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| Preserving and Reviving Traditional Resource Management Systems - Community Intiative for water conservation and Managing by intervention such as "Johads" |
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Reference |
| Singh, Aman : " Preserving and Reviving Traditional Resource Management Systems" Participation of Village Communities, The Eye, Vol 4 (4),1997 |
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Introduction to the Institution |
| Madalvas is a small village in the Rajgarh tehsil of Rajasthan located within a, situated in a valley surrounded by high ranges of Aravalli mountain, to the south of the Sariska National Park. This is a semi-arid region and the main occupations are animal husbandry and agriculture. The avearge land holding is between 1 and 1.5 ha. The village economy is of subsistence level and most of what is produced is consumed locally. There are 49 households, some of them belong to the Meena tribe. As per survey, their livestock consists of cows (60), buffaloes (205) and goats (381). Madalvas is a rain-shadow area with erratic rainfall from 300-700 mm. Almost 90 per cent of it occurs during the South West monsoons. Temperature varies between 50 degree C (during summer) to 0 degree C (in winter), the average humidity is 76 percent. There is no perennial river except for few seasonal nalas (drains). The soil is sandy loam. |
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Coverage of the Institution |
| Such structures are found in many other parts of Rajasthan |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| SPATIAL: Roughly 650 hectares in area
SOCIAL : The households of the village (not clear in the text) |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| The simplicity of the system preludes the need for an elaborate management system. This task is carried out by the "gram- sabha". The gram-sabha as it exists today is an informal body. There is no single leader or core group for managing the system, instead all the households take active part in the working of the "sabha" and take all decisions by consensus. The responsibilities of the sabha include formulation of rules and regulation, conflict resolution and annual repair of johads.
MAINTENANCE : Annual repairs need to be done before the monsoons every year, which includes ramming of the soil which is necessary because animals of the village walk over it to go across to the hillock for grazing. Voluntary labour is provided by all. |
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(c) Resource Allocation |
| All households depending upon the availability of water and their needs take water from the "johad" which is either pumped out or taken to the fields through channels |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| Not reported |
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Problems Faced by Institution |
| Not reported |
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Changes in the Institution over time |
| a) According to Jagdish Pahadiya of Madalvas, he was earning Rs 1000 per "bigha" after the construction of johad, instead of Rs 100/bigha which he got initially before constructing the johad.
b) The production of maize doubled to 400 kg bigha despite bad rains.
c) According to a report by an agriculture engineer : about 30 ha of wastelands have been reclaimed after the johads were constructed and almost 125 ha of culturable wasteland are under cultivation.
c) Prema Gera, a social scientist mentions that there are 12 wells in the village and many of them used to dry up during the drought years, but after the johads were built, most of them have high level water. |
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Other Features of Institution |
| Until the process of change, i.e., before 1987, Madalvas was a poverty stricken village, some of the social customs ensured steady economic degradation-alcoholism and nukta (death feast) being the prominent among them. Purdah and casteism also vitiated the situation. Things were worsened during the drought period (1983-87), which compelled the villagers to sell their cattle at a very low rate or just let them loose. About 30 percent of the cattle died due to severe drought and fodder famine. The decline of productivity of both livestock and land forced the people to out-migrate looking for wage labour in cities like Ahmedabad, Delhi where they had to live in slums.
Water was the main issue behind all the problems, it was felt that if the problem of water could be handled then everything else would fall into place. Many of them recollected the existence of johads which was practised by the villagers earlier but due to lack of maintenance these "johads" had become non-functional and most of the rainwater drained off into the nalas. Numerous meetings were held, initially with individuals, and later with all households for mobilising the people to work on the johad project. Gradually they built three johads, two of them at old sites. Villagers contributed 25 to 50 percent of the total cost in the form of voluntary labour and agreed to undertake the management of the johads on their own.
The "gram sabha" has decided to take up an afforestation programme, to regenerate the wastelands lying adjacent to the johads, a large number of saplings have also been planted. Some trees were planted on other community lands like belonging to the village temple etc |
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Purpose |
| Water Management |
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Country |
| India (Rajasthan) |
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Region |
| Madalvas |
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Date Of Publication |
| RS-8/10/97 |
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