The Eternal Challenge of Rural Credit

I first started thinking about the role of credit when I was doing a study on credit in tribal areas. For some time I had been planning to visit some very interior tribal habitations. So, I choose an interior village named   "Boddagandi" for the study. Before I discuss about credit in general, Let me discuss a bit about the specific scenario in the village. Its a small village on top a hill surrounded by forests all around. There are very few travel options because of the up hill ride and lack of proper road. So obviously there are accessibility issues when it come to the village. Since we are talking about credit I should mention that there is a bank which is 30 kms away from the village.Again because of lack of transport they will have to reach this bank by foot.

With that in context, let me outline some broad observations from the study. Not a single person in the village had taken a loan form the bank in the past 2-3 years because they were just too afraid of banks. No MFI's have ever reached this village. The average loan taken was around 5000 rupees. The most popular sources were SHG and GCC ( Girijan Co-operative Corporation).

Now let me jump out of this and talk about credit in general by taking the example of above village. Credit generally has four characteristics:
Accessibility, Adequacy, Timeliness and Affordability.

Adequacy: This characteristic is basically about weather the quantum amount of loan given is sufficient to meet the need. if the quantum is not sufficient then he/she will have to resort to informal lending channels which are very costly.In the above village the average loan was quite low at around 5000 which might actually not be a sufficient  amount to meet many of their needs. Also SERP, the oldest and probably the best of the SRLM's facilitated 10651 crores to its 442032 groups though its SHG bank linkage program. Thats a per group fiannce of  240995. Assuming a group has around 15 members then the per member finance would be around 16000 per annum which is no way sufficient to pull a person out of poverty. Some development expert told me sometime back that access to atleast a lakh of money is necessary to pull a family out of poverty. That shows how far we are yet to go in providing adequacy.  But this aspect is closely related to debt carrying capacity of the person. So the challenge is in finding the balance between the quantum of loan to meet the need and the debt carrying capacity of the person

Accessibility: This characteristic is basically about how easily accessible a credit source is. One of the many reasons for the success of MFI's was their accessibility. They would deliver the loan at your door step. Also the preference of informal lending channels to government lending channels is because of their accessibility. Government lending channels generally lack this aspect of credit. Though in the above village both sources of preferred credit are government sources that is because of the complete absence of other credit sources due to inaccessibility of the village

Affordability: Affordability refers to the cost of the loan. Generally government lending channels are easily affordable than informal lending channels. High cost of informal lending channels is one reasons for the perpetual debt crisis in rural areas. Informal lending channels make up for lack of affordability by being better at accessibility. In the above village both of them being government sources the cost of the loan was between 4% and 12%.

Timeliness: Timeliness refers to whether the credit is received  in time to meet the need. Not receiving credit on time is another reason for resorting to high cost debts from informal lending sources. This aspect is especially critical during emergencies like deaths. In the above village both the sources SHG and GCC take time time for delivering the credit. At least a couple of weeks to a month. Again government sources tend to be poor in this aspect compared to informal lending sources.

To sum it up informal lending sources are still prevalent because they are generally good at Accessibility, Adequacy an Timeliness. Government scores over informal lending sources when it comes to Affordability. So for government to be the preferred lending source it has to improve on those three characteristics. Some measures seem to be taken in this direction like the "Sthreenidhi" started by Andhra tries to tackle timeliness through technology. May be my next blog post on Sthreenidhi :).

Grievance redressal mechanism as the barometer of effectiveness of public service delivery

We should move away from looking at grievance redressal mechanisms as merely a fire-fighting mechanism and actively use the information gathered to improve public service delivery. 

In Andhra Pradesh, every Monday in every district is a “grievance day”. In essence, the citizens could approach the higher echelons of administration namely the District Collector and all other district officers with their grievances. These grievances could be of many types. Citizens could approach the administration with a genuine grievance that they haven’t been receiving their entitlements namely pensions, rations etc. They could also approach the administration with legal entanglements or disputes. They could also approach for favors which do not technically fall under entitlements, but would require the grace of the district officials and it would be perfectly legitimate to help them by providing some support through existing schemes/programmes of the government. 

Interestingly, people also approach the officers where they deliberately know that they are not entitled to a service, but they know that someone else who is also not entitled got that service. For instance, I am not entitled to pension, but I know that my neighbor who is also not entitled is getting pension, so why shouldn’t I throw my hat in the ring?

Occasionally, to lighten up the day of Collector and other officers, you get some grievances (albeit genuine in nature) wherein they might ask you to get the mobile tower removed from their vicinity because radiation causes cancer! I don’t know how to categorize such a grievance! Frankly, the officer attending such a grievance also has to use her own tact to assuage the applicant. 

