The Truth About Etawah Thakurdas Bang and Suresh Ramabhai
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ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY The Truth About Etawah Thakurdas Bang and Suresh Ramabhai Introduction The population of the villages distribution of improved varieties of include in this development scheme seeds, specially of wheat and potatoes. F late the ' Etawah Project' is about 79,000 and the area 61,400 Green manure, i.e., sanai seeds, and O has been much highlighted and acres of which 45,500 acres are chemical fertilisers were also suppli put forward as an argument for start under cultivation. It is hounded on ed. Use of improved tools and im ing a number of like projects all over the south by the Jamuna, and the plements was demonstrated and fa the country. The idea has caught Tower Ganges Canal runs through cilities were provided for their em on, and under the well-known Indo- this area. ployment, wherever they were de US Agreement, the US Government The items covered by the pilot sired. The following are the results have promised aid, technical and project are agriculture, animal hus obtained in respect of wheat and financial, for producing replicas of the bandry, co-operation, irrigation and potato cultivation : Etawah Project, as a means of better ing the condition of the people- But curiously enough no unbiased and thorough appraisal of the Etawah Project has yet been published. The importance of an on-the spot study of the project cannot, therefore, be too greatly emphasised. After the fourth Sarvodaya Sam- mclan (held at Scvapuri, Banaras, on 13th, 14th and 15th April) we, to gether with five friends, went to Etawah and spent there three days, studying the project. Our party in cluded Sri Chandrika Prasad Pandey (of Go Seva Sangh, Wardha), Sri provision of agricultural implements, The project has by now covered Prabhakar V. Kanetkar (of the Kash public works and environmental sani about 92 per cent of the wheat- mir Branch of the AISA, Sri Madhu- tation, public health, employment of growing area and about 80 per cent kar Ghaudhri (a-student in the women, village participation includ of land under potatoes. It may be M.Com. class of the Govindram ing sightseeing and adult literacy. noted that the yield was specially Seksaria College, Wardha), Sri Ganga The pilot project is administered high in1950-51. The factors that Prasad Gupta, a peasant belonging to by a Governmental organisation spe contributed to tins, we were told, the Chindwara district of Madhya cially constituted for the purpose, were green manure, superphosphate Pradesh, and Smti Suman Manu- under the direction of Mr Albert fertilisers and favourable winter dhane, who with her husband runs Mayer. The executive head is the rains. the Self Sufficient Agriculture Scheme District Development Officer, aided These figures speak for themselves. at Mahakal, a village some four miles by tour gazetted officers, called De No other part of the country can from Wardha. We should, at the puty Development Officers. Under claim to have produced such results, outset, like to express our gratitude them are six Assistant Development though every State Government has to Etawah Project authorities, and Officers (or Development Inspec been spending lakhs on grow more specially to Sri Baij Nath Singh, De tors), and 24 village level workers. food campaigns. Credit for this puty Development Officer, for the The regular stalls of the provincial must, therefore. be given to Mr courtesy with which they treated us, departments of co-operation, agricul Mayer and his Staff. the facilities that they provided for ture, development, annual husban us, and the time they spent with us. dry, public health, and others, work Special Features Express mention must be made of ing in the region, are also utilised by In the 97 villages of Mahcwa Mr Albert Mayer, the leading spirit the project authorities. Rarely has area there are So co-operative behind the Etawah Project, who, in- such a high level district staff been societies, knit into seven co-operative spite of his heavy preoccupations, entrusted to any planner or expert, unions, viz., Mahewa, Lakhna, gave us some of his very valuable indigenous or foreign. This Gov Aurang, faimalpur, Lakhi, Nevvari time enabling us to discuss some as ernmental machinery was geared into Kalan and Sherpur. There are be pects of the project with him. action under the inspiring leadership tween 10 to 15 societies in each The Project of Mr Mayer who was able to free it union. The unions deal in seeds, The Etawah Project came into be from the coils of red tape and make tools, yarn and cloth, sugar, manures, ing in November 1948. It was it do something which other Gov medicines, etc. founded at the instance of Mr Albert ernmental