The following site visit report was prepared by Sukanya Bose after a visit to Navsarjan in mid-April. Sukanya is currently working with Eklavya in MP. She has been involved with the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha and other voluntary organizations in the past. She was also a coordinator of Asha-Stanford's Internship Program 2001.


NAVSARJAN TRUST: SITE VISIT
DATE 15th-16th APRIL 2002

FIELD DIARY

As the bus approached Surat, the high humidity in the air signalled the proximity to the coast. Even at nine in the morning, the sun was blazing. The shops dotting the streets of Surat on either side had begun to raise shutters. Anywhere one looked one could see textile markets from the single shop outlets to stylish and expensive multi-storeyed complexes. We felt that there were far too many cycles on the streets compared to most other cities, perhaps not a very correct observation.

Since the bus had arrived behind schedule we disembarked at a place nearest to the Navsarjan Trust office and took an auto to reach the office. As we had feared our delay had upset the plans Stanny had made for the morning. He was waiting for us at the bus station. We hurriedly exchanged our names with the staff waiting for us, who showed us to our rooms. Soon Stanny arrived and we had a preliminary round of introduction over breakfast. We were given some literature on Navsarjan, key ring, a nice looking calendar and pamphlets that were a part of the promotional campaign.

The programme for the morning was to observe an "out of court settlement" proceeding at the Songadh taluka of Surat district, 2-3 hours journey from Surat city. We were to halt for the night at one of the field offices. Apart from the two of us from Eklavya, accompanying Stanny was Amrutbhai and Gemjibhai. Amrutbhai has a long experience working with Dalits in Gujarat and is now handling the People's Organisation for Navsarjan. Gemjibhai is a local of the area (tribal) and a trained lawyer. He has been working for the Trust for more than a decade. Bapubhai was driving the vehicle as we started for Songarh.

The initial stretch once we were out of Surat city is covered with lush green irrigated fields spread over miles. This tract of land is mostly inhabited and cultivated by non-adivasis - Patels and Gujjars. The roads in Surat district, wherever the pucca road exists, are well-maintained in good condition that made our journey through the countryside pleasant and comfortable. The distance from Surat office to the Songadh block headquarters is over 75 kms. Stanny and his team (viz. the three other gentlemen accompanying us) in a normal week, start from Surat on Monday morning at about seven and reach Songadh by nine. Monday night they halt at Songarh, Tuesday at Uchhal - another Taluka - next day at Nizzar and so on. They cover the seven talukas in six days and on Saturday evening they return to Surat. Sunday is the office day to look through papers and answer to correspondence and prepare for the coming week. It is only during trainings that the team remains in Surat city.

After travelling about halfway towards Songadh the landscape suddenly changed from silken green to dusty brown speckled with patches of green here and there. The land was mostly barren undulating and rough - it seemed as if the earth was heaving in the heat and dust of the summer day. The jeep sped past scattered villages along the road, which were predominantly tribal. The vegetation, which until then had largely resembled the typical coastal mix of mango and banana trees, transformed to the arid kind. We passed a hillock with a large fort built by Shivaji. And then close on its tow, emerging out of the blue was the huge atomic power plant in the middle of nowhere. It was crazily guarded, looked very secretive and hi-tech - a place entirely out of place.

At several places we crossed the canals of Ukai Dam. Ukai dam was constructed in the late sixties as a hydroelectric cum irrigation project. It had submerged 170 villages in three talukas of Surat - Ucchal, Songadh and Nizar - and Sagbara taluka in Narmada district. At that time there were no powerful voices that could galvanize a dam movement around the issue of displacement and rehabilitation. Some of the tribals in the area lost as much as 400 acres of land and were compensated by 4 acres of non-irrigated barren land. The oustee villages (ie the resettled villages) stand out from the original tribal villages, as Amrutbhai pointed to us. The former have closely built houses one packed into the other with maximum economy in land use, whereas the traditional villages are leisurely sprawled sometimes with houses situated in the fields so much so that it is difficult to demarcate a village unit. There is still a great deal of resentment among the local population around the issue of displacement that we heard again and again. There is a saying that is heard very often in this region, that what flows through the canals of Ukai is not water but our blood.

