding them to buy rickshaws, and it is also providing them loan up to 2 lakhs for their business under the Swarna Jayanti Yojna. The problem with these schemes is that people really do not want to rise above the poverty line. Various central government schemes are also being implemented like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and NREGA but the implementation of these schemes is not done completely as under NREGA people are getting employment only up to 70 days and not 100 days.

One good thing about this district is the Self Help Groups; they are a group of people from nearby villages. These people work for the development and cleanliness of the village without any external help; Government has also started supporting these groups and now there are about 70 such groups (10 per Taluka) in the district. A totally new department named the Jan Abhiyan Department is also present here which has the sole purpose of development of people with the collaboration with different NGO’s.

PURA feasibility

1) Educational institutions: - Ojaswini Engineering and Management Institute, their registrar assured us to conduct various executive research projects in different villages.

2) District Administration: - Jan Abhiyan – It is a unique initiative in MP that act as an interface between government and non government organizations. Its sole purpose is the development of people.

3) Industry: - Diamond cements (Mycem) located in Narsingarh: - An important contributor towards the PURA. Rio Tinto Diamond Mine is also expected to open up in this district.

4) Community: - Self Help Groups or Samitis. There are a total of 70 samitis across 7 tehsils. Each samiti have 10 members who will work under the guidance of Jan Abhiyan to implement projects like construction of a well or canals etc for the development and cleanliness of villages.

The above players needs to join hands in order to implement PURA

4. Dewas District

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Participants: Ashita Mittal, Karan Maroo, Anurag Mohota, Saurabh Dwivedi, Alok kumar singh, Santosh Kr Gupta, Kuldeep Sharma, Ubainthran A, Abhijeet Kumar Singh, Shagufta Sheikh, Vamshidhar Mangu

There are very few incidents in life which can have more influence on our perspective to observe various aspects of life than this visit in Dewas district. The enriched experience was an eye opener for most of the group members as the learning of the visit had a huge impact on the thought process of each member. Apart from sensitizing us about the social and economic aspect of rural India, we have been exposed to various facets of development and the roles of all the stakeholders, be it governmental agencies, NGO’s and the public themselves. We found that not only the planning of large government initiatives is important, but the implementation part is much more important which decides the success of such schemes. We came across many aspects of rural life which we never experienced, be it the hardships of rural people, the unnoticed satisfaction in most of them inspite of many problems around them, the importance of social status in their lives and how some small success stories of ordinary people like farmers are transforming many lives.

Economics works: Government is running many schemes which sounds great on paper but faces numerous difficulties at implementation level. The major issues with the improper implementation of such schemes are lack of awareness among villagers and resource crunch at grass root level. Most of the government schemes have long term benefits but it is very difficult to make rural people understand the economic and social implications of these schemes.

Impact of Government Policies: We generally crib about government and politicians but our respect for the govt of India grew no bounds when we came to know about the policies thought about and being implemented by the government. We realized that most of the policies have the potential to change the face of rural India if implemented properly. Let us take NREGA as an example. The exponential rise of funds provided under this scheme to Panchayats has enabled them to provide employment opportunities, improve livelihood, productivity and infrastructure of villages. But many challenges have hindered the implementation of the scheme like the limitation of planning and expertise required by the local body with limited human resources. Another important thing we realized is that villagers expect the government to spoon-feed them and are reluctant to take responsibility in many of these initiatives. So, it is very important to involve the villagers at every step and generate a sense of ownership among them.

Impact of SHG’s through Kumbaya: We went to an organization, Kumbaya which is a SHG formed by a dedicated young lady. It is a stitching unit involved in converting cloth to fashion accessories. It employs around 50 girls and physically handicapped people in its premises. It has trained around 500 girls since inception and provided them with employment opportunities. It made the girls of the villages come out of their homes and become independent. We were surprised at how a dedicated person with a vision can change the lives of thousands of people in villages.

Example of Opportunities existing in rural India: SKS Microfinance, an organization providing small capital to rural people made us realize the opportunities existing in rural India. It has already provided microfinance to 60 Lakh people in India, providing them loans to start their own enterprises and generate additional income. Things like these in rural India not only impacts a lot of lives but also provides business opportunities to entrepreneurs through 80 crore people existing in villages.