Usually the people write their grievances on a piece of white paper or on a pre-formatted application depending on the local procedures adopted. It is highly likely that most of these people are illiterate and therefore use the help of brokers who station themselves outside the offices of the collectorate to offer their services for a fee. It is commonly found that when they offer their services they do not usually offer a quality service for the fee they collect from the people. With an intention to maximize their revenues, they fill up the wrong application for their grievance because they want to economize on time taken in filling up forms and maximize their customers’ footfalls. It is also possible that they do not have the appropriate forms and therefore they fill the grievance on the wrong forms. The applicant will have to face the consequent hassles while presenting their grievance to the Collector. 

Once the grievance comes to the Collector, she forwards it to the relevant department. If you happen to be new to public administration and are reading this blog, you might be wondering why should the District Collector, the chief executive of the district merely act as postman? The answer lies in our hierarchical culture of administration. It is believed that (perhaps rightly so) if a piece of paper comes from the higher officers or the Collector in this case, it will be acted upon. This is unlike the most commonsensical process, where a citizen with a grievance approaches the relevant officer far down the hierarchy of the government and his grievance is looked into and resolved at that level itself. So because of lack of adequate accountability, the citizen has to travel up to the district headquarters and present to the district officers who in turn would merely send it back to the relevant officer. If only our administration was a bit more citizen-friendly our grievance redressal mechanism would have been adequately decentralized. Technically, the same grievance redressal mechanism exists at the block levels, but the citizens seem to prefer approaching the district administration. 

Now the grievance is sent to the relevant officer. What is missing in the whole process is tracking of applications. How can an applicant assure herself that her application will be resolved in due course of time without a tracking mechanism? How can the superior officers assure themselves that the applications they forwarded to their subordinate officers will be resolved? Therefore, this is a crucial juncture where the system goes for a toss. So we don’t know what happens to the grievances after they are presented. Yet, the citizens come with enormous hope every Monday to present their grievances. If we are not even sure that the grievances are getting redressed appropriately, expecting the following steps might just be wishful thinking. 

Ideally, we should aspire for the day when there would be no grievance. In essence, the administration is able to resolve all the hassles that exist for the citizens. Although this is just a utopian goal, one can practically set a goal to minimize the grievances they get over time. The process should start by codifying the grievances and sorting them out by regions and departments/offices. While ensuring that every department in every region resolves the grievances in a time-bound manner is a priority, one should also start investigating the reasons for emergence of such grievances. This in turn will help identify best practices in public administration in certain regions/departments, ignorance of citizens with regard to government services, adoption of corrupt practices, etc. Such investigations will help generate innovative solutions generated by the best performers in administration and promote mutual learning. It will also stir up yardstick incentives for offices who would like to showcase themselves amongst their peers. 

In this fashion, the grievance redressal mechanism could be effectively used as a barometer for public service delivery and perhaps result in a citizen-friendly government in the long run, improving the faith of citizens in government.

P.S. Incorporating some of the above ideas, I re-drafted the Grievance Redressal Bill currently in Parliament and sent it to Parliamentary Standing Committee on behalf of my previous employer. If interested, you can download it from this link: Rajendra_Redrafted_Grievance_Redressal_Bill.

Paderu Shri Modakondamma Utsavalu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hYrP6kdSUDM

“I have attended modakondamma festival where god is in durga avatar festival at Paderu 12th to 14th may as it is the major event for tribals living in 11 mandals across agency and participants include across the state, would like to share experiences that surprised me”.

To go with the origin of the festival it has a very historic start since 1960, people not only from Paderu but also tribal from other agency region came to touch the idol of goddess. Before attending the event I questioned some tribal about history, geography and economics of event and understood the significance of the event for tribal. My estimate is about 10000s but I realized more than 4, 00,000 joined in 3 days, the regular road which I always walk in 10-15 minutes from start to end of Paderu town took almost 2hrs. In the crowd, everyone are cheerful as they have seen the goddess and their requests will come true.

After I have finished a round to events made, felt like the readers of the blog should have attended to witness the changes happening in tribal life as the main schedule of festival are carrying goddess so that more people can touch god and ask for blessings, the preparations across the town are done by bearing in mind interests of youth brought changes in the lightings patterns across the street including shapes of London bridge, Tajmahal, Charminar, peacock etc.

The festival is backed by both tribal and non-tribal living, working as govt. officials in agency region and collection of funds started 15 days in advance from all commercial goods sellers, govt. official of ITDA (includes schools, PHCs), Chanda collection from travelers to shape the festival into a greater extent.

I went to a couple of houses for greeting their family, given me a surprise houses are full of relatives gathered across the residences. This situation is common in tribal and non-tribal households as they feel it’s a festival for all. Though the spaces of houses are not enough to accommodate the number of relatives yet they call their relatives one week in advance, ask them to stay in their houses which they feel is bonding and sharing.

