Community Organising

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    Community Organising & Preparing an Inception Report, DPS 1

    Neelabh Kumar, PDM 81 | P a g e

    TATA-DHAN ACADEMY, MADURAI

    ContentsAcknowledgement............................................................................................................... 3Chapter 1

    .............................................................................................................................. 4Introduction & Research Design ....................................................................................... 4

    Community Organising ................................................................................................... 4Objective of the Study .................................................................................................... 5Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 6

    Chapter 2............................................................................................................................ 11Background of Location .................................................................................................... 11

    District Introduction ...................................................................................................... 11Aaragundi Panchayat Introduction ............................................................................. 12

    Chapter 3............................................................................................................................ 14Social Dynamics ................................................................................................................. 14

    Family Structure............................................................................................................. 14Social Control ................................................................................................................. 14Marriage .......................................................................................................................... 15Caste Composition ......................................................................................................... 15Source: Panchayat Office ............................................................................................. 16Food ................................................................................................................................. 16Clothes............................................................................................................................. 16Language ........................................................................................................................ 17Education ........................................................................................................................ 17Health .............................................................................................................................. 18PDS .................................................................................................................................. 19House Type..................................................................................................................... 20

    Chapter 4............................................................................................................................ 22Economic Analysis ............................................................................................................. 22

    Sources of Credit ........................................................................................................... 22Market Structure ............................................................................................................ 23Major Occupations ......................................................................................................... 23

    Chapter 5............................................................................................................................ 27Development Initiatives ................................................................................................... 27Chapter 6............................................................................................................................ 30Poverty Dynamics .............................................................................................................. 30

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    TATA-DHAN ACADEMY, MADURAI

    Chapter 7............................................................................................................................ 34Development Issues.......................................................................................................... 34Chapter 8............................................................................................................................ 37Need Assessment on Microfinance ................................................................................. 37Chapter 9............................................................................................................................ 40Process Documentation .................................................................................................... 40

    Strategies and Approaches .......................................................................................... 40Formation of Kalanjiam Groups in Jariyang Village (Suraj Kalanjiam & SantoshiKalanjiam)....................................................................................................................... 45Formation of Kalanjiam Groups in Theki Village (Samraat Kalanjiam & SharnaShakti Kalanjiam)........................................................................................................... 47Formation of Kalanjiam Groups in Pakrar Village (Anjani Kalanjiam & Gyan Uday

    Kalanjiam & Shaktimaan Kalanjiam)........................................................................... 49ANNEXURE ......................................................................................................................... 53

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    Community Organising & Preparing an Inception Report, DPS 1

    Neelabh Kumar, PDM 83 | P a g e

    TATA-DHAN ACADEMY, MADURAI

    Acknowledgement

    This is coming out from my inner heart that I got an enlightened experience during my

    first development practice segment. I am very grateful to the TATA- DHAN ACADEMY and

    my DPS 1 coordinator N. Shanthi Maduresan for providing me an excellent opportunity to

    work in the tribal context of Latehar, Jharkhand.

    I would like to thank Mrs. N. Shanthi Maduresan for providing me a purposeful

    knowledge about the PALM techniques and BUD Lab 1. I would like to thank all my

    faculties for providing all the theoretical concepts, professional skills, practical based

    knowledge that had proved beneficial during my DPS 1.

    I would like to thank all my seniors of TATA-DHAN ACADEMY, Mr. Alok Dube, Mr. Alok

    Ashish and Mr. Gopi for taking pain to visit my field location and to help me in carrying

    out my fieldwork and for providing me all the key information about how to make plans

    before intervention of villages. I am grateful to all the staffs of DHAN Foundation, Latehar

    for helping me in choosing the potential panchayat and for their timely support in giving

    me all their valuable suggestions.

    I would like to thank Mr. Ananda Mahto, Mr. H.S. Ganesha, Mrs. N. Shanthi Maduresan,

    Mr. Damodar Jena and Mr. Jankiraman, Miss Sangeetha, Mrs Nirmala, Mrs A. Umarani,

    Mr. Mahentesh and Mrs. Suneetha for providing their valuable time for our presentations

    and for giving valuable suggestion on my report writing.

    Last but not the least, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all the villagers of

    Aaragundi panchayat for showing their active participation in my DPS 1 and as a goodinstructor; they had shared all their knowledge about the villages with me and make my

    DPS 1 study a grand success.

    It will be a sin for me, if I do not mention the name of Mr. Santosh Kumar who had

    helped me a lot at every step in my field study. I will remain indebted to him.

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    Community Organising & Preparing an Inception Report, DPS 1

    Neelabh Kumar, PDM 84 | P a g e

    TATA-DHAN ACADEMY, MADURAI

    Chapter 1

    Introduction & Research Design

    Community Organising

    Organising community is a dynamic and continuous process facilitating community on a

    common platform for enhancing their abilities and making them aware about their civil

    rights so that they could mobilise and utilise their resources in a sustainable manner. This

    also helps in distribution of benefits in a justifiable manner. This process is mainly meant

    to organise the people of unorganised sector for instance, rural people, labourers, slum

    dwellers and so on. In this process, the people should be sensitised to develop critical

    consciousness on their existing problems, so that they work effectively and collectively on

    their immediate and long-term goals.

    As a part of DPS 1, the community organising tool proves to be a great boon for

    completing the assigned tasks. I was placed in a location named Aaragundi panchayat,

    Latehar where the people are confined with many differences based on caste, class,

    religion, cultures and other socio-economic aspects. This challenged my ability to

    organise the community. To bring all these people on a common platform, it wasnecessary to bridge the gap and nurture a common consciousness among them for

    development. For completing this process, I followed the below mentioned approaches in

    a holistic manner:

    Identify the potential people.

    Identify the needs of the Community.

    Identify resources available in the community.

    Nurture development consciousness among community.

    Empowers the people to participate in decision-making process.

    Empowers the people to develop an action plan.

    Develop the leader among the people.

    With these approaches, I was able to complete my DPS 1 successfully giving a new

    image and regulation to the community. It gives me a lesson, that for community

    organising, the need of the community is to be prioritised. It is a people centred process,

    definitely we have to work along with the people, for the people and by the people

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    Objective of the Study

    To frame an inception document for the panchayat

    Preparing an inception document is the primary objective of my DPS 1. Inception

    document is mainly prepared to check the feasibility of any development interventions in

    the new area. As per the task that was assigned to me in DPS 1 was to organise the

    community and construct the development path by involving them in the KCBP

    programme, therefore the preparing inception document was necessary to check the

    potential of the panchayat as well as people for the required programme.

    To screen the panchayat and organise the community on their need basis

    This is another aspect of the DPS 1 objective, which I had completed. We know thatdevelopment is meant for the downtrodden people who are unable to earn their

    livelihood and regulate their life in a well-defined social manner. Therefore, I tried to

    locate those villages and panchayats where such types of conditions are prevailing and

    identified the socially and economically oppressed people.

    To document the whole Kalanjiam group formation process.

    This was the third objective, which forms the basis for new knowledges and development

    models. My documentation included the process right from the beginning of panchayat

    selection criteria to hand overing of the seven newly formed groups to the block

    integrator. It includes many stages and sub-stages for instance rapport building, informal

    interaction, screening, focus group discussion, cluster meeting, goal setting exercise,

    formation of groups, strengthening group formation through Padyatra and so on. Apart

    from that gathering information on their socio-economic aspects, culture, development

    initiatives, poverty and lastly what sorts of difficulties I came across during this period

    forms another basis of my documentation.