The main tribe in the area is Bhil which has several sub-castes. Here the number of sub-castes was 27! Till recently, I was unfamiliar with the concept of sub-castes among the tribals. It is strange that how similar is the social ordering of the tribal societies to caste villages (I know only of a limited number so the generalisation might be inaccurate). Not only do they have sub-castes, but also the communities typically have hierarchal relations across the sub-castes. Endogamy is the practice within each sub-caste. They don't share water or food. Some of the lowest sub-castes like Kotvalia (traditional occupation: basket making using bamboos), who predictably also are the poorest in the community, are ostracized and barred from entering other tribal homes in the region.

In the Songarh office, there were more than a hundred people present when we arrived at about 12:30 pm. Every month there is one day set for out of court settlement of cases - both new and old. This date is set in advance and notified to all those involved in disputes of any kind from the whole of Songarh taluka. The legal and paralegal staff and representatives of the People's Organization (PO) in their interactions with the villagers come across disputes relating to marriage, property especially land and forest that require interventions of a third party. First there is an attempt to solve it locally, failing which it is taken to the block office of LAHRC on the out-of-court settlement day. Both parties to the dispute are summoned and each is heard separately first, then the two are brought together and a solution is sought to the problem. Several of the cases can be solved within the framework of customary law, so that the out of court settlement procedure comes in very handy. We witnessed a few cases of marriage disputes where the petitioner, the woman, wanted separation and divorce from her man. One of the woman lawyers explained that often it happens that the man goes off to stay with another woman and leaves the family behind. A divorce in such cases can restore freedom to the woman to remarry and can force the man to share the responsibility of bringing up the children. The presence of an elder of the family facilitates the settlement of such cases. In less personalised disputes the village elders play a crucial role. It so happens that in cases where the dispute cannot be settled out of court, the lawyers take it to the court where they themselves are practising, and push for a speedy court settlement. We were very impressed by the swiftness and efficiency of the three women lawyers, trained by Navasarjan and working for the organisation for over six years. (Navasarjan has trained 24 youths from the tribal community as lawyers, 15 of whom are women. Apart from these full-fledged lawyers who practice in various types of courts as well as work for the organisation, they have trained 300 paralegals or barefoot lawyers. Each person had a fascinating story to tell about his or her background and involvement with the organisation.)

A few representatives of the POs as also some of the executive committee members had accompanied the villagers to the centre. Stanny had asked us to intermingle freely and from time to time he would come and introduce us to a sarpanch or an activist or an executive committee member. The structure of People's Organisation functionaries might be worth recalling here. The POs have been formed in over 370 villages across the seven talukas of Surat district. For the formation of a PO in a village, the minimum membership has to be 40. There is a conscious attempt to maintain 1:1 man-woman ratio in each PO. From among the members one man and one woman is chosen as the representative in each village. A stipulated number of executive committee members are selected from among the representatives in each taluka. The President, the head of the executive committee, is consensually appointed. The executive committee is formed for the duration of one year.

Following the formation of POs, Navsarjan activists were in search of a powerful symbol/slogan for the movement, which they discovered in "JAI ADIVASI." People now greet each other as JAI ADIVASI. The right hand is raised in a fist and the left hand shows the V for victory sign. The belief that rediscovering tribal identity and a sense of pride in that identity could facilitate a process of assertion for basic human rights and therefore solve the problems facing the tribal society underlies this kind of symbolism. The assumption that tribal identity has been undermined in crude ways through relations, which are very often unequal vis-a-vis the non-tribal world, is indisputable. In my few months of working with tribal children in Madhya Pradesh, I have felt this intensely time and again. Morgadi is a tribal village in the Harda district of Madhya Pradesh. The population of Morgadi predominantly consists of Korkus, a very backward tribe. The saying goes that - "jangal, zameen sudhar sakte hain par korkus kabhi nahi sudhar sakte." The kids internalise the idea through very many ways, which affect severely their creation of the self as well as learning ability and participation in class. The schooling process further reinforces this, with the teachers sometimes playing devil's advocate, while the curriculum continues to be indifferent to all such realities. I was very happy therefore to see the sensitivity displayed by the PO programme on the question of tribal identity and culture.

