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The Richness in the Scarcity: From Purulia and Patamda to Bankura: West Bengal



Richness in Scarcity
From Purulia and Patamda to Bankura: West Bengal


Given the enthusiasm of one of the youngest HBN collaborator and SCAI coordinator, Jaydeep Mandal, the entire logistics of Shodh Yatra fell in place though a very close network of volunteers of DRCSC having many initiatives in the region; Basudha- an NGO having a collection of 540 traditional rice varieties, Social Upliftment Trust, a grassroots organisation and volunteers1 of SCAI. There were professors from China, students from European universities and journalist from Switzerland besides farmers, volunteers, students and professionals from all over the country walking together from three places in Purulia and Jharkhand. They finally met at Bhagabandh to walk together to conclude the physical yatra at Basudha. But then the inner journey may have continued further for many of them. Some of them were deeply impressed by the standards of sanitation among Santhal tribals in Purulia; their aesthetics and willingness to share knowledge. Gujarati farmers could not resist expressing a feeling that many farm implements from Saurashtra could be used there; similarly, the lack of water conservation efforts by state and civil society groups (except service centre) also appeared a bit strange to the Yatris. 
The contradictions in developmental processes were obvious; naxalites were active in some of the regions; police guarded the way in the night when we passed through certain villages; but will poverty and slow rate of economic development not legitimize the growth of extremist movement? Pressing concern was as to how do we engage with angry and other youth and generate more entrepreneurial development options for them? Fellow Yatris sang Tagore, Nazrul and other folk songs bringing out the living cultural diversity and richness so poignantly.
A week long walk, every summer and winter in different parts of the country for more than a decade to recognize, respect and reward the grassroots innovators and traditional knowledge holders, creative children and centenarians has taught us a great deal about genius at grassroots. Walking in Purulia and Bankura, and Patamda, drought prone regions of West Bengal and Jharkhand was reminder of the cultural richness of a semi-arid landscape. With single crop of paddy in most parts of Purulia, fields after fields showed the standing dried stubble of paddy. Animals could graze anywhere but would not find much greens. Water in the ponds would dry up in the next two to three months. Cycle of migration would begin if not begun already. For a region that has remained deprived of many basic amenities, occurrence of extremists’ violence is not unexpected. But why would people protest if the welfare arm of the state, or opportunities from markets or civil society could extend to the people in need? Some succor was provided by a few NGOs involved in organization of the Shodh Yatra. But a great deal remained to be done.

The life of Santhal tribals was a lesson in simplicity, frugality but also submission to the situation of scarcity of basic needs that existed. Ayodhya hills are quite rich in biodiversity and forests. But, should that be the reason for so much poverty to exist? In most houses, one would only notice dried fallen or chopped wood for fuel purposes. More than the food, the fuel seemed scarce. And that meant long hours for women. The knowledge for survival was so abundant and yet valued so little, not only by outsiders but even many of the local people. Why else would something known and effective in one village be not known to other people suffering from the same problem just two kilometers away. 
A herbal healer Gohiram Soren, Celingdha disclosed his formulation for asthma where he uses the combination of four plants viz. ‘Kosum’ (Schleichera oleosa), ‘Kumbir’ (Careya arborea), ‘Bahera’ (Terminalia bellirica) and ‘chatni’ (Alstonia scholaris). We called up our colleagues at NIF, Ahmedabad to find the available literature on these plants. After the scrutiny of scientific literature, it was found that out of the four plants, two were reported for asthma, the third was reported for cough and cold, and the fourth one was reported for pneumonia, which proves the credibility of the folk claim made by Soren if such proof was needed. Another herbal healer Sitaram Murmu who has a herbal garden consisting of nearly 100 species in it, disclosed the formulation for malaria, which consists of combination of well known and less known plants in classical literature. Many other distinctive practices for treating several diseases like jaundice, typhoid, and asthma were also documented. The informed consent of the healers was obtained on video and paper wherever possible so that further research could be started. Some of the healers would also be supported to strengthen their local pharmacy. 
