The Long Winding Road

Our steed from Ahmednagar was a black fur-seated

motorbike, which WOTR staff, Santosh Chaudhari and I
drove for more than an hour to Kaluchi Thakarwadi.

No government official had ever bothered to visit this

remote settlement in Parner block of Ahmednagar. How
could they? There was no road.

“Only trained people can reach there,” says Santosh. He

tells me that barely 3 years ago, this was but a winding
foot trail, trod only by 3 kinds of ‘trained’ travellers: One,
people from far flung settlements like Kaluchi Thakarwadi
walking all the way to medical help or other urgent work
in the town; Two, shepherds and their cattle- sheep, goats
and a few cows; and Three, WOTR- Wasundhara project
staff like him, who had been driving to the Thakarwadi on
their motorbikes regularly and precariously since 2006.

As we left the noisy town of Ahmednagar, I could

see signs of a struggle going on. Sudden glimpses of
brown and yellow flashed behind and between semi-
urban buildings and clumps of forest department
planted ‘forests’. As we turned off the highway at the
village of Bhalawni, the Pathaarfinally won over human
construction.

The Pathaar - Maharashtra’s semi-arid grassland

triumphantly stretched on for the next 10 kilometres.
Not a single house or farm, barely a tree, just exposed
brown, black and grey rock and yellow grass, undulating
into the horizon, on either side of the road. The Pathaar,
beautiful and eerie in its apparent lifelessness, is in fact
home to a variety of birds all the year round and to
the Dhangar community in the monsoons. This vibrant,
nomadic, shepherd community of Maharashtra, return
from the plains with the monsoons to the Pathaar, when
the yellow grass turns green- perfect grazing
grounds for their sheep and goats. At this
time, in January, we could only see signs of
their seasonal settlements- abandoned stone
enclosures, awaiting animals and small stone
temples, awaiting worship.
While driving, Santosh told me his story.
Dhavalpuri’s VWC (Village, Watershed
Committee) formed under the IGWDP (Indo
German Watershed Development Program)
went on to become SHWVAS- Shree
Hanuman Watershed Vikas Sanstha, an NGO
working in Watershed Development. Santosh
had been a member of the VWC right from
his student days. Though a Masters in
History, Santosh became a Watershed man
and was part of the core team of SHWVAS.
When they were contacted by the Gram
Panchayat of Kaluchi Thakarwadi, SHWVAS
teamed up with WOTR to implement the
WOTR Wasundhara program there.
After passing Dhavalpuri and Santosh’s own
jowar fields, we reached the black bed of
the Kalu river, from which this settlement
gets its name. Of course there would be no
water in the river now, I assumed. But to
my astonishment, the river flowed happily
over a neat little check dam. This check
dam is a low-cost one, costing only around
Rs. 1.5 lakh. It has been made without a
foundation; iron rods inserted into the
concrete at intervals of 1 m in a zigzag
fashion hold it together. Small pumps
attached to pipelines wind their way across
the rock directly to parched fields and
provide irrigation that enables a 2nd, even a
3rd crop a year, where under 5 years back,
barely 1 crop had been possible.
The new road brought connectivity and
the check dam brought water, both crucial
tothe current development of this Thakar
adivasi settlement on the banks of the
Kalu river.
History doesn’t have to
repeat Itself
Rambhau Pardhe has the happiest smile I have ever
seen on a farmer. We sit cross legged in his home
in Bhaledara settlement of Kaluchi Thakarwadi and
he recalls how he and his family migrated to work
as sugarcane cutters ever since he could remember.
I don’t know how he does it, but Rambhau even
chuckles from time to time while telling me this story
of desperate poverty and constant hardship.
When a Mukadam (contractor) found a large
enough number of people from a village ready to
migrate for labour, he sent a truck for them as soon
as the cutting season started. The people – men,
women and children, left their dry, useless fields
and got on the truck to somewhere, anywhere they
could get 2 square meals, a thatch hut and some
petty cash for salt and essentials. The Mukadam
also gave loans to needy families in exchange for
such labour. Families got cash in bulk from him
and then worked without a daily wage for as many
months as he told them they needed to. But at
the end of this, they needed yet another loan and
the cycle continued. Some people could never pay
off their initial loan and continued to work for the
Mukadam for the rest of their lives.
Rambhau Pardhe was one of the first people from
the community to put their faith in the project
and worked with the WOTR-SHWVAS team in
convincing and mobilising people to participate in
the project.“People thought they would be
tricked out of their lands by the NGOs. I said,
‘Let them take the bloody land if they want to!
What does it yield anyways? I don’t mind trying
anything to bring water’,” grins Rambhau.
Rambhau laughs out merrily remembering how
in the beginning, water runoffs flowed freely
and forcefully over exposed rock, entered
fields and washed away farm bunds, stealing
away even the meagre topsoil.
People migrated because there was no water
for agriculture and because there was nothing
other than agriculture that people could do to
live. There was no water even to drink in the
summer months. So tackling water scarcity
was the key. So under WOTR Wasundhara,
Soil and Water Conservation measures were
undertaken first. With Rambhau’s efforts, 10
families including his were able to contribute
a little bit of cash and a lot of labour in laying
a 1400 m long pipeline from the check dam.
Bringing such a scattered community come
together and do Shramdaan (voluntary labour)
was a more herculean task than the actual
labour. But the efforts of the people were
rewarded when water levels rose in their
wells and the pipeline brought water to their
fields. Hand-pumps were installed for drinking
water. WOTR also provided help with better
agricultural techniques like drip and sprinkler
irrigation and crop demonstrations.
 When news of water reaching theirwadi reached them, Kaluchi
Thakarwadi’s scattered families came back, incredulous and ecstatic
that they could stay and work in their own homes. In the first year
of the project, people ensured their food security by growing their
own food on their rejuvenated fields. But now people have started
cultivating cash crops too. “The best yield I remember from before
was 3 sacks of Bajra; this time I got 12 sacks. Water and fertilisers
have done magic,” he beams. This time Rambhau’s proud smile is not
out of place.