    To enrich myself with enlightened knowledges, attitudes, experiences and

    skills

    This was my personal objective that I successfully achieved it. Through DPS 1, I was able

    to yearn a lot of skills for instance, community organising skills, rapport building skills,

    effectively using palm techniques, cross checking skills, time management skills,

    managerial skills that gave a new dimension to my personality. Beside that, I got

    enlightened knowledges on tribal culture, their livelihood pattern, socio-economic aspects

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    and so on. I came across many unique experiences for instance, living like tribal,

    adopting their culture, observing and believing on their superstitious belief. In reference

    to my attitude, it was my belief that it is very difficult to develop the tribal people but this

    is not the reality. They are more concerned for the development and they are more

    organised than the rest of other categories of people. The thing is that they should be

    given right concept and right understanding. If they were cheated, then it would be very

    difficult to create trust among them for development.

    MethodologyInception report is mainly prepared based on empirical evidences and studies related to

    primary (villagers, school teachers, children, president of the village and youth) and

    secondary(block office, panchayat office, DFO, aanganwadi and government school) sources

    of data collection.

    Secondary Data

    I collected data from secondary sources like from different government institutions that are

    accessing their services to this panchayat. From the block office, I came to know about all

    sorts of development interventions going on in the villages of Aaragundi panchayat. It gaveme detailed information related to NREGA and SGSY programmes. Through the visit to

    schools located in the Aaragundi panchayat, I got detailed information about the proportion

    of boys and girls in the schools, number of teachers both male and female, government

    education programmes, basic infrastructure of the school, pupil-teacher ratio and pupil-

    classroom ratio. Anganwadi gave the detailed information regarding pre-primary education

    and the health programmes for the children age between 0-6 years. Through the panchayat

    I was able to collect details about demography of the particular panchayat, BPL lists, and

    other development programmes going in villages.

    Primary data sources

    Following are the stakeholders for collecting the primary data:

    a. Villagers: As my target was to work with the community, they are the key personswho proved to be resourceful in retrieving all sorts of knowledges related to the

    development issues, their livelihood pattern, and socio-economic dynamics. They

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    provided me all the supporting information and data, which was quite necessary for

    completing my DPS 1 successfully.

    b. Pradhan: This was one of the tertiary stakeholders without whom, I could not talkto the villagers or did some activities. I got the permission from him after making mypurpose clear. He provided many relevant suggestions on the feasibility of

    development interventions specific with the context.

    c. School going children: They were the prime stakeholder of the primary education.They gave the information about the subjects, teachers behaviour, parents support,

    facility provided in the school, extra curricular activity in the school.

    d. Schoolteachers: They were also one of the main stakeholders of the primaryeducation. They provide information about the course, parent-teacher meeting, way

    of teaching, quality of teaching, details of the government education programmes

    etc.

    e. Youth: They acted as major participants in disseminating the real information aboutthe villages in the panchayat. They also helped me in cross checking the information

    and arrived at the accurate judgement related to some issues.

    3. Method of data collection

    a. Observation: This is one of the best methods one could learn when a person isunfamiliar with context. One can observe the study area and know about that. This

    method helped in knowing the geography, location of the village, types of house,

    physical infrastructure, peoples behaviour, social relation, dressing pattern,

    cultural pattern such as Garba Dance and most important is physical access to

    government and non government institutions and services.

    b. Key informant interview: As my theme was related to development interventionthrough microfinance programmes, this method helped me a lot in knowing the

    present scenario of money lending system in rural areas and the feasibility of the

    microfinance programmes. By discussing with the key informants such as village

    committee members, educated people, local leaders, I got the knowledge about

    various problems such as lack of formal sources of credit, inadequate irrigation

    facilities, lack of employment opportunities, and the resources available in the

    villages.

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    c. Focus group discussion: This discussion had been done with men and womenbut separately with each category in all the three villages. From the FGD I got the

    relevant information about their indebtedness due to moneylenders high rate of

    interest, extravagance and other social obligations, lack of agri services, their

    concern for development of the children, and the need for adequate infrastructure.

    d. Individual Counselling: This helped me in checking their potentiality and gettingtheir concern for the microfinance themes. Through this method I got the

    necessary details about their immediate need. This helped me a lot in building

    good rapport with the villagers and knowing about the village context thoroughly.

    e. PALM technique: Transect Walk: Firstly, I wanted to build the rapport with the villagers. I wanted

    to get some of the ideas about the villages. So I did the transect walk. It helped

    me to know about the location of different villages, structure of the houses type of

    crop etc.

    Social Mapping: By applying this technique, I got the details about the numberof households, types of house, road, drainage system, ponds, wells, temples etc.

    As a whole, I got the knowledge about the physical and social aspects of the

    village. This technique sets a platform for me for collecting demography and other

    required information household wise.

    Venn diagram: By applying Venn diagram, I came to know about variousgovernment institutions such as block office, panchayat office, DFO, schools, post

    office, PHC and non-government institutions such as NGO named Vision

    Foundation, brick Kiln within the village and outside the village. In addition, I also

    came to know about their relative importance to the villagers, and their way of

    functioning.

    Seasonal Mapping: This technique helped me to identify heavy workloadperiods, period of diseases, food security, wage availability, heavy expenditure,

    cropping pattern and migration. Heavy workload period was in the month of May,

    June and July, which was the period of sowing season and the next was in the

    month of December and January which was the harvesting season. In the

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    panchayat, people migrate in the month from February to June to seek some

    employment in the construction work and brick kiln.

    Wealth Ranking: As the villages in the Aaragundi panchayat are economicallyvery backward and the majority of the population are working as labourers.

    However, I tried to apply this technique. In addition, I categorised the people into

    S1, S2 and S3 category based on income, land, assets etc. Here I came to know

    more about the causes of their poverty.

    Daily Activity Schedule: Through this technique, I came to know about the dailyactivity schedule of men and women separately. I realised that both male and

    female have the equal participation in work. Here male are mostly responsible for

    earning livelihood for the family while female are confined of doing domestic work,

    collecting fuels and other non timber products from the forest and grazing the

    cattle and so on.

    Pair wise Ranking Method: This method is the most effective and relevant

    method in acknowledging all the issues and challenges in reference to demand

    and supply stream. Through this method I was able to come across about eleven

    major problems in which the irrigation facilities was the priority. Other problems

    were lack of good schools, road, transport, electricity, employment and so on.

    f. Cash Flow Analysis: Cash flow analysis was done for the two families of theAaragundi panchayat to know about the inflow and out flow pattern. Through cash

    flow analysis it was found that people's out flow is more on social obligation such as

    festivals, marriages (on an average Rs 3000 per year) and addiction (Up to Rs. 4000).

    g. Livelihood analysis: Livelihood study was done on the major crops (rice, maizeand sargujja that is an oilseed) livestock of the panchayat. Through livelihood

    study it came out very precisely that people are still dependent on indigenous

    technology like ploughing by ox, threshing by hand and every other activities

    manually.

    4. Sampling method

    In the study area, the method that is more reliable and relevant will be purposive

    sampling. Through purposive sampling, I was able to get desirable results according to

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    the microfinance theme. For this purpose, I prepared interview schedule. The purpose

    was to select the potential member, therefore for doing purposive sampling I selected

    those people characterised by BPL category, poor housing structure, less land and other

    assets details and get the relevant information filled by the respondents.

    5. Tools of Data Collection & Analysis

    1. Interview Schedule

    2. Master sheet

    3. Matrix Table

    4. Annexure

    6. Limitationsa. Language barriers due to dehati tone of their language and the tribal language,

    which created difficult situations for me in apprehending some of their critical words.

    b. Hot climatic conditions as temperature during daytime reaches up to 40 C, thatmakes very uncomfortable to work during noontime.

    c. Hectic schedule of peoples work due to sowing season of paddy crop due to which itwas very difficult to have talk with people about their development issues and other

    socio economic aspects.

    d. Season of festivals: The September month was the season of festivals such as KarmaPuja (seven days festivals) and Vishwakarma Puja. Therefore, the people were busy

    in decorating their houses and performing rituals. It was hard to manage the time

    with the people for discussions.

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    TATA-DHAN ACADEMY, MADURAI

    Chapter 2

    Background of Location

    District Introduction

    LATEHAR has been named after the village of the same name in Ranchi Daltonganj Road.

