End of a chapter

9th - 13th May 2008

As I'd mentioned earlier, Richa had asked me to present my writeup of the organization and the project proposal to the SKMS core committee. The committee members are Richa, Surbala, Reena, Kamala, Shammu, Rambeti, Sunita and Maya with Richa Nagar and Mukesh as advisory members. While Richa, Surbala and Reena are actively involved in all aspects of the organization, the others are newer and have varying levels of involvement in and understanding of the organization. Also, with the varying levels of literacy in the group, most ideas would have to be communicated orally. However, the enthusiasm and motivation of these women and men is very high, so I'm sure they will be equal to the challenge ahead of them.

On the 9th, we gathered in the usual meeting place, the Dak Bungalow in Mishrikh. We started off by discussing what SKMS does and moved on to what it should be doing and how those goals could be achieved. There were a few issues that I needed clarification on and the group did not disappoint. We have often heard that our way of analyzing situations is framed by our socio-economical background, education etc. and therefore we must be very careful not to apply our value system to someone else's life. This meeting gave me a valuable glimpse into this. It allowed me to put a lot of the principles I had reflected upon in a theoretical manner into practice.

The meeting adjourned at 4:30 pm because Rambeti and Maya had to head back to Pisawa before the last jeeps and tempos left. Mukesh, Dwiji and I headed back to Sitapur to brief Richa about it – she had been at another meeting. She had also not planned to attend this meeting to give space for the other committee members to speak.

On another front, a number of stamp papers had been issued in Sitapur dt., presumably to get more false affadavits signed. It was decided that a pre-emptive approach was necessary to stem this. A list of villages where SKMS was vulnerable was drawn up and plans were made for a 'pukka saathi', a seasoned SKMS member, to visit the village in the next few days in order to shore up the confidence of the SKMS members there. A set of 'difficult' villages was given to Richa to handle.

While all this was going on, our current stint in Sitapur was drawing to a close. I had applied for a fellowship at the Community Health Cell and the first 5 weeks of the program would be in Bangalore. Before that, we planned to go on a family vacation with Dwiji's parents and siblings. We found that we could all take time out in the second half of May and plans were made to go to Kerala. Therefore Dwiji and I were leaving on the 13th for Bangalore.

It was hard to believe that only six weeks had passed since we came to Sitapur. We had learnt and experienced so much. We had gained a solid appreciation for the ground realities in Sitapur. The experience also left us brimming with ideas and enthusiasm. This will definitely be the first of many stints with SKMS...

A bend in the road

7th - 8th May 2008

Our plans for another village meeting the following day were cut short because of a new development. In a number of villages, Pradhan and district officials were pressuring people to sign affadavits saying that they had falsely applied for NREGA unemployment allowance. In a village close to Aant, some villagers had already signed affadavits. So on the evening of the 6th itself, we headed to that village.

Richa and Sharmaji met us there. This was yet another kind of meeting that we got to see, one where the village group was under pressure. There were quite a few arguments among the villagers – a father shouting at his son for signing in his name and another villager asking how on earth they could say no when the Pradhan appears at their doorstep along with other powerful men in their community. There are no easy answers in these circumstances, but Richa did an amazing job exhorting, chiding, reasoning with and inspiring the assembled crowd. Finally, after all the discussion, a plan was made to submit a complaint to the SDM the next day.

We left the next morning for Mishrikh and a group of villagers met the SDM and submitted their complaint. Later, Dwiji and I returned to Sitapur. Richa and Sharmaji were discussing the ramifications of this development. Since all these people had already given sworn statements to the investigation committee about their eligibility for unemployment allowance, it was unlikely that these affadavits would make a difference in the official process. But perhaps the Pradhans were planning to go to court. At this point, everything was speculation and conjecture.

Richa, Dwiji and I discussed the Kunwarapur meeting. She recommended that we meet with all the core committee members and discuss the project proposal. Some of the members were new, most of them were barely literate, so I would have to come up with ways of communicating what I had written down about the group and its planned activities.

