GreenEarth Home

Padayatra 12th Feb - 18th Feb

The Padayatra begins on the 1st day of the new year, 2006. We are attempting to log the progress of the Padayatra everyday. There are, however,some difficulties in connecting due to some remote locations, as well as the 12 hr powercuts in the rural areas. We will be documenting various experiences and stories as we go along, in an attempt to create awareness amongst ourselves. If you would like to reach us, please write to grnearth@vsnl.com or if you want to reach Ranjit in the field, write to ranjitster@gmail.com

12Feb'06 - Mismanagement in a spinning mill, Biggest losers are farmers

Today, the Yavatmal Zilla Sahakari Sut Girni (Yavatmal District Cooperative Spinning Mill) in the town of Pusad bears a deserted look (in the picture). Labor union leader Ranganath Yerawar provided some details.
There were two mills in Yavatmal, Babasaheb Naik Cooperative mill near Bhatumba and this one in Pusad. Vasantrao Naik, the former chief minister of the state of Maharashtra had initiated this mill along with his sugar factory venture. The cooperative was registered in 1967 with a 1:9 input from the government.
Abasaheb Parve was its first president. Sriram Appaji Asegaonkar increased the mills capacity from 12000 spindles to 37,500 spindles. The mill was an ISO 9000 company. It won many gold medals in the state for highest production and quality. It was running in 3 shifts for 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. In 1988, it was paying the farmers Rs 2200-2500/quintal when the government federation was paying Rs 2000/quintal.
Then in 1988, the mill closed down due to various factors, one of the major ones being mismanagement. All 1600 workers were unemployed. 16000 people owned shares starting at Rs 100/share. The mill had standing loans from Maharashtra and ICICI banks as well as the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB). The total debt amounted to Rs 10 crore and 11 lakhs.
The liquidation of the mill was handled by N.P.Hirani of the Rajya Cotton Mahasangha. It was bought by a Khamgaon mill, owned by Kamal Arora from Punjab. The provident fund of the workers was paid in its entirety to the tune of Rs 2.25 crores. The MSEB bill and bank loans were paid back. This total with the provident fund payment amounted to Rs 5 crores. The remaining amount of 5 plus crores was not paid. The losers were the farmers who were part of the cooperative.
The mill was run by this private company from 1992-98. However, it closed down in 1998. One of the reasons attributed to the closure was high MSEB power rates. With 30-40p/unit, the mill's bill ran up to Rs 20 lakhs per month. Labor cost had rose to Rs 25 lakhs per month. Low cost clothing coming from China was hitting the market. Then there is mismanagement.
Rs 1 crore and 88 lakhs were paid to the workers for provident fund compensation. The mill had signed papers stating that the workers will be paid while the mill was closed. However, it did not and the labor union dragged the mill to court. Because the labor was organized, it managed to get its monies first. However, the farmers who are not organized but were members of the cooperative were or are last on the list to receive money. When this mill is liquidated, the banks, MSEB and the farmers hope to get some of their money back.
The farmers are the biggest losers in this venture. They are not organized. Being a part of the cooperative, they are compelled to sell their cotton to that particular cooperative. They are share holders but usually see no dividend. The cooperative shares are not passed on to their kin after their deaths, but their loans are transferred. Did the management suffer any loss in this debacle? How many years will the farmers have to wait to be compensated?

13Feb'06 - Kolhapur Type Weir, Bhatumba, Finger pointing leads to farmers' loss

Kolhapur type weir is a weir used on small rivers. It has gates that are manually removed during the monsoons and then dropped at the end of the season to capture and store water. One such KT weir is built on the river Pus near Bhatumba and Chilwadi villages. The weir was built in 1996-97 costing approximately Rs 25 lakhs. It has 49 gates.
Chilwadi has enough ground water for its agriculture, but the farming in Bhatumba is heavily dependant on the KT weir. The gates are usually dropped by Oct 15th. However, according to the Bhatumba farmers, this year the gates were dropped in December. By December, the river went dry and no water was captured. The farmers suffered as their crops dried.
However, the irrigation department subdivision had a different story to tell. There are about 100 bunds and other projects under the subdivision's jurisdiction. They look for people's participation in managing KT weirs and water usage. They expect the farmers to form a water committee that consists of more than 11 members. This committee is to help the irrigation department to drop and pull up the gates on time. It takes 5-6 people to drop the 80 kg gate, and there are 49 such gates on this weir. When the gates are not in use, the committee stores them. The committee is also expected to collect water tax from the farmers using the water from the weir. The tax is to be decided by the committee along with the irrigation department. According to the subdivision, the people of Chilwadi and Bhatumba offered no help and initiative to form the required water committee. Hence there is no maintenance of the weir, no tax paid and no ownership.
The farmers say that they had received no information from the irrigation department regarding the formation of a committee. In this finger pointing, all water was lost, and in the end, the farmers were the losers. A classic case of a lack of initiative on the part of farmers and lax attitude on the part of the government. Why do people have to be so righteous and lazy at the same time?

