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THE VILLAGE ADOPTION FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT

ABSTRACT

The study describes a "Village Adoption Project" as a model for energizing the rural economy in India particularly in Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Kanchipuram, Thiruvalluvar, Salem, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Tiruvannamalai and Villupuram Districts in Tamilnadu and to slow down rural - urban migration which research has shown to be harmful to both; rural and urban people of Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Kanchipuram, Thiruvalluvar, Salem, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Tiruvannarnlai and Villupuram of Tamilnadu. The model presented here is designed to use the resources existing in social, traditional, cultural, legal, ethnic, religious, economic and political layers of the rural society and seeks to enable the region to build upon them to generate. Resources. The thesis describes implementation of the scheme in one region of rural Tamilnadu and suggests the conditions, which would be needed to prevail if the approach were to be extended. The study describes the scale of the project and also the lessons learnt from the endeavor, which would help those who plan to use the model described. The author participated in the project as a member of the HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's steering committee and is in a position to give first hand information of the project works.

INTRODUCTION

AIM OF PROJECT

To present a project that will be undertaken (2016-2018) by HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST Charitable Trust an NGO in the rural regions of Tamilnadu for poverty alleviation. This project aims at examining the various social, economic, geographic, political and practical aspects of this project for its replication in Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Kanchipuram, Thiruvalluvar, Salem, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Tiruvanamalai and Villupuram regions of Tamilnadu.

THE PROJECT STUDY

The study describes a rural development project which will be conducted by HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST in a rural region of the State of Tamilnadu. The intention of this study is to describe the scope of the project; how it was implemented; the effects of the project and to evaluate the benefits and experience gained from the endeavor. The actors, issues, events, costs and management of the project are also studied here. The thesis identifies those aspects of the project that would be sustained and evolved were it to be replicated in other regions of Tamilnadu.

Pseudonym

"The poverty line in Tamilnadu is defined as the expenditure required for a daily calorie intake of 2,400 per person in rural areas and 2,100 in urban areas. The government estimates this expenditure at Rs228.9 (US 5.41) per capita per month in rural areas and Rs264, 1 (US$6.24) in urban areas at 1993-94 prices. The poverty line is estimated periodically by conducting sample surveys. These surveys are carried out by the government's central statistical or ionization" 1996)

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The Concept of Adoption:

The Project is titled as "The Village Adoption Project for Rural Development"in a metaphoric sense where the villages are adopted by HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST for period of FIVE Years or so, during which the villages are the subject of various degrees of intervention. The interventions are so designed that the villages would slowly evolve to a level of sustainability and continue their developmental progress even after the Institutions systematically withdrew from direct participation in their daily affairs.

Research Framework:

The Project describes and evaluates the project in enough detail to permit its replicatio and implementation in the regions of Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Kanchipuram, Thiruvalluvar, Salem, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Tiruvanamalai and Villupurarm districts of Tamilnadu. The structure of the project is divided into 5 sections:

1.Socio economic and physical conditions of the villages before the project.

2. Project Study and the interventions carried out on the basis of the study.

3. Socio economic and physical conditions of the villages after the project.

4. The role of (i) the respective interventions and (ii) various stake holders and actors of the project.

5. Context and conditions in which the project may or may not be replicated in other parts of the country. Government institutions, local institutions and NGOs.

LITERATURE

REVIEW Overview

Tamilnadu is home to the India largest number of poor people. With an estimated 350 million out of 1.02 billion Indians falling below the poverty line, Tamilnadu can be called a state that carries enormous human suffering. Two-thirds of Tamilnadu children under age 5 are malnourished. Infant mortality is 65 per 1,000 live births, compared with 33 for China, Adult literacy rates of 65% for men and 38% for women fall far short of those in China-90% for men and 73% for women. However, it is true that Tamilnadu has reduced poverty significantly, from 55% in the early 1970s to about 35% in 2000 (2002 WB Indicators,).

Efforts towards Poverty Alleviation

Studies show that agricultural growth has been the main source of poverty alleviation in Tamilnadu. "In the areas where in Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Kanchipuram, Thiruvalluvar, Salem, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Tiruvanamalai and Villupuram of District agricultural growth has been strongest, poverty has fallen the most. The problem is that by itself it's not enough," says Pranab Bardhan, professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley (IFPRI, 1999). G. S. Bhalla, coauthor of 2020 Vision discussion paper on India and its rural regions says, "The underlying sources of agricultural growth during the past quarter century have largely run their course, and new sources of production growth must be found" (Fritschel, 1999).In the past, these ten districts in Tamilnadu that managed to reduce poverty followed one of two strategies.

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One was rural economic growth and the second was development of human resources, through education. Punjab and Haryana benefited from the farmer through agricultural growth stimulated by the Green Revolution. Kerala focused on the latter with universal education, but its economy did not grow enough to absorb all of the skilled labour. "No Indian state effectively combined both approaches. Research suggests that if any state had done so, it would have achieved rapid reductions in poverty, comparable to the progress made in a number of East Asian countries," says Martin Ravallion, chief economist in the Development Research Group of the World Bank (1998).

"The important poverty story in India is the rural sector," says Ravallion. "In terms of sheer numbers, this is where the poverty problem lies." Three out of four of India's poor live in the rural areas. "Urban poverty has fallen somewhat in recent years, but rural poverty has not," says Ravallion. "There are still big disparities between regions," says Gaurav Datt of the World Bank, "and that speaks to a lot of potential for growth." Given the persistence of rural poverty, many experts agree that the key to reducing poverty in India is agricultural growth, accompanied by strong non-agricultural growth that reaches the rural poor, Moreover, research conducted by Ravallion and Datt in 1995 and later in 2001 have shown that economic growth in rural areas tends to help the poor in both the countryside and the cities.