Later in the night, Richa got a call from an SKMS member in a panic. He had been out in his orchard when a group of people close to the Pradhan came and started yelling at and threatening him. He had run away from that spot and into the village where his friends and family were. At the same time, another villager there who is part of SKMS had been arrested on trumped up robbery charges. Things were heating up, indeed...

It was decided that Richa, Sharmaji and Dwiji would go to the village and Reena would meet them there. I stayed back to keep the numbers down and get my other tasks done.

The arrested villager was released very soon – it was quite apparent to the SI (Sub Inspector) that the charges were trumped up. Richa and the others then proceeded to the village where they had a long discussion with both parties in the previous night's conflict. What seems to have been happening as SKMS's work progresses is a realignment of the power structures within villages, which upsets those that prefer the status quo. In some places, SKMS members are more sensitive to the situation and are able to defuse situations before they erupt into conflicts. In other places, SKMS members are either less sensitive or more hot-headed! Well, all part of growing pangs of an organization or increasing self-assertion of the oppressed, depending on one's point of view...

On the road to participatory planning

5th - 6th May 2008

Richa and I returned to Sitapur on May 1st while Dwiji arrived 2 days later. Reena had made plans for us to spend some more time in the villages and so we set off for her house on the 4th. I had been working on a project proposal for the group and wanted to talk to the dairy cooperative to get their inputs on it. There were plans to organize village meetings as well.


On the 5th, we sent out to Vaikunthapur, a village about 8 km from Reena's house. Shammu joined us and the plan was to go by bicycle. Problem was, there were only two cycles available. Now Reena had no problems sitting on the carrier, but I was sure it was going to be uncomfortable. And sure enough, sitting behind Dwiji meant a joyride with no joy in it whatsoever. So we switched and Dwiji and Reena went on ahead. Shammu and I walked for some time, I sat on the carrier wincing occasionally for some time and I rode the cycle while Shammu ran alongside for some time – poor Shammu!

Vaikunthapur is part of a cluster of villages which includes Gopalapur where there are strong SKMS supporters. The group in Gopalapur even brought along a portable sound system and set it up at the meeting place. Groups from the villages of Ramnagar Tevti and Sibiliya attended and the sound system ensured a bumper turnout, so the atmosphere was much more vibrant than at previous meetings. Reena was conducting the meeting singlehandedly so the sound system really helped.

The proceedings did get interesting at some point as the Pradhan's son was in attendance and strongly objected to some of Reena's statements. A fight would have broken out if calmer heads hadn't prevailed. All in all, an interesting time...

While heading back to Kunwarapur, we stopped by in Sundar, an active SKMS member's house. During the conversation, we found that they had harvested a quintal of oats. During our earlier stay in Reena's house, we had eaten powdered oats with jaggery and mango chutney that was delicious. So we asked for 5 kg. of roasted oats. Initially, Sundar's family refused to take any payment from us. We then got into a discussion of how well-off we were, how it wasn't fair that they would charge their neighbours but not charge us etc. They finally accepted our cash and I think we didn't browbeat them into it!

We returned to Kunwarapur to wash up, cook and eat and plan the next day's activities. I haven't talked about bathing in the villages yet, have I? Not having a toilet is something I can get used to, I think – there are plenty of fields and trees in this part of the country. But bathing is an open-air activity in front of the hand pump. Richa advised me to be bold and ask the menfolk to leave the courtyard when I wanted to bathe, but most women can't do that and pretty much have incomplete baths partially clothed. Incidentally, Dwiji chose to bathe one evening at the handpump near the dairy and soon found himself gawked at by half the neighbourhood!

The next day, Reena called a meeting of the dairy cooperative. The dairy was set up in 2004, got funds to construct a two-room building and even got a road to the dairy sanctioned. However, it has not been smooth sailing where the functioning is concerned. Parag dairy in Sitapur is the main buyer of the milk and the relationship with them has had its ups and downs. A big problem has been the transportation of milk. It takes an hour to get to Sitapur and in the event of extremely hot weather or road delays, the milk is spoiled when it reaches the dairy. The cooperative is planning to buy a pasteurizer/cooler but is not sure how to get financing for it. Parag would give them one but would then want to be the exclusive buyer of milk. Getting funding from non-profits is not easy and none of them have the collateral to take on this kind of a loan. Further, they are thinking of value addition in terms of making khoya (condensed milk), ghee etc. They have also been considering composting, given the increased amounts of manure in the village, and sustainable farming.