Second and third day are more excited for youth they see it as right dais to show abilities in dance, imitation, magic and finding out right spouses. The dances and singing events continued till 4 AM every day and I felt very fascinating when they have performed Ganganam style dance, Back street boys steps etc. western songs irrespective of language people standing around the stage also started screaming, appreciating and started to imitate the same moves. I couldn’t resist myself about mentioning that alcohol was sold in every shop across the street and allowed to drink in public, it’s an harvest of money plant for many liquor traders and gambling games like dice, ring game, cup game, guess card game were mushroomed in all places, which I would say for quick money in simple steps described by seller made tribal lose their hard earned money saved around year.

Shopping preferences were ranging from daily needs to Olay total effects, I have seen most of products now a days kids in metro cities ask their parents are available to purchase like Ben 10 bags, Bey blade tops, flying plastic tiny fans, balloons with in shape of picachu from Pokemon series and chota bheem may be due to the presence of 7 DTH services in almost all the interior areas of agency. Already soft drinks have taken the place of drinking water in festival.

Over all the festival brought tribal & non-tribal together showed exactly how bonding and sharing works. I wouldn’t be surprise to see branded imports entering into tribal life style sooner than our expectations.

video

Grievance Redressal Mechanism- Pain that needs to be made a Boon

  To make it work in the true spirit, grievance redressal needs to be strengthened at Mandal and Panchayat levels

“The public Grievance Redressal Mechanism is part and parcel of day to day activities of any District administration. In fact, the grievance redressal mechanism of the District Administration is the gauge to measure its efficiency and effectiveness as it provides important feedback on the working of the administration.”

Well, we have been looking at all such statements most of the time in various articles and government websites. But what interests me is in looking at the need for such and how does it gain so much importance at one level and no such at another level. After being in the district for more than twelve months and attending more than twenty grievance days (Mondays as usual J ), i have learnt that bureaucracy tends to centralise and bring the focus on to themselves which usually the politicos do.

Ranging from a ration card, bore well repair to sanction of an Indiramma house, untimely disbursal of widow and disability pensions, there are several kinds of grievances which most of us might have encountered during the grievance days. Collectorates and ITDAs crowded with the people forming long queues waiting for the lords to resolve their issues.

In one of the grievances when i was new to the district, I’ve come across an old woman requesting people to write the grievance on behalf of her (she being an illiterate) and thereafter struggling to get her grievance registered and stamped. Meanwhile, curious to know her details, i had a brief interaction with her on whereabouts and the grievance. With a tormented face, she replied that she has not been receiving pension from the past few months and is finding it difficult. When inquired if she ever tried to get it resolved at her village as well as Mandal level, and did she ever try the helpline?.  the answer was No. Further, i’ve asked her what made her think that the problem gets solved coming down here travelling and spending a quarter of her monthly pension amount. She replied that this is the only place she knows where grievances will be solved for sure.

For that moment, i was amazed by the importance of a grievance day by the administration and was all praise for it. After looking at several such grievance days, i started thinking if this hyped system at the top has widened so much that it shadowed the next levels of grievance redressal mechanisms. Ideally, the issues which are to be resolved at the Village and Mandal level are allowed to be carried to the level of the district administration. Just that the decreasing number of wage seekers in MGNREGA (usual ideal conditions) indicates development but not under-performance, similarly decrease in number of petitioners on the grievance day at district level is not really bad. There is a need for decentralised grievance redressal mechanism by the administrative staff at Panchayat and Mandal levels involving the politicos of the same level. Strengthening the grievance redressal mechanism at the Panchayat level makes sense rather than centralising the control with the lords who are not approachable, patient and sensitive enough to listen to the grievances of an individual.

It is expected that the time bound services bill may change the scenario having grievance officers at all levels. I believe that as long as the higher level bureaucracy do not work on decentralisation and infact tend to make things work only at their level which will add to their personal glory, there cannot a systemic overhaul of administrative responsiveness at all levels which is very much required.

By the way, the old woman returned with a sense of confidence after giving her petition and i hope she might have been receiving her pension from then.

A Week in Tadikonda Village

This is about my experience staying in a backward tribal dominated village, Tadikonda located in Gummalakshmipuram mandal in Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh. It is located on a hilltop and is surrounded by hills and has a very scenic view. The village is around 12kms away from the mandal headquarters and share a border with Odisha. The two major tribes are Jatapu’s and Savarah's (PTG).

It was during my village immersion as part of the PMRDF training, I was allotted this village. My knowledge on rural life was very limited except that I was told by my colleagues that tribals are very friendly and also several “do not do” things such as don’t drink water, don’t sleep without a mosquito net and so on. 

Finally I got to the village at about late noon and it was peak summer then. I was put up in a school that barely had a few rooms. I pretty much spent the evening to myself wondering what is in stake for the next coming week. Next morning I was woken up by the sounds of talking by a few tribal womenfolk who were on their way to the farms at about 5:30 AM (sunrise). Frankly I am not a morning person but I thought not going back to sleep would be the best thing rather than being woken up again and again. In about 30 -45 min a group of people (mix of youth in their early 20’s and teens) come to the school ground and play cricket. After watching them play for a while I gathered the courage to go and ask if I could join them play. They welcomed me in and were very anxious to know who I was and details of why I had come and what not. Here I was reminded of what I was told about tribal people before I came here that they are very friendly and generous.