bodies all over the coun In Mahcwa proper there is an ani Mayer, an American expert town- try have conspicuously failed to mal husbandry centre (the only one in planner, formerly of the American achieve. the area) as also a tools workshop. The Army. It covers 97 villages round Achievements work done by the animal husbandry about Mahewa, a small town about The project commenced with the centre in the area is indicated below: eighteen miles east of Etawah, the headquarters of the Etawah district. Etawah is a railway station almost midway between Allahabad and Delhi. It is surrounded by the dis tricts of Kanpur, Farrukhabad, Main- puri and Jalaun, and is a well-known centre for oil-seeds and ghee. May 31 1952 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY 450 ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY May 3, 1952 While both HS and RP inoculations lakhs of people and an annual ex have been popular with the people of penditure of about twenty-five crores the locality, the same, however, can of rupees would be needed. not be said about artificial insemina tion. Response of the People As stated earlier, a large number As regards public health, Paludrinc of peasants have made use of im pills were distributed free in the first proved seeds. But we found some year, and systematic spraying of Gam- Limitations of space do not allow of them not very happy about the mexane undertaken to render the area us to present the budget details. wheat seeds (PB/591) distributed, malaria-proof. But in order to give a rough idea of for the roti made of it did not taste the expenditure we reproduce below In the field of irrigation, three like their familiar roti. figures for the main heads of ex artesian wells and one tube well have We have already stated that the penditure (allotment) for the year been dug. Attempts have also been IIS and RP inoculations of the 1950-51: made to reclaim water-logged, usar and cattle have been popular as also ravine lands but not with much suc I. Superintendence: Rs Gamrnexane spraying. Paludrine cess. Pay of officers 24,600 pills have also been taken by the Pay of (i) ministerial people but how much benefit they As has been observed earlier, dis staff 1 2,000 have really done cannot be definite tribution of improved tools forms an (ii) technical staff 11,280 ly ascertained. About artificial in integral part of the project. Given (iii) inferior staff 9,276 semination the less said the better. below is a list of some of the imple Allowances and honoraria 25,000 Sentiment apart, artificial insemina ments distributed together with their Contingencies: tion has not always succeeded. We prices: (i) recurring 5,200 saw one such and were taken aback Rs (ii) non-recurring 1,115 by the unhygienic way in which it Olpad Thresher I9O was done. Cultivator-seeder 6 5 88,471 Unfortunately, people have not Seed-drill 600 responded to co-operative societies Cultivator 85 II. Execution: or unions. They come there for Spike with harrow go Pay of establishment 44,760 seeds and other articles as they would Victory Plough 75 Allowances and honoraria 41,340 go to any other shop. The atmo Mower 1,200 Contingencies: sphere of ' co-operation ' or ' union ' (i) recurring 22,800 Forty-one adult education classes is lacking. We also found that (ii) non-recurring 30,010 are being conducted in the area. There papers and books in the unions were is also a mobile library with 50 not properly maintained. Nor were 1,38,910 chests of books. From Mahewa is audit reports paid any heed to. published a twelve-page Hindi fort We visited one women's centre III. Villagers Participation: nightly, entitled Mandir-se (annual at Puthia. The registers showed a Pay of establishment 1,920 subscription Rs 2 only) which has declining attendance. We also went Allowances and honoraria 9,540 some six to seven hundred subscrib inside a house and saw some knitting Contingencies: ers. work done by a girl of 12. How (i) recurring 11,500 we wished some such craft were (ii) non-recurring 14,400 In the area there are four women's taught in which mill-yarn or mill centres at Puthia, Marauli, Balju and goods were not used as raw material! 37,36o Bani, which arc Harijan villages. At Bui knowing as we do how helpful each centre there are three sevikas, such work is for the womenfolk, IV. Building Accommodation and one each for maternity and child wel we could not but commend the Village Planning: fare, education and literacy, and craft effort made by these ill-paid young Model houses 1,08,000 work such as weaving, knitting, etc. sevikas. Theirs is really a life of de Replanning and development dication and service. The authori At Lakhna, some 10 miles from of villages 40,000 ties would do well to meet their Mahewa, is the training centre where Sanitary wells, etc.