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Saurashtra Trail day - 2
Degam
Day two of the yatra started well, with our visit to the Degam village. We were welcomed quite ceremoniously by the villagers with a lot of eagerness and excitement regarding the events that may follow. In fact a group of young girls performed for us on the local folk songs.
Sitting in the angan of one of the villager’s houses a discussion ensued between the participants and the villagers. The participants asked about the village with great enthusiasm and the villagers readily and actively gave them the information. The discussion was largely centered on the Nayaghar initiative of SEWA. The village had 30 houses constructed through this initiative, post the Gujarat earthquake. The participants were really interested in knowing how they have built these houses to be low cost as well as disaster proof. To construct these houses the villagers with SEWA’s guidance formed a committee of 7 women and 4 men, who carried on the responsibility of having these houses built. These houses had a roof made of tiles and there was an additional supporting sturucture of plywood to prevent them from caving in, in case of a disaster and this also helped keep the house nice and cool. Some houses were also designed to cash in on rain water harvesting as this area was deprived of good drinking water.
We also discussed with the women, the work of the SHG’s in the village, especially the one which worked on solar lamps assembly and repair. 15 women were part of this SHG, but after training was given by SEWA only 5 to 6 of the women, took up the real interest in this initiative and are actively doing the work. These women were part of our discussions, and proactively explained to us the use and the benefits of the panels, and how they had empowered them to earn a livelihood. In fact, training to make such lamps was given to those women who needed the regular employment for sustenance. They mostly spoke in terms of how much these lamps were of help to the salt workers of Rann, as these lamps used the advantage of excessive sunlight in the desert and gave the workers a safe, cheap and reliable source of light.
All the participants despite the high heat, excitedly looked around the village and took part in the discussions, and finally we all enjoyed a wonderful meal at the village with fantastic homemade dhoklas.
Post lunch, we made a trip into the Rann, to have a look at the way salt is baked in the region. The workers stayed in makeshift houses in the Rann for the major part of the year that is 8 months in highly adverse conditions and no guarantee of quality salt that would help them earn a decent livelihood. The whole trip was an eye opener in terms of the hard work these people have to put in for a little amount of money. It was more or less a gamble for them, but a necessary one, for lack of an alternate means of livelihood.
Mayapur Village
Mayapur village lies in Surendernagar district of Gujarat. It is a small village of 110 families and is an excellent example of Panchayat led action for village development. This village has won the nirmal gram award in 2007 and is now under consideration for the gokul gram scheme.
The yatris were given a traditional welcome to this village after which the discussion with the community was held in the temple premises. This meeting continued till 9 Pm in the evening, during which the development of the village was analyzed and lessons learnt by the participants.
The story of this village begins after the earthquake of Gujarat. The village was completely rebuilt with the help of RSS. Led by a dynamic Panchayat this village became 100% open defecation free, with an underground drainage system, in a period of few years. The sanitation campaign was followed by infrastructure building, like cemented roads and schools. All this development was led by the Panchayat in a transparent manner and the villagers were aware of each and every paisa spent by them. All this was facilitated by social change leading to complete banning of alcohol, gutka and gambling in the village. Villagers were encouraged to preserve trees. The village has 3 women SHG groups which undertake a variety of activities. The water and electricity services are also managed by Panchayat committees.
The yatris will take a tour of the village tomorrow.