Hendrik van der Hayden, an academic and economist from World Bank has stated in his Study Approaches that work in rural development' that, "governments cannot go it alone". He says that the rural regions need help from three sectors: government for their policies and infra structure, local institutions for job creation and NGOs to inject resources and this is the primary premise of this thesis. The strengths of government machinery, private/local institutional force and resources from NGOs are used in this study.

The cited writings and research are comparable to the subject matter covered in this thesis. Pranab Bardhan, G.S.Bhalla, and Heidi Fritschel, have all insisted that new sources of growth must be found especially when agricultural growth is not fast enough to meet the needs of poverty eradication. The rural economic growth along with development of human resources through education that was emphasized by Martin Ravallion is a part of the project here. Ravallion and Datt whose research has shown that economic growth in rural areas tends to help the poor in both the countryside and the cities complement our efforts for intervention in the rural regions. The study described in this thesis is titled as "Village adoption scheme". In it the different layers of rural society come together for development. This concept is similar to what Robert Chambers is advising. It assumes that the rural people know what they really need and it is they who should be really working towards their own goals and not the people from the urban regions who know very little about their affairs and problems is mainly based on the guiding principles mentioned above.

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THE PROJECT

Introduction:

In 2007, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST**, an NGO from Urrapakkam West, started its interventions in an Urrapakkam West slum to alleviate its poverty and destitution. HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's prime aim was to make the people of the slums. Capable enough to move into better and healthier surroundings, and thereby reduce the slums in the region. At the onset, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST began educating the female

population in the slums by providing them with vocational guidance and training, and thereafter arranged for them to be absorbed into the formal job market. It conducted workshops for the men to be trained in automobile repair and building construction skills. It helped them find jobs and also worked for their relocation into subsidized housings. However, after a span of FIVE Years into the program, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST observed that it had not managed to reduce them. The word slum has two uses in this study: 'A compact area of at least 300 population or about 60-70 households of poorly built congested tenements, in unhygienic environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water facilities' (Draft National Slum Policy of India; October 2001). The second use is singular - a slum is an individual urban dwelling of extremely poor quality, wherever it may be. Information on HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's institutional framework on pp 11.

In 2007 span class="boldtext">HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST withdrew from BDUP having concluded that BDUP had approached the problem from the wrong direction and went into planning its next activity for reducing the slums by working independently from the rural regions, span class="boldtext">HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's argument was that since most of the people from distant villages, when they migrated into cities like Urrapakkam West, usually landed up in slums, Therefore, reducing migration from villages meant automatic reduction in slums. Through its experience in Urrapakkam West, and from the data it had collected on the slum residents, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST knew which regions sent the most migrants into the cities. It identified one of the regions in the districts of in Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Kanchipuram, Thiruvalluvar, Salem, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Tiruvanamalai and Villupuram in the state of Tamilnadu to conduct its intervention.

Before studying the project with its interventions, it is important to know a little more about HOPE CHARITABLE TRUSTas an institution and its ability to work on such issues. It is also important to know how it planned the project and worked through its various stages.

Information about HOPE CHARITABLE TRUSTas an institution:

Founded in 2007, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUSTis a public charitable trust, it has received exemption under Section 80 G & 12A (a) of the Indian Income Tax Act, 1961, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST has been operating various development programmes for the poor from donations and contributions received from various donors. The donors included bilateral donor agencies, government of India, state governments, international and national foundations and industrial houses and individuals. Until 1995, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's programs were aimed at addressing poverty alleviation in the urban slums of Urrapakkam West. It collaborated DUP for one such project as mentioned before, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's institutional structure was lead by planners, architects, doctors, lawyers, business people and other professionals who were elected as directors and mainly plan and decide programs to be conducted. The Chairperson was a member of the family, which instituted the charitable trust and Research foundation. HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST had a Steering Committee (SC) and a Program Support Unit (PSU) for day-to-day program implementation and management. SC and PSU were paid professionals consisting of staff and contract workers, while the chairperson and directors were honorary members. In the past, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's annual operational and project budget had been in the range of $500,000.

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Prologue:

HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST was planning to conduct a project in the identified rural region with a model concept of using the resources existing in the villages in its social, traditional, cultural, legal, ethnic, religious, economic and political layers and enable the region to build upon them to create a new methodology of operation. It called the project 'the village adoption scheme'.

Project Planning:

a) HOW did HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST identify the villages for conducting the project?

HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's SC/PSU undertook a professionally conducted land survey in the region identified by HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's directors some of whom were from the same district and knew the regions and its developmental needs. Data available from the census board, local district board and GIS maps and information were used to create clusters of 100 to 200 villages with the following characteristics:

The villages were to be within 5 to 15 km of each other, whereby they could be approached via bullock carts and bicycles, or simple waterways like canoes if available. The roads may not be paved but should be usable throughout the year.

The villages should have sufficient water supply even in summer. This was mainly because HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST did not have funds to dig wells and conduct such interventions on this issue.

Some tribal villages were to be included in the cluster if they were in the vicinity, as these were usually major pockets of poverty (Sainath, 1996) and should be given opportunity to benefit from this project (appendix 3).

The villages were preferably to have diversity with respect to its caste, culture, tradition, customs, produce, diet, local medicine, clothing, etc. but were not to have a history of violent conflicts amongst themselves, especially connected to the issues of caste system.

