This was written by me and one of my friend:-
The villagers of Malkheda earlier
used to defecate outside in open. With the advent of JalSwarajya Prakalp, which
was implemented in order to enable the villagers to solve their water supply
& sanitation problems with the help of Govt. considering the principle of
"Our Village Our Water"(“http://www.mahawssd.gov.in”),
the village has now become open
defecation-free. This project had started in our village in 2004 and has
completely changed the sanitation scenario of our village. Although triggered
by an external agency (government) this required collective action on large
scale from the part of villagers.
We thought of citing this incidence
of collective action because for this project to be implemented all the
decisions are to be taken in Gram Sabha which requires at least 40% quorum.
The aim of JalSwarajya Prakalp is
to:-
·
Create a 100% open defecation free
village
·
Solving problem of drinking water
supply.
For implementing it, it
required coming together of villagers from all the strata of society. Also it
required action, consensus and collective monitoring to sustain the effect.
If the individuals were
to solve the problem by themselves, it would have been implemented only at the
household level which would not have served the purpose of project. Also only a
few people would have participated voluntarily.
In the implementation
of this project all the sections of society were involved in the action. People
used to come at one announcement to the common meeting place to discuss things.
As told by the villagers, there used to happen around three Gram Sabha every
week and people used to participate enthusiastically. One astonishing fact was
women’s participation in the gram Sabha, because in our village otherwise the
participation of women in any social activity like Gram Sabha is almost nil.
Participation of people
belonging to general category and their say in the decision making was high. SC
and OBC population were although involved but did not have a larger say in the
proceedings in general. But there were a few people even from these communities
who were actively involved in the programme due to their good rapport with the
fellow villagers.
The result of this community action
was ‘benefit for all’. The benefits derived from construction of common wells
and water tanks for clean drinking water, were not inclined towards a
particular economic group or a particular caste. No caste is outcaste or considered untouchable
with respect to access to common resources. Efforts were put in collectively as one
village, for the village. Construction of toilets was an important part of the
intervention. People, who could afford to build a private toilet adjacent to
their houses, did build it. For those who could not, funds were obtained from
village level organizing committee formed under JalSwarajya Prakalp, for construction
of public toilets. Every household had
participated in the process and every household reaped the benefits.
All the groups of society feel good
about this arrangement of coming together which has made their village a clean
village. They are proud of the unity that they had exhibited during the
implementation of the scheme. Even after six years of its completion, they
still remember it as one of the important events in the village history.
During the implementation phase
some households across all castes and economic groups were not ready to
co-operate, but due to intervention by the key persons of the village they also
came together.
The punishment and fine for
violation of rules by any villager were decided in Gram Sabha and were agreed upon
by every villager. If a person is found defecating in the open, in spite of
public toilets being constructed, that person would be fined Rs.100/-. The fear
of being fined forced people to use toilets. Apart from economic measures,
defaulters had to face social alienation.
A village level committee for conflict
resolution called as the ‘Tantamukti Samiti’ was also formed during this
period. The villagers believed in solving the matters in the village
itself. People belonging to different
economic and social status are members of this committee. But usually the
decision taken by the influential people, who are also the members of this
committee, are accepted as decisions.
Participatory leadership was
observed in the village during the project. Everybody came together and chose
the members of the samiti who would head the project through Gram Sabha and
they were respected and heard of by the villagers. A woman was made head of the
committee and she participated very actively throughout the project.
This collective action had changed
the village scenario. After the construction of water tanks in the village for
household supply as well as for supply to the school, people got access to clean
water for four days a week. The village earned the title of being an ‘Adarsh
village’ or an ideal village in Jalna district and a sum of 2 lakhs was awarded
to the village. This amount was utilized for covering the drainage lines of the
village. A small documentary was made in the village and was telecasted on
Doordarshan to show the benefits of Jalswarajya Prakalp.
After this collective action at large level,
the villagers understood the importance of coming together and cooperating for
a community task. All the subsequent events which followed this event even on
small scale in village saw greater participation of people.
According to our view, what
triggered success of this collective action was the will of people to come
together and bring a change. The win-win outcome which this project was to
create also triggered people to participate enthusiastically. It was a
programme which aimed at benefit for all and not for a single section of
society. People also exhibited abundant mentality, e.g those who did not enough
money to build toilets were funded by others.
There was also a sense
of pride attached with it, when they got “Nirmal gram Puraskar” , which helped
in successful monitoring years after the project was implemented.