From Songarh taluka headquarters we then moved towards the villages. On the way we saw the Ukai dam and its area of submergence. The canal water serves the drinking water needs of the Surat city and is supplied to the industries in and around Surat. Some of the persons accompanying us pointed their fingers excitedly at what would have been their homes but were now submerged for many years under water. It was difficult to believe that so much destruction underlay the beauty and magnificence of the dam area.

Below the Ukai dam in Songadh taluka is a cluster of villages and we were to attend a meeting of the PO members at five o'clock in one of the villages, Bhurivel. Bhurivel is a rehabilitated village. Though the Ukai dam canal flows a few kilometers away from the village, the villages around face acute water crises. Bhurivel suffers from drinking water shortage. The 100 PO members from this village are trying to organise themselves and with the advice of the Navsarjan, are trying to secure drinking water supply for the village. Recently, the PO members had after a long battle procured power supply for the village, which had bolstered their confidence to act on their own. The meeting attended by about 50 persons was taking place on the verandah of the house of one of the representatives of the PO. Apart from the water issue on which the members resolved to meet the collector, certain other matters like land encroachment was discussed (the discussion was in Gujarati and Gamit - a particular tribal dialect - so we were not able to get the details of the discussion). Noteworthy was the participation of the women some of whom were very vocal. The discussions were active and lively. While there is a lot of emphasis on taking things on to the gram sabha meetings, some of the decisions bypass the gram sabha (I was wondering whether this could be problematic). Sarpanch of this particular village is a sympathizer and also a member of the PO, which need not always be the case. As a percentage of total adults in the village, the membership would have 30-40% coverage. Eventually the attention shifted to us, and the people gathered wanted to know what our activities were, how our area of work was, and what we felt about their efforts. We talked about our area, related some of the movements in MP and other parts of the country that were fighting for the rights of tribals against displacement and for their rights to access "jal, jangal, jameen". We spoke of Eklavya's work on education and discussed with them a little about how communities could participate in schools.

By the time the meeting finished we were famished and ready to eat a big meal. In between we had some tea and shakarpara, but this had only heightened our appetite. At Sunitaben's house we were served excellent food and in the most adoring style. There was chapati made of rice - both sweetened and salted variety - served with chicken curry and also rice, dal and vegetable curry. Obviously a lot of time and care had gone into all the preparation. After a sumptuous and very satisfying meal we took leave of our hosts in Bhurivel and started for Ucchal.

The Adivasi Sarvangi Vikas Sangh, as the POs are locally called, in the Jamne village of Ucchal taluka was organising a cultural programme. More than 300 people mostly children had come to see the programme with the sarpanch of the village as the chief guest. These cultural evenings are organised frequently as fun, entertainment cum learning event. Stanny had told us that there is no fixed performance schedule; rather they play it by ear depending on audience interest. Some of the dance and music sequences were very attractive. I liked the heavy droning voices of the girls - in unison it created a gentle yet strong effect. Surekhaben one of the tribal lawyers from Ucchal block, and Prembhai, the magician were the main anchors for the programme. They peppered their conversations carried out in a light-hearted tone with talk of tribal culture and its strengths. We could make out certain comparisons being made between aeroplane as a modern invention and "uran khattola" as of tribal origin. The first man on earth was a tribal, Prembhai asserted! Surekhaben talked about the way to lodge an FIR and all the procedures involved in an amusing way (we could make out from all the uproars). The air was reverberating with shouts of Jai Adivasi as we drove away in the jeep.

For the night we were to halt at the Ucchal block center of the Navsarjan trust. Like the Songarh center the office was a new building with all basic amenities. We laid our beds, and after a quick bath came out to relax in the open. It was pleasant outside with a soft breeze blowing. Gemjibhai with whom we had not had much opportunity to talk started reminiscing about his childhood days. He had to walk 20 kilometres each way to reach school, viz. the to and fro journey would be six hours walk! To reach the market he had to walk 50-60 kilometres to a place close to the Maharashtra border. He would be careful not to let his neighbours know lest he had to carry their purchases back with him. The tribals of Surat were a well-endowed lot in terms of fertile land, and muscle power to till the land. It was his perception that they were defeated by the complete lack of awareness towards education, which had been unchanged till recently. Even in the seventies he said his village or the neighbouring villages didn't have a primary school. In the past two decades there has been a substantial progress in literacy and educational achievements. His daughter is now studying in college. The economic condition in these parts despite the displacement phenomenon is well above several of the other tribal groups. The economic opportunities before some of the tribes of Madhya Pradesh are far too limited than what we were observing here.

