People, Communities & Development in Rural Orissa: A compendium of case studies from Gram Vikas People, Communities & Development in Rural Orissa: A compendium of case studies from Gram Vikas Contributors: Anthya Madiath, Bipin Menon, Deepasri Baul, Jayapadma R.V., Jogy T Joy, Kylie Mc Evoy, Manju Verghese, Mina Mishra, Natasha Litchfield Valuable editorial support and guidance was provided by Sasha Kiessling, Liby Johnson and Joe Madiath. Design: Communique ©Gram Vikas,Orissa, 2004 Gram Vikas is a rural development organisation working with the poor and marginalised communities of Orissa since 1979, towards making sustainable improvements in the quality of life of the rural poor. www.gramvikas.org 2 People, communities and development in rural Orissa A compendium of case studies from Gram Vikas Gram Vikas, Orissa January 2004 Gram Vikas Mohuda Village, Berhampur, Orissa 760002, INDIA Phone + 91 680 2261863-74 Fax +91 680 2261862 [email protected] www.gramvikas.org 3 Table of Contents Prologue 5 Section I: When tribals awake – genesis of a people’s movement 8 1 The Kerandimals struggle 8 Section II : Improving lives and livelihoods through alternative technologies 14 2 The Biogas programme - fuelling an alternative 14 3 People thought they could not do it, until we said “Why Not?” 17 Section III : A silent revolution - where women take the lead 19 4 Women’s Commitment – A road to rural prosperity 19 5 Alcohol turns sour in Amthaguda… 20 6 A bloodless revolution, but with lots of guts! 20 7 Spiraling aspirations of adivasi women 21 Section IV: Educating the next generation - building a new future 23 8 Gram Vikas Residential Schools 23 9 The stories of Rajendra and Ujjala 24 Section V: Spurring collective action through water and sanitation 26 10 Unleashing social change 26 11 An example of collective effort 28 12 A Panchayat with a difference 29 13 Leading the way to sustainable development 30 Section VI: Managing natural resources – a road to sustainability 32 14 Community driven development 32 15 Reaping the fruits of labour 33 16 Obolonga’s success story 34 Epilogue 35 Glossary 36 4 Prologue This compendium of case studies stems from a out of the ‘orbit of poverty’ and launch into a spiral- desire to share some of our expereinces in the de- ling process of sustainable and self-perpetuating velopment journey with a wider audience. While development. we have regularly shared our work through Annu- Another key aspect of our work is ‘inclusion’ of all al Reports, these do little justice to the dynamic and creation of a level playing field for develop- processes that underline our work. Through these ment processes to take off. This reflects in our stories of people and communities, we attempt to engagement with ‘entire communities’ as a means present a more human face of our work. of bringing about collective and individual gains. It At the root, we are dealing with people, and at- is common knowledge that a majority of the fruits tempting to bring about changes in their quality of development initiatives are cornered by the of life. This change is measured in very tangible more enterprising among the poor. The 10-25% terms, at the same time has a very ephemeral at the margins get little or no benefits from these quality. Our work involves realising these changes schemes and projects. Gender, caste and class through creating ‘critical consciousness’ and en- differences typically define contours of ‘exclusion’. gendering ‘self-reliance’ and ‘self-esteem’ among This has happened over such a long time that the the people we engage with. The processes of such ‘excluded’ people have internalised a low image of change are slow and often imperceptible, requiring themselves and almost believe and behave as if enormous amounts of patience, at the same time they were sub-human. We believe that any devel- caution, in that success does not get measured opment effort in a village has to be one of 100% by the number of toilets built, but by the change in social inclusion, taking special care to consciously people’s attitudes in the process. create spaces and nurture confidence of the previ- ously excluded. The tangibles matter, ofcourse - safe water, disas- ter-proof housing, forests and plantations, schools We have tried through our work to demonstrate in- and medical facilities, etc. These are essential in- novative, context specific and alternate models of gredients to achieve a ‘threshold level of quality of development - in social mobilisation, resource mo- life’ and bring about a sense of dignity among the bilisation, environment management, appropriate people we work with. Dignity – in our view - is a technology, habitat development, education, etc. key constituent of human well-being. The realisa- Many of these have been demonstrated on a scale tion of ‘dignity’ and ‘self-worth’ is essential to spin which matters and have emerged as replicable 5 models of development, based on community ac- alcoholism is a social problem which afflicts