Lot of questions..No answers...

" Hum ko kya milega aapko hamare bare mein bathake?" A question that we encountered in different forms at all the villages we visited. And the answer would always be the same " Hamari tho koshish hain usse jyada hum bhi kuch nahi kar sakthe hain"..

Covering deprivation trip has been one of the toughest trips that i would have ever been to in my life..reading about P.Sainath's articles on rural india and deprivation is different and having a first hand experience to that sort of deprivation was a revelation of sorts..it was depressing, frustrating and shocking..all at the same time..

"Log aathe hain, hamari kahani likthe hain..tv camera lathe hain...shoot karthe hain aur jathe hain, lekin hamare liye kuch nahi hotha hain"..these are people who are not new to cameras, to journalists walking up to them, intruding into their lives..asking them about that one day when his/her brother decided to drink pesticide and die...a day and incident they would want to forget...we go there and make them relive their pain...and its a pain that we can't decrease...

"Aap government ke officer ho kya? Survey kar rahe hoon kya?" These are questions asked with a hope...but these are villagers who haven't seen one government official or official from the agriculture department in spite of the mass suicides that have occured in this region... " PM aaya or gaya..hamare liye kuch nahi hua" - no these are not a bunch of people who are frustrated or who are "cribbing"..these are farmers who work harder than any other person in our country and are not given the price they truly deserve...

" Kya aap shahar ke log apne road banayenge?" This was a question that i thought was very valid...was asked in response to my question regarding the employment guarantee scheme...Why should we villagers lay our own roads and dig our own wells? Will the city dwellers do that?
Valid question..again no answer...

Vandana, Geeta, Babu Rao...some of the people i will never forget in my life...Geeta's eyes are eyes of a defeated human being...of a fight long lost.....Eyes i will never forget... Eyes that will probably haunt me...

Here we are cribbing when the power goes off for an hour...here are these people who are ecstatic if their village has power for an hour...biggest irony being that Vidarbha generates most of the electricity but has none for itself.... Here we are fighting to enroll our kids in "international schools", and here is the other India that is struggling to keep its kids in school... here we are cribbing about increased price of vegetables...and here is the other India..that is sustaining itself on bare minimum... Here we are talking about IT corridors, Hi-tech cities, spending crores on making the connectivity within our cities better...and here is the other India, where villages are unapproachable...where women still give birth on the road...where people die on the way to the Primary health care center...

"Will you city dwellers sacrifice the electricity for us villagers? No you wont...but we do..for you..."

Lot of questions were asked...i had no answer for any of them...

How many times will a man turn his head and pretend that he cannot see

This is an editorial written by my colleague and good friend James Hardy on the role of a journalist while covering rural affairs.

“What will you people do?” The words of a widow who had seen countless journalists come and go but her situation remained the same. What exactly is a journalist supposed to do in the face of such overwhelming poverty and injustice? Where does he/she draw the line between becoming a voyeur and a sympathetic listener?

One of the unwritten rules of journalism is to keep oneself in the background. One should never get involved in one’s subject. A journalist is there for a job and after his job is done he/ she has to withdraw. But when faced with such stark reality one has no choice but to get involved. At this point it is no longer a question of one’s profession but rather one’s humanity.

Journalists are better suited for this task because they are aware. They can see beyond the superficial reality that is presented to the world. Their experience and knowledge tell them that there is another world out there that only they can see. That is one of the great advantages of this profession. To borrow a line from spiderman: with great power comes great responsibility. A journalist might even call oneself a prophet because he shows the world what it cannot see or rather what it chooses not to see.

But then the question lingers: how does one go about this overwhelming task? How can we make a difference? It does not mean that one should leave everything that he does and head for the rural areas hoping to change the world at the first instance. Only people who can afford to forsake everything can do this. This is because there is no turning back on this idea. But there are also other ways to make a difference. As Milton said in ‘On his blindness’: They also serve who only stand and waite.

A journalist’s greatest weapon is his pen. His / her stories are capable of influencing multitudes of people. A politician can speak to the people and influence them. But as time goes by his voice will deteriorate and he will not remain the effective speaker that he was. A journalist however will remain the same for the rest of his life because his pen will forever remain the same.

