Aruna Roy was awarded the Times Fellowship for the year 1991 and
this publication is the result of the work carried out in this
capacity during the period May 1992 to April 1993. The support
of the Times of India Group is gratefully acknowledged.

LIVING WITH DIGNITY AND SOCIAL
JUSTICE - RURAL WORKERS
RIGHTS TO CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

Study put together by Aruna Roy,
with Nikhil Dey and Shanker Singh
As we put together the sum of our written effort, we begin to feel deflated as always. There is so much written and written so well, that another effort always seems redundant. We quote from each other and generally say the same things. When we act it is different, because it is a discovery. But the written word has got discredited. A surplus of verbiage has made the literate world sick of documents of any sort on the one hand; on the other it has no relevance to the illiterate universe. So we begin on an apologetic note. Hoping that someone , somewhere, may find the document useful. The work it reflects upon has energy and complexity. It is a world where gesture, expression, stance, song, dance and drama add to the richness of what we want to say. Not to mention the joy of confidence, articulation, and victories, which seem to shrink in a larger context and fall within the mundane. One hopes that some of the energy of the action gets reflected in the written word.
An academic friend once said that those of us who work `at the grass roots, should tell our stories and let the pundits conceptualise.' So, here is our story..............
Acknowledgements
The study has been a collective effort of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan. We are also grateful to a number of others who have contributed in many ways to the study.
We are specially grateful for Lakshmi Chand Jain's gentle and unobtrusive support to the group through out the duration of the Study.
We are grateful to the SWRC, Tilonia for allowing us the use of their computer facilities . We are particularly grateful to Indrani for her cheerful and patient efforts at typing the manuscript.
The Study was made possible by the fellowship from the Times of India awarded to Aruna Roy for the year 1991.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION : WHOSE PERCEPTION?....................1
PART I
WORK AND LABOUR, CURRENT PERCEPTIONS
CHAPTER I: THE TRADITIONAL SECTOR.................12
Feudalism
Caste Barriers
Traditional Skills
The Rawats
Rawats and Feudalism
Sanskritisation or Modernisation?
The Worst of Both Worlds
CHAPTER II: THE PRIVATE SECTOR.....................20
The Farmers
The traders
Contractors and Mining
Migration
Alienation
Fragmentation
Living conditions
Health
Mechanisation
Layoffs
CHAPTER III: THE GOVERNMENT SECTOR.................33
Famine "Relief" and Employment
Effect of confusing Terminology
Who Works?
Work and Wages
The Argument of the Workers
The way the wage-worker understands work
Piece Rate and Task Basis
The `Lazy' Worker or `Wily' Government?
Asset Creation
Quantum of Employment
And Unemployment
CHAPTER IV: SELF PERCEPTION........................44
The Karmic Law
The Unskilled Workers
Whose Logic?
The Hierarchy of Wages
The Low Self Image
MY INITIAL PERCEPTION......................49
PART - II
CHANGING PERCEPTIONS
CHAPTER V: A PROCESS OF EMPOWERMENT...............53
The Sangathan
The Individual and the Collective
The Primary Issue
Wages and Value
Work and Production
Markets
An Ethical Base
Committment
Ideology and Action
MY CHANGING PERCEPTION....................68
In a voluntary agency
Land Allotees
CHAPTER VI: WORKING OUT A DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM....74
UNDERSTANDING FORCES WHICH MOULD ATTITUDES
Cultural Environment
Religion
Consumerism and Culture
Institutionalized learning
The Educational Institutions
The Primary Schools
Middle and Secondary Schools
The Lessons Imparted
Higher Learning
The Political Environment
The New Economic Policy
CHAPTER VII. UNDERSTANDING ONE'S OWN STRENGTH....103
The Individual and the Collective
Womens Empowerment and the Sangathans growth
Creativity - whose choice?
Empowerment and creativity
Ideas born locally
Perceiving the Government
Feudal hangover
Democratic Government
Development programmes
Industrial development in rural areas
Agricultural policy
Natural resources
MY CURRENT PERCEPTION....................127
The Shift to Devdungri
PART III
CHANGED PERCEPTIONS AND WIDENING HORIZONS
CHAPTER VIII: THE INTERVENTIONS..................129
Creating an atmosphere in the area
The workshop
The Right to information
Minimum wages
Time rate, piece rate and task basis
Late payments
Ban on contractors
Supervision
Corruption
The ration shop in Devdungri
The private sector
Note books
Why the building collective
CHAPTER IX: CHANGED PERCEPTIONS..................161
May day'93
The new economic policy and workers rights
Human rights vs development rights
Widening Horizons
REFERENCES PAGE
1. Fuglesang, Andreas About Understanding
Dag Hammarskjold Foundation
Sweden - 1982 ....................24
2. Dogra, Bharat India, Hope and Despair
Fragile Democracy................259
NFS publication
3. Dogra, Bharat Ibid.............................259
4. Beteille, Andre Edited by,
Equality and Inequality
Theory and Practice
Oxford University
Press.-1983.......................22
5. Singh, Shankar Seminar 408 Aug. 1993
Culture, Communication and
Change............................39
6. Herskovits, Cultural Anthropology,
Melville J. Oxford and IBH Publishing Co,
New Delhi - 1969.................311
7. Herskovits,
Melville J. Ibid.............................150
8. Gandhi M.K. Collected Works Vol XXIII,
Navjivan Trust 1924..............244
9. Jain L.C. The Eye - Vol II,No 1
January-February 1993.............30
10. Fuglesang, Andreas About Understanding
Dag Hammarskjold Foundation
Sweden - 1982 ....................22
11. Jain L.C. Ibid..............................33
12. Jain L.C. Ibid..............................34
13. Sharma, B.D. Report of the Commissioner for
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes
Twenty nineth report 1987-89.......6
14. Beteille, Andre Equality and Inequalty,
Theory and Practice.
Some Aspects of inequality
in Rurual India,
A Sociological Perspective
Anand Chakravarti................129
15. Fuglesang, Andreas About Understanding
Dag Hammarskjold Foundation
Sweden - 1982 ....................23
16. Sen, Amartya On Ethics and Economics,
Oxford University Press-1990
The Royer Lectures
Series Editor, John M.Letiche
University of California,
Berkley..........................20
17. Sen, Amartya Ibid.............................16
18. Sen, Amartya Ibid.............................18
19. Sharma, B.D. Report of the Commissioner for
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes
Twenty nineth report 1987-89......6
20. Sharma, B.D. Ibid..............................6
21. Leacock, Stephen Hellement of Hickonomies
Newyork, Dodd Mean and Co. 1936..75
22. Jain L.C. The Eye - Vol II,No 1
January-February 1993............34
23. Sen, Amartya On Ethics and Economics,
Oxford University Press-1990
The Royer Lectures
Series Editor John M.Letiche
University of California,
Berkley.......................... 9
24. Krishen Kumar, Kak Enucleated Universe,
An ethnography of the other
America and of Americans as the
other ...........................34
25. Krishen Kumar, Kak Ibid.............................34
26. Schumacher, E.F Small is Beautiful
Blond and Briggs Ltd 1973
London..........................193
27. Gupta, Arvind Science through Crafts
Eye I, Vol II, Jan-Feb.1993......20
28. Fuglesang, Andreas About Understanding,
Dag Hammarskjold Foundation
Sweden - 1982 ...................24
29. Fuglesang, Andreas Ibid.............................24
30. Schumacher, E.F Small is Beautiful
Blond and Briggs Ltd 1973
London..........................147
31. Dogra, Bharat Trade, Aid and Debt in an
Unequal World
NFS Publication 1991............18
32. Dogra, Bharat Ibid.............................47
33. Dogra, Bharat Ibid.............................45
34. Dogra, Bharat Ibid.............................39
35. Roy, Aruna Seminar 376, The Eighth Plan
December 1990,
A Woman's view.................. 34
36. Maithrey, Krishnaraj Indian Association of Women's Studies
The New Economic Policy and
Women
A Collection of Background
Papers for the Sixth National
Conference of the Indian
Association of
Womens Studies 1993..............52
37. Roy, Aruna Seminar 376 The Eighth Plan
December 1990,
A Woman's view.................. 31
38. Ela, Bhat Economic Times,
January 15th 1992
39. Seabrook Jeremy, N.G.Os and Social Change
Shotton John Collection of Essays
Hegde and Dogra NFS India Publication..........10
40. Seabrook Jeremy Ibid...........................11
Shotton John
Hegde and Dogra
41. Sharma, B.D. Report of the Commissioner for
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes, Twenty nineth report
1987-89.......................[ii]
INTRODUCTION: WHOSE PERCEPTION?
" I sit on a man's back, choking him, and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by any means possible, except getting off his back." - Leo Tolstoy
The political human being has evolved categories of thought to enforce a pattern on the mind. Paradigms and logical frameworks are facilitators. When categories take over the mind it cannot think creatively. To actively seek change one must be able to break the categories and see things differently. Inevitably there is a release of energy, dynamism and positive action.
The effort of the last year can be seen as a change in collective perceptions. Perceptions shape our lives.There are attitudes that allow for exploitation without opposition from exploited groups. The caste system for instance, is a finely developed method of such exploitation.
Despite our years of familiarity with the caste system, the controls its hierarchies exercise is baffling. What is it that allows the most reprehensible form of apartheid to continue despite the apparent opposition of political parties and the established Constitution? What is it that allows birth to determine occupation regardless of individual aptitude and desire? What are the mechanisms that so successfully fragment society and prevent revolt against a system which has debasement woven into its fabric? And most baffling of all, what is the mechanism used to capture the psyche of a human being, so that even the most exploited in the hierarchy articulates the same view and value system that the one at the top of the hierarchy does? It defies logic that the one who suffers should support a system that is the cause of such suffering.
But logic has to also take into account centuries of successful social conditioning. Over generations, systems of
exploitation have been so finely tuned and society so carefully ordered that the" History of all class struggles" has been lost along the way. Centuries before Aldous Huxley,and George Orwell,the Indian ruling classes understood that the mind rules the body, and therefore he who rules the minds of others need hardly use brute force. Religion, culture, fear of the unknown, institutions of learning, have all been used to mould attitudes of both the oppressor and the oppressed. It is a system of conditioned control that makes our new Western commercial conquerors look like amateurs. Advertising agencies seek to mould attitudes in a manner which causes a consumer to buy something he or she does not need. But the Indian social system has controlled not just the tastes or pockets of its most disadvantaged members, but every aspect of their lives.
For someone viewing society from the outside many of the values seem illogical. It seems hard to understand how and why the oppressed within society continue to accept domination. However, it is also an axiomatic truth that every oppressed group wants change. What many outsiders do not easily understand is that people within that society are far more aware of the mechanism of control than can be seen from the outside. They know from instinct the forces ranged against them. The oppressed of a society are the only group with a vested interest in change. That is why they are also in the best position to be able to look for the modes and paradigms of change. Imposing solutions from the outside are bound to fail for just these reasons. Formulating an alternative point of view from within has its own logical sequencing.
When society arbitrarily ascribes value to certain kinds of work and occupations, it establishes the norms of the powerful in order to maintain an imbalance. This combination of norms takes the shape of an attitude which is forcefully imposed. When that attitude becomes part of the self perception of the exploited, the success from the point of view of the dominant group is
complete. The society is "peaceful" with a docile exploited group.
In their search for greater equality and change, the exploited group can only rely on collective strength in order to oppose these established norms. A successful campaign for change would have three stages in replacing existing norms.
The first is the recognition by the exploited, that a set of norms are responsible for their oppression.This is accompanied by a growing sense of indignation at the injustices being perpetrated by the controlling groups. Understanding of the mechanisms of such oppression leads to a desire for change and an attempt to identify methods for bringing about such change.This oppression operates through economic and social control. As soon as these mechanisms are identified and accepted by the group of people who want change, a new perception is formed.
In their search for dignity and social justice, the poor and the oppressed need to be able to articulate their own point of view on what changes are required. The fact that they have been unable to find the time and space to even formulate, let alone articulate such a point of view is one of the reasons for their oppression. When such a position begins to be articulated, it will obviously run counter to the dominant point of view. It is a world view which will not only project a different "dream" but will also use a new set of indicators to evaluate society as it exists. As a result, it is very likely that two seemingly logical but contrary, systems of thought compete for dominance in society. This is a time of change. An indicator of a society in transition.
When a majority of the people of a society live below the poverty line, then the point of view of the disadvantaged group should be the one that will contain the interests of "the larger good ". In the context of todays global problems of unsustainable "development", groups of people who have had the closest relationship with their ecology and environment, are the ones who should be the best placed to offer solutions. Unfortunately those who have lived off the fruits of a system for so long are not going to accept the values of a world view which will damage their self interest.
These conflicting attitudes could lead to a period of non productivity on the one hand, or creative development on the other. More often than not, it is the former, as the dominant group prefers to have a period of anarchy, than to accept any radical change. They can then condemn the leaders of the oppressed as trouble makers, and as the opinion makers come from the dominant group, they most often succeed. This is the second precept, of a society in turmoil, where there is a heightened sense of self interests in all groups.
As society changes, the earlier perception is rejected, and the new one is given credibility even by the group which was dominant.There is a re-ordering of values, which enables the entire society to support and foster a new kind of growth. This kind of growth would have been possible only against great odds for an individual. The success in changing perceptions is only due to collective effort.
What is the role of perceptions in all this? It is a world view that creates surplus, ascribes value, and orders society in a manner which seems logical. There is infact an internal logic, but it is logical only from one point of view. When this logic is imposed on all of society, then evaluations by different standards often expose the fallacies of that logical system. However in the process of change, if there is success in exposing the internal contradictions of that system, then the process of change is less turbulent and more widespread.
The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) was an organisation of poor workers and farmers formed in May 1990. As its name suggests, it was an organisation set up to empower the poor of the area. This empowerment required both economic and socio-political change. In other words a change in the dominant economic and socio-political perceptions prevalent. While all things are related, the thrust of the first two years of the Sangathans activity had been related to adversarial politics and gaining basic recognition for the poor as an entity.Most of the organisational aspects of the work, were concerned with implementation of laws and programmes beneficial to poor workers and farmers. While this involved maximum interaction with Government functionaries, the confrontational nature of the work,pulled the organisation into an open debate with other opinion makers in the area.Those who are more affluent have a ready opinion for the reasons for widespread poverty, and are very quick to state it. The Sangathan had to contend with this view.
There were three popular ways in which the economic situation was seen by the local elite . The first was the fact that there was no work and employment locally. The second was that the value of labour and its productivity were abysmally low. The third was that the solution to all economic ills lay in allowing and encouraging private enterprise and the free market. The first two, were perspectives that the poor also articulated. In the initial phase of organising and forming pressure groups of the poor the Government had seemed the only possible support for an area so economically bankrupt. It seemed as if government intervention like an Employment Guarantee Act was the only possible solution to the large scale unemployment that existed.A Sangathan demand in December 1991 was stated as follows.
"Rajasthan is a state where the majority of the people live below the poverty line. Drought is more common than a year of good rainfall. Many of the families have no source of income other than their labour. In such a situation, guarantee of employment in the labour market is absolutely necessary for survival with minimum self- respect.States like Maharashtra have found it necessary to pass employment guarantee laws. Rajasthan which suffers far more acutely than any other state cannot afford any excuse for not passing the necessary legislation. The law is required to prevent migration (which has adverse effects on other parts of the economy) and to plan for drought management with the people on a long term basis. It will make it possible to make creative use of the enormous labour wealth, skilled and non -skilled available in the state."
However the MKSS was beginning to feel uncomfortable with this position. We had seen how notional even the large scale employment provided during the drought of 1987 had been.It did not seem likely that the Government could provide the kind of employment that would be needed to control migration from this area. The realities of reduced state support after structural adjustments and the New Economic Policy, made such demands even more unrealistic. What is worse , asking for employment from the Government even when it is in the form of a demand, is seen as relief and not as productive economics.As the MKSS began to acquire social and political strength , the false impression of the poor being dependant on the government had to be shed. The time had come to begin to take control over the local economy and see what economic framework could be set up for the benefit of the poor in the area.
The MKSS felt that the potential for local employment certainly existed, but older ways of looking at alternatives prevented a clear picture from emerging. We did not have immediate answers as to exactly what kind of work would be possible locally. We did know, however, that there was enormous wealth in the kinds of skills available. The tragedy was that it was continuously drained and exported to build the infrastructure of others. If such talent and skills could be usefully mobilised for local development, many avenues of employment were bound to open up. The MKSS took a decision to begin with those activities that had immediate openings.Over the last year, the perspective regarding potential for work and employment locally, has changed. There is confirmation that a number of avenues exist. What was needed was to see a future in activities traditionally not within the scope of the poor.
These changes in perception also have the ability to turn economic theories topsy turvy.The theory of demand and supply
states that supply in excess of demand would bring down the value
of that labour or commodity. However, both the quantum and the value of labour is dependent on a perception. For instance, the numbers of Harijan families in Bhim has had no effect on the value of their work. Despite the fact that there are very few Harijan families in Bhim, their economic value is determined by stigma rather than demand and supply. Even after a fairly long agitation for an increase in wages, they could only manage a raise to Rs.300/- per month. Bhim stank for two months, but the work they did was not considered of more value than Rs.8/- per day. Values ascribed to manual labour are even more curious. The most hardworking are manual labourers. On the one hand the government says there is no employment available and therefore says supply of labour far exceeds demand. On the other hand it returns money from employment works because it says labour is not available.
The Government tries to explain this contradiction by creating the perception that "people here are so lazy, they would rather sit idle than work. " The truth is more, that the value given to the kind of labour available is fixed not by supply, but a perception created of excess of supply. Such workers are made to feel of little use to society despite being the primary producers and builders. On the other hand, despite the thousands of genuinely idle "educated unemployed", whenever they do get work it is at an extraordinary high wage value. The value of work is determined by norms set by the more powerful in society by imposing a perception that suits their interests. Laws of supply and demand only come later.
Andreas Fuglesang writes of the myths of the education system and the need to understand that:
"The idea, conceived and maintained by the educationists, that a correlation exists between the stock of educated manpower and the rate of economic growth has not been borne out. It remains another myth. In fact, the evidence now seems to indicate that education, and in particular higher education, has reached a point in many Third World countries where it is making a negative contribution to their development. The products of the educational system, the school leavers, are finding it difficult to secure employment. By and large, the unemployed are the educated and there are considerable differences in the rates of unemployment among labour force groups with different levels of education-with particularly low unemployment rates among the illiterate urban population. The Indian Educational Commission was already concerned with this problem in the early sixties, and stated:... The educated elite thus become largely parasitical in character and the real productive workers are the unlettered peasants and artisans." 1
The MKSS knew that labour was highly under valued. The whole battle on minimum wages had revolved around this question. The rural elite and petty bureaucracy spread the myth of the poor not working.Work is deliberately under-valued so that profits can be maximised. The Sangathan had evolved a position over a period of four years that people work, and work hard. All systems are worked out in a manner in which productivity is reduced so that others can benefit. It is then proclaimed that the poor donot work. The MKSS looked into the details of work norms and implementation collectively to understand the mechanisms by which this whole position was made to appear like the truth. In the last year the MKSS has taken on areas of work where decisions were made collectively , but where management was entrusted to willing members. The output from the workers has been phenomenal.It has been found that when a social cause is part of the work, the motivation levels are very high.
The decision to start grocery stores and familiarise the MKSS with market mechanisms through them has led to the greatest learning. It has led us to believe and realise that there is no
such thing as a FREE MARKET. The market is manipulated.The MKSS found that by exposing the internal contradictions of the so called free market, market manipulations can be used as a tool for the benefit of the poor,and to fight the profit motive . One shop in the Bhim Bazaar has successfully disrupted the strength of all the traders combined. When the shop announced the rates on a mike and spread information to the buyers, the traders were up in arms. They alleged that this was not `fair competition'. Many positions were stated by the local traders -`mazdoors cannot run shops', there is no profit in kirana dukans',` you cannot run a shop with a social objective, it is bound to fail ',`money cannot be handled by anyone, it must be handled only by one malik", ` you cannot survive without our co-operation'. All these have been systematically proved wrong.
One very important reason for success despite entrenched opposition has been the existence of a strong ethical base. Each economic activity has not been seen merely as work, but as part of a struggle to establish another way of life. This has enabled
people to rise in their own self esteem and bring out their very best. Contributing to the general well being of others has brought abundant confidence.It is this aspect more than any other that led the MKSS to believe that there is tremendous potential to form a new set of relationships through work. The New Economic Policy has consistently held that the profit motive and the private sector are the only solutions to the state of the economy.The thrust of the MKSS economic preoccupations have been the opposite.It has consistently held that the motive of general good can mobilise many more people than private gain. It is the beginning. But in the last 12 months local opinion has come to believe that collective control should infact be extended to more economic activities, where traditionally only private gain seemed possible. The MKSS began with an existing actvity and an understood need. Today it is possible to look at and convince local people about starting activities not known in the area and to get approval for them. The effort of this one year should be seen in this context. While perceptions cannot change completely in the period of a year, a process can certainly begin. Before this, for the MKSS perceptions had been changing primarily in a political context, and the economic battles were fought as a clash of values. Forming pressure groups for issues like payment of minimum wages, or redistribution of land was a rejection of anothers logic. This same group of people, now confident of the world view they were advocating, decided to expose the internal contradictions of the framework they were opposing. It was both a strategy and a conscious decision to change perceptions in a continuous process of acquiring greater political strength. It was accepted that the mechanics of a different logical system had to be worked out, revealed, and changed as the process went along. That as a strategy it was necessary because it was no longer possible to ignore the new economic global situation. It was also necessary in order to have a more efficient working system as political power equations changed, and oppressed groups threw off domination. Perceptions inspire change. From that inspiration much can emerge which no one can predict or even expect.
The first part of this report deals with the perceptions different sections of society have about work, labour and its value.The second part deals with changing perceptions. In particular of the members of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan.The third part deals with the results of those changing perceptions.
Society is in a state of continuous change. This is so whether or not deliberate and organised efforts at change are made. In making such an effort, there must be a keen understanding of the forces that control society, their strengths, and their weaknesses. It is also a folly to believe that change can be completely ordered or controlled. However, even seemingly small efforts can have far reaching implications if they are both honest and rooted.This is the belief of the people involved in the work relating to this study. This report is a reflection of that belief.
PART - 1
WORK AND LABOUR, CURRENT PERCEPTIONS
CHAPTER I: THE TRADITIONAL SECTOR
It is perhaps difficult to discuss the nature of caste related work that exists today without looking at its implications in a changing social framework.In the post independence period, the Scheduled Castes have got Constitutional privileges, which however have not got translated effectively into the social or economic plane. What Dr Ambedkar said to the Constituent Assembly over forty years ago is still relevant:
"On the social plane, we have in India a society based on the principle of graded inequality which means elevation for some and degradation for others. On the economic plane, we have a society in which there are some who have immense wealth as against many who live in abject poverty. On the 26th January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognising the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall by reason of our social and economic structure , continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure
of political democracy which this Assembly has so laboriously built up." 2
As Bharat Dogra comments,
"Unfortunately Dr.Ambedkhar's advice has not been heeded and serious socio-economic inequalities have continued to exist in India." 3
FEUDALISM
Rajasthan is a strongly feudal state. The Rajputs were the dominant community. All approvals, and disapprovals were derived from cultural and social norms decided by this community. Any attempt at sanskrisation was an attempt not to be Brahimanical but to be Rajput. There are interesting modern interpretations of history and and the origins of castes popularized through booklets. Each caste has its own folk history. One which was popular amongst the Regers (leather workers) had an interesting story. The Regers, it claimed, were originally vanquished Rajputs from southern Punjab. The story goes that when there was a Muslim invasion many centuries ago and the Rajputs lost, some of them were forced to eat beef. After this initial humiliation they were forced to work with the tanning of leather. So, their origin it is claimed is Rajput! This brings back to the caste leaders of the group a sense of their own lineage and importance. They continue however to accept social caste hierarchy and untouchability in rural India.
CASTE BARRIERS
The visible cracks have occurred only through politicisation and modernization. Including greater access to schooling and government jobs, in an attempt to implement the principles of equity and social justice. Andre Beteille writes:
"The principle of equality of opportunity stresses the individual's inborn ability as against the social circumstances of his birth. One can hardly exaggerate the revolutionary significance of the shift of attention from ascribed identity to individual achievement. India has been described as the land of 'the most inviolable organization by birth.' The individual has been from time immemorial stamped with the identity of his caste or subcaste with very little scope to move out of the niche assigned in the social order to his ancestors. Moreover, the disabilities imposed on certain sections of society were unconditional in their binding force." 4
In the case of Shankar a founder member of the MKSS, even acting in public was a problem. He recalls:
"Like all other professions in rural Rajasthan, being a performer, an artist, or even a communicator should in the normal course be determined by caste. Those who are born into the performing castes must perform, and those who aren't, must not. Because of such social sanction I should never have been involved in any of the communication arts.
In many ways my commitment to communication has been as much of a struggle against society as my interest in fighting oppression within it." 5
Castes which are labour related are generally scheduled caste and OBCs. There are skills bought and manipulated by the upper castes. What is important though not perhaps the Central theme of this study, is the primary concern on the nature of acquiescence that existed.A society's understanding of its own powerlessness ,to revolt from rigid, immobile social positions is to be understood before one can even begin to look for alternatives. It is impossible to conceive that birth or genetics control learning inclinations and skills .AS Melville Herskovits explains in his book on Cultural Anthropology :
"the natural logician or administrator born into a caste of fishermen or street sweepers is not likely to achieve the satisfaction in life, and certainly not the success, that would have been his lot had his parents been Brahmins or Kshatriyas;" 6
TRADITIONAL SKILLS
When one looks at traditional skills , one looks at a
hierarchy where manual labour is at the bottom. Below that are only scavenging occupations. Skills linked to occupations which brought severe social ostracism have therefore been periodically and progressively banned by dictate within each caste. The Chamars no longer work with leather, the Balais or Meghwals in a large number do not weave, the Dholis cannot play the bankia. It is an increasingly long list.
The Chamars stopped working with leather in 1956. The community took the decision after arriving at the conclusion that there was a direct link between working with leather and their status as untouchables. The majority of Meghwals also took a decision to leave weaving. They have also been edged out of their traditional occupations because of their inability to compete with powerlooms and mills.
The displaced traditional occupations in most cases relate to the artisan sector. The Meghwals, and the Chamars have started working as masons. Rajasthani labour forms a very large portion of the workers who construct the buildings in Delhi and other Northern Indian states. They go as far South as Maharashtra and upto the borders of Eastern U.P. and Jammu to work.The existing needs of a rural community are no longer met by the village itself. Need based caste occupations have had to either change their skill base or shift into mechanised technology to survive competition from outside forces.
There are examples in Rajasthan of caste groups like the Dholis, the Kalbelias, and the Gadolia Lohars, who still retain a strong link with traditional skills and modes. However modernization has affected a majority of the people.They have had to deal with economic forces which have forced them to change their modes of production and distribution. Credit, borrowing, government programmes, and handouts have also raised, implicit questions which cannot be ignored.
THE RAWATS
Numerically the largest group in the area is the Rawats.
The Rawats have an interesting past. Originally non-agricultural, they were often feared as brigands. They dominated the area between Beawar and Devair and spread out in a region, covering more than 4 districts today. They were paid by the British to settle down to farm. Landholdings are usually very small. This community is now part of the migrant labour who have taken to masonry, carpentry, well digging, and mill labour. They migrate in large numbers every year for additional work. Since their landholdings are small they are at best subsistence farmers, dependent on an erratic monsoon.The community is also the victim of an attempt at Sanskritisation.A process that has
left them more under privileged than before.
RAWATS AND FEUDALISM
The Rawats decided to reconstruct history to prove their lineage. They have names that end with "Singh"; an appendage only found in Rajput names, or in communities which are upper caste with very close links to the erstwhile feudal rulers.
The Rawats claim that they are all descendants of Prithiviraj Chauhan. They trace their ancestry back to him, and locate themselves, historically as having come to this area after his defeat. The sanskritised ones use not only " Singh" but " Chauhan" appended to their names, as additional proof of their lineage. This is very much like a Rajput who would attach his family name - Rathore, Bhati, Sisodia - to claim recognition as a member of a particular royal house.
To compound matters, a retired Army officer and ex MLA, Major Fateh Singh decided in the Fifties to call a big meeting of the Rawats to proclaim themselves Rajputs. They are now called Rawat-Rajput. Interestingly enough the then "Maharaja" of Jodhpur was persuaded to host a dinner where the two communities ate together to seal their brotherhood. Despite this meal, the Rajputs do not accept the Rawats as equals but claim they are only tribals upgraded through a ceremony which was meaningless. The Rawats, who used to have equal social status with the Meenas (a community with ST status) and even inter-marry in some places; are now left with a hollow social status and no proportionate representation in jobs and professions. As a community they are uniformly poor. Large differences in economic status did not and donot exist even now within the community.
A most important and favourable indicator, has been the status of women. Rawat women donot observe the total seclusion peculiar to Rajputs. In Rajasthan the isolation and purdah of Rajput women is generally worse than that of Muslim women. Rawat women dress differently and enjoy liberties of movement and mobility permitted to the OBCs.
Another remarkable trait amongst the Rawats is their non-feudal pattern of behaviour. Not having ever accepted the Rajputs as over lords they do not socially behave as inferiors. Others often use obsequious terms calling the feudal lord "data" or "hukam" . Their idiom of social equality is remarkably refreshing in a society completely dominated by feudal norms of social behaviour where a language of obsequity is indeed the norm of polite social intercourse.
SANSKRITISATION OR MODERNISATION?
Social change is also equated with sanskritation. A calamity which takes the common worker into further bondage, socially and economically. A simple example of the last ten years in Ajmer and Rajsamand Districts are the changes in social spending over marriage and death. Whereas marriage (with bride price) meant a simple wedding and practically no dowry, modernized weddings have gifts as an important item on the agenda. Steel tumblers, katoris etc are gifted to the wedding guests. Brides have to take more things to the in-laws. The death ceremony which ended with a feast and if possible a visit to Pushkar, now extends into taking the ashes to Hardwar. The social approval of such acts puts pressure on many to spend. This kind of change has deeper and more calamitous implications if we see it in the context of fundamentalism and consumerism.
In the present context traditional work relationships especially in SC and some OBCs is seen as both limiting and the cause for social stigma. It is therefore inevitable that modernisation will be acceptable. The question that arises is whether their work will get any acceptance at all in the modern redefined universe . Labour intensive work is now threatened by low social status as well as economically limiting factors such as mechanisation and unemployment. Where does the poor worker stand today in the local market,migratory market, and in big industry?
The traditional sector has shrunk despite sporadic and sparse efforts to keep it going. But in a society where feudal social systems still exist and sometimes dominate, the traditional sector retains its social hierarchy rigidly.
Work or skills in a traditional context become less relevant in an economy where all able bodied men and some women have to migrate every year to supplement their income. Small holdings in a drought prone area limits choices.
THE WORST OF BOTH WORLDS
There is a definite identity crisis. Very often dual roles are played. Exploitative forces, structures and institutions use language and idiom to appropriate the skill or labour. Modernisation is seen as operational only in economic modes and in consumer patterns. Others lie rigidly within caste and therefore traditional and feudal dictate.
Caste skills continue to be learned and used in a kind of limbo. The effects of modernization are both there and not there. There are two sides to this. On the one hand, it has liberated the community from having to learn a "pre-ordained" skill or occupation according to social norms. It has enabled them to move to some extent both physically as well as conceptually away from tradition. On the other hand, the skills have been co-opted into larger operational modes by the upper class/caste group, leaving the poor once again with no choice but to work as laborers in a modern factory or enterprise in which they remain at the bottom of the hierarchy. Harijan or Scheduled Castes no longer being the operational term - but the term being unskilled, labourer or worker. From being in control over production, a creative worker slips into being a cog in a machine.
If this change had brought with it a release from social and caste bondage, it would have its own advantages. But the role remains cast in an isolated mode. The worker from the city factory returns to the village to subject himself to many of the socially oppressive social forces.
CHAPTER II THE PRIVATE SECTOR
The private sector as expected has the least regard for labour, and the value of work. There is very limited economic activity locally and the only investments with assured profits are trading, and in more recent times granite and marble quarrying. Despite not being viable as the sole occupation for most people agriculture remains the most dominant economic activity in the area. The reasons for agriculture not being sufficient even for subsistence is the small size of land holdings ( the average land holding is less than half an acre) and the poverty of rain and irrigation. Most fields are single crop, and wholly dependent on a good monsoon. Even when there is a good crop, it only provides four months food grain for the average family. That is why there is great pressure on most earning members to migrate in search of work, and for farmers to also see themselves as manual labour. The lack of alternative employment opportunities is the primary reason for most of the local youth leaving for urban centres in search of work.
The local self employed fall within two sub categories. The first being agriculture and animal husbandry and the second, services and trades.
THE FARMERS
In a semi-arid region with small landholdings, agriculture can at best be a subsistence occupation. Capitalist modes of agriculture cannot be grafted to an area which has inadequate rainfall and poor quality of soil.
The area around Bhim is characterised by two kinds of agricultural patterns. One is characterized by small land holdings and less than subsistence agriculture. It is a Rawat majority area.The size of land holdings can be as low as a few 'biswas' of land. The added factor of mortgaged land due to economic and social needs, leaves the poor farmer only notionally a farmer. He is in actual fact a labourer.
In Deogarh there are larger land holdings, where the older system of government was feudal. There was a "Rao Raja" in Deogarh, and the relationships both economic and socio-political remain within the older social order. But even in Deogarh , barring a few exceptions , surviving solely on land is not possible.In either case migration or looking for supplementary work is absolutely necessary for survival.
Water runs off the Aravallis to lower lying regions. Even in a year of good rainfall the farmer may not get his maize crop. The maize rots or dries up, if the rains do not come at the right time. Animal husbandry has attendant problems which are a fallout from land. Though landless and small land holders have a few goat or sheep, the fodder for milch cattle is difficult to obtain. Also, the breeding of animals needs investment without immediate or regular monetary income. The small or marginal farmer is therefore dependant once again on migration and other forms of local employment.
Local trades are dependant on monetary flow. Such trades, which are both caste related and somewhat modern, from hair cutting carpentry, vegetable vending, blacksmithy,to setting up small chakkis for atta seem to have reached optimum capacity.
THE TRADERS
The local trading community has made profits from money lending and trading, but invested all the profits in setting up business in cities as far as Bangalore and Madras. They have taken no economic risks locally, fostered no productive enterprise, and shown little concern for local development. What little labour they employ locally - mostly in the form of shop assistants or for building and construction purposes is abused, labelled 'lazy', 'unskilled' and therefore 'justifiably' poorly renumerated.
As a result,the private sector is conspicuous in its absence as an employer. It has used its expertise and information of markets and mechanisms within it to earn money. It has
functioned in the areas around Bhim as a middleman in various garbs.
The local business class which has remained a basically trading community has employed a small percentage of the local unemployed. A large percentage of those employed also have to migrate for the `seth' to Madras, Gauhati, Bangalore or wherever he may have business interests.
Money lending is no longer under the control of the ' Banias' alone.All salaried workers see this as a good investment. The nature of loaning as well as the exorbitant rates of interest charged make it attractive.
CONTRACTORS AND MINING
The Government is shifting from using the department to execute works to contracting privately. These contractors may or may not engage sub-contractors for work. These contractors use all kinds of means to increase their pile, including engaging children to work , paying differential wages based on gender, and overworking the labour. They ofcourse strictly adhere to payoffs to be made to the department under the unwritten but real terms of the contract agreed upon.
Mining is the new local industry. Apart from being ecologically harmful in many cases, mining needs huge capital investments which cannot be made by the worker or even a small group of them . The mining rights now are cornered either as political pay offs from the system or through heavy investment of upper middleclass investors who see easy and ready profit accruing from it.
The real problem is that all this activity has not resulted in the building of an infra-structure which will be of use to the poor. Even the proverbial roads and electric poles, conventional indicators of development are only sometimes visible. Government works have not really improved rain water conservation, soil erosion, or forestry. The landscape of Bhim-Deogarh does not bear any mark of "development" having come its way. The National Highway no 8 which runs through Bhim and Deogarh, and the fancy products that pass through on it are perhaps the only local indications that some kind of development is taking place-albeit elsewhere.
MIGRATION
There is only a drain of cheap labour from the area. There is therefore tremendous pressure on natural resources. Human resources which have been developed have all been trained for migration. Workers migrate to Bijolia(Bhilwara District ), Kathiawar, Ahmedabad, Delhi, and Pali. Children work in dhabas on National Highway No.8, and are "khalasies" (helpers) on trucks. Slightly more `skilled' workers are to be found all over the country.
Since the market for local casual labour is on the decline migration has become a way of life. It is well known that Rajasthan supplies a major part of the unskilled work-force in Northern India, especially for construction work.The search for daily wage work takes the workers to Gujarat (Kathiawar), Delhi and other parts of Rajasthan. If the worker is lucky, he goes and gets work on an individual basis. If he gets work through the contract system, which ensures longer periods of work; the pay off and conditions of work can lead the worker to becoming bonded to contractors for life. A striking example is the workers who migrate to the neighbouring district of Bhilwara, to work in the stone quarries at Bijolia. Most of them return only to die. They assess that their life span is reduced by half, working in unsanitary conditions with little or no health facilities. They are caught in a trap by the contractors who extend credit, which the workers cannot repay. This forces them to work when they are physically incapable of doing so, with no chances of escape. Organised goondas get them back to work at the quarries, if they should think of searching for work elsewhere.
Boys above the age of 10 are sent off to work. Many of them are capable of only looking after themselves and reducing the burden on their parents. If they should bring money home it cannot exceed a maximum of Rs.600/- in a year Children who go away most often land up working in 'dhabas'.
A few work in factories and on trucks. A fair number are victims of accidents ranging from minor injury to permanent disability. The families are often faced with no option. Parents express concern and fear about the child's safety, and negotiate with the owners of 'dhabas' in the initial stages of seeking work.
It is not surprising therefore that the process of development that the poor have seen has left them out of any attempt to deliberate on their own betterment in the area. The local environment offers them hunger and comparative dignity of living . If they migrate they can get marginally better incomes but live a very degraded existence.
ALIENATION
Workers who drift or go to the city for work are still rural
based. The links with land are basic, as land is still linked to all their social life and security. Even where men go to work for long periods in the cities, they try to leave wives and children behind. This is both for economic and health reasons. The link therefore should remain. But the worker who migrates for too long without enough income and continued employment has to ultimately, mortgage the land and finally sell it for subsistence or for fulfilling social obligations.
More than anything else the link with land gives the worker social status and dignity. As an owner of land he sees his creativity intact. The relationship with land is the relationship with nature and with the earth.In losing control over land he loses control over the only piece of capital he can hope to have. However meager or non-productive the land may be it is still a measure of his ablilty to retain the links with his roots.
The alienation of the villager has taken strange and frightening forms. The city in a developing country has its own alienated existence. In the non-caring indifferent environment the villager is completely cut off from every concept of life and living he is familiar with. There is no human relationship that has any value. The concept of time is different.The only exchange value that is understood is that of money. The dwelling place is full of rift. Space, both physical and mental shrinks into a parody of itself. Even though indebtedness exists in the village and the poor have been receiving nothing , the village has a social framework in which he has some rights and an accepted place.
Culturally all the social get togethers , whether of the caste, family or villagers , took care of the need for collective expression. In the city he is catapulted into a social environment where he can only view `entertainment'. He is no longer a creator of his own music or planning the way he might like to spend an evening/night with his peers.
FRAGMENTATION
Closely related to alienation is the fragmentation of the psyche of the factory worker and slum dweller. The man who worked with earth and sowed the seed had a symbiotic relationship with the earth. Growing food has both a real and a symbolic significance. It is an act of procreation, growth and a holistic perception of the universe. In the factory he is fragmented and ends up both metaphorically and actually , screwing the nut like Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times, the classic and universal comment on the state of the modern factory worker.