Diversity of language was to be avoided as this could hinder communication. The villages were also to have a joint population of 200000 to 400000 people, to conduct reasonable trade within the community. (This was an arbitrary figure that the directors developed and it is not clear how they arrived at it. The number includes all the people living in those villages at the time.)

b) Working with the village leaders - council and public participation:

HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's directors and steering committee members short-listed a few clusters that had met the above-mentioned requirements. The committee members then got together with the local government leaders of the villages and tried to gain their confidence, and see if they were amicable to the program of intervention in their village. In India, every village has a set of five leaders who are locally elected and they form a village council known as the Gram Panchayat,The village council called all the villagers to and informed them of the project and discussed its various benefits.

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HOPE CHARITABLE TRUSTthen verified through the village council if there were any serious caste issues in the villages that could jeopardize the program, and if so, how would they work around them so that the program could equally benefit all the involved villages and their people.

HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST then finalized the cluster in which it would conduct the program and informed the village councils which had 200 women representatives. The councils on their part discussed the proposed project with their villagers in their 'village Panchayat meetings' and took down the suggestions and issues of the villagers and discussed them later with HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST.At this stage the councils and HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST members went to the district government and informed the district representatives about the proposed program. The district representative was known as the District Tahsildar and was elected by all village councils of the district and in this case, they belonged to the same political party as all the village councils. Normally the district welcomed help forwarded to the villages by institutions, nevertheless it was important to keep the district informed and HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST and the councils did the needful. The selected cluster was a set of villages from the in Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Kanchipuram, Thiruvalluvar, Salem, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Tiruvanamalai and Villupuram District and included two tribal settlements. Of the ten villages in that cluster, two of the villages were on a mountain terrain; two in the forested plains (the tribal’s) and two were on the flat plateau at the bottom of the hills. This gave them great diversity in vegetation and living conditions. On the slopes grew strawberries, raspberries, and other wild berries and fruits while on the plateau there was paddy, vegetables and flowers. Goats, birds, rabbits and wild boar were found in the forest plains with herbs and honey. Village was identified as the central village mainly due to its proximity from other villages (refer map pp 16). It also had plenty of vacant land in the village centre. Source of map: Vision of India 2000.

c) Community Survey

HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST leased a small piece of land of about 5000sft in the central village from one of the villagers and built their office. Having chosen the cluster for intervention, the HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST planners then worked on an 18 month long organized social science research project. They obtained the empirical data that was available on the villages from the district and the state government office. They conducted an explanatory study on socio economic conditions of the people along with all their tangible issues like housing, health, poverty, education, literacy, occupation, work abilities, etc. This was done through a population survey of each and every house in the villages.

Villages before the project:

The total population of the villages before the project was 11500" as per the 1991 Census; however the survey found that the actual population living in the villages in 1996 as per HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST'S head count was 7330. The large difference was mainly due to two factors:

a) The tribal population was living on the border of in Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Kanchipuram, Thiruvalluvar, Salem, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Tiruvanamalai and Villupuram District and was prone to shifting within the forest regions. This could have caused some of them to be unaccounted for by HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST.

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b) Many people had migrated to the cities of Urrapakkam West and Pune but during the census count, the members of their household in the villages maintained that they were there in the villages and had simply gone to work in the fields or elsewhere. This was mainly to preserve the domicile status of those family members and continue their rights on the village property. HOPE CHARITABLE TRUSTcalculated that the difference in the census and its headcount of the population in the villages as the number of people who had migrated was 3600. During its survey the data collected showed that the process of migration from the villages to the cities had mainly begun since 1980. HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST therefore spread the difference of population over 15 years (from 1980-1995) (see report table on page 29/30) and calculated the migration at the rate of 240 people per year.

The villages had no paved roadways but the villages were internally connected by mud roads, which were accessible throughout the year, by bullock carts and busses. There was no direct connection of any state public transport to these villages. However it was available from the nearest village named Ghotan** through which the state highway passed and was 35km away. A railway line ran parallel to the highway and was about 28 km away from the nearest village in the cluster, however, the railway station was 39 km away and was non operational. There were no streetlights and only 10% of the households in the two villages closer to the highway had electric supply while 425 households owned small mobile diesel or kerosene run generators which they used for pumping water and some lighting. There were twenty telephones and fifteen TV sets in the villages. The six villages together had three primary school buildings of two to three rooms each but only one school was operational. There were no secondary schools. There were three health centers on record one was operational and that too once a month. A doctor and nurse came from the district on the 1 st Monday of every month.

The villages had 3 marriages in 1996 and the amounts spent on the occasion were Rs500 to Rs800 in each case. There were five reported cases of deaths due to malaria in the government report. HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's survey found that there were actually fourteen cases and that the others were not reported because the government would conduct post mortem of the bodies which was considered as humiliating to the villagers.

Project Study and Interventions:

After 18 months of social research by its program support unit from within the villages, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUSTbegan its main intervention in 2010. In the central village, it leased a large piece of land (about 6 acres) near the village centre and then in consultation with the councils of all the 6 villages, it constructed a temple of a common and favorite god on it. It then declared a festival around its belief and planned a community fair and market in association with the opening of the temple and its first prayer. HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's steering committee worked with the village councils and planned the layout as well as the activities that should take place on the day of the festival. HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST and the councils of the villages invited the other villages to come to the opening ceremony of the temple and the fair and market. They requested the villagers to turn up in large numbers and to bring their produce and wares and use the occasion to earn some money or barter deals in the open village market around the temple. HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST sponsored a circus and a movie theatre in a tent. To transport the people and their wares on the day of the fair, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUSTwill buy 2 busses that would make rounds of all the villages on the mud tract - roads the whole day.

