Realisation on Abu Road

As always, I am eager to find out how Oxfam works with its partners and what is its impact on people’s lives. I am on a visit to Abu Road where Oxfam and partner organization Doosra Dashak run a programme, which is about the education and development of persons in the age group of 11-20 years. Abu Road is in the hilly region of southern Rajasthan and the block comprises of 78 villages. The population here is more than a lakh and 68 per cent of them are the Garasias, a small but extremely impoverished Rajput tribe. The percentage of families living below poverty line here is 51 per cent and this ratio further rises to about 70 per cent in the tribal regions. SK Sharma and Sunita from Doosra Dashak point out the reasons. “The area being hilly, only when the monsoons come, can crops be cultivated, which is once a year. Frequent droughts have added to the woes of the people. With no alternative livelihood opportunities, the people here are forced to work as daily wagers from which they earn hardly anything. I ask my companions what about getting employment through the NREGA scheme. Sharma says, “The government is doing nothing. Most of the deserving people do not have job cards. Also, the minimum wage in Rajasthan is Rs 73 per day and here the people have never received more than Rs. 30 – 40 per day. Also, 10 days of work is not enough for families to survive.”

My first stop is in a village called Talethi. Here most of the people have their own land and their livelihood depends on farming. Doosra Dashak has an interesting way of getting the youth together by setting up what is called as ikhuelos. It is a place where one can learn, play games, be creative, write essays, poems, have debates, read books from the library, sing songs: in short everything that the youth like doing. Here, I meet Satiri, a 12-year-old girl who stopped going to school because she used to be beaten up by her teachers. After much persuasion, Doosra Dashak activists convinced her to visit their residential camp. Satiri tells me, “The first week was terrible. I missed home a lot but after a while I enjoyed what I was learning. I was educated about hygiene besides studying subjects such as Biology, Mathematics, Hindi and English.” Now, she is in class four at the government school, which is about 2.5 km from her village. “The government school I attended earlier has improved due to the village school committees set up by Doosra Dashak. The committee’s monitoring and evaluation has ensured that the school functions properly. The young lady is now an activist for Doosra Dashak. Together with others from the youth group, she urges other parents in the village to send their children to school. Wow! I tell myself, she is a born campaigner.

The women’s group meeting is on in full-swing in the village. Water is scarce here, the nearest water body being 2 km away. For the villagers, it is an exhausting task to fetch water. The village has no electricity either and another critical issue is the non-availability of health care. Manu, a woman leader informs me that the closest hospital is 15 km away.

The second village we go to is Uplakhejda, which is no different from the previous village. The same story repeats itself — no electricity and no medical facilities. The only difference being that here the villagers is landless labourers. This too is very seasonal, only four months a year. The other 8 months many families migrate or they try to grow maize. The women’s group here that also includes a lot of elderly women is a disappointed lot. The elderly women point out that though they are eligible for a widow’s pension they have so far been denied. They say, “We have had demonstrations, visited government officials, filled in all forms, but so far nobody has received any money.” Another old and frail woman adds, ‘I’m a widow and I am eligible for a pension, I also filled in the forms but nothing has happened. No earnings, no support, how can I survive?” When I ask how does it help by being a part of the group. “No one listens to one person. As a group we can create more pressure. We organize meetings with the government. We have to be activists, otherwise nothing will happen.”

I am at the block level youth meeting and there are about 50 young boys and girls. I must admit I am invigorated by their attitude towards life and their spirit. Most of them have attended the residential camp. From the 21 villages that these young torchbearer come from, 12 youth groups have been formed. The youth groups are very active and they are very demanding. They rarely take no for an answer. They have been instrumental in getting handpumps repaired after repeated reminders to the government, ensured proper functioning of schools, tackled water crisis, organized rallies to ensure women vote in panchayat polls… the list is endless. The impact on the lives of the people on Abu Road is there to see for all.