The first step is awareness. The people who live in their tall ivory towers have no idea how the rest of humanity lives. It is not true that they do not want to know but rather that they cannot know because no one tells them. Ultimately the power lies with the people. So the people should be made to understand that for every comfort that they seek there is somebody who goes without the basic necessities of life.

And this is what the journalist can do.

Changing Crop Patterns in Vidarbha... decline of white gold...

Mohan Halule is a soybean farmer in the village of Dorli, in Wardha district of Maharasthra. Until two years ago, he was cultivating cotton. With falling prices and increasing costs of production forced him to shift to soybean cultivation. This is the story of changing crop patterns in the cotton belt of India. Most farmers are shifting to soybean; currently 70 per cent of farmers in this region have shifted to this crop. And 70 per cent is not a small figure. Thanks to the volatile markets and withdrawing government support, this seems the most feasible thing for these farmers.

But how long can the farmers sustain upon this crop? According to Mr. Vijay Jawandia, member of Shetkari Sangathan, soybean is a very risky crop and is rain dependent. Also considering the fact that it is less labour intensive, the need for agricultural labour too has dropped leaving many landless farmers jobless. He further pointed out that the soybean area would only increase with passing years as there is a greater demand for soybeans in the global market for a number of factors. This increase will however come with risks he said.

But for many farmers like Neelkanta Ugal of Dorli, soybean is but a natural choice for cultivation, because of its price in the market. The current price for soybean is Rs 2050 per quintal, while the input cost is Rs 3000 per acre. Comparatively, cotton fetches anywhere between Rs 2000-2600 per quintal, but with higher input costs of Rs 6000 per acre. The yield of soybean is higher compared to cotton; hence the cotton farmers have no profit margin after the sale. Says Neelkanta, “At least we have some profit through soyabean. Cotton is no more profitable”

Also soybean is an early maturing crop, i.e. it is on fields only for three months unlike cotton which is on fields till March, thereby giving the farmers scope to go in for a second crop, with minimum investments. Many farmers like Neelkanta Ugal, often go in for planting pulses or sugarcane as a second crop.

According to a report by Jaideep Hardikar, DNA correspondent, this year alone, the area under soybean has increased to over 17-lakh hectare, up from 15-lakh hectare last year in Vidarbha at the cost of cotton acreage that has dipped to 14-lakh hectare, much below its annual average of 17-lakh hectare.

The farmers are tempted to sow this cash crop as the returns are any day higher compared to that of cotton. However, Jawandia begs to differ. He feels that Indian agriculture depends too much on the whims of the international market. “The government should encourage the farmers to go back to their original way of farming, by giving incentives to those who plant food crops.” Jowar is a staple food of this region, however the price that jowar gets in the market has not changed since ’95.

Soybean cultivation might be matching the cotton cultivation, but it certainly is a short term solution. Instead, the government can encourage the cultivation of traditional oil seeds like mustard and sunflower, thereby decreasing the dependency of the farmers on cotton. Price stability is however the key factor here, according to Kishore Tiwari, head of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti. “The government has to stabilise the crop prices as they are right now entirely dependent on the volatile markets and there is no guarantee that these prices will hold good in the future”.Whatever is the market dynamics, for these farmers it’s a case of ‘making hay while the sun shines.’

Health is Wealth- Oh Yes..For the Private Hospitals!!

“If we are unwell, we just wait for death to come and take us”- that’s what a villager had to say in Waifad, a few kilometres away from the town of Wardha. Many in this region of Vidarbha have simply stopped seeking medical assistance as they can no longer afford health care.

Health, according to Mr. Kishore Tiwari, Head of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti is the second fastest component of rural family debt.

The adage that Health is Wealth certainly doesn’t apply in this region of Maharashtra, but surely can be applied to the private health care institutions which are minting money. Says Saritha of Waifad village of the same district, “ If we fall ill, we are forced to go to the private hospitals where we are asked to undergo costly tests and we are in no position to afford this”.