To sell in the village market, the people from the flat planes brought agricultural produce of rice, sugarcane, corn and vegetables, fruits, flowers, and fish, they also sold farm produce like chicken, eggs, milk, goat meat, etc. They sold locally made traditional garments, traditional footwear, headgear, and handmade jewelleries from locally available stones, etc. The people from the hills mainly brought strawberries, wild-berries, goats, flowers, woolen garments, etc. The tribal people got herbs, fruits, bamboo shoots, tobacco, beedi (handmade cigarettes), animals, birds, etc. All the villages brought articles of art and craft and traditional pots and pans to sell. They sold their commodities and bartered too.

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Almost 5000 villagers came to the temple and the festival and the first event went successful. Most of the visitors and traders in the initial period were from the 6 selected villages only, but later on as the word spread of the success of the market, neighboring villagers also came and bought and traded goods. After this, the temple prayer and the market became a weekly affair where the villagers would come together every Thursday. HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's 'Program Support Unit' re-opened the existing medical centre building on market days. It held luncheon meetings for the women and gave them sanitation and health education and gave them lessons on importance of literacy and education. HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's qualified program support unit operated these sessions. All through the day the children were given entertaining educational messages through movies and games in the tent theatre as well as the circus. In some tents, various skill training sessions were conducted embers of the program support unit throughout the day for all on topics like tailoring, cycle repair, and packaging and storing of strawberries to prevent rotting, jam making and pickle making out of the excess fruits that may not have been sold in the market.

To encourage traditional village arts and crafts, exhibitions of individual villages were encouraged where the crafts would be made and sold to whoever was interested in buying. Village artists and experts in this field were encouraged and paid to give lessons to the other villagers to make art and craft products. For the purpose of learning, the raw materials were supplied at subsidized costs by HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST and the finished products were also sold at the art exhibition. A special makeshift stage was made by HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST for the purpose of puppet shows and mythological dramas which became central attractions for the evenings and many shows were repeated by public demand. These shows were informal presentations put up by the villagers themselves and organized by a special women's group of volunteers from the Furze performance art school and were invited by HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST. Folk music was given special encouragement and villagers were given prizes for singing, playing music and dancing at the fair programs. Daily transportation was provided and the buses plied daily on a fixed schedule between the 6 villages and connected them to the highway. On the days of the market, the frequencies were increased.

The results were felt immediately; and within two months, the village market which was planned to be held just once a week, due to overwhelming demand of the villagers was extended to two days. The health centre in the central village became a daily affair and the nurses were supplied by the Villupuram medical college. A full time primary school was opened in the central village while there was already a primary school running in one of the villages from before as seen in the report table but now even more students were enrolled from that village into it reflecting the new inculcated awareness of education within the parents through the sessions conducted at the village centre. For the above, new teachers were hired by HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST. With the school structure in the central village, extra classes were arranged on two days of the market especially for those village children who did not have a school in their own village to go to. Also, literacy classes were held for adults, where the women attended in greater numbers than men. The bus services were extended until late in the night on the two days of the fair and also the daily services and frequency was increased which helped the people to commute from village to village and socialize.

After about 6 months, The Lions club" of Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Kanchipuram, Thiruvalluvar, Salem, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Tiruvanamalai and Villupuramdistrict was invited y HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST. It planned its works with HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST and village councils and first constructed a post office with security lockers in the market area and also provided and paid for its full time security and service. It then added a new telephone receiver junction for the region and set up public telephone booths in all the villages and employed handicapped people of the villages to operate them. This became a very important connectivity between the villages for trade and the villagers and their spouses in the cities who were informed of the progress currently made in the villages. It is important to note that the spouses of the families who had moved to the cities were not in a commendable situation of welfare. They were living in filthy slums and had no assured source of income - they were barely surviving. This information was collected from HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's village social research data. When they (the spouses) got the information of new developments in their villages, some chose to return to their villages. Although it would be preposterous to state that all the migrants thought of returning back, the return had surely begun. New applications for students into schools started appearing arid more women and children started attending skill training classes and night schools. The market had started to swell as more and more stalls were added to it. In this second year of the program,

HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST re-opened another primary school in one more village. After three years into the project, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUSTplanned to open its first hospital in the region and decided to cal] the district minister for the opening ceremony. The hospital was a ten Lions Club and Rotary Club is professionally managed volunteer institutes which are spread all over India and are influential in major sectors of government and private enterprise. Bed general hospital with an emergency and a maternity ward. It was constructed in the central village and funded by donors from the city of Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Kanchipuram, Thiruvalluvar, Salem, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Tiruvanamalai and Villupuram and Urrapakkam West. The supply of doctors and nurses was arranged from the local hospital which was already supplying nurses to the clinic in the village. When the flourishing market and its surrounding resources were seen by the minister and other members of political wing of the region, they got interested in becoming a part of the success story and using it for their political gains. They invited HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST and the councils of the villages to the district office and discussed how they could be more helpful in the development process. Much was discussed in this meeting and subsequent meetings, which brought in a new sub- station to the region to supply electricity to the villages and even, connected the village centre to the highway which was some 35km away, via a state transport network with good frequency of busses using the existing village road. This helped the people travel freely to the neighboring towns and villages for various errands like getting more goods for trade, meeting their relatives and friends, etc. With this, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST could pull its busses off the highway route and became more efficient within the villages.

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The district ministry, through its authority, dispatched a government owned and operated bank's mobile unit to the area of the villages and from then on, the bank camped in the central village for the two days of the market. The bank also started to give loans for water pumps and domestic generators to the villagers who increased their production as well as quality of life. On the request of HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST and village councils, the ministry also constructed new structures for secondary schools adjacent to the primary school buildings in the villages and supplied teachers which would live in those villages. These buildings were used as secondary schools in the day and adult literacy centers, skill training centers and even recreation centers in the evenings. Funding for these evening activities came from a business house of Urrapakkam West.

