Dr Prakash Tyagi follows in the footprints of his father to serve the tribal community of the Thar Desert. Nowadays there is a new tradition formed by NGO owners to handover the NGO to their children, even though these children never served the community or the NGO as volunteers. But Dr Prakash Tyagi is not a follower of this NGO business tradition. He joined his father’s organization as a volunteer and served the community as a doctor for many years before becoming the director of the GRAMIN VIKAS VIGYAN SAMITI, GRAVIS.
Dr Prakash Tyagi is a medical doctor with a good reputation. He could has a bright career as a medical doctor abroad or in a metro city of India. But he preferred to work in interior villages of the Thar Desert, a region with basic characteristics of scorching summers, chilly winters, dry monsoons and dust storms where the annual rainfall can be as small as 200 mm, declining to as little as 100 mm in some parts.
Talking with Ground Report India, Dr Prakash says “I visited interior villages with my parents and saw my parents serving and struggling for the needy people. My father became my ideal and I decided to serve the community rather than join the rat-race to build mycareer.” He also pays thanks to his mother, Shashi Tyagi, who is an educationist and a community social worker, and still motivates him today to serve the community.
Dr Prakash Tyagi, the director of GRAVIS, says, “The increasing desertification and natural degradation, as well as persistent droughts, have worsened the living conditions of the communities in the Thar desert drastically in recent years. The Thar desert communities are one of the victims of uneven growth seen all over India, and deserves the attention of the government and the development sector before its story gets buried under the sand.”
Tyagi adds, “For a development organization, the Thar desert is one of the most difficult places to work. The physical environment has rendered the land basically inhabitable and inaccessible. But, the needs of the people here are great, as education, health, and even just bare necessities like water and food remain out of reach for many.”
GRAVIS has been working for drinking water, community health, education and livelihood in desert for last few decades.
Drinking Water:
GRAVIS constructs TANKA, NAADI and other water bodies for drinking and domestic uses of water. TANKA is a domestic water storage body below the surface and receives rainfall runoff water by harvesting rainfall from a small catchment . There are mainly two types of TANKA, family TANKA for a family and a community TANKA for a group of families. NAADI is a water body for the community, which is larger than a TANKA and used only for drinking purposes. The construction of TANKA reduces women and girl’s drudgery to fetch water from long distances. This gives girls the chance to attend school.
[flagallery gid=42 name=Gallery]
GRAVIS Community Hospital:
[flagallery gid=43 name=Gallery]
Family Vegetable Garden:
GRAVIS is promoting family vegetable garden owned and managed by a family.
Community Pastures established by the GRAVIS:
For landless farmers access to forage is important to sustain their animal husbandry activities. These community pastures are planted with productive native grasses that support forage.
Education Centres and Village Information Centres:
One big achievement of GRAVIS in the field of education is an education centre that was started by GRAVIS but after few years it was adopted by the local village community. Today this school is now being run and managed by the local village community. There is a nominal fee for the student in this school ,which is used in construction and maintenance of the school.
“I arrived at GRAVIS in July 2005 to begin a ten month Hart Fellowship from Duke University (United States). A few weeks into my stay in Jodhpur, GRAVIS was shocked by the loss of L. C. Tyagi ji, its beloved founder and Director. It was at that time that I truly came to know what GRAVIS meant. This is not just an organization; it is a community whose members have sustained each other through hardship. The people that work here don’t just work here; they belong here. They care about one another and they care for one another. They have dedicated their lives to this work. And that passion is what has made GRAVIS successful.” Hayden Kantor
There is a breeze of NGOs sponsored tribal heroes in the media, on the internet and also social networking platforms for the Bastar region. Most of these sponsored heroes were or are paid employees of the NGOs working in this region.
But Nandlal Baba is a young tribal person, who does not know the tricks for applying for donor funds. But Baba has been working for education and economic development of the tribal community for more than 20 years. Baba runs an ashram at the foot of a hill, without any organized grant from a funding agency. This ashram is made by local available materials like mud, straw, bamboo, and wood and has a family of around 100 persons, including 60 tribal children and 20 tribal women.
This ashram has a school, residential campus, farming and vegetable centre, dairy, traditional herbal medical centre, a big beautiful pond and also a self-employment activity centre.
[flagallery gid=27 name=Gallery]
I asked the local people how Nandlal Baba manages the expenses of this residential campus of around 100 persons, cows and other activities. I was highly surprised to know that this ashram is run without any organized grant since the day of its foundation but with the local community support of commodities like cattle-food, clothes, grains, money and other.
Is there any news about Nandlal Baba in the media? No, there is no news. Is this not a heroic work in a disturbed area with a constructive approach?
Are the constructive approached movements not a civilian effort towards conflict resolution that should be applauded?
