Sanjeev Ranganathan
16 Apr 2006
Siddamma had spent the last
few days at the resource center and was traveling today to Cuddalore along with
Anita (her daughter).
There has been a lot of
activity in and around the resource center.
The government electrical
department decided to lay lines right through the resource center with landing
lines over the land and over some of the houses. The local people objected
since there is sufficient government land available to route the lines without
having to route it through private property. It has been decided to route the
lines similar to how the lines routed now (around the homes and the center).
However, one of the towers lands right in the center of the access road to the
resource center. There is another access road that is still available, though
it is presently only useful to get there by foot.
We have spoken to the
Panchayat about the possibility of improving the road and they agreed since it
is also useful for the new colony of houses that have come close to the
resource center. The other possibility of access is a small bridge from the
main road, but since this is only useful to get to the resource center there is
no help that the panchayat can give.
Sudhi a specialist in
horticulture and a volunteer with Bharathi Trust in Tsunami relief and
rehabilitation spent the last few days at the resource center. He and his wife
are engineers and were looking into how they can contribute to the resource
centre.
He also looked into the
bridge that would provide direct access to the resource center. He mentioned
that the present plans would not meet government regulations since there is a
stream and the bridge needs to ensure that water flow is maintained over the
stream it crosses. He worked out modifications and ran it through the tahsildar
to ensure that plans met their approval. We have decided that this was not a
high priority and have kept it aside for now.
We have started our work of
identifying the stakeholders from the local community in each of the areas that
we plan to work on pottery, farming, weaving. We will be looking to involve
these people as full time people in the resource center and work on getting
them the exposure and training they will require. I think we are finally
getting ready to open the resource center to general public and also start our
activities. We are looking to announce the center in the upcoming Panchayat
meeting. People have so far been visiting the resource center on informal
basis. One of the Panchayat members visited the center to understand what we
were trying to do.
Some women from the village
also came to meet us to see if we can help with converting dry land to wet
land. (Dry land relies on rain for agriculture and wet land uses some sort of
irrigation system). Many dalits in this region have access to land, but rely
completely on rain. Presently there are no community wells or distribution
system. Only some people, primarily landlords have access to such systems. The
primary produce is also sugarcane that people have been trying using a lot of
water, however, the users are still limited and rain has not been an issue so
the big players have not felt the pinch yet.
Our work on organic farming
is now starting full-fledged. The people working on the land are yet some
villagers volunteering their time and the couple of families of released bonded
laborers who wanted to work on farming. The first few years will be needed to
replenish the land since the farmer had used fertilizer and pesticides
extensively.
The heavy rains very badly
effected the paddy and grams this year in this area. In spite of this and the
recovering land we still got 50kg of dal. But, if we look at all the
investments then we would have only got 50% of all our investment. We have,
however, made a believer of the farmer next door who is very surprised at the
amount of dal under all the circumstances. The Karvapak has come very well, the
radish and tomatoes have not come out well. The ragi that was kept in nursery has
been working out quite well. The land is yet to accept the treatment completely
and will take some time to recover.
The sugarcane has been
cleared and we have the area open we will work on vegetables, sugarcane, leave
an area for jaggery from sugarcane. We are leaving leaves of the sugarcane on
the field. We are receiving another volunteer group from Belgium in June who
are coming specifically to train us about organic farming. We are also looking
into oil seeds for oil cakes. We have finalized the requirements for the
consumption survey to understand clearly the needs in the local areas.
Sugar cane season is over
and now the work is a little less and we can meet all the villagers and discuss
the center with them. We will have it after May 8th since the different
parties have been campaigining for the elections and we are waiting for that to
get over. We would like to discuss what we want to do with the people and look
for people interested in the training center and to get information about
different cultivation systems, etc. We will also find the 5 local people who
will spend some time with Namalwar and other similar efforts and learn from
them.
There have been uncontrolled
forest fires in the local hills. There is usually at least one fire each year
and one of the local families get affected by them. This included RaviÕs
(driver) home last year.
Q: What is the reason for
the fire?
A: Some of the fires are
accidental when fires from beedis, etc spread to the entire forest. There are
also some fires that are premeditated since there are some beliefs that if
there is fire in a mountain for three years then the next harvest will be good.
We will at least try to address the accidental ones immediately and work on
limiting the fires if they occur.
We also need to work on
water harvesting. There were very heavy rains here, however, only a small
portion was harvested. There is a large resorvior that is supposed to be filled
by the rain and the canals, but most of the canals are clogged and the water
did not reach it.
Q: Who will be the people
working in the resource center?
A: We will be selecting
local ppl and will get vols from other places to work with them and to train
them.
Q: When will the school
be started?
A: After consolidate info
and see how many children have completely dropped out of school and are
working. This will be quite clear by june when the academic year starts. Once
the children are identified we will need to talk to parents and see what the
plan for the child is. Girl children are usually the ones who are more likely
to be asked to drop out take care of young siblings and also due to the social
status. We will need to see how many parents are willing to give up the income
and send the children for other vocational area.
Q: How often is Namalwar
visiting the resource center?
A: Namalwar, was due to be
free from his work with Tsunami dsalination in April. But, he has been invited
to Thiland to do the same work there. He is expected back in May.
Q: Where does he live?
A: In Nagapattnam.
Primary ongoing work is the
Tsunami. There was a town hall meeting. People from 25 Irula villages
participated and over 2000 people attended the meeting. The Sarpam elections
had also been conducted both at the district level as well as the talku level,
over 50% of the leaders are women.
We have purchased land for
the communities that had no hope of getting it from the government. Around 400
shelters with the help of ActionAID, the people were trained to build their own
homes and they did.
From Asha-AustinÕs end I
metioned that we may know if we can support the homes of 25 families in North
Pichavaram by end of may.
Another reason for the
meeting was to discuss agenda issues in the Irula Convention we are planning in
Chennai. The meeting is planned on April 30th, but we are still
awaiting permission from the police to hold the convention. We are expecting
around 50,000 people to attend the convention and the police are a little
apprehensive of letting the event happen given the elections.
Q: Why canÕt we just have
the convention after May 8th?
A: To be honest one of the
reasons that the Sarpam leaders wanted to have the meeting is a show of
strength before the elections so irrespective of which party wins the election
they keep the Irulas also in their mind. But, if we donÕt get the permission
this is what will have to happen.
Q: How many people from
each area are expected?
A: We expect around 20,000
people from Cuddalore, around 15,000 from Vellur and another 20,000 from
Tiruvallur.
Q: What decides the
number of people coming from each district?
A: The Sarpam groups need to
figure out the finances of renting a truck for transportation. The people need
to rotate the resources so everyone gets a chance to go to a convention.
We discussed about one of
the Irula communities which had been displaced to Tiruvanmayur following he
Tsunami. With the help of the government they have now received land in Besant
Nagar. Action ADI helped with temporary shelter. Ramya to send pictures.
Toledo has sent support for
the released bonded laborer school. Siddamma to check if support has reached.
Not been following. If it is
awarded it will be on the internet and I will be intimated.