    It is 100 k.m. away by road from Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand. Latehar is famous for

    its rich natural beauty, forest, forest products and mineral deposits. Latehar remained an

    integral part of Palamau District as a sub division since 1924.

    It got elevated from sub divisional status to a district on 4th April 2001 vide Jharkhand

    Govt. Notification No 946 dated 04.04.2001. Latehar is located on the northwest corner

    of Jharkhand in the Palamau Commissionary. It is surrounded by Ranchi, Lohardaga,

    Gumla, Palamau and Chatra district apart from Chhattisgarh state. It is a predominantly

    tribal district with almost 40% of the population belonging to the schedule tribes and

    more than 66 % of total population comprises SCs and STs. The total area of the district

    is 3,671 Sq. Km and one of the block headquarters is more than 200 K.M. away from the

    district headquarters. Following are the details of blocks, villages and panchayats of

    Latehar district mentioned in the table 2.1

    Table 2.1: Details of Blocks, Villages and Panchayats of Latehar District

    Source: Official Website of Latehar

    SL.

    NO.

    NAME OF THE

    BLOCK

    NO OF VILLAGES

    TOTAL NO. OF

    PANCHAYATTOTAL

    VILLAGES

    INHABITED

    VILLAGES

    1 2 3 4 5

    01 LATEHAR 166 19 18

    02 GARU 74 5 8

    03 MAHUADANR 106 8 14

    04 BARWADIH 83 2 16

    05 MANIKA 84 2 15

    06 BALUMATH 174 4 27

    07 CHANDWA 86 0 17

    TOTAL 773 40 115

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    There are seven Community Development Blocks in the district within which distantly

    located villages are scattered amidst the dense forest, hilly terrains and agricultural fields.

    The number of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is predominantly high here and

    Latehar comes under Tribal Sub Plan Area.

    As per 2001 census, the population detail and literacy rate can be viewed in the table 2.2

    below:

    Table 2.2: Block Wise Population and Literacy Composition of Latehar District

    S.N. Block

    Population Literacy Non

    Literate

    (15-35years)

    Male Female Total Male Female Total

    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

    1 Latehar 54,612 52,454 1,07,066 60.14 28.52 44.72 15,530

    2 Chandwa 41,554 39,925 81,479 54.91 26.58 41.06 13,870

    3 Balumath 68,872 67,138 1,36,010 47.80 20.88 34.51 31,099

    4 Manika 32,806 31,827 64,633 47.92 18.43 33.45 15,698

    5 Garu 13,012 12,495 25,447 50.42 21.76 36.52 5,335

    6 Barwadih 40,398 37,639 78,037 54.31 26.32 40.93 13,871

    7 Mahuadar 33,695 32,464 66,159 67.83 46.36 57.30 7,922

    Total 2,84,949 2,73,882 5,58,831 54.76 26.98 41.21 1,03,325

    Source: Official Website of Latehar

    Aaragundi Panchayat Introduction

    There are eighteen panchayats in Latehar district. Among them, Aaragundi panchayat is one

    of the panchayat that is twenty-five kilometer away from Latehar town. There are twelve

    villages in this panchayat. Categories of people are mainly SC, ST, OBC and General.

    However, the ST people are in majority and general people are in minority. Here the primary

    occupation of people is agriculture. If we see the demography of panchayat then the the

    total population is 6071 and the total number of households is 984 (Source: Panchayat

    Office). The average family size is six and the sex ratio is 892.45 per thousand of men. The

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    TATA-DHAN ACADEMY, MADURAI

    Chapter 3

    Social Dynamics

    Family Structure

    If we see the family structure in the Aaragundi panchayat as a whole, then about 60 %of the family are joint family and 40% of the family are nuclear family.(Source: Sampling

    Technique, out of 75 houses, 45 houses are joint family). In the joint family, the elders

    take the major decisions while in the nuclear family the male head of the family take the

    decisions. In the family males are responsible for earning livelihood of the family while

    the females are restricted to domestic work such as cooking food, washing clothes,

    sibling care and so on. However, during the agricultural season both the male and female

    work. In the field, males are responsible for ploughing the field while females are

    engaged mostly in weeding and sowing the seeds. If we see the case of livestock, the

    males take the work of grazing the cattle while the females are responsible for taking

    care of livestock such as cleaning the shade area, giving drinking water and so on. In

    terms of social dynamics, females do not have the right to attend the public meeting,

    while the males are eligible to attend these meeting.

    Social Control

    In the Aaragundi Panchayat, there are twelve villages and in each village, there is one

    Gram Pradhan elected by the villagers. The president has the willing power to take the

    decisions in case of any conflict or any issues related to the development of the village. If

    any villagers are having any conflict related to land and money, he can file a case against

    the accused to the president. Here the system prevails in such a way that if there are

    four to five cases of conflict, then the president will fix the date and will sit with the

    villagers along with their advisers. Then one at a time, the cases are appealed. The

    president will take the decisions with the help of their advisers and should be accepted by

    the villagers. If the executed person does not accept the decision, then the case is

    forwarded to the court with a written application by the president. The person who has

    appealed the case has to bear the whole cost of organising the meeting.

    In the village, no meeting is organised without the permission of the president. The

    villagers elect the president of the village once in every five years. If we see the social

    control dynamics from the other dimension, then the party mainly called as naxalites

    have the sole power to take any decision and to enforce any decision upon the villagers.

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    They are the armed forces that are illegally maintaining their rules and regulations in the

    villages. If the person is not going to abide by the rules and the laws of the party, then

    he or she could be punished or shot dead by the party. Therefore, the villagers have to

    accept their laws forcefully.

    Marriage

    In the Aaragundi panchayat the people belongs to different religion, castes, classes etc.

    Therefore, the people follow different customs as per their ancestors norms. Here two

    major religions are Hindu and Muslims. The followers of Hindu religion are in the

    majority. Again, in Hindu religion there are many castes such as Lohaar, Thakur, Bhuiya,

    Uraon, Baniya, Chamaar, Ganjhu and so on. In Hindu religion, the marriages are being

    organised within the same caste. There is no system of inter caste marriage and it is not

    accepted by the villagers. In Lohaar, Bhuiya, Uraon and Ganjhu caste there is no dowry

    system. Uraon and Ganjhu are the tribal people and they organise marriage by

    themselves with their own customs. There is no requirement of priest. In Lohaar and

    Bhuiya, the Thakur people organised the marriage, not the priest. In Yadav, Thakur,

    Baniya and Chamaar, the dowry system is prevalent and marriages are being organised

    by the priest. In these castes, the amount of dowry ranges from Rs 20000 to Rs 10 lakh

    depending on the status of bridegroom.

    Caste Composition

    The caste system is predominant in the Aaragundi panchayat. This system is prevalent

    from their ancestors. Their caste system is determined based on occupation they are

    following right from their ancestral period. There are two ST, six OBC, four SC and two

    general categories within the caste system. In their caste categories Uraon, Yadav and

    Thakur are having the major dominancy while other caste categories are in minority. The

    caste composition details are mentioned in the table 3.1 below.

    Table 3.1: Caste Composition of Aaragundi Panchayat

    Caste Category Percentage

    Distribution

    Occupation

    Yadav OBC 24% Milch cattle

    rearing

    Thakur OBC 14% Barber

    Lohaar OBC 5% Blacksmith

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    Source: Panchayat Office

    Food

    In the Aaragundi panchayat, the standard of food consumption is general while the

    consumption of food is more in the family. Here the women are responsible for cooking

    the food. The main agricultural crop of the villagers is rice; therefore, the people prefer to

    eat rice. They prepare the food twice a day that is morning and evening but they

    consume the food thrice a day that is morning, afternoon and night. In the whole

    panchayat, there is no culture of chapatti, because the villagers cannot grow the wheat

    due to lack of irrigation facilities. Here the villagers eat rice, pulse, and vegetables at all

    the three times. On special occasion, they prefer to eat chicken, fish, sweet dish, dhushka

    and other special dishes. It is not the case with the poor people. They cannot afford

    these special dishes. In general, they are able to eat rice, rice water and pickles in

    general. They beg the food from the upper class people in return of their labour.

