Features & Articles

Community Initiative Brings Wonders to Singhari
Article written by Sudhir Pal

They have nothing to do with the National River Linkage Project and the benefits or harms it would accrue. There are many among them who have not heard anything about this Project. They only know about linking their own community ponds and that because of their efforts no one in this once parched village of Jharkhand is now thirsty. The ponds of the village now never go dry across the year and the plentiful harvests fill the villagers with a happiness previously unknown to them.

In fact, the inhabitants of Singari village of Tanti Panchayat in Ranchi district have found a talisman which has radically changed the lot of their village and their lives. This village with a population of about 2,000 has 18 ponds and is known as the talabonwalla gaon in the area. Some of these are on government lands and some on lands in private possession. Earlier, these ponds had water only during the rains and for the rest of the months people had to carry on without water. Before 1978, water scarcity in the village forced people to migrate out and it worried the villagers. Lots of people would go to Assam, Calcutta and Dhanbad for employment and consequently the Tusu Mela organized every year in the village would wear a desolate look. It is said that only about 12 families would remain in the whole village because of their inability to migrate for this or that reason.

People were allotted water shares during the rainy season depending on the size of their landholding, but this water couldnt last for the rest of the year for irrigating crops. The elders of the village were of the view that large scale migration of the villagers each year might result in several social imbalances. But on the other hand, it too was true that they couldnt be stopped and forced to live in utter water scarcity and lack of livelihood. Water problem had assumed alarming proportions and it were the villagers themselves who found out its solution.

The whole village sat together and pondered over how to find water sources. The villagers elders knew well about their whereabouts and according to their advice the villagers decided to dig ponds on the spots where Dandis used to be. Dandis were centuries old water sources with plenty of water across the year. In the olden days, each mohalla had its own separate Dandi but with time they dried up because of lack of care and conservation. Now, thousands of rupees were required for digging ponds and it was beyond the poor villagers to arrange such a big amount. Hence, on the advice of the village elders each villager agreed to provide voluntary labor for the purpose. In the meanwhile, the migrated villagers also started retuning from cities and the community initiative began. Ponds were dug and 900 acres of land is being irrigated with their waters. It has brought a sense of well being in the village. It now has 18 ponds and people no more migrate in search of livelihood. Asfand Yaar Khan of Agrarian Assistance Association says migration has stopped because of the ponds and its nature has also changed.

It has also changed the crops and mode of farming. Earlier, the farmers of Singari used to sow maize, madua, millet, rahad and gendli because of chronic water scarcity and satiated their hunger eating genthi, kanda, kondha, chakod and saag. Now, they too have taken to sowing rice, wheat and various kinds of vegetables. They also take their yields to far off corn and vegetable markets. Etwa Bedia, the President of the Gramin Majdoor Vikas Samiti says that growing of various food crops and vegetables have brought some affluence to the farmers of this village.

The transformation brought to the village by the digging of ponds attracted the attention of the Government and it started its efforts to build the village as a Model Village way back in 1979. People from the Food & Agriculture department started coming to the village for imparting education to the villagers. In the beginning, the villagers had many apprehensions and feared the intervention of these outsiders, but the erstwhile Tribal Welfare Commissioner B. K. Saxena set their fears to rest and they were persuaded for acquiring reading and writing skills. They would go to school having finished their days work. They were also provided information on agriculture and cattle breeding. All this brought a qualitative change among them. They stated realizing the importance of education, particularly of girls. Educated youth of the village started a school for this purpose.

After ponds, they thought of digging wells. This time Government support was also available and they dug 12 wells with community labor. The community awareness had enhanced significantly by now and the whole exercise continued without any hindrance. Etwa says the Government put its attention to the development of the villagers after the villagers demonstrated their awareness and initiative. Several development works have been done in Singari and all this became possible only for the reason the villagers in a way adopted the Government schemes as their own. The monitoring and management of these schemes was taken by the villagers in their own hands.



CHARKHA FEATURE
LAST UPDATED ON October 2004