Maharashtra Shining? A Close Look at Rural Maharashtra

Is Maharashtra shining?

Well not entirely, but almost, you could say. Our wanderlust and my work (of making documentary films) has been taking us through a lot of rural areas and the experience has been amazingly educative in more ways than one.

Last year and the year before, it was a drive through a large part of coastal Maharashtra, namely Konkan. A roller-coastal ride, is how I had described my Konkan trip All through our Konkan trip, we noticed tiny hamlets/villages with neat houses, small clean courtyards and loved the Konkan hospitality. The towns however weren't very much to write home about.

This time we had a close look at interior Maharashtra-actually, just a slice of interior Maharashtra, to put it right. Our visit to Bhandardara (one of the prettiest hill stations I've been to, recently) took us close to Nature, in the folds of the Sahyadris and up close to Mt Kalsubai; though the regret of not scaling the imposing mountain, remains.

Coming back to our ride into the heartland of Ahmednagar district's, (Akole Taluka) lake villages(my term for those little hamlets)- one would've thought that being on the fringes of one of the largest lake- Arthur Lake- would mean zero water problems and a great pretty picture for these villagers, right? Wrong. All through our visit in these villages, we found, hardly any of them have water in their courtyards. Except for a few like Panjare, Samradphata and Udadawane, where we saw hand-pumps/tube-wells; all other villages have their women folk(and surprisingly, quite a few men folk too) walking a few kilometres to fetch water in pots precariously perched on their heads.
Talking to our guide, Sonawane, we realise that these villages have not developed uniformly. While many have primary and middle schools, toilet blocks and 'aanganwadis', when it comes to water- not much has been done to improve their lot. We question him as to why there were no waterlines to all villages. All he could offer in reply was that some villagers who could afford, had privately laid pipes for their farms, while others still had to trudge miles for this basic necessity.

Why just Akole taluka? Closer to Pune, in Zendewadi, too, while on a film shoot, I had noticed that despite a lot of prosperity resulting from horticulture yields and farm produce, water and sanitation were the biggest problems. None of the houses in this village has a toilet block!! While we were shooting here, we women crew members had a hard time! When asked, the womenfolk had nonchalantly replied that they all went to the fields to perform their morning ablutions!! Jeez and we think we have problems in the city. When I spoke to one of the more prosperous women there, she said, "If we have a toilet block, it'll need that much more water; when we have to fetch water on our heads, do you think we can cope with such huge water demands, as required to keep the toilet block clean?" Valid point, but then why aren't they too adopting the water conservation techniques followed by some other villages in Maharashtra? For that, she had no valid answer, except that their land was rocky and didn't allow for proper water conservation. I didn't buy that argument, cos there have been startling/shining examples of Ralegan Siddhi and Hiware Bazar(in Nagar district) as well as Gawadewadi(on which I have made a film) where people have helped themselves through sheer grit and persistence and made their villages self sufficient.

The government has been doing its bit for their upliftment, which is amply evident, through the motorable roads all along through the villages, sanitation measures (Hagindari mukt gram-meaning villages free from open air defecation)-yet the authorities have failed their rural responsibilities by not providing water, and electricity. Villages have 12 hour power cuts! It seemed that the basic needs have to be arranged for/struggled for by the people themselves; with or without the help of some willing NGOs.

On the positive side, we do see some move to install windmills, and assume it could be a stroke of luck for these poor villagers and that their wait for uninterrupted power will be over!!

We were certainly impressed by the cleanliness in most of the villages in the region we drove through. We could see children enthusiastically walking, running down from their homes to school, singing rhymes/poems and yes, schools had teachers too!

The 'aanganwadis' or play-schools, are another project that impressed me. While speaking to one of the aanganwadi volunteers, I was indeed touched to see how for a meagre honorarium of Rs 125/month, this lady (in her mid-50s)was doing her job with sincerity. She informed me that in her centre, women are attended to/advised from the first trimester of pregnancy and aided up until their deliveries. The child is then looked after until he/she turns 6 years of age. Women send their children here in the mornings and pick them up on their way to the fields. The teacher however rues that in spite of the school timing being up to 2 PM, mothers took their children away by 1130 AM or so. Well, something's better than nothing, I comment, to which she nods and adds that she teaches children to count from 1-10, recite poems, recognise shapes etc. There were bright posters put up on the walls with pictures of animals, places, people etc. (the aanganwadi was in a rather ramshackle, old room) and a toy horse and car were lying around on which a couple of children were still playing. It was an eye-opener, to say the least. Finding life's meaning in limited resources? Perhaps.

I come away in deep thought and stay that way for a long while as we drive to different spots; as we enjoy Nature's beauty in this part of the state, there are a thousand questions still playing on my mind, making me wonder when and how will we ever rise above all these basic necessities being fulfilled and truly become India Shining?? Beyond just slogans and jingoistic speeches, beyond vote seeking and exploitation in the name of growth.

*Disclaimer: This is just a personal observation and opinion-an ordinary Indian citizen's heartfelt thoughts-not some statistic laden paper!!