says, “Many of us had lands in our names in the villages. But we did not return due to fear of further violence and harassment; some of our relatives in the village converted to Hinduism, so they stay in the village without fear. All the Christian families have moved to different places, so we have no one to look after our lands and we don’t know what has happened to the land. Now my husband and I work as daily labourers to eke out a living.”

Households headed by women faced acute financial hardships when they had to leave the village. Some recount how they had to flee with young children, fearing for their lives, but starved for days without food and water. Sumati remembers: “I was busy with daily chores when I got a call from one of my relatives who advised me to leave the house as a mob was coming towards our village to attack our community. I took my one-year old daughter and rushed to the nearby forest to hide. My husband had gone to Phulbani Town for some work. I was worried for him but there was no means of communicating with him.”

Sumati and her daughter with

Ten years after the Kandhamal riots, the wounds are far from

healed. On 23rd August 2008, Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, a Hindu religious leader, and four of his disciples, including a woman, were killed in his ashram at Jalaspeta, in Kandhamal District. The following day, unprecedented and gruesome violence was unleashed against the Christian minority community in the area. The targets were mainly Dalit Christians and tribal people, and persons who supported or worked with the community.

Women had to watch helplessly as their loved ones were killed, their houses burnt and their church desecrated by large, slogan-shouting mobs armed with deadly weapons. The communal violence drastically changed the lives of these people. Some have lost their livelihood, some were forced to leave their villages and those who were victims of sexual abuse have still not recovered from the trauma.

The book, Breaking the Shackled Silence: Unheard Voices of Women from Kandhamal, by NAWO (National Alliance of Women, Odisha), captures the narratives of survivors. “Those who have seen the killings of their dear ones during the violence shared their feeling of not only fear, but also loneliness and depression. They said that they found it easier to cope with their situation

How encroachments, pollution, deforestation destroy water bodies 4

October 2018 - Volume 10 Issue 10 Rs 20

I n s I d e

Land rights equality still a distant dream 2

Living with memories of a traumatic nightTen years have passed since the Kandhamal riots that shattered the lives and dreams of many socially and economically marginalised people living peacefully in one of the hilly districts of Odisha. The women, the main victims of the communal violence, are trying to adjust to the changed situation, but painful memories of that horrific night are hard to erase. A few survivors talk about the trauma they underwent, and the aftermath

in life when they were together, but when they were alone, they kept recalling memories of the killing of their dear ones,” the book says.

Speaking of the incidents of that night, a Dalit Hindu woman who was gang-raped by four or five people, says “My life has changed after the traumatic incident. I was in hiding for several years. I am traumatised, sad, depressed and struggling. I cannot forget the incident, no matter how hard I try. I feel ashamed. I continue to be fearful of darkness, loneliness, loud noises and men. I cannot sleep properly at night. I am confused and do not know what to do, as I am fearful of everything and have lost my confidence. I am not happy either. I am not at peace with myself. I am not the same person that I was any longer.”

Activist Dhirendra Panda, who had seen the violence, aftermath and the plight of this and other women from close quarters, said, “Though she is now working in an institution, she is confused and has lost her confidence. The incident has shattered her completely. She is not at peace, and tries hard to overcome the trauma she has faced. We are planning to go to the High Court [to get justice for her],” Panda says.

Sasmita Nayak another survivor of the riot, lives in a Christian Settlement Colony at Nandagiri. “Life

Communicating, working together, and aiding diversity in creativity 5

A success in fish farming and a remarkable journey for tribal women 6

Using technology innovatively to provide a toilet in every home 3

rakhi ghosh, Kandhamal/Bhubaneswar

Indian villages look to Bhutan for water 7

has completely changed now,” she says. “Here we got a pucca (solid and permanent) house, we are enrolled with the PDS (public distribution scheme), we have got an LPG connection through a government scheme, my children attend school regularly. But what we lost cannot be restored.”

The woman, who is from Bettikola Village, elaborates: “We lost everything – land, house, access to our village and forest. Earlier, we were not worried about our livelihood and food for daily consumption. We had a piece of land where we cultivated paddy and vegetables and for fruits and tubers we depended on the forest. We were living in peace. But today, my husband works as a daily labourer. And there is no certainty that work and income will be available on a daily basis. My children are deprived of nutritious food. We are looking at a blank future.”

Many women who had fled their villages during the violence were unable to return due to fear and lost access to the land that they owned. Anguri Nayak, a survivor now living at the settlement colony in Nandagiri,

A life as hard as the stones they crush 8

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Another survivor at the Nandagiri settlement colony.

A survivor, at her rented house in Salia Sahi.

October 20182

Sadly, land rights equality still a distant dream Women from small farmer households toil on the land without any legal recognition of their rights as farmers. A group of women activists set out to find out more. Here’s hoping that the experiences will enrich and strengthen the articulation of the problems and demands of women farmers and workers

Women from farmer families, particularly small

farmer households, work very hard on the land but do not get proper recognition for this. Their names are generally not mentioned in farmland records. With the increasing migration of men from many villages, the responsibilities of the women have increased but even this has not won them better recognition as farmers.

To draw attention to this and related issues, four senior members of a women's organisation, Ekta Mahila Manch, embarked on a 45-day study and mobilisation tour of India during August-September. The Ekta Mahila Manch is the women’s wing of Ekta Parishad, a national-level organisation which has been working on land reforms and land equality issues for several decades.

The march was led by Shradha Kashyap from Malwa Region near Indore, along with Kasturi Patel from Bundelkhand Region, Shobha Tiwari from Mahakaushal Region in Madhya Pradesh, and Manju Dungdung from Bihar. They have been working for around 20 to 30 years, building local leadership in their communities.

Speaking at a press conference after the march, Shradha Kashyap said women often did not see themselves as famers because they did not own land. She stressed that it was necessary for women to gain land ownership by having their name included in land title deeds for them to appreciate their status. Also giving them identity cards

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bharat dogra, New Delhi

Pictures from the women's mobilisation yatra this year.