Followed by the game here comes something unique and what I would call a “community bath”. Most of the men or young adults take a bath in a natural pond. Here I was accompanied by the youth to the pond (around 20 or so), initially reluctant but later I join them. I later enquired to find out if this was only for fun but was told that it was something they have been doing all their lives.

Later at noon it was either resting or going around the farms and also at times practice archery with the boys. The evening was the time I used to spend interacting with SHG’s or conducting an house hold survey usually enquiring about their livelihoods, their take on delivery of government services and to understand their way of living. Once back, it was again time with the boys. This was like a regular routine for the week and I really and thoroughly enjoyed my time in Tadikonda.

I really could connect well to the youth and over the course got to know more on their lifestyle, ambitions and dreams. Just to give an idea about the group of youth, two of them have graduated with a degree and were with no jobs, 7 -10 of them have completed 10^th class and the rest below 10^th class and they were currently working under NREGA and since during at that time no works were undertaken they were completely free. Some of them secured a job through Rajiva Yuva Kiranalu scheme but could not sustain it for more than a month or two. They had returned back and reason that low pay scale, cost of living and staying away from their family and village are the main factors in quitting their jobs.

Most of the youth were ambitious and wanted to work respectable office jobs. In fact one of them even told me he wanted to be a banker but had no idea or information about how to get in. I was convinced that apart from providing a good education or an opportunity of a job there is a need to hand hold them and counsel them in choosing the right kind of job and provide the necessary information or training for them to qualify. Also interacting with the other youth I feel there is a need to create more jobs in rural areas rather than asking them to work in urban places, which is quite a distance.

To conclude I would like to say that one week in Tadikonda was truly memorable and a unique learning. I also take the impression that tribal youth in particular are very generous and kind and in particular make what we call “true friends”. It’s been close to eleven months since then and till date they often call and enquire about my wellbeing and keep wishing me the very best in life. 

Musings from Adilabad

Adilabad, the northern most district lying in the north interior Andhra Pradesh bordering Maharashtra, has been and is predominantly known for backwardness, and probably to few more years, I believe, will continue its same image. The district with its large geographical area encompasses the southern tip of the Sahyadri ranges and even so hitches the south-western end of the Central Indian terrain. The region habitats significantly rural populace (74% as per 2001 census) of which a good extent are tribals (17% of total). Gonds happen to be the predominant tribal group which is further added by Lambadas, Kolams, Thotties, Mannevars, Pardhans, Naikpods, etc. 

The region (Adilabad) has been out of the developmental radar of the state for many a multitude of reasons, which I am yet to decipher. This has obviously and eventually put the district not in the back seat, but in the dicky (technically called ‘boot’, where we place our luggage) of the developmental wagon. (Probably this was the reason few expressed ‘Awe’ when I told them that I am gonna work in Adilabad, later did I realise that it was ‘Aww’). The reasons for Adilabad’s neglect could be from poor economic status of the region to huge illiterate population (73.2 %), lower political consciousness, so on and so forth. This had also eventually enrolled Adilabad into red corridor. Uptil the beginning of this century, Adilabad was one among the happening districts of ‘ultra-leftist’ conflicts in the state.

In this scenario, I wish to broadly enlist few observations that still pursue the region in backwardness, mainly in terms of economy.

1. The region over the last decade or more has fast turned into a major cotton producer. There has been a significant shift in the cropping pattern of the district from Sorghum, Millets, Pulses, Paddy to Cotton. Simple reason being the commercial value of cotton i.e the high price, the cotton crop fetches in the market. Though there is a significant black soil region in the district that suits cotton cultivation, contiguous from the adjacent Maharashtrian terrain, cotton also peeped to the hilly and forest terrains i.e the tribal terrains. You cannot see any village, how interior it might be, without cultivating cotton. Though the argument is not against cotton, the question is more on its adaptability. Given the better price, tribal farmers started cultivating cotton which eventually led to lower productivity, due to aforementioned non-suitability (Average yield per acre of cotton here is around 4-5 quintals per acre, which in worse cases, gets down to 2 or even less at times). Hilly porous soil started bearing cotton and just to increase his productivity, the farmer (mainly those in non-plain areas) increased his acreage. This increase in acreage came from decrease of his forest land. The typical village with streams and fruit trees, I hope are a thing of past here. So what is that bad thing in cotton is that, as productivity is low, you need to grow in larger area for higher production. As all cotton is Bt Cotton, need-fully or needlessly, you are encouraged to use more inputs. This requires more money for better seeds, fertilizers, weedicides, pesticides in addition to other cultivation costs viz. land preparation, weeding, harvesting among others. All these easily add upto a modest Rs.10,000 per acre. If the farmer goes for a 5 acre cultivation, he needs 50,000 INR, which usually, majority of rural farmers do not or cannot afford and go for all types of debt, usually at high interest rates. Hence assuming a modest return of 4000 INR/quintal (it was Rs.3900/quintal this time if sold directly to a mill or govt. price), farmer makes a decent profit of Rs.50000 for his 5 acres. This runs his entire non-agricultural period till the next season. But usually this is not. Lower productivity and debt taken from lenders force them to sell their produce to local traders (who were money lenders) who provide a lower price manipulating quality issues at Rs.3500 or 3700. Had this been an other crop, say a sorghum, followed by pulses or a vegetable, the level of investment shall be significantly low. But here the problem is market and the price. Sorghum is not as lucrative as cotton. Hence it is not actually the crop failure or low productivity that is failing the cotton farmer (which are disproven usually by the pro-Bt groups), it is the added investment which he makes through debts is the major factor that has replaced his earlier cropping pattern, made more critical by the cotton’s low productivity mainly due to its non-suitability. Therefore cotton crop is not ideally making them profitable.