    In the villages only few people owns the milch cattle, therefore there is scarcity of milk in

    the whole panchayat. As a result, the parents are unable to feed the milk to their

    children. Therefore, the small children lack the nutrition. Due to lack of irrigation facilities,

    the villagers are unable to cultivate pulse, vegetables and the fruits. They have to

    purchase these items from the outside market.

    Clothes

    In the panchayat the life style of the villagers are very simple. Their dressing pattern issimilar to the pure villagers. Here the male wears lungi and vest in general. Whenever

    Bhiuiya SC 5% Agri coolie

    Uraon ST 25% NTFP

    Chamaar SC 3% Cobbler

    Ganjhu ST 4% NTFPJolha OBC 3% Weaver

    Baniya OBC 3% Trader

    Kumhaar OBC 3% Pottery

    Kundu OBC 2% Sweet maker

    Aagaria SC 2% Agri coolie

    Rajput General 3% Zamindaar

    Brahman General 4% Priest

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    they have to go outside, the elder person wears Dhoti and Kurta and keeps one towel on

    their shoulder. While the younger person wears shirt and pant. In the villages, the

    woman wears saree and the younger girl wear salwaar and kurta or two-piece. On

    festival occasions, the people purchase new clothes. However, the poor people are

    unable to afford new clothes. In general, they wear torn and untidy clothes.

    Now with the modernisation, the dressing pattern is also changing. Now the young

    generations people are purchasing jeans pant and t-shirts from the readymade garment

    shops, otherwise in general the people use to get their clothes stitched from the tailor

    shop. In Muslims, the male wear long kurta and lungi in general. Whenever they have to

    go outside, they wear kurta and paijama. The Muslim woman wears burkha whenever

    they have to go outside in the market.

    Language

    Here the villagers are habituated of speaking Theth Hindi. Some of the people also

    speaks Khari Hindi as well as Nagpuri language. In general, the villagers used to

    communicate through Theth Hindi. The Uraon people speak Uraon language that is the

    tribal language but they also speak Theth Hindi.

    Here the people listens the Hindi songs and Nagpuri songs. On festival occasions, the

    villagers sing their cultural songs in both Uraon and Theth Hindi languages. In the

    schools and colleges, the students are taught the courses in both the Hindi and English

    languages but English language is less prevalent in these areas. For outsider, it is very

    difficult to understand the Uraon language. They will be able to understand the Theth

    Hindi language, as most of the words are similar to Hindi language.

    Education

    If we see the education status of the Aaragundi panchayat, then it is below standard. In

    the whole panchayat, there are ten primary schools, two middle schools, and one high

    school (Source: District Headquarter). Here the villagers are not aware about the

    importance of education; they are not so much interested in sending their children to the

    schools rather than engaging them in some works such as grazing the cattle, agriculture

    and other domestic works. They said that in the schools, there is unavailability of quality

    teachers; therefore, it is worthless to send the children to the school. Apart from that,

    poor villagers told that they could not afford the private cost of education such as tuition

    fee, copy, books, and school uniform and so on. Almost all the children are enrolled in

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    the schools but they irregularly attend the school. During the agricultural season, parents

    do not allow their children to go to schools rather they engage their children in some

    minor agricultural works. For the girls education, they are not interested for their study.

    They said that it would be better for the girls to learn some domestic work as it would be

    better for their married life.

    In the primary school, enrolment ratio is high that is about 85% but the attendance ratio

    is low, approximately 35% (Source: primary schools). The infrastructures of all the

    schools in the panchayat are inadequate. There is no proper classroom, blackboard,

    desks, chairs and other supporting elements. Therefore, this is affecting the learning

    environment of children adversely. There are no quality teachers in these schools and

    apart from that; the teacher absenteeism is very high. Government is launching many

    programmes for upgrading the education status but these programmes are not being

    implemented effectively, for instance, mid-day meal programmes, bicycles to girls and so

    on. Apart from that, there are no other facilities for the extra curricular activities such as

    sports facilities. There are wastes prevailing in these schools that are reducing the

    education status of these children. These are the factors for the low literacy rate in the

    Aaragundi panchayat.

    Health

    If we visualise the health status of the Aaragundi panchayat as a whole, it is quite

    inappropriate. In the whole panchayat there is one PHC in Temki, which is under

    operation. In the PHC, there is lack of medical facilities and other supporting

    infrastructures. Doctors and nurses irregularly attend the PHC and treat patients.

    Therefore, the villagers are severely affected due to lack of inappropriate infrastructures.

    In case of emergency such as delivery cases villagers have to rush to the Latehar town or

    Ranchi. However, the major problem is that this panchayat is lying in the remote area

    where there are no proper transportation and communication facilities. In such critical

    situations, the patients are more vulnerable to death.

    Now a day, government is running the National Rural Health Mission through women who

    are given health training and they take the responsibilities of giving vaccination to the

    children in villages, organising the health camps, giving support aid in delivery cases and

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    running other activities of health programmes. However, this programme is running on a

    small scale which is not completely satisfying the health services.

    Some of the illiterate villagers refer to the quacks in case of disease. In such cases, the

    villagers have to incur a lot of expenditure and there is no chance of improvement in

    health. In case of major operations the villagers refer to the government hospitals or

    private hospitals in Latehar and if the doctors refuse to treat the patients, then villagers

    have to take the patients to Ranchi. Going to Ranchi and Latehar incur huge medical

    expenditure. As a result, the poor people cannot afford or they have to lend money from

    the moneylenders at a high rate of interest that leads to the permanent indebtedness of

    the poor people.

    Another interesting event in the health is that that the villagers are deeply imbued of

    superstitious belief. If some person is affected with disease, then they think that some

    God has inserted in his or her body. For instance, if a person is the victim of snakebite

    then the villagers will sit together and will chant mantras or make some sacrifices to

    please God. They said that these customs are prevailing from their ancestral times. These

    are the ways they treat the patients.

    PDS

    There are five PDS in the whole panchayat. There is one PDS in Temki, two PDS in

    Aaragundi, one PDS in Kundri and one PDS in Datum. According to government, policies

    following distribution pattern should be regulated in terms of giving following ration items

    as mentioned in Table 3.2

    Table 3.2: Ration Items Distribution Pattern in PDS

    Source: PDS

    Items Rate Yellow Card

    Holder

    Red Card Holder

    Wheat Rs 4.10/kg 20 kg 15 kg

    Rice Rs 3/kg 10 kg 7 kg

    Sugar Rs 11/kg 5 kg 3 kg

    Kerosene Rs 11/litre 7 litre 5 litre

    Salt Rs 0.50/kg 6 kg 5 kg

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    According to villagers, the PDS is not working efficiently. The villagers only get kerosene

    and salt from these PDS and the quantity they get is only 3-4 litre kerosene and 4-5 kg

    salt. While rest of the items dealers sell in the market for making profit. They are unable

    to get rest of the items due to monopoly of the dealer; always giving the false excuses

    that ration is not available in the PDS. The PDS is also liable to give ration for the mid day

    meal programmes running in the schools, but the quality of material they provide is

    below the standard. Another point is that the headmaster along with the president of the

    village sells the ration materials in the market by giving commissions to the dealer. These

    are the malpractices, prevailing in the panchayat, which is severely affecting the poor

    people.

    House Type

    House type is one of the powerful indicators for categorising the poor people. In the

    Aaragundi panchayat the proportion of pucca houses are very less. Majority of the

    population are having the kuchcha houses. The government is providing colony houses to

    the people who are living below the poverty line. If we see the composition of house

    type, then following are the description in the illustration 3.1.