But this story is not without a twist in the happy ending.

Rambhau’s son, just like many other youths from the area is
strangely not farming with his parents. He has gone with his friends
to work at a brick kiln. “It’s his friends, you see…”
Do I see Rambhau’s smile drop just a little bit?
“Besides I am here to do the farming. He wants the ready cash. He
will work the farm after me… We did what we could for the future.
But who can say about young people these days …?”

His laugh is back with a tinkle.

History doesn’t have to repeat itself, it seems. Well, at least

not exactly.

Electric Blues
In our conversations, I tried to really understand why
farmers like Jhumbarbai and Kisanbhau would say
this. Often asking questions that must have made
them have serious doubts about my intelligence, but
left no doubt about my ignorance, I tried to see the
multiple levels and facets of issues they face. And I
felt like I was in some absurd, tragi-comic play.

Take for instance, their lands. During British and soon

after independence, adivasi farmers in the area had
been fined by the government for ‘encroaching’
forest lands. They paid a then princely sum of Rs.3 as
a fine to the court. In the ‘70s and ‘80s this very same
“Do farmers ever fine receipt (a scrap of paper preserved by families
sleep well?” all these years) became proof of land ownership! It
laughs Jhumbarbai. proved that these families were tilling that patch of
land and now according to new legislation of ‘tiller
“Farming is a gamble.” is owner’, the adivasi ‘encroachers’ owned this land.
These adivasi lands cannot be sold or bought, which is
Explains VDC a blessing; there had been instances of drunken deals
(Village Development in which lands were sold off to get cash for a few
Committee) head,
more drinks.
Kisanbhau Madhe.
Now the WOTR Wasundhara project
brought water and Kisanbhau was thrilled
that he could till all his land- the small
patch near the river as well as these ‘fine’
lands. WOTR’s crop demos also trained
people in cultivating a variety of crops.
The road ensured accessibility. But happy
endings are notoriously elusive.
Today Electricity; rather the lack and
uncertainty of it, has replaced Water
as Kaluchi Thakarwadi’s number one
problem.
Even remote settlements like Manai
are now finally on the grid. New
transformers, electricity poles stand
against the sky, conducting wires stretch
across it, but there is no electric current
pulsating through them; what there is, is
of such poor voltage that even light bulbs
glow dimly, let alone irrigation pumps or
bore wells. WOTR installed solar lights
installed 5-6 years back work much better
for household illumination.
There is electricity in most places for only
8 hours a day and not all of it is adequate
voltage either. These 8 hours can be
any 8 hours in the day or night. So like
Jhumbarbai was telling me, farmers have
to wake up at odd hours of the night to
switch on and monitor the irrigation of
their fields.
Earlier the demand for electricity was
low and governmental control ensured
proper supply, though it was limited
to a smaller area. Now the grid area
has increased, but the Electricity Board
has become a company with almost
no governmental interference in its
decisions. While the Electric Company has
become stricter toward illegal siphoning
of supply, there is no answer to how
supply is going to meet the soaring
demand.
Whenever the voltage is high enough,
everyone in the village switches on their
pumps at the same time, over loading the
system and burning out transformers and pumps.
A burnt out transformer is replaced only if bills are
being paid regularly. But often connections are
not strictly legal. All in all, irrigation and thereby
agricultural production, is now the function of this
erratic electric supply.
When it comes to the village, nothing is simple.
Everything is complicated and interconnected.
Kisanbhau does not mince words while pointing
out that the government policy of providing 24
hours electricity to Industry and only 8 hours
to Agriculture clearly shows its real intentions,
though there is a lot of talk about improving
agriculture and the plight of farmers in India. Even
in the markets, seed and fertiliser companies and
big merchants get all the benefits. Small farmers
have absolutely no say in the prices of their own
produce in the market. Government interventions
in this sector are again dissatisfying. Basically, the
input costs go up every year, with no guarantee
of returns. This is indeed a big gamble our farmers
play. No wonder they are losing sleep over it.
On a more positive note, farmers of Kaluchi