In Western anthropological terms, a comparison of the worker in pre and post industrialised society would make it necessary to talk of the change in relationship between the worker and his product:
"No discussion of the motivations that underlie the drive to work may omit the satisfactions that come when a craftsman can point to an object and say, with pride, "I made it". Herein lies one of the most difficult problems of an industrialized society, where specialization of labour has been carried so far that this identification with the finished product is not possible. It is only under such circumstances that labour becomes distasteful. We become aware with astonishment that the concept "vacation" is unique to our society, until we reflect how, in other cultures, the rhythm of labor is set by sanctions accepted by all; the ends of labour are the possessions of the one who makes the goods, to dispose of as he desires; and the laborer can identify himself with what he has wrought with his skill and his strength." 7
The factory has also fragmented the understanding of the worker. He now begins to see issues in isolation and even related issues seem to be separate. The most obvious is the example of his being a part of a union in his urban life, but coming back to traditional hierarchical values as soon as he steps into the village, or into the family.
LIVING CONDITIONS
Even the poorest villager has living space. The area outside the built up space is used for tethering animals, cooking , sitting and sleeping.In most cases there are trees to sit under, streams, hills .
The living conditions in the city are appalling.Take any slum. Most often theliving space is extremely small and insufficient. In the greedy environment of the city, the poor have no right to land. There is no space outside the shack. No place to defecate. Public toilets are non-existent. The ones that do exist are the source of stench and infection.Most quarrels in a slum originate from differences over use of space. Sometimes they lead to physical assault and even murder.
In the process of living in slums negative socialization also occurs. All the lumpen elements are fostered because of the harsh and absolutely ruthless conditions that exist in urban slums. It does not need any great understanding of psychology to know that children born and or brought up in these slums are faced with severe handicaps. It is a life without any value base. Life is cheap and all that attracts is the glitter. The only control they know is that of power, brute physical force or money power.
This is not to say that there are no forces of oppression in a village; or that the children born in a Harijan family donot know and face brutality and psychological torture from an early age. Or that the lower castes do not face the oppression of the upper castes. All the evils exist. But in a comparative sense there is the better aspect of tradition that still ensures the protection and growth of some universally essential and positive values.
On the positive side, the prolonged stay in a city slum has enabled the poor to break down caste and religious differences
and understand the common problems that afflict them . Even after the riots in Bombay this year, Rajasthani workers and their families did not seem to have developed hatred for members of other communities. The women said that Hindu and Muslim houses were cheek to jowl, and the burning of one house threatened the other.They were most worried because their sons, brothers, fathers etc were now bonded in Bombay. The employer made full use of the tragedy by giving money, with the condition that none of them could leave without fully repaying the amount loaned.
Alcoholism is a two edged sword used by the establishment and the government to diffuse any possible coming together of the poor. The upper class elite, urban or rural situation talk of the causes of poverty, they inevitably conclude that alcoholism is a primary cause. The fact that many of those who profess concern make their income from the spin offs from liquor sales does not seem to be of any relevance. While their income comes directly from the consumption of liquor, it makes a good cover to say that the poor are responsible for their own condition. Aa sizeable part of the State Governments income comes from the sale of liquor. They encourage the opening of shops and turn a blind eye more often than not to `irregularities'. Liquor has become another tool of oppression. The rich are very worried about "smack" and "grass" taking over their children in colleges and schools and would be horrified if someone were to suggest that sales be legally sanctioned. Liquor in a village context has been responsible in the last 50 years for developing addictive habits, death, ill health and endemic starvation; with the full blessings of the State.
The urban slum dweller is at the bottom of the class hierarchy in a city. Deprived of all forms of dignity of living and socialization, he is often seen as the unlawful impingement on the city, violating aesthetic concepts of cleanliness and beauty,creating a population problem etc.There was immediate identification with the plight of slum dwellers in Bombay when we organised a show of Anand Patwardhans film ' Hamara Sheher'in Bhim. In the film , there is an explicit statement that these offensive specimens of humanity should have continued to stay in the village. As one of the viewers who migrates to Ahmedabad said, "But who provides the city's services?"
HEALTH
The migrated worker's biggest problem is keeping good health. If he is not a full time worker with health benefits from the factory or mill he works with, he is entirely dependant on government health facilities or private clinics. He cannot afford either.
Every day that he is ill, means a loss of wages. Long term illnesses mean unemployment. The worker simply cannot afford it.
In the last five years that we have lived amidst villagers in Devdungri, we have seen the death of many men in the age group 35 to 50. Most of them come home, literally to die.Diseases are contracted because of work conditions. But employers use all legal loop holes to get out of the responsibility of looking after the workers who are on temporary work. Even accidents which occur at work are not compensated at all, or inadequately compensated. The law is always used to support the employer.
Being unwell, or curfews due to communal riots mean a period of no work and high expenses. The only reason the rural worker suffers through the nightmare of a slum existence is to work.
To be stuck in a city at a time when going to work is not possible is the final alienation.
The worker has a short span when he can sell his labour at what seems to be a good wage.The time of his greatest productivity, the peak of his physical potential. He may even earn a fair amount in this period. But the money so earned does not go into the creation of assets. On the other hand it gets diverted into consumption on what are non productive things-traditional or modern. At the time of his failing powers , he is left where he began economically. Coupled with failing health and the prospect of no employment. In case of accidents or sudden health problems, he is left with the bleakest of expectations.
MECHANISATION
What are the new relationships which evolve in this period of migratory labour? Working in a factory the worker faces the machine, learns to use a part of it. Finally he fears the growing sophistication in technology -seeing his redundancy and hunger that will inevitably follow.
This country has been influenced by Gandhiji. He was perhaps one of the strongest advocates of non-mechanisation in this century. His entire economic framework was built around the concept of existing skills in the village. As Gandhiji wrote in the Collected works in 1924
" No machinery in the world can compete with these villagers who need no other machine than their own willing hands and feet, and a few simple wooden instruments which they can devise themselves." 8
But Independent India's aspirations and dreams as spelt out by the 5 year plans saw self sufficiency and the building of industrial infra-structure as crucial. The question as L.C. Jain says is what kind of industrial development:
"While it talks of 'industrial development' it ignores the concept of 'industrialisation'. If it did not, it would have build upon the skills and materials that are available and then moved from a given stage of development to the next one by higher added value, better skills etc. It has never even recognised that the artisan activity is an industrial one. Therefore, anyone who calls himself an Indian economist, planner or administrator who ignores our inherent strength and endowment is deceiving himself." 9
The production base so established has therefore been strongly in favour of mechanization; often synonymous with modernization. Fuglesang explains how these terms have become part of a vocabulary which has created popular `myths'.
"Another myth in our language is projected through the word development. Intertwined with the myth of 'technology', it has many of the same connotations. In addition, its general use implies a value judgement, i.e. that good, desirable social development is synonymous with economic growth, a linear process of social change ending in the model of the modern western consumer society. The myth is that this is the only thinkable and possible direction of social development."10
All forms of industry and even mechanized ones have needed a labour force to operate them. Cheap and willing labour has come from rural India. As is well known the causes for migration have been rural poverty, failure of agriculture to satisfy basic economic needs and lack of employment. However, where are these new symbols of modernisation taking us? L.C. Jain again:
"High technology, modernisation and international competitiveness are today's buzz words. In textiles, the stress is one what is the most 'modern' way of making cloth, not on the health of the population, their stomachs and livelihood. Who is to wear this cloth, where is the purchasing power to come from, these are not question of paramount important. We have gone in for a massive investment in synthetics for which the government has procured foreign exchanged, imported raw materials and technology processes without bothering to assess whether it is suited to our agro-climatic conditions."11
The initial needed for large numbers of workers in the mills created the impression of plentiful employment in the city. The migratory population of workers has has had to deal with many problems, not the least being the drying up of employment possibilities. The non-labour oriented modern machines which have taken over some and will soon take over an increasingly large chunk of all production threatens to substitute humans with robots and rid itself of all labour related problems of production. Growth has been the priority, not employment and growth. L.C.Jain:
"It so happened that in the last ten years our economic growth, according to the modern concept of GDP, has been rising from 3.5% to 5.3%. But during these years, while the GDP has risen, the employment growth rate has fallen from 2.8% to 1.3% and the labour force is increasing at the rate of 2.6%. So you can see at once that this is a distortion in the economy," 12
LAYOFFS
In the last year and a half, a number of migrant workers have returned home due to closure of small factories and lay off of labour because of mechanisation.Over decades these layoffs have come in waves. At first it was layoffs from Public sector mines.Then there was the decade of layoffs from 'permanent ' mill jobs.The difference today is that the worker is losing what was in any case a very poorly paid job in the unorganised sector.Earlier, being thrown out of a job in one of these factories meant finding a job doing the same thing in another factory.Today that kind of job is being lost to a machine. For instance, in Kabeda where we live, a number of the women who used to migrate the Ahmedabad used to work in rice factories. Their job was to dry the rice after it was boiled. Today, they have no work because imported machines have rendered them useless.They will still end up finding some form of work because they have to in order to survive. But their displacement from this industry means a fall in income because they no longer have the advantage of being experienced and skilled.
CHAPTER III THE GOVERNMENT SECTOR
Rajasthan is a semi-arid State with drought occurring as
frequently as monsoons fail. Water is a scarce commodity and therefore agriculture is mainly subsistence farming of coarse grains.The Government organises what it calls `relief work'to provide wages. There is a Famine Code , under which there is provision for opening works during drought. The word `Famine' is often used as the description of drought conditions and work provided.
"FAMINE" "RELIEF" & EMPLOYMENT
Different definitions:
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a famine as follows: "1. extreme scarcity of food in a stretch 2. A dearth of something specified (water famine) 3. Famine Prices, Prices raised by scarcity, hunger, starvation (die of famine) Derived from the latin fames hunger.
In a drought-prone area employment is a critical factor. The word has, therefore, become synonymous with employment more than anything else. Scarcity of food and water are not absolute in and of themselves, but have a relationship with access to power and resources.
The word `famine' has become a part of common usage in Rajasthan. The word is also a part of hureaucratic jargon and is used to describe a situation which does not strictly conform with its usage in the dictionary. Famine is also a word used by all wage workers who know little Hindi and no English. What are the various ways in which it is used?
For the wage worker the word connotes a government work which gives employment during a period of drought. ' Famine' then is a word used strictly to describe a form of employment. It has tangential references to the climatic conditions that give rise to the question " Famine Kab Khulegi?"
For the Government the word has reference to the Relief Code: which deals with the declaration of famine and with works to be opened during that period. The Famine Relief Code goes into detail about the way a Famine is declared. The method used relates to the harvesting and production of food-grain and its assessment (Girdhawari) by the Patwari. The Patwari's records then become the basis for the declaration of 'Famine'. As in almost all government records the Patwari's report assumes great significance.
EFFECT OF CONFUSING TERMINOLOGY
Broadly speaking such inaccurate use of the terms "famine" & "relief" has caused great confusion between expectation demand and policy. Different perceptions of the same policy contain the seeds of confrontation. Inaccurate use of terminology widens the gap.
The word "drought" a far better definition of the situation often experienced in Rajasthan is rarely used by Government. What is and should be a productive employment programme is termed "relief"
The most destructive aspect of the Governments perspective on work and labour is that it is projected as a handout; a dole; something that the government provides largely as a favour or welfare programme. Despite the statistically insignificant number of man days it creates, the impression created by this "welfare" attitude serves to destroy the value of a work force more hardworking and genuinely creative than any other in our country. This attitude is borrowed from and reinforces the myths built up in the labour market, where creating a surplus is the best way of ensuring low wages and uninterrupted supply. There is a very important and of attitudes in creating such a surplus. The methods used are by creating a hierarchy of categories by dividing the workforce into a few managers and many "managed" a few skilled and many unskilled, a few permanent and many temporary, a few employed and many unemployed.
All workers who dig and carry mud , work with stone , work as construction workers fall under this category.
This category has the largest number of workers in any given situation. There is a quarrel with this definition itself. Unskilled this work is not. It might of course be the one that has the lowest market value. In any poor country labour of this sort is available plentifully at cheap wages, because of created market conditions. Dr.B.D.Sharma as Commissioner Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes comments in his report:
"It is an irony that the agricultural labourer in our agricultural country whose work is the most skilled, the most arduous, whose working conditions are the most difficult has been graded as an unskilled worker. This is also the case with other workers in the unorganised sector. Their skills are deemed to be `non-skills' and their knowledge as `ignorance'. And all the skilled workers in the traditional sector are gradually becoming a motley crowd of unskilled people , a process which was set in motion as a part of imperial design during the British period. In the case of most of these workers, deprivation has reached the ignominious level of `biological exploitation', which is not even alluded to."13
WHO WORKS?
The work done by this category of worker is also the one that is absolutely essential for the building of any kind of physical assets. If work done by these people is unskilled, then why is so much time,energy and money used for R&D to make machines to substitute them ? If machines are designed to replace them, the skills must merit more than being defined as unskilled, surely ?
In Rajasthan, the Government has since the time of erstwhile Rulers both British and Indian, projected itself as a provider of employment. The Jodhpur Royal family still says that the Umaid Bhawan Palace which houses them and a five star hotel today saved the surrounding populations from starvation because it was built during a severe drought when employment was not available. The British had evolved a Famine Relief Code, which remains in use largely unchanged even today. The Government believed that it was saving the population by providing employment during drought and famines. This is however, only half the story. The entire development infrastructure of the state roads, canals, tanks, schools, hospitals, and Government buildings have been built because of famine and other such employment programmes. It is on this infrastructure that mining agriculture and industry has made the progress that the Government so unfailingly talks about. Drought is a time when exceedingly cheap labour is available and used.
WORK AND WAGES
A popular assertion vis a vis these programmes is that the Government provides a vast amount of employment and that people do not work.
We stated this issue in the following manner in a seminar on "Minimum Wages on Government works" at the Institute of Development Studies in Jaipur in January 1991. "Most large scale employment provided by the Government in Rajasthan comes from Famine Relief Works, and of late the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana. In both these works, despite several court decisions, the minimum wage is rarely paid. In fact, both programmes are meant to build up the grass-root level infrastructure. However, a lack of serious involvement by the people and the government not only means consistent payment of less than the minimum wage, but also a frittering away of the State's development funds.
Perhaps one major problem is that the government wants to provide relief to a large number of drought-affected people, but it links the providing of such relief to productive employment. The Government has a basic desire to stretch its limited available funds to reach as many people as possible. And that is where the government's interest clashes with the concept of minimum wages. If the government were to merely provide 'relief', during a famine for instance, by substantially subsidising food grains, its idea of making its money reach more people, would be valid. However, because it chooses to link this disbursement of funds to productive activity, it is no longer 'relief' and the people will demand their rights as they would under any employment programme. The norms set by the Government create conditions that make it difficult, if not close to impossible, for people all over Rajasthan to earn the minimum wage. What are these norms?
Government norms
1. The Government requires the worker to be present from 8 a.m to 5 p.m. If he/she is found absent from the site at any time during these hours, the entire day's wages are deducted.
2. Although this is clearly time norm, where the supervisory responsibility should be with the department, the government refuses to take responsibility for getting work gone, and gives the worker no entitlement for doing 8 hours duty.
3. The government makes payments on a 'task basis', i.e. as per amount of work done.
4. The worker is not given the freedom to complete the task in a manner most suitable. If he finishes his task early he cannot leave the site.
5. There are no provisions to pay more than the minimum wage if the task completed is worth more. In other words, the minimum wages is really a maximum wage.
6. While work is given out individually it is measured collectively, and the same payments are made to all those who work on a site (ranging from 80 to 500 people). Those who work, and those who don't get the same wage, and therefore, to the worker the task completed by him or her is not related to the wage. Obviously, there is a disincentive to work.
THE ARGUMENT OF THE WORKERS
The way things are:
Today the work conditions workers face in famine relief and other government works are unique in their incentive to produce lethargy. What the worker knows, is that he/she must reach the work site by 8 a.m. If they are late their days' wages will be deducted. Apart from this, there is little or no supervisory discipline. There is no knowledge of what wage one is likely to get, and everyone knows that all workers will get paid the same. Each worker is expected to exert some moral pressure on all the other workers to complete the task. That is an impossible task, so it is better to sit in the shade and take whatever payments come their way. The result is, no work, low wages and the providing of an incentive to the worker to be dishonest. Who really benefits?
THE WAY THE WAGE-WORKER UNDERSTANDS WORK
There are basically two ways in which workers are used to being employed. One way is if the employer tells the worker he wants him to come for a full day's work and has a supervisor who tells him what work he would like him to do, during would like him to do, during the course of that time. It is made clear to him what wage will be given before the day ends and if the employer is not satisfied with the work done he doesn't employ him the next day. The wage is not negotiable.
The other way employment is provided is on a 'contract basis', 'task basis' or 'piece-rate basis'. They all mean the same to the worker. A certain task is given to be completed for which a certain sum of money is paid. In this case, the modalities of how the work is to be done are left to the worker. When how quickly, in which way it is done just does not concern the employer. He wants the work done, for which the promised amount will be paid. Each person is paid according to the amount of work done, the workers' wage is not affected by the productivity of another worker. Here also, the workers know where they stand before they begin work, and earning the wage they have contracted for depends only on themselves.
The Demands
1. The Government should create conditions under which the Minimum Wage is paid to all workers.
2. Workers should only be employed on a time-rate or a task basis. Both norms used together are unacceptable.
3. If the 'task basis' norm is used then payments must be made on the basis of individual measurements."
PIECE RATE AND TASK BASIS
Further explanation of the difference between piece rate and task rate is explained: Piece rate converted to task basis - the fundamental difference:
The GOI Manual on JRY allows work on a "time rate" or "piece " "rate" basis. The Government of Rajasthan has converted piece rate to "task basis". The two are entirely different concepts. Where piece rate is by piece where numbers can be counted and wages determined, task basis allots a chunk of work to one or many people , where counting may or may not be possible. Some of the problems in implementation of task basis are listed below:- In task basis:-
a) Individual measurement is given and collective measurement taken.
b) No time can be fixed for the worker to be present, where as attendance, in practice is taken twice daily.
c) Work for each worker should be independent if there should be a chance to get the minimum wage.
d) There should be the possibility of earning more than the minimum wage wherever measurements are the norm. However the minimum wage in treated as the maximum wage. The tasks should be clear cut and easily understood.
e) No pucca works can come under task or piece rate as the work is done collectively by a group of people with different tasks and skills. The "Mistri", in short determines the pace of work and the penalty cannot fall on the labourers.
Problems with policy:
a) There are no penalty provisions for lack of supervision and the shortfall becomes a penalty on the labour.
b) Shortage of staff is made into an excuse for shortfall, this again cannot be sufficient reason to levy penalties on the labour.
c) There is no redressal system for filing complaints for non payment of Minimum Wages under JRY, within its structure.
THE `LAZY' WORKER OR `WILY' GOVERNMENT?
But what is the real position of the Rajasthan Government? It is worth examining their "defacto" non-public position so that there is a genuine debate. The State Government publicly takes and holds the position that it pays and is committed to paying Minimum Wages in Rajasthan. Its mode of payment is on a task basis where payments are made theoretically on the task performed. In fact measurements are rarely made, and the "task basis" is used as tool to make payments that are convenient.
The actual position of the State Government comes out only in private conversations and in their actions. Initially the Rajasthan Government publicly refused to pay Minimum Wages on famine relief works when it had in force the Exemption from payment of Minimum Wage on Famine Relief Works. This was held to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Sanjit Roy us. State of Rajasthan in 1983. Since less than the Minimum Wages could not be paid publicly, the exemption was replaced by a notification. This tied the quantum of work to the amount of wage, with the MAXIMUM earning possible being the Minimum Wage. Any decrease in the quantum of work turned out wa s to result in a proportionate decrease in wages.
Payment infact continued as before, with the B.S.R. and the notification being thrown at anyone who dared to raise the question of Sub Minimum Wage payments. A series of High Court and Supreme Court judgements continued to require that the State Government pay Minimum Wages. This the Government would pay to the workers who had gone to court, and continue with the same lower wage payments for the rest.
Because the State Government has been told that it must pay Minimum Wages, it has brought in the creation of assets as a notional priority.
As the Rajasthan Government feels it does not have the funds for supervision, and the labour in Rajasthan is exceedingly lazy, the only way it can ensure not gifting away funds is by paying on a task basis. The fact of the matter is that if wages are not a priority, neither are assets. The manner of selection, the level of supervision, and condition of the assets themselves today, are very clear indications of how important the assets themselves are. The task basis is also formulated and enforced in such an impractical manner that it is quite clearly only an excuse for payment of a sub Minimum Wage. Not as the State Government would have us believe, as a means of getting more work done.
ASSET CREATION
Since the manifested position of the Government is not seen as a genuine attempt to create assets the people do not identify with the work being done. A dismal and diluted sense of purpose is apparent in which the entire issue revolves around quarrels over the method and quantum of the share of spoils. The worker in this scenario sees work as totally irrelevant in the creation of any infrastructure which may infact be of great benefit to him and the village at large. Infact the notion that Government works are for creation of assets remains more or less on paper.
QUANTUM OF EMPLOYMENT
As far as quantum of employment is concerned an example from the drought of 1987 is revealing. The Government said it was willing to provide employment to one person from a family of 5,2 people from 7 between the months of November and June. In fact, employment was only given to one person from each family for 15 days out of every 45. A "rotation system" was used by employing a worker for 15 days, and then replacing them on the muster rolls by some one else, so that by rotation all workers were eventually covered. It worked out to 30 days of enforced leave after 15 days of work. Out of the 15 days 2 Sundays were enforced unpaid holidays. An interesting use of labour protection laws.Thus, an average person ended up getting approximately 60 days employment in the whole year at an average wage rate of Rs.7/ per day (although the prevailing minimum wage was Rs.11/ per day) Therefore in monetary terms the average family was paid between Rs.400/ to 450/ in wages for work done that year. As we found, the selling of one goat, or the mortgaging of land or pawning of ornaments fetched much more than what the wage provided. The importance of employment was more psychological than actual. Moreover, the structure of famine relief works has ensured that the self image of workers on government works is irreparably damaged.
AND UNEMPLOYMENT
For both the Government and the local elite, the key is to have a large unemployed workforce. One that has a low self image. It is only then that dependencies on even the crumbs the Government throws out can be ensured. The media, the education system, the language of the programmes all create sets of myths that are designed to do two things. On the one hand to create a feeling of helplessness, dependency, and a degree of desperation. On the other, a ray of hope however false it may be. Two broad examples in the employment field will help illustrate this.
In this marginal landholding Aravalli belt parents are sending larger numbers of their boys to school and even college. The primary, and in many cases the only motive is a secure Government job. The education system inculcates in the child a complete disregard, distaste and disvalue for the background he comes from his dreams are to become a Government servant of any kind, Chaprasi, Jawan or constable. Despite the overwhelming evidence that only a fraction of the graduates will get any Government jobs the entire education system fosters the impression that hard work, preservence, a bribe, and a little bit of luck will take them to the end of the rainbow. There is no sense of confidence that is built up by the years of schooling that the graduate can now face an environment, however hostile. Huge numbers of educated youth pursue years of desperately filling forms in the distant hope of getting a job. These few years spent on a thread of hope are enough to deflate and control the years of youthful spirit. What remains is dissipated by schemes for "educated unemployed" and by the time the young man goes through this process he has been rendered useless even in his own eyes. Ridiculed by his family, betrayed by a system he spent years in, and burdened with a set of norms which has only alienated him from his background, he is rendered impotent to help it change or grow.
A similar game is played with the labouring workforce also. An impression is created that there is no work available. That work done was not really necessary. That any employment or work provided is a favour. And that the entire workforce is dependent on the employers `benevolence' for providing employment at all. These benevolent employers are the factory owners, the petty businessmen the mine owners, the liquor contractors, the labour contractors, the land owners, the government, and its functionaries both elected and appointed. All these employers forcefully impose the view that they are, at great cost to themselves providing employment for the wretched and the lazy labouring classes. Therefore any organised opposition is both or crime and a sacrilege.
Apart from the work provided during drought, there are employment programmes run by the Government as part of its usual development programmes. The JRY being the principal work programme along with work provided By the PWDs, Central and State, irrigation, and forest departments.
In all these programmes of work the Government sets down certain norms and goals for the programme. Collectively comparing goals with the realities at a grass root level is an excersize in education and empowerment.
CHAPTER IV: SELF PERCEPTION
What then is the self perception of the rural worker? It is impossible that the perceptions of all the categories of more powerful groups would not influence the workers self perception. In the absence of being organised, the self perception is likely to mirror the views of the more powerful, even when it results in a self deprecatory view. How then would one define it?
"I go in darkness
I return in darkness
My whole life is full of darkness
There is no ray of light" 14
(Song of darkness of hali (bonded labourer) in Gujarat)
THE KARMIC LAW
The Karmic Law tries to convince the people that they are, where they are, because of their own past deeds/misdeeds.The image of the poor worker is an off shoot of this major tradition.The worker continues to think that he /she is is a mere handler of mud. Even where the self -perception may be more self confident because of being upper caste , the initial response is always self deprecatory. The stated position moves between a genuine feeling of being of no value, to use of the phrase more as a part of ` polite' feudal vocabulary. Time and again the question " Aap kya karthen hai ?" , is answered with" Mai gar nakun bai" ( I lift and throw mud ) The Hindu caste hierarchy and the karmic beliefs have conditioned the lower castes to accept their position of inferiority for centuries. The shift from acquiescence to self assertion is the change that all of us are looking for.
This self perception has perpetuated the system where the worker has accepted low wages and performed menial jobs, without asking questions at all. In todays `modern' universe where rights are being spelt out the worker is perhaps moving towards a more aggressive stand, to demand that there should be more value placed on the work done. This shift is slow. The modern system has brought in a value based on the market, where once again they fall into the lowest category in the wage structure.
This has been internalised to such an extent by the workers themselves, that Jathi Panchayat after Jathi Panchayat has taken decisions to stop working with the traditional skill,i.e. Chamars with leather, Meghwals with weaving etc. This ofcourse only relates to work done by the scheduled castes. This has reached ludicrous levels when scheduled caste performer groups have taken decisions not to play instruments which fetched them a good income for specific periods in the year. Examples are the Dholis, who have stopped playing the bankia(rural shenai), the Dhol (drums . etc. ) The Rawats stopped playing the `chang',a mellow tambourine, because they wanted to upgrade themselves into Rajputs.
THE UNSKILLED WORKERS
Anyone who has tried to work with digging of earth or breaking stone should argue for it being defined as skilled work. But the worker from a poor home continues to accept the Brahminical classification , where all things which relate to the mind has more value . Work done by the hands and feet are of lesser importance in this hierarchy.
The petty Government servant, senior bureaucracy and the rural rich align themselves together to say that the worker is lazy and doesnot perform unless pressurised. The demands from the worker in terms of output defined, in sheer physical terms, are such that only the very sturdy amongst them can fulfill them. The old and infirm , the younger ones too work against all odds to fulfill tasks so as to get the wage.If this myth is true than how is it that the same lazy workers continue to build massive buildings and, roads ? If they collapse, it is not because of bad craftsmanship or workmanship , but because of pilferage of money and materials by those who manage the construction.
WHOSE LOGIC?
There is also the problem of having to define things within a different logical framework. Bhuri ya - a very outstanding example of a brave and self respecting woman is a leader from amongst the oppressed. However, she follows in many things an entirely different logical paradigm. One that even someone sympathetic to her cause may not be able to understand. For her, the problem is not only to be able to express her suffering, and demand a change in perception, but also to be able to explain it in terms that are understood. Andreas Fuglesang writes:
" Peoples thought processes are not different, but the classification systems they use to describe reality may be different." 15
Bhuri ya has no definition of creativity. She will look at us with indulgent tolerance if we started discussing the creative aspect of her life. For her, the creativity involved in her work with farming her crop, rearing children and dealing with social and economic injustice, is part of the rhythm of life.
She passes with ease from concern over corruption in the panchayat, of which she is a member, to the incontinence of her grandchild as if they are part of the same argument. The importance of her involvement in all plans for creative change are our perception of her and her role in our plans. Like most rural women, she is shrewd to perceive and evaluate the intent of the person addressing her and the real benefit she or the community will get from such involvement.
Their perception of themselves and the perception from outside of people like her create the first real dichotomy and the real schism that our minds have to grasp and bridge. There is first the mental perception. There is an intellectual and elitist perception of the predicament and capabilities of rural women, of whom Bhuri ya is one.
Then there is the cultural difference that produces a series of reactions that are part of our subterranean selves. She is dirty. She smells of goat or cow. Her gestures of physical intimacy may not be welcome. Then her language is difficult.
Her idiom is not ours. Where as we have had tutelage under Aristotelian methods and have consciously accepted the deductive method in all normal intercourse; she has a different logic. Her logic is inter linked with and part of her stories and the collective memory of her social group.
We experience impatience and boredom. We donot have the mental concept of time that she has. Though we may share the larger inheritance of India, we see time as linear, she as cyclical. The hurry and bustle of our minds and our conscience is to catch up with it. Hers, an inevitability of the cycle of life. Apparent not only in life and death, but in the daily chores of living and in facing the upheavals in life.
THE HIERARCHY OF WAGES
Wages are determined by processes which are evaluative. Fixing forms of work in a hierarchy. This hierarchy is determined by demand and supply. A skill therefore gets separated from the person and alienates the worker from relating to it as a part of an ability to express himself. The low self image leads to a number of things. The worker loses respect for the work and output. Work is therefore affected both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Degradation of skills, mechanisation and reducing value gets reflected in shoddy work. In a brahminical and feudal society, physical labour of all kinds get the lowest position in the hierarchy. There is neither moral nor economic justification in the norms of society for the common labourer to see oneself as a key input in the business of building and developing the country. They react with disinterest and apathy.
Therefore when Government starts employment programmes and sees the worker not as a fellow compatriot but as a protagonist in the division of spoils, the work ethos gets further undermined and degraded, resulting in complete wastage of Government funds.
Forcing complicity in a system of corruption even though the
primary beneficiary is the ruling class, causes an even greater loss of self respect.
It is this low self image that prevents change and prevents economic initiatives from being born from amongst these groups. Even if there were exceptions amongst the poor who had the capacity to withstand such attitudes from being internalised, they simply do not posses the economic strength either to establish themselves. The only solution lies in collective strength and working out systems of collective functioning in economic activities. But there is no time or space for such thought to get formulated. Understanding of collective economic power comes more easily in situations of confrontation. Forming of collective interest groups to take an adversarial position is naturally the first step. Management vs labour Government vs people, upper caste vs lower caste, Landlords vs tenants and buyer vs seller are the categories which get formed to begin with. Wages, corruption, land issues, and untouchability the kinds of issues which are highlighted.
THE LOW SELF IMAGE
It is only after collectives of oppressed groups have discovered their strength through a period of struggle that they begin to see their own potential to fight the establishment. The shift in perception begins to take place, but old categories aren't shaken off easily. Management skills continue to be seen as skills which lie with the others. There is a clearer knowledge of the mechanism of exploitation, but the only way of fighting it is to organise against it. That is the feeling the poor begin to have. The confidence to be able to provide a working alternative model only comes much later. It is this change in perception that is a necessary pre-requisite for rural workers to be able to assert their rights to creative development.
MY INITIAL PERCEPTION
I passed the I.A.S. exam in 1968 at the age of 21.My reasons for opting for the I.A.S. were fairly ordinary. As a woman, I wanted to work and not get married and pass into the limbo of passivity.
I was trained in Tamil Nadu, though I belonged to the Union Territories Cadre. Since I was Tamil speaking the Government decided to send me there. My training was in Tiruchi and North Arcot Districts. The DMK had just come to power.In those years as an IAS trainee I had my first exposure to rural India. My Collector in North Arcot , T.V. Venketaraman took his job seriously and spent 15 days every month out of the District Head Quarters. We, the probationers, accompanied him. In village after village we were met by the village Sarpanch and drank innumerable glasses of Horlicks; the drink given to `officers'. We attracted a crowd wherever we went. I was convinced that we were meeting the poor and that their voices were being heard.
During the training I discovered how little I actually knew about rural realities. The real fears of responsibility for action and redressal began to weigh heavily on me. This drew me into the role of arbitrator and judge; but ill equipped to guarantee justice. The information levels grew. Along with it the knowledge that the first two years as SDM would be important years. I also knew that the Tehsildar and the BDO, middle aged , experienced officials, could mislead me. But did I really have the time to understand them and their motives ?
I also saw how the local administration did not really function. It just ambled along. In Delhi, in 1973-74, the P.M.O. was a fearful and awesome presence. Sanjay Gandhi was alive and just beginning to assert himself. I saw senior officers currying favour to stay on the `right ' side of the Government and the politicians in power. I also saw subordinate service officers neglecting their work to be available to officers who occupied key posts in the GOI. They spent the bulk of their time liaising and functioning as upgraded domestic servants. This did not seem to affect them, as long as they got flats in the right locality and their children got admitted to the `best' schools.
One enters the IAS with the feeling that the Government will provide the framework for working effectively for social justice, within a strictly legal framework. The institutional framework though already corrupt, offered at least a structure within which it was possible to try and make the system function better. There was scope to fight the system of patronage that exists within the Government; or at least to make it deliver with some justice. There also seemed to be some measure of manipulation possible within the legal,institutional framework to influence the political roles; both at levels of policy and implementation.
It seems as if the IAS is the chosen elite that is going to set the country on its feet, show up the corruption and the nepotism. The District training, quickly and effectively rips the illusion apart. The knots are large and completely baffling. An unfamiliarity with the law makes it impossible to act without local guidance and the local officials, know it. It takes the better part of a posting to sit on the problem. It is not only the officialdom. The local power group has also learnt to influence and manipulate the office . It is seldom that the really poor or oppressed have access to the officer. They are victims of the system and tradition, where contact with officers has always been through brokers. To get the way cleared takes a while.
It is also difficult to understand the intricacies of local politics. Which political leader pleads for whom and why ? What are the relationships that exist between the powerful and the dependant voters? What is the nature of the Specific divide between groups?
These are questions that need time and humility to understand. If the first is in short supply because of the nature of the posting, the latter is sure to be eradicated in the year in the Academy. `You are members of an elite service.' `You are the ones who will direct policy, give direction to the political masters, a la "Yes Minister' no doubt; " You are the brains of the country and such like render learning difficult. Even if there humility, lack of familiarity often leads the junior, well meaning IAS officer to trust the wrong person, misunderstand because of genuine mis-information. But the impossible position of accepting ones mistake! The IAS officer can do no wrong in front of the public.
The civil service like the educational system is still controlled by a decadent colonial spirit. The deep suspicion of the public, the need to separate the officer from the community, the notion of privacy ( including palatial residential accommodation ) are all colonial concepts. Concepts which have bred and continue to breed speratism and alienation as a matter ofprinciple and pride. The repeated fear of every sub-divisional officer is of the `mob'. A description of a group of people who may go to meet the officer if more than 30 in number. There is a fear of facing the people alone. The police have to stand around very often to give the officer any self confidence. This is as true if women go in large numbers to meet them, unarmed and harmless.` Please send a delegation in,' is the oft repeated request or order. It would be very surprising to the members of the `mob' , if they knew that post lunch conversations in the Delhi Administration were very often detailed and repeated anecdotes of how these officers ordered firings and controlled `mobs'. The IAS' spirit of valour comes out with these anecdotes where the vanquished are their own people asking for their rights, protesting against injustice. I used to be filled with great unease and disquiet. How could such an accepted position foster social justice and change?
Even for a good bureaucrat the limitations are very often crippling.The duration of the posting determines the nature of the work. But inevitably the work done is reversed by the person who follows, if she has a different value base. There is no change guaranteed unless there is a strong political will that backs and supports the policy and ensures continuity even with a change of officer.
But the feudal trappings remain unchanged, including the numbers of hangers on who continue to applaud every utterance and work done , like the courtiers of old.There is no system of genuine feed back and review - systemic or otherwise . Any real attempt at change would mean a direct confrontation with politicians and senior civil servants. It would most definitely mean a transfer. Those officers at the sub-divisional level who have attempted genuine land reform, have had to face tremendous odds. There are innumerable examples. The IAS only allows the odds of innovation in the softer areas of development-literacy, family planning, women's education, health and social welfare. In other areas any attempt even to implement the law is viewed negatively and the consequences are writ large on the wall for every one to see. This has led in most cases to working within the narrow framework of conventionaally accepted positions. I did not see the point of continuing to work in a system where I had notional power and trappings. I could not really even begin to talk about fairness in inter-relationships amongst the elite, leave alone genuine change. I bid good-bye to the IAS, with no regrets. It is true that the three magic letters give you entry into a world barred to the normal citizen of this country, at least where Government is concerned. The confirmation of the privelages the service offers, is clear from the fact that the magic still works 18 years after resigning from the I.A.S.!
PART -II
CHANGING PERCEPTIONS
CHAPTER V A PROCESS OF EMPOWERMENT
"Ude che bhai udeche
Sangathan wali bath gaon gaon udeche
Udeche bhai udeche
Mazdoori wali bath gaon gaon udeche
Udeche bhai udeche
Dukan wali bath gaon gaon udeche
Udeche bhai udeche."
From one of the songs of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan.
THE SANGATHAN
Before beginning a collective excersize of a search for alternatives there has to be a collective rejection of the negative attitudes imposed by the rest of society on the oppressed group. A public exposure of the myths that were responsible for the ridicule of the oppressed groups. In identifying and struggling against such injustice the poor have to be able to buildup support structures which will give them strength, legitimacy and a sense of belonging. Evolve an organisation that would empower and sustain them through periods of struggle. This organisation was the Sangathan.
The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan was formed by a 1000 peasants and workers as on the Ist of May 1990 with the express purpose of providing a support structure for themselves. Having recognised the Jati Panchayats, the existing political parties, the religious organisations, the Government, and their village panchayats as deficient, if not destructive to processes of their own development, they had taken a decision to form their own organisation. The Sangathan continued to grow with every struggle.Issues of land, wages, and corruption began to be raised and perceptions relating to these issues were challenged. What were these perceptions?
The first and most important statement was the oft repeated one that "In this area nothing positive can happen."It came from years of unsuccessful individual attempts to get the system to change, and a series of betrayals by leaders and parties. From the decay in ethical values at a national level which has now ermeated every village. From a firm conviction that individualised bribery was the accepted norm. And most important from an imposed and now internalised image, that they were a set of people lost in laziness and alcoholism, who could never better themselves individually or collectively.
In village after village, people would say - "We can never improve our lot." Changing that attitude was the most difficult. After that the peoples own energies and momentum carried the effort forward.
The experience of collective strength and its effectiveness led to the formation of the Sangathan. Things that had never been done before were being accomplished. Land was wrested from a jagirdar and redistributed, though his family had control over it for centuries. Money pilfered by corrupt Sarpanches was extracted and restored to its rightful claimants. Government functionaries- from the Patwari and Gram Sewak to Secretaries to Governments, even the Chief Minister were seen as having to retract, change and reform because of public pressure. Even when the pressure was only seen as local.
In the land struggle in Sohangad village when the jagirdar mobilised the powerful Rajput lobby to help him retain exclusive and illegal control over land, the village responded with mobilising other villages across caste in order to counterbalance the caste lobby. The Sarpanch of Bhim,-a Rawat called Inder Singh, in another case, tried to appeal to the workers on the basis of their being "caste brothers" in order to avoid returning money he had pilfered. The workers publically gheraoed him and denounced him regardless of his being their relative.
The issue of minimum wages on Government works had been repeatedly raised and there had been numerous failures of organised attempts to get the minimum wage paid. Sustained efforts continued, and a year long campaign culminated in a 12 day dharna and hunger strike where 300 people sat night and day. The State Government converted a dispute into a major policy issue. At this time a committed core group with a strong ethical base demonstrated that it had the capacity to take on forces much greater than itself. The struggle was enough incentive to project this method of work as viable and attractive. When a small Sangathan from small town Bhim (almost a village); managed to get policy changed despite the State Governments very clearly pronounced intention to oppose payment of wages, the credibility of such efforts increased manifold. The efficacy of collective struggle no longer needed explaining.
The Sangathan( MKSS) is the source of the empowerment of the people in the area. No action of sustained and targeted confrontation is possible without a Sangathan. The MKSS is a peoples organisation which has grown out of shared understanding and action. There is a fair degree of solidarity amongst the committed workers. Recognition and credibility has increased with every agitation over issues of local concern. This has enabled the Sangathan to withstand opposition from organised and cohesive groups; whether they are the local jagirdars, the local political leaders, or the petty bureaucracy.