5. Dhar District

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Participants: Aashish Mylapally, Anupam Sharma, Viswanath Raju, Kavitha Subramanian, Urvi Ved, Yerra Sandeep, Eby John, Arun V, Amit Agarwal, Kikla Angad, Kirtiman

Dhar district is located 55 km southwest to Indore. It is one of the most backward districts in Madhya Pradesh with 74% of its population living below poverty line and about 65% being illiterates. Dhar is also the largest district in MP, area-wise. Because of the large proportion of tribal population living in hamlets, villages are widely scattered all across the district and makes access to them a challenge.

During our immersion program from 18th to 22nd January, we saw rural development efforts at the grassroots level. It was a first time visit to the villages for many of us. What we experienced for the most part was that a lot of resources are available in the villages, but they are not able to make full use of them. Due to lack of awareness or opportunities, the villagers are unable to procure the technical know-how and manufacturing processes that would help them to add value to their raw materials, thus enabling them to get higher prices for their products. For e.g., setting up a chilli processing plant locally where Chillies are produced to convert the chillies to chilli powder can result in increased revenues for the farmers because of disintermediation. Cooperatives should be encouraged for farmers to come together to pool their resources and invest in such technology. Similarly, the govt. could come up with plans such as providing plants to villagers in return of a certain fraction of the profits earned, which could be profitable to the farmers.

Govt. schemes, although very well thought out, are not realising the full benefits to people because of certain fundamental issues, which were either social or economical e.g. the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre should cater to a greater number of villagers but does not because mothers are not encouraged or made aware of the issues. Children are not sent to school and are made to work instead. Youngsters do not take advantage of free govt. training opportunities.

Additionally, the district has a lot of potential for attracting tourists with places like Mandu, Jahaj Mahal, Bhag caves, Phadke Studio, Jain temple of Dhar etc. Necessary promotion should be done by the government to develop the tourism industry in Dhar which would provide employment to lot of people in addition to generating revenues.

We also noted that for the popular Bhag prints, demand is usually much greater than the supply. Hence there is a lot of scope for increasing the scale of operations and if this is combined with better marketing strategies, it can give a strong boost to the economy of this region.

6. Dindori District

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Participants: Akarshan Gupta, Anurag Chaudhary, Deepak Bothra, Kapil Arora, Piyush Thakker, Raj Kumar Paswan, Sarvesh Kumar, Sourabh Shah, Vikrant Agrawal, Vineet Nair

Dindori is one of the most backward districts of Madhya Pradesh having population of about 6 lakh. The number of BPL families is about 84000. The population also consists of tribal families who are very backward in terms of having any urban amenities.

This district has severe problem of water for irrigation. Efforts have been taken to increase the underground water level by building various stop dams, ponds etc. Small canals were also present at one or two places but it was not sufficient to cater the demand of water in the village for irrigation. As far as drinking water is concerned, few villages were supplied drinking water for an hour.

The land in Dindori is not suitable for most of the agricultural products as it is full of stones and rocks. Several sub-schemes have been adopted under NREGS such as Medh Bandh, Kapildhara, Shell Worn, Bhumi Shilp and Nirmal Neer etc. To make the land arable, the field was surrounded by Medh Bandh, which resulted in increase in water level and soil conservation. The farmers who were motivated towards improving their livelihood were actually able to take advantage of schemes like NREGS, BRGF etc.

The electricity is also not adequate to fulfill the requirements of villagers. We found certain scope of Solar Energy and Wind Energy to cater to the electricity requirement. As far as road connectivity is concerned, it has reached almost all the villages in this district but there was no rail connectivity, which is essential to set up any industry.

Dindori population consists of most backward Baiga Tribal Community, which is resistant to any positive change. There are millions of rupees in fund for their development but it remains unutilized, as they do not come up with any plan. But in contrast there was one village Patangarh, where people make beautiful tribal paintings depicting the tribal and forest life. Holistic program is required to develop this community.

There were certain unique and positive developments, which have happened in terms of agriculture as few farmers have shown interest in cultivation of Mulberry, which is essential for sericulture. It is seen as major agricultural development in future. People should also be motivated to produce Kodo-Kutki (Diabetic Rice), which is specialty of this region. There is huge scope of agro-based industry as arable land is suitable for fruits like guava, mahua, ramtilla, rose etc.

Eco-tourism is being developed in this district with the help of BRGF. One of the projects has almost reached its completion stage and will open in the month of February. It has potential to attract plenty of tourists because it guarantees unique experience.