We sat in Reena's cowshed and talked about this and other issues for hours. I was really interested in finding out how the cooperative helped empower these women. Two or three of them in particular did seem to have found their voice in the past few years. One woman talked about how shocked Parag officials were when they flatly refused to take a pasteurizer from them. Another talked about caste divisions within the village. A question about why I didn't wear a mangalsutra led to talk about the treatment of widows. Finally, we talked about the funding proposal I was writing up and the possibility of an exposure trip for these women to groups that are working on sustainable agriculture. This is the first time I have interacted so closely with people on whose behalf I was writing a funding proposal. In fact, I felt that with a few more discussions and planning meetings, I could just serve in the role of facilitator and translator for this proposal. As it should be.

Cooling off in Nainital

28th - 30th April 2008

After the heat of the plains, a trip to Nainital felt all the more satisfying. Richa was to conduct a workshop on NREGA for the Mahila Samakhya Resource persons and Sahyoginis, the field-level organizers who are responsble for 10 villages each. MS's primary focus has been Violence against Women, but in some instances they have gone beyond that, campaigning for health services, education, ban on liquor etc. Yet, taking up the issue of NREGA would mean a completely different style of work. From what I could see, MS employees saw their role as educators, imparting information about job cards, benefits of NREGA, minimum wage laws etc. This is very different from the campaign style of work adopted by SKMS. However, the implementation of NREGA has just started in Nainital dt. and one can hope that things progress in a better manner there...


The situation in Uttarakhand is quite different from UP. There is large-scale migration (palaayan) to Lucknow, Delhi and other cities among young males. Those men still living in the hills can earn more than the minimum wage, whether it be through daily wage labour or more regular employment. Therefore, NREGA is currently more attractive to women who typically earn about Rs. 50/day compared to the NREGA wage of Rs. 73. However, Richa challenged the group to think about the difference Rs.7300 would make to a family. Would it bring home the youth slaving away in hotels in big cities? Would the influx of money allow Panchayats to plan new projects and improve their villages?

In another session, Richa asked the women to look ahead and think about what they would do if the administration was slow in implementing various phases of the Act. What if the minimum wage was not paid? While Uttarakhand does have a better record on poverty, oppression and caste-based discrimination, it is not free of them. Further, due to the entrenched corruption in the Forest departments and Natural Resource Management, there are some powerful vested interests to contend with. We showed the group some video of the SKMS dharna that I had been editing – who know, maybe they will need to protest in a similar manner here as well.

On the last day of the workshop, there was plenty of song and dance. I had forgotten to bring my voice recorder along and never regretted it more! But I did manage to learn a few songs and will hopefully get a chance to record them some time in the future.

Sangharsh, producer-consumer links and chaat

23rd - 26th April 2008

The days after we returned to Sitapur was taken up by discussions about the vision of SKMS and in writing up project proposals for funding. Dwiji was heading to Delhi on the 26th to participate in Sangharsh 2008. This was an event organized by NAPM to highlight the issue of displacement, land rights and proposed changes to the Land Acquisition Act that would further water down the compensation that displacees are eligible for. A number of groups representing people whose land was under threat of acquisition were congregating in New Delhi to protest and mobilize. Dwiji would be there to lend a hand where necessary and to interact with the activists and organizers assembled there. I had a different plan.

Richa had been invited by Mahila Samakhya in Nainital to conduct a training on NREGA for their staff on April 28th, 29th and 30th. I planned to tag along. But this trip was thrown into uncertainty because of the investigation committee's work. Following the Pradhans' protest, extra efforts were being made to get them to testify before the committee. A notice was sent to all Pradhans in the Mishrikh and Pisawa block asking them to set a date for testifying before the committee. The deadline for this was April 30th and there were rumours that the Pradhans would turn up on that day itself.

