A Tiny Hamlet Wakes Up To Its Rights and Entitlements

There is no access by road to Balkacher dhana, a hamlet of Kauwanala village, 25 km from Amarwada block in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh. This hamlet and the main village fall under Tumdi panchayat, about 12 km away. Though panchayati raj has been celebrated in advertisements by the Madhya Pradesh government, until recently, panchayati raj didn’t seem to work in practice. Few villagers attended the gram sabha on the rare occasions when it was convened. Each village is supposed to have eight committees to oversee subjects such as health, education and justice. While every committee had nominated members on it, few of the members knew what they were nominated to and these committees had never, in fact, met.

When asked why systems of local self-government don’t seem to work, villagers said that no one called them to the meeting or that the sarpanch never visits their hamlet. Sunderlal Nagbansi, a villager, said, “Politicians only come here for our votes but never after that.”
After the initiation of the PACS Programme in this block in October 2002, for the first time ever, a politician did visit the hamlet. In February 2003 the local MLA Janaklal Thakur from the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GPP) was invited here.

The Institute for Development of Youth Women and Child (IDYWC), a PACS Programme partner known to the locals as Prayas, has been working in Chhindwara since 1988, trying to form mass organisations in each village it works in. Every member has to pay a monthly fee of Rs 5 which goes towards a common kitty. Prayas formed the Adivasi Shramik Sanghatana to help set up these village-level mass organisations. The Sanghatana decided that a road and water were the two most pressing issues and made a request for a pond costing Rs 2.62 lakh.

The demand was approved. But it wasn’t that simple. The main village, 2-3 km away, decided to take on the work for itself while the little hamlet that had put in the request remained in the dark about their proposal being approved. “We did all the legwork to apply for the pond but the panchayat wanted the pond in the main village. We found out the day the work began. It was one of our villagers who donated 50 decimals of land for the purpose. We had to call the other villagers and sort out the matter and finally we got our way,” says Sunder Prasad Nagbansi.

Now the people want a waste weir and money to deepen the pond. A bigger pond has been sanctioned for the village and work is expected to begin shortly. “Last year was the first time we got work; 150 people got work for two months,” says Sunder Prasad. “We also did shramdan (voluntary labour) and extended the road till our hamlet. Since the PACS Programme, we have called the gram sabha twice in our hamlet and we even invited the sarpanch and the secretary but they didn’t come.”

The villagers are happy to report a lot of goodwill towards them after they managed to bid for their own pond and do shramdan. They get requests from neighbouring villages to settle disputes. “We get a lot of complaints which we try and solve but the complainant has to pay Rs 25 per complaint,” adds Nagbansi. The disputes have involved the stealing of mahua flowers and a woman who was gored by a bull and demanded compensation. “If we wait for the sarpanch to decide these cases, it will take forever,” people say.

There are 50 members of the Sanghatana now but this year work has been a problem and many migrate in search of work. The land is infertile and only rainfed agriculture is possible, as there is no water. People own about an acre or so and grow corn and soyabean.

Earlier, under the Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS), 60 children used to study in the village but both the teachers under the EGS were later absorbed into the state cadre. “We did suggest two more teachers but that did not happen,” says Nagbansi.

“Our children have to walk 3 km to school and there is no health facility here. Sometimes we don’t know about the immunisation programmes,” says Gangavatibai. “The anganwadi worker calls us to the main village but we have decided not to go. We are going to ask her to come here or take action if she does not,” she says.