Many are tying up with agri chains and shifting to growing exotic vegetablesWhile their counterparts elsewhere are struggling with pest attacks, adverse climate and low prices, some Adivasi farmers in Andhra

Pradesh, realising the earning potential of commercial crops and vegetables, have switched to cultivating these crops and are even tying up with organised agri-supply chains.

Chintapalli, 120 km away from Visakhapatnam, is a case in point. Moving away from the traditional practices and crops that have never given them sufficient incomes, farmers in this hamlet are gradually shifting their focus to exotic vegetables such as iceberg lettuce and broccoli.

Sinnamma (name changed) is among the 150 or so farmers in the region who grow vegetables such as broccoli over an area of about 100 acres. Though growing vegetables is not something new, it’s the slow shift to the exotic and how these farmers are accessing urban markets that is new. The switch has not been easy, especially considering the hilly terrain in which these farmers work, where water retention is limited.

The farmers have been getting support from the Horticulture Department of Andhra Pradesh, which has tied up with the Ooty-based Lawrencedale Agro Processing (Leaf) for an integrated horticulture development project. The public-private partnership has been formed with a view to supporting small tribal farmers. LEAF focusses on agri-value chains, working with the farmers in the back-end and buying back the produce for organised retail shops. It has been working with small farmers in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, procuring vegetables to meet the urban demand.

Palat Vijayaraghavan, founder and CEO of LEAF, said his firm would help Chintapalli become a key destination for fresh produce. The PPP will provide advisory services and establish post-harvest facilities. “We have about 100 acres under partnership with farmers in the Chintapalli area. Of this, carrot is covered on 75 acres, cabbage, cauliflower and beans on 20 acres and broccoli and iceberg lettuce on five acres. Over a 3-year period, the project aims to cover 500 acres supporting 800 farmers,” he added.

LEAF, which has a network of 30000 farmers in the southern states, is targeting 100-tonnes-per-day production capacity by the year end from 30-35 tonnes a day at present. It plans to gather information and guide member farmers on what to grow and how much. Chiranjiv Choudhary, Commissioner of Horticulture (Andhra Pradesh), says that little interventions are helping farmers in adding value by grading and cleaning and providing linkages to markets to realise better incomes. “This can be developed as a model that can be replicated elsewhere,” he told BusinessLine, while announcing the partnership recently.

The state grows horticultural crops on about 16 lakh hectares with a total production of 252 lakh tonnes. It registered a GVA (gross value added) of ₹35,000 crore in 2016-17. “We are expecting this to grow to ₹40,300 crore, showing a growth of nearly 20 per cent,” he said.

(Courtesy: The Hindu BusinessLine)

Adivasi farmers feed city demand for veggiesk.V. kurmanath

showing their status as farmers would gain them legitimacy in institutions serving farmers.

“The women are not able to negotiate bank loans, nor gain membership in producer organisations because the signature of their husbands is required despite the fact that the men are usually working in some other state or city,” said Kasturi. Having faced a lot of difficulties in her own life, she emphasised that women faced discrimination in local communities and in trying to sell produce in the marketplace.

Manju pointed out that even though some of the state laws had already mandated joint titles, women were not able to demand these, fearing that they would be ostracised by their families. Land rights would give them a standing which would help them confront violence in the home.

Some organisations working with deprived women had established how through land rights, asset creation would help the women establish themselves in society.

Shobha Tiwari, who has been

working independently in the tribal belt of Mahakoshal for the past 18 years, noted that women they met along the route of the march “repeatedly said they had applied to the concerned panchayat for acquiring land title deeds under the Forest Rights Act 2007, but very few had received them.”

She spoke about the lack of access for women to community forest rights as well. As Adivasi (tribal) women were the main collectors of wood from the forest and were in charge of

fodder supply for their domestic animals, this was a big problem. Without community lands, catching fish was difficult too, the team found, during their interaction with the fisherfolk in Chilka, Odisha, who faced enormous challenges in maintaining their livelihoods.

Shradha said many women were worried about getting pension, but the bigger issue for them was accessing land so that they could feel settled. This was related to the fact that all landless and homeless people in rural areas, particularly those living under plastic sheets, beside water tanks or on roadsides, required homestead land. The Ekta Parishad was trying to get Parliament to pass a Homestead Act to ensure that the number of absolutely deprived people that continually migrated could be reduced.

During the march, the activists confronted difficult situations but were able to acquire valuable information about the problems faced by women farmers and landless peasants.

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other villagers hid in the forest for four days; others had to stay hidden for nearly a week. “We had rushed out without anything – no food, water, clothes or documents. We had nothing to feed the children, and many took ill because of exposure to the elements,” she saays.

Only women and children hid in the forest. Elderly people who couldn’t walk tried to hide in the houses while there was no information about men. Though everyone (read Dalit Christians and tribal people) were the chief targets, women from any religion were targeted by the furious mob. The aggressors did not stop to ask about the women’s religious convictions, their caste, community or even their native villages. Almost all women this writer interviewed say they had been threatened with sexual assault if they did not leave the place. “We were completely frightened and the loud noises of that night still echo in our minds,” they say.

Though some people stayed in refugee camps set up in three blocks – Tikabali, G Udayagiri and Phulbani – for over a year till they were able to find places for themselves, others moved to Bhubaneswar, the capital city, for safety. “It was very difficult for us to reach Bhubaneswar, as we had never stepped outside our village. For us the safety of our family was more important, so we pleaded with a bus driver and he helped us to leave here,” says Sanju Diggal, a survivor who is now staying in the Salia Sahi slum in Bhubaneswar. It is the largest slum in the eastern region, and most of the survivors found a place to stay there, but life in the city with little income is a struggle.

“We used to sell the firewood and broomsticks we collected. But, now most of us are surviving by working as domestic servants in nearby colonies or as housekeepers in offices. Some are construction workers, but that is very hard,” says Sanju.