By 9:30 the next morning we were on our way to Bindkhurd, a village in the Ucchal taluka bordering the Ukai dam. As on the previous day the beauty of the landscape around the Dam area stuck us. The mass of water here was more enormous and seemed infinite. The story in this village was the same - water, water everywhere, not a drop to drink. The villagers were busy in their different chores, so we didn't get a chance to speak to very many people.

Among the three blocks that have been displaced due to the Ukai dam, there have been major mobilisations by Navsarjan on the rehabilitation issue. There is no scope to legally rake up any of the settlements that have long been sealed. More than the older generation, the displacement is a chip on the shoulder for many of the young people facing unemployment who feel their fathers and grandfathers have been unfairly cheated. With the expansion of the families, the land has been segmented further, such that farming which is rain fed doesn't meet the annual food requirements. We met some of these youths who are graduates and were now facing the prospect of unemployment.

There are two supplementary sources of income for the tribals in the region. One is seasonal migration for sugarcane to Maharashtra and other parts of Gujarat, with the season starting around September and extending till April. On the highway we crossed series of bullock carts that looked like caravans travelling through the desert. The carts carried families of labourers returning after the sugarcane harvest to their homes. These were like mini-homes with the belongings like cycle and charpoy attached to the cart and the cattle following the cart. The labourers usually lock up the houses and migrate for 6-8 months. The other source of income is milk dairy through cooperatives and that is very well organised even in the tribal belt of Gujarat. For those who can manage the initial investment, this is an important source of supplementary income.

Chandapur, situated on the Maharashtra border was our next halt. In the adjoining village Vargam (taluka Ucchal) we were to attend a meeting of the PO at 12 noon. Chandapur is a typical case of victimization of the villagers due to corruption at the middle levels of the state bureaucracy. The village had received a hefty sum of money for a lift irrigation project. The structures were laid but no water came to the village. Contractors siphoned off the money and the villagers didn't get any benefit from the project. Most of the handpumps of Chandpur do not have water. Amrutbhai recounted how the handpumps are always laid at night when none of the villagers are watching. If the official orders say 30 feet should be the underground depth, not more than 15 feet would be dug. In the construction of wells the chances of swindling is less. This is one of the reasons why wells are no longer encouraged.

In Vargam first we went to Surekhaben's house. Her father is a highly respected person and takes an active interest in matters of the village. Surekha narrated to us what was a traumatic yet important experience for them, an incident of an escapade by a girl and a boy from the village, which had ended in murder and how their village had been falsely implicated in the case, so much so that the villagers had to temporarily leave the village. Surekha with help from Navsarjan had questioned the police findings and rallied people to stand up for justice. The case is still continuing. In the meanwhile she has formed a mahila mandal in the village, which is now a very active body. We continued the discussion over lunch which was a simple affair served with a great deal affection and warmth.

At the meeting venue in the primary school verandah at Vargam, women and children had gathered in large numbers. Slowly some of the men trickled in. The meeting began with a song and chorus of Jai Adivasi. The issue for discussion was the check dams under construction in the village and employment of local labour at the work site. Generally the contractors were bringing in labourers with them, so that the local employment generation was not significant. The local people wanted that they be employed at the construction site in greater numbers. It was decided that a few men and women would put forth their demand before the contractor the next day. The men and women were in a hurry to go back to work; the meeting was adjourned shortly.

After the meeting broke, we met in a smaller group with the volunteers and Trust people. They wanted to hear our assessment of the programme, which we put forth with a few suggestions. We expressed our admiration for the way the programme was being run in such a large area and how the little differences that they were able to make at each village level would over time develop into a collective force to reckon with. Already the state had taken note of the work of the POs with its membership of more than 19,000. Gram sabhas were now much more active in the villages were the POs functioned, and Panchayat meetings were more regular (this we had checked with several villagers over the two days). We were interjected by Prembhai (the magician) who said, "don't say good things about us, tell us how we can improve!"

