Recently few days back I was with a group of students from KIIT University studying in School of Rural Management (SRM). Being a visiting faculty to this institute, I was involved in teaching them on Patrticipatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) along with other regualr faculties suc as Dr. Jyotirmayee Acharaya, Dr. Braja Sundar Mishra, Dr. Kalika Mohapatra, Dr Ravindra Vimla, Dr. Achari, Dr. Soumya and other.
As per the schedule I tried to orient the students on PRA tools and practice in class room and then arrangement was made by SRM all tha 47 students and some faculties went to a field of Gram Vikas a famous NGO having office at Mahuda in Ganjam District. The villages where the practical tools testing and practices were in hilly terrains and road connectivity was very poor. It was observed that maximum land under cropping are under indigenous rice or maize. Only a few number of high yield varieties could reach these villages. Very rarely Govt. extension workers reach these places. The frequency of their reaching in these type of villages is counted on years. But their abscence has made Gram Vikas to serve the underserved tribes for last so many decades.
Gram Vikash has done tremendous water and sanitation work where water is 24hours supply under gravity irrigation. People have unique practices of forest conservation although they mostly depend on sale of fuel wood. Unfortunately in past some wood mafia had been the major players who cut down many trees. Due to awareness raised by Gram Vikas there has been tremendous support to forest conservation. Lantena camera and other alien plant secies are the menace for the forest growth. Forest is maintained and harvested produces are managed in a very harmonious manner without affecting the growth of forest. The livelihood practices from forest is usually round the year activity for the house hold. They have very less arable land on which the population cannot depend. They have no land entitlement too. That causes a major bottleneck in improving the livelihood condition too. Students of SRM could identify that in this tribal dominated region gender disparity is less. Men also support here in cooking and household jobs. But liquor addiction among men is the major bottleneck towards food security at household level. Secondly attempt by Gram Vikas towards literacy among children could not go long because of non availability of teachers and support of Govt and donors. Major bottleneck is the poor road connectivity. Lack of good road has resulted with no or low connectivity with educational institutions, health services, market and so on. Usually these people have some dryland farming practices . But the land under cropping is also very much low. They usually go for Bajara and Maize for the dryland farming under sifting cultivation. Under this practice the land occupied is very low. Therefore it does not affect forest cover and its growth too. The major problem of lack of owand no cost agri- science awareness, skill and use of primitive skill and practices for agriculture need more attnetion. Although the attention of people went for irrigated cropping pattern the study shows that the irrigation led agriculture will not be economical for them. They should concentrate on dry land farming with gravity irrigation, watershed area maintenance on the hills, more forest coverage and horticultural activities along with alternative energy programmes.Accoding road connectivity, programmes, finance absorption ability and social security measures should be enhanced and looked in.
Other major problems are related to diseases in this region. Malaria is the major problem here. It shows that there is a need of intensified intervention which can eradicate this problem. Anopheles breeds on slow flowing streams. If the stream remains clean and more water flows on this the breeding place for this particular mosquito will be very much low. Therefore that will minimise the occurrences of malaria. In addition to this a drive to cure the patients and make them parasite free human beings there has to be a drive made in a sincere manner. The streams can be charged with scientific and technological measures which will ensure 24X7 water supplies for drinking, cattle and irrigation. It can also ensure drinking water for animals in the forest. Therefore a major project may be designed by Gram Vikas to strengthen the streams and recharge those with more quantity of water through soil conservation, plantation, staggered pits in forest, water conservation measures and so on.
There has been skin diseases, a menance which spreadsfor several months which also affects the labor and economy in adverse manner. There should be some attention to this. Women and children severly suffer from this. Solar water heaters in winter season may solve this problem to some extent. But there should be good awareness practices on this. Usually after labour work in winter season people avoid washing and cleaning for low degree temperature in this hilly region and that leads to skin infections. Solar heaters can solve the problem to a great extent. Similarly better technological addition to existing food processing activities can also lead to minimising the food waste in the region, that will add to food security in major way.
Many of the social and govermental social security measures are not reaching the people in this type of locations in Orissa. They are not aware of the entitlements. Related to entitlements there should be wall paintings in public places. They are neither aware of Forest Act 2006 nor they have been communicated by Govt employees. Forest Department anticipates troubles of communicating the Act to people because it will make people to demand permanent land settlement for their family.
Tools used by students were social map, resource maps, matrix, ven diagram, chapati diagram, gender clock, seasonal maps, historical transect, focus group discussion, structured questionnaires etc. In the study it was found that the power dynamics studied first time through PRA brought so many features of rural development and mainstreaming of different population in the location. It is needless to say here that without the understanding of existing power dynamics strategy or projects for the development of the communities will not result with a successful implementation of different envisioned activities. Therefore all the students were trained efficiently to look into existing power dynamics in the community that binds them with some kind stressful or burdening obligations which mars the development efforts.
Bibhu Prasad Mohanty, 20th Dec 2009
