Think local, act local

Unlike the past, it8217;s not a prayer on vegetable grower Mavjibhai8217;s lips as he leaves his Dholka farm for the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee. He is on mobile phone, calling up the Farmers8217; Call Centre for an update on the day8217;s market rates, demand and supply and if any of the big retail chains like Reliance or Subhiksha have placed orders.

These are three short stories in a plot for grassroots change being scripted by district officials across Gujarat. The progress, visible at the village and taluka levels, is being seen as a prototype to be followed elsewhere.

The instruments of change are optimum interventions at the local level 8211; for instance, the Rajkot District Development Officer8217;s DDO government primary school model which resulted in the migration of 301 students from expensive private schools or the initiative of the Surendranagar DDO to help women set up a 8220;gobar bank8221; and a biogas plant to provide cooking gas to at least 100 households.

Under the Swantah Sukhaya programme, officers posted in the districts are encouraged by the state government to take up special projects over and above their normal duties, whether as district collector or DDO. The only criterion for a project: it should provide 8220;self-satisfaction swantah sukhaya to the officer that his project was result-oriented and has benefitted society8221;.

The motto found several takers. At the chintan shibhir held for bureaucrats at Gujarat Narmada Fertilisers Corporation in Bharuch on November 17 and 18, at least 12 officers made presentations of the projects they had envisaged.

Rajkot DDO MA Narmawala8217;s School Turnaround Project aimed to provide qualitative primary education free of cost at par with a good non-government educational institution by changing the image of government primary school. One of the thrust areas: upgrading infrastructure to match private schools.

8220;Of the 1,275 primary schools in Rajkot district, we identified 31 8211; two each from each taluka plus three more. None of the 31 schools had benches. Only 18 supplied uniforms, 23 did not have classrooms, 19 had no sanitation facilities, only five schools had a computer and none of the schools had ever been to a science and maths exhibition,8221; says Narmawala.

Using a two-pronged approach, the DDO and his team looked at improving education standards along with infrastructure. 8220;We introduced the Maria-Montessory approach. Instead of just textbook teaching, teachers took up practical demonstrations. For instance, a teacher would bring different coloured chalk sticks or powder while teaching class 1 students about colours or show real flowers of different kinds instead of poor quality textbook photos,8221; he says. Vocabulary tests were introduced to inculcate competition among students and to ensure teachers8217; participation, incentives in the form of best teacher awards were introduced.

On the other hand, the education department footed the bill for benches for all the 31 schools. Gijubhai Barad, Rajkot8217;s private education pioneer, says: 8220;It8217;s a much-needed project and I saw how a school in Vaniya taluka was transformed into a model school. We have to wait a couple of years to see whether this sustains but definitely the results can be seen in the schools that have been targetted.8221;

Within a year, attendance in the 31 schools shot up to 98 per cent and 301 children returned from private schools in various talukas to these model schools in the villages. Nine students went on to enter the CBSE8217;s Jawahar Navodaya schools.

DDO Vinod Rao, meanwhile, roped in the District Rural Development Agency DRDA, an ISO 9001:2000 agency, to help the women of Navalgadh village in Dhrangadhra taluka form a self-help group to set up a 8220;gobar bank8221;. Then, with 10 per cent funding from the village and 90 per cent from Gujarat Energy Development Agency, two biogas plants were set up at a cost of Rs 18.2 lakh. A system was put in place to collect and deliver cowdung generated daily to the 8220;gobar bank8221; for which the bank pays Rs 435 per tonne. 8220;It8217;s a boon for women who spend at least four hours cooking on firewood which affects their health. Now, cooking is faster, less tedious, safer and environment-friendly also,8221; says village sarpanch Mohanbhai Jadhav. That8217;s not to mention the residual waste from the plants that is processed into fertiliser, sold to farmers at Rs 750 per tonne.

8220;By the end of the next fiscal, we are expecting the biogas plant and gobar bank to make a net income of Rs 3.32 lakh,8221; says DRDA deputy director SF Saiyed.

In Jamalpur, meanwhile, the effort is to build a bridge between the farmer and his buyer. Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees APMC in Gujarat are cash-rich and their office-bearers politically powerful but the farmer whose crops they market often ends up being the loser. Kisan Sethu enables the farmer to carry on the transaction at the village level. 8220;Farmers are being trained to select and sort vegetables or flowers at the farm itself, according to quality, grade them and sell at the APMCs accordingly. That way, they can quote different prices and retailers will have to pay,8221; says APMC, Ahmedabad, president Babubhai Patel says. Besides, 8220;one call to the centre and I know what my crop8217;s worth today and in which market,8221; says Vasantbhai Patel of Sanand.

The examples are only growing by the day. A few projects have had slow starts, a few have been turned down by the villagers but either way, the initiative for community participation has paid off. In small ways, changes are happening in unimagined ways.

For instance, thanks to district collector BH Ghodasara, Sabarkantha already has 50 libraries, at Rs 10,000 each, so that students and elders alike can improve on their reading.

Or Valsad where tribals have been encouraged by Collector DK Raval to take to mango, cashewnut and banana cultivation. Or Panchmahals, in the headlines for the wrong reasons following the Godhra riots, where the DDO is reviving a dying lake with community participation.

May the tribe increase.