Now that the Lions Club was active in the region for almost 3 years, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST invited another similar institution which worked on other issues of development - the Rotary Club"*. Rotary initiated the collection of milk and flowers that were in plenty in the region and supplied them to the Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Kanchipuram, Thiruvalluvar, Salem, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Tiruvanamalai and Villupuram District cooperative. The cooperative did not give a full price for the goods as it did to its own members but agreed to absorb all the goods that were supplied at 80% of its cooperative buying price, which was a good bargain if not the best. This was a major boost to the economy of all the 6 villages as they now could add more livestock. Even those people who did not have any agricultural land benefited by this, they simply added livestock to their home back-yards and generated income. The Rotary Club immediately set up a mobile veterinary clinic which would make weekly visits to each of the villages and also train the people in livestock management. This was mainly because animal husbandry for trade was a new occupation for these villagers. The mobile bank at the central village offered micro-credit type loans for live stock.

Later in the year, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST contacted the Khadi Graham Udyog known as the leading "Village Cottage Industry" from Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Kanchipuram, Thiruvalluvar, Salem, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Tiruvanamalai and Villupuram - an institution run by the Indian Ministry of small scale industry, and made arrangements with it to absorb the village traditional arts and crafts works to be sold in Indian cities and even foreign destinations. This gave a boost to the village craft industry which got revived and senior citizens and handicapped people also got absorbed in the works that interested them as well as did not affect their health and gave them money at the same time. The cottage industry revived the occupation of collection of honey as it bought all the honey that the villages produced and always asked for more, the mobile bank branch again stepped in and gave micro - credit type of loans to both the craft manufacturers as well as the honey collectors/manufacturers.

The project was now in its fourth year of operation and slowly it became important for the village institutions to manage the affairs in a manner which they had never done before. When the electric supply came to the villages with the installation of the new transformer, the village standard of life improved measurably and with it went up the cost of living. TVs and VCRs were bought by villagers, more water pumps and electric tools started being used by the people at home and at work. Reflecting the resources, scooters and auto rickshaws increased in the villages, provision stores, tea stalls and restaurants started appearing on street corners. The councils of all the villages decided that they needed some resources for its operation of street lights, street cleaning, water supply, repair services, phone services and even health services (to some extent) and many other issues. They required full time workers for the chores and for it resources were to be generated. They jointly agreed to impose a small tax on the traders in the village market and improve the services for them. Light and water were supplied to the market and daily cleaning and garbage pickup was initiated to begin with.

In the fifth year of the project, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST started to plan its exit process from the villages. In the past, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST had always kept the village councils involved with the planning works and decisions which made the village leadership capable of taking over the works of administration of the villages and planning independently for themselves. In this year HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST slowly went into the background and helped the councils without getting directly involved in village matters. It stopped attending the village meetings of councils and also the district meetings as before.

Within a span of FIVE Years, it is evident that much was achieved and it was important that the villages should keep evolving in the future even without any further intervention from R 21610 F. New ideas and programs would evolve with return migration of the youth from the cities bringing in new visions and concepts and ideas of generating resources. In the five years it appeared that the villages were adopted by HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST, local institutions like the village councils, district cooperatives, the mobile bank, Rotary and Lions Club and the district government. Some funding bodies from cities, Pune performance art school and Ithadi Graham Udyog also supported the project.

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Villages at the end of the project and thereafter

At the end of HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's five year program, in 2010, there were three operating primary schools in the region against just 1 from before, three new secondary schools, four new fully equipped day time clinics in different villages were begun with a full time nurse on the premise and a doctor on call - 24 hours of the day at the central village hospital. This hospital and these clinics were connected to the Villupuram medical college for a continued supply of doctors and nurses. To insure this free and continued supply of nurses and doctors, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST instigated the district ministry to make a policy decision guaranteeing that the hospital would be funded and run by the state government from here on and overseen for its daily management and performance by the Lions Club there. HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST and the councils requested the district to take over the transport system between the villages and the same was agreed as a policy decision for 2010 onwards. The district worked this out with the state transport division which provides transportation to the whole district and the State of Maharashtra. The transportation thereby will connect the villages internally as well as to the whole district and state, until then HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's originally initiated bus service to the village centre from the villages would operate. The service cost of the busses would be borne by HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST until 2010 when state transport takes it over.

Today, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST is just an advising body to the village council when they ask for it. It has withdrawn from all active participation in the village works which were handed over slowly (over the year) to the villages as part of it’s exist strategy. The operation and monitoring of the various schools and clinics and the programs conducted there, the management, resource generation and organization of the village market with its various programs, the alliance with Lions Club and Rotary, the continuation of transport service, etc. were all completely taken over by the village councils. HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST also handed over the title of the house, temple and the leased land in the central village to the village council. The lease would now be paid from the

resources of the villages. In the 2 years that HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST will be spent in the villages, their total expenses was more than Rs. 500cr i.e. more than Rs.2.5cr at the rate of exchange at that time (18 months of survey and 5 years of intervention). HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST major financial contributions were mainly in the initial FIVE Years. The initial expenses were of leasing land, construction of office and then temple, leasing land for the market, contribution to the market for its various events like clinics and games, running skill training classes, running the schools and paying for the staff for the first three years (until the district took it over etc…). The Rotary and Loins club made additional expenses which are not art of the cost and neither are they projected here. They would continue to bear the expenses of the projects undertaken indefinitely. The district government also made its own input, the financial details of which are not known either. They would continue to operate the bank service and expand the electric network in the region. The management of resources for cleaning and services to the villages were borne by the villages themselves from the fourth year onwards, With the HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST and the local institutions and the government machinery to back it up, much was achieved - especially the rate of rural urban migration dropped from 240 people annually in 1996, to just 18 people in 2002. The return of the previously migrated villagers was rising as the total population of the villages had risen from 7330 in 1996 to 8340 in 2002.