As we walked through the forests and talked to the local communities, it became more and more apparent that even the tribal societies were becoming ‘vertical’ rather than maintaining their ‘horizontal’ nature. State interventions, weak as they are, have created hopes of vertical structures coming to rescue for the local communities without contributing to the strengthening of local structures. This is a challenge not just in West Bengal but all over. The knowledge network at local level has to be strengthened so that we do not find so much gap at such a short distance. 
In most of the schools we visited, before organizing an idea competition, we played a small game. We asked everybody as to what did they do with the match stick after lighting a candle or fire. Everybody said that they threw it away. Our next question was, imagine how much of wood was being wasted when millions of people around the world threw such sticks away. Everybody realized the point. At this stage, we asked them to redesign the stick so that it can last longer. Then followed very interesting ideas almost everywhere in the same vein. One could put the combustible substance on both ends of the stick or make the stick longer. Stick could also be reduced to one third size and popped out by pressing the box having a hole and then picked with a holder. The extinguished stick can then be dipped in a small bottle with quick dry combustible substance so that one could dip it and ignite as long as possible. The point was quickly made that to invent or innovate one did not always need lot of material resources, a big workshop or too much of education. Anybody, by changing the context of the problem, could discover new ways of solving it. In some places, we followed up this exercise with another one. We asked everybody to find different uses of the extinguished stick. The ideas that emerged quickly ranged from making a toothpick, painting stick, clearing nails to putting vermilion mark on the forehead. More than forty such uses were mentioned. Being innovative was easy, and it did not require a special skill. The new technique was brought out in few minutes. After that the students were challenged to come out with new ideas and in many places, they did think of absolutely original ideas. 
In Basudha, Binodbaati we organised a two-phased competition for new ideas on the last day. In first one, we called two boys, one from the village and another from Kolkata and asked them same questions about the uses of match stick. It was then opened to everybody. The little boy from the village scored much higher than the other boy from Kolkata. In the second round, everybody was asked to come out with an idea of a new product. One of them, Bapi Roy came out with a fascinating idea of a four sided television. In most of the meetings in rural areas, people prefer to sit in a circle so that they can look at each other and at the same time, enjoy a fire in the winter or a folk theatre performance. The multimedia database that we were showing required people to sit behind each other and face other person’s back. The suggestion of the four-sided television would make it possible for people to sit in a circle and watch the programme and also look at each other. On further investigation, we found that no such product had been developed by anybody so far. 
On the way from Patamda in Jharkhand, another student Sanjay Karmakar thought about a fishing rod with a siren and a light. The idea was that many times while waiting for the fish to be trapped, the mind gets diverted and one misses the fish. Alarm and the light will be switched on the moment the bait is bitten by the fish. Akash Kumar from Patamda gave an idea to develop a 'ludo' for the blind and illiterate it on a poster. All along the Shodh Yatra route, we gave prizes to the students who came out with such very creative ideas. 
All the Shodh Yatris who viewed the exercise realized that when children could be so creative and discover their own potential so easily, why could not they, as adults, also innovate? Discussion on this issue kept them animated in the whole journey and some of them even started thinking of new ideas. 
While passing through Kashipur crossroads, we had a roadside meeting in the evening. Initially, the response was lukewarm. We took out the laptop and showed the videos of some of the innovations. The amphibious cycle developed by Mohd. Saidullah of Bihar, which worked on road as well as in water, was always an instantaneous hit with the viewers. So were many other videos like washing cum exercising machine of Remya Jose, tree climbing device of Appachan and Mushtaq Dhanjibhai, a polio affected person for modifying a three wheel scooter which he could drive, Kanakdas for a cycle, which converted the shocks generated by bumps on the road into propulsion through gears linked to the rear wheel, etc., were also appreciated. The bystanders than understood the point. One of them told us about a workshop mechanic who made paddy threshers and we went there to see his designs. Another one mentioned about a young boy Raju who had developed an FM station, which broadcasts music at no cost to anyone. We could not meet him on that day but later we managed to contact him. Though his station was illegal, he was performing a great community service. He did not broadcast any advertisements. He had a phone-in-service in which anybody could request for a song or announce a spiritual or social event. He had such a great understanding of the sequence and the location of about 2500 songs on different CDs and cassettes that he could immediately locate and play the desired song. He also publicized government’s programmes for polio vaccine, education, and other activities. He had developed a transmitter with 25 km range in just Rs. 5000 as against commercial transmitter with about 70 km range costing Rs 3,00,000. The problem was that public policy did not favour a low cost innovation, which could create tremendous impact on local economies and socio-cultural conditions. New performers could become popular and thus might get livelihood opportunities by being invited to various functions and local administration could monitor the proper use of such transmitters. 