The ability to maintain an ethical position and be successful in local crises has increased the Sangathan's credibility with communities. There has been a sincere attempt to share information and MKSS's objectives with a large group of people who now understand and share these values. Ultimately the poor have understood the power of collective action.
THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE COLLECTIVE
Any kind of collective economic activity, whether relating to markets , wages and value, or production and employment, has to be supported by a local power base. The initiation and support must come from such a group so that local destructive opposition can be countered. The shared responsibility for action creates a large support group , which monitors as well as publicizes the need for collectivism. People's involvement comes from sharing information and action. Personal interest and group interest can be matched,related or connected. The interest of the group is often the interest of the individual . But nevertheless there are degrees of personal sacrifice which have to be made by the individual for the group. For the poor collective action alone can guarantee success even though apparently some of the members may do better if they pursue their personal ambitions. Even if short term successes are linked to individual action being a member of an underprivileged group would mean that any lasting benefit could only come through continued membership of the collective.
Talking of the strength of group loyalty Amartya Sen writes :
"The members of each group may have partly congruent and partly conflicting interests. Actions based on group loyalty may involve, in some respects, a sacrifice of purely personal interests, just as they can also facilitate, in other respects, a greater fulfillment of personal interests. The relative balance of the two may vary. The congruent elements may be more dominant in, say, collusive action on the part of pressure groups agitating for concessions that help the interests of all the members, even though many agitators may also be willing to sacrifice some personal gains for the 'cause' of the group. In other relations, e.g. in many cases of family obligations, the extent of sacrifice could indeed be very large. The mixture of selfish and selfless behaviour is one of the important characteristics of group loyalty, and this mixture can be seen in a wide variety, of group associations varying from
kinship relations and communities to trade unions and economic pressure groups." 16
In other words the principles underlying the MKSS's role as a protest and pressure group, had to be transferred to its new function as an economic collective intervening in a conventional market, subject to all the forces which exist in a free market economy.
On the other hand the MKSS is not philanthropic organisation. The MKSS does not see itself as doing "tyag" or "seva." Though this is how it is often described by some members of the dominant group. Because in so doing, the act is deprived of its intention to effect long term change of a fundamental nature. Most important, the MKSS presented an alternative value base. In this case the economic enterprises were not set up for profit. The challenge was to have an alternative value base from which to operate and control economic relationships
Amartya Sen in his series of lectures on Ethics and Economics questions todays economic pundits who see efficiency and economic development as a direct out come of the free market: a market dominated and motivated by self interest alone.
"Indeed, it may not be quite as absurd to argue that people always actually do maximize their self-interest, as it is to argue that rationality must invariably demand maximization of self-interest. Universal selfishness as actuality may well be false, but universal selfishness as a requirement of rationality is patently absurd."17
He continues:
"However, the success of a free market does not tell us anything at all about what motivation lies behind the action of economic agents in such an economy. Indeed, in the case of Japan, there is strong empirical evidence to suggest that systematic departures from self-interested behaviour in the direction of duty, loyalty and goodwill have played a substantial part in industrial success." 18
The MKSS rejected this concept theoretically and in practice. It understood and accepted that, there are no alternatives to group action. The MKSS also had to work out the particular dynamics through which self interest and group interest could be matched, related or connected.
THE PRIMARY ISSUE
A review of the Sangathan's activities takes us back to its initial phase of empowerment. A crucial period where collective identification of primary issues was necessary before anything could begin to happen.
After the Sangathan had been born, and a power base created, issues had to be taken up. The Sangathan had thus far worked from incident to incident, issue to issue. There was a limited process of reflection, but only relating to the struggle from which one had just emerged or the next one under consideration. An internal demand began to be felt for more detailed thought and planned action. It was necessary to be able to evolve and present a vision of what we were working towards, a dream we could share and shape as we went along.
What are the primary issues for small formers and labourers? Wages, and value of work is the obvious one. However, in an area with few employment opportunities: employment and work are twin issues. In the atmosphere of the New Economic Policy and the sacrosanct value given to the market mechanism, it is an issue that will affect us all. For an area that has been left ecologically barren, local productivity of a regenerative kind is obviously of great importance.
In its new focus the three categories to be emphasised by the Sangathan were work and productivity, wages and their value and markets.
WAGES AND VALUE
B.D.Sharma as Commissioner Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes says in his report :
"I have referred to in my last report the unconstitutionality of the dualistic system in the determination of wages and salaries for the organised and the unorganised sectors. But this serious constitutional issue has not been even discussed so far in any forum. This duality is at the root of inequity in our country." 19
In the initial plans our dependencies on and expectations from the Government were an outstanding feature. We demanded it pay minimum wages. We demanded it implement the laws that benefit the poor.
The MKSS also demanded that the Government provide employment and that Government respond to complaints against corrupt functionaries. Other demands were that it provide sufficient quantities of ration through the P.D.S, that it improve the system of loaning. The schools and its were another Government institutional structure that drew the specific attention of the Sangathan.
The reasons for such demands are not difficult to find. The area is economically poor. Landholdings are small. The working population migrates. There is no industry. The ecology is bankrupt. The only powerful force in the area over whom some claims can be made is the Government. People did not see themselves as capable of being able to provide for their own development. As the impotence of the Government, and its doublespeak began to be revealed, a mix of pressure on the Government, and alternatives outside it began to be explored.
When Government officials claimed it was not possible to pay minimum wages as people did not work, the Sangathan offered to show a working model. The Sangathan undertook supervision of the construction of a Public Distribution shop. In the construction of this building the Sangathan shattered every myth the Government had consistently presented that, " people do not work". People not only worked, they finished the quantum of work required of them early, and therefore left for home early. Another opinion frequently voiced is, "there is not enough money budgeted to enable payment of minimum wages". There was enough money to pay everyone minimum wages, and money left over to build an extra room. The department claimed that the labour - material ratio does not enable payment of minimum wages. The opposite was true. The price of material has gone up in proportion to wages. It is impossible to maintain the required Government norms of wage-material ratio of 50-50 on construction works, even after payment of minimum wages. The material costs still continued to outweigh labour costs. In order to meet these norms, the MKSS found Government functionaries falsified figures. This explained inflated statistics of numbers of `man days created'. Figures which have failed to match realities in the villages.
The Sangathan decided to call the bluff of the Government. They had thought we would either refuse to do it - like most peoples organisations, or be satisfied with the opportunity to create a separate little model - like many voluntary agencies. The "model" enabled the MKSS to understand the detailed mechanics of such work, and use the results to pressurise the system to change. It also gave the people the confidence that they could manage and supervise their own works in a far more efficient manner.
As Dr. B.D. Sharma records in the 29th Report of the commission for SC/ST:
"The biggest question in relation to the right to life is the entitlement of the common man for his labour input. What can be meaning of honour and what can dignity signify to a hungry person? The present situation in this regard is unjust. The members of the organised sector first take away from the gross national product what they consider is due to them on the basis of highly inflated and arbitrary entitlement. The members of the unorganised sector have to be content with whatever is left thereafter. The fact is that not even proper valuation has been made of the work of ordinary labourers outside the organised sector including the farmer." 20 (29th Report of the SC/ST 87-89)
WORK AND PRODUCTION
The Sangathan temporarily reached a plateau and was beginning to see the very real limitations of the Government. Trying out new roles allowed mental horizns to expand. Mazdoors & Kisans could also be managers, traders, contractors. The MKSS's interests would always be those of unorganised workers it was determined to upset the categorisation by the dominant group. Mechanisms could be used to confuse an exploitative structure and to gain empowerment
The manner in which work was defined would have to change. Work and productivity was only being seen in Western terms.Success, was only recognised by monetary wealth. Therefore the emerging role models in the area, were liquor contractors, mine owners, and middlemen of all kinds.It was considered axiomatically true that new forms of production would only appear in the cities. News of the latest consumer items would come from those who worked in the cities. Those who managed to acquire even a few of those items from amongst the rural elite would make sure that the urban consumer was the new role model to follow.
When a society moves from a state of virtual self sufficiency,in its day to day needs to a dependence on external production and supply,its controls over work and productivity disappear.Not merely the controls, but the work itself disappears. Today in the areas around Bhim, there is no evidence of any form of traditional production. No textile manufacture, no leather based production, no mud and pottery based work, and even the housing industry presents a sad and sorry picture. This part of Rajasthan exports some of the best quality workmen for the construction industry all over the country. Yet, house building which was done almost without cost out of completely local material,using skills every family possessed, has now become completely dependent on external materials.So much so that housing is likely to soon become a genuine problem for the poor in the area.
Almost all the deep wells in Kathiawar are sunk by workers from these villages. It is acknowledged that this is a skilled and dangerous occupation that claims scores of lives every year. Yet no sophisticated technology for well digging or water harvesting has developed to suit local requirements.For generations, the labour of this area has been building up the basic infrastructure of more affluent areas outside, without acquiring anything more than the means of immediate survival in return.
Today workers from Kathiawar return talking of huge imported machines which replace 20 workmen and dig a well in half the time. The cost of digging a well in this manner is more expensive than doing it manually but it seems that an increasingly larger number of capitalist farmers in Gujerat are willing to pay for technical efficiency more than they would ever pay the manual well diggers. It need hardly be stated that the machines are owned and operated by more affluent and more"skilled" people.
MARKETS
In the priorities of the new economic policy, the free market was the cure for all economic ills. It was obvious that market forces were going to be given a free hand. What would that mean locally? we had some experience of market mechanisms because of Sangathan members who had worked in Kirana shops. It was a mechanism that we needed to understand more fully. We certainly could not ignore it. Could the market be used to benefit the poor? How it was possible when they were not just dominated by, but completely in the hands of the affluent.
AN ETHICAL BASE
" Adam, Adam, Adam Smith
Listen what I charge you with
Didn't you say
In the class one day
That selfishness was bound to pay?
Of all doctrines that was the Pith.
Wasn't it, wasn't it wasn't it. Smith?"21
(Stephen Leacock, Hellements of Hickonomics)
Politics and ethics no longer seem to be part of the same paradigm. Politics has always concerned itself with ethics. However, domination of economic considerations in influencing political decision making, has separated ethics from politics. As L.C. Jain says:
"In a disparity ridden, poor country like ours, can we have governance without ideology? We must have the construct of an ideal to be pursued over a period of time even if we fall short of it. A genuine effort has to be made outside the realm of power politics." 22
However, ` politics', is a word , which has come to mean self interest and opportunism. It is a dirty word. Whether in Hindi or in English being called a politician means a condemnation of the individual.
The MKSS is involved with work that is essentially political.It firmly believes that all change is politically initiated. It also accepts that the personal is as political as the non-personal. In this scenario, the word had to be re-defined at least within the MKSS, to make it a respectable word for ourselves.
It therefore became necessary that we look for and get together people who shared this ethical value. Idealogy develops from a strong ethical sense of what is right and what is wrong which extends to a sense of social morality.
Amartya Sen writing about human motivation and ethical considerations says:
"It is also to emphasize that even the oddly narrow characterization of human motivation, with ethical considerations eschewed, may nevertheless serve a useful purpose in understanding the nature of many social relations of importance in economics. I am, therefore, not arguing that the non-ethical approach to economics must be unproductive. But I would like to argue that economics, as it has emerged, can be made more productive by paying greater and more explicit attention to the ethical considerations that shape human behaviour and judgement." 23
It was heartening to see how many people share this point of view. There are many who have battled alone to establish this. Taken on battles sometimes too large for them to handle alone. Very often it has left them with economic and social loss. Undeterred they have carried on. Damned by the more worldly wise as `fools', or as ` eccentrics' who should be ignored or held up as examples of what one should not be. The local administration fails to distinguish between these people and bad characters, because both "disturb the peace". What these individuals could not do was build up a genuine support group and the credibility that comes with success.
COMMITTMENT
Committment is a word often heard. Used as a compliment and, seen as necessarily linked to single mindedness, often unselfish, brave, courageous, self sacrificing, sometimes associated with simple living. The social activist thrives on the notion of commitment. Commitment has got to be linked to a goal, an idealogy, an objective, values.
At the level of morality, the scale of man's depravity and lack of scruples has touched new lows. The debate, any debate for the happiness of man has to recognise and explain the reasons for the dramatic fall in ethical levels. Whether at international, national or local levels fundamentalism, genocide, and all levels of corruption are topics for debate and the concern of all. Social in justice is rampant. The selfish ruling class see the exploitation of the poor. While contributing to a further degradation of values in a poor economy, they raise issues of morality through religious revival.
Against this scenario are the continual efforts of groups, of various sorts to raise the issues of concern, and through protest force the urgency upon the selfish and self centered power groups that eat the cake and have it too.
The social activist, a new word describing an eighties hybrid, has the difficult task of recognising global hopelessness and yet seeing hopes, aspirations lead towards the emergence of a good and moral state as the solution to the evils that now loom large Pope said, " where ignorance is bliss, Tis folly to be wise." One wonders how long one can remain without the folly of wisdom !
IDEOLOGY AND ACTION
Whether a group has a stated ideology or not, it speaks through its actions. Through both the means and the ends, it makes it clear what it stands for and against. When there is a deliberate attempt to formulate a specific ideology based on local conditions, needs, experiences and using an indigenous idiom, then the expansion of the group is dependent on its performance through action.
Living in the same physical location as some of the community and participating in their daily living has given the Sangathan members an opportunity of raising issues sustainedly through action. Daily life with a difference has raised, and allowed room to debate on gender roles( ie men fetching water, on their heads, washing dishes in public) untouchability( drinking water from the same pot, fetching water from the well ).Issues of hygiene and health, norms of social inter-action, difference between respect and ceremonial rituals- reflected by same levels for sitting,same food served to all classes of people visiting have all become topics for argument and sometimes dis-agreement. Nevertheless they have led to a self evaluation of these social customs and see its links with stated moral positions of the Sangathan.
It has been possible above all to practice honesty in private and public life with transparency. It has been an attempt to re-establish ethical values in a morally decadent society. It was the beginning of hope that values could not only be practiced individually but collectively,and that such values would have credibility and acceptance.
However, as collective action begins to take place, more and more individuals with similar values and ethics begin to be attracted to this collective process. They seek such collectives both to provide, and to take support from them. In a society, where many collectives operate simultaneously it is the values which distinguish them & the ethical base which gives them credibility and energy.
The first person who sought the group out was Lal Singh. A dismissed policeman, Lal Singh is a leader, because of the implicit and absolute faith the community has in his integrity. He himself shies away from the role of leader. Simple , intelligent, compassionate and fearless, Lal Singh came wanting to find out more. The mud house that some of us lived in needed to be rebuilt so that the additional goat house could be converted into a kitchen. Lal Singh came as the mistri to help re-construct it.
Long conversations with Lal Singh revealed his interest and commitment to the development of the area. It all began to take real shape when he invited some of us to his village, to discuss local issues, principally the doings of a local jagirdhar, who was evil in real Hindi filmy style. Thus began a long and continuing association. The village Sohangad has made local history through its struggle and success against the Jagirdhar. In its growing political strength, the village has realised the power of collectivism.
When you look into the background of Lal Singh, interesting facts emerge. Lal Singh's father, uncle, his aunt, mother were all keepers of the cows in Gandhiji's Ashram at Sabarmatii.They perhaps grew used to, or accepted a strongly moral world view. The family has retained a keen appreciation of the necessity for committed social action.
The MKSS has attracted youngsters as well. The young men , literate and aspiring for mainstream jobs get attracted to the Sangathan because of its new idealistic position and idiom. They are critical and use a militant vocabulary, which clashes strangely with their conventional aspirations for jobs with the Government. They bring in the idiom of youth and the world of the educational institution. Their disagreements and differences have helped the Sangathan review its position from time to time. In an odd sense the youth remain more conventional in their action. But it has helped the Sangathan under stand the role literate youth can play in mass mobilisation.
Those who drop out from school are in a separate category. They see themselves as a continuum from their fore fathers and see no option but to live in the same locale. Their aspirations therefore are closely linked with the future of the community and the area.
The Sangathan believed that the ethical basis would convert into an idealogy. The imposition of an idealogy without proper discussion of ethics, could be a reason for the dichotomised existence of modern politics. It is essential to see that there is no divide between personal ethics and social morality.It was also important to understand that in any movement the ethical strength carries it forward. This is an argument that cuts across all ideological divides.
MY CHANGING PERCEPTION
In a voluntary agency
I came to Tilonia with the expectation of locating myself in an area for a period of time not defined by postings. I wanted to spend time and adjust to space defined not by me, but by the people with whom I chose to associate. There was a clear position that I wanted to work with the poor, the scheduled castes, the artisans,and with women. I knew that being in a small, and still unrecognised institution would put pressure on me as it did on all the others to work ideas through, and that the final acceptability will come from the people. I knew too that the socio-political situation would have to be understood, a language learnt, and an idiom understood before any real communication could begin. I wanted to understand socio-economic realities,but also work with individuals, and recognise faces. Work, in other words with human beings; not an aggregate of human beings reduced to a stastical number. There was a desire to live a holistic simple life in which my life and work would not be fragmented.I guess I also wanted to understand empowerment. Not as one in a position of authority seen as powerful by others, but see the power of peoples opinion. Social justice would no longer be the use of the law in an institutionalised sense. It would mean the working out of an awareness of the law and the building up of the power to face the issue in society. It would involve conflict and struggle.
In other words, I said goodbye to more than a job and its comforts. I really said goodbye to middle class inhibitions; to timidity and the class habit of withdrawing into a hole as soon as there is social conflict, and the threat of public criticism.
I came to Tilonia, Kishengarh Tehsil, Ajmer District
Rajasthan, at the end of 1974. The SWRC accepted me with mixed feelings. Some of the workers were afraid that my coming might bring in bureaucratic trends and change the nature of the organisation. It was a difficult and painful beginning where I began to understand that for all my training and association, I still knew very little about village realities. I was a victim of all the romantic illusions that the average city dweller has of the village. In 1974 a woman in Rajasthan had also to face the dominant macho tendencies, where no matter what her qualifications may have been , she is primarily seen as a woman.
I spent most of my time dealing with a psyche that was caught between ignorance and some degree of over confidence. Interesting and amusing situations arose. I went and waited outside BDO and SDM offices, really annoyed at the petty ways in which they established the power hierarchy. I could not help thinking of what the response of the officials would have been had I still been in the IAS.
The first year was a confused year. The larger objectives were clear, but the shift was difficult: not in a physical sense of food and living conditions , but in adjusting and changing my mental perception. I had to change from talking to listening, and had to learn that the training I had been given in being an instant expert had to be discarded if I wanted to understand the complexities of socio-economic change.
I initially got involved with the income generation programmes in Tilonia. The Craft Section was still in its embryonic stage. In 1974 there was a khadi board survey of artisans. I came with the desire to work with the scheduled caste and artisans, but also with a love for crafts born in my days in Kalakshetra. There was a familiarity with looms, with wood craft and respect for craftsmanship.
My days with the craft section were spent fighting battles at three levels. At the principal level with the community. This was the most fruitful. I spent quantities of time living with the leather workers in Haramara. There were 60 families. Through working with them I began my education in the business of collective economic enterprises. The craftsmen were willing to do some things together. But did not want to use co-operative efforts for other activities. Then emerged the next question. Why do we talk of the poor forming co-operatives to fight a capitalist market where everything is spelt out as individual profit and gain? As soon as the leather workers got some benefits, the co-operatiive's inner strength began cracking. Meanwhile, being a registered co-operative created problems with the department, which is proverbially corrupt. Strange rules were cited, stipulating that women ,i.e. wives could not be members if their husbands were. Women were getting side lined once again- receiving notional wages and working in a purely traditional manner.
Politically the emergence of an economically viable scheduled caste community raised local ire. The ` Thakur' of the village and the traditional ` banias' showed their wrath by indulging in day to day acts of threatened violence and shouting abuses.
Finally, the local Panchayat elections gave the upper castes and the power elite the means of splitting the co-operative. Serious problems arose and the split in the co-operative never healed. The families have got together socially, but the divisions existed and remain in a diluted form even today.
The lessons I learnt from Harmara were many. I learnt that no income generation activity could be scaled up. The artisans had to look for an outside market if they produced re-designed goods. The outside market demanded a pattern of marketing and credit in which the per-capita amount required was too high. Above all, income generation activities of this sort emphasised individual profit. The incentive for production and income would therefore draw the craftsman away from making any kind of political demand locally, or even looking at local political-development needs. The Harmara leather workers have prospered, but their social conscience for collective action has , if anything come down. They are now ready to make charitable gestures, but cannot think of using their economic clout for real change in the village.
In other words they became another vested interest group, working exclusively for their profit. By the very nature of the co-operative they wanted to restrict membership so as to increase per-capita income. But now they are individuals working with a set of skills they do not particularly want to share, lest their market dwindles. Their day to day dealings with buyers taught them how the market dealt with competition. They took their cue from it. This is a conventionally successful, prosperous unit!
Such units have prospered because of the links project holders had with the upper class elite. Tilonia was one of the first of its kind ; and did have to fight to make policy makers see income generation as development and not as a commercial enterprise. It is quoted as a success story. But for me the questions began in 1978; primary amongst them was the fragmentation that was an insidious part of all such activities. Also that a venture that covered such a small proportion of the rural unemployed/under-employed enjoyed so much publicity and popularity just because it caters to the rich and the elite.Employment and work cannot be reduced to handicrafts production and sale.
Land Allotees
In looking at rural poverty and the creation of assets, one important activity centered around land reforms and reallocation of land to the poor. In Rajasthan , some land has been allotted to poor farmers. But the land allotment had many technical and political problems. The programme adopted by SWRC,Tilonia in the mid seventies concentrated on improving land quality and increasing production on such land. These land allottees were poor and lived on the fringes of hunger and illness. It seemed appropriate that their land should be contour bunded to retain the moisture of the erratic monsoon and to provide for irrigation by digging open wells. This began as a technical programme but very soon it became apparent that the real issue was guaranteed possession. The real control of much of the land was not with the poor allottees but their money lenders, who laid claim to the land because of mortgage and unpaid debts. Any money that comes in the form of a loan is appropriated by the money lender who claims first priority over and above the reason for which the money has been obtained.
Many cases were taken up for opposition and struggle against the oppressors, but they were successful only for a short time. The absence of a strong collective organisation that would take up the issue on a larger scale for a more sustained period,resulted in repeated losses of even temporary gains.The politics of land is potentially violent and too complicated for the workers in voluntary organisations whose primary focus is project management. The people remain fragmented by caste and live in fear without a strongly cohesive support structure .
The primary focus in this kind of issue has to be the fostering and growth of political strength, and a self image of belonging to an organisation with clout. Only such confidence allows for real economic empowerment to take place.
Womens work, employment and empowerment
Income generation looks at the need to provide alternative employment and the provision of new skills. It looks at the issue as one that needs inputs at all levels and a supportive structure to keep it going. One has to just look at the nature of work in the rural areas to know that women are 60 to 70 percent of the work force,whether in agricultural or other activities. It was obvious that women work and do not need to be trained for new work. Their work had to be recognised and they had to be involved in looking collectively at themselves.
Whenever I went to a village and sat with poor women, `famine' was one recurrent issue for debate.Famine in rural Rajasthan means work on famine works, where the payment of wages, getting employment in it, wages getting cut, distribution of the spoils by the village elite are continual issues of discussion. The fact that this was an articulated and stated area of interest made us focus on the issue in all awareness programmes for women. The issue of minimum wages, quantum of work prescribed in the rules of work, the law on equal wages for equal work became topics for information dissemination.
One of the most important events that occurred in my education about peoples mobilisation was a fall out of these awareness exercises. In 1981-2 Naurti, a woman friend in Harmara, who was a wage worker raised the issue of unequal and non payment of minimum wages in Famine works. She got together 300 women and men and refused to accept payment of wages in Harmara. What followed is local history. There was departmental action taken against the Sarpanch and the BDO.The writ filed in the Supreme Court as Sanjit Roy vs The Government of Rajasthan was won and backpayment of wages were made.
This led to the formation of women's groups in the villages with the belief that collective action was necessary for redressal of all grievances and for the assertion of women's and poor peoples rights. This has now led logically to a demand for the formation of an organisation to strengthen and consolidate the power so mobilised.There is a stated and understood position that political involvement is necessary for both survival and change.
Understanding Caste, its role in local politics
Caste is one of the principal determinants of action and decisions in villages. It is the only operational structure that provides security and identity. The fearful aspects of caste- dominated action are apparent in the tragedies that occur and are reported by the press. But caste also influences and determines a world view of a people who are limited geographically and emotionally to to a small group of identifiable and recognisable norms.
I came to rural Rajasthan with a fair understanding theoretically speaking of caste and untouchability. But the all pervasive nature of caste influences was something far beyond all that I could have imagined.I had expected the downtrodden and lower castes to have some degree of militancy. At least some measure of protest against the lack of social mobility. I was surprised at the extent of conditioning. A Harijan would refuse to give you water because of his conviction that his own spiritual liberation was at stake.The security that caste provided even to untouchable groups made it difficult to get even such oppressed groups to reject the structures that were responsible for their oppression. Caste dominates all aspects of village thought. So much so, that today it is difficult for me to think without the categories of which caste the individual is from, and its position in that particular village.While in many cases class and caste categories match, rural Rajasthan can only be understood even in terms of class if caste politics is properly understood.
It may be tempting to deal with caste groups because they present a homogenous front. The homogeneity arises from caste occupations and from socially restrictive behavior, which makes them dependant on the jathi panchayat for all social interaction; especially marriage . The work with a specific caste and occupation group i.e., the Regers, made me understand that any movement or formation of organisation is restricted by the limitation of its interest and inter-caste rivalry.
Collective organsisng for social change has to have a larger common base for interaction than mere skill, and caste homogeneity. This led me to focus on the issues which were common to all; land, wage structures, employment, agriculture based, and environment based problems.
CHAPTER VI WORKING OUT A DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM
Perhaps the most difficult part of any creative effort is to
be able to translate thought into action. As long as it remains theoretical it is more logical and easy to understand. It is connected to a set of values,it attracts people who share those values. When there is fundamental disagreement with the establishment and its ideals however it is often more practical to oppose and expose. To fight against, and create at the same time is,an extremely difficult process. It could be said that it is basically flawed. It is better to fight for the revolution now, and implement change under more conducive conditions.
The world however, is no longer what it used to be.The powerful networks that exist on the international plane make local spaces the best launching pads for a different ideology. When a variety of forces are being used to literally "buy " the minds of people,only action alone can speak louder than monetary power. Very often such creative action which fundamentally questions the values of the establishment is the most effective way to expose it. It is not enough to know the current perceptions that exist in society. It is necessary to understand the forces which mould such perceptions. Similarly, it is not enough to have collective strength. There is a need to understand how best to use that strength, to develop a paradigm which is particularly suited both to the collective,and the conditions which currently exist.
UNDERSTANDING FORCES WHICH MOULD ATTITUDES
CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT
There is a perceptible shift in cultural hegemony, from the upper class elite to the commercial class. This shift explains many things both in a political and economic context. It explains for instance why the BJP has become popular. It also explains how the trend setters are not any more those who come from " established families" with long genealogical pedigree, but the rich, nouveau most of the time. It explains culture. It explains the fascination for technological toys. It explains consumerism . It explains the Westward looking ethics. This commercial class has got control over jobs, positions of authority and of money, leading to political control. It explains too the victory of the Mandir over Mandal. It also explains the support for institutionalized religion. The free market economy has opened up avenues for the middle class to join those whom they have envied for years.
The real threat for the aspiring middle class are the poor - often synonymous with lower castes,and the backward castes.
This area is predominantly Rawat. Most Rawats live in the areas now covered by the Districts of Ajmer, Pali, Bhilwara and Rajsamand. Apart from the Rawats, the Gujjars and Meghwals form the bulk of the population.
The customs relating to marriage in all these communities are determined by bride price as opposed to dowry. In all the upper castes ,ie Brahmin, Bania , Rajput it is dowry.The OBCs and SC, who have to pay bride price have some progressive customs. There is provision for divorce-'natha'. When the jathi panchayat decides on the natha or the two parties concerned agree, then the price paid or money exchanged at the time of the wedding is repaid. The woman can then get re-married. The children of the first and subsequent marriages retain their rights of inheritance unless the woman abrogates the rights due to other circumstances.
Child marriage is prevalent. Mass weddings are performed at Akha Teej. At this time all activities come to a halt. As is often the case, marriages take place after the winter crop has been harvested and the people are free from agricultural occupations. When the eldest daughter gets married in the joint family- at age 13 to 17 - all the younger siblings (girls ) get married too. The youngest may be as young as 6 months. It is really more like an engagement than a wedding. Since widow remarriage is permissible and most often encouraged it takes care of the problem of child widows.
Since most families are poor or marginal, costs are considerably reduced in these weddings as the overheads are reduced.There is no dowry . Only essential items like a cot , a mattress, a pitcher and some utensils are given. The boys family has to provide jewellery and clothes. Since only silver is worn, there is considerable bargaining between the parties on the number of kilos the girls family will ultimately settle for.
The biggest problems occur for young men who are left unmarried . If they donot have reasonable means of earning a living, and if the families cannot take the initiative, marriage gets them into debt. They end up very often working their entire life to pay off the debt.
Death ceremonies known as `nukta' are the most crippling. The numbers to be invited as well as what should be cooked are not decided by the families concerned but by the village Panchs. Because they are often also petty money lenders, they are interested in making the ceremony as lucrative as possible for themselves. The local trader is also interested in extending credit to the family. As soon as the death takes place he pays a visit to the bereaved family offering all assistance- ghee, atta, sugar. There is always a reason. In this case it is the mortgaging of the small amount of land or pawning of the few silver items that the family may possess. The trader is also aware that it is a time when he can charge exorbitantly for the goods he is selling on credit.
Disputes arise within the family when the brothers apportion the share of money to be paid. The amount is equally divided amongst them all regardless of economic status. The poorer of the brothers cannot provide their share without mortgaging all the property.Very often this leads to bondage and slow but sure death due to the contraction of poverty related illnesses.
One would have assumed that literacy and education should have stopped expenses on nukta. Though roundly condemned in every gathering of the jathi panchayat the elders continue to perpetuate them privately.No Jathi Sammelan is complete without a condemnation of nukta. With Sanskritisation there are additional expenses of doing `gangauj'. In other words going to Hardwar. A costly venture for most. Pushkar, located 7 miles from Ajmer used to be the center for all local post funeral rites.
RELIGION
There can be no discussion of culture without understanding the role of religion. There is no argument about the fact that religion is a very important factor in social behavior. It is true though that religion has been and continues to be differently viewed by different groups within the social structure.
Since this study is concerned with the working class , it will be important to understand what religion infact means to the poor today. To understand too the ways in which they have been manipulated by others through religion to maintain the status quo. The religious practices of the rural working class are manifested in ritualistic functions and behavior that is very often indistinguishable from other forms of daily living. There is no great attention paid to forms of worship . Most rituals are collective and often have a more important social function . The influence of the non-material universe is restricted to the use of ghosts , spirits to explain ill health and turn of fortune. Poor working class places of worship, are simple and totally without fuss.
The Sangathan saw the negative use of religion by the socially powerful manifested in the three primary functions of birth, marriage and death. The use and manipulations of individuals within the social group is done with the principal aim of extracting more money and spinoffs from the rituals attached to these three events.
The institution of the Bhopa or priest is an interesting deviation from the purely inherited role within the larger
Hindu traditions. The bhopa's are a kind of Free Mason brotherhood. Bhopas are initiated and enter the fraternity to play more flamboyant and "fun " roles than to look at any major spiritual or even religious action.
It is also necessary that some kind of analytical explanation be given for the non action, non involvement and the studied indifference with which religion was viewed by secular groups working to affect social change.
It became unfashionable and perhaps expedient not to talk or think too much about religion within the context of social action. The growth of fundamentalism and its effect on all levels of individual and collective action, has made it necessary to look at the issue seriously.Most social action groups that called themselves secular, worked within a strange dichotomy. This very often meant taking a non-committal position. The stated position was always non fundamentalist, while the individualist position continued to be traditionally rigid and conventional. The Collective didnot question the individual's contradictory roles. Any individual conforming to acts which may have been anti secular was conveniently ignored by the others who"lived and let live!"This dichotomised existence led in extreme cases to a situation where members of left wing unions voted extreme right and members of radical groups continued to get married with dowries. Caste conditionalities continued in birth, marriage and death rites.
In the last decade two significant movements have led to the questioning of this "hands off" attitude. The first was the Women's Movement. In questioning the basis of a universally unequal society, women questioned all values. In this the psychological condition of oppression occupied a central position in many groups. Inward looking, asking questions of oneself became almost as important as asking questions of the outside universe. Primary amongst the questions was -"Why have I accepted the oppression?" It also led to a condemnation of religion as part of a patriarchy which laid down rules, contributing to the lowly status of women. Religious texts were studied to see what they said, and how they have been interpreted and re-interpreted. Religion was no longer ignored or brushed under the carpet. No matter what class the women came from, religion became an important factor to be understood and evaluated. In Rajasthan the instance of Sati, when Roop Kanwar was burnt alive at the stake became a pivot around which a number of essential questions began to be raised.
Very different and of a more devastating impact has been the Draculean revival of fundamentalism and fundamentalist politics in India, the strong emergence of a right wing, fundamentalist party representing the majority religious group. The response it got across class and all other social and geographic divides-at least in Northern India-(the Hindi speaking belt) has made everyone stop in their tracks. It has led to both introspection and action. The social action groups have to deal with uncomfortable questions.
It essentially comes back to the dichotomised, contradictory and conflicting divide that existed between personal beliefs and stated political ideological or positions. The wall that divides the two has crashed.
CONSUMERISM AND CULTURE
Caste continues to be a dominant social conditionality of all social relations involving marriage and collective social security. But modern institutions are making inroads. Dressing patterns are changing. Men, especially younger ones take to wearing western trousers. Women continue to wear traditional clothes. However the local caste based prints, identifiable and self proclamatory have given away to standard polyester based apparel .Caste identification has become less easy. However the women have not got any more freedom in the change of apparel. The western commercial machine would obviously like to have a mono culture which would convert the world to mass of closed consumers. As Kishen Kak says:
"John Reed who reigns over a banking organization (Citicorp) that is by far the largest in the nation and arguably the most powerful in the world". 24
"He could go to company meetings in 100 cities around the world, he says, and the people would be quite similar, we'd have a common culture and a common language.' And they would share, if Reed has his way, a common sense of mission."
He goes on to quote another company executive from the U.S.
"for Herman Schaefer, the PepsiCo VP for finance, all the complexity and scope of Chinese history is reduced to a gullet that needs a Pepsi.....`There are eight hundred million gullets in China and I want to see a Pepsi in every one of them'. It is necessary to internalize such a view, for otherwise how can one totally dedicate one's life to pushing sugar water and chips on a world that undoubtedly needs powdered milk instead?"25
If Pepsi cola can indulge in the insanity of promoting a rock star and spending crores of rupees or even dollars to bring him to India, it obviously sees India as a close second to China with its 700 million potential gullets !
INSTITUTIONALIZED LEARNING
It must be clearly stated at the outset that no formal institution that exists in the country today fosters a value for labour oriented work. No matter who runs it , for whom, how it runs and what it says, the majority of such institutions begin and end with devaluing the human being behind the work, the work itself and the value placed on such work. Estimating the colossal amount of money spent on education, Schumacher recalls:
"The whole matter can be summed up in the question: what is education for? I think it was the Chinese, before World War II, who calculated that it took the work of thirty persons to keep one man or woman at a university. If that person at the university took a five-year course, by the time he had finished he would have consumed 150 peasant work years. How can this be justified? Who has the right to appropriate 150 years of peasant work to keep one person at university for five years, and what do the peasants get back for it?"26
All institutions of learning from the rural primary school to the highest institutions of learning share this basic perception.
Those responsible for making policy have not attended to the need to bring in alternative values.
From programmes like SUPW ( socially useful productive work) have emerged doll making classes and middle class hobby oriented activities. Arvind Gupta says.
"The rich heritage of Indian crafts has largely remained outside the pale of modern education. Gandhi's `basic education' which sought to integrate India's handicrafts with schooling, did not find much favour with the Indian elite. Instead, the public and state run schools have tried to parody production-based education by setting apart forty five minutes a week for Socially Useful Productive Work (SUPW). as if the rest of education is socially useless and unproductive and has no relevance to real life."27
The schools and institutions of learning foster the thought that literacy and working with the hands belong to two mutually exclusive categories.Literate youth who donot find jobs and come back to labour oriented work, live a schizophrenic existence. They are victims, falling as they do between the false values of formal schooling and a crumbling traditional society. To accept that their livelihood now comes from manual work , there has to be a complete rejection of the school or college which held out false promises.
The dignity of work and its intrinsic relationship with our mental and physical well being, be that of an individual or of a society is not even remotely recognised or accepted.
The social institutions of family and caste which still dominate are no longer interested in transferring traditional skills. Those skills were, in any case always socially devalued. The artisan and farming communities occupied a position lower than that of the brahmin, rajput or bania.Though the learning of the particular skill may have been conducted within a framework which was holistic the relation of that skill in terms of money or exchange value was very low indeed.It was but natural that caste occupations should cease to be attractive as economic mobility allowed the individual to earn from alternative and taboo free occupations.
THE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
Inspite of a great deal of indigenous and creative work on the
concepts of education-Gandhi,Tagore, Aurobindo, Giju Bhai and many others-the system remains largely or almost completely what it was during the colonial period. The schooling pattern designed by Macualay for maintaining a colonial administration has been a convenient mode of conditioning, which the new rulers have continued to use. The institutions of "higher learning" have also been evolved on western models. The western cultural hegemony in the Indian context is never more apparent than it is in the products of these higher institutions of learning.The institutions are also afflicted by sub-standard teaching faculties.Colleges which have been opened are not institutions of learning. They are at best teaching shops.
The institutions so set up are seen by the State and those who work in them as avenues of employment. All formal learning is seen as a means of getting better jobs and remuneration. The academic input is mechanical. The teaching staff from primary school to the university have now no qualms about their callous attitude to learning. They are often heard to say that they are the ones who are losing out in the consumer race.They draw attention to the police, the administration where it is so easy to make an extra pile. Aggrieved they have set up tuition shops, print guide books, have introduced the concept of cheating as an accepted mode and stop taking classes seriously!
The academic staff has also got politicised in an opportunistic manner , no different from that of the bureaucrat . No real collective action has been initiated by the teachers for academic improvement. All the agitations have concentrated on employment benefits. The State in its turn sees these institutions as a lip service to the cause of "education". Barring the few very elitist and high standard institutions which are geared for export, the others for indigenous consumption fall in a descending scale that ends with the rural university, college at the top, and the rural primary school at the bottom.
The aspirations of those who go through this system is largely conditioned by the same aspirations their forefathers may have had-to become low level bureaucrats. In a democratic system with prevailing backwardness and poverty, there is yet an apparent rise in opportunities for employment. This apparent rise in opportunities for employment grips the imagination of every new generation that becomes literate. It co-opts a large section of them into the system by dangling the carrot of possible Government employment till it is too late for the youth to do anything, but accept inadequacies and failure in oneself. By preventing the collective from forming and by not seeing this as a failure of the system, the status quo gets perpetuated. The dream of almost every poor literate youth is to get a job . The answer to all his prayers for liberation from poverty.
THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS
It begins with the primary school. The institution which is the most important in a society where literacy levels are low.The school is sometimes just notional, as the teacher comes with the bus and goes with the bus. Or it may be non-existent, if in a remote area the teacher may be on very long leave term after term. The school may also function every day with the teacher using the students to do his domestic work for a part of the time. In exceptional cases the school may run very well and train its students to fit into the current social environment, without asking awkward questions.
