Jaher Fishery Project

Goal:

To create a framework for a socially and financially self-sustaining community managed educational system among the Santali villages in Jharkand.

Introduction:

The Jaher Development Samiti plans to rejuvenate/develop 12 fisheries in the Bagjobra Tola in Jharkand to provide a sustainable income for the local people. One of the key goals for the fisheries project is also to provide money for the educational activities of the Jaher Development Samiti. This project is part of a self-sustenance program for the educational activities of the Samiti. Asha-Boston is currently supporting Jaher’s Primary school in Village Bodra, Tola Bagjobgra to the tune of $2500 over the past year. Please see the Asha website, http://www.ashanet.org/mit/Public/www/Projects/jaher/jaher.html, for more info on the current project. Shanmuga has visited this project in April 2001, and has written an extensive report, which is at http://www.ashanet.org/mit/Public/www/Projects/jaher/visits/visit-eval2-jaher.html.

The new project is based in the areas that the Jaher Samiti is working already. Ms. Jahermuni Alphonso is the project coordinator of the Samiti. This area of Jharkand is very remote and economically backward and mainly populated by tribals (Santhals). Their land has been taken over by outsiders (such as the Christian missionaries) and coal mining has led to displacement and loss of arable land in the area. The Santhali tribals practice rain-fed farming on rocky and unproductive land. The main crops are paddy and maize. Due to the small amount of land they own, they supplement their income by working as agricultural laborers and their diet through forest produce. But the forests are also decreasing due to deforestation. The tribals are almost totally illiterate and schools are scarce and barely functioning. However, the most important aspect of the tribal community is their cohesiveness despite the adversity. They work together for their common benefit (unlike in most urban areas of India) and the Jaher Samiti’s work over the past 10 years has shown them to be well organized for their development.

Interestingly, the Jaher Samiti strongly believes that education is the key for any meaningful and sustainable development. This is along the lines of what Shanmuga reported. The adivasi leaders themselves realize that without education their lives will continue to be marginalized. Of course, education is a double-edged sword. With education, the Santhals have noticed a tendency to view their culture in negative terms and take up the local culture (hindu/christian) in terms of dowry, materialism, etc. This is perhaps due to the kind of education that is provided by the state. The curriculum and language simply ignore or marginalize the local culture, which is viewed as bad and un-civilized. However, given the Jaher Samiti’s commitment in teaching in Santali, teaching the kids about their culture, their festivals, and the local people’s trust in the Samiti (all of the members except for Ms. Jahermuni are Santhali), we can be reassured that the education that they will provide will be well-balanced.

The fisheries will be run by the Mahila mandals of the local villages where the ponds are situated. Over the past 10 years, one of the main successes of the Samiti has been the organization and effective running of these mandals. The land on which the land is located is privately owned, and the mandals will enter into an agreement with the landowners. The landowners themselves are Santhali and one might expect them to support the project, and besides they get 1/5 of the income from fisheries. The total income will be divided into 5 parts equally between land owners, fishermen, Mahila Mandal, Self-help micro-credit group, and the education fund for the Samiti or for the local school, and maintenance and restocking the pond. An estimated Rs. 25,000 from each pond will be divided and Rs. 5000 will be going to the school. If all of the ponds are indeed successful, we can expect about Rs. 50-60,000 per year for the school. This will provide for half of their expenses (about Rs. 1,00,000 per year).

Training:

A fishery team will be set up to manage the initiative. They will provide both technical and social guidance. The team will be made up of women representatives from each Mahila mandal, and a technical team of five, who are trained in the technical needs of the entire project. Technical guidance is needed for the renovation of the ponds (building of outlets for the ponds, ensuring that the ponds are well isolated, etc), ongoing maintenance of the ponds, and catching of the fish. Also, there will be a connection established between the samiti and the Purulia fisheries, which is working very well.

The Ponds:

The ponds are all kucha ponds made with earthen embankments. These are in need of repair. For example, some of the ponds have been so slited that people are growing paddy in them, making the ponds effectively useless as a water catchment area and for growing the fish. Such ponds will have to re-dug and strengthened. The key thing that needs to be done in all of the ponds is to dig an outlet for the ponds. This area of Jharkand receives very little rain, but when it does, it rains very heavily leading to lots of floods. Therefore it is important to build these outlet gates. The gates will also have netting so that the water will escape but not the fish. The repairs will all be done locally under the supervision of the Mahila Mandals.

Empowering Mahila Mandal:

In addition to providing money for the Jaher school, another key goal is to empower the Mahila mandal. All of the activity for this project will be taken care of by the local Mahila mandals. The Jaher Samiti has worked hard to ensure that the Mahila Mandals will be trained enough to organize the pond repairs and also in the administrative aspects of the project.

To create a sense of solidarity among all of the 12 villages, there will be 6 Mahila Melas, in addition to the village sabhas in each village to bring about awareness in each village. Since literacy and numeracy is essential for this project to succeed, there will be adult literacy classes held in each of the project meetings.

Each mandal will decide with the village community on the modus operandi of money assigned for the school expenses. They could decide to give the money to a local school (other than the Jaher primary school), or to the Jaher school itself, or provide scholarships to the neediest students who will use it for their schooling in the school of their choice.

Inter-village linkages:

A long term objective of the project is to set up an inter-village organization by linking the various pond villages into an informal federation. This federation will be useful economically, as well as socio-politically. Purchases and marketing of the fish will be through this federation; it will be an efficient means of reducing some costs. They will also organize the catching of the fish and arrange for its marketing. In addition, the villages will learn from each other and build up social bonds with each other. The technical committee will initiate this process and form the initial nucleus.

The bi-annual meetings between the villages will be organized by the federation. During these meetings, all records and accounts will be presented in public for maximum transparency, which will increase public trust in the organization. They will also be in charge of the common equipment, such as nets, etc.

Project timing:

As with all Asha projects, and especially with this project given the seasonal nature of the project, the timing of project is very important. The fish spawn can only be seeded at the beginning of the monsoon in June and marketed in the following summer; April-May. So, the period of funding is for 18 months.

January--February: Training for the Mahila mandals and villagers.

March--May : Renovation of the ponds in various villages.

June--July : The technical team will buy the fish spawn from Ranchi and distributed to the various ponds.

August-- March : The spawn will grow into healthy fish.

April—May : Fish-catching and selling.

Budget: