I would like to share some of my experiences with my field work village Som in Udaipur District. For the sake of interest and clarity am presenting it as a timeline. (therefore it is going to look a bit longish ;)
Year 2003 - myself and batchmate Bhagirath Iyer got assigned to this large and very scenic village called Som. 8 other batchmates were assigned 4 other villages in the same taluka Jhadol, fondly called the kashmir of rajasthan nested in the aravallis.
We were asked to prepare a village development plan as part of our RAC and I was asked to study the forest development initiatives in the village. My host was a political leader and part of a federation of forest protection committees called the Van Utthan Sangh.
Fieldwork - Jan 2003 - I found that quite a number of programmes had been implemented with varying degrees of success. However the institution of forest protection committee was dysfunctional. An election was held for the same just before we were leaving. A survey of some forest land for afforestation was also done by Seva Mandir.
Oct 2004 - I joined Seva Mandir as an employee and visited the village again. Saw that the village was trying to submit a microplan for plantation on 50 hectares of forest land earlier surveyed. This became my first assignment.
2005 - Congress government at the centre brought the Forest Rights Act 2005 bill. To put up our stand on it, we decided to carry on a stay on encroachments on forest land. I chose to study 1400 hectares of som because of my familiarity with it. To my surprise out of about 200 hectares of disputed land, only 30-40 hectares was actually in legal records on paper though the disputes/encroachments were growing by the day.
2006 - we submitted the microplan to the forest department but the forest department kept it pending for 2 agonising years before sanctioning it mainly because of the disputes on forest land.
2006 - Forest rights act passed and the rules notified.
2008 - Plantation was done on the 65 hectares patch and the villagers decided to take up another 50 hectares for afforestation.
2008 - NREGS came into being
2009 - Work on lift irrigation system was done under world food programme as prescribed in the microplan leading to increase in irrigated area for a few farmers. The villagers also decided to trade in NTFPs like Mahua through their Forest Protection Committee. However this lost steam later on as the leadership got more involved with the NREGS and other labor related schemes.
2010 - Another study was conducted on the operationalisation of forest rights act and it was decided to also file claims for community forest rights. Quite a number of forest disputes were settled.
2010 - my host became member of the zilla parishad and managed to also install a flour mill at his home.
2010 - There were evidences of facitonism in the village resulting in deadlock over the afforestation efforts. However these were resolved after a number of meetings and they submitted another proposal to the forest department soon.
2011 - The Van Utthan Sangh also formed eco-development committees in the nearby Phulwari ki naal sanctuary. The leader of the federation nanalal was also awarded the Maharana Mewar Foundation award for it.
2012 - The same federation got UNDP biodiversity award for its work on Community Forest Rights. However the community forest right claims are in various stages of progress.
I had the good fortune of witnessing or being associated in some ways with most of these projects in this village and the nearby fieldwork villages of my batchmates. There were both successful and unsuccessful cases of development interventions in those. The performance kept on changing over a period of time based on the leadership dynamics and conflicts in the villages.
I kept being asked about the whereabouts of my friends. (a few of them like monika gupta, karuna sharma, sunil nepak) also worked with Seva Mandir for long periods of time and am sure would have better stories to share.
The point I am trying to make is that most NGOs have a set of programmes which are focussed in some intensive villages where village leadership and community cohesion is evident. Such villages go on to become show-piece villages and islands of excellence.
With the advent of many right based schemes like NREGS, NRLM etc. now the need of the hour is to dove-tail such funds on a concentrated basis through may be village level land-use plans, watershed plans etc. and keep a track of development efforts over an extended period of time. I remember Prof Ballabh saying that he visits his lift irrigation study villages every 10 years !!!
Would love to hear more such stories from fellow development workers !