Madsudhan Kalandi had made ‘Chaudal’, a battery operated boat model in Mekhada village Kashipur. Nepal Pramanik had such an extraordinary skill in making clay parts that he could make them shine through a clay polish. There was a particular kind of soil, which was used for polishing. Sushanto Saihis had used wooden triangular frame in his cycle instead of steel frame. Surayakanta Murmu had made a simple torch light by joining old cells without too much of casing and other attachments. 
While passing through the villages, we honoured many herbal leaders and senior citizens above 90 years or 100 years. Several recipe competitions were organized through which we learnt about the creative uses of either uncultivated plants or less obvious parts of plants or different processes of using existing materials. The notion that the food of the rich is quite poor and that of the poor often is rich, at least nutritionally, came out forcefully in several recipe competitions. Similarly biodiversity competitions were organized among the school children all along the Shodh Yatra route to assess their knowledge on the locally available herbal resources. It was a delight to notice rich awareness of the students about the uses of several plants and also to know that transfer of this knowledge was actually taking place from the older generation to the younger. The students with outstanding entries were rewarded with prizes.
Weed Control in Paddy by using the mulch of pigeonpea leaves:
This was a common practice among a small community at Ayodhya hills. They used pigeon pea leaves as mulch before transplanting paddy. When we searched the literature databases in the evening we did not come across any report of this kind. In Cassava, the leaves had been used but there was no such widespread practice anywhere in the world. This could, after validation, become a very important technology for weed control and soil fertility management. For poor people who can not afford chemicals and others who did not want to use chemicals, this could provide a sustainable alternative. It is a different matter although that the Agriculture Department may have no incentive to diffuse such non-chemical, non-monetary technology, which helped people become self-reliant. Farmer researchers at Basudha have been using pigeonpea leaves for eight years to control "mutha" (Cyperus rotundus) grass, a difficult weed of paddy field. 
Creativity in scarcity:
While passing through a village Loahardih, we came across extraordinary designs on the mud walls of the huts. The Santhal tribal people did not have much material resources inside the hut but maintained a very high degree of cleanliness outside. The art work on the walls by Sumita Mahato, Sonali, Sabitri and Rebati Mahato were outstanding contributions. Why wouldn’t they be recognized as artists? How do we create platform for such grassroots artists to share the richness of art and culture in everyday life? Couldn’t some of them become designers of walls and wall murals in the cities and neighbouring villages? Why such skilful artists should be considered only unskilled labourers while conceiving various poverty alleviation and employment programme? How could India become a knowledge society without learning to value the knowledge and culture of such artists? In an earlier shodh yatra in western Uttar Pradesh, we had come across an outstanding painting on a heap of dung cakes. Wherever creative women found a space they could call their own, they gave vent to their creative impulses. 
Creating music out of leaves:
Phatik Bawri was an outstanding performer who could create very deep classical tones in the music performed by using just any leaf. He demonstrated his talent in Jorda village. All the shodh yatris were spellbound listening to his extraordinary music. 
Samar Kumar Dutta in Chakaltor village could tell the day of the week for any date hundreds of years before or after the date. He seemed to have a system of calculation by which he could quickly find out which day of the week, a particular date would be. 
A herbal skin cream:

While having roadside meeting in the small town of Bangla Indapur, we were talking about innovations and invoking bystanders to help us locate somebody who has developed a new solution to any local problem. For more than half an hour, we could not find any innovator though there were a few herbal healers whom we honoured. Then came a little girl, Preeti Choudhary who brought in her bag, a skin cream made by her mother. They had heard our appeal on the public address system. This was a very remarkable moment. The innovation by Mrs. Rina Choudhary, mother of Preeti, could be seen by everybody through the samples Preeti brought. She claimed that this was very good for skin and had a good fragrance too.