On the 26th, Dwiji and I headed to Lucknow to spend a day shopping, visiting friends and satisfying my chaat cravings! Dwiji would head off to Delhi and I would return to Sitapur. We first met Madhavi Kuckreja, a veteran in women's groups and rights work in Uttar Pradesh. Her newest endeavour is setting up a shop – Sanatkada – that stocks products made by NGOs, people's movements etc. The shop is located in a residential area off the main road and is on the second floor of a house, so first off, the location was not ideal. But once inside, it was worth visiting. Clothes from the Northeast (the ant) and Rajasthan, material from Andhra (Dastkar), decorative pieces, jewellery, folders, stationery and more – the shop was a veritable treasure trove. Through mere word of mouth, Madhavi is managing to sell more than Rs. 1 lakh worth of items a month. However, the shop is still not yielding a profit and that is something she and her team need to figure out if they want to stay in business – all the best to them.

After the shop, we headed out for some 'pet puja', which Lucknow is well equipped to provide. While out on the streets, we got a call from Sitapur saying the Nainital trip was on – whew!

Living with the Loo

18th - 21st April 2008

At the Pisawa meeting, plans had been made to visit 3 villages in that block. SKMS hasn't been active in Pisawa for long, and while the people there are highly motivated, more mobilization efforts are required. Dwiji and I left for Surbala's house on the 18^th itself in preparation. Harvesting activities were on in full swing throughout the region and given that full moon was just a few nights away, a lot of people were cutting wheat at night. Walking in the moonlit fields was an excellent experience. Unfortunately, Dwiji didn't get an opportunity to cut the wheat himself – the villagers were too nervous to let him!

The next morning, we left for Pisawa. Surbala and Reena weren't familiar with the village we were to go to, therefore we headed to Rambeti's house in Allipur. Allipur is close to the town of Pisawa, and 10-20 years earlier, very little was cultivated here due to sandy soil conditions. But apparently, about 10 years ago, Sikh farmers began moving here from Punjab and buying land. They irrigated the land, applied fertilizers etc. and started growing wheat and other crops. Looking at the crop yields they were getting, locals began growing wheat as well. Nowadays, even sugarcane is being cultivated here. But on the whole, Pisawa is less populated than Mishrikh and people are more dependent on daily labour.

On reaching Rambeti's house and after the usual hospitality, we realized that Manikapur, the village we were to go to, was quite far from Pisawa – about 8-10 km. It was more accessible from Maholi which is on the Sitapur-Delhi highway. Surbala and Reena, being unfamiliar with Pisawa geography, hadn't known that and Rambeti, being unfamiliar with the itinerary, hadn't communicated this information to them. Our meeting was about to be canceled due to lack of transportation! Finally, at 12:30 pm Jagannath, Rambeti's husband, managed to find a theliya driver who would take us on the 16-18 km round trip to Manikapur. Om Prakash, another resident of Allipur, lent his bicycle to Dwiji and we were off.

I haven't come across theliyas before coming to Sitapur so don't know how prevalent they are in other parts of the country. At first, I found them extremely uncomfortable and like most other things, they are not designed for people of my height, let alone Dwiji's. But they are beginning to grow on me. Having said that, travelling in an open theliya at 1 pm in 40 C conditions with a blowing loo was draining. I kept myself going thinking about the padyatra SKMS had organized in these parts last year. Not only had they walked from village to village, but they had visited 3 villages every day. After 3 days of this gruelling schedule, some people collapsed from exhaustion – naturally!

We reached Manikapur just before 2 pm and got the active SKMS members to assemble the other villagers together quickly. The proceedings started, as always, with a song. Almost a hundred people had congregated at the meeting venue and it would take a firm hand to keep them engaged. Surbala and Reena proved up to the task. With stories, exhortations and a bit of humour, they kept the crowd entertained and put their points across about the importance of a sangathan and the issues that needed to be addressed in the village. It seems that the women in the village were meeting regularly but the men weren't interested in joining. Extra effort was put to get them involved in SKMS activities.

The meeting ended early because the theliya owner wanted to leave. So we left at 4 pm. The ride back was under cooler conditions and I even rode the bicycle for part of the way back. Dwiji and I were staying at Rambeti's house, so we left with her while Reena and Surbala left for Pisawa. Later, we found out that they had an awfully hard time finding transportation and had to call a relative to pick them up on his motorcycle.