Vikram and Jaswant are brothers from an average village home in Kabeda. They have 5 sisters none of whom have been or will be sent, to school. Their father , Roop Singh is in the army. He earns a reasonable wage. They have a pucca house, one of three in Kabeda, where there are 40 households. But the family is deep in debt to a local money lender, who lives in a kucha house. Vikram and Jaswant are conditioned by their environment to be tough kids,they can catch animals, beat up younger boys and are yet full of engaging mischief and the desire to learn . These kids went to a primary school which was better than average, as the teachers came to school quite regularly. But the school has done nothing to either make them better learners, or to instil in them a sense of social understanding at whatever level. One teacher used the kids often to dig the foundation of his home, which happened to be in the same village as the school. The kids were used also to jump on jute submerged in water in the middle of November,when winter had already set in.One of the star pupils of the school, Vikas, who has no problem as a first generation learner and is surrounded by socially conscious individuals, still has not been able to master the basics. He is in middle school and still has problems with addition! The problem is that school doesnot even satisfy its very limited objectives of teaching the children the three Rs.
The teachers who define themselves as the local elite are petty exploiters. Apart from tuition and other such structurally exploitative institutions, many of them set up ancillary work areas, shops, business, contracting and so on. They are sometimes money lenders. Even their methods of exploitation have remained grounded in the those used by their fore-fathers. It is really ironical that only after Harshad Mehta has rural Rajasthan understood the concept of the` share'.
If recent political happenings are to be reviewed, and the spread of fundamentalism looked at seriously, one would be able to clearly see how schooling, and institutions for the underprivileged, have become important for conditioning future generations.
Other inputs in schooling, including text books have not done much to create the environment necessary to mould character or prepare the grounds for creative skills to counter the adverse conditions that prevail and the reasons for poverty.
The leavers of primary school cannot have aspirations for jobs, except perhaps in the Army. Even the Armed forces now want school leavers as the numbers of those who leave school and want jobs has increased. That leaves manual work and semi-skilled jobs as the main area where they can find work. They are ill equipped by the system to work out alternatives or to combat the forces that oppress them.
MIDDLE AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Some manage to go to the middle school. Passing the middle school is no better than primary in terms of jobs. The secondary school certificate, ie passing the 10th standard has a value in the job market. At least the private sector can use the skills for employment as shop assistants and as petty accountants. They are very poorly paid jobs and with no security of tenure, but at least gives some local boys employment.
Infact, rural literate youth are conditioned after a few years at school to look at their environment and their community with some degree of disgust. They tend to buy the richman's argument completely as reasons for their poverty. Blaming themselves for the backwardness, lack of imagination , non-creativity, not understanding modern life as it were.
As Andreas Fuglesang says:
"The formal education system is primarily concerned with instructing the next generation in the techniques and values of the dominant social system, thereby preserving and perpetuating a power structure. " 28
A majority of the Higher Secondary Schools of the Rajasthan Board are located in the rural areas. The students who manage to attend the 11th and 12th classes are at best from rural middle class homes, where life styles are still related to agriculture, animal husbandry and other aspects of rural life. The vast majority of students who attend these classes do so at great cost, as they come from poor rural homes. They themselves come from a class of labourers and workers and their schooling costs have a direct impact on the income of the family.
When youth pass their Senior Secondary, their aspirations begin and end with teaching, compounding, joining the police as constables. The armed forces and allied jobs also seem attractive. Development goals and an understanding of processes in which they could be creatively involved are not part of the "curriculum". Far from moulding attitudes for change , the schooling system prepares the young minds to subserve to the status quo. The attraction of a spurious upward mobility preys upon their minds. Given the larger scenario of a commercialised and increasingly consumer industry based society, the youth have aspirations that seem disproportionate. But to them Shangrila is just round the corner. Their minds work furiously on filling forms, applications and finding out how best to get the right connection to the man/men who might get them a job on this dubious market.
THE LESSONS IMPARTED
The attitudes being promoted through the educational system can be dramatically illustrated by the English Course Reader. English is seen as important for two reasons. Firstly, it is seen as a language of the rulers, past and present. Therefore those who learn English want to imbibe the cultural values of the ruling classes. Secondly it opens up job opportunities. Comprehension levels are low, which makes it necessary to use simplistic language and statements. The language is however more indicative of genuine attitudes.
It is ironical that Shri. R.P. Bhatnagar who has compiled the text book in English (Course Reader) for the 11th and 12th classes, Rajasthan Board, has thought it a matter of pride to mention that it will foster both linguistic and cultural values of the students. It requires him, a modern day Polonious to show up the rotten-ness in the state of our educational system. Self styled arbiters of social values like Shri. Bhatnagar show us how we are all victims of positions we unconsciously subscribe to. In the preface itself
Shri R.P. Bhatnagar states:-
"Section A is intended to instil confidence in the students and therefore contains relatively easier textual material, well within the reach of an average student, both linguistically and culturally."
The first lesson is called "Picnic Cancelled". Surely `picnic' is a concept which is both urban and related to a class which enjoys leisure. It relates to a class which sharply divides work from enjoyment. The lesson begins with a description of the Sharmas and the Bhatias. Mrs. Sharma is watering the garden- yet another urban symbol of feudal or modern wealth. There are no gardens in the rural areas. Even the rural rich do not have gardens. While teaching this lesson to some students who lived in the neighbourhood, it became clear that the concept of a garden was totally alien to them. For those who have not travelled far it is difficult even to visualise it.
When Mrs.Sharma informs her husband about the intended picnic, he promptly says" In that case I'll get the gardener to water the trees."
It is alien enough to have a garden, but the concept of the gardener is totally urban and upper class. Land in the rural areas is used for productive purposes. This garden has chairs and tables, which are again symbols of the urban rich.
Mr Sharma shows some concern for their belongings when he says "We had better remove the chairs and the table from the garden in case it rains". However, Mrs Sharma has adopted the western model of throwing out the old when she replies "The chairs are broken and old. I would rather let them stay here." She fortunately cares about the table. But the necessity of servants for any manual work is immediately revealed. "The table must certainly be removed. It's too heavy for us. I'll get the servant to help us remove it."
As if the lesson were not enough to mould attitudes, the excersizes at the end of the lesson are used to comprehensively drive home the point. In his short note to the students at the beginning of the book Mr. Bhatnagar says, "The manner of Equipping the student for the various demands life will make on them is - revealed in excersizes at the end of lesson 1 on structures and usage". It is worth reproducing the whole section.
"STRUCTURES AND USAGE
1. To get someone to do something
a. I shall get the gardener to water the trees.
b. I shall get the servant to help us remove the table.
c. I got some villagers to push the car.
d. Did you get a dhobi to wash the linen?
e. She does not like to get anyone to help her finish her homework.
f. Will you get the tailor to make me a dress?"
While`a' & `b' are only re emphasized as they are part of the lesson, `c' shows us exactly what our educators think villagers should be doing. Obviously something constructive like pushing other peoples cars!
However, in `d' it seems there is something to learn from the village after all. The usefulness of the categories of caste to even urban people is revealed when we are told exactly what we must get dhobies to do. In `e' we finally have someone who doesn't want help. The urban upper class parent reveals the ultimate dream of a child who will finish her own homework! In `f' we are back to dependencies, this time on the tailor .
The author explains " In all the sentences given above the verb `get' has been used as a causative, i.e. to express the fact that one person or thing causes another person or thing to perform some action."
The description of the causative verb `make' reveals the true nature of these relationships.
"Make denotes the use of force or pressure, either physical or social: She made the servant clean the floor " (emphasis in original)
The whole picture is revealed in an excersize in Table form
" 1. Make as many sentences as possible using the following table:
Subject
Verb (Pro)noun to-infinitive etc
The boy the servant to wash the veranda
The girl the young boy to lift the heavy box
Mohan got to ride ten miles.
My father the old man to push the truck
They to keep the stray dogs away.
In looking at the excersize one wonders what combinations are being encouraged. In the pronoun section, the servant will obviously have to perform all the tasks. The young boy depending on what his class background is, may have to do everything except lift the heavy box. But for the old man, unless we want to teach children to be patently cruel, his task must obviously be "to keep the stray dogs away" An interesting task for a society which prides itself on its respect given to the aged !!
Thankfully the first lesson ends soon after, but unfortunately the book does not. Lesson 7 called "Too many Mishaps", tells us how we must rise on the social ladder.
The `author relaxes with an "uncomplaining" supply of hot tea', on a winter evening, when his friend Sharad informs him that their new Director is arriving by the train at 8 P.M. Naturally, he cannot do without the servant .
"I called Govind, my new servant and asked him to take my scooter out in the porch. I began dressing myself."
Mercifully he didnot ask the servant to dress him! However the servant, poor chap can do no right:
"At quarter to eight Govind came running and told me that the scooter had a flat tyre. I felt greatly disturbed. Had he informed me of it soon after I had asked him to take out the scooter, I would have gone to the station on my bicycle and still reached there in time to receive the Director. Now it was too late to do it."
He even complains to his friend Sharad of the low intelligence level of the servant
"When I reached the platform I found Sharad pacing up and down in front of the railway book-stall. I told him how I got late because of the foolishness of my servant. Sharad was sorry to learn that I had to ride a bicycle all the way from my house to the station. Had he suspected such a mishap, he would have brought me to the station on his motor-cycle."
Cycling to he station is seen as a calamity. Many children who come to school to read this chapter walk miles. Even cycles are mainly owned by the rural middle class.
However, the Director as we are to see is much higher in the official hierarchy. He travels in great style.
"The train steamed into the station at thirty-three minutes past eight, We walked up to the air-conditioned coach. The only passenger to come out of it was our Director."
But the ultimate lesson on how to succeed lies in the presentation of the bouquet, when Sharad steals the thunder.
"Sharad had brought a bouquet which he presented to the boss and thus got all his attention, Had I been not in a hurry, I too would have bought one on the way to the station."
The author recognises Sharads cleverness and bemoans the fact that he too should have had the time buy a bouquet too. When Sharad drives off with the Director, the author feels
"Lonely and neglected. Had I brought my scooter, things would have been different, I said to myself."
A lesson in "How to get on with your boss", not mishaps at all!
This would read like something out of a farce and make us laugh, if it were not for the deliberateness with which young minds are sought to be conditioned. It is not surprising therefore that there is a disvalue for rural life in general and manual labour in particular, and aspirations for the life of a `Babu'.
If Sharad is the role model on whom youth are going to pin their aspirations then, obviously it shapes a society where boot licking and social climbing will be the values inculcated. The lesson reveals a curious combination of a consumer oriented society with caste hierarchies conveniently accommodated within it. For those in rural areas, specially the poor, it is the worst of both worlds.
As Andreas Fuglesang writes in his book on cross-cultural communication :
"Whose privilege is it to define the learning needs of the deprived and the poor? For too long, the educators have betrayed people with their professionalism. People are neither objects to be formed nor cases of ignorance to be treated. It is the thoughtfulness and creativity of the people which is the ultimate resource of any social development".......The idea, conceived and maintained by the educational, that a correlation exists between the stock of educated manpower and the rate of economic growth has not been borne out. It remains another myth."29
HIGHER LEARNING
Those who are lucky enough to get into institutions of "higher learning," have really grandiose ambitions, ending with a job in the IAS or the RAS. Their chances of getting jobs are shrinking as fast as they grow. Their parents look forward to some long term benefits. Scrapping together meagre earnings, college education seems to be the means to a job and economic security. The academic base is so weak that no argumentation at any level helps them, even if they have the native intelligence to see the writing on the wall. The attitudes that get moulded ensure that the youth will aspire to get into the system and see false issues and enemies that do not exist. The class/caste structure in institutions of `higher learning' are strongly biased in favour of the upper classes and the upper castes, No real Dalit or backward caste issue can be taken up as part of the revolt of college youth.
In Beawar, college youth who were Rawats could not at first understand Mandal. Later they did not participate in the anti-Mandal agitations, but could not mobilise themselves to agitate for Mandal either.
To sum up one could say that institutions of schooling ( they can not be called institutions of learning) do not mould or shape attitudes that could lead, in a majority of cases, to any kind of creative expression. This is true even in a conventional narrow sense. The institutions condition youth to accept the status quo. The questioning begins, if it does, inspite of them.
THE POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT
The political immaturity of the people and political parties in the operating area of the MKSS is obvious. Feudalism is losing its bearings, but not because of internal pressures or contradictions. The global village and its external influences are more than the feudal leadership can deal with. No new ideology has emerged to take its place,and the political leadership is characterised by its absolute lack of thought. Its position can at best be described as bewildered and at worst in a state of rigor
mortis. As Schumacher says:
"In one way or another everybody will have to take sides in this great conflict. To 'leave it to the experts' means to side with the people of the forward stampede. It is widely accepted that politics is too important a matter to be left to experts. " 30
Centuries of feudal relationships have anaesthetised the leadership into a way of life where change, inventiveness, and basic creativity are not required. The lack of revolt has failed to throw up leadership and an ideology from amongst the oppressed. Feudal leadership was traditionally rejected by the Rawats. The princely states pushed the Rawats into the non-fertile peripheries of their territories. The Rawats settled down to survive in this geographically hostile environment. But the Kingdom of Mewar never managed to subdue them into accepting their overlordship.
There is today, a tremendous drought of political thought and the current definition of politics is restricted to membership to the Congress and the BJP. Very little difference can be seen between the two in their local manifestations and most astute politicians keep both caps ready in their pockets.
At the time of the struggle for independence the Congress had a network of party workers with a committement to fighting colonialism and its local manifestations. In Rajasthan, this continued till the dissolution of the princely states in 1956. The struggle against the former allies of the British, continued in the form of land reform and constitutional guarantees to the scheduled castes. That network of committed congressmen has disappeared as a species. Today, neither the party, nor its workers have any ideology they can articulate. In fact there is a complete lack of activity between elections and even local issues are not raised by local leaders.
Today leaders of the Congress Party themselves admit that it is a party that hopes for votes by default. Very few vote for the party because it stands for anything. It is more a question of negative voting i.e. a lack of choice elsewhere. At a local level several Jagirdars have joined the party as its earlier commitment to land reform has been thwarted as much by party functionaries as by anyone else. It is not a party that is identified with labour or its issues. An effective leader is one who can get officers and petty bureaucrats transferred. The two and half years of BJP rule have shown that this is an aspect common to leaders of both parties.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has a strongly "Kasba" or urban base. Being for years the party of petty traders and urban upper caste groups it has constantly looked for issues that would broaden it base without harming the interests of its primary constituents. Whatever its Hindutva image may have done for it nationally, or even all over the state, locally the party only experienced a temporary increase in support. Largely due to a very astute use of religious symbols during the Ram Janam Bhumi agitation. It managed to attract a certain amount of upper caste support. However, unlike its popular image there is little evidence of committed cadres, or articulation of any policy. With the fast disappearing appeal of the Mandir issue it is reduced to being an alternative to the Congress. Even during the Mandir agitation the committed group from this area was very small. When there was a danger of state repression as with the Rally in Delhi on 25th February 1993 none of their local committed cadres were willing to go to Delhi. The RSS shakhas are the only organised activities that have invited the participation of youth: It is not their idealogy that attracts but the fact that they are doing something: anything at all. However, even activities like RSS shakhas are largely absent from these rural areas. Amongst the Rawats, the local leaders who have initiated and supported the Sanskritisation process have been attracted to the BJP. A hope that Rawats could have a place in the Upper caste picture of Hindu India, as Rajputs has drawn in the leadership in particular. It has also consequently left them confused and alienated over the Mandal issue- wanting social status as `Rajputs' and jobs as `Rawats'!.
Both parties and their leadership despise the poor. As, a part of the local elite they are derogatory in their comments about the ability of local working class people to do anything constructive. Far from providing leadership which would inspire people towards change, they are the first ones to say that local people cannot do anything. Their personal aspirations are to be identified with upper class/upper caste groups and the only time they identify themselves with their own caste groups are to build up caste vote banks.
This country has also had a history of splits. For too long we have all waited for a political `messiah' to arrive to lead us to a heaven away from the present. While we wait for the ideal messiah, hundreds of leaders rise and fall. Religion has become dirty politics and politics is mere opportunism. Those who believe in morality, ethics and egalitarianism are on the sidelines. And all parties split vertically to take away benefits. There are some hopeful new horizontal splits. But they are all caste based.
The impact of the Mandal Commission recommendations in Rajasthan is very revealing of the confusion prevailing amongst the caste leadership. In the agitation against the Mandal Commission implementation, many Rawat leaders took stands against it. When they realised that Rawats were one of the identified OBC groups, there was hasty rethinking and a general state of confusion. They had to reconcile the contradictory position of having tried for so many years to identify their caste groups as Rajputs in order to be socially acceptable; with the new found advantage of being an OBC. In both cases it was the personal interest of the leadership which was important. Social acceptability in the former case, and job opportunities for their family members in the latter. In both instances the vast majority of the members of the caste would derive little direct benefit. The contradictory behaviour is now revealed in the leadership calling themselves "Chauhans" when giving personal identification (so that they are seen as Rajputs) and calling themselves "Rawats" when it comes to elections or filling job application forms.
There is no history of the Communist or Socialist party in the rural areas of these tehsils. There was a Communist party base in the cloth mills in Beawar 25 years ago, but it was confined to the urban areas and wage and work related issues. There has been no Gandhian, Sarvodaya, or even any local political movement or leader who has left a lasting impression.
The political illiteracy of the entire area is illustrated in the reaction to the Sangathan and its activities. When the initial confrontations with established vested interests took place over wages and land, a rumour was deliberately floated that the Sangathan was a Naxalite organisation. When opponents found that it was a word and concept completely beyond the comprehension of local people, they declared the Sangathan a communist organisation. To convince others they argued that the MKSS is not Congress and was not BJP then what was it? It could only be Communist. The name of the organisation, its symbol, the issues it took up, the way members lived were all indicative that the MKSS was Communist. And when local people expressed incomprehension of the term Communist, they merely said that Communists were "against God and therefore dangerous".
When the shop began functioning, the trading community let it be known that low prices was only because the shop was being subsidised by Communists. When the shop did not shut down in response to a BJP sponsored Bandh call following Advani's arrest, the BJP District President- a well read lawyer shouted out that money from Moscow could not be used to run anti Hindu shops in Bhim. When a local boy pointed out that after the disintegration of the Soviet Union Moscow was out with a begging bowl itself and even if it gave money, it could now be only to further capitalist causes, the biggest post war political upheaval was simply ignored! It is a theory that is still spread by the Sangathans opponents.
A lack of political understanding is apparent through the fear of terms and ideas like communism; workers rights, equality, accountability, a caste free society. These are very obvious reasons for the stagnation of this society. If politics is the art of collective possibilities; then this is an area that was unlikely to experience concerted efforts at political change, simply because
there was no exposure to, and knowledge of, the possibilities that societies can create for themselves.
This was a problem that was faced within the Sangathan. There was a firm conviction that certain issues were non negotiable and some priorities clear. However the Sangathan would evolve its own ideology. The lack of any local political understanding meant that the ideology had to be born out of issues. There was also the necessity for a strong ethical base. But modes would be identified. This, as will be seen later was a strength as well as a weakness. It is only now, in the process of writing the study that categories can be defined in the process of an emerging ideology.
What does each party stand for? While on the National or even state level it may be possible to identify what each party stands for, very few voters or grass root workers would know about differences even in broad terms. The emerging lobbies and identification is very strongly along caste and religious lines. Parliamentary democracy is a process that should have broken such barriers in India. But on the contrary it is very rapidly cementing them and presenting a political future of debates, decisions, and divisions not on issues related to development but leading to the promotion of action based on narrow loyalties. Any creative change requires the strength to overcome such divisive barriers.
The question of leadership in a peoples organisation had to be discussed with the members of the Sangathan, against this backdrop. Traditional leaders were never really part of a democratic process of selection and choice. Money and status decided the matter. Now leadership had to be seen differently. These had to be identified from amongst the members of the Sangathan. The creation of a set of circumstances which would provide opportunities for growth to oppressed groups was found to throw up leadership from amongst them. Once there was an understanding that the mission and its goals were political, the concept of political leadership would change. Systems of accountability would determine the health of the leadership and controls over aberrations. It was also necessary to state and show that leaders have to publically practice what they preach, All activities also had to be governed by the same value system. These were also basic requirements.
THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY
"Where the capital is without fear,
And profits are held high,
Where markets are free,
Where trade has not been broken up into fragements,
By narrow domestic walls,
Where patents come out from the depths
of knowledge,
Where tireless advertising stretches its arms
towards consumerism,
Where the clear stream of free enterprise
has not lost its way in the dreary desert sands of Socialism,
Where the mind is led forward by competition,
Into ever widening aquisition and consumption,
Into that heaven of freedom , my father,
Let my country awake."
- with apologies to Rabindranath Tagore.
The New Economic Policy has hit India, much harder than most of us realise. Those of us who understand its ramifications will reap some immediate benefits from it. So there is at best an uneasy silence. A few have broken the silence and protested. But even the protest has proved the inability of the intellectual or concerned political parties to ward off the consequences. How can they in any case, when none of their creditors are willing to listen to them. As Bharat Dogra says
" Reporting on the neglect of Third World view point frequently seen at Uruguay, a Brazilian expert Amb. Rubens Ricupero has cited the example of how 20 Third World delegations had submitted joint proposals at the investment negotiating committee, only to have their submission totally overlooked by the group chairman when he prepared his own draft version of an agreement on investments. Ricupero commented, "The situation is akin to one where the cook asks the chicken with which sauce would you like to be eaten? When the chicken answers it does not want to be eaten, the cook says, "I rule you out of order." 31
The results of such an attitude is revealed in the Bangladesh Finance Ministers address to IMF members.
" On IMF's role in Bangladesh, Renee Sigerson reported in EIR, New York, `The Finance Minister of Bangladesh, A.M.A. Muhith shocked the staid pin striped crowd in Toronto at the annual conference of the International Monetary Fund on 7th September when he reported that "millions of his countrymen will die of undernourishment" but that "bankers do not see dead bodies, they can only understand a loan default". 32 (Bharat Dogra)
It has not taken long for structural adjustments to interfere with basic economic support programmes. The Rural Development budget has had a sizeable cut inspite of budget sanctions having been obtained earlier. We wait to see what trickles down to the villages through the JRY and other programmes. An average of 15-30 man days of employment in a year for a family below the poverty line was possible within the programme. This was not an assurance or a guarantee, let alone an entitlement. Now, the employment offered is likely to be even less than 10 days in a year. No matter what safety net the government and the world bank may talk about, programmes which were already a mere formality are being cut down. They are being made heavier in terminology but much lighter in allocation. As Bharat Dogra explains "
"Government expenditure on welfare activities including health, education, rural employment and anti-poverty programmes, is likely to be cut down, as expenditure on these is relatively easy to cut compared to the on-going infrastructure expenses. Wage restrictions are likely to be clamped, or restrictive labour legislation may be introduced which makes it more difficult for the unions to negotiate wage hikes." 33
The new economic policy is changing national priorities Forces of laissez faire and privatisation are going to render certain laws more difficult than ever to implement. The priorities of the poor in India are not going to be the concern of a powerful foreign power, hell bent on creating economic dependencies and developing total control. As Ms. Chandra Hardy explains :
"In a recent testimony before a Congressional committee on hunger in Washington, the role of the World Bank and other MDBs in alleviating poverty was assailed by a former official of the World Bank Ms. Chandra Hardy. She said that policy requirements in Structural Adjustment Programmes place the "heaviest burden of adjustment on the poor". At the same time the MDBs " shy away from conditionality that world require progress in reducing income and wealth disparities, such as land reform, on the grounds that these are too controversial." 34
In every debate on macro economic issues and addressing inequalities there is an immediate fall out of hopelessness and despair. And yet solutions are again and again sought in a macro context. The problem is that the large is formed by its constitutent parts. Each constituent part carries both the disease of the larger body and the ability to mutate and change. What gives hope is the possibility of making such mutation possible at the micro level. Hoping, planning and working for the 'great change'.
The new economic policy has had impact locally. More and more departmental works are being privatised and executed through contractors. Funds for developmental programmes are being tailored to a safety net concept, where development funds must be used `to keep the nose of a drowning population above water.' Even development terminology was changing . Poverty alleviation or `Garibi Hatao'was no longer the goal. Survival, in an atmosphere of structural adjustments was the new priority.
Structural adjustments was a term people would not understand easily, but years of dealing with the local moneylender had taught them exactly what interest payments on debt required. Therefore explaining the influence of Western countries had over India because of the loans we had taken from them, was easy to understand. The world does after all move in the same concentric circles although their radius may be much wider.
Chuunibai looking at the new economic policy, would say:
"You told me that I should not pawn my jewellery and mortgage my land. I know and you know too that it leads to complete slavery, bondage and economic servitude, How come the "intelligent" leaders have done the same to the country? How do you or can you explain such conduct? Is this shortsighted ness or opportunism?"
The people had seen the cutting down of ration quotas to 2 kgs per person per month at the time it was needed most because the Fund/Bank combine wanted the food subsidy reduced. For an area that had been fighting for payment of minimum wages, there was an awareness in the MKSS that the same institutions were holding out release of funds for a rural employment programme, until their condition of waiving minimum wages for these programmes was met. The MKSS had seen the effect of liberalisation in the plethora of consumer goods that passed through the area in trucks on the Delhi-Bombay highway. We had even become aware that potato chips could cost Rs.200/- per K.G. if they acquired a brand name called "Uncle" and advertised the fact that they were made in machines imported from Switzerland, and were untouched by the human hand! What was worse was watching the children of the local elite demand and get these chips to eat. The country was learning rapidly about advertising and its ability to make fools out of everyone.
Rural Rajasthan began to understand what privatisation meant in local terms when the supply of cooking gas was decontrolled. As soon as the Government announced this policy, a number of companies opened up agencies for imported cooking gas in Bhim, Beawar, Devgarh and in fact in every small town and city in Rajasthan. For days they took loudspeakers into every village advertising the opening and closing dates of booking. Credibility was provided by Sub Divisional Officers and District Magistrates doing the inauguration. The MKSS found that these people had to pay Rs. 2 to 3 lakhs for being appointed agents, and decided to investigate. The economics of all the agencies is similar. So, one illustration will suffice to reveal the advantages of the new ` consumer based' attitude in the private sector with its password of competition and free trade.
An applicant has to purchase an application form for Rs. 250/- non refundable. As soon as he is given a connection he has to pay Rs. 1000/- Rs.900 as deposit for the cylinder, and Rs.100/- for the cost of the first cylinder of gas. The gas will be supplied after six months.
The absolute profits made is quite shocking. The money taken for the application form is clear profit. Nothing is given in return except a piece of paper. The cost of a cylinder is actually Rs. 400 to Rs.500/-. Therefore even from the cylinder deposit Rs. 450/- per cylinder is pocketed by the company and its agent. The numbers of consumers per agency varies from 2000 to 5000. A look at the profit of a small agency before even a single cylinder has been delivered reveals the following:-
For the application form - Rs.250 X 2000 consumers = 500000/-
On the deposit - Rs.400 X 2000 consumers = 800000/-
-------
Minimum money acquired before gas is given = 1300000/-
In addition to this, it seems very likely that the 2nd cylinder of gas will cost atleast three times the amount that the first cylinder costs. And finally that the quantity of gas in these cylinders will be a fourth less than the Government supplied gas people are familiar with. So the consumer pays more money for less gas.
There is no agency that passes on this information to the
people. There is no protection available against this kind of open cheating. This is only one example of the kind of product which has reached rural markets. As import licenses are freely distributed, and the free market is allowed to function one can expect to see more such examples. There is no evidence of a growing consumer movement which would protect consumers from such forms of duping and exploitation. In its current obsession to present rosy stories of the "new economic freedom' the press has also hailed the privatisation of such gas supply as the growth of a new consumer movement in India.
The method of fighting this kind of entrepreneurship would be the flow of information on th one hand, and an education campaign which would expose such fraud on the other. However, it is not enough to merely criticize. It becomes necessary at the same time to present an alternative world view.
CHAPTER VII UNDERSTANDING ONE'S OWN STRENGTH
It goes without saying that the existence of a Sangathan was a basic prerequisite to taking up any collective economic activities. It was a response to a demand that had come from within, and it was a step the Sangathan was taking consciously.
But this shift involved many risks. The greatest was the risk of destroying the credibility earned through years of an honest process of popular struggle. Many of the initial 'rules' in the functioning of the Sangathan had contributed in large measure to this sense of honesty. No money had come in from outside. No money was collected locally. In other words the Sangathan had stayed absolutely clear of dealing with money directly, and was consequently immune from allegations regarding monetary corruption. The Sangathan had deliberately acquired no assets, and was therefore poor like its members. The MKSS had no vehicles, no office, no paid workers, no affluent contributors, shown no conventional political aspirations - and yet it had created tremendous energy time and time again. Hundreds, and even thousands of people had been mobilised by the organisation without spending any money. Political parties had to provide transportation and a meal free of cost in order to attract people to their meetings. Here they saw people paying their own fare, bringing their own food, contributing grain and fuel to sustain a dharna, and coming in larger numbers every time the police threatened any action. The outstanding feature of the Sangathans meetings and movements was the very large numbers of women. Always more than half, and sometimes as many as three fourths women took time off from their homes, animals, children, and work to have their voice heard. This perhaps was politics of the most basic kind. One half of the population which had never been able to raise its voice, was speaking and shouting collectively on the very basic issues of living- Food, work, employment, land, and wages. It revealed a genuineness that just could not be discredited.
There were two options open to the Sangathan at this point. To continue to mobilise the poor, or to try and use the base we had, to move into other spheres of activity. The easier one was to stick to the formula of mobilisation of the poor to make demands. Increasing empowerment through modes of adversarial politics, and widening the scope of issues and geographical area.
This would involve minimal risk to the Sangathan. Having achieved some degree of success in the use of pressure groups and building support structures for the poor, the Sangathan was now being pursued and sought by other groups of poor people. Many issues and disputes were being sorted out on the precedent of past success. The focus on certain issues had begun to change perceptions. The credibility those positions had acquired resulted in success with much less effort than before. Each little success then resulted in greater publicity and as a growing political organisation of the poor the Sangathan leadership could not have hoped for much more.
No single individual can take on or even inspire such an effort. If one is looking for collective solutions, then the ideas themselves must also be born from a collective. For the poor,
their only hope for change lies in the formation of a collective that is sensitive to the needs and aspirations of the disadvantaged. The enthusiasm and commitment required to counter the opposition of an entrenched system had to come from the Sangathan as a whole, and it was only if large numbers of people participated and put together their minds and efforts that we would be able to attempt such a journey.
The risk was that we might well end up making a mess of things. There was great trepidation that collecting money (as would now be required) would lead to allegations of various kinds. That one blunder, or even loss due to circumstances beyond ones control could lead to bankruptcy. After all, unlike the capitalist the Sangathan had no capital to risk, and no gestation period possible. Honest Sangathan people would be forced into the world of private enterprise where dishonesty is the norm. The MKSS had to chart out its own course, with little guarantee of success. With failure we risked the future of the Sangathan and the very real chance that it could have grown into a genuine political movement for the area. Many friends advised us to not stretch categories too far,
"Labour, should be labour, and fight for its collective empowerment. The lines drawn between labour and management are essential to the building of organisation of the poor. The changes we want in the system can be implemented after political power passes into our hands. Providing temporary relief prevents change. Energies will be diverted from essential requirements of struggle and organisation building if we begin to take economic activities in our hands."
These were all precepts that we had lived with also. While others were saying it, there was a little voice within us agreeing with them. A mistake, a failure during a confrontation could be rectified and the struggle would go on. But failure here, could wipe out the possibility of organised opposition. And if MKSS did manage some kind of success then would it change from a Sangathan of workers to a Sangathan of businessmen? We were vexed with these questions not just at the time of beginning such work, but all through the year that followed.
Why then did we take up such works?
The world had changed in the last 5 years. The capitalist paradise was accepted by power structures all over the world. Even those who rejected this world view had to contend with the controls its institutions had over their lives. Controls were now excersired through financial and business enterprises. The World Bank and the IMF had a recipe to offer which fed not just themselves but also the ruling elite in third world countries. For maverick nations they were willing to spread a carpet of bombs. When profits are sacrosanct, and devouring consumerism is paradise, then responses to this new form of colonialism must also be inventive. If it is no longer guns, but money which control resource drainage, then the revolution can also no longer come from the barrel of a gun. One can face guns with guns, but one must also find ways of preventing the throttling control of money. The field of battle had to be economic, where the primary motive of profits had to be undermined. No society which holds profits to be the primary indicator of progress, can talk of sustainable development, environmental protection, or about equality and poverty alleviation.
THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE COLLECTIVE
Just over a year has passed since we had our workshop in Chapli. The workshop was a watershed in the Sangathans growth. Significant and major decisions were taken, which determined the course and nature of the Sangathans work in the months to come. These decisions were taken for three primary reasons. The first was the fact that a peoples organisations had been born and taken root. There was a collective strength which was making efforts to organise and give itself direction. The collective realised its new found power. It had confidence in the talents of the individuals within it. It had tasted success in small victories and seen some of the linkages to larger structures. It was bound together by a very loose ideology not articulated through words, but emerging through action. Its greatest strength was a commitment to an ethical code. It was this commitment that allowed for tremendous energy to be contributed to collective causes and to build up a social ethos. To realise that ethical motivations can allow for tremendous change, and that a change in perception is all that is required to prepare the soil for a new ideology. One that is rooted; honest enough to accept that it must change as it goes along. That collective perceptions will emerge as one acts and reflects provided time is given. The threading together of these collective perceptions eventually results in a growing ideology.
The Sangathan was also in a crisis. There were many talented people who had been identified, but the limited scope of periodic struggles did not provide enough of an opportunity to use their talents. The success in little and larger struggles had shown that change required fighting the establishment on a much broader front. Each victory only revealed many more battles ahead. The trend in national regional and global eco/socio/political spheres had repercussions which were not only felt but also understood by the core group of the Sangathan. The environmental and ecological situation did not require the Rio conference to tell us we were in a crisis we could see it all around us. We knew that solutions must come from us, but we had very few to offer. Fighting the Government and corruption had been a convenient and important issue for organising but a realisation of the severe limitations of the Government was becoming very clear to us. Struggling against it had not just cum asked it, but also revealed its very great impotence in being a mechanism for change or development.
Within the Sangathan also, questions of structure and formal leadership were emerging. There was pressure and questions from outside keen to place us within a conventional framework, demanded answers at the very least. Loose collective leadership now had to be formalised. Issues the MKSS were uncomfortable with had to be faced.
Issues relating to money also had to be taken up. So far it had depended on contributions of time and at most grain to support on going struggles. Continuous work required continuous time and therefore monetary support. The management of money by a collective for a larger good has its own set of dynamics. There was no ready model to depend on or refer to. Mistakes were paid for but many an innocent mistake opened up new avenues in the realm of possibilities.
The Sangathan was being too ambitious. We took decisions we were unable to implement immediately. But having done something successfully against all odds was increasing collective pressure to do more. Later in the year the Sangathan was forced to form more realistic decision making bodies, and increase the sense of responsibility of individuals in the collective.
This attempt to create a concept of development rights of rural workers did take the activities of the Sangathan to a new plane. We wanted to have some control over the local economy so that we could make it dance to a different tune. A year has passed, and the process has only just begun. But that fact that powerful groups have had to organise against us, seems to be a good indicator of success.
WOMENS EMPOWERMENT AND THE SANGATHANS GROWTH
Women are the most exploited in all societies. In a poor society, they are discriminated against by both poverty and gender. But in some ways because of the need to work, women have greater mobility and freedom than the women in the middle class. The difference in the last few years , is their recognition that they are at the bottom rung of the exploitative system. This self recognition has come about mainly through struggles against exploitation with men, on shared areas of concern like hunger and feudal oppression.Gender sensitisation has come about through a recognition of women's power in the struggle. Because 70 % of the male population is on migration, women have tended to assume leadership roles in fighting oppression outside the village. A working class woman is already an individual who has a clear and distinct role as a bread winner. She is not afraid to enter the broader universe. She is distinct from women in the middle class who are still fighting to get their roles outside the home accepted.
Though they are 80% of the female population their voices have not been heard strongly enough.
A position that was stated a year ago in an article in Seminar:
" There is both strength and a sense of myopia in the over all categorization of women as a single category....... there are horizontal criss crosses which still remain operative separators.Not only do they merely separate but support norms that continue to divide...... there are points at which women may and do have different priorities and even contradictory positions.When the class and caste interests intervene,where do the interests of the poor women stand ?"35
It is also necessary to state that women from all classes and castes have got together to protest over issues that have affected them . In Rajasthan the two major instances have been the `sati' incident of Roop Kanwar and the rape of Bhanwari. In the case of violence against women the spontaneous support from women's groups across the spectrum has been phenomenal.
On economic issues however, the divides are more clearly visible.No statement for and behalf of women has failed to touch upon poverty and poor women's needs. But the fact remains that when there is a statement of economic rights the positions cannot be clearly defined. It is to the credit of the womens groups that they have been able to keep the dialogue going.But there has been no mobilisation for the right to employment or work done for wage entitlement across the canvas.Even if one looks at recommendations made by the planning commission or special groups of women, the working class woman's priorities get prominence in recognition but are very weak when specific strategies are spelt out. The reasons clearly lie in their non-participation in such discussions, and their inability to operate in that idiom. And ofcourse, the complete inability and lack of intent of the others to accommodate the working class idiom and priority in their paradigm.
In working with women therefore some operational choices have to be made. In the case of the MKSS the choices are both at the idealogical and operational level. The Sangathans main and only pre-occupation are poor women. This deliberate choice doesnot rule out involvement with women's issues in the larger context or with issues that relate to exploitation and discrimination but do not apparently have anything to do with poor women.But the Sangathan's membership of poor women decides the priority of their concerns.
Roles- who defines them ?
Government chooses to see womens issues as women's development. The issue of women's empowerment has been seen in structural terms in much the same way as the scheduled castes and tribes have been.Infact in many meetings and recommendations of the Government, it is not uncommon to see SC/CT and women.What are the roles envisaged for women by the State ?
The first structural recognition is through reservation of seats. Though it may sound flippant, it is not incorrect to see the corollary between seats reserved for women in buses and in other structures. In both cases there is no entitlement for the poor. As Noji ya once said , one had to wear a sari and be a behenji to lay claims to women's rights in the eyes of the State, even in a bus !
Take for instance the reservation of seats for women in the Panchayat. There is no way a poor woman can get anywhere near getting elected. Because in the hierarchy as it stands today, even her menfolk who are one step higher than her do not merit recognition. The women who will, by and large get elected will be those put up by the powerful, who have learnt how to play dirty with electoral politics. Mostly the women may not fare very much better than the co-opted women members to the Panchayat, who have been no better than a rubber stamp.
" In all these debates about reservation of seats,representation and visibility of women there is a disturbing underlying question which seldom gets posed. Which women ? Who are the women who will get room to get elected to Panchayats,State Assemblies and Parliament.? What values will the process bring with it ? Given the present levels of social constraint and political awareness what kind of women will become representatives of the group ?
" If the category of women is going to be linked with other specialised ones like scheduled caste and tribes,the solution will pose similar sets of problems like the ones that already exist. A separated effort made within the same exploitative system, will at best serve to make space for women,and at worst to condition them to absorb and retain values of the status quo.All the normative values that skew society today will be reflected in it. The part will of course organically have the same composition as the whole." 36
In thinking of women's economic roles the Government has stagnated with the concept of income generation. The definition and re-definition of women's income generating activities has absorbed all their energies. It has taken many decades for them to recognise that poor women work and that they need a different kind of support. Even after the recognition of the role poor women play in the economy, they donot want to take up the issue of women's right to work. They end up at best with supportive women's income generation activities. DWACRA is an excellent case in point.
Technology is another modern smoke screen. Under the garb of modern inventions, the use of technology has very often reinforced the power structure and marginalised women. Technology is not just mechanisation, reduction in manual drudgery and an increase in productivity. Nor is it neutral. For most rural women technology is another handout. In this process there is a class and gender bias. The popular point of view handed down through learning institutions and development strategies in national and international policy, sees technology as:-
- neutral, faceless and dealing with absolute standards. Technological intervention, especially through mechnisation is seen as primary and imperative to development and progress. All other issues remain subordinate.
- a separate and self-contained package which is seen as crucial in product in the saving of national resources. This intervention of technology frequently occurs in areas that are non-mechanised and poverty prone.
- fragmented and relating directly to the hierarchy in society. There is for instance a technology for women, for the lower castes, for the poor, the rich, for the village and the town, for the more literate and the less literate.
- an end product . It could be a handpump, a smoke less chulha, a loom. The evolution of the technology and its use are seen as two mutually exclusive processes.
Government also sees the increase in productivity as one of its goals for women. The planners see income generation and technological inputs as leading to economic betterment. The problem is that there is little or no connection between the problem and the input. Very often the technological intervention has led to the trivialisation of the concept itself. There are a number of such ?
The new economic policy has affected or is liable to affect women the most, they will be first one to be laid off. With men loosing jobs in the small business enterprises it has been reported that many of them are now doing "women's" jobs. Women form the largest number in the unorganised sector which is likely to be worst hit. Women both locally and in a larger context have little or no control over the processes through which the market is controlled.
Some of the roles inflicted on women have not been of their choice. Poor women have often been furious when suggestions of alternative technologies and skill learning are made when they are faced with hunger and illness. The insistence that women change roles to suit a middle class vision of development and empowerment are patiently heard but dismissed in action. For women to play male roles to ensure their empowerment is as ridiculous as asking them to take solar cookers to save fuel. In the first case they may not want to play male roles, and in the second, they donot have enough to cook.In any case male roles today are an integral part of many exploitative structures and processes. They themselves need to be reviewed. Is it not necessary to allow the woman freedom to take her own decisions ? In the final analysis this kind of process could end in the destruction of feminist thought itself.
CREATIVITY- WHOSE CHOICE ?
There is much to be learnt from the current status of women's work. Not all of them see their work as drudgery. It is surprising how many of them see their work as creative. The problem is that the new systems of easing work has not relieved women, Either machines have rendered them jobless or ignored them . Women complain that their main physical problem is backache. All work demands bending. The worst period is weeding. Their house work and specially cooking isnot seen as drudgery at all.
Women have had the ability to keep feeding a family, working and cooking in the most adverse conditions. They have great resources to make the most of very little. They manage the household and yet it sits lightly on them. A working woman in a middle class home with far more to support her, finds it far more difficult than she does. The women during the terrible drought years of 87-89 managed to keep families from destruction- fed and looked after illness. They also came out in large numbers to protest and take up issues with the Government.
Women run much more than the home. They are responsible for managing to keep the fuel wood supply going. They have been managing and are responsible for the animals, from grazing to milking to performing veterinary jobs. They also churn the buttermilk. It gives them more than 50% share in the economic function of running the household.
They perform 70% of all agricultural occupations. They decide on many of the aspects from sowing to harvesting.And yet men are the `farmers'.Given all this, it is remarkable that they should be reduced to sewing machines and rollers of papads.
EMPOWERMENT AND CREATIVITY
Womens participation in large numbers in all protests and their continuing interest and participation in all Sangathan activities is testimony to their understanding of political and economic rights.
Women's empowerment is not merely the performing of 'male' roles. If society has to change the male roles with also have to be reviewed and changed.Bhuriya, Chunni Bai, Hanja Bhua are great leaders who are fearless in confrontations,even with the police.They however find it a great struggle to learn the nitty gritty about markets. They do not have the comfort of an idiom they know. If the Sangathan continues to work with the market, the younger generation of women will perhaps find it an area of interest. They should be familiar with the idiom of the market by then.
Women migrate from the area seeking work in a radius of 500 kilometres. They go to work as construction labour as well as workers in small scale industries . These women migrate for a part of the year and come back to look after their land and home.
Increasingly however, women have been laid off small units and they have had to return home to face unemployment and hunger, as Maithreyi Krishnaraj writes:
"The threat of further marginalisation for the masses of women in India looms large, in the face of policies that seek to expand privatisation and the role of the market. "37
It is therefore natural that women would feel the need for adversarial politics and protest. The hunger of their children and the impossibility of finding work has made them understand the need for struggle.
The existence of the women's movement,is threatened by the fundamentalist revival. The only hope to successfully counter that, lies in the movement identifying itself with the most oppressed and making their problem the central focus . This has raised a completely new set of disturbing questions. Answers to which have still to be worked out.
" Perhaps the group with the greatest potential to pose a counter to the fundamentalist revival is the poor and most specifically poor women. They have gained the least and the suffered the most from the fall out. If issues of hunger and oppression, which are critical to the poor are raised, then the red herring of tradition and religious revival will not be accepted so easily."38
The first issue that the MKSS took up was minimum wages. Since men migrate in great numbers, women form the bulk of the work force. In the case of government employment women are often 80-90% of workers. When they raised the issue of non payment of minimum wages it was infact an issue that was theirs. In the many small and the two larger struggles waged in Bhim, the women played a pivotal role. They understood the details of the struggle as well as displayed enormous courage in facing the authorities.
The issue of collective rights over common land that was taken up by women in Sohangad, was also an area that concerned women. In fact all land matters are material to the life of working women in general. In the case of commons, women understand its relevance both for fodder and fuel. The women formed a village organisation to fight for land rights against a Jagirdar. When they were face to face with violent and repressive measures unleashed by him, they were fearless. Infact much less under mental tension than the men. Four years after the struggle, they now control 25 hectares of land where they have developed a mini forest. They have also evolved methods of collective management of the land. An interesting aspect of this episode was the attention paid by the men, including the older men in promoting womens visibility and articulation as a necessary pre-requisite in the battle for economic and political rights.
Whether the Sohangad experience is seen as a struggle for rights over forestry or land, there is no doubt that women felt it was their issue.
Women have not wanted so far to participate in work that involves long periods of absence from home. Their roles as mothers and wives are important to them.It is important though, that they think of alternatives to traditional roles. But they must decide what they are to be. Their approval and support to the MKSS's role in the intervention in market and in the fight against consumerism, has lent immense support to the struggle. In wages and employment the women were at the core of the struggle.In the entry into the market however, they play a supporting role. Their understanding of adversarial politics has been mature and deliberate.Whether mobilising to go to Jaipur to protest or fighting for rights locally their involvement has been invaluable.
IDEAS BORN LOCALLY
Specific ideas must be born locally. The identification of activities must also be locally determined. The transference of a national concern into a connected but relevant local activity, does two things. It gives the activity an import beyond its immediate , limited local relevance. In other words it establishes linkages which deal with the feeling of isolation and insignificance, which tend sometimes to demoralise localised action. But more important it translates a theory which is remote and incomprehensible into an activity which is understandable. For instance the New Economic Policy seems relevant only if it is related to the local market and explained in its context. The issue of seeds and patenting in the Dunkel draft gets understood very easily when the shift is understood in the dependencies for seed created by the introduction of the dwarf variety. When local workers-men or women find a method of making a deliberate local intervention, they understand the linkages with larger processes, and that understanding in turn leads to greater local success. As Ela Bhatt says in the Economic Times of January 15 1992 .
"The experience of women in development in India, has shown that given the opportunity, the poor women have got organised and have improved their lives by running programmes on their own-be it in the area of education, banking, dairying, environment, drinking water or childcare and in the process they have attained self reliance and generated local leadership. The emphasis of the new policy on relaxing government controls and giving free rein to private enterprise. My point is that poor women given the chance have proved that they are as enterprising as any businessman, without being exploitative but through cooperatives or collective groups."
"But for this to happen, the precondition is the restructuring and reordering of power to take place at the local level. "39
Chunni Singh a Sangathan member who has never been to school, addressing the May Day rally in Bhim, managed to communicate the importance of the shop , not only in relation to its control on prices locally; but was able to relate it to inflation.He called upon the local traders not to see this shop run by the mazdoors as a threat, but to see themselves as victims of a system that would soon finish off the small traders, so that ` bigger seths ' would prosper. He went on to say that communalism was always a threat to the sanity of living. The horrifying fall out of religious strife is an extreme example. Inter caste oppression and then intra-caste divisions are all manifestations of the same limiting , dogmatic nature of man.
Chunni Singh's enlightened oratory was born out of a keen and complete understanding of the economics of politics.His years as a worker in Ahmedabad, his childhood spent working in dhabas, his stint as a construction worker in Rawat bhata earning 0.25 a day was his education. His great compassion for the oppressed, his intimate knowledge of the methods of exploitation and oppression have led him to to the Sangathan. He gives it time sometimes inspite of pressing economic needs. He has at such times an ambivalent position, knowing both the need to collectively organise and the amount of time that has to be invested in such ventures to see that the movement doesnot collapse.
Chunni Singh is a brave and courageous man. He epitomises to an extent, the spirit of rebellion that could as easily have gone into that of a petty local exploiter using his dare devilishness to extract some local power to ensure his personal comforts. Instead of which he became something of a local Robinhood. Under an assumed name he waylaid and threatened mill owners and managers in Gujarat to pay workers their dues.
Chunni Singh'insticnctive reactions to economic ventures are a fairly good indicator of what would be good for the poor in the area.
In the initial years there was a desire to work with people and organise them, but there was a real famine of ideas both individually and collectively. There was an acute drought , the worst in 80 years. That gave initial shape to work. The conceptualisation about the organisation was at best described in negative terms, of what we would not do.There was no idea of details.
It has become clear in the post - independence period that the politicians cannot contribute towards development and change in a localised sense. Their tenure is devoted to accumulation of personal wealth and the show of power by affecting transfers and postings. Their patronage is closely linked to pay offs. There is no planned vision of the needs of the area, nor are these priorities clear. It has become a foregone conclusion that the local "neta" is going to benefit his family and his clique. The needs of the people are a non-issue.
Good bureaucrats come with pre-conceived ideas of change. They also have hobby horses and a one or two point agenda. It may be literacy, forestry, land reforms. The local priorities and needs are brushed aside; or at best dove-tailed into the pre-planned activities. Worst of all, a bureaucrat cannot change or tailor a programme planned elsewhere even when he knows it is unsuitable. The nature of planning makes it impossible for local priorities to get reflected in the plan.The pity is that there is no real desire to change the mode. However brilliant or open the senior civil servant may be the short span of a year or two in the District is not enough to understand the area and see an idea through.
It is worth examining the other structure that has come to exist as an alternative to the Government- the voluntary sector. The voluntary agency has come up ostensibly to fill the vacuum created by the non-functioning ,non-delivering government . The voluntary agency has often perceived itself as a negotiator between the people and the government. While the voluntary agency has clearly spelt out areas of accountabitily with the funders, there is no mandatory accountability to the people. There is no compulsion to be evaluated by the community they serve. They need not be democratic either. They exist as islands . The voluntary agency has its own ideas, but it also has to periodically accommodate itself within the paradigms of development defined by the Government or donor agencies. The compromise is at the cost of the people. Where voluntary agencies have introspected and encouraged participation, peoples aspirations have got drawn into conventional areas of self improvement. The voluntary agencies began work with reformatory zeal and with a mission to accomplish. Today, the voluntary sector offers another career .
Struggles when they occur are contained within specific areas. Voluntary agencies have now accepted that as a mode, protest and struggle are important even within their paradigm. But when struggles have become truly political they have had to break off from the agency inorder to develop their own political identity. The voluntary agency cannot contain sustained opposition to the existing structure. Some voluntary agencies have been involved in long struggles against social injustice and the State. But these have been supporting efforts. The voluntary agency claims its non-political identity as a unique and fundamental feature. Obviously, therefore no political movement can grow from within a voluntary agency. One must however, distinguish between a real voluntary agency and those set up by political parties to act as support structures. As Jeremy Seabrook wonders about the role of NGO's in the current scenario.
"Not only Communism has been laid to rest in Europe, but the socialist and social democratic parties are now all anxious to distance themselves from their sometime close relationship with social forces as the greatest liberators of humanity. In such a climate, with governments of the South equally unwilling to contest Western dominance, where are the voices to be heard stating that the present direction of policy is likely to be an unmitigated disaster for the South, let alone the West, which is concerned only with the maintenance of its existing privileged way of life.
It seems that we shall sleep walk to extinction rather than be bombed into nothingness. This is the monstrous perspective which NGOs should really be confronting and resisting."40
He goes on to say,
"I would like to given one example of where on the whole the NGOs have been less than effective, where in all India it really matters; and that is in the celebrated, tragic, noble, struggle of the Chattisgarh Mukti Morcha; one of the most vital and vibrant of all popular struggles, the embryo of a genuine alternative in the world.
But for the most part, both the murder of Niyogi, and the subsequent shootings at Bhilai in July 1991, occurred without the popular outcry which should have been led by any NGOs who are serious about the business of social transformation and the development of alternatives to the cruel processes now in train of destroying the security of workers, of uprooting people from livelihoods, of evictions and resource-depletion in order to earn foreign exchange, of the murderous advance of an economistic ideology to which the poor-human beings in vast numbers are now the expendable 'externalities'".41
In such a scenario a different structure has to be evolved that will contain , develop, and give expression to poor peoples needs. Which would have an effect on regional values but where the details would be defined by the people themselves. This is perhaps the only way real development can take place.
A hostile environment and a less than subsistence pattern of agriculture, has enabled local people to acquire varied skills which are part a business. It is not necessary to go into detail about Rajasthani skill with shop keeping, masonry, well digging, different kinds of trading and other modern artisan skills. In each skill there has been a separate paradigm, all relating to business. The skilled labour has been that of the workers while others have been managers. But They have acquired skills of various sorts. They have learnt book keeping, buying and selling , and the intricacies of all kinds of trades. They have acquired a wide information base regarding that trade and affiliated ones as well, and an understanding of the business system.
Despite all this the worker remained a labourer, not ever being able to make the shift to become controller. It was natural that the system was viewed with bitterness and anger.
There was great unease in the Sangathan about dealing with business. Like politics, it is a dirty word. There was a genuine fear that money brings dishonesty and corruption in its wake. It is basically unethical. Therefore the Sangathan should stay out of such things and restrict itself to protest and demands. This was coupled with the bitterness felt by the workers against the entire system of trading and money handling. It was with many reservations that the MKSS decided to run business enterprises with an ethical base. By eliminating the profit motive the MKSS rid itself of the feeling that the handling of money is contaminating. The exercise has brought enormous learning. It has enabled the workers to become controllers of their own destiny and to confront and get the better of a system in which they were pawns.
The tremendous information and knowledge base has enabled them to to take on those who have always held the strings and called the tune. For a Sangathan of the poor, it has facilitated a struggle on more equal terms.
The shift in perception has changed the self-image and the role of the workers from labourers, they can now play a role in determining the collective destiny of themselves and others.
PERCEIVING THE GOVERNMENT
In the first part of the study, the Governments perception of labour was examined. Since the Government claims to be "of the people", and Government action is often seen as `public action' it is necessary to see how the rural worker perceives the Government.
Traditionally in Rajasthan the Government has been viewed in very Feudal terms. For members of the MKSS however, as the layers began to be peeled off its projected image, a different picture began to emerge. When thinking in economic terms, it becomes necessary to see the resource input and outflow from the area, and the effect of the resource input. What development in agriculture, Industry, or human resources had taken place? Did a change in Government every five years offer any hope for a better future?
FEUDAL HANGOVER
The people see the Government in much the same way as they saw the feudal lord. Mai baap, datha, anna datha etc are common words used to by the people to address the civil servant, bureaucrat or politician who visits the village. It is not surprising therefore that the people still wait to receive their share of the development cake, apportioned by the powers that be. The fact that they are citizens who have rights, and have claim to their time and services of the Government are ideas which are remote.
The Government is seen as distributing patronage. It is therefore necessary to consolidate ones position by becoming part of a clique, and ingratiate themselves into the good books of the chosen leader. The reciprocal arrangement between the powerful and the powerless is a strange continuation of the relationship between the feudal overlord and his serf.
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT
As the repeated claims of the Government about its development efforts began to lose credibility, the members of the MKSS began to see the futility of hope in Governmental intervention. Neither the bureaucrat, nor the politician had shown any propensity for bringing about change. In fact, for the politician the 5 year or 3 year term spells out the period in which power has to entrenched and the future made secure. The fact that legislators, Sarpanches are put on District or Panchayat level committees means no more than a decorative position, from which other favours can be ensured.The need for continued development plans for the area is no ones priority.At most portions are carved out for specific caste or village groups as a means of pay off, for favours done. There is no continued planning for the building of infrastructure or human development.
At best piece meal development can be ensured. There is no initiation of processes of change in which fundamental changes can be made by challenging the status quo.
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES
Development programmes are used by the local powers as hand outs, with the intention of sharing spoils. Development programmes are such that they cover a small group of the under-privileged with meagre budgets. Even much publicised programmes like the JRY didnot manage to cover a significant number of those who needed employment. Development programmes are therefore part of the paradigm of development of the Government, in which there is only an attempt to alleviate an immediate problem. There is again very little intent to address the basic reasons for poverty or to work towards recasting the priorities needed for more access to resources by and for the poor.
Development programmes are also planned centrally and donot have the intention of decentralising the process. The fact
that uniform programmes are sought to be implemented in a country as vast and complex as India, tells its own tale. So, both qualitatively and quantitatively, development programmes fail to perform.
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT IN RURAL AREAS
A poor and drought prone area like the one the MKSS works in has been and is being by passed by industrial development. Insufficient water and other natural resources, the infrastructure that industry says it needs , has doomed the area. The fact that poverty and hunger exists and that this area is one that feeds a large part of the migratory population to the cities is nto a matter for undue worry. There has been no attempt made to fashion industrial development to suit the area. Apart from the marble and granite mines- a new phenomenon, there is little attempt to look at industrial development in this area.
AGRICULTURE POLICY
Whether larger land holdings in the Jagir belt or the small marginal and small holdings in the Rawat belt, agriculture continues as of yore. In the context of the negatives of modern agricultural development, one can say that this can be interpreted as a blessing. The absence of modernised agriculture has also prevented the horrors of soil erosion through application of chemical fertiliser and the switch from subsistence farming of food grain to cash crops. Nevertheless agriculture department officials dismiss the area because of poor rainfall, and have labelled the farmers `romantic'. They prefer to pay attention to the fertile and irrigated parts of Rajasthan like Ganganagar , Sikar and Kota Districts.
NATURAL RESOURCES
When one looks at the balance sheet, of inputs and outputs one realises that land, water, minerals are an important source of income for the government . So, whatever wealth may be found is appropriated by it, by taxation, revenue, royalties or outright acquisition of land. This is the only form of capital the people can ever possess. By ignoring peoples collective rights over the natural resources, the Government further impoverishes an already poor and under-developed area. Not that by taking control of the resource the government necessarily builds up national wealth. The principal reason remains control of the vested interests over such resources.Whenever natural resources are identified or discovered, the plunder by business leaves the country side denuded ,and depleted. On the other hand peoples control is gentle. Resources are used but not destroyed whether it is forest wealth, minerals , water or land. As Dr. B.D. Sharma says
"The life of the vast majority of our people is linked with three elements, viz., the right over resources, the right over means of production and the entitlement for labour. These aspects unfortunately have either not been properly discussed or, in case there is some discussion, it is mostly superficial. The reason is that the moment such issues are seriously considered, the very foundation of the vested interests which are flourishing in the name of modernity, progress and development, gets shaken. But these are the questions which are crucial for the Welfare of the members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. And what is more, they are also crucial for the quality of national life, basic principles and human values."42
When this kind of analysis began in the Sangathan,members of the MKSS began to feel that one of the vital issues was control of these three elements.There was a growing realisation that the right over natural resources , which was an equal birthright of all citizens, had been stolen by the Government in the name of the people.The fact that the Government had acted for the benefit of more affluent interests, changed the perception that it was a benevolent `giver'.It infact took much more than it gave.
The control over the means of production lay entirely with the affluent.Even in the so called `Public Sector' all the benefits had gone to the organised sector.Worse still, the Government had done nothing to enhance local production.The only time it paid attention was when it realised that mineral wealth existed.At such times the Government promptly displaced the local inhabitants, and removed opposition by promising employment to local people.
The continuing battle for minimum wages on Government works illustrated the Governments attitude to the entitlement for labour.It was clear that there was little hope of getting such a negative structure to do anything for fundamental change.Even pressure to extract concessions from it seemed less and less attractive.Obviously, peoples initiatives could not ignore the Government and its policies. But in order to make such initiatives effective, the Government would now be evaluated more critically.
MY CURRENT PERCEPTION
The Shift to Devdungri
I realised eventually that a voluntary agency with its focus on the setting up of an alternative local structure for development was perhaps not equipped to organise the people for struggles. The voluntary organisation is a good place for re-education because learning opportunities are plenty and the learners can set their own pace and time.It gives the worker an opportunity to look at non-conventional options for change. Importantly, it provides a good opportunity to look at socio-political and economic reality with different assumptions and to understand the psyche of the people. What it cannot provide, is the momentum for confrontational politics and sustained protest. One important reason is because it takes money and therefore has to have conventional accountability and ends up often pushing workers into what are essentially managerial roles.
Organisational work with communities has to begin with some understanding of politics and stated values. Development is politics,and there can be no development without political will. Politics is being used here in its most catholic sense. Infact, all acts of social and economic living are determined by the nature of politics. It is essential to see that before one can begin to work to mopbilise people for change. The reason for the failure of most development programmes has been the inability to see the co-relation. This is equally true of the Government and voluntary sector. Any organsiation for social change therefore, has to derive its strength from the people it intends to benefit.
It must work with them, carrying them along in a process which is politically determined, but which uses all experience as education. To learn about the reasons for poverty, for the denial of democratic rights in an independent country, and to understand too the ethics needed for such change. The oraganisation collectively, and individuals within the collective have to understand the need for leading a non-dichotomous ethical existence. There can be no public integrity and private opportunism .
The organisation's priorities must be decided by the people who form it. Decision making must be democratic,with integrity at all levels. This is extremely important because an amoral perception , or an opportunistic perception of the universe cannot lead to the creation of a world in which equality and social justice, are stated values.
The change from Tilonia to Devdungri, was in some ways a more major shift in perception than the earlier one from the IAS to Tilonia. In shifting to Tilonia the paradigm did not change. The basic shift was only in the perception of what could be accomplished better within the same given understanding of development. In coming to Devdungri, I intented using all that I had learnt in Tilonia to re-define the paradigm of development. To see the whole process of development from a different perspective.
In the case of both the Government and Tionia, I saw my role as that of the initiator. I was a `catalyst', the `agent for change', the one who `intervened for change'. In other words, the perception was that of myself as the leader, in so much as the action that followed was ultimately traced back to a set of actions for which I was responsible. It may have been an idea or a set of ideas. Gradually and slowly I began to understand that the perceptions and ideas exist in different forms in peoples minds already. What really is needed is the time and space, and opportunity for putting them into action. My role was now severely limited in my mind.
If leadership was to be different, then the organisation would also have to be so defined so as to enable the people to manage things themselves. The leadership in peoples organisations has to come from the local area. The issues, the direction, the priorities must be decided by them. I would always have an important role. What would it be ?
I was going to an area where I was an outsider. I would never be able to understand the area quite as well as a local person. But I also had a special set of experiences and a critique of development processes born out of varied experiences. I was born into a class which still remained powerful and dominated decision making. I provided links with and an understanding of that class. So I was useful to the local people.
I had developed a personal preference for simple ascetic living. I felt that one could not work with the poor unless one lived with them as one of them. It was important for me to share the life style physically too.It was important for me to lead a life in harmony with myself, to see work and living as a continuum. This kind of life style facilitates a different kind of communication, where the people see you as more accessible.Finally, when the people who you work with, see the mutual dependencies for living and security, there is a much greater sense of equality that permeates relationships.
CHAPTER VI WORKING OUT A DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM
Perhaps the most difficult part of any creative effort is to
be able to translate thought into action. As long as it remains theoretical it is more logical and easy to understand. It is connected to a set of values,it attracts people who share those values. When there is fundamental disagreement with the establishment and its ideals however it is often more practical to oppose and expose. To fight against, and create at the same time is,an extremely difficult process. It could be said that it is basically flawed. It is better to fight for the revolution now, and implement change under more conducive conditions.
The world however, is no longer what it used to be.The powerful networks that exist on the international plane make local spaces the best launching pads for a different ideology. When a variety of forces are being used to literally "buy " the minds of people,only action alone can speak louder than monetary power. Very often such creative action which fundamentally questions the values of the establishment is the most effective way to expose it. It is not enough to know the current perceptions that exist in society. It is necessary to understand the forces which mould such perceptions. Similarly, it is not enough to have collective strength. There is a need to understand how best to use that strength, to develop a paradigm which is particularly suited both to the collective,and the conditions which currently exist.
UNDERSTANDING FORCES WHICH MOULD ATTITUDES
CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT
There is a perceptible shift in cultural hegemony, from the upper class elite to the commercial class. This shift explains many things both in a political and economic context. It explains for instance why the BJP has become popular. It also explains how the trend setters are not any more those who come from " established families" with long genealogical pedigree, but the rich, nouveau most of the time. It explains culture. It explains the fascination for technological toys. It explains consumerism . It explains the Westward looking ethics. This commercial class has got control over jobs, positions of authority and of money, leading to political control. It explains too the victory of the Mandir over Mandal. It also explains the support for institutionalized religion. The free market economy has opened up avenues for the middle class to join those whom they have envied for years.
The real threat for the aspiring middle class are the poor - often synonymous with lower castes,and the backward castes.
This area is predominantly Rawat. Most Rawats live in the areas now covered by the Districts of Ajmer, Pali, Bhilwara and Rajsamand. Apart from the Rawats, the Gujjars and Meghwals form the bulk of the population.
The customs relating to marriage in all these communities are determined by bride price as opposed to dowry. In all the upper castes ,ie Brahmin, Bania , Rajput it is dowry.The OBCs and SC, who have to pay bride price have some progressive customs. There is provision for divorce-'natha'. When the jathi panchayat decides on the natha or the two parties concerned agree, then the price paid or money exchanged at the time of the wedding is repaid. The woman can then get re-married. The children of the first and subsequent marriages retain their rights of inheritance unless the woman abrogates the rights due to other circumstances.
Child marriage is prevalent. Mass weddings are performed at Akha Teej. At this time all activities come to a halt. As is often the case, marriages take place after the winter crop has been harvested and the people are free from agricultural occupations. When the eldest daughter gets married in the joint family- at age 13 to 17 - all the younger siblings (girls ) get married too. The youngest may be as young as 6 months. It is really more like an engagement than a wedding. Since widow remarriage is permissible and most often encouraged it takes care of the problem of child widows.
Since most families are poor or marginal, costs are considerably reduced in these weddings as the overheads are reduced.There is no dowry . Only essential items like a cot , a mattress, a pitcher and some utensils are given. The boys family has to provide jewellery and clothes. Since only silver is worn, there is considerable bargaining between the parties on the number of kilos the girls family will ultimately settle for.
The biggest problems occur for young men who are left unmarried . If they donot have reasonable means of earning a living, and if the families cannot take the initiative, marriage gets them into debt. They end up very often working their entire life to pay off the debt.
Death ceremonies known as `nukta' are the most crippling. The numbers to be invited as well as what should be cooked are not decided by the families concerned but by the village Panchs. Because they are often also petty money lenders, they are interested in making the ceremony as lucrative as possible for themselves. The local trader is also interested in extending credit to the family. As soon as the death takes place he pays a visit to the bereaved family offering all assistance- ghee, atta, sugar. There is always a reason. In this case it is the mortgaging of the small amount of land or pawning of the few silver items that the family may possess. The trader is also aware that it is a time when he can charge exorbitantly for the goods he is selling on credit.
Disputes arise within the family when the brothers apportion the share of money to be paid. The amount is equally divided amongst them all regardless of economic status. The poorer of the brothers cannot provide their share without mortgaging all the property.Very often this leads to bondage and slow but sure death due to the contraction of poverty related illnesses.
One would have assumed that literacy and education should have stopped expenses on nukta. Though roundly condemned in every gathering of the jathi panchayat the elders continue to perpetuate them privately.No Jathi Sammelan is complete without a condemnation of nukta. With Sanskritisation there are additional expenses of doing `gangauj'. In other words going to Hardwar. A costly venture for most. Pushkar, located 7 miles from Ajmer used to be the center for all local post funeral rites.
RELIGION
There can be no discussion of culture without understanding the role of religion. There is no argument about the fact that religion is a very important factor in social behavior. It is true though that religion has been and continues to be differently viewed by different groups within the social structure.
Since this study is concerned with the working class , it will be important to understand what religion infact means to the poor today. To understand too the ways in which they have been manipulated by others through religion to maintain the status quo. The religious practices of the rural working class are manifested in ritualistic functions and behavior that is very often indistinguishable from other forms of daily living. There is no great attention paid to forms of worship . Most rituals are collective and often have a more important social function . The influence of the non-material universe is restricted to the use of ghosts , spirits to explain ill health and turn of fortune. Poor working class places of worship, are simple and totally without fuss.
The Sangathan saw the negative use of religion by the socially powerful manifested in the three primary functions of birth, marriage and death. The use and manipulations of individuals within the social group is done with the principal aim of extracting more money and spinoffs from the rituals attached to these three events.
The institution of the Bhopa or priest is an interesting deviation from the purely inherited role within the larger
Hindu traditions. The bhopa's are a kind of Free Mason brotherhood. Bhopas are initiated and enter the fraternity to play more flamboyant and "fun " roles than to look at any major spiritual or even religious action.
It is also necessary that some kind of analytical explanation be given for the non action, non involvement and the studied indifference with which religion was viewed by secular groups working to affect social change.
It became unfashionable and perhaps expedient not to talk or think too much about religion within the context of social action. The growth of fundamentalism and its effect on all levels of individual and collective action, has made it necessary to look at the issue seriously.Most social action groups that called themselves secular, worked within a strange dichotomy. This very often meant taking a non-committal position. The stated position was always non fundamentalist, while the individualist position continued to be traditionally rigid and conventional. The Collective didnot question the individual's contradictory roles. Any individual conforming to acts which may have been anti secular was conveniently ignored by the others who"lived and let live!"This dichotomised existence led in extreme cases to a situation where members of left wing unions voted extreme right and members of radical groups continued to get married with dowries. Caste conditionalities continued in birth, marriage and death rites.
In the last decade two significant movements have led to the questioning of this "hands off" attitude. The first was the Women's Movement. In questioning the basis of a universally unequal society, women questioned all values. In this the psychological condition of oppression occupied a central position in many groups. Inward looking, asking questions of oneself became almost as important as asking questions of the outside universe. Primary amongst the questions was -"Why have I accepted the oppression?" It also led to a condemnation of religion as part of a patriarchy which laid down rules, contributing to the lowly status of women. Religious texts were studied to see what they said, and how they have been interpreted and re-interpreted. Religion was no longer ignored or brushed under the carpet. No matter what class the women came from, religion became an important factor to be understood and evaluated. In Rajasthan the instance of Sati, when Roop Kanwar was burnt alive at the stake became a pivot around which a number of essential questions began to be raised.
Very different and of a more devastating impact has been the Draculean revival of fundamentalism and fundamentalist politics in India, the strong emergence of a right wing, fundamentalist party representing the majority religious group. The response it got across class and all other social and geographic divides-at least in Northern India-(the Hindi speaking belt) has made everyone stop in their tracks. It has led to both introspection and action. The social action groups have to deal with uncomfortable questions.
It essentially comes back to the dichotomised, contradictory and conflicting divide that existed between personal beliefs and stated political ideological or positions. The wall that divides the two has crashed.
CONSUMERISM AND CULTURE
Caste continues to be a dominant social conditionality of all social relations involving marriage and collective social security. But modern institutions are making inroads. Dressing patterns are changing. Men, especially younger ones take to wearing western trousers. Women continue to wear traditional clothes. However the local caste based prints, identifiable and self proclamatory have given away to standard polyester based apparel .Caste identification has become less easy. However the women have not got any more freedom in the change of apparel. The western commercial machine would obviously like to have a mono culture which would convert the world to mass of closed consumers. As Kishen Kak says:
"John Reed who reigns over a banking organization (Citicorp) that is by far the largest in the nation and arguably the most powerful in the world". 24
"He could go to company meetings in 100 cities around the world, he says, and the people would be quite similar, we'd have a common culture and a common language.' And they would share, if Reed has his way, a common sense of mission."
He goes on to quote another company executive from the U.S.
"for Herman Schaefer, the PepsiCo VP for finance, all the complexity and scope of Chinese history is reduced to a gullet that needs a Pepsi.....`There are eight hundred million gullets in China and I want to see a Pepsi in every one of them'. It is necessary to internalize such a view, for otherwise how can one totally dedicate one's life to pushing sugar water and chips on a world that undoubtedly needs powdered milk instead?"25
If Pepsi cola can indulge in the insanity of promoting a rock star and spending crores of rupees or even dollars to bring him to India, it obviously sees India as a close second to China with its 700 million potential gullets !
INSTITUTIONALIZED LEARNING
It must be clearly stated at the outset that no formal institution that exists in the country today fosters a value for labour oriented work. No matter who runs it , for whom, how it runs and what it says, the majority of such institutions begin and end with devaluing the human being behind the work, the work itself and the value placed on such work. Estimating the colossal amount of money spent on education, Schumacher recalls:
"The whole matter can be summed up in the question: what is education for? I think it was the Chinese, before World War II, who calculated that it took the work of thirty persons to keep one man or woman at a university. If that person at the university took a five-year course, by the time he had finished he would have consumed 150 peasant work years. How can this be justified? Who has the right to appropriate 150 years of peasant work to keep one person at university for five years, and what do the peasants get back for it?"26
All institutions of learning from the rural primary school to the highest institutions of learning share this basic perception.
Those responsible for making policy have not attended to the need to bring in alternative values.
From programmes like SUPW ( socially useful productive work) have emerged doll making classes and middle class hobby oriented activities. Arvind Gupta says.
"The rich heritage of Indian crafts has largely remained outside the pale of modern education. Gandhi's `basic education' which sought to integrate India's handicrafts with schooling, did not find much favour with the Indian elite. Instead, the public and state run schools have tried to parody production-based education by setting apart forty five minutes a week for Socially Useful Productive Work (SUPW). as if the rest of education is socially useless and unproductive and has no relevance to real life."27
The schools and institutions of learning foster the thought that literacy and working with the hands belong to two mutually exclusive categories.Literate youth who donot find jobs and come back to labour oriented work, live a schizophrenic existence. They are victims, falling as they do between the false values of formal schooling and a crumbling traditional society. To accept that their livelihood now comes from manual work , there has to be a complete rejection of the school or college which held out false promises.
The dignity of work and its intrinsic relationship with our mental and physical well being, be that of an individual or of a society is not even remotely recognised or accepted.
The social institutions of family and caste which still dominate are no longer interested in transferring traditional skills. Those skills were, in any case always socially devalued. The artisan and farming communities occupied a position lower than that of the brahmin, rajput or bania.Though the learning of the particular skill may have been conducted within a framework which was holistic the relation of that skill in terms of money or exchange value was very low indeed.It was but natural that caste occupations should cease to be attractive as economic mobility allowed the individual to earn from alternative and taboo free occupations.
THE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
Inspite of a great deal of indigenous and creative work on the
concepts of education-Gandhi,Tagore, Aurobindo, Giju Bhai and many others-the system remains largely or almost completely what it was during the colonial period. The schooling pattern designed by Macualay for maintaining a colonial administration has been a convenient mode of conditioning, which the new rulers have continued to use. The institutions of "higher learning" have also been evolved on western models. The western cultural hegemony in the Indian context is never more apparent than it is in the products of these higher institutions of learning.The institutions are also afflicted by sub-standard teaching faculties.Colleges which have been opened are not institutions of learning. They are at best teaching shops.
The institutions so set up are seen by the State and those who work in them as avenues of employment. All formal learning is seen as a means of getting better jobs and remuneration. The academic input is mechanical. The teaching staff from primary school to the university have now no qualms about their callous attitude to learning. They are often heard to say that they are the ones who are losing out in the consumer race.They draw attention to the police, the administration where it is so easy to make an extra pile. Aggrieved they have set up tuition shops, print guide books, have introduced the concept of cheating as an accepted mode and stop taking classes seriously!
The academic staff has also got politicised in an opportunistic manner , no different from that of the bureaucrat . No real collective action has been initiated by the teachers for academic improvement. All the agitations have concentrated on employment benefits. The State in its turn sees these institutions as a lip service to the cause of "education". Barring the few very elitist and high standard institutions which are geared for export, the others for indigenous consumption fall in a descending scale that ends with the rural university, college at the top, and the rural primary school at the bottom.
The aspirations of those who go through this system is largely conditioned by the same aspirations their forefathers may have had-to become low level bureaucrats. In a democratic system with prevailing backwardness and poverty, there is yet an apparent rise in opportunities for employment. This apparent rise in opportunities for employment grips the imagination of every new generation that becomes literate. It co-opts a large section of them into the system by dangling the carrot of possible Government employment till it is too late for the youth to do anything, but accept inadequacies and failure in oneself. By preventing the collective from forming and by not seeing this as a failure of the system, the status quo gets perpetuated. The dream of almost every poor literate youth is to get a job . The answer to all his prayers for liberation from poverty.
THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS
It begins with the primary school. The institution which is the most important in a society where literacy levels are low.The school is sometimes just notional, as the teacher comes with the bus and goes with the bus. Or it may be non-existent, if in a remote area the teacher may be on very long leave term after term. The school may also function every day with the teacher using the students to do his domestic work for a part of the time. In exceptional cases the school may run very well and train its students to fit into the current social environment, without asking awkward questions.
Vikram and Jaswant are brothers from an average village home in Kabeda. They have 5 sisters none of whom have been or will be sent, to school. Their father , Roop Singh is in the army. He earns a reasonable wage. They have a pucca house, one of three in Kabeda, where there are 40 households. But the family is deep in debt to a local money lender, who lives in a kucha house. Vikram and Jaswant are conditioned by their environment to be tough kids,they can catch animals, beat up younger boys and are yet full of engaging mischief and the desire to learn . These kids went to a primary school which was better than average, as the teachers came to school quite regularly. But the school has done nothing to either make them better learners, or to instil in them a sense of social understanding at whatever level. One teacher used the kids often to dig the foundation of his home, which happened to be in the same village as the school. The kids were used also to jump on jute submerged in water in the middle of November,when winter had already set in.One of the star pupils of the school, Vikas, who has no problem as a first generation learner and is surrounded by socially conscious individuals, still has not been able to master the basics. He is in middle school and still has problems with addition! The problem is that school doesnot even satisfy its very limited objectives of teaching the children the three Rs.
The teachers who define themselves as the local elite are petty exploiters. Apart from tuition and other such structurally exploitative institutions, many of them set up ancillary work areas, shops, business, contracting and so on. They are sometimes money lenders. Even their methods of exploitation have remained grounded in the those used by their fore-fathers. It is really ironical that only after Harshad Mehta has rural Rajasthan understood the concept of the` share'.
If recent political happenings are to be reviewed, and the spread of fundamentalism looked at seriously, one would be able to clearly see how schooling, and institutions for the underprivileged, have become important for conditioning future generations.
Other inputs in schooling, including text books have not done much to create the environment necessary to mould character or prepare the grounds for creative skills to counter the adverse conditions that prevail and the reasons for poverty.
The leavers of primary school cannot have aspirations for jobs, except perhaps in the Army. Even the Armed forces now want school leavers as the numbers of those who leave school and want jobs has increased. That leaves manual work and semi-skilled jobs as the main area where they can find work. They are ill equipped by the system to work out alternatives or to combat the forces that oppress them.
MIDDLE AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Some manage to go to the middle school. Passing the middle school is no better than primary in terms of jobs. The secondary school certificate, ie passing the 10th standard has a value in the job market. At least the private sector can use the skills for employment as shop assistants and as petty accountants. They are very poorly paid jobs and with no security of tenure, but at least gives some local boys employment.
Infact, rural literate youth are conditioned after a few years at school to look at their environment and their community with some degree of disgust. They tend to buy the richman's argument completely as reasons for their poverty. Blaming themselves for the backwardness, lack of imagination , non-creativity, not understanding modern life as it were.