Before the riots, the villagers had their own houses and parcels of land on which they grew vegetables and paddy, they drew water from rivers and wells and thrived on the abundant forest resources in Kandhamal. But now they are struggling to make ends meet. “Living in a rented house, meeting daily requirements of food and other essentials, is not an easy task with a meagre income”.

Some adolescent girls and young women have taken to sex work to meet the financial needs of their families. Peace is a distant dream.

(Names of all the women survivors have been changed on request.)

October 2018 3

Using technology innovatively to provide a toilet in every home

Armed with a master’s degree from the Bartlett School of Architecture

& Planning, and expertise in Building Design for Developing Countries, Pratima Joshi set up Shelter Associates in 1993 to provide a safer and cleaner environment for the urban poor. However, she found data on urban spaces to be woefully limited. There needed to be a starting point. Planning couldn’t be done without understanding the specific needs of the people involved.

So, Pratima decided to map urban slums with the help of grassroots workers. A Geographical Information System (GIS) platform using a Google Earth-based map was employed. The exercise helped Shelter Associates complement the work of local authorities in many cities, and provide much-needed basic services to the urban poor.

However, Pratima and her team identified lacunae where sanitation services were concerned. Slums in India are routinely provided community toilets. But shared toilet blocks always come with the inherent problems. For instance, Sharmila Rege and Jayanti Sule who live in a slum in Thane, are unable to use the public toilet during late hours although it is just a stone’s throw from their homes. “After sundown, local goons use the place to drink and do drugs. They often molest women who go there to answer nature’s call,” they say.

Lack of toilet discipline means that the facilities are ill maintained. And during the rainy season, the slum dwellers have to wade through ankle-deep water just to get to the common toilet. It is especially hard for the aged and differently-abled. When community toilets are unusable, people may have no option but to defecate in the open. Many of them, particularly the women, end up with urinary tract infections.

Given these facts, Pratima’s team decided in 2005 to move away from the concept of community toilets and provide

Google Earth is a commonly used tool to locate places on a map. But Pratima Joshi, an architect in Pune, uses it to facilitate the building of personal toilets for urban slum-dwellers

individual toilets to slum households. Funds allocated under the NDA Government’s Swacchh Bharat Mission since 2014 have helped them push for the One Toilet, One Household (OHOT) model which they now uphold.

Take the case of the Premnagar Market Yard slum in Pune. There are four toilet blocks catering to 769 households comprising 3850 people. In every block, there are eight toilets, evenly divided between the two sexes. But not every family stays next door to the toilet. Besides, there may be old people and children in the homes When people are in a hurry to complete their ablutions and leave for work, school or college, there’s ‘rush hour’ at the toilets too.

The Ranawat family has 11 members living under the same roof – Sonaliben and her husband Ramesh, their two sons, two daughters-in-law, and four grandchildren. This is where a toilet in every home proves a boon. Their house has just one room and a tiny kitchen.

The Kambles have a similar one-room tenement, occupied by four members of the family. The Kambles live closer to the toilets than the Ranawats, who need to walk half the length of the slumto reach the toilet block.

“I’m afraid of slipping and breaking my bones, especially at night. Often, the toilets are dirty too,” says Sonali Ranawat, now in her mid-60s.

Since the slum had a proper drainage network, Shelter Associates figured it would not be too difficult to provide a toilet per family, in line with the Swacchh Bharat Mission. However, the houses were small, the sizes ranging from around 100 to 200 sq feet. “When we spoke to the respective families, though, they were enthusiastic. We told them the necessary materials would be provided, and they were more than willing to construct the toilets.” A third-party assessment was done with the help of the Gokhale Institute.

Since there wasn’t enough data in place, Shelter Associates decided to do the necessary mapping to plan out the toilets. It was found that nearly every house could fit in a toilet, even if it was small. Companies like Alfa-Laval, HDFC, Bank of America, Sunvac and others provided construction material as part of their respective corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes. Teaming with the Pune Municipal Corporation, Shelter Associates set about distributing toilet pans,

Continued from page 1

cement and tiles. “Since most families here have the necessary construction skills, they managed the construction on their own,” says Pratima.

According to the Swacchh Bharat Mission, each household gets a total of Rs 15000-Rs 18000, which is provided from the Central, state and municipal funds. The amount is paid in instalments, with the final instalment being given once the toilet is completed.

The OHOT model has so far been implemented across six cities in Maharashtra by Shelter Associates, facilitating the construction of more than 14500 toilets. This include slums under the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), and the municipal corporations of Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kolhapur and Miraj-Sangli. In Pimpri-Chinchwad, sanitation coverage went up from 9.5 per cent to 40 per cent.

However, the real challenge has been in places like Kolhapur, which had hardly any drainage coverage in its slums, as revealed by the GIS/Google Earth mapping. In fact, mapping proved that two-thirds of the city lacked drainage coverage. “We had to collaborate with the municipal authorities to

rina mukherji, Puneextend the drainage coverage in Kolhapur before starting work with the community. Currently, there is 50 per cent drainage coverage, with toilets catering to every household availing of it,” says Pratima.

In Sangli-Miraj, Shelter Associates opted for bio-digester toilets since the slums fell outside the municipal limits. The solid waste from bio-digester toilets is treated through an anaerobic process. The treated water released into gutters is free of all bacteria, and can be used for irrigation. Although these toilets are a little more expensive than the conventional ones, the ultimate benefits are far superior.

An Ashoka Fellow, Pratima Joshi’s innovative use of mapping to extend sanitation coverage for urban communities won her the Google Earth Hero Award in December 2009. In fact, she is the only Indian to have won it so far. She has also won the NASSCOM Social Innovation Forum 2017 Award, the India Sanitation Coalition-FICCI Award and the Times Now Amazing Indian Award, among others. She has also been a joint recipient (along with PMC) of the HUDCO Award for Sanitation Solutions. <

Living with memories of a traumatic...

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Toilet built in a one-room tenement at Premnagar slum.

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Earlier, rains lasted for a full day at least, and groundwater sources had time to recharge. Now, the trend is to receive 100 mm of rainfall in an hour.

