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The vision villages need

The vision villages need

Author: Yoginder K.  Alagh
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: September 12, 2000

In August 1991, when Gorbachev took his famous holiday on return from which he saw the demise of the Soviet Union, a successful rural trader called Vinodbhai came with some Gandhian friends, placed a lakh of rupees on the table in my flat in Ahmedabad and said that he wanted the all-round development of a village.  Ambubhai Shah, secretary of the Bhal Nalkantha Prayojak Sangh who had dedicated his life to the development of one of the most backward areas in the Western region, had a twinkle in his eye as he almost parodied me: "Alagh Saheb, you have been a member of the Planning Commission, now they want you to help in really developing a village."

Vinodbhai wanted to do something outside his `desh', so they picked out a village north of Viramgam in an area called Chuwhal, the land of 44 villages.  It is a dry and backward area and the women sing of the rain failing again and their sweethearts not coming back from the town in this `chaumasa'.  With some vicarious pleasure, the Gandhians picked out a village called Ukardi which, in Gujarati, literally means a dung-heap.  Like many apoor area, it is a beautiful part of the world.  The temple of Bouchraji is there and a little to the north is the famous sun temple of Modhera and the lovely town of Patan.  The people, the Thakores, Patels and others, are proud and handsome.  This is the land immortalised by Munshi with his legend of Andhra princess Minal Devi.

The Gandhians were basically interested in looking after the destitute and getting the Thakores off liquor.  For development, we picked on the local tank.  It was worked out that, if we deepened it by three meters, we could irrigate with limited water around a third of the cropped area.  This was a dry Jawahar Rozgar Yojana area and the tank-deepening could provide employment.  NABARD could also help.  But all this would take time.  Some of the younger farmers and others took interest.  This was a Gaikwadi area and Pratap Rao Bhonsale, a follower of Pandurang Shastri Athavale, took the lead.  As the tank was deepened a number of `oilias', slang for diesel pumps, came up.  After the tanks, smaller `talawadis', of which there were five, were taken up.  Rice yields went up and cotton areas and oilseeds were also now being grown.

They knew it was a beginning and more would be required.  In the developmental euphoria, a cooperative was formed to prepare for the Narmada waters.  The movement spread to other villages and, at a recent CII sponsored meeting on an agro-vision for Gujarat, it was announced that over 200 such farmer cooperatives to prepare for the Narmada waters were all ready and raring to go.

This euphoria is a double-edged business.  You have to constantly run up the staircase going down.  Frustration follows if the source of growth dries up.  The first problem was prices.  As the cotton marketing cooperative in Gujarat weakened and, particularly after the death of its leader Prafull Bhatt, cotton prices became a problem.  It was not just the level of prices, but the insane annual fluctuations.  When you don't have a local ginning arrangement and the turnover is too small for a proper market, the farmer is totally at the mercy of the local broker.

Dantawala's classic description of such markets over half a century ago still holds.  There is no sign of any support mechanism.  The farmers keep on dreaming of a factory or procurement.

As production expands, finance becomes a problem.  The initial irrigation wasfinanced -- from the NGOs, NABARD, employment schemes.  But then you need working capital.  The local PACs had become ineligible after the agricultural-debt-writeoff caper of the Central government.  I kept on sayingthat NABARD had the powers to restructure the system.  By the mid-nineties, the farmers had recognised the futility of writeoffs, because the credit line dried off.  They were willing to repay.  But nobody kickstarts the system again.  So the system is caught in a financial cul-de-sac.  The euphemisticallyso-called kerb market rate is 16 per cent per month if you are lucky.

The waters of the Narmada never came.  After the last drought and with a drinking water shortage again looming come December, it is becoming hard toexplain that the activists are no longer the problem.  Their ceremonial `agitation' is for the press and their global club.  If the two state governments agree, the waters will start flowing.  But the villagers of dry Gujarat don't know and their cup of sorrow brims over, giving way to anger.

Above all, there does not seem to be a credible vision of agricultural and rural development for these villages.  Gujarat is the fastest-growing industrial state, perhaps, in all of Asia.  But it is low-employment growth.  The young man whose eyes lit up when he was in school and worked out how a three-meter deepening of his village tank would irrigate 100 acres, with six inches of water in each season, has now finished his education and doesn't know what to do.  Is anybody listening out there?
 


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