Rambeti's village is electrified, which means that they get power for a few hours in the middle of the night! Well, atleast that allows mobiles to be charged in the village itself. There are a lot of gushing accolades being written for the cellphone these days, about how they've revolutionalized the countryside and empowered people as never before. Let's not go overboard, folks! Sure, more information is available than ever before and coordination is easier, but the existing power structures haven't changed. Getting payments for sugarcane and foodgrains is as hard as ever as is transportation. Reading some op-eds recently, one may be fooled into thinking that this little piece of technology has solved all the problems that decades of intervention haven't been able to fix...

That night, we chatted with Rambeti and learnt how she got involved in activism. She told us how she started off as a village-level organizer with Mahila Samakhya and then began talking up more and more issues that affected people in her village. This lady is tough – she has taken on ration shop owners who were hoarding goods, her village Pradhan and even the Block Development Officers. Apparently the BDO of Pisawa (who also has the charge of Mahol block) is so deluged with applications and complaints in Pisawa that he no longer comes to his office there! Rambeti now sits on the investigation committee looking into the unemployment allowance issue. The sheer symbolism of a Dalit woman sitting on a committee with district officials and questioning BDOs and Pradhans is not lost on anyone.

The next morning, we spent some time with the children of the house. Rambeti's younger daughter Khushboo loves playing the dholak and singing, so we coaxed her into a performance. Other girls in the neighbourhood joined in and we were treated to a rousing impromptu concert. Later we talked to the girls about their studies and they weren't as enthusiastic! The boys seemed to be more interested and doing better in school. This was, of course, just a snapshot of the literacy scenario in the area. But among adults, there is a clear difference in literacy levels between the genders. This creates a lot of challenges for SKMS as it tries to establish women and men on an equal footing in all tasks related to the organization.

On the 20^th, we were set to go to Taalgaon which is more accessible from Pisawa. Rambeti had to go for a committee meeting, so she left for Sitapur, while Reena, Surbala, Dwiji and I set off for Taalgaon in a theliya. A few kilometres out of Taalgaon, we learnt that a fire had broken out in the village. The conditions were so hot, dry and windy that even a tinder could start a blaze.

The fire in Taalgaon had been put out, we found, but so much for a meeting that day. We decided to proceed to the village to see what we could do. In the village, we found some SKMS members and went to tour the burnt houses.

The tragedy of a fire is heightened in late April because the newly harvested wheat has just been brought into homes for storage. In the burnt houses, the wheat that hadn't been destroyed by the fire was damaged by the water used to put out the fire. So, in many cases, a family's stock of foodgrain for the entire year was wiped out in just a few minutes. Surbala and Reena asked questions, comforted villagers and later talked to the Pradhan and other officials about getting compensation for the affected families. Then we headed back to Pisawa and from there to Reena's house in Kunwarapur. Given the weather conditions and reports of fires throughout the region, the next day's meeting was cancelled and we decided to head back to Sitapur instead.

Back in Kunwarapur, Reena took hospitality to a whole new level. Though we reached her home at 6 pm, she cooked a full meal and dahi wada as well! The next morning, she let us help her with making khoya (condensed milk) with fresh milk from her cows and buffaloes. We were also treated to sugarcane juice and fruits galore. After all the gastronomical delights, it was time for some food for thought. We talked about the women's dairy in Kaunwarapur and the plans to improve its capacity and revenue etc. I had offered to put together a proposal for soliciting funding for the upcoming year and this discussion would flesh out the dairy component.

The loo raged on through the afternoon and Reena extinguished all fires in her house. Her family had lost everything they possessed in a fire in 2004 and there was no desire to repeat the experience. We left Kunwarapur and returned to Sitapur in the evening tired, a little dehydrated and with a profound respect for life in the heat and wind of a north Indian summer.

