Also:
Meet a Woman from Bundelkhand | Check-Dams and Irrigation |
Check-Dam Evaluation Study| Bundelkhand Region |
DA Activities in Bundelkhand

Meet a Woman from Bundelkhand

The sustainable livelihoods approach to rural development can take several forms. In the case of the check-dam project, sustainable livelihoods were created through the intensification and extension of agriculture through enhanced water availability/access.

Water scarcity is one of the major contributing factors to poor agricultural yields in the Bundelkhand region, Madhya Pradesh State, India.

Development Alternatives' (DA) field office in Jhansi began promoting check-dams in 1989 as an appropriate intervention to restore the degraded natural resource base in the Bundelkhand region and help the local inhabitants to escape the debt-poverty-migration trap.

Interview with Dr. Ashok Khosla, Development Alternatives' President
[RealMedia file. 2:51.5 min, 7.4 MB]
Learn about the impact of checkdams and other appropriate technologies employed by Development Alternatives in this interview with Dr. Khosla.
NOTE: This requires RealPlayer, available for free download

Sita's Story

Sita is perhaps 60 or 70 years old. Her extended family owns a small 4 acre plot of land where they grow wheat, maize, and peanuts. When I meet her she is sitting in the shade in the courtyard of her small village. She is preparing chapattis - flat unleavened bread - for the villagers working the fields. As she roasts the bread over the open fire she talks about her village and the impact of the check-dam DA built.

The Social Context

"We are poor people. What could we do about our problems?"

Like her parents before her, Sita has spent her life working as an agricultural labourer. She never attended school and was married before the age of ten. Recalling her girlhood she notes that even then, water was the major livelihood constraint. She says, "I had no dreams for the future... my mother died when I was young and my mother in law used to beat me... what would we think about the future but farming. We had so much water problems." She adds, "We are poor people. What could we do about our problems? Also we are women. We could not work to solve these problems."

Sita notes that her children continue to face the same problems. All of her family works in the fields and all, she says, "face the water crisis." Sita is hopeful though, that her children will have an easier life than she did. She says, "I want the water problem to be solved. Then my children and grandchildren will be happy."

Obstacles and Barriers

"Water is the biggest problem"

With water being the most critical limiting factor for agriculture in the region, it is easy to understand Sita's assertion that "Water is the biggest problem... it will solve all the other problems." She adds, "I worry about children, farming, etc. But my greatest worry is water."

The Project Impact

"We are getting water due to the check-dams only."

DA worked with villagers in Sita's village to build a check-dam in 1990. DA worked with the local Sarpanch and the villagers to decide where the check-dam should be located, as well as using local labour to construct the dam.

Sita says, "It's nice that the check-dam is built. Now it is much more convenient. The water level of wells has increased... We are getting water due to the check-dams only."

DA is concerned not only with aggregate levels of production or employment, but also with poverty alleviation and equitable distribution of income and benefits. One of the potential concerns with using small scale check-dams is that, for obvious reasons, the do not benefit all farmers equally. As Sita notes, "the ones whose fields are nearby, receive the maximum benefits from check-dams."

Another issue with small scale check-dams lies in their maintenance. Although, Sita, like many villagers say "the villages should take care of the check-dams" - maintenance is a critical issue in the long term success of these kinds of projects.

Moving Towards Sustainable Livelihoods

"The wells should not dry."

For Sita, the "good life" is closely connected with the natural resources available to her family. She says, "the wells should not dry," and "we should have a good house, and more water supply so that we have a good amount of peanuts and wheat which we can sell and earn our living." Sita explains that when they can grow extra crops they sell the surplus in the market. However she notes that most years they can only manage to grow enough to last them 4 to 6 months. When the supplies are finished they have to buy food from the market using whatever they can earn as daily wage labourers.

Compared with large-scale high-tech approaches to water management, check-dams appear to be a more appropriate technology for poor rural areas such as the Bundelkhand region. In general, the primary benefits of irrigation for the rural poor, or small farmers and the land poor include: employment and income (through increased working days per hectare), security against impoverishment and migration, and improved quality of life.

"The water is sweet."

But here, in one of the most impoverished regions in India, it seems a long road to a time when livelihoods will be truly sustainable for the majority of people. Here, survival is a daily effort. Nonetheless, villagers have not given up hope. Sita says that all of the villagers have dreams for the village's future, which they will work towards together.

Trying to recall the best times in her life she notes, "I have not seen so many good times." But she says she would like to share one thing with other women, "unity," she says simply. "Unity."

Sita talks of hunger, disease, unemployment, and landlessness - but she still insists that water is the biggest problem. When asked to describe the water the check-dam is recharging she says, "the water is sweet."

Also:
Meet a Woman from Bundelkhand | Check-Dams and Irrigation |
Check-Dam Evaluation Study| Bundelkhand Region |
DA Activities in Bundelkhand