According to Hussain, climate change leads to fluctuation in precipitation, which affects the continuous flow of water, and the springs are not recharged. “Less precipitation means less snowfall (less formation of glaciers), decline in groundwater and the continuous recharge of springs gets hampered leading to reduced flow of water. Consequently, it affects supply of drinking water”, he says. Mapping of springs would spread public awareness about the resources and promote proper utilisation and conservation.

Stressing the need for conserving and reviving springs, Ravanbale says it is possible to reclaim them with the support of the community She stresses the need for a proper study on springs in order to understand the water resource in detail. As springs are tapped and diverted for human consumption, less water is left for other ecological services and there is pressure from everywhere. Hussain too calls for a policy on spring management. Tapping of springs is important but springs outside community lands ought to be kept open so that they can flow freely, he feels.

(The story is being published as part of IHCAP-CMS Media

Fellowship Program).

There was a time when Ghulam Nabi extracted as much as one-and-a-half

quintals (1 quintal = 100 kg) of nadru (rootstock of the lotus plant) every day from the famous Manasbal Lake in Jammu and Kashmir. Nadru was abundantly available in the lake, and found a ready market, being a popular ingredient in everyday Kashmiri dishes.

Ghulam Nabi started harvesting nadru when he was around 14 years old, and spent many decades doing so. But now, he finds it difficult to collect even 10 kg of it. A resident of Koundbal, on the northeastern side of the lake, Ghulam Nabi says the availability of nadru in the lake has reduced to one-third. Unable to manage on the income from selling nadru in the market, Ghulam Nabi looked for alternate employment and now runs a tea-stall on the banks of the lake. Every day, he collects four cans of drinking water from a nearby spring and makes tea for his customers. He gets around 30-35 customers a day in season.

The 500 or so households in the village were entirely dependent on the lake for nadru and fish. A license fee of Rs 1500 per year has to be paid to the government for permission to extract nadru. As the resources of the lake declined, the local people shifted to alternative sources of income, such as manual labour, carpet weaving, stone cutting, etc.

Just outside Ghulam Nabi’s tea-stall is a small market of street vendors. Sipping tea, Abdul Gani Kuchay, a 71-year-old street vendor, reiterates that he had learnt from his elders that there were 1200 springs within the water body. In the

How encroachments, pollution and deforestation destroy water bodiesThe Manasbal Lake, which once provided not only ample potable water but livelihood support for surrounding villages, now languishes, with its life-giving springs drying upafsana rashid, Manasbal (Ganderbal), Kashmir

past, people used water from the springs and the lake for drinking and other household purposes. “These springs have become weak now. No one uses the lake water now and the availability of tap water depends on the availability of electricity,” he says. He feels it would be of great help to the community if the springs are restored.

Another street vendor, Mohammad Maqbool, says that some springs have been encroached upon and others have dried up. The output from the springs declined immediately after a concrete wall was put on the periphery of the lake. Another reason for reduced discharge was the underground trench dug for latrines/toilets he feels.

Ghulam Nabi, too, blames the concrete structure for the situation. In his opinion, the veins of the springs have been blocked. He emphasised the need to educate the local community that encroachment or pollution of the lake would put their sustenance in jeopardy.

Many villages around the water body do not have safe drinking water. While some villages (Koundbal, for instance) lack tap water, residents of others (like Gratbal) allege that the tap water supplied to them is not properly treated. Even after reporting it to the concerned quarters, only cosmetic measures were taken to address the issue, say the locals.

Women from Koundbal Village have to walk a couple of kilometres to reach the closest spring to collect water for drinking and other household purposes. A group of women from Gratbal, while washing clothes in one of the springs

alongside the lake, say they prefer spring-water to tap water for drinking and other household purposes.

Irfan Rashid, Majid Farooq, Mohammad Muslim and Shakil Ahmad Romshoo in a research paper, Assessing the Impact of Anthropogenic Activities on Manasbal Lake in Kashmir Himalayas, published in the International Journal of Environmental Sciences, observe that various anthropogenic activities in the catchment area of the lake had tremendous ecological and socio-economic importance, and represented the way people treat the lake ecosystems in the Himalayan Region. The water quality of the lake, it says, was deteriorating and changes in the distribution of flora and fauna have been significantly affecting its trophic status. The degradation had serious implications on the livelihood of the people dependent on services and goods based on the water body.

The researchers say Koundbal is significant among the villages that surround the lake as it is situated on a hill made up of a huge proportion of limestone. The run-off from the hill infuses huge quantities of calcium into the lake. Most of the families in the village work in limestone quarries / kilns in the area and the stone quarrying and kiln work has a direct bearing on the water quality of the lake and also leads to environmental degradation that has negative implications on human health.

Most of the diseases people in the region are prone to related to the respiratory tract, the researchers add. Pollutants released from the quarries and kilns affect biodiversity,

particularly fish species in the lake. A species of fish, Ram Gurun (Bortiabirdi), which was found in abundance just a decade ago, is now extinct in the water body, the researchers add.

Open defecation in the adjoining areas, and use of soap and detergents while washing clothes in the spring waters, affect the flora and fauna of the lake, cautions Akther Hussain, an environmental researcher, adding that government should seriously look into the matter. Quoting local sources, he says there are 1200 springs within the lake and about 100 springs around it. The majority of these springs had been encroached on.

The Manasbal Lake located 30 kilometres from the city centre is said to be the deepest lake (at 13 m depth) in the Kashmir Valley. It is about five kilometres long and a kilometre wide. The lake is also connected with the River Jhelum, considered the lifeline of the Valley. The surface area of the lake is reported to have declined to 2.67 square kilometres.

Ninety-nine percent of potable water in mountainous areas comes from springs, says Seema Ravanbale, head of Innovate Project, People Science Institute (PSI), Dehradun. At some places, springs are used for minor irrigation purposes, like watering vegetable gardens. “But the springs have been neglected and at most places they are dying,” she says. No agency has specific data on the number of springs but, according to rough estimates, there are around three million springs in the Himalayan Region.

Climate change, changing land use patterns and deforestation are some of the reasons for springs drying up, she says. High intensity rainfall leads to flash floods and recharge of groundwater is not happening.

October 20184Ph

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The glory of Manasbal Lake, about 30 kilometres from Srinagar, is fast fading away.

A spring along the bank of the Manasbal Lake in Ganderbal District finds its way to the water body. Conservation of the spring is the need of hour.

Abdul Gani Kuchay, 71-year-old street vendor along the Manasbal Lake, aspires to see the springs restored.

A view of a concrete structure raised around the springs along the Manasbal Lake.

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The Rekha Smriti Trust was the brainchild of Jaya Gaur, an ardent art

lover. The aim was to foster rural development by creating self-employment opportunities through art, craft and design in Bhopatpur. Sasatwa Foundation was started by Satyabhama Majhi, an accomplished artist in Odisha, for the development of women and children through art. It was designed not only to transform the mindset of village women and children towards art but also to bring about a radical change in the lifestyle and socio-economic status of the community, especially the women, through painting.

Jaya Gaur took the initiative for Project Pankhi, and achieved it with the help of Satyabhama Majhi as well as Sidharth Mohanty, a designer based in Bhubaneswar who has vast experience in social development programmes.

“As an artist we display our work in galleries but when we are doing community art projects in villages or rural areas, it is a totally different experience. I strongly believe that positive thought and positive work always yield positive results. That's exactly what happened in this village. We decided that the best thing was for the women to do their drawings on the walls. The result is this amazing wall art. Every colour of their minds and souls is reflected on the walls. Bringing a smile to others’

Communicating, working together, and aiding diversity in creativityProject Pankhi, a unique bid to connect local artists with their peers across the country, was held from August 1 to 6 in Bhopatpur Village of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. A joint effort by the Sasatwa Foundation based in Bhubaneswar and Rekha Smriti Trust from Azamgarh, it was organised at the community level. A special exercise to bring artists and village women together to help the latter unleash their creative energies produces stunning resultsaditi panda, Bhubaneswar

faces is the best thing to do in life. A big thanks to Jaya Gaur who is genuinely trying to bring more people into this initiative and change their lives through it,” says Sathyabhama.

The drawings were inspired by traditional art forms like alpana or the wall art they customarily do during weddings, or by their regular household activities like cooking and cleaning. The artists helped them use their imagination to paint the murals. Three artists helped create the sculpture park for children based on the theme of Education Through Play.

Within the space of a week, with active community involvement, the local village women and children created murals and a children’s park. Aditi Bhattad, an artist from Nagpur, says: “It was a great experience working in the village. The women and kids were very enthusiastic, loving and caring. They were very confused in the beginning. Some of them actually said that they had never held a pencil. But after the wall painting was finished, they were happy and satisfied with their work. That makes us happy and gives us immense satisfaction. The love and adulation they gave is unforgettable and cannot be expressed in words.”

“When Satyabhama and I visited Azamgarh in June to conceptualise Project Pankhi, I knew I was a part of a revolution. As a project planner, I really

October 2018 5

Professor M.S. Swaminathan, founder of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai, was awarded the first World Agriculture Prize at the 11th Global Agriculture Leadership Summit in New Delhi recently. He received the award from India's Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu at the event hosted by the Indian Council of Food and Agriculture. The M.S. Swaminathan Junior Research Fellowship — to be awarded from 2019 onwards — was also instituted on the occasion.

Talking about the fellowship, Prof Swaminathan said that the cash associated with the prize would be used for creating fellowships at MSSRF at the post-graduate level, to convert the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into field-level accomplishments. The fellowship would help promote linkages between agriculture, nutrition and health, through a Farming Systems for Nutrition programme.

The fellowship would be an opportunity for young scholars to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including eradication of hunger and climate change. The five areas considered for the fellowship are: the UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 of Zero Hunger, Farming System for Nutrition (FSN), genetic garden of bio-fortified crops and halophytes, bio-valley for curative and culinary diversity and eco-technologies for eco-enterprises

Research scholars may submit their applications to the executive director, MSSRF, at executivedirector@mssrf.res.in, by November 30. A monthly stipend of ₹25000 will be provided.

(Courtesy: The Hindu)

Prof M.S. Swaminathan receives World Agriculture Prize

appreciate Jaya Gaur for taking this noble initiative, contributing to the betterment of the village and for making me a part of it,” says Sidharth Mohanty, artist / project planner. “In this one week at Bhopatpur, I was very thrilled to see the village women come up with such honest, innocent, forms of expression, and depict them in vibrant colours on the wall. The result has been very satisfying. The artists worked tirelessly giving every support to the villagers. Even the sculptors have done a great job. I am

now looking forward to Project Pankhi's next venture,” he adds.

Explains Mumbai-based Kalyani Uday, “Initially, when we asked the women of Bhopatpur Village to draw on paper, they were quite reluctant as most of them hadn't ever touched a pencil in their lives. But with a little motivation from the artists, they gradually started expressing themselves, making various drawings on paper, creating motifs and forms related to their rural culture, surroundings, etc. I personally

felt it was important for their work to represent their true personality and emotions and it was important for them to be honest while expressing those emotions on the walls. Thus, while working, I tried to be a part of the village by making friends with the women. The result was outstanding. Project Pankhi gave the women a great opportunity to prove their creativity.”

Providing the finishing touch.A local artisan at work.

Children drawing on a wall.

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A success in fish farming and a remarkable journey for tribal women

s. kiran, Visakhapatnam

October 20186

In Vizianagaram District's Pachipenta Mandal, near the state's border with

Odisha, lies the nondescript Kodikallavalasa Village. Bereft of any substantial development, it is close to the Peddagadda Reservoir, a medium irrigation project built on a tributary of River Suvarnamukhi, which is a tributary of Nagavali.