Bastar region of Chhattisgarh is a Maoist affected area thus without any doubt there are violations of human rights from either sides by government forces and Maoists. Human rights violations do not happen only by the government forces, they do happen by Maoists in the matter of common tribal people.
It could be a long and controversial debate based on various intellectual conditionings, theories and ideologies. I would not initiate a theoretical debate in this short article but I would like to talk about the other face of the Bastar region. There are heaps of news, reports and articles on human rights violation, violence and exploitation thus I will not repeat those things because we are aware with the negativities of the region but we should also try to see the other faces of the region.
In this article, I am not debating on characters and types of the State. I just want to say that I observe that the state and central governments are willing to do the development policies and execution on ground. The constructive approach for the development in the region is the primary step towards conflict resolution. The central and state governments are releasing special grants and enthusiastic public officers like Om Prakash Chaudhary, Alex P Menon, R Prasanna, Rajat Kumar, P. Dayanand, Devasenapati, Neeraj Bansod and others are sent there with least possible political interference.
Om Prakash Chaudhary, IAS:
Om Prakash Chaudhary is a very enthusiastic public officer. He has been doing historical works for education for the tribal children in the district Dantewada also known as South Bastar (Dantewada). He is trying his best to do in the short time span. There is an exclusive story on the works initiated or promoted by him in this edition.
[flagallery gid=20 name=Gallery]
Er. Niraj Bansod, IAS:
Niraj Bansod was a sub district magistrate, SDM, in Dantewada and now is the chief executive officer of the district Dantewada. He has been working for livelihood and trainings for employment in Dantewada.
R Prasanna, IAS:
He is a very active public officer, his day starts with early morning and ends with late night. He was the district collector in Bijapur and Dantewada. In Dantewada, he started to make relations with the genuine local tribal youth who had been working for the local community without indulging themselves in the funding games of the NGOs. He was going to the interior villages to meet villagers and was talking with them sitting on ground with the villagers. He made serious efforts to empower the local governance in Dantewada district but before he could had done something visible, he got transferred in the March 2011.
Er. Alex P Menon, IAS:
Alex P Menon is the district collector of Sukama district, the new district. Alex P Menon is a person who goes to the interior areas as a common man, many times he goes to the field in two-wheelers vehicle. Alex P Menon has received threats by the Maoists, Menon gets popularity in the community because of his simplicity, easily availability, enthusiasm and attitude of accountable public officer.
He was the chief executive officer in the Dhamtari district. He adopted a village named Chhindbarri in Nagri block. The Ground Report India team led by Ramnarendra visited ground works of Mr Alex in Chhindbarri village in the district Dhamtari.
The villagers were very tired with the unaccountable attitude of the people of different government departments thus they told the people to not enter in the premises of the village talking for any government policy.
Alex P Menon adopted Chhindbarri village and started to visit as a common man, he visited each house of the village and talked with the villagers. Mr Menon motivated them for farming and distributed seeds of vegetables and banana by his own hands to the each family of the village.
Mr Menon motivated each family for small pocket family farming, small ponds, fishery, goat-breeding, poultry and cattle-dung biogas electricity unit. In Chhindbarri village, almost each family has vegetable farming centre, fishery, pond, goats and cattle-dung biogas electricity unit and moving towards financial sustainability and empowerment.
Photos of Chhindbarri village:
[flagallery gid=11 name=Gallery]
Alex P Menon motivated for community mango-orchard, there are more than 5000 mango-trees community orchard in the Chhindbarri village and it is governed by the local people.
Chhindbarri village is one of the cleanest villages of the India which has a garbage collection system in the village. Many drums or garbage pits could be seen in the village which are used as garbage collectors. Now, Alex P Menon is not an officer in the Dhamtari district but he is still alive anywhere in the deep in the hearts of local villagers.
It is a good policy of the government of Dr Raman Singh to send the enthusiastic young public officers in the region which is affected by the Maoists activities. There will be a hope for the peace if administrative accountability will be established in the region.
The Marwar Education Foundation bought around 100 acres of barren land. This was a land with no grass, no trees but covered with salt. Varun Arya and his team from the Marwar Education Foundation took around seven years to treat this land with water harvesting structures and other natural treatments. At present, the land has 15 lakes of sweet water, thousands of trees and grasslands.
Varun Arya, the founder of the institute, established some ideals of a professional education institute including not misusing agricultural land for the concrete buildings of the educational institutes as primary school, higher secondary school, professional institutes and other. He took an area of barren land and converted into a different land that is more productive. The building are built by locally available building materials, local labourers and local traditional architects.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the vice-chairman, the planning commission of India was surprised in his visit when he saw the campus. Ahluwalia said that the campus of the Aravali Institute of Management is a model for professional education institutes.
Varun Arya saw a dream to establish a university for professional students with good facilities and pursuing human values. Now his dream is moving to become a reality. He has won the fight with the corrupt system to get this land and the construction works are now continuing on speedily. The campus will have an intermediate college with good facilities and quality teachers for underprivileged local students including tribal students. Through the students education here, Varun hopes to open the doors for their future.