14Feb'06 - Hasre Gharkul, Children love this hostel

Dilasa is a non-governmental organization based out of Ghatanje in Yavatmal district. They work with downtrodden and deprived communities including tribal communities for their economic, social and educational development along with sustainable use of natural resources. Hasre Gharkul is one of their projects.
Hasre Gharkul is a hostel for children in the town of Pusad in Yavatmal district. Most of the residents are children of sex trade workers. This hostel provides an excellent atmosphere for these children to come out of the sex trade atmosphere and live and learn as children. It also tries to break the cycle of transfer of sex trade from mother to child. There are currently 47 children living in the hostel, the capacity being 50.
Hasre Gharkul was established in 1998. At the helm is Dr. Neelkanth Vithalrao Bangale, a retired government veterinary doctor. He is an extremely enthusiastic person and is a fatherly figure in the hostel. In addition to overseeing the hostel, Dr. Bangale conducts monthly meetings of sex trade workers and gives information about HIV/AIDS and protection as well as distributes condoms. He says no one wants to work as a 'prostitute'. Society makes them do it. He gives them a human face and a hope for their children. He takes them on trips to temples and gives them a chance to think freely and enjoy life. Many consider him their father.
The children love the hostel. They wake up at 5.30a and start the day with a prayer. After breakfast, they collectively clean the campus and the surroundings. Then it's homework time and off to school. Evenings are for study and playing. Everything is sponsored and paid for. Most importantly, the children love to live and learn together and carve a bright future for them.

15Feb'06 - Primary Health Center in Kali Daulat Khan, Hospital Hell

Kali is a relatively big village of about 14,000 people. It is politically divided with its different castes and religions, dirty with its clogged open gutters and crowded with its burgeoning population. It is typical of a big village. But what takes the cake is the Primary Health Center (PHC).
Kali is quite big to have its own PHC. There are about 42 villages that come under its PHC's wings and it has 6 sub centers. One can recognize it as a PHC only because there is a sign that says so. Otherwise, it is easy to mistake it as a Halloween haunted house.
Words can't describe the hell that was witnessed there. All of the patients were women who were operated on for birth control as part of the government's family planning project. There were no beds in the PHC. The women lay on dirty mattresses on the floor, 4-5 of them in each room that was so small that there was hardly any room to walk. (in the picture) Their babies, some slept, some cried in makeshift cradles that swung by ropes tied between window grills. Their families waited for them, some cooked for them right outside the PHC. They have to wait for a week before the patients are discharged.
The rooms were dark, none of the lights were working and even if they did, there was no power backup for the frequent power cuts. The floors were so dirty, one would wonder if one was on a railway platform.
A woman was vomiting next to her mattress. Her husband was frantically searching for a doctor. But there was none. It took him 15 minutes to locate the nurse. There was only one doctor and a nurse for the PHC and they too have to visit the 42 villages under their jurisdiction. 15-20 women are operated on a given day of the week. There is only one supervisor for all the patients, that too if they are lucky. What kind of a hospital is this?
The sterilizing apparatus is even more shocking. Syringes are sterilized in hot water in a pot! (in the picture) No disposable syringes! Sterilizing in water?
There is no water in the PHC. No water in a hospital?! The families of the patients have to bring water from a nearby well!
The government has set a target of around 400 birth control operations per year for the PHC. Agreed that efforts have to be made to curb our population, but sending women to this hell hole to be butchered is absolutely despicable. Is our government, our people sleeping? How many such PHC hells exist?