2. The second major problematic factor is the lack of skilled or educated human resource. Adilabad's literacy levels had remained well below the state’s literacy levels. This has led to an acute shortage of local people who are educated or skilled enough to run or work in local organizations. Significant personnel had been, though presently reducing, come from neighbouring districts, who obviously nurtured less interest in working in the district. Teachers had to come from outside and the governmental systems bred them to be inefficient, making better education unavailable to the enrolled. This has caused a severe damage to literacy levels. Though the traditional practice of “not sending children to school” is one reason, the school going children did not greatly differ. There is also a great lack of number of higher educational institutions for studnets out of high school viz. colleges within the district. The entire scheduled mandals have one Arts college. There is one govt. Arts and Science colleges at Mancherial which caters to 12-15 mandals. There may be few private ones hither and thither, but question arises on affordability on all fronts. Now forget about engineering or other educational institutions.

3. Thirdly, though the region had vast tracts of land, they were uninvited for setting up any industries, in the manufacturing sector or other sectors, leaving alone a major coal mining unit, even though the Hyderabad – New Delhi train and rail routes trespass the region. The situation continues to bother and the ‘demographic dividend’ which India is about to unveil, is highly visible in Adilabad. They look equally anxious to get unearthed by the giant ‘excavator’ of employment. The point here is that majority of the youth who are semi-literate or literate find little or no opportunity for their academic pursuits. This might be a similar case in few other places as well.

I believe I have broadly listed few areas which are few significant issues of developmental concern in Adilabad. Initiatives targeting to improve agricultural infrastructures and value chain, enhance opportunities for quality education both school and college levels within the district along with establishing industries offering to generate local employments could be few things that can bring them to the 'back seat'. Howsoever, just with, the hope of a lady who carries firewood on her head after a strenuous day’s work, passion of a young girl who goes to a distant water source to fetch water, patience of a household woman who attends her everyday chores in her hut, the confidence of the farmer who continues to till his land expecting he gets a bounty crop this season and with the cheer of a young 6 year old girl who carries her 2 year old brother, people of Adilabad proceed with the same hope, passion, patience, confidence and cheer aiming happily for the future.

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[The word 'region' only refers to Adilabad district and data in the writing are as per 2001 census.]

Intriguing Thoughts on Development

This is an attempt to explore my intriguing thoughts on development. I make no pretense of being unbiased about my handling of the same. On the other hand, I would like to point out that all of the views expressed are a result of constant churning of these ideas in my mind. I myself, have graduated from being a staunch socialist to a lazy agnostic and now (finally I hope) a passive socialist.

The change in my positioning of myself has not been as a result of any intrinsic changes in my own personality. I would like to believe that I have been the same person all through. It is only that my understanding of the ideas have probably gained an extra dimension, and lost the empty, high sounding romance of the earlier days. This understanding most definitely has been a result of various influences through my transition. Finally I aim to achieve a sense of logical unity in my arguments, about completeness of my argument, I lay no claim to it.