Government apathy is very evident in this region. The lack of facilities in the Primary Health Care center at these villages is leaving the villagers at the mercy of the private nursing homes. The Primary Health Care Center in Waifad has limited resources. There is just one doctor in the PHC, with the other position lying vacant since the time the PHC has been set up. According to Dr. Shwetha Talwar, Medical officer (MO) at this PHC, the government doesn’t even attempt to fill up the vacant posts of an Assistant Medical Officer (AMO) and sanitary workers. The PHC lacks all the basic facilities, with medicines being sent to the center only once a month or sometimes once in two months. There is no stock of anti-rabies vaccination and anti-venom here and the village has reported 4 snake bite fatalities in 2 months. Fatalities that could be avoided. Maternal health care is not given priority and often women give birth in their homes with the help of midwives because of the absence of the doctor in the village. “My daughter died due to excessive bleeding during child birth. She could have been saved if only the doctor had been at the PHC” says Chardi another farmer.

Last year, thousands of farmers in Vidarbha had to borrow money from private lenders or mortgage land to doctors due to an outbreak of chikun gunya. And the doctor denied any outbreak of chikun gunya in this village.

In Waifad, Gopal Yadav has mortgaged his already scarce land to pay off hospital bills. “A day in a private hospital in Wardha cost me Rs 40,000. I was made to undergo all kinds of tests without being informed of the cost”. He had to let go of 9 acres of land for repaying this bill. When asked why he didn’t go to the civil hospital, he says he was referred to the civil hospital that again referred him to a private hospital. Dr. Shwetha Talwar confirmed this statement by saying that the civil hospital is not equipped enough to handle serious health issues.

Another farmer Vishwanath Jade spent close to Rs 70,000 when he had to undergo a spinal operation. His eight member family depending on just 4 acres of land was sent into a deep economic crisis. He has his own provision store in the village and is still in the process of repaying the debt.

The situation is much the same in every village. In Bhudumri, in Yavatmal District, the nearest PHC is 12 kilometres away. This village hardly has any public transport reaching it and villagers have to walk for a distance of 4-5 kilometres to reach the nearest main road to access transport. Often, it’s the ‘anganwadi’ workers and midwives in case of deliveries who come to rescue of the women in these villages. According to the villagers at Bhudumri, a Help Age India van comes every 15 days with a doctor and who at the nominal cost of Rs 2 dispenses his service. In Bhutaipor, a tribal settlement of the Kollam tribe, there are no health care facilities and the nearest PHC is again a few kilometres away. What worsens the absence of health care facility is the complete lack of connectivity of this settlement with the outside world. There are no roads and often the ill die on their way to the hospital and women deliver on the roads.

Each of Vidarbha's 11 districts has a government hospital, and every tehsil, a rural hospital, but most of them are ill-equipped. Besides, the region has a network of close to 400 PHCs, but given the poor efficiency at these primary referral centres, the patients opt for private health care. Many of those PHCs are dysfunctional, or have no doctors, as a result of which the patients often travel to cities like Nagpur for treatment, even if it comes at a premium.

India is considered as one of the hubs for “medical tourism”. And this is perhaps the biggest irony of all. The disparities are only widening between the urban and the rural, with the government turning a blind eye to those in need.

Vijay Jawandia- Robin Hood of Farmers

Vijay Jawandhia (60) has been a farmer activist for over 36 years. He heads the most known among farmers’ organisation, the Shetkari Sanghatana of Maharashtra. The thousands of farmer suicides across the country, he says are a direct result of the liberalisation and globalisation policies adopted by the country and because of the removal of subsidies for farmers under the WTO rules, thereby impoverishing the farmers’ households.

Vijay Jawandia was born and brought up in the city of Nagpur. Born in a family of zamindars, he led a comfortable life. His maternal grandfather was a rich trader and paternal grandfather a zamindar. He would visit the village of Waifad where his grandfather owned close to 1300 acres of land during his summer vacation. He discontinued his MSc in 1969 to return to farming. His land hardly sustains his family, but has given him a cause to fight for farmers’ rights.

He spoke to D.V.Padma Priya, on the agrarian crisis that Vidarbha has been plunged into.

What do you think are the reasons for the present agricultural crisis?