Prashant Bhui from Aailtya village in Bakura district had designed a cycle-based mobile charger. Deeplai Pal of Danga village shared the idea of pumping water employing a joy ride used by children. In the same village, Bappa Ghorai gave an idea of generating energy from the wind thrust created by a fan. 
Developing new paddy variety: "Asit Kalma"
A young farmer, Asit Dey went to see his relatives around 17 years ago. While coming back, he saw some plants which looked very different. He decided to collect some seeds and then grew them separately. Every year, he selected the plants which were disease free, did not have much attack of the pests and yielded well. After a few years, he developed a variety, which he gave to some of his friends and neighbours for evaluation. In the last five years, the variety has covered almost all the fields suitable for the purpose in the village. Farmers called that variety as ‘Asit Kalma’. The traders found the grains very similar to ‘Swarna’ variety although farmers grew it without much fertiliser and pesticide. In fact, many farmers grew it completely organically. They got about eighteen quintals per hectare yield, which was comparable to the best local variety but without any additional cost of purchased inputs. The traders mixed the grains of ‘Asit Kalma’ with that of ‘Swarna’. Most of the farmers growing this variety had small holdings. They could not afford to sell it with a separate name. Even if one pooled the production of this variety by all the farmers of the village, it would not fill even half of the truck. Thus, the variety had diffused but the consumers and the market did not seem to know about it. When asked about the experience, Asit said, “I have seen what Basudha had done. They are maintaining more than 500 varieties, I have developed only one. I am extremely happy that other farmers have liked it so much. I don’t expect anything in return.”
Trapping fish in drying pond:
By March end, most ponds in Purulia district start getting dried up. Some people are aware that even when there is no more water on the surface, there could be some water in the burrows in the bed or the sides of the ponds. Some of the fish find shelter in these burrows. Yudhistir Kalandi of Balakdih (same village where we found a cycle pedal thrasher, described next) had found some plants, which when crushed and inserted into the burrows, made the fish come out. Some of these plants affected the eyes of the fish adversely. Once the fish came out, people could catch them and use them. In a scarce economy, one would expect no food source to be left untapped. 
Innovative cycle pedal paddy thrasher:
Dharnidhar Mahato, Balakdih, who had developed the 500 Rs. paddy thrasher with one-fifth the cost and twice the efficiency (1000-1200 kg paddy thrashed per person per day) of a regular thrasher, was honoured in a school during a night meeting. He was overwhelmed by the recognition and felt very happy that his efforts have been appreciated publicly. When SRISTI offered to support three more thrashers so that he could lend them to neighbours to test, try and then may be buy, he was overjoyed. He said, “I did not realize it was such an extraordinary thing. I merely tried to solve my own problem”. He also added, “Bana to badi nahi, banai se theeki, kintu hum naam aviskar karte padi nahi” (I have invented the machine but I have not been able to give any name or invent any name for this innovation yet). Next day, we sent the money for making three more thrashers to him through a local teacher.
Pumpkin-bottlegourd vine fusion (a kind of air layering but not exactly)
:
The road side meeting outside of Kenda village was one of the most memorable experiences. We asked the people standing around to share any experience of innovation by them or known to them but no body would tell us any thing. Nothing new had happened was the common refrain. Five minutes passed, ten, fifteen and there was not a word about innovation. No matter how many examples we gave, nothing seemed to jostle their recollections. And then suddenly, before we were about to leave, we saw a sparkle in the eyes of one of the person listening to us so long quietly. He was Bijay Pramanik. Bijay said, “Kumda gache mud-Kumda gach, aur lau gach dothoDono saath laga laga Tader chule do to lata, ja doga beroy tardiye bhalo phal hoi” (I have grown two plants closely and fused then at one place and after that both plants have yielded more fruits).
He realized that pumpkin flowered a month earlier than the gourd. So when pumpkin needed more nutrients, it took from the gourd and vice versa. 
We then asked the people standing there did they know about this innovation? All replied, “No, we did not, no body told us”. We asked did they know about Dharnidhar Mahato’s innovation, and they replied the same, they did not know. We teased them, but they knew every gossip about film stars, then why did not the news of innovation reach them? One of them said, no body reports such news. Bijay himself was very reticent about his innovation, when asked, how did he stumble upon this idea, he said, “I have been doing experiments in my field, and sequential flowering and fruiting of both the plans gave me this idea. I know that these crops are related in some way”.