As Andreas Fuglesang says:
"The formal education system is primarily concerned with instructing the next generation in the techniques and values of the dominant social system, thereby preserving and perpetuating a power structure. " 28
A majority of the Higher Secondary Schools of the Rajasthan Board are located in the rural areas. The students who manage to attend the 11th and 12th classes are at best from rural middle class homes, where life styles are still related to agriculture, animal husbandry and other aspects of rural life. The vast majority of students who attend these classes do so at great cost, as they come from poor rural homes. They themselves come from a class of labourers and workers and their schooling costs have a direct impact on the income of the family.
When youth pass their Senior Secondary, their aspirations begin and end with teaching, compounding, joining the police as constables. The armed forces and allied jobs also seem attractive. Development goals and an understanding of processes in which they could be creatively involved are not part of the "curriculum". Far from moulding attitudes for change , the schooling system prepares the young minds to subserve to the status quo. The attraction of a spurious upward mobility preys upon their minds. Given the larger scenario of a commercialised and increasingly consumer industry based society, the youth have aspirations that seem disproportionate. But to them Shangrila is just round the corner. Their minds work furiously on filling forms, applications and finding out how best to get the right connection to the man/men who might get them a job on this dubious market.
THE LESSONS IMPARTED
The attitudes being promoted through the educational system can be dramatically illustrated by the English Course Reader. English is seen as important for two reasons. Firstly, it is seen as a language of the rulers, past and present. Therefore those who learn English want to imbibe the cultural values of the ruling classes. Secondly it opens up job opportunities. Comprehension levels are low, which makes it necessary to use simplistic language and statements. The language is however more indicative of genuine attitudes.
It is ironical that Shri. R.P. Bhatnagar who has compiled the text book in English (Course Reader) for the 11th and 12th classes, Rajasthan Board, has thought it a matter of pride to mention that it will foster both linguistic and cultural values of the students. It requires him, a modern day Polonious to show up the rotten-ness in the state of our educational system. Self styled arbiters of social values like Shri. Bhatnagar show us how we are all victims of positions we unconsciously subscribe to. In the preface itself
Shri R.P. Bhatnagar states:-
"Section A is intended to instil confidence in the students and therefore contains relatively easier textual material, well within the reach of an average student, both linguistically and culturally."
The first lesson is called "Picnic Cancelled". Surely `picnic' is a concept which is both urban and related to a class which enjoys leisure. It relates to a class which sharply divides work from enjoyment. The lesson begins with a description of the Sharmas and the Bhatias. Mrs. Sharma is watering the garden- yet another urban symbol of feudal or modern wealth. There are no gardens in the rural areas. Even the rural rich do not have gardens. While teaching this lesson to some students who lived in the neighbourhood, it became clear that the concept of a garden was totally alien to them. For those who have not travelled far it is difficult even to visualise it.
When Mrs.Sharma informs her husband about the intended picnic, he promptly says" In that case I'll get the gardener to water the trees."
It is alien enough to have a garden, but the concept of the gardener is totally urban and upper class. Land in the rural areas is used for productive purposes. This garden has chairs and tables, which are again symbols of the urban rich.
Mr Sharma shows some concern for their belongings when he says "We had better remove the chairs and the table from the garden in case it rains". However, Mrs Sharma has adopted the western model of throwing out the old when she replies "The chairs are broken and old. I would rather let them stay here." She fortunately cares about the table. But the necessity of servants for any manual work is immediately revealed. "The table must certainly be removed. It's too heavy for us. I'll get the servant to help us remove it."
As if the lesson were not enough to mould attitudes, the excersizes at the end of the lesson are used to comprehensively drive home the point. In his short note to the students at the beginning of the book Mr. Bhatnagar says, "The manner of Equipping the student for the various demands life will make on them is - revealed in excersizes at the end of lesson 1 on structures and usage". It is worth reproducing the whole section.
"STRUCTURES AND USAGE
1. To get someone to do something
a. I shall get the gardener to water the trees.
b. I shall get the servant to help us remove the table.
c. I got some villagers to push the car.
d. Did you get a dhobi to wash the linen?
e. She does not like to get anyone to help her finish her homework.
f. Will you get the tailor to make me a dress?"
While`a' & `b' are only re emphasized as they are part of the lesson, `c' shows us exactly what our educators think villagers should be doing. Obviously something constructive like pushing other peoples cars!
However, in `d' it seems there is something to learn from the village after all. The usefulness of the categories of caste to even urban people is revealed when we are told exactly what we must get dhobies to do. In `e' we finally have someone who doesn't want help. The urban upper class parent reveals the ultimate dream of a child who will finish her own homework! In `f' we are back to dependencies, this time on the tailor .
The author explains " In all the sentences given above the verb `get' has been used as a causative, i.e. to express the fact that one person or thing causes another person or thing to perform some action."
The description of the causative verb `make' reveals the true nature of these relationships.
"Make denotes the use of force or pressure, either physical or social: She made the servant clean the floor " (emphasis in original)
The whole picture is revealed in an excersize in Table form
" 1. Make as many sentences as possible using the following table:
Subject
Verb (Pro)noun to-infinitive etc
The boy the servant to wash the veranda
The girl the young boy to lift the heavy box
Mohan got to ride ten miles.
My father the old man to push the truck
They to keep the stray dogs away.
In looking at the excersize one wonders what combinations are being encouraged. In the pronoun section, the servant will obviously have to perform all the tasks. The young boy depending on what his class background is, may have to do everything except lift the heavy box. But for the old man, unless we want to teach children to be patently cruel, his task must obviously be "to keep the stray dogs away" An interesting task for a society which prides itself on its respect given to the aged !!
Thankfully the first lesson ends soon after, but unfortunately the book does not. Lesson 7 called "Too many Mishaps", tells us how we must rise on the social ladder.
The `author relaxes with an "uncomplaining" supply of hot tea', on a winter evening, when his friend Sharad informs him that their new Director is arriving by the train at 8 P.M. Naturally, he cannot do without the servant .
"I called Govind, my new servant and asked him to take my scooter out in the porch. I began dressing myself."
Mercifully he didnot ask the servant to dress him! However the servant, poor chap can do no right:
"At quarter to eight Govind came running and told me that the scooter had a flat tyre. I felt greatly disturbed. Had he informed me of it soon after I had asked him to take out the scooter, I would have gone to the station on my bicycle and still reached there in time to receive the Director. Now it was too late to do it."
He even complains to his friend Sharad of the low intelligence level of the servant
"When I reached the platform I found Sharad pacing up and down in front of the railway book-stall. I told him how I got late because of the foolishness of my servant. Sharad was sorry to learn that I had to ride a bicycle all the way from my house to the station. Had he suspected such a mishap, he would have brought me to the station on his motor-cycle."
Cycling to he station is seen as a calamity. Many children who come to school to read this chapter walk miles. Even cycles are mainly owned by the rural middle class.
However, the Director as we are to see is much higher in the official hierarchy. He travels in great style.
"The train steamed into the station at thirty-three minutes past eight, We walked up to the air-conditioned coach. The only passenger to come out of it was our Director."
But the ultimate lesson on how to succeed lies in the presentation of the bouquet, when Sharad steals the thunder.
"Sharad had brought a bouquet which he presented to the boss and thus got all his attention, Had I been not in a hurry, I too would have bought one on the way to the station."
The author recognises Sharads cleverness and bemoans the fact that he too should have had the time buy a bouquet too. When Sharad drives off with the Director, the author feels
"Lonely and neglected. Had I brought my scooter, things would have been different, I said to myself."
A lesson in "How to get on with your boss", not mishaps at all!
This would read like something out of a farce and make us laugh, if it were not for the deliberateness with which young minds are sought to be conditioned. It is not surprising therefore that there is a disvalue for rural life in general and manual labour in particular, and aspirations for the life of a `Babu'.
If Sharad is the role model on whom youth are going to pin their aspirations then, obviously it shapes a society where boot licking and social climbing will be the values inculcated. The lesson reveals a curious combination of a consumer oriented society with caste hierarchies conveniently accommodated within it. For those in rural areas, specially the poor, it is the worst of both worlds.
As Andreas Fuglesang writes in his book on cross-cultural communication :
"Whose privilege is it to define the learning needs of the deprived and the poor? For too long, the educators have betrayed people with their professionalism. People are neither objects to be formed nor cases of ignorance to be treated. It is the thoughtfulness and creativity of the people which is the ultimate resource of any social development".......The idea, conceived and maintained by the educational, that a correlation exists between the stock of educated manpower and the rate of economic growth has not been borne out. It remains another myth."29
HIGHER LEARNING
Those who are lucky enough to get into institutions of "higher learning," have really grandiose ambitions, ending with a job in the IAS or the RAS. Their chances of getting jobs are shrinking as fast as they grow. Their parents look forward to some long term benefits. Scrapping together meagre earnings, college education seems to be the means to a job and economic security. The academic base is so weak that no argumentation at any level helps them, even if they have the native intelligence to see the writing on the wall. The attitudes that get moulded ensure that the youth will aspire to get into the system and see false issues and enemies that do not exist. The class/caste structure in institutions of `higher learning' are strongly biased in favour of the upper classes and the upper castes, No real Dalit or backward caste issue can be taken up as part of the revolt of college youth.
In Beawar, college youth who were Rawats could not at first understand Mandal. Later they did not participate in the anti-Mandal agitations, but could not mobilise themselves to agitate for Mandal either.
To sum up one could say that institutions of schooling ( they can not be called institutions of learning) do not mould or shape attitudes that could lead, in a majority of cases, to any kind of creative expression. This is true even in a conventional narrow sense. The institutions condition youth to accept the status quo. The questioning begins, if it does, inspite of them.
THE POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT
The political immaturity of the people and political parties in the operating area of the MKSS is obvious. Feudalism is losing its bearings, but not because of internal pressures or contradictions. The global village and its external influences are more than the feudal leadership can deal with. No new ideology has emerged to take its place,and the political leadership is characterised by its absolute lack of thought. Its position can at best be described as bewildered and at worst in a state of rigor
mortis. As Schumacher says:
"In one way or another everybody will have to take sides in this great conflict. To 'leave it to the experts' means to side with the people of the forward stampede. It is widely accepted that politics is too important a matter to be left to experts. " 30
Centuries of feudal relationships have anaesthetised the leadership into a way of life where change, inventiveness, and basic creativity are not required. The lack of revolt has failed to throw up leadership and an ideology from amongst the oppressed. Feudal leadership was traditionally rejected by the Rawats. The princely states pushed the Rawats into the non-fertile peripheries of their territories. The Rawats settled down to survive in this geographically hostile environment. But the Kingdom of Mewar never managed to subdue them into accepting their overlordship.
There is today, a tremendous drought of political thought and the current definition of politics is restricted to membership to the Congress and the BJP. Very little difference can be seen between the two in their local manifestations and most astute politicians keep both caps ready in their pockets.
At the time of the struggle for independence the Congress had a network of party workers with a committement to fighting colonialism and its local manifestations. In Rajasthan, this continued till the dissolution of the princely states in 1956. The struggle against the former allies of the British, continued in the form of land reform and constitutional guarantees to the scheduled castes. That network of committed congressmen has disappeared as a species. Today, neither the party, nor its workers have any ideology they can articulate. In fact there is a complete lack of activity between elections and even local issues are not raised by local leaders.
Today leaders of the Congress Party themselves admit that it is a party that hopes for votes by default. Very few vote for the party because it stands for anything. It is more a question of negative voting i.e. a lack of choice elsewhere. At a local level several Jagirdars have joined the party as its earlier commitment to land reform has been thwarted as much by party functionaries as by anyone else. It is not a party that is identified with labour or its issues. An effective leader is one who can get officers and petty bureaucrats transferred. The two and half years of BJP rule have shown that this is an aspect common to leaders of both parties.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has a strongly "Kasba" or urban base. Being for years the party of petty traders and urban upper caste groups it has constantly looked for issues that would broaden it base without harming the interests of its primary constituents. Whatever its Hindutva image may have done for it nationally, or even all over the state, locally the party only experienced a temporary increase in support. Largely due to a very astute use of religious symbols during the Ram Janam Bhumi agitation. It managed to attract a certain amount of upper caste support. However, unlike its popular image there is little evidence of committed cadres, or articulation of any policy. With the fast disappearing appeal of the Mandir issue it is reduced to being an alternative to the Congress. Even during the Mandir agitation the committed group from this area was very small. When there was a danger of state repression as with the Rally in Delhi on 25th February 1993 none of their local committed cadres were willing to go to Delhi. The RSS shakhas are the only organised activities that have invited the participation of youth: It is not their idealogy that attracts but the fact that they are doing something: anything at all. However, even activities like RSS shakhas are largely absent from these rural areas. Amongst the Rawats, the local leaders who have initiated and supported the Sanskritisation process have been attracted to the BJP. A hope that Rawats could have a place in the Upper caste picture of Hindu India, as Rajputs has drawn in the leadership in particular. It has also consequently left them confused and alienated over the Mandal issue- wanting social status as `Rajputs' and jobs as `Rawats'!.
Both parties and their leadership despise the poor. As, a part of the local elite they are derogatory in their comments about the ability of local working class people to do anything constructive. Far from providing leadership which would inspire people towards change, they are the first ones to say that local people cannot do anything. Their personal aspirations are to be identified with upper class/upper caste groups and the only time they identify themselves with their own caste groups are to build up caste vote banks.
This country has also had a history of splits. For too long we have all waited for a political `messiah' to arrive to lead us to a heaven away from the present. While we wait for the ideal messiah, hundreds of leaders rise and fall. Religion has become dirty politics and politics is mere opportunism. Those who believe in morality, ethics and egalitarianism are on the sidelines. And all parties split vertically to take away benefits. There are some hopeful new horizontal splits. But they are all caste based.
The impact of the Mandal Commission recommendations in Rajasthan is very revealing of the confusion prevailing amongst the caste leadership. In the agitation against the Mandal Commission implementation, many Rawat leaders took stands against it. When they realised that Rawats were one of the identified OBC groups, there was hasty rethinking and a general state of confusion. They had to reconcile the contradictory position of having tried for so many years to identify their caste groups as Rajputs in order to be socially acceptable; with the new found advantage of being an OBC. In both cases it was the personal interest of the leadership which was important. Social acceptability in the former case, and job opportunities for their family members in the latter. In both instances the vast majority of the members of the caste would derive little direct benefit. The contradictory behaviour is now revealed in the leadership calling themselves "Chauhans" when giving personal identification (so that they are seen as Rajputs) and calling themselves "Rawats" when it comes to elections or filling job application forms.
There is no history of the Communist or Socialist party in the rural areas of these tehsils. There was a Communist party base in the cloth mills in Beawar 25 years ago, but it was confined to the urban areas and wage and work related issues. There has been no Gandhian, Sarvodaya, or even any local political movement or leader who has left a lasting impression.
The political illiteracy of the entire area is illustrated in the reaction to the Sangathan and its activities. When the initial confrontations with established vested interests took place over wages and land, a rumour was deliberately floated that the Sangathan was a Naxalite organisation. When opponents found that it was a word and concept completely beyond the comprehension of local people, they declared the Sangathan a communist organisation. To convince others they argued that the MKSS is not Congress and was not BJP then what was it? It could only be Communist. The name of the organisation, its symbol, the issues it took up, the way members lived were all indicative that the MKSS was Communist. And when local people expressed incomprehension of the term Communist, they merely said that Communists were "against God and therefore dangerous".
When the shop began functioning, the trading community let it be known that low prices was only because the shop was being subsidised by Communists. When the shop did not shut down in response to a BJP sponsored Bandh call following Advani's arrest, the BJP District President- a well read lawyer shouted out that money from Moscow could not be used to run anti Hindu shops in Bhim. When a local boy pointed out that after the disintegration of the Soviet Union Moscow was out with a begging bowl itself and even if it gave money, it could now be only to further capitalist causes, the biggest post war political upheaval was simply ignored! It is a theory that is still spread by the Sangathans opponents.
A lack of political understanding is apparent through the fear of terms and ideas like communism; workers rights, equality, accountability, a caste free society. These are very obvious reasons for the stagnation of this society. If politics is the art of collective possibilities; then this is an area that was unlikely to experience concerted efforts at political change, simply because
there was no exposure to, and knowledge of, the possibilities that societies can create for themselves.
This was a problem that was faced within the Sangathan. There was a firm conviction that certain issues were non negotiable and some priorities clear. However the Sangathan would evolve its own ideology. The lack of any local political understanding meant that the ideology had to be born out of issues. There was also the necessity for a strong ethical base. But modes would be identified. This, as will be seen later was a strength as well as a weakness. It is only now, in the process of writing the study that categories can be defined in the process of an emerging ideology.
What does each party stand for? While on the National or even state level it may be possible to identify what each party stands for, very few voters or grass root workers would know about differences even in broad terms. The emerging lobbies and identification is very strongly along caste and religious lines. Parliamentary democracy is a process that should have broken such barriers in India. But on the contrary it is very rapidly cementing them and presenting a political future of debates, decisions, and divisions not on issues related to development but leading to the promotion of action based on narrow loyalties. Any creative change requires the strength to overcome such divisive barriers.
The question of leadership in a peoples organisation had to be discussed with the members of the Sangathan, against this backdrop. Traditional leaders were never really part of a democratic process of selection and choice. Money and status decided the matter. Now leadership had to be seen differently. These had to be identified from amongst the members of the Sangathan. The creation of a set of circumstances which would provide opportunities for growth to oppressed groups was found to throw up leadership from amongst them. Once there was an understanding that the mission and its goals were political, the concept of political leadership would change. Systems of accountability would determine the health of the leadership and controls over aberrations. It was also necessary to state and show that leaders have to publically practice what they preach, All activities also had to be governed by the same value system. These were also basic requirements.
THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY
"Where the capital is without fear,
And profits are held high,
Where markets are free,
Where trade has not been broken up into fragements,
By narrow domestic walls,
Where patents come out from the depths
of knowledge,
Where tireless advertising stretches its arms
towards consumerism,
Where the clear stream of free enterprise
has not lost its way in the dreary desert sands of Socialism,
Where the mind is led forward by competition,
Into ever widening aquisition and consumption,
Into that heaven of freedom , my father,
Let my country awake."
- with apologies to Rabindranath Tagore.
The New Economic Policy has hit India, much harder than most of us realise. Those of us who understand its ramifications will reap some immediate benefits from it. So there is at best an uneasy silence. A few have broken the silence and protested. But even the protest has proved the inability of the intellectual or concerned political parties to ward off the consequences. How can they in any case, when none of their creditors are willing to listen to them. As Bharat Dogra says
" Reporting on the neglect of Third World view point frequently seen at Uruguay, a Brazilian expert Amb. Rubens Ricupero has cited the example of how 20 Third World delegations had submitted joint proposals at the investment negotiating committee, only to have their submission totally overlooked by the group chairman when he prepared his own draft version of an agreement on investments. Ricupero commented, "The situation is akin to one where the cook asks the chicken with which sauce would you like to be eaten? When the chicken answers it does not want to be eaten, the cook says, "I rule you out of order." 31
The results of such an attitude is revealed in the Bangladesh Finance Ministers address to IMF members.
" On IMF's role in Bangladesh, Renee Sigerson reported in EIR, New York, `The Finance Minister of Bangladesh, A.M.A. Muhith shocked the staid pin striped crowd in Toronto at the annual conference of the International Monetary Fund on 7th September when he reported that "millions of his countrymen will die of undernourishment" but that "bankers do not see dead bodies, they can only understand a loan default". 32 (Bharat Dogra)
It has not taken long for structural adjustments to interfere with basic economic support programmes. The Rural Development budget has had a sizeable cut inspite of budget sanctions having been obtained earlier. We wait to see what trickles down to the villages through the JRY and other programmes. An average of 15-30 man days of employment in a year for a family below the poverty line was possible within the programme. This was not an assurance or a guarantee, let alone an entitlement. Now, the employment offered is likely to be even less than 10 days in a year. No matter what safety net the government and the world bank may talk about, programmes which were already a mere formality are being cut down. They are being made heavier in terminology but much lighter in allocation. As Bharat Dogra explains "
"Government expenditure on welfare activities including health, education, rural employment and anti-poverty programmes, is likely to be cut down, as expenditure on these is relatively easy to cut compared to the on-going infrastructure expenses. Wage restrictions are likely to be clamped, or restrictive labour legislation may be introduced which makes it more difficult for the unions to negotiate wage hikes." 33
The new economic policy is changing national priorities Forces of laissez faire and privatisation are going to render certain laws more difficult than ever to implement. The priorities of the poor in India are not going to be the concern of a powerful foreign power, hell bent on creating economic dependencies and developing total control. As Ms. Chandra Hardy explains :
"In a recent testimony before a Congressional committee on hunger in Washington, the role of the World Bank and other MDBs in alleviating poverty was assailed by a former official of the World Bank Ms. Chandra Hardy. She said that policy requirements in Structural Adjustment Programmes place the "heaviest burden of adjustment on the poor". At the same time the MDBs " shy away from conditionality that world require progress in reducing income and wealth disparities, such as land reform, on the grounds that these are too controversial." 34
In every debate on macro economic issues and addressing inequalities there is an immediate fall out of hopelessness and despair. And yet solutions are again and again sought in a macro context. The problem is that the large is formed by its constitutent parts. Each constituent part carries both the disease of the larger body and the ability to mutate and change. What gives hope is the possibility of making such mutation possible at the micro level. Hoping, planning and working for the 'great change'.
The new economic policy has had impact locally. More and more departmental works are being privatised and executed through contractors. Funds for developmental programmes are being tailored to a safety net concept, where development funds must be used `to keep the nose of a drowning population above water.' Even development terminology was changing . Poverty alleviation or `Garibi Hatao'was no longer the goal. Survival, in an atmosphere of structural adjustments was the new priority.
Structural adjustments was a term people would not understand easily, but years of dealing with the local moneylender had taught them exactly what interest payments on debt required. Therefore explaining the influence of Western countries had over India because of the loans we had taken from them, was easy to understand. The world does after all move in the same concentric circles although their radius may be much wider.
Chuunibai looking at the new economic policy, would say:
"You told me that I should not pawn my jewellery and mortgage my land. I know and you know too that it leads to complete slavery, bondage and economic servitude, How come the "intelligent" leaders have done the same to the country? How do you or can you explain such conduct? Is this shortsighted ness or opportunism?"
The people had seen the cutting down of ration quotas to 2 kgs per person per month at the time it was needed most because the Fund/Bank combine wanted the food subsidy reduced. For an area that had been fighting for payment of minimum wages, there was an awareness in the MKSS that the same institutions were holding out release of funds for a rural employment programme, until their condition of waiving minimum wages for these programmes was met. The MKSS had seen the effect of liberalisation in the plethora of consumer goods that passed through the area in trucks on the Delhi-Bombay highway. We had even become aware that potato chips could cost Rs.200/- per K.G. if they acquired a brand name called "Uncle" and advertised the fact that they were made in machines imported from Switzerland, and were untouched by the human hand! What was worse was watching the children of the local elite demand and get these chips to eat. The country was learning rapidly about advertising and its ability to make fools out of everyone.
Rural Rajasthan began to understand what privatisation meant in local terms when the supply of cooking gas was decontrolled. As soon as the Government announced this policy, a number of companies opened up agencies for imported cooking gas in Bhim, Beawar, Devgarh and in fact in every small town and city in Rajasthan. For days they took loudspeakers into every village advertising the opening and closing dates of booking. Credibility was provided by Sub Divisional Officers and District Magistrates doing the inauguration. The MKSS found that these people had to pay Rs. 2 to 3 lakhs for being appointed agents, and decided to investigate. The economics of all the agencies is similar. So, one illustration will suffice to reveal the advantages of the new ` consumer based' attitude in the private sector with its password of competition and free trade.
An applicant has to purchase an application form for Rs. 250/- non refundable. As soon as he is given a connection he has to pay Rs. 1000/- Rs.900 as deposit for the cylinder, and Rs.100/- for the cost of the first cylinder of gas. The gas will be supplied after six months.
The absolute profits made is quite shocking. The money taken for the application form is clear profit. Nothing is given in return except a piece of paper. The cost of a cylinder is actually Rs. 400 to Rs.500/-. Therefore even from the cylinder deposit Rs. 450/- per cylinder is pocketed by the company and its agent. The numbers of consumers per agency varies from 2000 to 5000. A look at the profit of a small agency before even a single cylinder has been delivered reveals the following:-
For the application form - Rs.250 X 2000 consumers = 500000/-
On the deposit - Rs.400 X 2000 consumers = 800000/-
-------
Minimum money acquired before gas is given = 1300000/-
In addition to this, it seems very likely that the 2nd cylinder of gas will cost atleast three times the amount that the first cylinder costs. And finally that the quantity of gas in these cylinders will be a fourth less than the Government supplied gas people are familiar with. So the consumer pays more money for less gas.
There is no agency that passes on this information to the
people. There is no protection available against this kind of open cheating. This is only one example of the kind of product which has reached rural markets. As import licenses are freely distributed, and the free market is allowed to function one can expect to see more such examples. There is no evidence of a growing consumer movement which would protect consumers from such forms of duping and exploitation. In its current obsession to present rosy stories of the "new economic freedom' the press has also hailed the privatisation of such gas supply as the growth of a new consumer movement in India.
The method of fighting this kind of entrepreneurship would be the flow of information on th one hand, and an education campaign which would expose such fraud on the other. However, it is not enough to merely criticize. It becomes necessary at the same time to present an alternative world view.
CHAPTER VII UNDERSTANDING ONE'S OWN STRENGTH
It goes without saying that the existence of a Sangathan was a basic prerequisite to taking up any collective economic activities. It was a response to a demand that had come from within, and it was a step the Sangathan was taking consciously.
But this shift involved many risks. The greatest was the risk of destroying the credibility earned through years of an honest process of popular struggle. Many of the initial 'rules' in the functioning of the Sangathan had contributed in large measure to this sense of honesty. No money had come in from outside. No money was collected locally. In other words the Sangathan had stayed absolutely clear of dealing with money directly, and was consequently immune from allegations regarding monetary corruption. The Sangathan had deliberately acquired no assets, and was therefore poor like its members. The MKSS had no vehicles, no office, no paid workers, no affluent contributors, shown no conventional political aspirations - and yet it had created tremendous energy time and time again. Hundreds, and even thousands of people had been mobilised by the organisation without spending any money. Political parties had to provide transportation and a meal free of cost in order to attract people to their meetings. Here they saw people paying their own fare, bringing their own food, contributing grain and fuel to sustain a dharna, and coming in larger numbers every time the police threatened any action. The outstanding feature of the Sangathans meetings and movements was the very large numbers of women. Always more than half, and sometimes as many as three fourths women took time off from their homes, animals, children, and work to have their voice heard. This perhaps was politics of the most basic kind. One half of the population which had never been able to raise its voice, was speaking and shouting collectively on the very basic issues of living- Food, work, employment, land, and wages. It revealed a genuineness that just could not be discredited.
There were two options open to the Sangathan at this point. To continue to mobilise the poor, or to try and use the base we had, to move into other spheres of activity. The easier one was to stick to the formula of mobilisation of the poor to make demands. Increasing empowerment through modes of adversarial politics, and widening the scope of issues and geographical area.
This would involve minimal risk to the Sangathan. Having achieved some degree of success in the use of pressure groups and building support structures for the poor, the Sangathan was now being pursued and sought by other groups of poor people. Many issues and disputes were being sorted out on the precedent of past success. The focus on certain issues had begun to change perceptions. The credibility those positions had acquired resulted in success with much less effort than before. Each little success then resulted in greater publicity and as a growing political organisation of the poor the Sangathan leadership could not have hoped for much more.
No single individual can take on or even inspire such an effort. If one is looking for collective solutions, then the ideas themselves must also be born from a collective. For the poor,
their only hope for change lies in the formation of a collective that is sensitive to the needs and aspirations of the disadvantaged. The enthusiasm and commitment required to counter the opposition of an entrenched system had to come from the Sangathan as a whole, and it was only if large numbers of people participated and put together their minds and efforts that we would be able to attempt such a journey.
The risk was that we might well end up making a mess of things. There was great trepidation that collecting money (as would now be required) would lead to allegations of various kinds. That one blunder, or even loss due to circumstances beyond ones control could lead to bankruptcy. After all, unlike the capitalist the Sangathan had no capital to risk, and no gestation period possible. Honest Sangathan people would be forced into the world of private enterprise where dishonesty is the norm. The MKSS had to chart out its own course, with little guarantee of success. With failure we risked the future of the Sangathan and the very real chance that it could have grown into a genuine political movement for the area. Many friends advised us to not stretch categories too far,
"Labour, should be labour, and fight for its collective empowerment. The lines drawn between labour and management are essential to the building of organisation of the poor. The changes we want in the system can be implemented after political power passes into our hands. Providing temporary relief prevents change. Energies will be diverted from essential requirements of struggle and organisation building if we begin to take economic activities in our hands."
These were all precepts that we had lived with also. While others were saying it, there was a little voice within us agreeing with them. A mistake, a failure during a confrontation could be rectified and the struggle would go on. But failure here, could wipe out the possibility of organised opposition. And if MKSS did manage some kind of success then would it change from a Sangathan of workers to a Sangathan of businessmen? We were vexed with these questions not just at the time of beginning such work, but all through the year that followed.
Why then did we take up such works?
The world had changed in the last 5 years. The capitalist paradise was accepted by power structures all over the world. Even those who rejected this world view had to contend with the controls its institutions had over their lives. Controls were now excersired through financial and business enterprises. The World Bank and the IMF had a recipe to offer which fed not just themselves but also the ruling elite in third world countries. For maverick nations they were willing to spread a carpet of bombs. When profits are sacrosanct, and devouring consumerism is paradise, then responses to this new form of colonialism must also be inventive. If it is no longer guns, but money which control resource drainage, then the revolution can also no longer come from the barrel of a gun. One can face guns with guns, but one must also find ways of preventing the throttling control of money. The field of battle had to be economic, where the primary motive of profits had to be undermined. No society which holds profits to be the primary indicator of progress, can talk of sustainable development, environmental protection, or about equality and poverty alleviation.
THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE COLLECTIVE
Just over a year has passed since we had our workshop in Chapli. The workshop was a watershed in the Sangathans growth. Significant and major decisions were taken, which determined the course and nature of the Sangathans work in the months to come. These decisions were taken for three primary reasons. The first was the fact that a peoples organisations had been born and taken root. There was a collective strength which was making efforts to organise and give itself direction. The collective realised its new found power. It had confidence in the talents of the individuals within it. It had tasted success in small victories and seen some of the linkages to larger structures. It was bound together by a very loose ideology not articulated through words, but emerging through action. Its greatest strength was a commitment to an ethical code. It was this commitment that allowed for tremendous energy to be contributed to collective causes and to build up a social ethos. To realise that ethical motivations can allow for tremendous change, and that a change in perception is all that is required to prepare the soil for a new ideology. One that is rooted; honest enough to accept that it must change as it goes along. That collective perceptions will emerge as one acts and reflects provided time is given. The threading together of these collective perceptions eventually results in a growing ideology.
The Sangathan was also in a crisis. There were many talented people who had been identified, but the limited scope of periodic struggles did not provide enough of an opportunity to use their talents. The success in little and larger struggles had shown that change required fighting the establishment on a much broader front. Each victory only revealed many more battles ahead. The trend in national regional and global eco/socio/political spheres had repercussions which were not only felt but also understood by the core group of the Sangathan. The environmental and ecological situation did not require the Rio conference to tell us we were in a crisis we could see it all around us. We knew that solutions must come from us, but we had very few to offer. Fighting the Government and corruption had been a convenient and important issue for organising but a realisation of the severe limitations of the Government was becoming very clear to us. Struggling against it had not just cum asked it, but also revealed its very great impotence in being a mechanism for change or development.
Within the Sangathan also, questions of structure and formal leadership were emerging. There was pressure and questions from outside keen to place us within a conventional framework, demanded answers at the very least. Loose collective leadership now had to be formalised. Issues the MKSS were uncomfortable with had to be faced.
Issues relating to money also had to be taken up. So far it had depended on contributions of time and at most grain to support on going struggles. Continuous work required continuous time and therefore monetary support. The management of money by a collective for a larger good has its own set of dynamics. There was no ready model to depend on or refer to. Mistakes were paid for but many an innocent mistake opened up new avenues in the realm of possibilities.
The Sangathan was being too ambitious. We took decisions we were unable to implement immediately. But having done something successfully against all odds was increasing collective pressure to do more. Later in the year the Sangathan was forced to form more realistic decision making bodies, and increase the sense of responsibility of individuals in the collective.
This attempt to create a concept of development rights of rural workers did take the activities of the Sangathan to a new plane. We wanted to have some control over the local economy so that we could make it dance to a different tune. A year has passed, and the process has only just begun. But that fact that powerful groups have had to organise against us, seems to be a good indicator of success.
WOMENS EMPOWERMENT AND THE SANGATHANS GROWTH
Women are the most exploited in all societies. In a poor society, they are discriminated against by both poverty and gender. But in some ways because of the need to work, women have greater mobility and freedom than the women in the middle class. The difference in the last few years , is their recognition that they are at the bottom rung of the exploitative system. This self recognition has come about mainly through struggles against exploitation with men, on shared areas of concern like hunger and feudal oppression.Gender sensitisation has come about through a recognition of women's power in the struggle. Because 70 % of the male population is on migration, women have tended to assume leadership roles in fighting oppression outside the village. A working class woman is already an individual who has a clear and distinct role as a bread winner. She is not afraid to enter the broader universe. She is distinct from women in the middle class who are still fighting to get their roles outside the home accepted.
Though they are 80% of the female population their voices have not been heard strongly enough.
A position that was stated a year ago in an article in Seminar:
" There is both strength and a sense of myopia in the over all categorization of women as a single category....... there are horizontal criss crosses which still remain operative separators.Not only do they merely separate but support norms that continue to divide...... there are points at which women may and do have different priorities and even contradictory positions.When the class and caste interests intervene,where do the interests of the poor women stand ?"35
It is also necessary to state that women from all classes and castes have got together to protest over issues that have affected them . In Rajasthan the two major instances have been the `sati' incident of Roop Kanwar and the rape of Bhanwari. In the case of violence against women the spontaneous support from women's groups across the spectrum has been phenomenal.
On economic issues however, the divides are more clearly visible.No statement for and behalf of women has failed to touch upon poverty and poor women's needs. But the fact remains that when there is a statement of economic rights the positions cannot be clearly defined. It is to the credit of the womens groups that they have been able to keep the dialogue going.But there has been no mobilisation for the right to employment or work done for wage entitlement across the canvas.Even if one looks at recommendations made by the planning commission or special groups of women, the working class woman's priorities get prominence in recognition but are very weak when specific strategies are spelt out. The reasons clearly lie in their non-participation in such discussions, and their inability to operate in that idiom. And ofcourse, the complete inability and lack of intent of the others to accommodate the working class idiom and priority in their paradigm.
In working with women therefore some operational choices have to be made. In the case of the MKSS the choices are both at the idealogical and operational level. The Sangathans main and only pre-occupation are poor women. This deliberate choice doesnot rule out involvement with women's issues in the larger context or with issues that relate to exploitation and discrimination but do not apparently have anything to do with poor women.But the Sangathan's membership of poor women decides the priority of their concerns.
Roles- who defines them ?
Government chooses to see womens issues as women's development. The issue of women's empowerment has been seen in structural terms in much the same way as the scheduled castes and tribes have been.Infact in many meetings and recommendations of the Government, it is not uncommon to see SC/CT and women.What are the roles envisaged for women by the State ?
The first structural recognition is through reservation of seats. Though it may sound flippant, it is not incorrect to see the corollary between seats reserved for women in buses and in other structures. In both cases there is no entitlement for the poor. As Noji ya once said , one had to wear a sari and be a behenji to lay claims to women's rights in the eyes of the State, even in a bus !
Take for instance the reservation of seats for women in the Panchayat. There is no way a poor woman can get anywhere near getting elected. Because in the hierarchy as it stands today, even her menfolk who are one step higher than her do not merit recognition. The women who will, by and large get elected will be those put up by the powerful, who have learnt how to play dirty with electoral politics. Mostly the women may not fare very much better than the co-opted women members to the Panchayat, who have been no better than a rubber stamp.
" In all these debates about reservation of seats,representation and visibility of women there is a disturbing underlying question which seldom gets posed. Which women ? Who are the women who will get room to get elected to Panchayats,State Assemblies and Parliament.? What values will the process bring with it ? Given the present levels of social constraint and political awareness what kind of women will become representatives of the group ?
" If the category of women is going to be linked with other specialised ones like scheduled caste and tribes,the solution will pose similar sets of problems like the ones that already exist. A separated effort made within the same exploitative system, will at best serve to make space for women,and at worst to condition them to absorb and retain values of the status quo.All the normative values that skew society today will be reflected in it. The part will of course organically have the same composition as the whole." 36
In thinking of women's economic roles the Government has stagnated with the concept of income generation. The definition and re-definition of women's income generating activities has absorbed all their energies. It has taken many decades for them to recognise that poor women work and that they need a different kind of support. Even after the recognition of the role poor women play in the economy, they donot want to take up the issue of women's right to work. They end up at best with supportive women's income generation activities. DWACRA is an excellent case in point.
Technology is another modern smoke screen. Under the garb of modern inventions, the use of technology has very often reinforced the power structure and marginalised women. Technology is not just mechanisation, reduction in manual drudgery and an increase in productivity. Nor is it neutral. For most rural women technology is another handout. In this process there is a class and gender bias. The popular point of view handed down through learning institutions and development strategies in national and international policy, sees technology as:-
- neutral, faceless and dealing with absolute standards. Technological intervention, especially through mechnisation is seen as primary and imperative to development and progress. All other issues remain subordinate.
- a separate and self-contained package which is seen as crucial in product in the saving of national resources. This intervention of technology frequently occurs in areas that are non-mechanised and poverty prone.
- fragmented and relating directly to the hierarchy in society. There is for instance a technology for women, for the lower castes, for the poor, the rich, for the village and the town, for the more literate and the less literate.
- an end product . It could be a handpump, a smoke less chulha, a loom. The evolution of the technology and its use are seen as two mutually exclusive processes.
Government also sees the increase in productivity as one of its goals for women. The planners see income generation and technological inputs as leading to economic betterment. The problem is that there is little or no connection between the problem and the input. Very often the technological intervention has led to the trivialisation of the concept itself. There are a number of such ?
The new economic policy has affected or is liable to affect women the most, they will be first one to be laid off. With men loosing jobs in the small business enterprises it has been reported that many of them are now doing "women's" jobs. Women form the largest number in the unorganised sector which is likely to be worst hit. Women both locally and in a larger context have little or no control over the processes through which the market is controlled.
Some of the roles inflicted on women have not been of their choice. Poor women have often been furious when suggestions of alternative technologies and skill learning are made when they are faced with hunger and illness. The insistence that women change roles to suit a middle class vision of development and empowerment are patiently heard but dismissed in action. For women to play male roles to ensure their empowerment is as ridiculous as asking them to take solar cookers to save fuel. In the first case they may not want to play male roles, and in the second, they donot have enough to cook.In any case male roles today are an integral part of many exploitative structures and processes. They themselves need to be reviewed. Is it not necessary to allow the woman freedom to take her own decisions ? In the final analysis this kind of process could end in the destruction of feminist thought itself.
CREATIVITY- WHOSE CHOICE ?
There is much to be learnt from the current status of women's work. Not all of them see their work as drudgery. It is surprising how many of them see their work as creative. The problem is that the new systems of easing work has not relieved women, Either machines have rendered them jobless or ignored them . Women complain that their main physical problem is backache. All work demands bending. The worst period is weeding. Their house work and specially cooking isnot seen as drudgery at all.
Women have had the ability to keep feeding a family, working and cooking in the most adverse conditions. They have great resources to make the most of very little. They manage the household and yet it sits lightly on them. A working woman in a middle class home with far more to support her, finds it far more difficult than she does. The women during the terrible drought years of 87-89 managed to keep families from destruction- fed and looked after illness. They also came out in large numbers to protest and take up issues with the Government.
Women run much more than the home. They are responsible for managing to keep the fuel wood supply going. They have been managing and are responsible for the animals, from grazing to milking to performing veterinary jobs. They also churn the buttermilk. It gives them more than 50% share in the economic function of running the household.
They perform 70% of all agricultural occupations. They decide on many of the aspects from sowing to harvesting.And yet men are the `farmers'.Given all this, it is remarkable that they should be reduced to sewing machines and rollers of papads.