Firstly, I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the term ‘White man’s burden’; in my eyes the imperialist justification still stands true today as it did 200 years ago. Only the perpetrators seem to have changed, “Educated man’s burden” is what I like to call it now. The basic fault seems to lie in our assumption that our way of life is in any way better than the poor people we have so nobly set out to help and save. The impending implosion of our exploitative machine seems to be looming dark upon the near horizon, and then suddenly beckons the lack of logic in bringing the same to someone else with the intention to helping them. Well, the road to hell truly seems to be paved with good intentions. I am not against the existing ways of life and the ultra-modern post industrial revolution world but wish to dispel a misunderstanding among those who are products of it that it is something to be at content with and worth replicating. Right now ‘Development’ seems to have become an overused, corrupt ‘cliché’; in fact it seems to be striving hard to reach the overuse needed to compete with another popular term- ‘Happiness’. To make things more clearly I don’t hesitate to say - “Everyone seems to be looking for both of them, working for them, but nobody seems to have a faintest idea what they mean”. It’s really funny at times; walking among all the saviors of the poor people and watching them run amok like disturbed nettle’s nest trying to achieve something through directionless reactionary action. Project after project seems to whiz by in a hazy blur leaving in their wake confused, disillusioned simple minded subjects of their experiments, subjects left wondering as to what happened, and who will pay the price for the planner’s lack of fore sight.

Lastly, all the actions (from the development point of view) need to be examined, tested and only then tried. The idea should always be to practice what we preach (if at all we do). However I would like to add a note of caution - Just because we are in the development sector, where we face a fixed set of ideas and notions towards progress and more importantly a fixed framework - there is still scope for work. I am not referring to grand schemes and such here, but rather minor actions outside the 'project' scope. Most times, listening is all that is needed! My experience thus far tells me that there is actually very little need for a thriving development sector. All that is needed in most cases is a conscientious government to execute various schemes and acts in honesty and totality. I feel there is always scope for a degree of activism (if only to clear the cobwebs). Coming to the other points I made earlier - the one I would like to talk is about the reactionary impulses. I recently met a friend of mine, well versed in the ways of the world! He was moaning about the fact that the revolutionary fervour of the youth is being consumed by relatively peripheral actions in the development sector (rather than investing energy in bringing about a truly radical change in our society). This basically is a double blow - at one shot the fervour is diverted to peripheral acts which may bring relief to all parties involved, but it remains in essence a reactionary tactic at best. The rest of the world (read the elitist class) is so freed up from all restraints pays lip service to these reactionary tactics and then goes on in earnest to the business of making more and more money. I have not made up my mind about this point of view, but it remains a very interesting point of view. I am still learning and moving ahead so I am in no position to conclude anything but still wished to bring across a thought with hope that we together can bring something better to this world in our time and the biggest lesson so far has been the understanding that I need to learn a lot and carefully examine the consequences of any tangible actions I take.

A Village and A Villager!

What constitutes a basic level of public service delivery and what factors influence the provision of it, if we every citizen is entitled to it?

A couple of days ago, I wanted to see malaria prevention steps in action, so I decided to go around and see some villages in which malaria spraying was taking place. So I went to Munagalapudi in Y Ramavaram (Lower) Mandal. Although I did not find the spraying happening (details on malaria related issues in a later blog), I happened to have a chat with a villager who greeted me with enough smiles to self-invite myself for an extended conversation. It started with I enquiring if the village has been using the mosquito nets distributed to them last year. He told me that he has been using the net. By now, I have been become used to hearing that people have been using nets, but when asked to show their nets, they would show me brand new nets. I hoped that at least this villager would show me a net in use, but he also disappointed me.

Anyways, I started having a chat with him about his life and the living conditions in the village in general.  His village is located around 15 km away from the mandal headquarters Y Ramavaram (Lower). It is around 10 km away from the nearby main road (BT road), which connects Y Ramavaram to Addateegala. If he has to find an auto, he has to travel on foot at least 5 km by the gravel road across streams to reach the neighbouring village Burugupalem. There is no school in the village; so the three kids in his neighbouring house are not going to school, because their family feels that it is too troublesome to send their kids to a school 5 km away by foot one way. After all, they have a point, don’t they?

He has a family of four, with a wife and two sons. One who dropped out of school 10 years ago after finishing 7^th class and an other who is studying in a nearby ashram school.  When enquired why his son dropped out, he seemed to suggest no particular reason. In a sense, he did not care much about whether his son studied or not. Hopefully he does not let his younger son follow the same path and he assured me he would ensure that his younger son completed his schooling.

I enquired what they would do when someone falls sick. They don't have the "coin box phone" or any bsnl landline. So they have to walk 5 km and hope that they get an auto-rickshaw or 10 km and find one on the main road. They hire this auto to come to their village, pick up the sick person and take her to the hospital which is 15km from their village. If there's an urgency, the village is left with no choice than to carry the sick person through some means or the other and walk for 15km! I haven't seen any, but I just hope that at least one of them have motorbikes which they can use to ferry themselves to the main road and call for the public ambulance, which might not be readily available though!