16Feb'06 - Subhash Sharma, The absolute solution in a farm

Subhash Sharma is a farmer, but most importantly, he a farmer with vision. He practices agriculture on his 32 acres of land, right outside the city of Yavatmal. This is a region with acute water shortage and extreme temperatures. Here, he practices agriculture with nature, being one with nature.
He used to practice farming with chemical fertilizers and pesticides till the early nineties. Then, in the late nineties, he started experimenting with organic farming. Half his plots were under chemical fertilizers and half under organic. He could compare results and by 2000, he converted completely towards organic farming. But his is not just a common organic farm. His is one that works with nature. He planted trees in his plots and developed his land to stop soil erosion. He estimated that in one monsoon season, he could lose almost 15 tons of soil from an acre. He started experimenting with contour farming. That helped to soak in most of the water and prevent soil erosion.
He also advocates mixed cropping that helps control pests, for ex. planting 'Zhendu' flowers between cotton lines. The flowers attract worms that damage the cotton buds, to lay their eggs in the flowers and spare the cotton. 'Moong' (a pulse) can also be planted between the cotton lines, which after its harvest provide important biomass as fertilizer. Sharma's philosophy is to let nature do its work. By mixing crops, he could get as much yield for cotton as with chemical fertilizers plus the income generated by 'zhendu' flowers and 'moong' sale. He refuses to interfere with nature. His cabbage plot was infected by a particular worm 'mawa' and he had written the plot off. One day he found thousands of sparrows on this plot that were attracted by the trees and eventually the worms. That saved the cabbage and only the outside leaves were eaten by the worms, before they became sparrow feed. This way, say Sharma, the worms got to eat during their life span, the sparrows got to eat the worms and we got to eat the cabbage.
The entire biomass that is generated is left in the fields. That provides important NPK nutrients. Bullocks are used to till the land and they find it easy with the soft soil. Tractors on the other hand could press the soil and hinder soil aeration. Earthworms play a big role in making the soil fertile.
Sharma tries to save and use every drop of water that falls on his land. The troughs and beds in his fields are made in such a way so as to maximize water seepage. So if there is 500-700mm rainfall, less than 40% water is needed for the crops. The rest is used to increase the ground water level. There are farm pits dug at the lowest corners of the plots to catch the overflowing water from the fields during the monsoons.
Such smart farming has made his farm very profitable and serves as a model farm example for many. The laborers on his farm are like his family and have a sense of ownership. They get good pay rates and sometimes share the profits when the market rates are higher than expected.
To farmers with less land, his advice is to form groups or communities and farm together sharing their resources. This brings the costs down and decreases risk.
Sharma says everything starts with water. If water is saved, farms can be profitable. With smart farming, using natural resources available on the farms, profits rise. This provides decent employment for people. The food is organic and healthy. Fodder is available on the farms. This solves all four issues of drought - water, food, employment and fodder. Solving issues of health, education and women follows with this prosperity. Indeed a holistic solution in this micro system!
So why isn't this approach embraced by the intellect, our government and our institutions? Is it because they are held hostage to the big corporations, to officials being 'sponsored' to advertise their products and further their agenda?

18Feb'06 - Dowry, so entrenched in culture

"Kay karaycha, poricha lagna karaychay" (what can we do, have to marry our daughter off)! It is such a casual statement here, so common. It defines a culture. A dowry culture. Where a bride's parents have to pay the groom in cash and/or in kind. It is especially very strong in the Maratha community, in this part of Maharashtra. There seem to be unwritten rules of how much dowry is expected according to the education or wealth of the groom. For a boy with 5 acres, the rate could be Rs 25,000, but if the 5 acres are irrigated, then the rate can go up to Rs 1,00,000. Again, there is a rate for someone who has a government job and a rate according to his education. It's whatever the groom's family decides what their son is worth and how much money they can get from the bride's family! This puts pressure on the bride's family. Expecting parents pray for a son. They keep trying for a boy. One of the biggest reasons for India's rise in population. Some go for Pre-Natal Determination Tests to determine the sex of the baby and even go for abortions if it is a girl. This is against the law, yet it happens. How would a girl feel when she is greeted at birth by parents with dashed hopes?
Dowry is taboo in urbane culture, but in rural culture, it is the norm. That does not mean it is not existent in urban cities. In any case, the point is that dowry signifies oppression of the woman. Why should the bride's family pay? If the bride is moving out of her house and help out in the groom's family, shouldn't the groom pay? In fact, that was or is in some cultures. Adivasis have such culture where the groom pays the bride. Unfortunately, as their culture is being influenced by the mainstream dominant culture, they too are starting to adopt the dowry culture.
A woman is sacred. Everything starts with a woman. She gives birth, a start to a new life. She nurtures the family. She works hardest in a family. Yet she suffers the most and absorbs all pain. So why isn't she accorded the high place in our society that she deserves? It's time she is.