Now that he is encouraged, he agreed to keep us informed of more of his experiments. We also told him that we would share with him the feedback of replicated trail of this very interesting practice. We had not heard about such a practice earlier or found it in the literature.
Par-boiled paddy distributor: Ranjit Ghorai:

Ranjit of Jagdalla village had developed a simple but very effective par-boiled paddy spreading machine. It could spread about 800 kg in five minutes. Generally this task is manually done using a tray. The parboiled paddy is very hot, and thus labourers get hurt some times, developing blisters on their fingers. He wanted to develop a solution for this. 
He was scouted by a volunteer, Jagataran Ghos of Panchad village, who is also an innovator. 
Ranjit said, “eta dhan melar janyo karsi aur mada phela, sab kaajer jano vyavahar kara hoi suvidha bolte hoi, melar ta je bhave kaa jai”. (I have made this machine for spreading boiled rice and the work become very easy and fast). ‘Aamar nijer darkar’,(I made it for my own use only. I needed some thing like this). Ranjit describes the other uses of the machine, ‘khete gobar malar jano vyavhar kara hoi, aaur janyo unno labar darkar hoi na’. (It is also used for spreading compost (made of cow dung) and there is no need of hiring labour also (one can alone complete the task).
In this case also, the problem is very pervasive; solution is a trolley and a sluice gate kind of opening at the bottom where the size of the opening can be adjusted. While carrying the par boiled rice to his another site meant for drying, he keeps the opening closed. When asked how did he think about it, he smiled and said, “Is not this problem serious or bothersome? I was not satisfied with the conventional practice. I asked a blacksmith to help me and got this fabricated”. Since the shape was like inverted pyramid, the flow of grains was easy and by gravity. Next day, next village, same question, did people know about it and the answer, no. 
Single finger pen:
In the same village, Jogodolla, we met another innovator, Arindam Chattopadhyay who had heard about NIF through a newspaper advertisement last year and sent his entry and a sample of the single finger pen. He came to see us and we decided to support him for making 500 more of such pens to test the market, and in case the market accepted it, we could scale it up hundred or even thousand times. Idea was very simple. A small refill based pen attached to a ring worn on a single finger. It could be useful to physically challenged people who did not have thumb. It could be useful also for the normal people as well for ticking a sheet or just doing writing. Such a pen was not available in the market.
Local people in the village even did not know about his innovation. So much indifference to contemporary creativity! Even the innovators did not talk about it themselves. 
Herbal healer: a kind of village pharmacy
Govind Chand Mahato, village Peera
He had acquired the herbal healing skills from his grandfather and had treated a large number of patients so far. He dispenses the medicines for fever, pain, jaundice, typhoid, paralysis etc. He uses plants not only from local region but also from other places. Mahato maintains a register that has records of prescriptions written by his grand father.
When we asked about the money, if any, given by the patients, he replied, “taka ki kari Oie diye toraar guno kharid kori. (What shall I do with the money; the money given by patients is used for purchasing the herbal ingredients).
When we asked him about the register he had, he mentioned, “Aamar dada likhe chen, dada sange aami bun gaye Guro gudi kare, chinte peychi Aar janna ye guno ke khojte payee”.(This register was written by my grandfather. I went to the forest with him and learned how to find plants and their uses. That’s how I also became a healer).
He has a very large collection of herbs, which he has collected from local forest as well as from outside to dispense to all the needy people. Whether a person could pay or not was not a condition for dispensing medicine. If people paid, that was fine but if they did not or could not, that was also fine. Among the many formulations, some of the ones recorded by shodh yatris were quite uncommon and seemed to merit further research. He first claimed that his wife did not do much in this but later admitted that she indeed helped him in grinding and powdering the herbs. At this stage, we asked whether a grinder, pounder and other such devices would help him provide those medicines to patients for which sufficient evidence existed even in the formal research databases. His prior informed consent was taken regarding further research that SRISTI and NIF might like to pursue on some of his practices.