The Rights of Pradhans

16th April 2008

For the past few days, Dwiji, Richa and Mukesh had been busy at work on the next edition of 'Humara Safar', the Sangtin newsletter. Earlier editions had been put together on Pagemaker by DTP folks – this had always proven to be a major headache given the lack of resources in Sitapur. Dwiji suggested designing the newsletter in OpenOffice and exporting it to PDF format. Since neither Richa nor Mukesh are tech-savvy, they suggested that Dwiji do this and set up a template for future editions.

On another front, the Pradhan rally that was supposed to have happened on the 9^th was rescheduled for the 16^th – apparently, they needed time to organize. Behind the scenes, there were efforts to set up a dialogue with the Pradhans. Labourers getting an unemployment allowance would not hurt the Pradhans in any way, but there are enough players behind the scenes trying to convince them otherwise. At any rate, their 1-day rally did go ahead as planned and Dwiji and I went to listen in for a while.

From the speeches of various Pradhans, it was clear that they were unclear about the objectives of the rally! Some speakers talked about the need for a salary for Pradhans, since they had so many duties which were only increased with NREGA – fair enough. Others talked about how certain labourers did not do any work and yet demanded wages because of their collective strength. The Pradhans who talked about this were from areas that SKMS does not work in, so apparently they were projecting some other angst here! There was some talk about how the committee was unconstitutional and should be dissolved, and in the very next breath the speaker was asking for representation for Pradhans on this committee! Well, the Pradhan assocation has been set up just recently – they still need to get their act together...

However, there is also talk that the BDOs and Pradhans plan to go to court on this issue, so maybe they will create more hurdles and roadblocks in the future...

A Monthly round-up

10th - 12th April 2008

On the 9th, Dwiji and I went to Vikas Bhavan and found not a Pradhan in sight. Later, we found out that the protest had been called off that morning itself. Why, we did not know. Most likely they felt that they were not prepared enough...

On the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th of every month, regional meetings are held by SKMS for clusters of ~15 villages। On Thursday, Dwiji and I headed to the first one, in the village of Aant. Richa could only stay for a short while as she had to attend the next meeting of the enquiry committee. She updated the group on the committee's work, the Pradhan Sangh's demands and the newspaper reports – Dainik Jagaran, which is more widely read in the villages, had also come out with an article on the issue.

The meeting was attended by about 30 people. More kept trickling in even though I thought we were late at noon – time is more flexible here! The first issue that was discussed was the BPL (Below Poverty Level) list. A survey of households had been carried out in the past few months where points were assigned based on income, land holdings and other assets, education of family members, appliances such as gas cylinders in the house etc. The list of those who had upto 52 points would be displayed in a public place in each Gram Sabha around the 16th. There was a lot of discussion about what needed to be done if the list was not available or if certain names were missing from the list etc. Most of the attendees in this meeting would qualify for BPL and yet were unaware of the benefits of the card.

Other topics of discussion included updates on NREGA and ensuring that job cards were in the hands of labourers themselves. As mentioned earlier, this is easier said than done and tactics for getting them back from the Pradhan or secretary were discussed. Payments on labour already done are also notoriously slow in arriving – usually the reason cited is that the funds haven't arrived in the village account yet. But the increasing awareness and mobilization of villagers is having an effect – work available this past year (2007-08) was much more than what was available the year before when NREGA was introduced.

An ongoing concern of the core members of SKMS is the mobilization and understanding at the village level. A lot of villagers join in SKMS activities when it is beneficial for them but step back during confrontations with the Pradhan or Block officials etc. This is a burden for the more loyal SKMS members. One member whose village is strongly mobilized, inspite of the challenges they face, stood up to share his experiences and motivate the rest.

As always, the meeting started and ended with a song. Reena's rendition of 'Bol ari oh dharti bol' is truly resounding!

We were to stay at Surbala's home overnight – she lives close to Qutubnagar, the site of the second meeting. To get to her house, we had to take a 'theliya' (a cart pulled by a cyclist) to the main road, then get a 'Ganesh' tempo (so named because of its long front – Dwiji says similar tempos are called 'Garuda' tempos in Karnataka) and then walk a kilometre through wheat fields. The fields stretched as far as the eye could see. This close to harvest, the stalks were long and the seeds had grown to full size. A few km. up the road, fields had greatly benefited from irrigation provided by the newly rejuvenated canal that SKMS had fought so hard for.