Farmers’ suicides began only in 1994 when the GATT was dissolved and replaced by the WTO. Before liberalisation when crops failed prices rose in the market but this cushion of market price was removed by cheap imports. Farmers’ suicides are not just in Vidarbha or only by cotton farmers. Farmers in plantations in Kerala are also committing suicides. So also in Punjab, where every inch of land is irrigated. It is impossible to make a living by agriculture in our country now. The input costs have increased and the costs of living too. Therefore, indebtedness is also increasing.

What is the role of the State in the present scenario?
As the food prices in the international market go up, so does the price of fertilisers. Maharashtra was the only state which had a Cotton Monopoly Procurement Scheme. This was removed in the year 2004. Till then farmers were given advance bonus (the price given before you grow the actual crop).This too was removed because of pressure from external forces. Another problem is that agriculture is a state subject but all the policies being taken are at the centre. This too is creating confusion as the centre allocates funds for schemes according to its whims. The role of State is very important for a farmer. Agriculture cannot sustain without the support of the government. When the government can afford to give heavy subsidies for urbanisation and I.T sectors, why can’t it give subsidies to farmers? Also there is no clarity regarding the calculation of the Minimum Support Price.

How effective do you think is the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act?

The NREGA policy is very necessary and it should be implemented for boosting agriculture and not for eliminating it. The government has to include farming activities under NREGA thereby ensuring employment for small farmers every year in the village. What work will be available in village under the present NREGA? With rising aspirations, the village youth is not willing to lay roads for their own village. Are the people in the city laying their own roads?

What is your opinion on the on going controversy over the Special Economic Zones (SEZs)?
As long as the farmers are compensated according to the market price I don’t see any problem with the SEZs’. The Land Acquisition Act should not be used to acquire land from the powerless farmers. Also the market value given should be according to the value after the completion of the project, i.e give the farmers an extra 20% on the existing market price. Also the industries that come up here should give employment guarantee to the villagers.

What are the changes in policies you want to see?
Food grains are very crucial. And the food producers have to live in this inflationary economy. We should not forget this. They too require the minimum cost to live and they should get wages according to the work. The government should give prices according to the production and there has to be an increase in subsidies on food grains to be given to the poor, not decrease price to be given to the producer. Also how right is it to support mechanisation of labor by the government? In a country like ours, where there is abundant supply of human labor, the policy should support human labor and animal power. Instead of subsidising tractors, subside bullock carts. Also the government needs to think about the non-irrigated farmers and those who are dependent on one crop land. Most of the present subsidies are for the irrigated farmers. The government should arrange for non-interest loans for the non irrigated farmers.

Will a separate statehood for Vidarbha ease the problems of the farmers?
A separate state of Vidarbha would certainly ease the problems of the farmers. Electricity is generated in this region in surplus but more than 50% of the power goes to Western Maharashtra ie Pune and Nagpur. This region has assured rainfall. However most of the major irrigation projects are in Western Maharashtra with the excuse that it is a drought prone region. The leadership of Vidarbha has always deceived the people of Vidarbha. The day Telangana gets separate statehood, so will Vidarbha.

Interview to be continued...

@ Waifad, Wardha-Health at Waifad.

The first village we visited was Waifed in the Wardha district of this region. We reached Waifed around 11 am when a video conference was being carried out at the Village Resource Center. The Village Resource Center or VRC as it is generally called is maintained by the MSSRF in some villages across the country. The farmers are given guidance on new schemes, seeds and other inputs here. The First National Virtual Congress of Mahila Kissan was being carried out at the same time. We met Mr Vijay Jhawandia, a member of the Shetgari Sanghatan who has been constantly fighting to bring about a change in the government policy to help reduce the agrarian crisis. Waifed is a big village with a population of around 4000+ and has one Primary Health Care Center. I was primarily looking into the condition of the PHC in all the villages i covered. The first stop was Waifed. The PHC of Waifed has just one MO, Dr Shwetha Talwar. Essentially a PHC should have 2 MO's, ANM's and sanitary workers. But apart from the presence of one doc and an attendant, this PHC has all the other positions vacant. This PHC is at the top of 7 other sub-centers. According to the doctor, the PHC has 76000 people under it with very very limited resources. The center lacked in Anti-rabies and Anti-venom. Also according to the villagers, the doctor is restricted to treating only emergency cases and is in no state to carry out deliveries etc especially if a woman gets into labour in the night. The nearest hospital to waifed is in Sevagram where we stayed, which is 30-45 minutes drive. One positive thing that i noticed in every village i covered is that the pulse polio drive was being carried out effectively however remote the village might be.
Waifed reports high number of chikungunya, malaria and filariasis cases. The village lacks basic sanitation facilities. Open drains are a feature of this village. There are no community toilets and many villagers defecate in the open. The situation only worsens in the rainy season when mosquitoes create a havoc in the villages.