An idea that diffused but the innovator remains unknown: Tiger mask
Arun Kumar Ram is working with Uthnau, an NGO, to help tribal farmers to grow organic food. Many years ago, being a keen student of nature, he observed that the tiger seldom attacked from the front. He looked at several other prey – predator relationships and got further confirmed. He designed a human mask and tied it on the back side of the head. The tiger would get the illusion that it was also the front side and thus not attack. Forest Department liked the innovation and replicated it in a large scale in the Sunderbans. They reportedly never gave credit to Arun Kumar Ram, but the fact remains that attack by tiger the tiger came down drastically. However, Debal Deb has got him recognition as an innovator in many publications in India and abroad.
Schools, crafts and environment:
Barring a few schools, where the building was in good condition, in many places, the windows did not have glass panes and there were hardly any educational charts hanging on the wall. Unlike our experience in Maharashtra, we did not find names of the local achievers on the school walls. Similarly, unlike the schools in Kashmir valley, wherein every institution displayed inspiring quotations; the schools in the Bankura and Purulia district of West Bengal showed a total lack of these though most of the schools in the Jharkhand displayed such quotes and other public service messages on their walls.
In many villages we came across more than 100 year old trees for which we tried to entrust the responsibility for conservation to local youths or community leaders. In a few villages only, sacred groves were intact. In most places, they had been damaged or fragmented. 

The economic conditions were quite bad, not many means of alternative livelihood seemed to exist. Rural industrialization had not picked up and possibilities of absorbing labour within agriculture were highly limited. Water conservation was an imperative but nothing much had been done except by a few NGOs, which had made very innovative experiments. Development Research Communication and Service Centre (DRCS) also known as Service Centre had persuaded owners of some of the large ponds to hand them over to a group of poor farmers. These farmers were given a variety of vegetable seeds and information about sustainable agriculture practices to grow small plots of vegetable on the sites of the ponds. Benefits were shared among the landlord as well as the poor farmers leading to better utilisation of scarce water. They had also done some experiments on water harvesting although the idea had not caught up as yet among the villagers. Debal Deb and his team of volunteers at Basudha prepared the food at low cost by asking people in the villages to contribute in kind. Basudha had collected more than 500 local varieties primarily from different parts of West Bengal and grew them in small plots. The very process of conservation had inspired many farmers to make their own selections. Some of the local varieties yielded as much as high yielding varieties without supplemental nutrients. These varieties have never been given a chance to express their potential under varying conditions. 
We met many brass metal workers, weavers who wove the entire fishing nets with the help of simple rod, and many good craftsmen. A few of them had been given opportunity to attend exhibitions now and then. There was no sustained effort to provide domestic and international market access to these artisans. Likewise, there were many boul singers who had a tremendous capacity to combine folk with classical media and create intriguing allegories. Most of them got pittance if at all for their extraordinary cultural skills. There is no portal as yet at which their music and other crafts could be showcased for creating economic opportunities for such culturally rich people.
Shodh yatra was an extremely rejuvenating experience. The warmth of the local communities was overwhelming and their ability to live with so little resources was impressive. It was a very instructive experience for two professors, co-shodhyatris from the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics (TUFE), Tianjin in China. There is no doubt that many children we met had high ambitions. But, given the economic decline, one would need far more reconstruction to sustain their hopes. The farmers from Gujarat among the Shodhyatris could immediately see the potential for upgrading farm machinery as well as livestock. Given the rich soils and sufficient moisture, growing horticultural crops was another possibility. In several schools, the idea of village knowledge register was discussed in the context of a 200 year long project. The functional knowledge of the previous 100 years had to be catalogued, sifted, organised and valorised for the next 100 years. Otherwise, the conservation of resources would not take place. To the surprise of the Shodhyatris, the headman of the Village Gedawala presented the village knowledge register (VKR) of his village before the yatris, which contained documented information of more than 100 herbal practices related to human and veterinary health and agriculture. The efforts of the villagers in making the register were sincerely applauded by the yatris and it was wished that others also take cue from them and follow suit.
The unrest in several parts of the region because of continued neglect had given rise to the spread of Maoist philosophy. The entrepreneurial path had not become available and the conventional state interventions were proving limited in their effectiveness. A radical departure was needed. May be this shodh yatra will trigger the search for it.

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