Surbala and her family can be considered well-off in their village's context – they have a 'pukka makaan' – a house with a cement roof as opposed to a thatched one, they have a gas cylinder and have actually managed to increase their land holdings (by just a few bighas, albeit). Yet, Surbala has had to fight hard for 'unnecessary' expenses such as her daughter's education. As she put it, she started working in order to have a stronger voice in directing her family finances.

As I've often experienced in villages, Surbala's hospitality was at the 'Athithi devobhava' – guest is god – level, to the extent of fanning us! We had to be quite firm and insist on helping her rather than have her wait upon us hand and foot.

One neat use of technology in Surbala's house – a solar panel she had purchased for a solar lantern is now being used to charge mobile phones. We had heard earlier that some villagers spend as much as half a day traveling to a nearby electrified town to charge their phone – this is a much more elegant solution. We started wondering if a laptop could be charged this way as well – will give it a shot.

The next day, we went to Qutubnagar for the second regional meeting. The group here seemed a lot more motivated and informed – SKMS had been working in this area longer and it shows. There were also a lot more arguments! As Richa had told us earlier, these meetings serve not only the purpose of sharing information but also allow disagreements to be aired out and resolved as much as possible.

The heat is beginning to build up in this part of the world – we had to move the meeting to a semi-closed space to escape the scorching loo outside.

After the meeting, we were besieged by invitations to stay overnight, have refreshments etc. etc. and had to employ the art of respectful declining. We headed back to Sitapur that night.

For the Pishawa meeting on the 12th, I was dreading the jeep-tempo-theliya travel of past days when an alternative idea struck. Richa wasn't using her scooter that day, so we borrowed it for the day. To think that I am now actually looking forward to traveling on a 2-wheeler! I had complained about it nonstop during my earlier stints in Bangalore, when Dwiji was taking me around the city on one. But priorities change, I guess – especially in the face of back-breaking travel in vehicles stuffed in defiance of space and structure!

In Pishawa, the dynamics are yet again different. This group had come together on the issue of NREGA and had approached SKMS for help. So, while they are highly motivated, there was a need felt for more mobilizing and perspective-building activities. Meetings in 3 villages in the Pishawa area were planned for 19th - 21st April an we planned to attend tham as well. For now, we decided we had earned some rest and headed back to Sitapur.

SKMS in action

8th April 2008

The past couple of days had been a bit quiet after the hustle-bustle of Vikas Bhavan, especially given that Monday was a holiday (it also happened to be Ugadi/Gudi Padwa, celebrated here as the start of the summer Navratri). On Tuesday was 'Tehsil divas', a day when the DM meets block-level officials and staff and the public can file applications, complaints etc.

A lot of planning had gone on at the village level to get a number of applications filed on this day. When we got to Mishrikh with Richa and Sharmaji, we found a number of Sangathan members along with Surbala and Reena conferring over applications. We also met a number of core members such as Rambeti, Shammu and Tama. Richa and Sharmaji had to go on to Lucknow and soon left us. We stuck around, sometimes taking a peek into the block office to watch the proceedings. That might have been detrimental though – a lot of officials spent more time staring at us than looking at the applications in front of them.

After all the forms had been submitted and a receiving number and signature was registered on each copy, we adjourned to the Dak Bungalow. There were 20-30 Sangtin members and others kept joining in. The topic of discussion was the Pradhan demonstration the next day. The Pradhan association had threatened a demonstration if the DM wouldn't accede to their demands and dissolve the enquiry committee. It was quite possible that there would be a big turnout at this rally – the Pradhans were booking 'trolleys', trailers that could be hitched to a tractor, to go to Sitapur. If nothing else, villagers would get a chance to go to Sitapur free of cost! And of course, there were some who were in the Pradhans' camp to start with. This group of people were focused on making sure their supporters would not get onto the trolleys. They went over what arguments they could make and who to talk to. The meeting started and ended with songs – Tama has a powerful voice and it was a pleasure to listen to him. Dwiji recorded the song on our mobile – quite a decent recording it was too!