He has an acre of paddy farm and around an acre of cashew nut farm. The assets are so low that he does not take any credit from the moneylenders, perhaps with a fear that he cannot repay. He lives in a mud hut, which is spacious, but not ventilated enough to keep the smoke out of their chimney away from the living space. So the roof of the hut and the supporting structure near the hut is completely blackened. I sort of pointed to him the health risks of not letting the smoke out and suggested him to create some ventilation. Let’s see what he does…!  His hut has essentially two rooms, one for storage I guess and the other a bedroom. In the open space, there are two cots (madatha mancham) of jackfruit flesh, one heap of cashew nuts, one heap of jackfruit seeds and two heaps of paddy being dried. It is interesting to note that the dried jackfruit flesh is used as a vegetable for curries, dried jackfruit seeds for making dal. The paddy is dehusked manually to make unpolished rice (dumpudu biyyam). The paddy grown in his one-acre plot is consumed internally by the family.

He tells me although he gets 35kg of rice per month in ration being a Konda Reddy (Primitive Tribal Groups or PTG in administration parlance), it is not enough and he supplements his produce to the ration. There is a strong opinion that tribals consume more than non-tribals, perhaps attributed to the strenuous physical activity that fills their lives while staying in these forest areas. Interestingly, some of the employers in Rajiv Yuva Kiranalu (the flagship programme of Andhra Pradesh State Government that provides employment to the youth), are wary of providing employment to the tribal youth because their food expenses are higher than normal!

I started enquiring about his weekly shandy purchases. He has to travel to the mandal headquarters, which is around 15 km. There is one auto rickshaw though in a neighboring village Burugupalem, which probably leaves only after some 10 or more passengers hop in to economise on trips. They take this auto to go to the shandy every Monday. This is also the day where they get their rations from Burugupalem. This is also the day where they had to get any of their work with government offices done. Of course most of the work they have with government offices gets done through a person in the village who is better educated than the rest of them. Because the village doesn’t have adequate travel/transport facilities, they try to economize on every work they have by taking it up on Monday itself. They hire a van to bring back their purchase from shandy as well as their monthly ration from the neighbouring village. Knowing how public service delivery works, it is more likely than not that the work in government offices doesn’t happen in a day and the ration shops hardly issue rations as per their intended schedule. Therefore, they are troubled with multiple trips. And it is not uncommon that they let go of their entitlements or revisit the shops or offices only after a week on the next Monday.

I asked him about the amount of purchases he makes every week. Apparently it ranges from Rs. 200 a week to Rs. 1000 a week depending on how much income he has in that week. In addition to his meager plots of land, he works as an agricultural labour and goes for NREGS work. The NREGS works does not seem to be happening in the village, as the wages are being given too late and therefore the people are refusing to take up NREGS works. Now this amount spent on shandy also includes the money spent on toddy. I asked him why spend on toddy at the mandal headquarters when he can get locally available toddy at his own village. He gave me quite a commonsensical answer that he drinks toddy while starting from his village, but becomes thirsty again by the time he reaches the shandy and doesn’t want to drink water, so the only option is buying toddy there.

I then turned to understanding what festivals they celebrate. They get themselves new clothes stitched for Pongal and Gangalamma Festival which comes in the month of May. Gangalamma festival is their hunting festival. Actually, the number and range of animals which are available for hunting have gone down, but their traditions continue! As part of this festival, they erect a jackfruit using four bamboos. It is believed that the male who hits that jackfruit using an arrow from a distance of around 150m would be good in hunting. Accordingly the hunting team splits themselves into two groups, where one group is just meant to make some sounds to lead the animals to a particular direction where the second group is already positioned. By the time animals approach the second group, they are positioned adequately to hunt them. Is it dangerous? Of course it is! Apparently, wild buffaloes come in couples and when they find humans they start hunting you back. Even if you climb a tree, one buffalo starts hitting the tree with its skull while the other buffalo waits to attack on you when you climb down. Apparently, you are forced to climb down when the tree starts shaking either because you are afraid that the tree might fall or you might get itching with the bugs on that tree falling on you. But fortunately, they were no human fatalities in the village recently, as part of this hunting.

Given that there are no assets at his home, I asked him how he spend his idle time. He told me it is spent chatting with fellow villagers or just sitting at home. There are only two TVs in that village of 25 households. So the village distributes itself and watches TV in those two houses. Apparently the villagers go and watch TV until they are done regardless of whether the family owning the TV is done watching or they are fast asleep. When the last villager is done watching the TV, he/she would wake up one of the members of the family that owns the TV and asks them to switch the TV off and close their doors. If they have a wish to watch a movie in a theatre, they need to travel some 75 km one way. I sincerely hope they find the tickets whenever they embark on such a journey! Ooh yeah, may be not in this village, as it is too interior, but screening movies on white screens in the “Swades” style is still pretty common in these villages!

Before leaving that village, I wanted to see if he needs anything from the Government for himself or for his village. If this were a village from the non-tribal areas, I am sure I will be given a big list of demands. Perhaps it is the tribal nature where they are mostly content with what they have, he gave me a simple answer (the tribal nature too is changing, but the more interior you go, the lesser you find a change). He told me smilingly that he is content with what he has; just that they have a problem with the drinking water availability in the village and someone from the government came and made a note of it. So he expected that to be solved soon. With that note, I said goodbye.

