Background Report : Manual for Integrated Village Planning and Development
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family planning, 100% house tax collection, 100% small savings, 100% electricity bill collection, 100% filtered water to the entire village and 100% abolition of child labour with all children attending school, among many other admirable achievements. All people under the age of 50 have been taught to read and write. With full sanitation, the village won the Nirmal Gram Puraskar in 2007. The school has been upgraded to a high school and all children attend. The villagers have converted an existing irrigation tank into percolation tank for water recharge that will ensure that the irrigation and drinking water bore-wells will have sufficient water for present and future generations. The community is making further effort to construct check-dams and percolation ponds for ground water improvement. The traditional crops such as cotton, paddy, chilli, maize and pulses were characteristic of the farmer’s choices, most of them water-intensive. With improved irrigational practices and technology, such as drip irrigation and the sprinkler systems, village women now produce vegetables in 150 acres and have increased their income by 30-40% compared to the previous years. The women are playing a key role in the vegetable cultivation. All households have piped water supply, TV, telephone, power, access to credit and life and crop insurance. Since the drinking water in the area was fluoride contaminated, a Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant has been installed to supply safe drinking water to every family in the village. Mechanisms of conflict resolution, a local TV channel and community radio for education and news, a bank, agriculture resource center and other facilities make life easier and the community productive. Modern farm equipment such as crop-harvesters are used by the villagers for paddy, maize and other crops, saving time, energy and money. 2.2.3 How did the change happen According to the villagers, the change began with the determination of one Mr Kusam Raja Mouli – the current Sarpanch, to change the village situation. His idea of a village where unity prevails and people cooperate, participate in innovative activities using local resources rather than being desperate for external assistance, was the driving force. By sharing his dreams and convincing some of the community leaders he was able to form a committee for total prohibition and initiated a drive against the sale and consumption of alcohol. Soon the whole community was involved in bringing about total prohibition and in 1982 it was successfully implemented. As an initial step, they succeeded in completely enforcing the ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol, a situation which has reportedly continued unbroken till date. This not only brought peace to the community, but also demonstrated the possibility of concerted community action. The next significant step was to address the drinking water problem in the village. There was only one well located some distance outside the village and water collection for household consumption took almost two to three hours daily for the women. The village leaders, led by Raja Mouli, approached Bala Vikasa Social Service Society, an NGO based in Warangal, for assistance in solving the drinking water problem. The organization agreed to help design a piped-water supply system, with an overhead water tank, and to provide 15% of the costs. The rest was to be raised by the village – with 18 motivators and groups of villagers doing the rounds of every household in two months the necessary Rs 65,000 was collected, and the villagers contributed land and voluntary labour to realize the project.