    Illustration 3.1

    Source: Sampling Technique

    From the sample of seventy-five houses, there are fifty-five kuchcha houses, twelve semi-pucca houses, four pucca houses and four colony houses. The poor people only own the

    Kuchcha75%

    Semi-Pucca15%

    Pucca5%

    ColonyHouse5%

    Housing Pattern

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    kuchcha house. They make the wall with mud and the roof with straw, bamboo stick, and

    khappar. The size of these houses is very small. There is no proper ventilation system in

    these houses. The surface is also made of mud. Near about 75% of the houses in the

    panchayat are Kuchcha houses. Every year people have to invest money for repairing the

    walls and roof of the houses because these houses get damaged during the rainy season

    or due to extreme heat during the summer season.

    In the semi pucca houses, the middle people reside. They will make the wall with cement

    and bricks, but the roof will be made of bamboo stick, straw, and khappar. These houses

    are little bigger than the Kuchcha houses. Some of the people manage to build courtyard,

    but the surface is made up of mud.

    Pucca houses are in minority mainly built by rich people. These houses are having the

    proper ventilation system. Now a day is government is more concerning for providing

    colony houses to the people categorised in the BPL lists. As a result, the some of the

    people are also having the colony houses, but the structure of these houses is not so

    adequate. The percentage of colony houses is 5 % and that of pucca houses is 5%.

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    Chapter 4

    Economic Analysis

    Sources of Credit

    The people of Aaragundi panchayat vary in terms of class and status. The rich people are

    easily accessible to the services and facilities provided by the government; but the poor

    people are unable to access these services. There is a wide knowledge gap between rich

    and poor people. As a result, poor people are entrapped in a large number of problems,

    due to which they are unable to upgrade themselves from one level to another level. The

    major problem is the lack of credit facilities due to which they are unable to earn good

    livelihood or have some stable income generation facilities.

    The majority of population are engaged in agriculture, therefore during the sowing

    season they require credit for seeds and fertilizers. As these poor people cannot access to

    the formal source of credit, they lend money from the moneylenders at a high rate of

    interest that ranges from 10% to 40% under severe condition (Source: Sampling

    Technique). Apart from that they take the loan from the brick kiln owner or the other firm

    owner where they work during the migration period. In case of brick kiln owner, the poor

    labourers take money in advance during the lean season especially in rainy season that is

    the cropping season, and during the working period, in return, they have to work at a low

    wage rate. When the harvesting season is over, then farmers will sell their crop and

    return money back to the moneylenders. However, at that time the final interest amount

    is so high that it equates up to the principal amount. This leads to permanent

    indebtedness of the poor people. Not only for the agricultural purposes; villagers also

    take loan for health, festivals, and other social obligations. These villagers are not only

    restricted to one moneylenders, at a time they take loan from different moneylenders.

    In some cases, the villagers also take loan from their neighbours and relatives. Here the

    people have the low saving capacity. As a result, they have to lend money in time of

    need. Some of SHGs are being operated by the government, in which group of women do

    the saving among themselves. In time of need they take loans from the group at a low

    interest rate. The reality is that these groups are not running successfully due to lack of

    implementation of rules and norms among group members.

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    The upper class people and the illiterate are having good accessibility to formal source of

    credit. They know all banking procedures, therefore they can easily avail all services from

    bank. The poor peoples perception is that they do not understand the banking

    procedures and the bank officers do not want to open their account making the process

    complex. Therefore, they are not interested in going to bank. In this way, formal source

    of credit is not completely operating in these areas.

    Market Structure

    In the Aaragundi panchayat, there is no permanent or regular market place, where

    villagers can purchase items of daily need or any grocery items. However, there is one

    weekly market that occurs at only one place in the whole panchayat that is

    Behmenherua. This market occurs on Thursday. Apart from that, villagers of Aaragundi

    panchayat also access weekly market of nearby panchayats such as Rajwar in

    Holangmasiyatu panchayat (Sunday), Muroop in Dihi panchayat (Friday), Serak in Bari

    panchayat (Monday) and so on (Source: Primary Data). The main market day occur in

    Latehar that takes place on Tuesday. This is the major market for the villagers of

    Aaragundi panchayat.

    In all these markets, the villagers would purchase vegetables, grocery items, non-veg

    and all other daily requirements. In all these markets, one thing is very common that is

    liquor shop. Most of the villagers, after purchasing the items from market will take liquor

    and then they will get to their home. In these markets traders are the local persons who

    will come from different villages with their items or any agriculture produce. The market

    time will start at 3 pm in evening and will last up to 6 pm. As there are no proper

    facilities in the market places such as electricity, drinking water, therefore these markets

    will not last up to late night. These markets are the good source of economy for the

    villagers, but due to lack of poor infrastructures, full potential are not being tapped. In

    this way, the weekly markets regulate their functions.

    Major Occupations

    Agriculture:Agriculture is the major occupation for the villagers. Majority of population

    are dependant on agriculture as the only livelihood source. Most of the farmers grow

    crops for their household consumption and some part they sell within the villages itself.

    Due to lack of irrigation facilities, they cultivate only one crop that is rice. They grow

    wheat in less quantity depending on the pattern of rainfall or the availability of river

    water. Other crops they grow on a very small scale are Sarguja (oilseeds), maize, pulses

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    such as urad, arhar, mooong , mushhoor, kurthi, khesari and botra. These crops require

    water in less quantity. Following are the details of cropping pattern described in table 4.1

    Table 4.1: Cropping pattern

    Crops Sowing Season Harvesting season

    Rice June-July Nov-Dec

    Wheat Nov-Dec May

    Maize June-July Aug-Sept

    Urad June September

    Arhar June March

    Moong November March-April

    Mushhoor November March-April

    Kurthi August December

    Khesari November April

    Botra November April

    Source: Primary Data

    Here farmers do agricultural practices in a very traditional way. They will cultivate land

    manually with plough by the support of cattle. They cannot afford the cost of using

    technology such as tractor or thresher. Only upper class people can access these

    facilities. The landless people and poor farmers work on the land of rich farmer as an

    agricultural coolie. Male and female work collectively on the agricultural field. Following is

    the wage rate distribution based on nature of work in table 4.2

    Table 4.2: Distribution of Wage Rates

    Source: Primary data

    For ploughing land, they use ox and male buffalo. The sources of irrigation available arerain, pond and lake. The rich farmer are having their own pump sets, therefore they are

    Labour Wage Rate Work

    Male Rs 60/ day Ploughing, bunding &

    harvesting

    Female Rs 40/ day Sowing, weeding &

    Harvesting

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    able to grow more than one crops in a year. In Aaragundi panchayat, there are different

    types of soil for growing different type of crops or for different purposes. Here domath

    soil is the most fertile soil while sandy soil is the least fertile soil in the panchayat. Table

    4.3 depicts the occupational analysis of major crop that is rice.

    Table 4.3: Occupational Analysis of Paddy Crop

    Source: Primary Data

    Here if we analyse the occupation then we can know that minimum poor farmer requires

    credit of three thousand at the time of sowing season, if he is having one acre of land for

    the cultivation of rice. From one acre of land, thirteen quintals of paddy crops are

    produced. If thirteen quintals of rice are milled then 780 kg of rice will be extracted. The

    selling price of one quintal of rice is Rs 1200, therefore the selling price of 780 kg rice will

    be Rs 9360. That is why the net profit from one acre of land Rs 6176. If a farmer takes

    loan from moneylender at an average rate of 15% for an agricultural season of six

    months then the total interest amount will be Rs 2700. Then in real, the net profit will be

    Rs 3476. Therefore, this amount is insufficient for a poor family to run his family through

    out the year. Therefore, the leakage that is moneylenders high rate of interest is one of

    the major causes for making their livelihood unsustainable.