To develop this district, it is important to have localized plans depending upon the demography and geography of this place. Lots of effort is required in terms of making people aware of the government schemes and how to use them. It is imperative to have high level of motivation to achieve the sustainable development of the poor and tribal families of Dindori.

7. Guna District

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Participants: Ankur Grover, Hariharan M, Nitu Ravi Abraham, Smriti Rani, Srinivas V, Swati Gupta, Vijayabalaji M S

The district of Guna, with 1260 villages and 425 Gram Panchayats is located in the North-Western part of Madhya Pradesh. The district is defined by Parbati river and is surrounded by districts such as Vidisha and Rajgarh. It has a total population of around 977,000 of which 64% is literate. The economy is primarily agriculture based with 81% of the population involved in farming. Around 64% of the total area of 6300 km2 is utilized for farming. Guna district is divided into 5 blocks – 2 Nagar Palikas namely Raghogarh, Guna and 3 Nagar Panchayats namely Chachoda , Aron and Bamori.

The project officer of the Guna district, Mr. Raghav was our guide for the Immersion program. We were briefed initially about the administration hierarchy and the various departments under the authority of the district collector. He dwelled upon the various government schemes in details such as Indra Awaz, NREGS, Mool Bhoot, BRGF , SGSY, Mid day Meal and Water shed etc. We were made aware of the various procedures and processes involved in the public grievance redressal system called Jan Sunwai. The District Planning Officer explained in great detail about the SGSY system and the how the administration plays a key role in facilitating the granting of bank loans to self help groups as well as in the formation, evaluation of such groups.

We had a field visit to villages such as Semri, Hinotia, Rinjoli, Bhora which sensitized us about the conditions which the people were living in as well as the problems they were facing. We had a chance to see the government schemes implemented at the grass root level. We also interacted with the villagers and had a chance to understand their lifestyle, mindset and their means of livelihood. We met a few self help groups in action, which were involved in brick making, buffalo rearing activities. We also visited various primary schools, anganwadis and health care centres. We visited a self powered yarn mill which derived power from bio fuel.

The major observation from the visit was that the success of the scheme depends highly on spreading awareness and effective implementation at the grass root level. The benefit of these schemes can reach the masses only if the village heads have the willingness to implement the schemes and take it to the people and the people have the mindset to accept these initiatives. It was heartening to see that all the villages had adequate electricity as well as quick access to maternity medical care. The key issues which the villages faced were regarding supply of water and availability of sanitation facilities. We provided a few recommendations concerning education, connectivity, healthcare as well as development of small scale industries.

8. Hoshangabad District

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Participants: Arnav Mukherjee, Gurumoorthi G, Prashant Mahale, Ravi Prasad, Sachin Gupta, Sonik Shah, Sukvinder Singh, Sumeet Saurabh, Sunit Gajbhiye, Tapan Kathekar

Hoshangabad is a district in Madhya Pradesh, located about 270 km east off Indore. It is a well developed district - the literacy rate at about 73% is much more than the national average. The district is located on the banks of River Narmada, which adds to the scenic beauty and at the same time renders the land fertile for cultivation. Agriculture and food processing are the mainstay of the economy of Hoshangabad. Pachmarhi, Central India’s famous hill station, is located in Hoshangabad District, about 120km from the district centre, and brings in revenue from tourism.

Our stay at Hoshangabad was an enriching experience, and brought us in close contact with the district machinery. We realised that the stereotypical image of villages we have are often false, and understood the reason why villages are considered to be a huge untapped market by companies. We came back wiser from the Immersion Programme, and given a chance we would love to contribute in whatever way we can towards the developmental efforts undertaken by the District Administration. The learning from our trip can be summarised as

• We saw the actual implementation of various Government schemes like Mid-Day Meal Scheme, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Swarna Jayanti Swarojgar Yojana, Indira Awaas Yojana. Our knowledge of these schemes was well supplemented with the knowledge of the ground level implementation, and it was evident that the success of these crucial schemes lies at the hands of people implementing these schemes.

• A lot of transparency has been brought into these schemes to reduce the scope of corruption. Eg. In NREGA, the money is paid to the worker’s account, and the corresponding entry is made in an IT-enabled Management Information System, which eliminates the scope of the middleman taking a share of the worker’s pay.