many tion, social and gender equity. In a small measure, rural communities, and is often the first hurdle in we can also claim that we have influenced policy gaining total community participation. Realising and programme design of mainstream government the benefits of development, women in many vil- sponsored interventions. Above all we believe we lages have come together to fight this problem. are playing a key role in instilling among communi- The taste of success has given them the courage ties a high level of initiative and confidence to engi- to continue their involvement in community devel- neer a process of functional grassroots democracy opment. It has been our experience that the pro- through active people’s self-governing institutions. cess of social change unleashed in rural commu- nities is often more dramatic where women take The case studies in this compendium reflect some the lead. of these aspects and aspirations. They are ar- ranged into six sections, loosely demarcated by The fourth section traces Gram Vikas’ work in ed- differences in focus of work. The case study of the ucation. Starting with the first school in 1992, the Kerandimals movement in the first section takes four residential schools for adivasi children have us back to the genesis of Gram Vikas in the late emerged as a core component of our work. The 70’s. Reading it today and relating it with the pres- students that have passed out of our schools have ent context of the communities involved, we notice filtered back to their communities, and we are be- that there have been many positive strides. There ginning to see some of them emerge as youth lead- will always be an element of subjectivity in assess- ers. Since 1998, when the first students graduat- ing what part of these changes are driven by their ed from Gram Vikas High School, over 65 children asociation with Gram Vikas. However, the case have stepped out of the portals with a High School study at its core remains relevant in setting out the certificate. Fifteen of them have received appoint- challenges in working with adivasi communities ment as Shiksha Sahayaks from the government. and Gram Vikas’ responses and interventions. This has spurred greater interest for education among the adivasi populations. Several children The second section relates to interventions in re- are continuing their undergraduate studies as well. newable enregy and alternative technologies. Once known as a ‘biogas organisation’, promotion of bio- The fifth section relates to the current spearhead gas came to dominate our work and consiousness intervention of Gram Vikas, innocuously termed for over a decade from 1984-1994. Making tech- RHEP. The Rural Health and Environment Pro- nologies work for poor communities, and using it gramme (RHEP) was born in the early 90’s from a positively to imrpove their lives and livelihoods, has distillation of our experiences and learnings over been a passion with Gram Vikas. We believe that fifteen years in devepment. Now a decade old, the technologies, demystified and applied on a large programme continues to evolve even today. The scale, are a key ingredient to improving ‘quality of crux of the case studies reflects how something life’. The case study of the biogas programme il- as basic as drinking water and sanitation is able to lustrates this. Technologies can also be used to coalesce and bind divergent strands within com- strengthen people’s livelihoods. Gram Vikas trans- munities and create new relationship dynamics be- ferred the Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln technology to tween men-women, different sections of the com- a traditional brick making community in Bolangir, munities, and triggers the aspirations and dreams who migrated each year for work and for surviv- of ‘poor’ people. al. The villagers in Asuramunda demonstrate how Section six relates to another key facet of Gram Vi- ‘sellers of labour’ can become ‘owners of capital’. kas’ work – livelihoods, linked to natural resource Today they are an inspiration for other similar com- management. Interventions in effective manage- munities. ment of land, water and forests have been core to The third section focuses on how women have tak- efforts in establishing sustainable and secure live- en the lead to spearhead development processes, lihoods. The decade from 1985 marked a period and how they have gradually emerged from behind of large scale social forestry in collaboration with closed doors to create their own spaces within the National Wasteland Development Board. We their households and communities. Widespread have worked in land development, water harvest- ing, improvements in agriculture, promotion of hor- Director, Gram Vikas, from a document titled ‘..And ticulture, etc. One of the biggest challenges in our what exactly is Gram Vikas (1981)’ - “We perceive work has been in countering the practise of shifting that a lot of curiosity is aroused and many an eye- cultivation on hill slopes.