Thakarwadi are valiantly looking for solutions.
These settlements are at the end of the substation
and hence get the last dregs of supply. The
villagers now plan to request for another supply
line to their village. Kaluchi Thakarwadi’s story
shows that potential prosperity is the greatest
mobilising and motivating force for the most
disadvantaged people.
Kaluchi Thakarwadi has only one prayer:
Let there be light!
Character Sketch –
Kasam Mama
Kasam Mama is a mobile market. No, he does not
sell mobile phones. He really IS a moving shop!
For over 25 years now, this thin man with a
wide-toothed grin provides a crucial service to
remote settlements like Kaluchi Thakarwadi on
the pathaar. Every Wednesday and Saturday,
Kasam Mama bikes it all the way from his village
–Vaavrat-Jambhali (about 15 km away) bringing
with him essential goods and groceries for
families here with no access to shops. Not only
that, he takes back eggs and poultry from here
to sell in the Rahuri market (another 15 km away)
giving either money or goods in return. Every
day of the week, Kasam Mama covers different
settlements in a radius of about 30 km. His daily
pedal must be at least 50 km, if not more.
Everyone here, in every settlement knows him,
waits for him, bargains and deals with him. When
I met Kasam Mama, an old woman had just
bought some sugar from him. He had saved her,
the long hike to the weekly market. They chatted
like childhood friends, which they were, for all
I knew. She told me how he always remembers
how much he owes others and people in turn,
remember how much they owe him and return
it to him themselves. Kasam Mama has all his
accounts in his head. He runs his business on
his bicycle and on trust. The system harks back
to a more real time perhaps – a time when
financial transactions were not the only means
of exchange between people.
Times will change soon. Like the mountain
to Mohammad, markets will come to Kaluchi
Thakarwadi on its new road. Kasam Mama’s son
will have to decide if the trek is worth it. But
for now, Kasam Mama has no complaints. He is
still part of the life and landscape here. Santosh
tells me, Kasam Mama was a great help in
the initial days of the project, as a messenger
between the community and SHWVAS. Again,
perhaps a more real time – a time when mobile
phones and markets were not the only means
of exchange between people.
Question Answers
I asked Rambhau Pardhe and Popat Bhale of
Bhaledara settlement in Kaluchi Thakarwadi
a lot of questions. How do they train their
shepherd dogs? Where did Rambhau’s son
learn to make that ingenious partridge trap?
I also enriched my Marathi vocabulary here.
What is this called? What is the name for
that?
I got amused and enthusiastic answers for
all these questions.
(In these parts, sheep and goats are called
jaI~apo; yaoDka or baailaMgaa means a male goat; jaavaLI
is a male sheep; laaAaor, kak$ are sheep/ goat
kids; while qaaD - as the name sounds, is a
grumpy, old Grandma sheep.)
But there are other things people were not
very happy to talk about…
Like: How soon do they marry their
daughters off? At what age are their
daughters-in-law already bearing
children? What do girls who stop going
to school after Class VII do all day? Why
no one in the village- boy or girl- has
studied more than Class X? Why is the
food at the Adivasi ashram school nearby
so bad that children drop out rather than
stay there? How much money do people
spend on private hospitals in Wankute?
Why did onions fetch Rs. 20 this year, but
only Rs. 6 last year?
These questions don’t have easy quiz
question-answers. It is very unfair of
me to expect even apart answer in one
visit. Yet what one can sense in Kaluchi
Thakarwadi is change. Like the Kalu
river started flowing again after the
WOTR Wasundhara program, Kaluchi
Thakarwadi has started talking after all
these years of silence. We have to wait a
bit to hear what it has to say.
Wasundhara: The Process
WOTR’s Wasundhara Watershed Development Program is designed around the belief that the
success of any project is dependent on the motivation of the community, its willingness to take
ownership and participate in the program. Watershed Development is also a means for socio-
economic unity and community development. But there are certain pre-conditions for this
program to work in any village:

Voluntary shramdaan (labour contribution) from every family is the first step for the village
to show its commitment to the project. In a place of extreme financial crises like Kaluchi
Thakarwadi, shramdaan was often combined with paid labour in order to ensure that the people’s
daily needs were fulfilled.