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Stakeholders:

The main stakeholders in the project were the villagers who were guided by various actors in the 2 years of the project and 18 months of survey conducted. The villagers it seems were very cooperative right from the beginning. There are no reports available of non cooperation of the villagers in the project. The community discussions of the programs and progress with the village leaders played an important part. The villagers got all news of the works of HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST from the village leaders who kept the villagers abreast of the activities undertaken for the development. The villagers were very much involved in the process of development by taking part in the activities of the project, they attended the clinics, education centers, schools, market, village programs, traded, manufactured, etc. and all these made the project move forward successfully and generate benefits for the villages as a whole. With HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST moving out, the role of the villagers will be most important now as they democratically develop upon the institutions that have been formed during the past five years of the project. The younger people and especially those who have returned from the cities have brought with them new ideas and visions which could be helpful to the villages and should be given an opportunity to be the guiding force.

Actors:

The actors here can be listed under 3 categories:

a) Government at local and district level,

b) Local institutions and local NG0s,

c) HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST CHARITABLE TRUST

a) Government at local and district level:

In this project, a bottom-up approach was used where only two of the lowest layers of government system were used: i) The village council or Gram Panchayat which consists of five locally elected representatives and a leader amongst them and b) the district level Zilla Tahsildar, office.

The main role of the village council was to keep the people abreast in all the activities that were planned. This was very important because it gave the people a chance to put forward their suggestions. There were six village councils; each with five members was active here in this project and together they formed the village block council. There were four women in this block council and they played a vital role in getting women's issues to front. The councils had to mobilize their forces in a very innovative manner as this was an opportunity for them and their village to come out of poverty that was the prime issue. In the past, many NGOs had come and done important works in the villages but this was the first time that they were brought together to work as a joint force. This concept of combined force appealed to the councils as they would now be able to wrest a higher influence over the district office and politicians.

The councils divided themselves in such a manner that each member used a set of village people and organized different works and activities with them. Some took to setting up skill workshops while a group set up art and craft workshops, another took up the issue of schools and its exams and validating the program with the district education board. The women members looked at the health and sanitation issues, setting up of health clinics and getting people for checkups and meetings. The female council members also encouraged the women to join skill training sessions especially the occupation trainings where tailoring, fruit package and storing was taught along with sensible use of overstock or unsold fruits by making jams and pickles, Preparation of healthy and nutritious meals was also taught. Many women were illiterate and the female council members. Encouraged those to join the literacy classes and council members themselves too attended them. There was an immediate effect on the number of school going children which increased rapidly and new secondary schools had to be opened too. In the art and craft field, the women members of the council worked to see that the women took more interest and the seniors in them revived their old skills and heritage art. The performing folk art was given a boost with the staged performance events which were organized with the help of volunteers from Pune city performance art theatre.

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Skill workshops were planned and organized for the young and able that saw scope of employment/self employment in them. For this, tailoring, cycle repair, auto rickshaw repair, scooter repair, Radio, TV, Video repair, tractor repair, etc., workshops were underway. Also special agricultural skills of seeding and fertilizing were given to increase production. Construction techniques were provided so that people could build their own homes by getting together and improve living conditions and surroundings.

Part of the council was involved in the daily affairs of the villages, with new found resources and new activities on the scene, management became an important issue. Right from accounting of resources and expenses to the follow up of services like street cleaning, the council had to constantly work and perform the tasks. It delegated and employed villagers for these works and generated employment. When telephone and electricity came to the villages, servicing of the same were required. Villagers had to be trained to prevent failures in the system and trouble shoot when something went wrong. With the standard of living increasing and with new awareness of health and sanitation brought into the villages, plumbing and sewerage disposal became important issues. Here too people from the villages had to be trained for installing plumbing lines and sewerage systems and maintaining them too. In this way, the council was preparing a new layer of skilled people in the villages and became a major employer in the villages which helped the economy evolve.

Some important decisions that the councils took were mainly responsible for the success of the project. One significant decision was to not charge a rent or impose tax at the market for more than three years. This gave the villagers free access and encouragement to try out their products without losing any money. The other was to bring the women to the forefront especially when the male to female ratio in the villages was low and most of the existing male population consisted of seniors because much of the young males had migrated to the cities. Another important decision of the councils was to keep the district informed of the activities and use the political arm from there to get their works done.

The bank, school building, teachers, doctors and nurses, electricity, etc. were all part of the councils' bargains which were struck with the district. It was crucial for the council to understand that once HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST left the village, they had to see that the hospitals kept getting the doctors and nurses, the schools continued to get the teachers, the transportation continued, etc. So, they worked with the district to take policy decisions and see that these issues were taken care for a long term.

b) Local institutions and local NGOs:

When the project was initiated, the village councils and HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST were the main actors, but as the project grew, more actors were brought in mainly from the local districts. Some actors like the Pune performance art group and Khadi Graham Udyog from Urrapakkam West were also brought onto the scene.

The role of the local institutions was to work in alliance with the village council which was backed by HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST, an NGO. The Lions club brought the post office with security lockers which was important for the villagers to store their valuables in a place where they were generated and at the same time a mode of communication was important with the family members that had migrated to the cities. For this purpose the Lions club also brought in the telephone service which gave some handicapped people employment too. Looking at the institution of Lions club, it operates on a policy of involving itself only with collaborative institutions and not with individuals, for this reason they were brought in at a later stage when the village councils were on a stable footing with the market, education, health and resources developing positively. Lions club in India is a very respected and trusted organization and its managerial ability and experience in health services is commendable and for this reason the hospital management was passed on to them as HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST was withdrawing from the scene with its professional workers.