EMPOWERMENT AND CREATIVITY
Womens participation in large numbers in all protests and their continuing interest and participation in all Sangathan activities is testimony to their understanding of political and economic rights.
Women's empowerment is not merely the performing of 'male' roles. If society has to change the male roles with also have to be reviewed and changed.Bhuriya, Chunni Bai, Hanja Bhua are great leaders who are fearless in confrontations,even with the police.They however find it a great struggle to learn the nitty gritty about markets. They do not have the comfort of an idiom they know. If the Sangathan continues to work with the market, the younger generation of women will perhaps find it an area of interest. They should be familiar with the idiom of the market by then.
Women migrate from the area seeking work in a radius of 500 kilometres. They go to work as construction labour as well as workers in small scale industries . These women migrate for a part of the year and come back to look after their land and home.
Increasingly however, women have been laid off small units and they have had to return home to face unemployment and hunger, as Maithreyi Krishnaraj writes:
"The threat of further marginalisation for the masses of women in India looms large, in the face of policies that seek to expand privatisation and the role of the market. "37
It is therefore natural that women would feel the need for adversarial politics and protest. The hunger of their children and the impossibility of finding work has made them understand the need for struggle.
The existence of the women's movement,is threatened by the fundamentalist revival. The only hope to successfully counter that, lies in the movement identifying itself with the most oppressed and making their problem the central focus . This has raised a completely new set of disturbing questions. Answers to which have still to be worked out.
" Perhaps the group with the greatest potential to pose a counter to the fundamentalist revival is the poor and most specifically poor women. They have gained the least and the suffered the most from the fall out. If issues of hunger and oppression, which are critical to the poor are raised, then the red herring of tradition and religious revival will not be accepted so easily."38
The first issue that the MKSS took up was minimum wages. Since men migrate in great numbers, women form the bulk of the work force. In the case of government employment women are often 80-90% of workers. When they raised the issue of non payment of minimum wages it was infact an issue that was theirs. In the many small and the two larger struggles waged in Bhim, the women played a pivotal role. They understood the details of the struggle as well as displayed enormous courage in facing the authorities.
The issue of collective rights over common land that was taken up by women in Sohangad, was also an area that concerned women. In fact all land matters are material to the life of working women in general. In the case of commons, women understand its relevance both for fodder and fuel. The women formed a village organisation to fight for land rights against a Jagirdar. When they were face to face with violent and repressive measures unleashed by him, they were fearless. Infact much less under mental tension than the men. Four years after the struggle, they now control 25 hectares of land where they have developed a mini forest. They have also evolved methods of collective management of the land. An interesting aspect of this episode was the attention paid by the men, including the older men in promoting womens visibility and articulation as a necessary pre-requisite in the battle for economic and political rights.
Whether the Sohangad experience is seen as a struggle for rights over forestry or land, there is no doubt that women felt it was their issue.
Women have not wanted so far to participate in work that involves long periods of absence from home. Their roles as mothers and wives are important to them.It is important though, that they think of alternatives to traditional roles. But they must decide what they are to be. Their approval and support to the MKSS's role in the intervention in market and in the fight against consumerism, has lent immense support to the struggle. In wages and employment the women were at the core of the struggle.In the entry into the market however, they play a supporting role. Their understanding of adversarial politics has been mature and deliberate.Whether mobilising to go to Jaipur to protest or fighting for rights locally their involvement has been invaluable.
IDEAS BORN LOCALLY
Specific ideas must be born locally. The identification of activities must also be locally determined. The transference of a national concern into a connected but relevant local activity, does two things. It gives the activity an import beyond its immediate , limited local relevance. In other words it establishes linkages which deal with the feeling of isolation and insignificance, which tend sometimes to demoralise localised action. But more important it translates a theory which is remote and incomprehensible into an activity which is understandable. For instance the New Economic Policy seems relevant only if it is related to the local market and explained in its context. The issue of seeds and patenting in the Dunkel draft gets understood very easily when the shift is understood in the dependencies for seed created by the introduction of the dwarf variety. When local workers-men or women find a method of making a deliberate local intervention, they understand the linkages with larger processes, and that understanding in turn leads to greater local success. As Ela Bhatt says in the Economic Times of January 15 1992 .
"The experience of women in development in India, has shown that given the opportunity, the poor women have got organised and have improved their lives by running programmes on their own-be it in the area of education, banking, dairying, environment, drinking water or childcare and in the process they have attained self reliance and generated local leadership. The emphasis of the new policy on relaxing government controls and giving free rein to private enterprise. My point is that poor women given the chance have proved that they are as enterprising as any businessman, without being exploitative but through cooperatives or collective groups."
"But for this to happen, the precondition is the restructuring and reordering of power to take place at the local level. "39
Chunni Singh a Sangathan member who has never been to school, addressing the May Day rally in Bhim, managed to communicate the importance of the shop , not only in relation to its control on prices locally; but was able to relate it to inflation.He called upon the local traders not to see this shop run by the mazdoors as a threat, but to see themselves as victims of a system that would soon finish off the small traders, so that ` bigger seths ' would prosper. He went on to say that communalism was always a threat to the sanity of living. The horrifying fall out of religious strife is an extreme example. Inter caste oppression and then intra-caste divisions are all manifestations of the same limiting , dogmatic nature of man.
Chunni Singh's enlightened oratory was born out of a keen and complete understanding of the economics of politics.His years as a worker in Ahmedabad, his childhood spent working in dhabas, his stint as a construction worker in Rawat bhata earning 0.25 a day was his education. His great compassion for the oppressed, his intimate knowledge of the methods of exploitation and oppression have led him to to the Sangathan. He gives it time sometimes inspite of pressing economic needs. He has at such times an ambivalent position, knowing both the need to collectively organise and the amount of time that has to be invested in such ventures to see that the movement doesnot collapse.
Chunni Singh is a brave and courageous man. He epitomises to an extent, the spirit of rebellion that could as easily have gone into that of a petty local exploiter using his dare devilishness to extract some local power to ensure his personal comforts. Instead of which he became something of a local Robinhood. Under an assumed name he waylaid and threatened mill owners and managers in Gujarat to pay workers their dues.
Chunni Singh'insticnctive reactions to economic ventures are a fairly good indicator of what would be good for the poor in the area.
In the initial years there was a desire to work with people and organise them, but there was a real famine of ideas both individually and collectively. There was an acute drought , the worst in 80 years. That gave initial shape to work. The conceptualisation about the organisation was at best described in negative terms, of what we would not do.There was no idea of details.
It has become clear in the post - independence period that the politicians cannot contribute towards development and change in a localised sense. Their tenure is devoted to accumulation of personal wealth and the show of power by affecting transfers and postings. Their patronage is closely linked to pay offs. There is no planned vision of the needs of the area, nor are these priorities clear. It has become a foregone conclusion that the local "neta" is going to benefit his family and his clique. The needs of the people are a non-issue.
Good bureaucrats come with pre-conceived ideas of change. They also have hobby horses and a one or two point agenda. It may be literacy, forestry, land reforms. The local priorities and needs are brushed aside; or at best dove-tailed into the pre-planned activities. Worst of all, a bureaucrat cannot change or tailor a programme planned elsewhere even when he knows it is unsuitable. The nature of planning makes it impossible for local priorities to get reflected in the plan.The pity is that there is no real desire to change the mode. However brilliant or open the senior civil servant may be the short span of a year or two in the District is not enough to understand the area and see an idea through.
It is worth examining the other structure that has come to exist as an alternative to the Government- the voluntary sector. The voluntary agency has come up ostensibly to fill the vacuum created by the non-functioning ,non-delivering government . The voluntary agency has often perceived itself as a negotiator between the people and the government. While the voluntary agency has clearly spelt out areas of accountabitily with the funders, there is no mandatory accountability to the people. There is no compulsion to be evaluated by the community they serve. They need not be democratic either. They exist as islands . The voluntary agency has its own ideas, but it also has to periodically accommodate itself within the paradigms of development defined by the Government or donor agencies. The compromise is at the cost of the people. Where voluntary agencies have introspected and encouraged participation, peoples aspirations have got drawn into conventional areas of self improvement. The voluntary agencies began work with reformatory zeal and with a mission to accomplish. Today, the voluntary sector offers another career .
Struggles when they occur are contained within specific areas. Voluntary agencies have now accepted that as a mode, protest and struggle are important even within their paradigm. But when struggles have become truly political they have had to break off from the agency inorder to develop their own political identity. The voluntary agency cannot contain sustained opposition to the existing structure. Some voluntary agencies have been involved in long struggles against social injustice and the State. But these have been supporting efforts. The voluntary agency claims its non-political identity as a unique and fundamental feature. Obviously, therefore no political movement can grow from within a voluntary agency. One must however, distinguish between a real voluntary agency and those set up by political parties to act as support structures. As Jeremy Seabrook wonders about the role of NGO's in the current scenario.
"Not only Communism has been laid to rest in Europe, but the socialist and social democratic parties are now all anxious to distance themselves from their sometime close relationship with social forces as the greatest liberators of humanity. In such a climate, with governments of the South equally unwilling to contest Western dominance, where are the voices to be heard stating that the present direction of policy is likely to be an unmitigated disaster for the South, let alone the West, which is concerned only with the maintenance of its existing privileged way of life.
It seems that we shall sleep walk to extinction rather than be bombed into nothingness. This is the monstrous perspective which NGOs should really be confronting and resisting."40
He goes on to say,
"I would like to given one example of where on the whole the NGOs have been less than effective, where in all India it really matters; and that is in the celebrated, tragic, noble, struggle of the Chattisgarh Mukti Morcha; one of the most vital and vibrant of all popular struggles, the embryo of a genuine alternative in the world.
But for the most part, both the murder of Niyogi, and the subsequent shootings at Bhilai in July 1991, occurred without the popular outcry which should have been led by any NGOs who are serious about the business of social transformation and the development of alternatives to the cruel processes now in train of destroying the security of workers, of uprooting people from livelihoods, of evictions and resource-depletion in order to earn foreign exchange, of the murderous advance of an economistic ideology to which the poor-human beings in vast numbers are now the expendable 'externalities'".41
In such a scenario a different structure has to be evolved that will contain , develop, and give expression to poor peoples needs. Which would have an effect on regional values but where the details would be defined by the people themselves. This is perhaps the only way real development can take place.
A hostile environment and a less than subsistence pattern of agriculture, has enabled local people to acquire varied skills which are part a business. It is not necessary to go into detail about Rajasthani skill with shop keeping, masonry, well digging, different kinds of trading and other modern artisan skills. In each skill there has been a separate paradigm, all relating to business. The skilled labour has been that of the workers while others have been managers. But They have acquired skills of various sorts. They have learnt book keeping, buying and selling , and the intricacies of all kinds of trades. They have acquired a wide information base regarding that trade and affiliated ones as well, and an understanding of the business system.
Despite all this the worker remained a labourer, not ever being able to make the shift to become controller. It was natural that the system was viewed with bitterness and anger.
There was great unease in the Sangathan about dealing with business. Like politics, it is a dirty word. There was a genuine fear that money brings dishonesty and corruption in its wake. It is basically unethical. Therefore the Sangathan should stay out of such things and restrict itself to protest and demands. This was coupled with the bitterness felt by the workers against the entire system of trading and money handling. It was with many reservations that the MKSS decided to run business enterprises with an ethical base. By eliminating the profit motive the MKSS rid itself of the feeling that the handling of money is contaminating. The exercise has brought enormous learning. It has enabled the workers to become controllers of their own destiny and to confront and get the better of a system in which they were pawns.
The tremendous information and knowledge base has enabled them to to take on those who have always held the strings and called the tune. For a Sangathan of the poor, it has facilitated a struggle on more equal terms.
The shift in perception has changed the self-image and the role of the workers from labourers, they can now play a role in determining the collective destiny of themselves and others.
PERCEIVING THE GOVERNMENT
In the first part of the study, the Governments perception of labour was examined. Since the Government claims to be "of the people", and Government action is often seen as `public action' it is necessary to see how the rural worker perceives the Government.
Traditionally in Rajasthan the Government has been viewed in very Feudal terms. For members of the MKSS however, as the layers began to be peeled off its projected image, a different picture began to emerge. When thinking in economic terms, it becomes necessary to see the resource input and outflow from the area, and the effect of the resource input. What development in agriculture, Industry, or human resources had taken place? Did a change in Government every five years offer any hope for a better future?
FEUDAL HANGOVER
The people see the Government in much the same way as they saw the feudal lord. Mai baap, datha, anna datha etc are common words used to by the people to address the civil servant, bureaucrat or politician who visits the village. It is not surprising therefore that the people still wait to receive their share of the development cake, apportioned by the powers that be. The fact that they are citizens who have rights, and have claim to their time and services of the Government are ideas which are remote.
The Government is seen as distributing patronage. It is therefore necessary to consolidate ones position by becoming part of a clique, and ingratiate themselves into the good books of the chosen leader. The reciprocal arrangement between the powerful and the powerless is a strange continuation of the relationship between the feudal overlord and his serf.
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT
As the repeated claims of the Government about its development efforts began to lose credibility, the members of the MKSS began to see the futility of hope in Governmental intervention. Neither the bureaucrat, nor the politician had shown any propensity for bringing about change. In fact, for the politician the 5 year or 3 year term spells out the period in which power has to entrenched and the future made secure. The fact that legislators, Sarpanches are put on District or Panchayat level committees means no more than a decorative position, from which other favours can be ensured.The need for continued development plans for the area is no ones priority.At most portions are carved out for specific caste or village groups as a means of pay off, for favours done. There is no continued planning for the building of infrastructure or human development.
At best piece meal development can be ensured. There is no initiation of processes of change in which fundamental changes can be made by challenging the status quo.
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES
Development programmes are used by the local powers as hand outs, with the intention of sharing spoils. Development programmes are such that they cover a small group of the under-privileged with meagre budgets. Even much publicised programmes like the JRY didnot manage to cover a significant number of those who needed employment. Development programmes are therefore part of the paradigm of development of the Government, in which there is only an attempt to alleviate an immediate problem. There is again very little intent to address the basic reasons for poverty or to work towards recasting the priorities needed for more access to resources by and for the poor.
Development programmes are also planned centrally and donot have the intention of decentralising the process. The fact
that uniform programmes are sought to be implemented in a country as vast and complex as India, tells its own tale. So, both qualitatively and quantitatively, development programmes fail to perform.
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT IN RURAL AREAS
A poor and drought prone area like the one the MKSS works in has been and is being by passed by industrial development. Insufficient water and other natural resources, the infrastructure that industry says it needs , has doomed the area. The fact that poverty and hunger exists and that this area is one that feeds a large part of the migratory population to the cities is nto a matter for undue worry. There has been no attempt made to fashion industrial development to suit the area. Apart from the marble and granite mines- a new phenomenon, there is little attempt to look at industrial development in this area.
AGRICULTURE POLICY
Whether larger land holdings in the Jagir belt or the small marginal and small holdings in the Rawat belt, agriculture continues as of yore. In the context of the negatives of modern agricultural development, one can say that this can be interpreted as a blessing. The absence of modernised agriculture has also prevented the horrors of soil erosion through application of chemical fertiliser and the switch from subsistence farming of food grain to cash crops. Nevertheless agriculture department officials dismiss the area because of poor rainfall, and have labelled the farmers `romantic'. They prefer to pay attention to the fertile and irrigated parts of Rajasthan like Ganganagar , Sikar and Kota Districts.
NATURAL RESOURCES
When one looks at the balance sheet, of inputs and outputs one realises that land, water, minerals are an important source of income for the government . So, whatever wealth may be found is appropriated by it, by taxation, revenue, royalties or outright acquisition of land. This is the only form of capital the people can ever possess. By ignoring peoples collective rights over the natural resources, the Government further impoverishes an already poor and under-developed area. Not that by taking control of the resource the government necessarily builds up national wealth. The principal reason remains control of the vested interests over such resources.Whenever natural resources are identified or discovered, the plunder by business leaves the country side denuded ,and depleted. On the other hand peoples control is gentle. Resources are used but not destroyed whether it is forest wealth, minerals , water or land. As Dr. B.D. Sharma says
"The life of the vast majority of our people is linked with three elements, viz., the right over resources, the right over means of production and the entitlement for labour. These aspects unfortunately have either not been properly discussed or, in case there is some discussion, it is mostly superficial. The reason is that the moment such issues are seriously considered, the very foundation of the vested interests which are flourishing in the name of modernity, progress and development, gets shaken. But these are the questions which are crucial for the Welfare of the members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. And what is more, they are also crucial for the quality of national life, basic principles and human values."42
When this kind of analysis began in the Sangathan,members of the MKSS began to feel that one of the vital issues was control of these three elements.There was a growing realisation that the right over natural resources , which was an equal birthright of all citizens, had been stolen by the Government in the name of the people.The fact that the Government had acted for the benefit of more affluent interests, changed the perception that it was a benevolent `giver'.It infact took much more than it gave.
The control over the means of production lay entirely with the affluent.Even in the so called `Public Sector' all the benefits had gone to the organised sector.Worse still, the Government had done nothing to enhance local production.The only time it paid attention was when it realised that mineral wealth existed.At such times the Government promptly displaced the local inhabitants, and removed opposition by promising employment to local people.
The continuing battle for minimum wages on Government works illustrated the Governments attitude to the entitlement for labour.It was clear that there was little hope of getting such a negative structure to do anything for fundamental change.Even pressure to extract concessions from it seemed less and less attractive.Obviously, peoples initiatives could not ignore the Government and its policies. But in order to make such initiatives effective, the Government would now be evaluated more critically.
MY CURRENT PERCEPTION
The Shift to Devdungri
I realised eventually that a voluntary agency with its focus on the setting up of an alternative local structure for development was perhaps not equipped to organise the people for struggles. The voluntary organisation is a good place for re-education because learning opportunities are plenty and the learners can set their own pace and time.It gives the worker an opportunity to look at non-conventional options for change. Importantly, it provides a good opportunity to look at socio-political and economic reality with different assumptions and to understand the psyche of the people. What it cannot provide, is the momentum for confrontational politics and sustained protest. One important reason is because it takes money and therefore has to have conventional accountability and ends up often pushing workers into what are essentially managerial roles.
Organisational work with communities has to begin with some understanding of politics and stated values. Development is politics,and there can be no development without political will. Politics is being used here in its most catholic sense. Infact, all acts of social and economic living are determined by the nature of politics. It is essential to see that before one can begin to work to mopbilise people for change. The reason for the failure of most development programmes has been the inability to see the co-relation. This is equally true of the Government and voluntary sector. Any organsiation for social change therefore, has to derive its strength from the people it intends to benefit.
It must work with them, carrying them along in a process which is politically determined, but which uses all experience as education. To learn about the reasons for poverty, for the denial of democratic rights in an independent country, and to understand too the ethics needed for such change. The oraganisation collectively, and individuals within the collective have to understand the need for leading a non-dichotomous ethical existence. There can be no public integrity and private opportunism .
The organisation's priorities must be decided by the people who form it. Decision making must be democratic,with integrity at all levels. This is extremely important because an amoral perception , or an opportunistic perception of the universe cannot lead to the creation of a world in which equality and social justice, are stated values.
The change from Tilonia to Devdungri, was in some ways a more major shift in perception than the earlier one from the IAS to Tilonia. In shifting to Tilonia the paradigm did not change. The basic shift was only in the perception of what could be accomplished better within the same given understanding of development. In coming to Devdungri, I intented using all that I had learnt in Tilonia to re-define the paradigm of development. To see the whole process of development from a different perspective.
In the case of both the Government and Tionia, I saw my role as that of the initiator. I was a `catalyst', the `agent for change', the one who `intervened for change'. In other words, the perception was that of myself as the leader, in so much as the action that followed was ultimately traced back to a set of actions for which I was responsible. It may have been an idea or a set of ideas. Gradually and slowly I began to understand that the perceptions and ideas exist in different forms in peoples minds already. What really is needed is the time and space, and opportunity for putting them into action. My role was now severely limited in my mind.
If leadership was to be different, then the organisation would also have to be so defined so as to enable the people to manage things themselves. The leadership in peoples organisations has to come from the local area. The issues, the direction, the priorities must be decided by them. I would always have an important role. What would it be ?
I was going to an area where I was an outsider. I would never be able to understand the area quite as well as a local person. But I also had a special set of experiences and a critique of development processes born out of varied experiences. I was born into a class which still remained powerful and dominated decision making. I provided links with and an understanding of that class. So I was useful to the local people.
I had developed a personal preference for simple ascetic living. I felt that one could not work with the poor unless one lived with them as one of them. It was important for me to share the life style physically too.It was important for me to lead a life in harmony with myself, to see work and living as a continuum. This kind of life style facilitates a different kind of communication, where the people see you as more accessible.Finally, when the people who you work with, see the mutual dependencies for living and security, there is a much greater sense of equality that permeates relationships.
PART III
CHANGED PERCEPTIONS AND WIDENING HORIZONS
CHAPTER VIII THE INTERVENTIONS
For a peoples organisation, the degree of success of any public venture depends to a large extent on how much people outside the organisation also understand the objectives of the effort.It is only then, that the effect will continue to spread.The MKSS put in time, energy, and thought into creating fertile ground for this new initiative.
CREATING AN ATMOSPHERE IN THE AREA
The labour force has been traditionally perceived mechanically. In other words their main attributes have been identified as an ability to use their physical energies under direction, for the creation of assets. This view has not changed dramatically in the modern perception and use of labour.
This has resulted in the labour force being forced to look at themselves merely as tools. There has therefore been little attempt by them to either plan for their own development or control and manage the nature of work.
To even give credibility to a new perception, it is necessary to create an atmosphere where such approaches are discussed by a wide range of people. Such discussion would provide the soil for the birth and growth of new ideas in society.
The more active members of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan the "partners" in the project, had already discussed the broad parameters of what they wanted to do to awaken and use the creative potential for labour in the area. The need was to introduce this idea amongst other workers all around and involve many others in this process.
It was decided to spread the message through a series of street theatre performances, village meetings, slogan writing,
finally culminating in a "Mazdoor Mela" - the first of its kind in the area.
Using Street Theatre
It has by now been almost universally accepted that theatre is an excellent mode of political, social and development communication. The Sangathans use of theatre has been defined by its larger beliefs. The drama group consisted of workers themselves. This group of committed and talented people first got together to discuss their experiences and evolve a play/plays based on them. One which would lead the audience to the conclusions, questions and dilemmas they were facing.Shankar who is a member of the MKSS and a born performer records his experience :
"So I came to Devdungri and began working for the formation of a Sangathan. Nikhil, Aruna and I began our effort in 1987. We shared a common concern, and we had several debates about the use of theatre. For me, drama was not important in the initial phase. I did not see opportunities arise where theatre, of the kind I wanted, could be staged. I also had come back to work in a village not far from my home. When performing I now had to face the criticism of not just my immediate family, but of the community as a whole."
Members of the MKSS had decided that the people of the area not only could, but should control the development processes in the area. Such processes had to be collective and labour oriented. Eliminating all forms of "middle men" was an essential prerequisite. And the audience would have to participate in seeking answers to the question of how this could be brought about.They also recognised that a one time performance could only be the opening of a dialogue, and that drama on its own could not mobilise people.
Shankar continues :
"In Devdungri the most powerful communication messages and experiences have been born out of struggles. The longest lasting and the most effective songs and skits have evolved during dharnas and other struggles. Dharnas tend to be serious and sombre affairs and attendance depends upon the size of the membership and commitment to the cause. After the first day one usually finds a small group sitting under a tent, playing cards. In Bhim we made a deliberate decision to keep the dharna site alive by using our collective talents to express, inform, communicate, and attract others to our cause. The dharna in Bhim on minimum wages was a dramatic affair. The drama lay essentially in the events which included the Chief Minister making an appearance in the middle of his election campaign and the police which came at mid-night to arrest those on hunger strike."
The Village Meetings
At the end of a 10 day workshop a group of 20 workers, had with the help of street theatre specialists made a 25 minute play. The play and songs were performed in approximately 65 villages in selected areas of Ajmer, Pali, Bhilwara and Rajsamand Districts. The workers had all contributed their own time for this purpose, and were housed and fed by the people of each village where the performances were held. One worker to a house. Each performance was followed by a village meeting to discuss the means of bringing about such change.
The public meetings provided information on misused development funds. Instances of poor development planning and execution. Examples of outstanding efforts by workers. The potential areas where employment opportunities could be better used, and new ones created. Instances of non payment of minimum wages on both Government run and contract works were discussed and the growing awareness of it as a right of all workers was enhanced. Finally, it became obvious that the poor did see their environment as exploited like themselves and therefore saw the necessity of solutions that addressed both as related problems.
New Slogans
The Sangathan had used slogans and wall writing in the past to emphasise issues of importance. Young volunteers went around from village to village writing on walls slogans that highlighted this new campaign:" Eliminate the middle men. Development, employment and labour are workers issues. Controls must shift to the workers. Solutions must come from the community of workers."
The Mazdoor Mela
The culmination of this "fresh approach" was a Mazdoor Mela in Bhim. It was a mela not just for workers, but run by workers themselves. It was both a large public meeting and a mela. All the stalls were run by workers on a no profit basis. The stalls were to cater to the workers of the area. Jelebis, Pakoras and Tea sold at half the price and were of much better quality than what was available in the market. Inexpensive clothes were made available at rates only offered to whole sellers in distant fabric towns. Kulfis, sweets, cucumbers and tomatoes, and channas available at a third of normal prices helped add to the mela atmosphere. Along with such "shops" were stalls where labour related information was available. The shops and stalls all opened towards the stage, where opinions and suggestions were invited as to how solutions to the crisis facing the area and its people could be creatively tackled. Songs, a "magic show" by a scientist de-mystifying magic, and a rally through Bhim beginning from, and ending at the mela grounds , kept the mela alive and active.
The suggestions approximated those that had been articulated during the performance in the village. But the fact that they were coming from workers interspersed with illustrations showed that the process had begun to take root.
It was now time to give concrete shape to the ideas that were being articulated.To decide on which activities would be undertaken first. To plan out in meticulous detail the mechanics of such enterprises. To set a date for their commencement, and a framework for their monitoring. All this was worked out in the three day workshop held in Chapli village in the 2nd half of September, 1992.
THE WORKSHOP
The participants for the Chapli workshop were 33 of the Sangathans most active workers. They were from the adjoining districts of Rajsamand, Bhilwara, Pali and Ajmer. They were invited by name and most of them had been the active participants of the preparation activities leading up to the workshop. The workshop was for three days.
The workshop in Chapli was to be a turning point in the Sangathans activities. The Sangathan had thus far only taken up issues of collective protest and pressure on the development administration. Economic issues were viewed from the point of view of groups of unorganised workers, exploited by their employers and absolutely without any controls on the management, execution or nature of their work. They were commodities in a surplus labour "market" where, by the laws of the market no surplus commodity could command a price.
Therefore, their only means of protection was to organise, unite, and by means of this unity try and ensure that norms more favourable to workers were also adopted and enforced. This entailed a sharp divide between the management on one side, and labour on the other. In this new framework there would be an attempt to take over management of enterprises and try and shift the controls to the workers. The most important change in values would be the denial of the over riding principle of private enterprise the profit motive. It would be an attempt to show that when the larger collective runs things for the development of itself and the area, public good becomes a genuine primary motive.
The opponents in such a struggle remain the same. It is only that the means of control are taken away from them so they find it difficult to fight. It is, in a manner of speaking beating them at their own game. Much as a landlord flounders once his land is taken away from him, the capitalist flounders without the controls over labour and all capital. In order to prevent the Sangathan from becoming another vested interest certain safeguards had to be maintained. What were these?
The first was to ensure that the benefits remained open to all, and that entry into the new management group was not restricted.But it was even more important to ensure that the enterprise benefitted a larger number of people.In other words, that the poor of the area had a stake in the success of the enterprise.
At the time the campaign began, it was stated that:
" 1. Concrete steps will be taken towards forming of rural labour co-operatives/unions which will make their entry into local mainstream economic activity and initiate new kinds of collective economic activity.
2. Payment of minimum wages will become an issue on both Government and private works.
3. Discussions and networking for an Employment Guarantee Act in Rajasthan will result in a concrete blueprint for the kind of act needed. This will be a result of discussions amongst workers and articulated by them. In this process involvement of interested economists, academics and lawyers will be actively sought in the formulation of the Act.
Between the time this was stated and the workshop in Chapli,two important events had taken place which made the passing of an Employment Guarantee Act seem like an idea whose time had simply not come.
The first was a coming together of about 2000 workers and farmers in Nimbaheda in Chittorgarh District.About 400 members of the Sangathan went to Nimbaheda where one of the primary objectives was to explore the possibility of pressurising and convincing the Government of Rajasthan to pass an Employment Guarantee Act.The workers who had gathered there saw it as an unrealistic demand.People from different parts of Rajasthan said that the Government allocated such negligible amounts for Famine Relief Works and other employment programmes, that to expect
it to pass such an act was unrealistic. As workers said, the Government was unwilling to pay minimum wages even on the few man days of employment that existed. Where was the chance of it passing a law which would require a budget provision far exceeding their total revenue?
The second was a visit to Bhim by the Secretary Rural Development from the Government of India- Mr.S.R.Sankaran in July 1992. In the discussion MKSS members had with him, it seemed clear that the Government was not willing to allocate more resources for rural employment programmes. When discussing the JRY, the country's largest employment programme, he was informed that families below the poverty line were getting only 6 to 15 days employment in a year. The targeted number was a 100 days employment.He expressed the helplessness of the Government which, he said did not have the resources. The World Bank had also begun to put pressure on the GOI to waive the protection of the Minimum Wages Act, for employment programmes.
It seemed more pragmatic, therefore to use the available energy elsewhere and postpone the mobilisation on this issue.It was better to use the provisions of the law, and Government policy in a manner where it would have an influential effect.There were many provisions in Government programmes which if implemented, would increase accountability of the system.The JRY as mentioned earlier had very little effect on the quantum of employment provided to each family below the poverty line.However, because it was a Government programme it was very much in the public eye and enforcing its norms were likely to have a salutary effect on having such norms accepted on other works also.For instance, payment of minimum wages on JRY works did not make a significant difference to the income level of the family directly.But it made it easier to demand payment of minimum wages on other works- both Government and private.Conversely, if the Government itself did not pay minimum wages, where was the possibility of getting it enforced on private works? Therefore at the time of the visit of the Secretary Rural Development, GOI. the Sangathan decide to focus on provisions in the JRY manual which would have the impact of increasing accountability of the system.The note presented to Shri S.R. Sankaran focussed on the `Right to Information', `Minimum Wages', `Time Rate, Piece Rate Work', `Mud Works and Pucca Works', `Late Payments', `The Ban on Contractors', `The Role of the Supervisor', and `Corruption in Government Works'. Each issue was accompanied by illustrations from the districts of Rajsamand, Pali, Bhilwara, and Ajmer. The note was as follows:
THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION
JRY has been designed to provide easy access to information regarding every aspect of its functioning. Decentralisation to the Panchayat level was expected to perform this function. Field level experience shows that it has not happened. Both the Panchayat Samiti and therefore the Panchayat do not part with public information. This results in fraud, misuse of funds, incorrect selection of works,and the negation of social audit as contained in the JRY Manual para no3 Chapter 6.
Examples
1. Barar Panchayat (Bhim). In March'91 the Sangathan attempted to conduct a social audit along the lines contained in the Manual, on two occasions. The Panchayat cancelled the meeting once, and the Sarpanch and Gram Sewak absented themselves the second time. There is no provision in the Manual for corrective action against the Panchayat and its functionaries.
2. Dhapda Panchayat (Mandal) In March'90 a social audit was held with the help of SDO Bhilwara. Inspite of his presence, the Sarpanch absented himself from the meeting. Many
irregularities were found. But no action has been taken till today.
3. Badkochara Panchayat (Jawaja). A small sanction for a well (drinking water) was made two years ago. The well was not constructed. Diversion of funds from subsequent sanctions for the construction of the same well has made the villagers suspicious. Despite several attempts to get information, about the original sanction, no information has yet been
provided.
4. Access to muster rolls is universally denied., before, during and after completion of the work. This is the most important reason for misappropriation of money from the workers. (labour component). There is no provision in the JRY Manuals (Central and State) for providing this information.
Where information was provided
When information was not provided by the Block Office in Jawaja, Collector Ajmer provided the Sanghathan with a copy of expenditure incurred on JRY during the year `91-92'. This enabled the Sangathan to compare the expenditure with physical work. It was found that against the expenditure of Rs.4000/- on social forestry in every Panchayat in the Block, in all the Panchayats visited by the Sangathan (15-20) there was no information about the sanction and no physical work done. This amount may seem small but adds upto and over a lakh when the whole Block is taken into account. The SDO is cognisant of the facts.
If information had not been provided by the Collector and SDO, such misappropriation can multiply.
Policy Recommendations for Central and State Governments
1. Apart from providing for social audit, there should be clearly spelt out punitive action for not following the provisions.
2. Muster rolls should be accessible to any person at any time during or after the work. Payments must be made in the day, in a public place. People must be allowed to see the entire muster roll if they so desire. Power should be given and responsibility fixed if the information is denied at the Panchayat level.
3. All information regarding all JRY Sanctions should be painted on the walls of the Panchayat Bhawan.
4. A time frame for corrective/punitive action must be provided in the manual for violation of the rules discovered during the course of social audit.
MINIMUM WAGES
For the last 4 years there has been continuous struggle because of non-payment of minimum wages on Government employment works in this area. Despite an upward trend in payments minimum wages continuous to be seen/perceived as a maximum wage.
Problems with policy
The Rajasthan Government Notification dated 28th May 1991 has the following problems :_ 1) The Government has increased the task for each worker to a level beyond those recommended by the Supreme Court Committee . Therefore while the wage was equated with the minimum wage prevalent, the task was increased. ii) The" fall back minimum wage" makes space for a minimum below the minimum-this is not only a contradiction in terms, but also negates the concept of a minimum wage and contravenes constitutional rights.
There are problems within the current notification in its implementation.
Examples
1. Sohangad, Tal Panchayat (Devgarh) Construction of a primary school in Sohangad was sanctioned over a year and a half ago. The village provided free stones and a donation of Rs.3000/- for the school. The work completed exceeded the required measurement given to them . Yet they were paid only Rs.14/- per day. When the workers refused to accept payment the Sarpanch gave an undertaking in writing that the workers would be paid Rs.22/- from that point onwards. Payments are yet to be made. The argument for non payment of the minimum wage of Rs.22/- was not on the basis of non completion of task given.
2. Kalalia, Kalalia Panchayat (Raipur Tehsil) In January of 1992 a road was constructed in Kalaia village. Payments were later made of Rs.10 and Rs.12 per day. Not only were minimum wages not paid, but even the payment of the fall back minimum wage of Rs.14 was not made. No measurements were taken. Inspite of applications and reminders being sent no action has been taken in the last 3 months. When the BDO, Project Director DRDA and Collector Pali were contacted they denied any knowledge of the notification (with the fall back wage). Copies of the notification have been provided to the administration but no action has been taken.
3. Dhand, Surajpura Panchayat (Jawaja Block) Workers were employed on building a road. Men and women were paid different wages for the same work, although the JRY Manual clearly states that there can be no such wage differential. Applications have been given several times but no corrective payments have yet been made.
4. Badkochara Panchayat (Jawaja) In a school building in Badkochara, payments were made at the rate of Rs.10 per day. No muster rolls were maintained and no measurements made. After complaints an enquiry was conducted. Since work norms were met, payments were made at the rate of Rs.14/- per day. But since the work was undertaken after the issue of the notification raising the minimum wage to Rs.22/- an additional sanction was asked for to make the remaining payments of Rs.8/- per head per day. This was a year and a half ago. The additional payment is yet to be made.
5. Different payments in different departments. Barring the Forest Dept almost no other government department pays minimum wage as a rule. The same workers go to work for different departments and the great difference in the trends of amounts paid show show how irrational the task norms are. The irrigation department in Bhim and Devgarh Tehsils for instance is paying wages well below the minimum and has been consistently doing so for the last 5 years.
Policy recommendations
1. The notification of a fall back minimum of Rs.14/-should be revised and a single legal minimum wage rate alone should be the norm. Actually the minimum wage is a fall back wage.
2. The notification issued on 28th May'1991 by the Government of Rajasthan should be examined and the task required should revert to the recommendations made by the Supreme Court Committee.
Recommendations for proper implementation
1. Where wage payments are found to be faulty the workers should be entitled to punitive damages within a specified time frame. Provisions should be made for disciplinary action to be taken when the implementing agency defaults. This would include cases like the one in Kalalia (violation of the existing notification) Sohangad (wrong measurement) Dhand (unequal wage) and Badkochara (payments without muster rolls)
2. The departments or Panchayats that are consistently paying less than the minimum wage should be held responsible not only for non-payment of minimum wages but also for the inefficiency in actual performance that it indicates. In other words a department that seldom pays minimum wages is also continuously doing less than the required quantum of work, if indeed work has been below task norms prescribed.
Such departments must be held responsible and suitable action taken against them.
TIME RATE, PIECE RATE AND TASK BASIS
The Central Government Manual states that both time and piece rate cannot be used simultaneously (para 26.5) The State Government Manual is ambiguous. However in practice in the State a `Collective Task measurement' is used along with compulsory time bound attendance. The specific problem that this creates in mud works and construction work is examined separately below.
Examples
There are numerous examples of payments of less than the minimum wage on construction works. These include Sohagad school (Devgarh) Barar School (Bhim), Kot Kirana School (Raipur) and Adikakar school (Bhim).
Policy Recommendations
Pucca Works
1. Workers on construction sites should be employed on a time rate basis. If they do not work they should be struck off the muster rolls. If any task norm is to be used, it should be applicable to the quantum of work the mistry has to do per day.
2. The labour, material ratio should be made realistic and revised so that there is no room for misappropriation. True employment figures are vague because the total labour component is used as a primary indicator of man days created whereas labour component funds are used to meet the larger financial requirements of material on all construction works.
Mud Works
In mud works, the task rate norm is used in such a manner that an individual who wants to complete the task and get the minimum wage, simply cannot. The reasons are primarily that the work is collectively measured and averaged out. Both time and task rate are used together, and the minimum wage is actually a maximum. The injustice to the worker and the disincentive inherent in such a system is obvious.
Examples
Almost every example of mud work illustrates the faults of this system. The Barar case where the Sangathan went on a dharna and hunger strike was a test case based on these issues.
Policy recommendations
1. The concept of task should be replaced by a true piece rate which would include the following:-
a) Individual measurements should be given and individual measurements taken.
b) Based on these measurements separate payments should be made to separate people based on their work done.
c) If less work means less money then more work should rationally mean nore money, in other words the possibility of earning more than Rs.22/- should exist, or the worker should be able to leave the work site as soon as the work is complete.
2. Time and piece rate should not be used together. The workers should be able keep their own hours and only be responsible for showing the work completed.
LATE PAYMENTS
Another important issue for a poor worker is payments on time. The JRY manuals (Central and State) are very clear that payments should be made within 7 days and at the latest within 15 days of the muster rolls being completed. However, the experience in all the four districts where the Sangathan works, shows that payments are rarely made on time and are often delayed as much as a year to two years. After getting 7 to 10 days work in a year, when payments get delayed by as much as 12 months, the whole point of the employment programme gets vitiated.
Examples
There are numerous examples of very late payments. Sohangad and Hirola in Tal Panchayat (Devgarh Tehsil), Biar Ratanpura (Jawaja Block), Neelwa in Thana Panchayat (Mandal Block) are all recent examples of payments made approximately one and a half years after the work was done.
Policy Recommendations
1. The provision of payments being made within seven days to fifteen days should be strictly enforced.
2. If payments are not made within the specified time frame then accountability must be fixed. The workers must be entitled to punitive damages for late payment. They must also know who they can petition in case of late payments. The use of courts is no practical solution for a poor worker, who has neither resources nor the time required in every court battle.
BAN ON CONTRACTORS
One of the surest ways of denying minimum wages to the worker and increase possibility of using second rate material and fraud, is to employ contractors. The use of contractors is prevalent even though quite often no contract is signed on paper.