    List Details Unit Cost(Rs)/unit

    Total(Rs)

    Seed NK Sahadri 6 kg 180/kg 1080

    Fertilizer DAP 20 kg 12/kg 240

    Urea IFCCO 18 kg 6/kg 144

    Labourcost

    Sowing 6 labor 40/labor 240

    Labourcost

    Ploughing 4 labor 100/labor 400

    Labourcost

    Bunding 2 labor 80/labor 160

    Labourcost

    Harvesting 4 labor 100/labor 400

    ThreshingPaddy

    1 acre=13 QPaddy crops

    13 Q 40/Q 520

    TotalCost

    Rs3184

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    Forest based livelihood:As the panchayat lies in the forest belt, therefore villagers are

    also dependant on forest for fodder for their cattle, fuel for cooking, mahua for making

    alcohol and oil. During the month of May, villagers will be collecting tendu leaf. This leaf

    is used for making cigarettes. This occupation is restricted for only one month. The

    villagers will tie 50 leafs in one bundle and one thousand bundle will cost Rs 50. On an

    average, the landless people who are dependant on forest can earn up to Rs 2000 to Rs

    3000 in that season (Source: Primary Data). Other product they extract from forest is Sal

    leaf. Through this leaf, they make bowl and plates manually and sell in hotels. Since they

    do not have machine they cannot own this business on a large scale. They earn mere

    income from this occupation. Apart from that, they get wood of trees such as Neem,

    Saal, Liptus and Sheemar for making their houses.

    Livestock: The quality of livestock is very poor. Cow, goats, hen, ox, buffalo, and male

    buffalo are the common livestock. There is a vast scope in the field of animal husbandry

    in panchayat.Almost every household have some livestock but in a small number. Mainly

    they have male buffalo, ox, goat and hens. Ox and male buffalo are used for agricultural

    purposes. Other keeps goat and hen, which are used for eating and selling. Villagers sell

    them when they need money immediately. The villagers do not own hybrid variety due to

    lack of purchasing power. Following are the livestock pattern depicted in table 4.4.

    Table 4.4: Livestock Pattern

    Livestock Purpose Yield

    Male Buffalo Ploughing 1 acre/day

    Ox Ploughing 1 acre/day

    Cow Milk 3-5 litre

    Buffalo Milk 2-3 litre

    Goat Meat 10 kg- 15 kg

    Hen Meat 1 kg-2 kg

    Duck Meat 1.5 kg -3 kg

    Source: Primary Data

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    Chapter 5

    Development Initiatives

    Government is making many efforts for the development of Latehar district. It isimplementing many development programmes for the development of underdeveloped

    panchayats. These are the development initiatives that are currently running in the

    Aaragundi panchayat.

    Development Schemes

    a. Centrally Sponsored Schemes:

    1. NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME

    2. RASHTRIYA SAM VIKAS YOJANA (NOW BAKWARD REGIONS DEVELOPMENT

    INITIATIVE)

    3. INDIRA AWAS YOJANA

    4. SWARNA JAYANTI GRAM SWAROJGAR YOJANA

    5. PRADHAN MANTRI GRAM SADAK YOJANA

    6. WATERSHED PROGRAMMES (HARIYALI)

    b. State Sponsored Schemes: Under State Sponsored Scheme apart from health,

    education irrigation schemes, other schemes under state govt. in this district viz. C.M.G.S.Y.

    (Chief Minister Gram Setu Yojana) and M.L.A. /M.L.C. Schemes are being implemented. The

    basic objective of C.M.G.S.Y. is to provide connectivity of villages to panchayats and

    panchayats to block headquarters by constructing bridges. Birsa Munda Awas Yojana for

    PTGs and Deen Dayal Awas Yojana in the pattern of IAY are being implemented.

    Mukhyamantri Kanyadan Yojana is another ambitious scheme benefiting the village folk.

    Intensity of Development Initiatives in the Panchayat

    It is a well known fact that there is no local self government at the grass root level for

    almost three decades. To fill the gap, the administration has started allotting the execution

    works to SHGs in general and women SHGs in particular with the consent of Gram Sabhas.

    Under the Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana, the women SHGs are building more than two

    hundred fifty Anganwadi Centre buildings and more than 150 Primary School buildings.

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    Similarly under NREGS and SCA schemes, Women SHGs, Water Users Societies and NGOs

    have been given the execution work. Other programmes are:

    Mukhya Mantri Kanyadaan Yojna: This programme is running in the whole Jharkhand

    state. It is regulated and monitored by Kalyan Vibhag Jharkhand Government. This

    programme is mainly for SC, ST, OBC and other people who are living below the poverty

    line. Under this programme, an amount of Rs 10000 is given for the marriage of girls. The

    condition is that both the the bride and bridegroom should have the agreement and they

    should be of eligible age. For getting this amount, the brides family should produce domicile

    certificate, BPL certificate, birth certificate of bride and marriage invitation card to the

    respective department.

    KCC: Kisan Credit Card scheme, was announced by the government in 1998-99, is

    basically a revolving cash credit facility given to farming householders. The credit limit is

    determined upon the size of land holdings, cropping pattern and the scale of finance. KCC

    permits unlimited number of withdrawals and repayments within the credit limit, and each

    repayable within a cycle of 12 months. This is the most effective instrument for financial

    inclusion. Revolving cash credit facility at a very affordable rate of 7% can also help him in

    swapping of loans from non-formal lenders thereby redeeming the farmer from the vicious

    cycle of costly debt-trap. KCC addresses the problem of not merely agricultural credit; it

    rather enhances the creditability of the agriculturist and enables him to plan for investments

    with proper foresight and confidence.

    Student scholarship Programme: This programme is also implemented by the

    department of welfare ministry for the enhancement of the education status of the people

    living below the poverty line. This scheme provides scholarship to the students studying

    from class 1 to class 10. Scholarship ranges in degree of superiority of class. For class 1 to 4

    the scholarship amount would be Rs 15, for class 5 to 6 the amount would be Rs 30and for

    class 7 to 10 the amount would be Rs 55.

    I.C.D.S.

    Jharkhand Shiksha pariyojna and I.C.D.S. Programme are the major stake holders of

    development in latehar district as well as in Panchayat Aragundi. If we see whole district

    then totally 649 Anganawari Centers are functioning in this district under I.C.D.S.

    Programme. Total number of Anganwari centers in the Panchayat is eight. Corruption in

    supply of food and dominance of upper profile people of the village can be easily seen. Still

    http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-3687169,flstry-1.cmshttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-3687169,flstry-1.cms
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    it is working little a bit good accept one that is in pakrar village. Situation of building is

    coming in worst condition day by day.

    SGSY: The objective of the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana is to bring the assisted

    poor families (Swarozgaries) above the Poverty Line by ensuring appreciable sustained level

    of income over a period of time. In the Aaragundi panchayat there are thirty-seven

    government SHGs in operation involving 495 women members. This objective is to be

    achieved by organizing the rural poor into Self Help Groups through the process of social

    mobilization, their training and capacity building and provision of income generating assets.

    The SHG approach helps the poor to build their self-confidence through community action.

    Till now the members had received loan in three phases in the due course of five years. The

    first loan amount given to the groups was 25000, the second loan amount given was Rs50000 and currently in the year 2008 the loan amount give to these groups was Rs 250000.

    Interactions in group meetings and collective decision-making enables them in identification

    and prioritization of their needs and resources. The member took the loan for the productive

    purposes such as rearing livestock, opening petty shops and for purchasing pumping sets for

    cultivating potatoes on a commercial scale.

    NREGS: Twenty of Jharkhands 22 districts are covered under the National RuralEmployment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS): Ranchi, Lohardaga, Gumla, Palamu, Koderma,

    Latehar, Jamtara, Pakur, Sahebganj, Dumka, West Singhbhum, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Chatra,

    Garhwa, Giridih, Simdega, Saraikela, Godda and Hazaribag(Official Website of Latehar).