Taking the cue, LB explained how skits and street plays might more effectively communicate certain types of information like FIR. He talked about an activity centre cum library in the village for youth where new information flows in, there is regular discussion and debate on issues personal and social. We had met several educated unemployed youth who had asked us for possible work avenues. A group of educated youth could get together to start a primary or middle school in their village. This was just loud thinking on our part and we cautioned them not to take these very seriously. I told them how I had particularly taken to the idea of using the issue of tribal identity as the rallying point for the people's movement. We talked a bit about village planning and the necessity for long term planning which should form the backdrop for these immediate short run interventions. Also one would have to seek qualitative improvement in certain sectors once the basic needs are met.

Right from the start even while we were reading the proposal we had this niggling question as to whether there was any religious agenda behind Navsarjan's work and to what extent the organisation was inclusive. It was a sensitive issue and until someone broached the subject we were not sure how to discuss it. We had done our own little enquiries at the out of court settlement gathering where we had met a large number of people and most people we had met said they were Christians. Again at Bhurivel, to our consternation it was a fully Christian group. I was therefore relieved to see that Surekha's family was a Hindu family. During the day I met a few other active members who said they worshipped adivasi gods. Opportunity to discuss the religious angle came as we were enquiring about the kinds of enemies the movement has made and how strong was this opposition. Stanny said that there have been times when there are strong allegations on them for trying to convert tribals into Christianity, whereas very few people know him in the organisation as a Father. (On the first day when I had addressed him as Father, he had corrected me and told me to call him Stanny or Stannybhai as all the rest did.) These kinds of allegations have also come from senior officials of the government. He clarified that the organisation had all types of members and religion was not a criterion for membership in any way. Surekha narrated how in the neighbouring village the RSS is consolidating its stand. They try to disrupt programmes of PO by announcing a parallel event on the same day; with much larger financial clout the RSS can put up a show more easily and smoothly. In these parts RSS has not lent its name to development activities; it is limited to organising religious gathering and it provides training for "katha gan" (recitation and singing of religious texts). In Vargam, the villagers recently prevented the RSS from hoisting its flag in the village.

The discussion at Vargam had given us a fair idea about the organisation and we liked a lot of what we saw. As we travelled to Vyara block headquarters where we were to meet a group of lawyers from within the tribal community before returning to Surat, we were thinking about how the work of Navsarjan could be relevant for Eklavya and vice versa. Both organisations have worked painstakingly over several years to develop a certain understanding and skill in its area of work. There must be ways of exchanging these returns with local adaptations. Stanny had talked about the absence of research and other academic inputs into his programme because the staff strength was small. Eklavya was exploring the possibilities of greater community involvement in its education programme. Cross-organisational learning through exchanges are extremely important and the people's struggles and movements should try to reach out and share their experiences on a much larger scale.

In Vyara we met a bunch of Navsarjan lawyers, all of whom practice at the Vyara court. There was a hilarious start to the conversation there. As the lawyers trickled in we had to introduce ourselves again and then again and in each round the introductions were becoming briefer and briefer. There was this stocky little lawyer (a lady) who walked in the last got the most curt reply. She was clearly unhappy and said it on our face. Why should we say what we do unless you tell us what your business is here was the attitude. I began to explain when Stanny made the mistake of cutting her short by saying that these people are more interested in PO work rather than the law related activities. She immediately felt more challenged; now she wouldn't budge without getting the whole story. Embarrassment, embarrassment, Stanny! We were being naughty and having our bit of fun until it became impossible. Finally LB did a bit of explaining to placate the young lady. Oh, I liked her spirit.

Several of the lawyers we met were part of the village panchayat. Some of them belonged to villages with both tribal and non-tribal population. They described how tribal assertion was beginning to rankle with some of the other castes in the villages. This, added to the cynicism among several tribal families, would make further expansion of PO membership difficult. As for further scope of improvement of their programme, one of the lawyers mentioned that training should be directly imparted to the representatives in the village rather than mediated through the staff. Right now in most instances it is the staff that is trained who in turn pass the information to the village members.

On our way back to Surat, I checked with Stanny and Amrutbhai about the proposal. These were mostly discussions on requests for clarifications. Back in Surat we were treated to a very elaborate and delicious dinner and some great ice cream. It was time to march again.