Health is the second largest reason for the farmers to be debt-ridden. With no proper health care facilities reaching them, the villagers are forced to go to a private doctor and spend a lot of on health. We have to remember that a farmer is paralyzed economically if his health is hit.
The PHC in waifed gets medicines just once a month and depends on the whims of the higher ups. According to the Doctor and other sources, the water in the village has been tested and has high levels of flouride and e-coli. Also there are many cases of women suffering from Sickle-cell anemia here who are expected to buy the costly medicines. Most villagers due to the lack of proper health facilites fall back on the traditional doctors or "quacks"
There was a time when a villager treated the doctor as God, but in today's day and age where corruption has reached every level from the Tahsildar to the DMO, it is not a suprise that doctors are looked at with suspicions, PHC's are not trusted places anymore.
The money is available, but it doesnt reach the right people. This PHC had recieved a grant of 1.75 lakhs but the cash never reached the PHC. The cheque was recieved almost six months back..and no one knows what happened to it. The annual budget for this PHC is a meagre 5000-6000 rs--this is for a population of close to 4000 people in that one village itself.....
It is very frustrating to see villages in such dismal conditions...the disparity between the urban and the rural instead of narrowing down is only widening..and widening at a rapid pace.. at the cost of another.....Next time you throw those unused medicines in the house..think for a minute about these people who are dying coz of lack of health facilities and donate those medicines to the nearest Help Age India center...In one village i had been too..Bhudumri, the villagers depended entirely on a mobile HelpAge India unit which came to their village every 15 days to treat and give medicines...

Region of Vidarbha

Vidarbha is the eastern region of Maharashtra state made up of Nagpur Division and Amravati Division. It occupies 31.6% of total area and holds 21.3% of total population of Maharashtra^[3]. It borders the state of Madhya Pradesh to north, Chattisgarh to east, Andra Pradesh to south and Marathwada and Khandesh regions of Maharashtra to west. Situated in central India Vidarbha has its own rich cultural and historical background distinct from rest of Maharashtra. The region is famous for growing oranges and cotton. Throughout its history Vidarbha has remained much calm during the communal troubles than rest of India but it is plagued very much by poverty ^[4] and malnutrition ^[5]. It is less economically prosperous compared to the rest of Maharashtra.^[6]

The largest town in Vidarbha is Nagpur. A majority of Vidarbhians speak Marathi language. In recent times there have been calls for separate state of Vidarbha.

Source: Wikipedia

Covering Deprivation

This blog is a result of a 7-day visit to the suicide capital of India- Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. This region has reported thousands of farmer suicides and suicides still continue. Covering deprivation is a part of my course at Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. I, along with 9 other classmates and a professor Mahalakshmi Jayaram visited a couple of villages in the Wardha district and Yavatmal district, spoke to lot of farmers and met a couple of widows. This trip has been an eye-opener for most of us and the apathy of the government is but apparent. It is shocking to see the farmer who provides food for us is starving and is constantly pushed to the edge.
I will write a series of posts...village wise and try and put in words, all that we encountered there...apart from posting some related articles and links. Will also put up some pics. This blog is my attempt to reach out to my fellow Indians out there, who are but oblivious to the real world out there..Its easy for us urban Indians who have had access to everything from electricity to education to crib for IT corridors and golden quadrilaterals..and feel good when the rupee strengthens..but we have to also realise that all this is happening at a cost...often at the cost of those millions living in the rural part of our paradoxical country..

Hope to get a good response...or atleast reach out to some people!!