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Having an organization like Lions club with its priorities compatible to the village development, it became very helpful in moving the development forward and on a secure footing. Another similar institution that was a major factor here in the project was the Rotary club. This organization has policies similar to the Lions club but they have specialized themselves in the field of vocational training and job creation. When the Rotary came to the scene it immediately channeled the milk and flowers to the Cooperative of Villupuram and Tiruvanamalai district. It mobilized the collection of milk and flowers and struck a reasonable deal with the district cooperatives on behalf of the people without creating complications of establishing cooperative institutions in a small setting of six villages. Rotary and Lions club usually try not to overlap their works and thereby prevent resources. This was seen in the village project where their fields of operation were broadly different. Rotary was very wise and quick in setting up of the veterinary clinic and animal husbandry training sessions for the people who had never before been in this occupation.

Institutions from outside were mainly for training and trading purposes. The women volunteers from Pune performance art theatre worked with the village artists and trained them in developing and improving their folk art which was probably subdued due to lack of available resources. The villagers performed on the stage in the village programs and were a centre of attraction for the evenings. Puppet shows, folk music and songs, dramas, etc. were all revived with the help of the institution. The Khadi Graham Udyog; the cottage industry run by the Indian Ministry of small scale industry, was requested to absorb the art and craft work manufactured by the artists of the villages. However it was important for the art work to be good enough to be sold for which experts from within the villages were paid to train and develop and perfect the traditional art. Villupuram medical college provided the doctors and nurses which was one of the bases of setting up a hospital in the villages. A constant flow of doctors and nurses will be the bloodline for the hospitals and health clinics. The same goes with teachers who were usually from the outside, although some of the teachers later started living in the villages where the schools were. It is therefore important for the villages to develop their own teachers if not doctors as soon as they can to avoid the uncertainty of schools without teachers which was the case before.

c) HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST

Much about HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's institutional structure has been stated on page 10. It was HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's conviction that poverty reduction should be conducted at the rural level and by the local people themselves. Therefore it took up the role of a guiding institution that collaborated with the various layers of rural institutions and made them work towards a common goal of development which would be sustainable. Since this was HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's first experience in this kind of a project, it tried to centre on a few issues only and avoided those issues that would move the focus of the project away. Due to this when it was identifying the villages to develop clusters; it saw that a) the villages had plenty of water b) that the villages did not have serious caste issues c) that they had a common language d) the villages had connecting roads, etc. Those villages that did not meet these criterions were left out, it did not mean that HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST did not want to help those villages but HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST was not competent to work with them with respect to its limited resources and experience.

Some issues were very important on HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's agenda like involvement of Dalit (untouchable) villages. As previously explained it was important for these villages to be brought into the mainstream and thus insisted by HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST. Working from the ground up was important for HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST and working scientifically was necessary so they instituted the social survey of the population and found how much the villages were in actuality affected by the migration of the young men into the cities. This prompted them to empower the women of the villages with literacy, education, skills, and various other abilities so that they could develop themselves and bring up the new generation in better circumstances and surroundings. The role of HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST in the villages was more collaborative than institutional. It first

collaborated with the village councils and encouraged them to work with their villagers to get them involved into the program at the market. HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST then collaborated with the district and kept the village council together at all times. It collaborated with the local district institutions like Rotary and Lions club to conduct their independent programs as per the agenda and priorities of the villages and finally collaborated with external institutions like Khadi Graham Udyog and the Pune institution to absorb the art works and train the people in performing arts. This way, HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST did not use much of its funds but at the same time got experts doing the works with efficiency and productivity.

HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST’s long term goals for the sustainability of villages helped the village councils to strike deals with the district in gaining policy decisions in their favour. Creating an enabling environment for progress was essential for the villages which were achieved in the fourth year therefore it was most prudent for HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST to slowly move out and allow the development to evolve. The exit of a catalytic institution like HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST was important for developing sustainability and democracy within the villages. HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST was an institution from the outside whose job was limited to empowerment and facilitating development and it had done its job. Now, that the villages were capable of handling their own affairs of development and working through their issues, further involvement of HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST would simply dampen the ability of the villages to think for themselves and all by themselves.

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APPLICATION OF STUDY

Scope for and limitations of application

The thesis is proposing to use this experience as a model in other rural regions of India mainly to energies the rural economy. HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST started from the belief that rural - urban migration is harmful to both rural and urban regions and their people. The project works broadly on the following issues of the villages: a) Health and hygiene b) Literacy, education and skills c) Environment to generate resources through employment/self employment, trade... and d) Communication to slow or reverse migration trends. To work on the above-mentioned issues it is important that the following 3 are available:

a) Mutual cooperation of institutions

b) Ability of people to participate regularly and in large numbers

c) Diversity within the people

a) Mutual cooperation of institutions:

To begin with, there will be two institutions; one will be a village council, which all the rural regions of India have and the other should be an institution like HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST. Later, when the village cluster is made, village councils would come together to work from a common platform. It is essential that they should have the ability to work with each other and at the same time liaison with their own people and bring their issues to the forefront to be addressed. Above the village council in hierarchy is the district council which is elected by village council members of the whole district. The district is responsible for the welfare and smooth operation of the villages. It is also the main political arm of the government at the rural level and a link between the village council and the state government. They wield a lot of

power and influence and can take policy decisions for villages and its institutions. Working in harmony with the district is advantageous for the village council. The project invites other local institutions to join the cause of development. Lions club and Rotary club are the institutions which this project worked with and they are spread all over India By their performance until today, it can be said that these institutions are very professional in their workings and are capable of conducting quality work for philanthropic purposes. It is important to have a good participatory relation with them as they have access to funds to conduct interventions and can do much good for the villages.