Come to think of it, this village is clearly cut-off from the rest of the world by lack of transport facility, schools, hospitals, telecommunications and every amenity we could think of. The village only has 25 households. So is the government right in not yet providing the village with the above facilities? Is every citizen entitled to such services? Or does entitlements depend on cost benefit ratios of provision? If it is cost benefit ratio, what is the maximum we are willing to spend to secure a specified benefit? What is the principle on which we decide which village gets transport, schools, hospitals etc.? I am sure if there was adequate transport and telecommunications facilities in the village, the village would have been on a different developmental stage. After all, who would let their little children walk 10km for attending primary school amidst hilly terrains across streams? So how should we decide who is entitled to what?

Employment Generation Program of Andhra Pradesh

Its been around four months approximately since we have started work as PMRDF's. Have been thinking of blogging for the past few months, but never got to doing it. Better late than never, here comes my first post.

In this blog entry I am planning to talk about the employment generation program of the state of Andhra Pradesh. Just to give a bit of background, We PMRDF's in Andhra pradesh have a mandate of evaluating one government scheme every month. so last month we fellows chose " Rajiv Yuva Kiranalu" which is the employment generation program of AP. This scheme was conceived to build job specific skills among unemployed youth and place them in appropriate jobs. It has set a target of providing employment for 15 lakh youth. This is to be acheived on a mission mode. 

The scheme is implemented in a public private partnerhip model. Government signs MOU with training partners who are responsible for the training and placement of the candidates and are in turn paid by the govt. for these services. But the innovation here is in the design of the payment system. The training partners are paid in stages. First 25 % when the batch starts, second 40 % when placements are done, the next 25 % if the candidate stays on in the job for 3 months and the last 10 % if the candidate stays on in the job for an year. So there is an incentive for the training partner not only to provide a job but also provide such a job which can retain the candidates in the job. 

Now as a part of my study I looked at candidates who got trained and placed majorly in the tribal areas of ITDA Rampachodavaram( which has around 7 blocks) which is where I am working. The official stats from the website state that from ITDA Rampachodavaram around 852 were trained of which 682 candidates were placed. Allmost all of these jobs are in urban areas. Hyderabad alone accounts for around 50 % percent of these 682 jobs. So, I took a certain sample( around 50 candidates) of candidates and tried to find out the present staus of their job. 

When I met with these candidates I realized that the drop out rate of these candidates was around 80 %. So, basically candidates even after getting a job offer were not continuing in their jobs. Next step was to find out why they were dropping out. Some of the main reasons for the candidates dropping out were less salary, food & accomodation issues in the urban areas, not wanting to stay away from home, further studies, too much work,marriage etc... Of the above reasons low salary was the major of all. offcial stats show that around 75 % of the candidates earn less than Rs.6000. In some cases this salary has a food and accomodation component which further reduces the in hand salary that the candidate receives. Also if you look at the payments made to the training partners, many of the training partners do not even claim the last 35 % ( it was 25 % last year) which is paid if they retain the candidates. That means there are running their operations with 65 or 75 % of money they are supposed to receive. So they will have to reduce their costs to break even which will impact the quality of training. 

Why are so many candidates dropping out? First of all majority of people always prefer to work some where near their home. They will only leave to work in distant areas away from their homes only if they think they are able to earn considerably more than they can near their home town's. In the present case of the above scheme most of the jobs are low paying jobs and this coupled with the high costs in urban areas where these jobs are located does not leave the candidates with any savings. Even when they take up the job, they have to compromise a lot on their food and accomodation to be able to save some money. Some others come back to continue their futher education and in case of girls, marriage is another big reason for drop out.

So what should be done? of course the ideal scenario is when we can create rural employment so that the candidates can stay near their homes and work. Also since rural areas have low costs of living, even low salaries might result in savings. But the problem here is our rural economies are not so vibrant to create many job opportunities unlike urban economies. So, urban employment still holds the key to create employment in huge numbers. For a job in urban environment to be sustainable the salaries have to increase. One of the recommendations we made was to change the payment system to incentivize the training partners to get candidates better paying jobs. So in the present 4 step payment process, 40 % is paid in the second stage when placements are done. We can increase this amount to say 60 % if the salary is above say Rs.7500 and say 70 % if the salary is above say Rs.9000 etc... So we are saying there will be variable pay in the second stage based on how high the salary is. This should act as an incentive for the training partner to provide better paying jobs. Also at the same time continuing efforts should be made to promote rural employment. We should also try to look at those urban jobs that can be shifted to rural areas like rural BPO's, rural tourism etc...

My idea of writing this blog is to share my work with other fellows working in other districts and at the same with everybody interested in development. I also think this way it will act as a platform for discussions. So please go ahead and post your comments and criticism's on the above.

PS: Not proof read, so pardon me for any mistakes.