Fish rearing was the occupation of the men-folk but they made very little out of it, just enough to eke out a living. Things changed substantially with the intervention of an NGO: Centre for Aquatic Livelihood – Jal Jeevika. In association with the Tata Group's philanthropic arm, Tata Trusts, they introduced them to efficient ways of fish farming. In partnership with the state fisheries department, the programme began in January 2016 when Tata Trusts' field lead Padmakar Bojja began discussions with the local fisheries cooperative society.

Income from pisciculture was so low till then that even the president of the fisheries cooperative society, Kondal Rao, was contemplating migrating to Chennai to make ends meet as a labourer. However, with sustained guidance on efficient ways of fish farming, the community saw a turnaround in its fortune. So much so that on December 4 last year, six women of the local Neelammathalli Self-Help Group (SHG), led by Pakki Ratnalamma, received the award of Entrepreneur

There is a reason why water bodies are considered a resource. From the water they provide to the many living organisms they support, water bodies are constantly supplying us with things essential to our survival. They also provide livelihood as this story of some enterprising tribal women in a remote village in Andhra Pradesh exemplifies. Until a few years ago, they were collecting and selling firewood from the forest for Rs 40 a day. After adopting fish rearing recently, they became so successful that they have begun to win laurels for their business exploits

Of The Year instituted by the Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar.

Padmakar says that when he visited Kodikallavalasa Village in January 2016, he observed that members of fisheries cooperative societies were not making use of the cage technique of fish rearing. In this method, fertilised fish eggs (called fish seeds) are placed in a square or rectangular enclosure and are fed until they are ready to be harvested. One of its many advantages is that unlike netting fish in an open water body, here fishes are confined to the enclosure making catching them hassle free. Using the cage method, fish can be cultivated throughout the year. This method enables fish rearing even in seasonal ponds that have water only for three to four months.

During his conversation with members of the Neelammathalli SHG, Padmakar suggested to the women that they take up the cage method of fish rearing. Initially, they were reluctant and it took much persuasion for about 40 women to attend a meeting with the district fisheries officer in March that year. To impress upon them the economic potential of inland fisheries, they were taken on an exposure visit to Dimbhe Reservoir in Pune, Maharashtra. There, they saw how rural women had begun earning Rs 6000-8000 per month by following the NGO’s recommendations. After the trip, 10 women from Kodikallavalasa

showed interest in learning the method.

Jal Jeevika organised trainings for them and showed them how to build a cage with locally available materials such as bamboo (e-commerce platforms sell fish cages for as much as Rs 1.2 lakh.) It educated women about constructing cages and about cage culture, its maintenance, ornamental fish rearing, managing fish feed, disease management, etc.

With the aid of the state fisheries department, extensive capacity-building measures were taken and the women set about looking after a cage in rotational shifts. Their efforts began to yield results and they could spot maturing rohu fish in the enclosure. However, they were unaware that when these fish grow in size, they would be capable of jumping out of the cage and to the reservoir. The women recognised the problem only after much of their fish stock disappeared. They held discussions and decided to use their old saris to cover the cage.

Unfortunately, that was not the only time they encountered a setback. Not long ago, they had released 10 lakh fish spawn in a pond with government aid. But drought hit soon after, drying up the pond. The women had to transfer fish seeds to the cages. In fact, it was the first time that they were seeing a cage. With guidance from Jal Jeevika, they oversaw the growth of about one lakh sale-ready fish seeds but a drunk man, miffed with women's rising stature in his community, poisoned the enclosure and brought their progress to a screeching halt.

One of the women involved in fish rearing, Misala Bangaramma, says that they almost gave up the venture after that episode. She says, “Once we got over the shock, we summoned our resolve to go ahead with the endeavour as that was the only way we could make a decent living and teach others how to do it for themselves.”

Learning by trial and error, the women of the SHG demonstrated perseverance, which paid off on October 9, 2017 when they sold 5000 finger-sized young

fish, weighing about 65 kg and earned Rs 10800.

Neelkanth Mishra, the founder of Jal Jeevika and an Ashoka Fellow (fellowships are awarded to social entrepreneurs who solve social problems), says this is a remarkable journey for tribal women who had nothing to do with fisheries, yet ventured into this field, learnt the tricks of the trade and finally succeeded. He acknowledges that it took them almost a year and a half to deliver results but contends that the confidence it has instilled in the women is remarkable.

Ratnalamma of Neela-mmathalli SHG says, “Earlier only men-folk of our community would catch fish and sell them and the women would know nothing about how much money they were making." She compared those days with the present, where men as well as women sell fish, contribute to the household income and are aware of their finances.

Women's success in fish farming has inspired men, too. Rao says now the men's cooperative too has started working on developing a sustainable income. “They are so inspired and driven by the economic potential of pisciculture that now they want to be the best fishery cooperative in the district,” he says.

Buoyed by the success story of Kodikallavalasa Village, Mishra says his NGO wants to engage 10000 ponds across the country for inland fish rearing

this year. In 2017, Tata Trusts and Jal Jeevika introduced more than 160 rural people in four districts of Andhra Pradesh (Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam and Anantapur) to efficient ways of fish farming. According to the NGO, such local enterprises fetched about Rs 1.1 crore in a year.

According to the Andhra Pradesh government, inland fisheries sector is providing livelihood to about 14.5 lakh people in the state. In 2014-15, fisheries contributed to 5.4 percent of the gross state domestic product. The southern state is number one in fish and prawn production in the country. The state's long coastline (974 km) and productive freshwater bodies (3.4 hectares of ponds and tanks; 0.9 lakh hectare of freshwater Kolleru lake; 2.4 lakh hectares of reservoir area; and rivers and canals running 11415-km-long) provide immense potential for fish rearing. With guidance and government support, these water bodies are capable of uplifting communities that live around them.

(Courtesy: India Water Portal. The writer is the

executive director of a Visakhapatnam-based NGO, Vikasa, and a member of 101

Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.

After decades, women are coming out in the open to sell fish and beat the male dominance in the fishing industry. They are now in a better position, both financially and socially.

Members of the SHG set the stage for fish rearing.

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the health service,” says Anil Gope, a Jungle Line resident.

