Ain't nothing better than self-help!

Villages show that self-help is the best help (The Hindu, March 10, 2002)

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

A long held view that people do not want to contribute to better their lives in the villages has been disproved in Maharashtra. The World Bank, in a recent aide memoir, has not only confirmed it but, on that strength, has shown an inclination to fund rural water supply and sanitation projects.

On a recent visit to Maharashtra, World Bank officials found that people had chipped in with ideas, money and even physical labour to create facilities in their villages last year, which at a conservative estimate, could be around Rs. 200 crores. If that was possible, then 10 per cent share towards the projects would be normal.

Hitherto, politicians had been telling policy-makers that villagers do not or would not contribute their share for demand-driven projects and that Maharashtra, despite a fund crunch, would have to remain rooted in the supply-driven projects, which the Government as a duty has to provide. The reality is that without funds, the State Government could not provide the 90 per cent.

All of last year, Maharashtra had seen a quiet revolution, where under a village cleanliness movement, named after Gadge Maharaj, a saintly figure of the 20th century, villages were asked to clean up and show their performance on 85 counts including sanitation, hygiene, toilets, water storage etc. The best villages got rewards totalling Rs. 5 crores. This brainchild of the Rural Development Minister, R. R. Patil, triggered phenomenal enthusiasm.

Gadge Maharaj was a preacher who carried a broom tied to his waist — he died in 1957 — and first swept a village before he preached moral, societal and personal cleanliness. It was a mission whose meaning was incorporated into the programme, and the people responded.

The World Bank has recognised the "success'' of this endeavour to "build social capital'' and "empower women groups'' and thinks they can be "useful pointers for the project design'' where popular participation is a reality. It would like to have new local institutions that are "inclusive, accountable and transparent''.

Under the project, now in its second year, villages which get less than 50 per cent marks were categorised as "dirty villages'', and, sources say, in some cases, families refused to give their daughters to grooms from such villages. Those that are winners are not entitled to another cash reward but would be preferred for new projects on a priority.

Of the 42,000 villages, some 35,000 participated, 6,000 were declared "dirty'' but those who did well, did with elan. In Sangli district, for instance, the people of Tung village decided that everything would be pink, like Jaipur. But, when they came to a mosque, they stopped in their tracks. But Muslims said it was all right to daub pink on its walls too, instead of the preferred green.

The World Bank, which noted "local talent, innovation'' but requiring "training'', also found, for instance, Raanmala "clean, aesthetic'' and that Rs. 5.7 lakhs was spent by the people on a village pond. Barapur, also in Pune district, was "impressively clean''. The people funded all this.

As the State Government did not believe that popular contribution towards projects was possible and abandoned its intent and four funding proposals — including from the World Bank, the German and Japanese Governments — which required popular funding were lost.

By the time the reformed policy, which again hinged on a 10 per cent popular participation, came through in July 2000, it was too late. Some 2,817 projects, costing around Rs. 2,100 crores are on the shelf, with just 819 of them having been completed up to 75 per cent, another 490 up to half way and another 337, much less. The interest burden on this expenditure has been Rs. 134 crores in 1999-2000 and Rs. 485 crores in the subsequent year.