    Awareness about the NREGS was created through posters, padayatras, nukkad nataks,

    village meetings and interactions with officials. At the same time, implementation of the

    scheme was monitored through surveys and interactions with people. But it is clear that

    there is still a long way to go before the scheme can be deemed a success. People are

    ignorant about the schemes details. Even officials at the block and district level were ill-

    acquainted with the basic features of the NREGA. In a majority of villages in all districts,

    villagers have paid Rs 20-Rs 120 for a job card, which should be free. There is

    misinformation about the fact that only households listed as BPL are entitled to job cards. Or

    that only 20 people can apply for job cards from one village. Of the 2,000 households

    surveyed in 21 villages in Latehar 80% had applied for job cards but only 50% got them.

    Work is not being done according to village micro plans. Those with job cards and those

    who had applied for work did get work in time.

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    Chapter 6

    Poverty Dynamics

    Poverty Indicators

    House Type: Housing pattern is one of the powerful indicators for characterising

    poverty. However this will not be relevant in all the contexts, but in my panchayat most

    of the poor people are having distinct identity due to their housing structure. In the

    Aaragundi panchayat, 75% of the houses are kuchcha houses, which are the dwelling

    place of poor. Apart from that, 5% of houses are colony house (Source: Sampling

    Technique). The government provides these houses to the people living below the

    poverty line. However, the structure of colony houses is inappropriate and defunct. These

    houses are not having proper ventilation system. Poor people live in these houses in an

    unhygienic way and they are most vulnerable to disease.

    Land Pattern: The land pattern in Aaragundi panchayat is not even. People belonging to

    upper class are having more land ranging from 12 acres to 50 acres. If we see the case

    of poor people, they own land ranging from 0.5 acre to 2 acres while middle class family

    owns ranging from 3 acres to 8 acres (Sampling technique). The fertility of land depends

    on the type of soil. In this panchayat domath soil is the most fertile soil that is mainly

    occupied by the upper class people. However, most of poor people are having sandy soil

    and red soil that are the least fertile soil. The ultra poor hardly own land. Majority of poor

    people work as an agricultural labour on the land of upper class people at low wage

    rates. Therefore, land ownership is one of severe class demarcation line between rich and

    poor people.

    Food Habit: The standard of food pattern is below standard. In general, poor people are

    able to eat rice, rice water and pickles in general. Their food lack nutrients, due to which

    they lack physical energy in doing heavy workload and are most vulnerable to diseases.

    In the villages only few people owns the milch cattle, therefore there is scarcity of milk in

    the whole panchayat. As a result, the parents are unable to feed the milk to their

    children. Therefore, the small children lack the nutrition, which is a critical factor for the

    overall development. Due to lack of irrigation facilities, the villagers are unable to

    cultivate pulse, vegetables and the fruits. But they cannot afford to purchase these items.

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    Clothing: The poor people are unable to afford new clothes. In general, they wear torn

    and untidy clothes. They do not wash their clothes with surf and soap. During bathing

    they will wash with water. Mostly the upper class people give the old clothes to the poor

    people working in their houses. During festivals time also they cannot afford to purchase

    new clothes for their children.

    Not Going School Children: It is another indicator of poverty. The poor people do not

    send their children to schools rather than enforcing them in agricultural works or

    domestic works. They said that they are unable to bear the private cost of education.

    These children act as a mere source of income for their poor parents. In return, their

    physical and mental growths are retarded. They work extremely hard with no nutrients

    intake that affect their health severely and that serve as an additional health expenditure,

    which lead to the indebtedness of the family.

    Seasonal Migration: Seasonal migration is very intense in the Aaragundi panchayat.

    Seasonal migration occurs during the five months that is from January to May month.

    These months are the lean period for any agricultural works. Therefore, during these

    months two or three people from each house or even the whole family would go outside

    to work in brick kiln, construction work and so on. This defines their poverty situation.

    On an average, these people will earn Rs 50 to Rs 80 per month. If we visualise their

    saving capacity, they hardly save money. Beside that, the working condition in which

    they work is very harsh. As a result, they are severely affected with severe diseases due

    to heavy workload and lack of nutritious food. For this, they have to incur huge medical

    expenses. Another matter of fact is that before migrating these people take loan from

    moneylenders at a high rate of interest and when they return from work, they have to

    give amount to them that becomes double of principal amount. This leads to

    indebtedness and they have to sell their household items to repay loan amount.

    Causes of Poverty

    Poor Irrigation: Majority of population are dependant on agriculture, however

    agriculture is insufficient to fulfil the basic needs of people. There is lack of irrigation

    facilities due to which middle class and poor people hardly manage to cultivate even one

    crop in a year. They do not have enough money to install boring well on their land and

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    there is no government boring well in this region. The poor farmers are dependant on

    rains, lakes and ponds, but these water resources are active for only three to four

    months and then they dry up. On an average, farmers get rainfall for three months

    (Source: Seasonal Mapping). Therefore, farmers are able to cultivate only one crop that is

    rice for their household consumption. Now a day, due to lack of irrigation facilities,

    fertility of soil is reducing gradually. If we see the case of upper class people, they are

    able to cultivate more than two crops in a year with the help of their own pumping set.

    However, poor people cannot afford the cost of irrigation, due to which they are unable

    to irrigate sufficient land. As a result, the production is very less. Therefore, poor people

    cannot get the security of year round cropping for their household consumption.

    Cropping Pattern: Since poor villagers are not accessing any agricultural services from

    government, so their cropping pattern is not up to the mark. They cultivate crops in

    traditional way. They do not have technological facilities such as tractor, thresher etc.

    They do not have an adequate knowledge about agricultural technology due to which

    they are unable to cultivate cash crops. They hardly manage to grow one crop and

    production quality is not efficient. Beside this the production of oilseeds and vegetables

    are very low. As a result, there is less possibility of employment opportunities in

    agriculture. Poor farmers have to purchase wheat, oil, vegetables, and other items from

    the outside market. Apart from that, they are unable to cultivate fodder for their

    livestock, due to which the number of milch cattle is very less in the region. If there will

    be less rainfall then region is most vulnerable to drought. Due to poor cropping pattern

    most of the villagers migrate in search of employment. Their food standards and

    consumption of nutrients are below standard.

    Poor Infrastructure: Due to poor infrastructure, Aaragundi panchayat is treated as

    economically backward region. There are no transportation facilities, electricity, road,

    sanitation facilities, and communication facilities and so on. As a result, there is lack of

    employment opportunities in villages. Due to lack of irrigation facilities in agriculture,

    there are no opportunities of employment in agri and non-agri sectors. Even villagers are

    not so well educated and skilled for which they can get good job. As a result, they have

    to work as labourers in brick kiln, construction work and agriculture.

    There is no proper health infrastructure in villages, due to which they have to incur heavy

    health expenses in Latehar and Ranchi city; otherwise, they refer to local quacks, where

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    after incurring heavy expenses they do not get proper treatment. In villages of Aaragundi

    panchayat, there are no proper education facilities. The poor people cannot afford the

    private costs of education; therefore, they do not send their children to the schools. As a

    whole, their learning status is reduced. This is affecting the future of children.

    Unskilled Human Resource: Since the poor people are illiterate and on the other hand

    they are not enhanced with any technical skills, therefore they are unable to get good

    jobs rather than working in agriculture, brick kiln or construction work or any other works

    that require rigorous manual labour. Therefore, they earn minimal wages, which is

    insufficient to get even two times meal per day for their family member. In such type of

    work they are more vulnerable to accidents and health diseases that again lead to

    medical expenditures which is the main cause of their indebtedness.

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    Chapter 7

    Development Issues

    Gambling and Alcoholism: Since most of villagers in Aaragundi panchayat are having

    tribal influence, alcoholism is one of the major culture of these people and this is one

    facets of their poverty. Here people use to drink mahua and handi that costs Rs 10 per

    bottle. Villagers, after working through out day need alcohol in night. Therefore, they

    spend their income in purchasing alcohol, for instance, if they earn Rs 60 per day and

    they will invest Rs 30 to Rs 40 in alcohol. As a result, it becomes difficult for them to run

    their family. If they do not have money, they will lend money from other at some interest

    and then they will drink. This leads to their indebtedness. It is regular habit that on

    market day they will drink.