Ajay Kharia, the local gram pradhan (village head) of Bundapani concedes that the problem is grave but says that the administration has already been informed. “We have already alerted the concerned authorities about the problems faced by the people. They have assured me that they will take adequate action to solve the water crisis.”

Tanmay Biswas, the blo-ck development officer of Madarihat, under whose jurisdiction Bundapani falls, agrees that the entire block is reeling under water crisis and a proposal has been sent to the government to install more tube-wells. “Almost all the blocks in my jurisdiction is facing water crisis. We have already asked the state government to accept our proposal of installing more water pipes in the area,” he says. He, however, refuses to speak much about the problems faced by people in Bundapani citing that he has been newly transferred to the area and is yet to understand it fully.

(Courtesy: India Water Portal)

Published by Sashi Nair on behalf of The Press Institute of India - Research Institute for Newspaper Development, RIND Premises, Second Main Road, Taramani CPT Campus, Chennai 600 113 and printed by V. Manivannan at R.V. Printers, No.1, 127 Lattice Bridge Road, Adayar, Chennai 600 020. Editor: Sashi Nair

October 2018 7

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Situated in the foothills of Bhutan, Bandapani Tea Estate was once

a thriving tea garden where thousands of people worked. It has been six years since it has closed its operations. Surjanand Tamang, head clerk of the tea estate says that most of the tea gardens located in the foothills had an agreement with the Bhutan administration for water supply. “The water drawn from underground was not enough for the tea gardens so the owners had an agreement with the Bhutan administration for supplying water. They (Bhutan) used to charge Rs 8000 annually from each tea garden. But we (Bandapani) stopped paying bills after the tea garden was closed in 2012 but they continue to give us water. They occasionally send reminders for clearing the dues but owners are yet to take note of it,” he says.

The closure of the garden kick-started the water woes of nearly 20000 people living in four villages — Kalibari, Nepali Lane, Jungle Line and South Line — surrounding the Bundapani Tea Estate with a majority of them constituting erstwhile tea garden labourers. One such labourer, Gopal Lama says that the authorities used to supply water to them through pipes at fixed hours of the day but it stopped after the closure of the garden.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Finding no alternative source of water, the villagers chanced upon an idea. They made a hole in the iron pipe that supplied water to the tea garden from Bhutan. “We had no alternative left as there were no other sources of water. Our children could have died of starvation had we not done this for water,” adds Lama justifying the step taken by them.

The pipe passes through a dense jungle. Villagers collect water from this ‘leaked’ pipe every day risking their lives to attack from wild animals. Villagers say that at least six to seven attacks by wild elephants on villagers are reported every month. Recently, 25-year-old Nandaram Orao, en route to fetch water, was trampled on and killed by elephants.

Wild elephants also destroy the pipe. “Wild elephants are quite regular in the area where the pipe is located. They often damage the water pipe. It adds to our inconvenience as we have to invest in repairing it. It normally takes many days to repair as mechanics are not easily available here as this is a remote area,” says Shekhar Gowala, a student who has the responsibility of collecting money for the repair of the pipe.

Villagers say that it often gets difficult to collect water from the pipe as several people from the neighbouring villages also depend on it. “People from other villages also come here to take water. It is riskier to go inside the deep jungle during the night because of wild animals,” says Damini Minj (22), a Kalibari resident. The alternative is a tap located at the slum, Aiba basti, which is about eight kilometres from the villages.

Minj says she, along with other women, travels three to four times a week to Aiba basti for water. “We go by bicycles or walk. We start the journey even before the break of the dawn to avoid the crowd at the daybreak to collect water. We sweat profusely while cycling with 30-40 litres of water filled in the jars.”. Minj says the path to the foothills is fraught with dangers of elephants and other wild animals. “The stretch is muddy and full of potholes which make it difficult to ride the bicycle with heavy water-filled jars. Moreover, we are at a constant risk of being targeted by wild elephants and snakes. The government has done nothing for us. The political leaders come during elections and disappear

after that,” she adds. Villagers say that the majority of the 13-15 hand pumps installed in four villages do not work and even the operational ones give dirty water not fit for drinking.

The apathy of the administration can be gauged from the fact that it has recently constructed a water tank in Kalibari which works only with the solar energy. “It is a sheer mockery of our miseries. The water tank is able to draw water from underground only when the sun is strong. We have to stand in a long queue for several hours to get a bucket of water with a prayer on the lips for sunshine. They should have connected it with electricity,” fumes Gisna Kundu, a homemaker.

Apart from potable water, villagers also have to make perilous journeys multiple times for daily chores such as washing of clothes. “The situation gets worse in summers when the demand for water is high. It is daunting to travel kilometres with heavy buckets of water. We often have to make several trips when there are guests at home. Mostly the women folk have the responsibility of bringing water as men are out of the house for work,” she adds.

The villages across Bundapani are surrounded by the Charu Nadi (river), which should ideally be their water source. But the river is dammed by Bhutan and there is water in the river only when Bhutan releases it from its dams. The river, however, overflows during monsoon, snapping the villages off from the rest of the district. “The overflowing river disconnects us from the rest of the district. Children miss schools for days till the water level recedes. The worst hit is

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Some Indian villages look to Bhutan for waterA lot has been discussed about the acute water crisis in many parts of India. But who would have thought some villages in rural West Bengal would have to depend on a neighbouring nation for water? Thanks to administrative failure, four villages surrounding the Bandapani Tea estate in Alipurduar District of West Bengal, around 600 kilometres from Kolkata, get water from Bhutan for their daily needsgurVinder singh, Alipurduar, West Bengal

Damini Minj cycles a long distance to collect water from Aiba basti.

At Aiba basti, villagers like Gisna Kundu (in picture) wait for hours to get their water carriers filled.

Villagers made a hole in the water pipe from Bhutan so they could take water for their use.

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Pauzachiin, who is in her mid-fifties, is crushing stones in one of the

makeshift tents lining the roadside of River Lanva Bridge in New Lamka (south Manipur). “I cannot begin work early, only after finishing my domestic chores,” says the mother of five. Her husband collects the stones from the river and she crushes them.

