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Mandwa Village - A True Metamorphosis
 With the agrarian crisis spreading its deathly grip over regions earlier considered well endowed, is a self-reliant village economy a tangible dream? Is it anywhere close to an attainable goal in an era where sectoral development approaches are the norm? While attempts are afoot to find responses on different fronts, a solution that is basic, sure and sustainable is to conserve and enrich the natural resource base on which the village community depends for its sustenance and livelihood.
Mandwa located in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra effectively showcases how developing the resource base through participatory watershed development can result in overall sustainable development. It is a small village of 80 households in the Hingna taluka of Nagpur district, with a mixed community having a predominantly tribal population. All villages of this area generally being small are organised into the Gat Gram Panchayats (Group Village Panchayats), which implies clubbing together of three or four villages. Mandwa is a member of such a Gat Gram Panchayat that consists of three other villages.
Mandwa today is a clean and beautiful village with productive fields where happy and cheerful faces have replaced the distressed ones of yore. Not long ago, the scenario was completely different. Season upon season of failed rains had rendered the land unproductive and the villagers unemployed. Even during the good rainfall years, owing to the lack of irrigation facilities, agriculture was generally mere subsistent in nature. The half-year’s employment that was available in the village was far from sufficient to take care of the basic needs of the villagers and the condition was even more severe during the low rainfall years. This obviously churned out acute poverty and low standards of living for the inhabitants, thereby making seasonal migration inevitable.
Watershed has brought about the most extraordinary change in the land use pattern in the village. Prior to watershed intervention in the year 1997, the land under perennial cultivation was just 15 hectares. It has jumped to 200 hectares in as of early 2007. Vegetables were grown only over four hectares of land earlier, but it is now spread over 60 hectares. The value of crop yields has shot up from Rs 20,000 per acre in 1997 to Rs 1.25 lakhs today.
The main Kharif crops grown in the watershed include kapus (cotton), tur (pigeon pea), jowar (pearl millet), soyabean and red grams. While earlier only Kharif (monsoon) crops were cultivated, now the villagers grow a Rabi (winter) crop too, where besides those mentioned above, vegetables as well as wheat are also grown. Summer season is characterized by horticulture production. These are the hallmarks of the watershed programme underlined by the earnest efforts of the community and the supporting agencies.
The increased land fertility is reflected in the land prices, which have soared from Rs 10,000 per acre to Rs 600,000 per acre for irrigated land. Surely, the effects of a booming land trade market have petered into distant Mandwa as well. Prices of rain-fed land have also witnessed a similar rise where prices have gone up from Rs 2,000 to Rs 400,000 per acre.
Earlier, the occupational structure was such that the villagers were engaged in agriculture and agricultural labour for the Kharif season, which lasted for about five months. The summer season again provided employment in the form of collection of tendu leaves (used for rolling bidis) from the nearby forest. These leaves would be tied into bundles of a hundred each and then sold to the contractor. This activity would last for about two months and provide the villagers with an income of about Rs 40-50 per person per day.
The watershed work has brought about an unprecedented change in the occupational structure of the village. There is a resounding increase in agricultural employment and there is now very little dependence on tendu leaf collection. Earlier, the entire village was engaged in this occupation. Now this has reduced to barely 30-40 people. To work as farm labour has also become more remunerative as the wage rate has increased. Bhakraji Sahare, a landless labourer, expresses his revelry in the resplendence of the village. From the wages that he and his wife earn, they are able to send their four children to school and thus dream of a prosperous future.
Watershed development has not only brought about economic affluence, but has also enriched the village in many ways. Community organisation is the key. Since the inception of the watershed programme in the village, eight self help groups (SHGs) have been formed. There were none earlier. Today, a total of 102 women of the village are currently members of the SHGs. The total money pool of all the SHGs together stands at Rs 226,305. Apart from the SHGs, seven women of the village were also enthused to come together to form the Samyukta Mahila Samiti (SMS) in 1999.
While SHGs were merely savings groups to begin with, these have now become empowered bodies that have a prominent say in the decision-making of the village. Another noteworthy feature is that the SMS, which works as an informal federation of all the SHGs, utilised Rs 140,000 on construction of a water tank in the village as a part of the village drinking water activity. The SMS not only initiated and implemented the scheme but also manages it. A monthly water tax (pani patti) of Rs 25 has been fixed for households with a private tap connection; and those using water from public taps need to pay Rs 13 per month.
The Sant Gadgebaba Gram Swachhata Abhiyan (Village Cleanliness Campaign) has infused a tremendous sense of community spirit among the village panchayats and village organisations in rural Maharashtra. The Abhiyan offers no funds for upfront activities, but offers prize money to villages that fare well under certain criteria laid down by the government. This new development strategy evolved through the dictum “people initiate, government supports”. This has brought about overall lifestyle changes in the village.
There used to be 100 per cent ‘open defecation’ in the village in the pre-watershed days. With the help of the then Block Development Officer, Raju Gotmare, the village took on the challenge of converting itself into a completely open defecation free village. While the Block Development Office provided the village with material worth Rs 150,000 for toilet construction, the Panchayat Samiti provided the toilet pots, pipes and technical support. The village today has 80 private toilets and was recently been honoured with the Nirmal Gram Puraskar, which comprises of Rs 5,00,000, which is an award for cleanliness under the above stated ‘abhiyan’.
Mandwa’s rags-to-riches story is not just “yet another oft-heard” tale of success. The spotlight is on the indomitable spirit of Comprehensive Rural and Tribal Development Project (CRTDP) and Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) and the relentless strife of the villagers in achieving a landmark success. It is a practical fairy tale of the modern times, where wringing hands in despair is not the preferred agenda. Rather it is sheer grit and perseverance that pays off. The bright side of this tale is that it can be learnt from, replicated and relived.
To learn more about Mandwa, ask for a copy of this issue of Watershed Voices. Become a regular subscriber of Watershed Voices and be in touch with what is happening in Indian villages.
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