• There is immense scope of social entrepreneurship in rural areas, and we saw a live example of it – Pradaan, an NGO working in many states, does a great job of training the poor rural people in the areas of animal husbandry, mushroom farming, sericulture, poultry, fish farming etc. and after training them, it enables them to form a cooperative and hives them off as a separate entity. Hence, Pradaan is not employing them, but is enabling them to be self-sustainable and independent, and the money they earn is divided among the members of the cooperative.

As far as the vision of Hoshangabad is concerned, an effort is being done to invite major food processing companies to set up plants there. A conscious decision is taken to not promote industrialisation at the cost of agriculture. In this regard, a number of clusters of fruit orchards and cereals are being developed, so that crops of the same type will be found clustered in one region, thus making it easy for companies to collect the produce. We wish initiatives like these bear fruit.

We would like to thank the District Collector of Hoshangabad, Mr. Nishant Varvade, the Additional Collector, Mr. Sanjeev Singh, and Project Office Mr. Khuraiya for cooperating with us and helping us in every step of this programme, and we are indebted to the administration of IIM Indore for making this programme a success.

9. Katni District

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Participants: Vipul Goyal, Prasid S, Parthosarthy Roy, Sreevathsava Reddy, Shivpriya Chaturvedi, Ankit Parate, Chetan Mehta, Niha Rai, Arijit Si, Srivathsa Bethapudi

Katni district is one of the largest railway junctions in India and has the biggest Diesel locomotive shed of Indian railways. It has abundant reserves of lime and bauxite. The district has many industries related to marble and bauxite mining, rice and pulse mills and also has several agro-processing plants. Due to a large tribal population forests become the major source of livelihood in the region. Also, NH7 passes through Katni which ensures physical connectivity with the rest of the country.

Unfortunately, despite the abundant natural resource and the location advantage Katni has not been able to leverage these advantages to its benefit.

Our Experience:

The 5 day excursion as part of MP-Darshan was an eye opener to the ten member group who were all city-dwellers. We were sensitized to the grass-root problems plaguing the district like lack of electricity, water, healthcare, sanitation and education in these areas.

It was observed in the industrial visits that there was a real paucity of skills in the local areas due to which a prosperous industrial base has not been developed. The visit to the Forest Department introduced the dilemma between development and conservation. We also met the officials from the central government funded Krishi Vigyan Kendra, which provides information on new and innovative agricultural practices.

We visited a representative village in each of the 6 blocks of Katni district to understand the dynamics of the area. We found a lack of sense of community ownership and an inherent resistance to change in the rural tribal population. Though the government has been successful in the implementation of several central and state level schemes, the development of the people has been insignificant.

The Path Ahead:

As stated about the abundant resources available in Katni, we plan to outline a strategy to strengthen the industrial base in Katni and suggest changes in both policy and technology. For the rural areas - which are mostly inhabited by tribals and are extremely poverty stricken - core areas of improvement would be education and health in the first phase which would encompass capacity building in the local population. In line with efforts on education and health, we suggest involvement of NGOs to create awareness and instill the feeling of community ownership in villagers.

In the next phase we would focus on the electronic connectivity of the villages. In this phase we also propose to plant the idea of clusters and co-operatives in these villages.

10. Khandwa District

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Participants: Koganti Greeshmanth, Swapil Sirsikar, Bhoomika Goyal, Anusha Jayanti, Samir Khandelwal, Mitesh Gursahani, Arvind C, Harshil Adesara, Kunal Shah, Ankit Doshi

District: Khandwa Area: 6202 sq.km Population: 12,88,636 (2001)
Villages: 798 Literacy Rate: 46.4% (2001) Major River : Narmada

Famous Personalities : Kishore Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Dada Dhuniwale,Pandit Bhagwant Rao Mandloi, Pandit Makhanlal Chaturvedi, Singaji Maharaj

Other Facts: One of the 12 Jyotirlingas of India is at Omkareshwar in Khandwa. It is a major tourist destination.

NHDC’s 520Mw power plant at Omkareshwar has been awarded by the President. The dam and the power plant were completed in record 4 years. We visited the villages of Chegaon Makhan, Pokhar, Delgaon, Roshni,Lakhanpur (Tribal Area). We also visited Omkareshwar temple and had the unique opportunity to visit the dam and the power plant. We also visited the Agricultural University at Khandwa

We had a memorable experience at Khandwa. Over the 5 days we got to interact with the administrative machinery at the Village and the Taluka Level. We also interacted with the local villagers and the common man of Khandwa town. The experience was insightful, eye opening and extremely enriching. Apart from sensitising us to the basic issues at ground level of ‘Bharat’, it also helped us open ourselves to numerous opportunities that lie in rural India which could not only make a difference to lives of many people but also be profitable at the same time.