In a nearby tent, Niangngaih and her family crush stones manually with a hammer. So do Kim and her husband in their tent down the line. There are also women who work alone – a widow, a single mother. In most cases, though, in these migrant families, husband and wife work side by side in their self-made temporary tents — made from used banners or just an umbrella and old tarpaulin.

Their work is informal, they cannot say how much they can do in a day. Also, there are spells of no work, like during the monsoon, when the river brims over and there’s no way they can venture into it to collect stones for crushing. By and large, these are families that came down from the villages in the hills to the town, looking for alternate sources of livelihood. Regular farming or even jhum (shifting) cultivation could hardly provide for their own daily consumption needs, let alone earning a regular income.

Not only have they moved physically, but there is also a shift from their primary livelihood – that is cultivation and cultivation-related activity — to labour or manual work in the town. This provides them a new economic activity as they earn an income, however small.

These families shift from one employment to another. And jobs do not come easy. Nevertheless, compared to rural life, coming

Away from home, it's a life as hard as the stones they crushMigrant families along River Lanva in south Manipur face an uncertain future

to town has its advantages; for one, education for their children, and access to hospitals. Though jobs are not permanent, they can always look for alternatives. What keeps them going is the small income they earn.

River Lanva runs through New Lamka and therefore these

migrant families rent houses in and around this locality. Pauzachiin, Niangngaih and their like hammer the stones collected from the river bed or its banks to about 20 mm in size. The crushed stones are measured by way of 15-kg oil tin containers. A tin of crushed stone is priced at ₹25. Obviously, the more hands to a family, the greater the income. The stones collected in the tin containers are sold to the local customers for construction of houses and buildings.

Lanva River has dried up since long. But during monsoon, the river is full and the town, in recent years, has frequently been experiencing flash floods as the water level suddenly rises. One reason cited for the disaster caused by river Lanva is the disappearing of stones and sand from the river bed.

Local residents and civil societies want collection of

ningLun hanghaL, New Lamka, Manipur

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Hundreds of men and women in queue, with plastic buckets, waiting for their turn to get water from the supply tanks. That was the scene witnessed this June in most parts of Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, including the elegant Mall Road that is compared to the streets of London and Paris.

The Queen of Hills was starved of water in the peak tourist season as most places did not get supply for around 10 days due to depleting levels at the water sources. As taps ran dry for days, people suddenly remembered their traditional source of water — the baolis or baudis. They made a beeline for the baudis, in and around the town, with cans and buckets in their hands, to get water. (A baudi is a kind of stoned pit where water percolates naturally from the surface of the earth). Though the

stones/sand from the Lanva River bed to be banned. The migrant families living in their makeshift tents are aware of the demand. “We hear there is talk of evicting us from here” says Pauzachiin. “But where do we go?” she asks. “What about those who take truckloads of stones and sands from the river every day?” she poses.

There has been no serious move until now to ban collection of stone/ sand from the Lanva River bed and banks, Niangngaih says. But on rare occasions, officials would visit the area and tell them to find other work. “But they have not forced us to stop until now,” says Niangngaih, adding, “if they ban us, they must also ban those trucks with huge loads of stones.”

“We do not destroy the river, nor does it get dry or flooded due to our collecting the stones,”

asserts Pauzachiin. Any impact because of their work would be minimal, she argues, as against those who use machines for large-scale collection of stone and sand.

Pauzachiin also points out that there is natural regeneration during the monsoon. “Stones and sand come along with the river water when it rains and fill up the river beds,” she says.

Though there are no restrictions imposed as of now, there is uncertainty. How long will the river provide them stones and sand? How long can they carry on their work on the roadside? Only the sands of time will tell.

(Courtesy: The Hindu BusinessLine)

Baudis show the way out of thirstsarita brara, New Delhi

Women of migrant families crush to small pieces stones fetched from the river.

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Traditionally, the bride fetches water from the baudi as she enters her new home.

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water crisis eased a bit after the pre-monsoon showers, what it did was draw the attention of the authorities as well as the people to the urgent need to revive traditional natural water sources and conserve this precious resource.

“While there are several baudis in this historic town and its surroundings, water in most of these natural water bodies has become unfit for drinking or has dried up due to sheer neglect. This, despite the fact that the reverence for natural water sources, like baudis, is entrenched deeply in the social and cultural life of the people of the state,” says Krishan Kumar Sharma from Bharol, a village close to Shimla.

“These baudis are sacred to us and Khwaja, the jal devta (water deity), is worshipped by people in the villages at these natural sources. Special prayers are organised before the advent of summer at these baudis in the belief that the ritual will ensure that the water body does not dry up.” Sharma rues that the new generation does not bother to take adequate care of these natural water resources which are suffering due to neglect and abandonment.

However, in many villages, special committees have been set up to protect these water bodies. The Shiv Baudi near Summer Hill under Andghri village, which saw a rush of people during the crisis in Shimla, is one such. Sanjeev Thakur, the village head, says that baudis hold a very special place in their cultural and social life. Suman Kishore, the priest of the temple built over the baudi, keeps this one under lock and key for its safety. “But people can draw water from a tap that is connected with the baudi through a pipe,” he says.

In several other baudis too, water is protected by a covered roof with a tap available to access the resource. The deputy pradhan (chief) of Tundal Panchayat, near Kandaghat, explains how, on the first day of the month of Ashad (monsoon season), villagers worship the water deity and prepare special dishes on the occasion.

Traditionally, these water bodies have always been part of the village marriage rituals. After the ceremony, when the bride reaches the village of her in-laws, she draws water from the baudi and offers it to her husband’s relatives, symbolising her official entry into the family. “Earlier there was no piped water supply and since it is the women who fetch water, the new bride would learn from where to fetch water,” explains Sharma. He says that it was not just a ritual, the whole idea of our ancestors was to emphasise the significance of these traditional water sources and the need to preserve them.

(Courtesy: The Hindu BusinessLine)