b) Ability of people to participate regularly and in large numbers

Public participation is very important for the project. The people need to be involved right from the start. The village market needs traders, manufacturers and buyers in large numbers and for the people to participate in large numbers, various strategies were used in the project, temple was installed with a fair and market around it, circus and theatre were brought, art and craft exhibition was arranged, lunch for women was served to bring them to the health and hygiene sittings, educative games for children were planned, folk songs, music and dramas were staged, free buses were plied to get the people to participate, traders were given rent free space in the market and tax free business, free skills development trainings was given, free health centers were established, etc. All these were important features to ensure participation of the people in large numbers.

The project not only requires people to come to the programs in large numbers but also to take part in organizing them. This would empower them to do things for themselves as well as the village. Participation of women is most crucial as it was seen in the project that their literacy training lead them to send their children to school, The participation of the women members of the village councils brought the issues of the women to the fore front and much was done for them. Participation in the programs can generate skills and employment and that too is a part of the evolving feature of development here.

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c) Diversity within the people

Diversity is one of the requirements of success here. India is a country that has 1500 languages and dialects and has about 10000 known cultural variations due to their beliefs in different gods and items of nature which they revere as pure and holy (Jacobs, 1990). Cultural variation is not only seen between states of India but also seen from village to village. This diversity can be strength for trade and exchange at the market. The project here had 6 villages in different topographies and gave variety in fruits, vegetations, animals and culture. The arts and crafts were different, folk artists had variety and the art performances became an important attraction to draw people in. The people need to be productive and bring goods for sale at the market. Varieties of dairy, produce, clothes, artifacts, performance.., are all required to make a good trade and assembly and keep the interest continued over a longer period of time.

As mentioned before, the project generally attends to the following concerns of rural regions of India: a) Health and hygiene b) Literacy, education and skills c) Environment to generate resources through employment/self employment trade and d) Communication. Shows that these concerns are spread all over the rural regions of India and with this logic the project has scope of intervention all over India. However there are some limitations that the project carries:

The project cannot be conducted in regions where there are conflicts because much activity depends on assembly of people and cooperation of various actors. India has issues of caste system and much has been written about it by researchers. In some villages of India this is a major issue (Sainath, 1997) and in such regions it is difficult to conduct the suggested project mainly because the people of lower caste would not be permitted to participate in the project activities by the people of the upper caste. The project is not tried in situations of calamities and therefore there is no intervention mentioned if such a situation should arise. However if any natural calamities like draught, flood, etc. did strike when the project is underway, then the institutions that are working in the region, could be of vital help in such situations.

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Suggestions

Although there are conditions that are stated in the project for making clusters and villages to take part, it should be remembered that these are conditions that have been laid out with respect to the limitations of HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST. HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST's small budget did not permit it to take up issues of water shortage in villages, and therefore it did not include those villages which had water issues. However, if there are no budget constrains then it is suggested that interventions should be tried in regions where there are water issues.

In the project, diversity has been mentioned as a prime factor for trade, but many regions may not be diverse in culture, tradition, produce, etc. However if a region is able to generate trade and assembly without diversity then the author suggests that the rest of the plan should be applied. Although this project has been conducted in India, the project may be tried in other places of the world too, especially the developing regions where there is much need for such interventions. Afghanistan, Taj ikistan and other transition countries are on the author's mind. There is no solid research backing this advice; however it may be taken as a suggestion for study. A period of five years for intervention is recommended by the project; however it may be important to analyze individual exist periods from projects as some projects may need more time to stabilize. With additional issues like water and natural calamities, it may be required for institutions to conduct interventions for longer periods of time.

Conclusion

The project has been stated here mainly because it has shown considerable success in the region where it was conducted. It has been placed here in this thesis as a guiding model to be evaluated and replicated. Since issues of the rural regions of India may be narrowed down to health, education, literacy, shelter, resources and occupation, much of which have been addressed by the project, it can be safely stated that the project can be replicated widely in regions bearing similar regional characteristics. However, before replication, it is important to note that the project has its limitations and needs evaluation according to the region's socio-political circumstances and environments to conduct trade and generate resources. For example, in regions where caste system is practiced there is little scope for villages to have joint markets and temple festivals. Such a situation is not addressed in this study, but may be negotiated with the various factors involved. The project here, has shown remarkable results of turning the economies of six villages around and bringing to them within a five year span two additional primary schools, three new secondary schools, four fully equipped health clinics, a general hospital, a bank, a village market, a temple and a transport system, resources to the village councils, skilled and unskilled jobs to the people, etc. These were possible due to the presence of various institutions and funding bodies like the Lions Club and the Rotary, military hospital, help from the district cooperative, help from district government, private donors from cities. Like Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Kanchipuram, Thiruvalluvar, Salem, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Tiruvanamalai and Villupuram, etc. However, such circumstances may not be prevalent in all the other regions of India, therefore it is important to evaluate the project with it’s predominate limitations and scope for interventions.

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HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST

2, Sri Varthaman Nagar,3rd street, Mannivakkam Ext.,B3

Annai Anjuham Nagar Post, Urrapakkam West, Kancheepuram,

Tamilnadu, INDIA-603 211.

PROJECT NAME : THE VILLAGE ADOPTION FOR RURAL DEVELPMENT

FOR HOPE CHARITABLE TRUST