    Another development issues is gambling that is complement to alcoholism. They are so

    much habituated of playing gamble that they may even sell their land or household

    items. During festival season, especially on Deepawali they play a lot of gamble. They

    hardly manage to earn money from gamble, but in hope, they will despair their luck

    being deeply entrapped in poverty.

    Indebtedness: Here people are highly indebted due to their extravagances, social

    obligations and high interest rate of moneylenders. The poor people have to incur huge

    expenses during marriages, death ceremonies, health, festivals, and agriculture and in

    other miscellaneous activities. For meeting all these expenses, they will take money fro

    moneylenders at a high interest rate ranging from 10% to 40%, but they hardly manage

    to give interest due to high interest rate. At last, they will have to sell their land,

    ornaments, household items, and then they will repay money to moneylenders. Thus, we

    can examine that due to their ill habits they are forced to entrap themselves in poverty.

    Food Pattern: Since the villagers are able to grow only one crops, therefore they have

    to purchase other items from the market. What they are cultivating is not sufficient to eat

    for the whole year? Their food stocks last for the six months while rest of the months

    either they have to purchase or they have to sell their labour in exchange for food grains.

    Thus, there is problem for food. There is seasonality in availability of food. Sometime

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    people had to sell his grains to target urgency of the matter. It is a kind of risk and

    vulnerability. Under emergency people, sell their crops at low price to moneylenders.

    PDS: The PDS is not working efficiently. The villagers only get kerosene and salt from

    these PDS and the quantity they get is only 3-4 litre kerosene and 4-5 kg salt. While rest

    of the items dealers sell in the market for making profit. They are unable to get rest of

    the items due to monopoly of the dealer; always giving the false excuses that ration is

    not available in the PDS. The PDS is also liable to give ration for the mid day meal

    programmes running in the schools, but the quality of material they provide is below the

    standard. Another point is that the headmaster along with the president of the village

    sells the ration materials in the market by giving commissions to the dealer. These are

    the malpractices, prevailing in the panchayat, which is severely affecting the poor people.

    Illiteracy: The literacy rate in the Aaragundi Panchayat is low that is near about 35%.

    Due to inadequate education infrastructure and poor affordability of the poor people to

    bear the cost of education, literacy rate in the village is low. Poverty is one of the

    strongest indicators that affect the education status of the children. The parents are not

    interested in sending the children to the schools rather than sending them to work for

    earning some income. In case of girls education, they are very conservative. They

    believed that it would be better for the girls to learn some domestic work rather then

    going schools , so that it could help them after marriage. Government is running many

    programmes in order to increase the enrolment ratio and attendance ratio in the schools,

    but all the efforts are in vain due to corrupt practices of school teachers and the Gram

    Pradhan.

    Remoteness: The panchayat is lying in the remote area so there is lack of transportation

    facilities for both the goods and the people. People have to walk for the longer distance to

    go to market and work (20 km). This becomes challenge for the person to go on work. In

    addition, there is no proper way to carry farm produce, to carry fertilizers to the village

    and henceforth. Therefore, it is hampering income of the people of the Aaragundi

    panchayat.

    Superstition: Villagers were highly imbibed by the superstitious belief. Due to

    superstitious belief, they make many sacrifices that are one of the sources of leakage

    from their income for the unproductive use. In case of health, if any person is affected

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    with disease then the people will think that the god has entered in his/her body. Then

    they incur heavy medical expenses to the quacks or black magician. However, there is no

    security, whether the patient will recover. In case of deliver cases, the family will refer to

    these local healers. Therefore, the people are more vulnerable to death.

    Lack of Health Infrastructures: Due to lack of medical infrastructure in the Aaragundi

    panchayat, illiterate villagers refer to the quacks in case of disease. In such cases, the

    villagers have to incur a lot of expenditure and there is no chance of improvement in

    health. In case of major operations, the villagers refer to the government hospitals or

    private hospitals in Latehar and if the doctors refuse to treat the patients, then villagers

    have to take the patients to Ranchi. Going to Ranchi and Latehar incur huge medical

    expenditure. As a result, the poor people cannot afford or they have to lend money from

    the moneylenders at a high rate of interest that leads to the permanent indebtedness of

    the poor people.

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    Chapter 8

    Need Assessment on Microfinance

    Microfinance is a small-scale financial services provided to the people who work inagriculture, fishing and herding, who operate small or micro enterprises, who provide

    services, who work for wages and other individuals and groups at the local level in

    developing countries both rural and urban. It is a provision of thrift, credit and other

    financial services and products of very small amounts to the poor in rural, semi-urban

    and urban areas for enabling them to raise their income levels and to improve living

    conditions.

    If I relate microfinance concept in the tribal context of Latehar in Jharkhand, it is very

    much essential for upgrading the status of poor people. Here the poor people are prone

    to a lot of vulnerabilities and risks. Due to this, they are entrapped in the vicious cycle of

    poverty. The major reason is that they are inaccessible to the formal source of credit.

    Apart from that, they are having high leakages of income for instance, high interest rate

    of moneylenders, alcoholism and gambling, health expenses, social obligations such as

    marriages, festivals, rituals and so on. Some of these leakages are extravagance and

    some are their priority.

    If we take the case of moneylenders, these poor people more frequently will lend the

    money at high rate of interest, no matter how much interest they are charging. They will

    take loan for agriculture, health expenses, marriage, and festivals. If we see the case of

    agriculture, then during the sowing season, they will lend the loan and during the

    harvesting season, they will start repaying money. However, due to lack of agri services

    and dependency on rain they are at high risks to have adequate productions. The result

    is they are highly indebted due to increasing interest on the principal amount. At last,

    they have to sell land in order to repay money to moneylender. Here microfinance can

    play an important role to get the poor people out from the trap of moneylenders by

    giving loan at the right time, adequate, right purpose and that must be affordable.

    As we know that, these poor people are having diminishing saving habit. Therefore,

    whenever they come across some critical situations such as health problems, marriage

    ceremonies and festivals then they had to lend money from the informal sources. These

    expenses are necessary for them. Since they do not have savings or an adequate income

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    sources that is why they are in most vulnerable situations. Here microfinance would be

    more feasible in order to address these issues for instance by providing micro insurance

    programme, special savings to meet their social obligations, credit for income generating

    assets. Until and unless these poor people are not going to have income generating

    sources or inculcating saving habits, it would be very difficult to come out from the trap

    of poverty.

    If we take the welfare perspectives of the poor people then it is necessary to provide a

    good living condition to these people. Most of these people are working as labourers in

    order to maintain their subsistence level of living, but it is not going to accommodate or

    compete with all sorts of vulnerabilities and risks. They need to think about their futures

    by tapping the present critical situations and potentials. Here Kalanjiam can be more

    productive by addressing their immediate goals and long-term goals through systematic

    strategies with the efficient use of local resources and advanced experiences based

    knowledge.

    To give scope for MF++

    There are many opportunities for livelihood intervention, which can be done with the help

    of forest based livelihood or by promoting livestock. However, before that there is a need

    to formalize poors money. Kalanjiam based MF can help to do livelihood interventions for

    members. It can provide the credit facilities for purchasing bowl and plates machines,

    providing market linkages to their products. It can provide credit for purchasing of

    livestock and providing diary linkages for their milk so that the member could get

    reasonable price for their products.

    Apart from that, many attractive products can be provided for their welfare such as

    health insurance, livestock insurance, crop insurance, and opening schools for the

    members children. In order to address their irrigation problems Kalanjiam could provide

    loan for setting up bore wells where member will regulate its mechanism in terms of