Examples
The schools of Titri, Palra and Samelia Panchayat (Bhim Block), the anicut in Hirola, Tal Panchayat (Devgarh Block), most of the Indira Awas Colonies and numerous other cases of JRY works given to contractors are examples in the area.
Policy Recommendations
1. If any JRY work is found to be given on contract penal provisions should be included to deal with those who have given the contract and provisions to recover the wages and materials which the contractor may have cornered.
SUPERVISION
In time or piece rate work a superviser is of vital importance. Without a superviser no measurements can take place, and no work can be managed properly. Work will very often not be done at all.
While the State manual defines the role of the mate and holds him responsible for shortfalls in work, at the most he is removed. But the penalty is levied on the worker, who receives a cut in wages. Where does the workers redressal lie?
Policy recommendations
1. Make realistic provisions for supervisers so that each superviser can be held responsible for the sites under him, for work shortfall as well as payment of wages.
2. The `mate' on the site must be considered a part of the executive machinery and his work share must not be distributed over the workers.
3. If there is a shortfall in work due to lack of supervision, the superviser must be held monetarily responsible.
CORRUPTION
There are many cases of corruption including examples mentioned above. However the JRY manuals make no penal or recovery provisions.
Policy recommendations
Money that has been mis-appropriated must be recovered and penal action taken against the offender. In any case if the workers have been cheated, the money should be returned to them within a specified time. In other words Government will have to fix responsibilities in the official hierarchy to initiate and finalise such matters.
In Chapli it was decided that the Sangathan:
1. Must take up economic activities (in the mainstream)
2. Must ensure that `capital' is collected in a conventional manner without the component of grants etc. Soft loans may have to be considered necessary.
3. Control over such ventures are tricky at the best of times. What measures would the MKSS have to take to ensure that there was no misappropriation ?
4. Who would manage such activities, who has the managerial skills and what would their commitment be?
5. What would be the prioritization of such schemes. Would it be the easiest first, the most effective first etc.?
6. The work should a) Be labour intensive
b) Not harm the environment
c) Provide benefit to the poor of the area
d) Collective in nature and management
7. The Problems foreseen immediately were
a) collection of funds
b) a proper method of accounting
c) equality in wages.
d) giving employment to some and not all
The Specific Suggestions:
There were a number of specific suggestions on what activities should be initiated. They included the setting up and running of a fair price shop in Bhim. The taking over of a Public Distribution System outlet in Devdungri village. The forming of two or three groups which would manufacture cement
roof tiles. A group which would begin the manufacture of note books for school children and finally setting up of labour co operatives that could bid for road and building contracts.
It was decided that three activities would be taken up immediately. The first was the fair price general store in Bhim which should begin within two months. The second was the taking over of one Public Distribution System Outlet in a village within a period of three months And the third the setting up of one cement tile making unit.
Immediate requirements:
1 . Funds
The first requirement for all these activities was funds. Between the Bhim fair price shop, the ration shop, and the Tile unit, a working capital of atleast Rs. 1 lakh and twenty thousand was needed. It was decided that a general appeal would be issued to workers in the area to contribute atleast Rs. 10 each as interest free loans to be returned in two years. To involve the salaried class like teachers and Government employees the Sangathan would ask for contributory loans of Rs. 100/ each, and the remaining amount would be collected from friends and sympathisers with larger incomes.
2. People to handle the enterprises:
Sub committees were set up to oversee the commencement of each of these enterprises. They were to identify from within the Sangathan people who had experience in the management of such enterprises, or who would be suited for such works and needed training before its commencement. They would also be responsible for the working out of all details and requirements for these enterprises and keeping to the time schedule worked out for them
A brief set of points related to those enterprises and the effect they have had are outlined below.
THE FAIR PRICE SHOP IN BHIM:
1. The "Mazdoor Kisan Kirana Store" opened in Bhim on November 16th, 1992 with an initial investment of Rs.50,000 and two full time workers. Both workers had over 5 years experience of working as employees for shop owners.
2. The shop operates on a cash only basis and averaged sales of over Rs.3000/ per day in the first month, which climbed to over Rs. 4000/ per day in the 2nd month, and has now begun to average sales of over Rs.5,500/ per day.
3. Because of the larger than anticipated sales, the number of full time workers had to be raised to three.
4. The shop in its first two months has fulfilled its stated objectives of providing significantly cheaper grocery items to the people of Bhim and surrounding village without running at a loss. The shop in its first two months has kept to a net profit margin of 0.45% . This is what has allowed for significantly lower prices than any other shop.
5. The shop has used a loudspeaker to announce the prices of all commodities 3 4 times a day so that there is a consumer awareness of prices amongst the illiterate also.
The low prices, the tremendous publicity, and the increasing sales have resulted in the following effects.
Effects of the shop : A report after three months
1. A fall in retail prices of edible oil in Bhim to the effect of Rs.3/ per kg. A fall in the price of 'gur' by 0.50 per kg. and in sugar by Rs 0.75 per kg. All other retail prices have also fallen.
2. A reaction of panic from the trading community with the "Vyapari Mandal" of Bhim (Traders association) taking a decision not to supply anything to the Mazdoor Kisan Kirana Store. Any wholeseller in Bhim who supplies any item to the store will be fined Rs.5051/ by the association.
3. Pressure being applied on agents of all companies to not supply any items to the store. The threat from the association being that no other trader would stock the item if it was supplied to the Sangathan store.
4. An attempt to drown out the loudspeaker by playing loud music on more powerful loudspeakers when prices are being announced. The move boomeranged because the publicity resulted in greater sales at the Sangathan store.
5. A delegation of the traders association (Vyapari Mandal) complaining to the District Collector about the use of the loudspeaker. The Collector upheld the right of store keepers to announce their prices.
6. A wave of fear amongst other traders; cloth, shoes, medicines and shopkeepers in neighbouring trading centers that the Sangathan is soon going to intervene in other areas also.
7. A great feeling of achievement amongst members of the Sangathan that the market can be used to the benefit of the poor. Also, that the claims of the affluent people that the poor are incapable of managing is being proved false.
8. A demand from every major neighbouring village to have such shops there also, along with a demand that the Sangathan start a cloth, medicines & stationery shop also.
9. The shop continues its sales despite the ban, by bringing supplies from outside with a greater degree of planning. The Sangathan has also initiated action against the agents who don't supply to the shop by complaining to the companies.
Bharat Dogra visited to area in May 1993 and wrote the following report in the Economic Times of May 30, 1993.
" Fighting inflation at the grass roots:
Recently , a peasants and workers organisation based in Rajasthan demonstrated an important but neglected aspect of the fight against inflation-that citizen's initiatives are as important as macro-economic policies .
This organisation- Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan- had earlier attracted attention for its work in assuring the timely payment of minimum wages at drought relief work sites. While doing this, the Sangathan had for the first time opened up a new front in protecting the livelihood of the people by taking up anti-inflation work.
While the Sangathan's work encompasses parts of four districts in Rajasthan, the semi- rural town of Bhim (Rajsamand District ) is the centre of its work and struggle. It is here that this organisation has recently opened a co-operative shop called Mazdoor Kisan Kirana Store to supply a wide range of essential commodities. The local MKSS members initially contributed Rs 10/- each towards this venture which was backed by a few interest free loans from well -wishers.
The effort concentrated on reduced retail margins and quality control to provide goods at lower prices . It was decided that since those who ran the shop were dedicated MKSS activists, they would take no more than the legal minimum wage of Rs 22.
Incidentally , the senior most member of the MKSS also gets the same wage. Other members of the MKSS also helped to ensure that high quality was maintained by personal supervision of the grinding and cleaning work.For example ,while getting the coriander seeds and turmeric ground,they were asked how much haldi should be mixed in the dhaniya and how much salt mixed in
the haldi, the activists, unlike other shop keepers, insisted on absolute purity.
Predictably, the response of the consumers has been very favourable. the news of good quality and low prices spread rapidly, first among MKSS sympathisers,and then among other people as well.A high turnover within a short time enabled the new venture to meet its target of being able to function at a margin of just one percent.Till mid-April this small shop had already chalked up daily sales of about RS 7,000.During the marriage season of late April-May,however,the sales peaked to nearly double this amount-about RS 14,000 a day.
The new shop not only sold products at a cheaper rate,it also announced its low prices over the microphone.Thus in a market where many buyers were illiterate,the shop's low rates were communicated to potential customers. This was greatly resented by other traders who then petitioned the collector to take action against the new shop.When they failed to evoke a satisfactory response from officialdom,they set up a loud music system near the shop,to drown out the announcements of the rate-list.
This however, had the opposite effect. Several shoppers, attracted by the loud music came closer and eventually found out about the newshop next door as well.
The result was that the MKSS venture succeeded in bringing down the market rates to some extent as other retailers were forced to cut their high margins to compete with them.This had a favourable impact on inflationary trends far beyond the items sold directly by the new shop.
Lakshman Singh, who buys spices worth Rs 20 daily for his dhaba,says that he not only saves Rs 5 a day now by going to the new shop,but the quality of these spices are much better too.Lal Singh,a peasant says that even people from villages nearly 10 km away prefer to buy their groceries from the new shop.Nikhil Dey, a leading MKSS activist says that prices have come down by about 15 percent since this experiment began about five months ago.
Crucial to this success have been persons such as Ladu Singh and Tulsa Singh, who manage the daily affairs of the Mazdoor Kisan Kirana Store. They are not only honest and sincere MKSS members, they are experienced as well, having worked earlier in big grocery stores. As they know the nitty-gritty of buying and selling, they cannot be duped easily. Little wonder then that the bigger traders are now trying to entice them away with higher salaries. But they have resisted all such offers.As Ladu Singh says," The feeling that we are the links in an important part of our own peoples welfare is that keeps us here."
Apart from handling the work of their own shop, Ladu Singh and Tulsa Singh are also training new colleagues such as Madhu and Dhana Singh so that they can set up more such ventures. The next shop is scheduled to open at another semi-rural town Jawaja.
Meanwhile the traders of Bhim have stepped up their campaign against the new shop. They have exerted pressure on the local wholesalers and dealers to stop supplying provisions to the shop. They have even attempted to stop a transporter from carrying their supplies. These patently unfair moves against a small and low resource competitor, have certainly created some problems for the MKSS store. However, they have also worked out their own solution by obtaining supplies from other towns or asking friends to get local supplies on their behalf. Once some traders also tried to force them to close down in support of communal demands, but were forced to beat a shamefaced retreat when all their threats had no effect.
The Mazdoor Kisan Kirana Store at Bhim is a pioneering effort at proving how careful planning backed by honest, dedicated work can defeat inflation at the grass roots and also improve quality. Hopefully , the local administration will do their utmost to protect this effort ( and similar ventures in other areas) from the local vested interests ".
One year after the shop was set up, the situation is even stronger. On the 12th of May a second shop was opened in Jawaja (Ajmer District). The number of employees of both shops is now 10, including a full-time accountant. The sales of the Bhim shop average over Rs.8,000/- per day, and the Vyapari Mandal of Bhim has been forced to withdraw its ban on sales to the shop because it was not proving enforceable and was leading to great disagreement within the body. In fact the `President' of the Bhim Vyapari Mandal, himself a wholesale salt dealer, threatened to resign if the ban was not lifted as he said his own business had been adversely affected! In January 1994 another shop is scheduled to open in Barar, and collections for money in atleast 4 more places is underway, to open shops there. The demand from people is steadily increasing. The Sangathan has also taken a
wholesale license, and has brought in maize @ Rs.3.05 per kg when wheat in the P.D.S is being sold @ 3.75 per kg.
The shop has been a great success, but the real success has been the intervention in the market. The MKSS has seen how prices were manipulated by traders using collusive practices: the very same people who were the strongest defenders of the `free' market. We have seen how every market is manipulated, and the string of middlemen who exist between the farmer and the retailer giving the small and marginal farmer once again the worst of both worlds. The farmer has to sell cheap and buy expensive. The local market is our area of strength and we have therefore been able to see through, overcome, and outmanouvre the local traders with comparative ease. In fact we have been able to manipulate the market ourselves so that retail price levels in Bhim are sometimes as low as wholesale price levels in Beawar. Atleast in some items. However, as we have tried to step out into finding ways around the middlemen in the larger wholesale market we have found ourselves out of our depths. Nevertheless there is a determination to persevere. We know that the larger markets are even more manipulative than the ones in Bhim. We have seen the stranglehold middlemen have on them. But we have seen that exposing the internal contradictions of a so-called free market is a very effective path to a greater share for its exploited `consumers'.
THE RATION SHOP IN DEVDUNGRI
1. The ration shop in Devdungri started under the charge of the Devdungri Vikas Samiti A Samiti set up by the Sangathan to oversee the running of the ration shop. This Public Distribution System outlet was inaugurated by the Secretary and Commissioner Food and Civil Supplies Govt. of Rajasthan on 2nd December, 1992.
2. The ration shop began with an investment of Rs.40,000/
3. One full time worker was identified to manage the shop.
Effects of the Ration Shop:
1. For the first time in the area the three essential commodities wheat, sugar, and kerosene have been available throughout the month. Generally items are made available for merely 2 or 3 days.
2. The private dealer whose license was transferred to make way for the Samiti has reacted by trying to organise his supporters to attack members of the Samiti by supplying them with liquor to try and create local disputes.
3. There has been a demand from a number of neighbouring areas to set up similar Samities to take over the running of ration shops.
4. A true picture of the economic liability of such a shop run honestly will only emerge later. The shop is dependent on sales of wheat. These sales are currently low because the government has raised the price of wheat to Rs.3.70/ per kg. when foodgrain like maize is available in the local market for approximately Rs.3.25/ per kg. As a result the shop has it stocks and money held up and is currently running at a slight loss.
5. A protest against the raise in ration prices was completely supported by members of the Samiti who joined 500 other members of the Sangathan in beating thalis in a protest march in Bhim. The attempt to increase peoples participation in the Public Distribution System has definitely been strengthened by the taking over of this shop.
THE PRIVATE SECTOR
In the private sector the major preoccupation has been with the possibility of shifting controls from the employer to the workers themselves. This would entail eliminating the contractor. Discussions have begun on this issue. The attempt is to visualise in detail the forming of labour cooperatives which can bid for work.
A second area in the Private sector is exploring the possibilities of collective self employment. This too is at a formative stage. Various alternatives and possibilities are being discussed. For example - manufacture of roof tiles, and cheap excersize books. It is also being debated as to whether labour collectives can bid for and run stone quarries.
- Roof Tiles - Labour collective with a new product
- Notebooks - Labour collectives with an existing product
A decision was taken to set up one or two units of collective production. Goods that had never been produced locally, but were basic requirements were identified. After a lot of debate and discussion, two enterprises were agreed upon: Roof Tiles, and Notebook Production.
- WHY ROOF TILES
Housing was never a problem for the people of this area. The basic materials -stone, mud, and wood were available in plenty, and at no cost. Every family built its own house at a time when family members had spare time. Clearing their agricultural land of surface rocks gave them stone. The mud came from local tank beds, and the roof was tiled.
The tiles made of fired clay are placed on wooden rafters. Every family makes and fires its own tiles, and the wooden base is of a local tree called the `Dhokda'. The houses were comfortable, safe, and built at no monetary cost.
While stone and mud are still easily available, roofing has become a problem. The fuelwood crisis has made it impossible to find wood to fire the tiles. As a result, people have been forced to search for alternatives.
The more affluent have begun to change to `pucca' construction . This means roofing using cement, and stone slabs imported from the stone quarries in Bijolia. To support such a roof the walls have to be made of stone and chuna (lime) or stone and cement. The whole technology of housing also changes. The lime and cement have to be bought from outside. Building a pucca house is a specialised occupation, so dependence on paid `mistries' or `skilled workers' increases. All this makes building a house a major investment. Something the poor simply cannot afford.
The housing crisis however, has been a very silent one. Because the more affluent and powerful of the village community have managed to change to pucca construction, there has been no popular and vehement articulation of the problem. It is only when one notices families shrinking into one room from two, that it becomes clear that roofing is a major problem. Alternative roof tiles was, a major need for the community. The poor would be willing to pay for tiles as it would mean they could still build the house themselves.
The alternatives
There were two alternatives. Factory baked tiles from Gujarat are being used locally. While they were a little expensive, we could see their increasing popularity. A committee was set up to find out where they were produced and their modes of production. Would it be possible to manufacture the tiles locally?
We had also heard that some organisations had worked on alternative roof tiling. We decided that the same committee would visit these organisations to see if the tiles they had designed were a viable alternative.
The research
The committee members went to Gujarat and found out that the tiles there were produced in huge factories which were highly mechanised. Apart from the fact that the tiles required a particular kind of clay not locally available, the mode of production made it clear that we would not want to produce the tiles . Our purpose was to find labour intensive modes, while this was quite the opposite.
Two members of the committee went to ` Development Alternatives ' in Delhi to examine tiles they had designed called -micro concrete roofing. They spent enough time there to be able to produce the tiles themselves. They reported to the Sangathan that:
a) The tiles would sell for about Rs.2.50 paise each. About the same as a tile from Gujarat, but because these were larger, fewer tiles would be required to cover the surface area.
b) Since the tiles were made from a mixture of cement and other local material (some of it waste), they were not fired, but "bound" by cement. Therefore they eliminated the need for fuelwood.
c) Production required a small portable machine, and some pre-fabricated moulds. Each unit would consist of 3-5 workers who could produce approximately 150 tiles per day.
d) The machine, moulds and other tools cost approx Rs.40,000. The machine was available in Development Alternatives Delhi.
They recommended setting up one unit to test the marketability of the tiles. They felt that tiles could be produced in conjunction with the Sangathans values.
The decision of the Sangathan
(1) The Central Committee of the Sangathan also felt it was worth setting up a tile production unit. However, because of the paucity of funds a request was made to Development Alternatives to loan us a machine for 6 months. If we found it to be a locally acceptable product we would pay for it and think of purchasing more units.
(2) It was decided that 5 people would be selected to work on the tile unit as soon as it began. They would also take responsibility for marketing.
(3) All the people would draw the same wage as per Sangathan norms. That is the minimum wage.
(4) The possibility of an all-woman tile production team would be explored.
The situation
Negotiations are underway for getting the tile making unit on loan. Sangathan members who have experience with house building have been identified to work on the unit. Work will begin as soon as the machine arrives, either through a loan, or through purchase. The Sangathan has not been in a hurry to begin production because of the prevalent drought. People are unlikely to spend money on building activities at a time when money is required for food and fodder.
NOTE BOOKS
In the meeting at Chapli, another enterprise identified was note book production. Because of the small landholdings, increasing numbers of children - boys in particular were studying up to the 10th and 12th class with the distant hope of landing a Government job. A vast number of school books were required every year. If the Sangathan could produce note books and sell them through the shop at cheaper prices, we could generate production and fulfill an existing need. The Sangathan set up a committee of young college going boys to find out about where paper could
be bought from and where and how workers could be trained in note book production.
The Search
The boys began by calling a friend to train them in book binding. Through taking orders for binding school children's books, contact with school children and an understanding of their textbook and notebook requirements was gained.
The binding turned out to be a bit of a non-starter. However, through this contact with school children the Sangathan began to understand the book racket that exists even in rural areas.
There is a commission system between teachers and stationery shop owners. The teachers require the students to buy `guides' or `Kunjis' along with the textbooks. The booksellers, who can make only a fixed amount on Government supplied textbooks, reinforce this requirement by refusing to sell the textbook without the `Kunji'.
The Kunjis are books of sub-standard printing and authorship, on which the booksellers make profits of 200-300%. Most stationers try to sell all the books in a package - Note books, textbooks, and guides. Producing and selling notebooks would have to take this nexus into account.
One suggestion made by Devilal and Narayan who researched this matter for the Sangathan was that we set up a textbook sale unit also, so that we could give the children an opportunity to buy the textbooks without the attendant guides. Two other members of the committee went to Jaipur to get details of textbooks supply from the Rajasthan Pustak Mandal.
After the Kirana shop had turned out to be a success, we began to get insistent demands from people for starting a full scale stationery store also.
There have been attempts to contact people who would be willing to come and train members of the Sangathan in note book making, but no one suitable has been found yet. Two possible sources for buying paper in bulk have been identified. The potential for using recycled paper has to also be explored.
- Where things stand
The Sangathan has taken a decision to start a stationery shop. The opening should coincide with the new school year in July 1994. Note book production should begin atleast two months before this in order to have a stocks available to sell. Textbooks, as has been discovered can be supplied to any registered voluntary agency, for which the Devdungri Vikas Samiti meets the requirements. In the mean time certain teachers who oppose the teacher-stationer nexus will be contacted and the grounds prepared for opposing the requirement of compulsory purchase of "Kunjis".
- After a year
In Chapli, in September 1992 the Sangathan wanted to explore avenues for new kinds of productive activity. As no skills existed in this kind of tile manufacture or note book production, it was bound to take time to commence. We had to be reasonably sure we were producing something that was needed at a price which would benefit the poor.
In the case of the tiles we seem to have found an alternative worth trying. However, it is necessary to wait for the right circumstances to begin production, so that the venture doesn't fail without it being given a chance.
Both these enterprises were chosen for important reasons. They would provide productive employment, and both products had a social utility. Providing inexpensive roof tiles and cheap excersize books would be in tune with the Sangathan's objectives of empowering the poor. Producing note books, and selling textbooks would aid us in fighting the teacher stationer nexus, and help reduce the costs of going to school.
But more important would be our manner of organising work. Wages on all these works would be equal. Each occupation would be labelled `skilled'. This perception of all labour related occupations being skilled would be propagated amongst people all over the area. Profits would not be the motive- employment for a cause would be. But there would be no employees. The workers would manage their own enterprises and use their own creativity . They would be accountable to the Sangathan and the people of the area. These two enterprises are currently being talked about in different villages. There are bound to be problems after they begin, but we are preparing the ground for support, so that their
success means the germination of a different point of view; not a `profitable business'.
WHY THE BUILDING COLLECTIVE
The Central Committee of the Sangathan took a decision to form labour collectives which could bid for contracts in the area. Since there was very limited employment available locally, It was obvious that construction activity-roads and buildings was the main source of local employment. The only large employer was the Government.
Before the New Economic Policy the Government Departments used to execute works themselves. Now, there was a discernable trend towards privatisation. In this context it meant work being offered on contract. This had a number of local repercussions. For the worker it meant his battle for wages was now with a series of contractors and sub-contractors. In regular departmental works minimum wages were generally paid. In the case of contractors payment of minimum wages was rare. In the new atmosphere, expecting the labour department to respond to complaints of non payment of minimum wages was a pipe dream. The labour department of the entire district of Rajsamund consisted of one assistant labour inspector. He had made it clear that without supporting staff he would be unable to respond to any complaints. Obviously organising the workers to fight the exploitation of the contractors was the first priority of the Sangathan. Some efforts had already been made in this direction. However, it had become clear that it was going to be a long and arduous path. The suggestion that had been mooted was to form collectives, and bid for contracts ourselves.
All the skills required for successfully carrying out such contracts existed within the Sangathan. Sangathan members had ample skills in road building and other construction activity.
If we were to take up such activities the effect would be two fold.
The First would be to give us much greater control over the quality of work. Contractors were continually building sub standard roads and buildings because of the misappropriation of material. As Sangathan members said, Government contracts were for developing the basic infrastructure of our own area. Because of the collusion between the Government officials and the contractors it was impossible to even get information about the quantum and the details of the contract. If contracts would be awarded to labour collectives we would obviously be in much better position to to prevent misappropriation and therefore have quality construction. We would be able to present examples of labour controlled works being of better quality than the ones executed by contractors.
The second would enable payment of significantly better wages to the workers. Eliminating the contractor meant eliminating the middle man. Since the second source of the contractors profits was from taking a cut off the workers wages, it would obviously have an effect on wages paid in other works also, if we managed to increase wages on even a few contract works. It would, in other words give us another moral weapon when demanding payment of higher wages. The greatest strength as the Sangathan had seen elsewhere is an ability to lead by example.
- The preparation
The committee set up for constituting labour collectives presented its first report in January'93. It had found out that in order to bid for Government labour contracts the labour collectives would have to register themselves as labour cooperatives.
They also raised certain questions. Since the Sangathan had taken a position that all workers were going to be paid the same wages (Rs.22/-per day) on Sangathan works, what would happen to those norms in a labour market which operated very differently?
It would be impossible to get `skilled workers' @ of Rs.22/-per day when their prevailing wage rate was two to three times the amount. Did elimination of the middle man mean sharing the profits in a manner proportionate to `market wages'. Did it mean the skilled worker would get a larger share of profits than the `unskilled worker'? These were question that had to be decided by the larger Sangathan committee as they dealt with Sangathan norms.
There were other practical difficulties. The Registrar of Societies in Rajsamund had retired. No one had come to take his place for the last two months. All applications for registration had consequently been held up.
When bidding for Government contracts, the labour cooperative would need a licensed engineer on its staff. This was a requirement in all Government contracts. The Sangathan would have to find an engineer who would be willing to support us in this effort. It was not that we were not in a position to technically execute the works. We had qualified people. They simply did not possess the required academic degree.
A certain amount of seed capital was also required. A small percentage of the amount of the contract had to be deposited with the Government as security. If we were going to bid for larger construction works, we would also have to make arrangements for some equipment.
- The decision taken
The Sangathan asked the labour collective committee to go ahead with registration of the labour cooperative. It was suggested that we wait for the new Registrar to be posted to Rajsamund. In the mean time committee members should also explore the possibilities of registering the cooperative in Jaipur. This would make it easier for the labour cooperative to bid for contracts in different parts of Rajasthan if desired.
The final decision on wage structures was differed until later. However, it was suggested that only minimum wage workers be made members of the cooperative. Those who would draw `skilled workers' wages would be employed by the cooperative and would not be entitled to play a part in the decision making of the cooperative.
The committee was also asked to look for an engineer who held the kind of license the Government required for awarding contracts.
CHAPTER VIII CHANGED PERCEPTIONS
This study began on the 1st of May 1992. The process had begun much earlier. The Study was for a year. Naturally the work does not end in May 1993. What happened in this year, was a perceptible shift in ways in which we viewed ourselves and the possibilities of our growth.As we wrote on the first of May 1993:
MAY DAY'93
A critic of the MKSS was surprised that `May Day' could be celebrated after the dis-integration of the Soviet Union: He seemed to think that worker's rights had been buried under the ground, at least for the time being. One wonders how many know that the origin of May Day lies in Chicago, U.S.A. It is true that the Socialist world has made the day its own and given it prestige and importance, but the struggle in Chicago for an eight hour working day was the first in a series of struggles for establishing workers rights.
The Mazdoor Kissan Shakti Sangathan, in Bhim, Rajasthan, originated as a peasant and workers organisation on May Day, three years ago. Since then the annual celebration has taken the form of a Mazdoor Mela on May Day. The workers in rural India are still fighting battles that have been won and perhaps even forgotten in the affluent North. Eight hour working days are only on paper when contractors execute `works'. The Labour Department, chronically understaffed and with its low clout, most often takes the path of least resistance and takes little cognisance of 'irregularities'. Equal pay for equal work, is still a critical and live issue. Inspite of the Indian Constitution and the continuing women's struggles, the gender differential in wages continue. May Day is full of significance and relevance to the rural working class.
These are not vague generalisations. The PWD is working to repair the National Highway No.8. We would all agree that it is an Indian peculiarity that our roads suffer from a kind of endemic deprivation. The PWD works through contractors who stretch the day to more than eight working hours, besides underpaying all workers. The wage differential also exists with the women being paid Rs.15/- per day and the men Rs.20/-, when minimum wages are Rs.22/- per day. The Telecommunications Department of the GOI which was laying STD lines, sometime ago did the same. If local workers organise against the process, no expense is spared to `import' labour in vehicles specially chartered for the purpose. None of this is news. But for those who work for 12 hours a day for less than the
daily wage, the victory of May Day will continue to provide inspiration and hope that should be news.
With the implementation of the New Economic Policy, the poor are systematically losing their bargaining power, as it is predominantly a buyers market where their labour potential is concerned. In the new perspective, labour demands, strikes and all protests are being seen as a nuisance created to thwart the economic progress of this country. An argument neither new nor as innocent as it seems. Many workers and peasants are still categorised as anti-national and languish in jail or have baseless but vicious litigation initiated against them.
May Day'93 is going to be celebrated against this backdrop. But the pessimism of a person looking at the state of widespread poverty is one perception. How do the poor working class peasants and workers look at themselves and their future? Can the worker afford the luxury of indulging in pessimism and passivity when hunger knocks insistently at the door? Is it not a matter of opposing norms and values imposed by others? The success of a struggle after all depends largely on two things. A systematic recognition and exposure of the flaws of an exploitative system and the ability to perceive a working alternative that allows for a collective dream.
Looking at labour as the lowest common denominator; mechanical and monotonous, has brought great devaluation to the concept of work. This perception of `work' is not only that of the alienated and separated elite but has also influenced the workers themselves. Quite often the response to: "What do you do?" is " I do nothing, I break stones." It is clear and often disheartening to see that these values have gone deep into the psyche of the poor. The Brahminical hierarchy of work is domineering. Beginning from assigning great value to what the head does and decreasing in value as we proceed to the extremities, ending finally in the cleaning of other peoples' garbage. Caste rigidity is its manifestation. Work creativity is still only visible when it defines itself as artifacts or as high value goods. The bricks and mortar of daily existence and the absolute dependence on it are not values that are clearly understood. For one part of society it is one way of cornering all benefits. For the other it is the inability to take time off to review values that make them buy the exploiters point of view.
May Day in Bhim intends to concentrate on the intrinsic creativity of all work. The worker who makes sweetmeats,and produces good tea does a lot more for society than those who sit pushing files around, and sell superfluous goods. The worker's collective will look at itself with pride and regard its role with dignity. It will be a review of a year where workers began to take control of the local market. A beginning of a drive to form labour run collectives. Finally, a perception will emerge which will empower and enable workers to see themselves as managers of both their environment and assets.
A quick and even superficial look at the negative and de-humanising events in the immediate past shows how clearly the poor have retained more of their basic humanity and charity than anyone else. Mainly victims of firings and communal riots; instruments of other peoples political ambitions, they have suffered the most in pure economic terms. They have lost their daily bread. Rendered homeless and unemployed they are now back to where they started. May Day in Bhim will also be the day workers celebrate their commitment to humanity, to the equality of all workers and the shared plight in which collectivism and resistance to divisive forces take on a special meaning. A meaning perhaps lost to many others.
- THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY AND WORKERS RIGHTS
1992-93 has also been a year of great economic change. The Indian Economy has been liberalised as never before. What has liberalisation meant for an organisation concerned with the rights of the poor? What entitlements and rights, if any do the poor have under the new scheme of things ?
The MKSS has had to change the way it viewed the Government . Events of the last year have forced us to keep pace with global changes. Though our objectives have not changed, methods have.The MKSS believes that the worker has the basic right to live with dignity and social justice. The manner of establishing and exercising these rights is changing.
HUMAN RIGHTS VS DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS
The Neta and the Babu
were walking side by side,
They wept like anything to see
that all the poor had died,
Now who will work and vote for us
and who will know weve cried?
"If every day of every year
was dedicated to them,
Do you suppose" the Neta said
"that all the rot would stem?"
"I doubt" said the Babu,
"though the idea is a gem".
(With apologies to Lewis Carroll)
The collapse of the Soviet economy has had wide and far reaching implications. Even in remote Bhim, the so called failure of the socialist economy has excited the opponents of the MKSS.Many deriding remarks were made: ` your dreams have collapsed'...... `the communists are finished'.........`you will have to re-define your goals'........`your party has lost'.......`the free market has won'.........`now Moscow will not support the MKSS'.
The MKSS had made it clear many times that it was not affiliated to any political party. Nevertheless it did seem strange that the failure of India's economy was placed squarely on its socialist intentions. It is ofcourse true that there never was any real socialist economy in India. The adoption of the mixed economic model made it convenient for the country to act capitalist and speak socialist. In any case, the benefits of a socialist system made it attractive for the bureaucracy to adopt at least some of its structures. Socialism enabled the politicians to present an agenda which was catchy and exciting, but meant nothing.`Garibi Hatao', `five point programme', twenty point programme',`IRDP',`Antodaya'`JRY', `RLEGP' etc are examples .It served to lull the country into feeling that something was indeed being done.Even land reforms,which is a revolutionary concept , has only really been implemented in areas where the power equation has changed. What it did do , however, was provide a small fraction of well meaning groups and individuals the narrow space to voice their protest. Sometimes changes were made but the benefits were exaggerated and given disproportionate
press coverage.
This meant that Government activism if it may be so called needed to be reviewed. The MKSS had already been involved in activities that were essentially examining and reviewing the Government's programmes. To examine the Government not only for performance but also for intent.
The Government provided Constuitutional Rights and guarantees. The interpretation of Fundamental Rights was often stretched to incorporate the economic rights of the poor as well. But one look at the country's history in the last 46 years tells us, that inspite of public ineterst litigation, rights exist for very few. If one takes Upendra Baxi's definintion, then there are in India- "citizens" who enjoy rights, and "subjects" who are ruled.Social justice for the latter remains a myth.
The Government has designed poverty alleviation programmes so that there can be some claim that the issues have been addressed. These programmes do not touch more than a fraction of the problem. They concentrate on a small percentage of redressal, tall claims, and ample scope for the distribution of spoils.
The five year plans give the illusion once again that there is a socialist model.As we said in article examining the Eighth Five Year Plan: "It is paradoxical that the State which is the establishment should want to question its own foundation and attempt social transformation. Not only has every Government and plan made the poor and the disadvantaged their focus; but the language of each successive document is more radical than the previous one. There is no intention that the Government has not already sought, no law it has not already reviewed, and if language were to be the indicator, the Government of India, along with all State Governments is of all things spearheading a revolution against itself."
The Indian Government appeared to take responsibility for the well being of the poor. Free health, free schooling, and other aspects of a welfare state were touted as entitlements.But there again, when there were repeated failures in performance, the Government attributed it to a lack of resources and somehow managed to present an impression of taking responsibility for supporting the disadvantaged. The Directive Principles of the Constitution, occasional court decisions, the manifestoes of all political parties had paid lip service to this concept.
All this led to a feeling that the Government could be forced to perform.
The New Economic Policy has removed the veil effectively. The superficial and ritualistic caring for the downtrodden and the poor can no longer be a palliative. All cushioning will go. The poor and the under-privileged will have fewer illusions left about the Government's intent.
The Government with its Western biases will occasionally support human rights of the individual, but not consider economic rights of the poor.There will be no right to work and food. Hunger and death due to poverty related causes will not be seen as a denial of rights.
Poverty alleviation programmes are now being replaced by `social safety nets'. The idea is obviously to provide a pressure valve for a system that is severely oppressive.
The planned economy has been replaced by the free market. The goods the poor bought and sold have always been part of the free market economy. So far as the poor are concerned the free market will make things worse only in degree. The Government claims that the concept of the mixed economy continues. That is the Planning Commission and other super-structures continue to exist. One more method of having the cake and eating it too.
The model of the consumer society has replaced that of the welfare state. The Indian Government has stripped off the mask of goodwill and shows itself to be the `munim' it is or would like to be, showing the profit and loss account to its bankers across the seas.
The MKSS looked at the issue of human rights and development rights in the context of the changes in the last 5 years. Human rights are now defined a la the West and the fight for rights under the law , will now more than ever be available only to the powerful in society. Providing legal aid to the poor will no longer be a priority.Nor will Public Interest Litigation find itself in the forefront of legal action. The law, like any other service,will demand its rightful wage in the free market. And this will be beyond the scope of the poor.
Development rights will now be seen as divorced from human rights . Earlier, development rights were included under the definition of human rights and some action could have been expected from the judiciary.In the new philosophy of private enterprise it is merely a nuisance. Development rights were always given more articulated importance than implementation and allocation showed. Now there is no purdah left to cover the hypocrisy of the position.
Development rights will have to be re-established and battles will have to be fought in areas which were not part of the earlier tradition. Food, shelter, schooling, health will have to be redefined and re-established as rights.As the Government attempts to privatise development the MKSS felt that great care would have to be taken to protect these rights. The basic responsibility of the State to feed, clothe and educate , and look after the health of its most dis-advantaged people cannot be abdicated . The fact that it had failed before is no reason for it to withdraw now. As NGOs and voluntary agencies are being relied upon more and more by the State to `deliver' development handouts , peoples organisations will have to evolve a new definition of public action . The MKSS in the last year has begun a search for that definition.
WIDENING HORIZONS
The whole of the last years effort could be dismissed as one that made virtue out of necessity. To some extent it could be true. The New Economic Policy has forced us to respond and think creatively, or a Jeremy Seabrook has said we, " shall sleep walk into extinction. "
Responding to circumstances is a major part of shaping events. But the changes in the MKSS in the last year have been a positive assertion - not a mere reaction to an event. It has been an integral part of a process that began five years ago.For many of the members of the MKSS, it began decades ago.The decision to begin a study of ourselves and our condition-" Living with dignity and social justice , rural workers rights to creative development" - was a collective one. The conceptualisation and implementation was also a collective effort. The success is the growth of the collective.
One surprising and outstanding feature of the last year, has been the feeling within the MKSS that it is operating from a position of strength. We still feel that the New Economic Policy is designed to benefit the affluent in India and abroad. We feel that consumerism and the profit motive will be the two most damaging driving forces imposed on this country.We watch with dismay as multinationals take control of the Indian economy. However, the feeling of helplessness and impotence has reduced
ever since we began this effort.
The Sangathan has undergone a great change in the nature of its activities. But the number of activities initiated have been few: deliberately so. Great thought was given to what activity should be attempted. Each one of them has required detailed preparation. The market interventions, the production based initiatives, and the attitude to the Government have required great changes in perception.
The market intervention has taken up the most time.It has also been the area of our greatest learning. We always knew that the market was manipulated, we just did not know how much. We learnt that we could also manipulate the local market and the retail prices in the whole bazaar. One shop has grown to two. Beginning with three full time workers, now there are nine. A third shop is due to open in January 1994 in Barar .There are demands on the Sangathan to open shops in a series of villages . There is also a demand that other kinds of shops also be opened- shoes, cloth, stationery and medicines. The shops are a great success, primarily because they do not work on the profit motive.
The production units and labour collectives have had an impact before they have begun. The idea of labour collectives is not unknown. Local mazdoors have sometimes formed loose collectives to execute works. But they have never formalised the process or bid for contracts. For many Sangathan members it is an exciting idea. Many outside the MKSS are looking at the effort with a degree of scepticism. However, the opportunity to fight kickbacks , prevent pilferage of material, construct a good road or building while ensuring enhanced wages is a very attractive one. The effect of the wage question has already been felt on contract works, and on private schools who grossly underpay teachers.
In one school a teachers agitation supported by the Sangathan has resulted in enhanced salaries and better working conditions. The agitation has also resulted in the Sangathan thinking of starting its own school for poor children. This will conceptually oppose the `teaching shops', which have mushroomed all over Rajasthan.
As far as our of perception of the Government is concerned, the New Economic Policy has certainly helped unmask it. It is clear that today the poor don't have the political power to put enough pressure on the Government to make it pass an Employment Guarantee Act. However, they can exercise more control over their own local , natural resources. This is what the Government drains the area of. The battle is eventually one of allocation of resources. Pressure on the State to perform and take responsibility for the welfare of the disadvantaged will certainly be an important function of the Sangathan.But the effect of the pressure is increased manifold, if efficient working examples are provided through genuine public action. Rural workers will have to fight for the establishment of development rights in the new economic atmosphere. For the MKSS, reducing dependencies on the Government while increasing pressure on it, seems to be the best way to legitimise and validate such rights.
Finally, the MKSS states with confidence that its horizons have widened dramatically. A new method has been discovered which reveals the internal contradictions of the adversary more clearly than all our honest criticism could. There is a great deal of energy that has been released. There is hope amongst a large number of people and the MKSS's credibility has increased in a wide area. Action, based on the objective of achieving collective well- being has attracted talented youth. Workers are confident that they can manage their own work and resources,while beginning a process of re-generating the local environment. This changed perception has generated enough creative energy to keep the struggle alive. ***end***