As a group our focus was primarily on Agriculture and allied activities, Industries (if any), Health, Education and infrastructure.

What sets this experience apart is the fact that the administration facilitated the whole trip and the easy access to the government officials meant that we had quick access to relevant data and we could present our observations to the people who matter. The ‘Sarpanch’ and the ‘Sachiv’ of every village guided us at every stage to understand the ground situation better and fast. Khandwa has excellent roads and the public private partnership model was used effectively. Also, NREGS , Kapil Dhaara, Ladli Laxmi Yojana and the TSC (Total Sanitation scheme) were the most popular schemes and also the local administration had given a major thrust to it. Kapil Dhaara and NREGS had made a great difference to the villagers’ lives. More than 100 villages had been declared ‘Nirmal’. Our Major observations are:

• Power shortage is the major issue. However, even the available power is not being managed properly (for e.g. uninformed power cuts and supplies) leading to higher irrigation costs.

• Extreme shortage of manpower in both health and education. We came across schools with ratios of 16 teachers for 800 students and 1 doctor for 4260 people in 35 villages

• Lot of families get into the BPL list via unethical means while a lot of people in need of assistance are categorized as APL families .It is a major reason why fights arise at the Panchayat meets and Gram Sabhas as most government funds and schemes are for people in the list

• The ‘Sachiv’ and ‘Sarpanch’ of most villages were highly respected and revered. Generally, people considered them honest. A lot of village Panchayats were getting elected unopposed

• Deforestation is major issue. The collector hopes to tackle it through Self-help groups (SHGs) who shall prevent cutting of trees planted in their area under the NREGS scheme

• Farmers are very creative in a lot of regions and some of them adopt rapidly the technology suggested by the Agricultural department officials

• No industries due to deficit in raw materials, power and water. The government hopes to solve the last 2 aspects soon

• 2 more thermal power plants of 1600Mw capacity to be set up in 5 years by Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) and Madhya Pradesh Power Generating Company (MPPGCL)

11. Khargone District

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Participants: Anurag Bansal, Anu Monal Minz, Kapil Tru Shehria, Dheeraj Prasanth D, Rajeev Verma, Varun Singhal, Tarun Goyal, Aditya Billore, Deepak Ramjilal, C. Sesha Saila Prabhakar

The trip has been made considering the feasibility of implementing the programme of Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA), founded by former president Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, which proposes that urban infrastructure and services be provided in rural hubs to create economic opportunities outside cities.

As we know, the integrated development of rural areas is one of the abiding tasks before the Government of India. The National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of the Central government reiterates the cardinal importance of villages to the overall development of the country and commits to work towards development of rural areas, which for various reasons could not keep pace with urban areas in the past. In conformity with this commitment of the Government, the Ministry of Rural Development accords foremost priority to development in rural areas and eradication of poverty and hunger from the face of rural India. A number of initiatives have been taken in the recent years for creation of social and economic infrastructure in rural areas to bridge the rural-urban divide as well as to provide food security and fulfil other basic needs of the rural populace.

To learn more about these schemes, we moved to the Gram Panchayat of Toksar and Nadia on the very first day i.e 18th January 2010. We saw that wage employment has been ensured in rural areas under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) whereas self-employment is provided under Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY). Besides generating employment these wage employment schemes also ensure creation of durable assets in rural areas. Initiatives are also taken by the Ministry to build and upgrade the basic rural infrastructure through various schemes.

Under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) construction and repairing of rural roads are taken up to ensure rural connectivity. It is expected under the scheme that an expanded and renovated rural road network will lead to an increase in rural employment opportunities, better access to regulated and fair market, better access to health, education and other public services so as to accelerate the pace of economic growth in rural areas. Similarly basic amenities for housing, drinking water and toilets, etc. are provided under Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY), Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) and Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) to enhance the welfare and well-being of the vulnerable sections of rural population. Area Development is encouraged through Watershed Programmes to check the diminishing productivity of waste land and loss of natural resources. The live implementation has been seen and studied by us, when our team moved to the Gram Panachayat Pipal Jhopa where a 405 sq. ha has been taken under watershed programme called as Hariyali 4.