A bit of a surprise....

Koraput is often referred to as the Kashmir of Odisha (One person was audacious to claim it is the Switzerland of Odisha as well). Here, I lead charge of women communities in 2 Blocks of Koraput (Lamtaput and Nandapur) where we are trying to set up a Cashew processing Cooperative for the women. While these two blocks are incredibly beautiful and scenic, you also often feel a sense of desperation considering the remoteness of the place where we work in.

Koraput is extremely rich in mineral deposits which have led to many mining cohorts wanting a piece of that pie. The private capitalists versus the Naxal movement are old stories now and are probably going to continue for decades to come. However, some personal experiences which I had recently are something which I wanted to share.

While visiting one very interior village we walked close to 1.5 hours- 4-5kms in extreme heat and extremely rugged hilly conditions where there were no roads. I realised the extreme levels of hardships which these people face. There was no cellphone network, there was no electricity poles, didnt seem like they had any medical facilities and ofcourse none of the forms of entertainment which we are so used to.

So, naturally I was expecting an extremely under developed village consisting of starving, famine ridden families like the ones you see on National Geographic. But then, when I reached the place the shock which awaited me was different.

The village of Herdaguda is probably the most beautiful village I have ever seen. The entire terrain has been landscaped and terraced and lush green paddy and maize was growing all over. There were 3 tiny streams which run from the three hills surrounding the valley where the tiny village is located. I could see the streams have been cleverly diverted by the farmers so that continuous water supply is available to the farm lands (a technique known as Diverse Based Irrigation- something which these villagers obviously have never heard of but practiced anyways). There was this tiny wooden bridge which led us into the village (a pool being used by the villagers and their cattle everyday). The scenic beauty was splendid and it looked like a truly developed village with amazing social interventions.

I wanted to know which NGO had worked in this village and what kind of Govt schemes had been implemented. I started looking around for the ubiquitous Signboards which we get to see in every village in Odisha declaring the Govt Dept/ NGO which has worked on a project. However, surprisingly I couldn’t find a single such signboard. I asked the villagers in the little broken Odiya language I speak these days about the NGO which has worked in their village. They smiled back at me stating that no NGO or Govt Dept has ever come to their village. SPREAD was the first NGO which has come to them and that too only 4-5 months back. This was a total shocker- here was an example of what collective unity can achieve. The entire community consisting of 34 families have worked tirelessly for 20 odd years to achieve what I was visualising.  An example of collective action and cooperation which we all eulogise so much in the social sector, but are rarely able to achieve.

However, during our course of meeting with the villagers, I realised that all is not as well. Recent denudation of the nearby hills by wood mafia has resulted in soil erosion from the hills. As the soil contains high percentage of bauxite, the soil washing onto the agri fields in the plain lands is destroying the soil fertility and crops/agriculture. The villagers expressed that treating such vast tracts of land was out of their scope. They needed support and we needed to get into action.

This has since led me and one of my colleagues in SPREAD to initiate a project on NRM planning. Although this was already part of the SPREAD developmental agenda, the approach we are now taking is a bit different and trying to assess the demand, supply gap in labour, NREGS budget, Soil/Water conservation and livelihood initiative all within the plan. We are designing a NRM approach for the village which will ensure soil, and water conservation and also provide livelihood to the farmers in terms of NREGA and Forest Plantations and access to patta lands through FRA 2008. While this is not part of my regular deliverable as part of the fellowship, I am happy that I am attempting to make some long terms contributions to the villages in my own way. I think these small efforts on our part are what can lead to long term sustainable change.

Current status update: We have now received in principle sanction from the Govt divisions to take up the NRM project in Herdaguda. Once the entire planning process is completed and budget sanctioned, we hope to get this work initiated in the next few months. So I am hoping to leave this place with one cheerful smile :)