Involvement of all sections of the community regardless of financial/ family status, or

gendermeant breaking years of socio-economic barriers in people’s minds.

Kurhad-bandi (ban on tree felling) and Charai-bandi (ban on open grazing in treated areas) is
necessary to protect the ecosystem of the watershed treatment area.

Once the village agreed to these conditions, the Wasundhara program really belonged to the
people of Kaluchi Thakarwadi.

Kaluchi Thakarwadi also went through a capacity building phase wherein people were taken on
exposure visits and made aware of the basic concept of Watershed Development. Community
based organizations (CBOs) like, Village Development Committee (VDC), Women›s Self-Help
Groups (SHGs) as well as their apex body - SMS (Sanyukta Mahila Samiti), were formed and
trained to handle all aspects of the project.

The VDC is now empowered enough to identify the current needs of the community and directly
tap government and other agencies for assistance. This collective empowerment binds the
community together in their own development.

The cumulative result of this work is also obvious economic prosperity. People can now invest
in their homes, their children and their lifestyles. The first television and telephone in Kaluchi
Thakarwadi appeared after this project. Going even further, project components touch very
important aspects of life in the village: Water Management, Food security, Health, Education,
Livelihoods and Women’s empowerment.

The land of Kaluchi Thakarwadi has gone from desert to replenished watershed. It is no longer a
tragedy of inhospitable climate and unfortunate circumstances. It is a story of how a community
came together, challenged the elements and changed their destiny.
 WOTR’s Wasundhara approach

275.50 ha. Area treatment

69 Drainage line treatments

Irrigation Structures
Soil and Water Conservation
Water availability
Groundwater level
for more than one crop/yr

Agricultural
Productivity

Land under
cultivation 16 Crop demos Livestock &
+ land value 15 Improved irrigation Alternate
systems Livelihoods

Income from
Agriculture

Employment throughout the year Food

Financial Security
Security

70% to 20%
Migration Drudgery of women

Better Health & Education

Well being of entire

to water shed development

38 ha. perenially irrigated land VDC of 15 members from 7

hamlets 3 SHGs and SMS
30 ha. seasonally irrigated land
207 ha. land in use

Improved Capacity & Institution Building

Soil quality Participatory approach

Availability Development of CBOs

of Fodder

SHGs and SMS VDCs

Financial independence Representation of all sections

of women in decision making

Women’s Empowerment Village unity

& Involvement Stronger Democratic values
in Decision making

community
ABOUT WOTR
Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) is one of the premier NGOs tackling water
scarcity, rural poverty, climate change adaptation and food insecurity in the dry-
lands of India today.

WOTR’s specific objectives are to regenerate the natural ecosystem with a strong
participatory, people-centric approach that will simultaneously repair the torn
social-fabric of community; address the challenge of water-scarcity, recurring
drought and low-agricultural productivity that results in starvation, chronic
hunger and severe malnutrition in rural communities and create alternative,

WOTR has specific competencies in Watershed Development and Natural

Resource Management, Integrated Water Resources Management, Climate
Change Adaptation, Rural Development, Community Mobilization, Gender and
Women’s Empowerment, Systems Development and Training and Capacity
Building.

In all, WOTR has carried out developmental work in over 2,500 villages in
five states - Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and
Jharkhand. In its 20 years since inception, it has organized over 1 ,100 watershed
development and climate change adaptation projects, covering nearly 700,000
hectares and impacting nearly 1,000,000 people. Its involvement in over 8,300
women’s SHGs, micro-finance, trainings and other initiatives have benefitted over
100,000 women. Similarly, over 300,000 people from 27 states in India and 35
countries have participated in WOTR’s Training and Capacity Building programs.

WOTR has also published a number of Action Research Studies, films and other
communication materials.WOTR has assisted 184 NGOs/Project Implementing
Agencies (PIAs)/ government agencies who are vital partners in WOTR’s
extensive developmental outreach.

Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR)

2nd Floor The Forum
S.No. 63/2B Padmawati Corner,
Pune Satara road Parvati,
Pune : 411009. (020) 24226211
http://wotr.org

Content and photographs by:

Radhika Murthy

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Published by:
WOTR Communications