The meditation centre on the campus for the teachers and students has been completed. There are no concrete walls, no wooden furniture. It is a natural meditation centre.
Varun Arya is an engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) and a management graduate from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA). He has served IIM Ahmedabad Alumni Association as the secretary and IIT Delhi Alumni Association as the president. He has also served in various international organizations for the past 16 years.
Varun Arya says, “The biggest problem faced by the youth of today is not really that of unemployment but to develop the requisite competency to realise their true potential. To be able to meet the ever-changing challenges, for sustenance and growth, todays’ organizations need people who will be their assets. However, the organizations are increasingly finding it difficult to find people who meet their competency requirements, in spite of willingness to pay high salaries. To effectively redress this state of affairs, the only solution is to have quality educational institutions. The quality of education alone can ensure that the students develop the capability and competence required to perform and deliver results in the organizations where they will work in future.”
Ground Report India wants to motivate young Indian journalists and non-paid ground social activists of rural, semi-urban and non-metro urban areas for thoughtful, visionary and accountable journalism / citizen journalism.
If you as a journalist prefer to work on real ground to get sincere reports/articles/photos. You may earn money for your original reports,articles and photos, if reports/articles/photos are selected for publication in the quarterly print journal of Ground Report India group.
Good articles in Hindi could be accepted for publication after professional translation in English.
The payments for published articles/reports in Ground Report India may vary from 500 INR to 10,000 INR.
Coming Special Editions of Ground Report India quarterly print journal:
April 2012 Edition : Indigenous and Tribal
Last date of Article submission : 10th March 2012
July 2012 Edition : Electoral Reforms in India
Last date of articles submission : 10th June 2012
Note-
Ground Report India does not get grants, funds or donations to run its activities for ground and citizen journalism. All expenses are met by the founder of Ground Report India. It is not possible to pay for each article thus payments for articles are limited to print journal publication and for rural, semi-urban and non-metro urban areas.
For the past 20 years, more or less, I have been working, or have been associated with various known social personalities and media celebrities of social activism in India. These personalities include international awardees, mainstream political persons, RTI/RTF/RTE/ NREGA activists, activists who follow Gandhi’s ideology, organizations who pursue Gandhi’s ideology and others in India.
Over the past decade, I have been spending most of my time each year in remote areas of many different regions of India. I have tried to spend a minimum of one to two months in a region, continuously interacting with local people to understand the ground reality and practicalities of their life. By doing this, I have had opportunities to understand many different types of people, their views, their understandings, their problems and their reactions to ongoing systems.
I feel that there are many different layers of social systems and hence worlds in India. These worlds are not mutually related, are not mutually understood, and are not known to each other. I feel that India needs fundamental changes in various social systems, which can only be achieved with basic ground reality understandings of society as a whole and all of its segments. Social changes or transformations always take much time, and need a huge amount of effort. To change systems requires individuals to sacrifice their individual identities and egos. No change can occur with shortcuts. To create social change can be compared to planting a tree. The seed of the tree needs care, water, sunlight, soil, nutrients and time to grow, and then the tree starts to give fruits.
India needs to understand the holes in her electoral, political, executional, judiciary, media and constitutional systems. Any change needs to be a self-motivated movement from the masses of India, and the masses can only be motivated by live sources of motivations. Live sources of motivations cannot be generated only by the media. Even a responsible and socially accountable media cannot generate live sources of mass motivation. The media can only support to strengthen live sources.
In India it is easy to generate various pseudo power centres by projecting virtual illusions. These power moves cannot change the systems in India to move towards social accountability, because they do not have a base in the self-motivated actions of the real masses.
There is an emerging trend in India. Changes, transformations, and revolutions all occurring in, with, and by the Internet. Even though in the virtual world it seems that many efforts are occurring to change India, in actuality things are getting increasingly worse on the ground. The Internet is being misused by Indian youth as a medium for the expressions of their reactions, but without doing sincere actions on the ground or in their daily life.
Ground Report India is here to support your efforts towards taking action on the ground, by assisting you to understand the ground realitites of India, with an unbiased understanding of India. Ground Report India is here to act as a close associate of you, to provide non-projected information of the people who work on the ground.
To this end, this edition focuses on water and agriculture in India. Today in India more than 65 percent of the population are supported by agriculture, with 50 percent directly dependent on agriculture. Most of these people are landless farmers, or have landholdings that are too small for any real productive use (less than 2 hectares). Much of the agricultural area is also rain-fed which places family farmers at high risk of poverty. Those most affected are women and children, who tend to play a larger role in rain-fed farming systems.
United Nations, UN, selected Dewas district’s community water management works in the best three water management practices in the world under the category of “Best Water Management Practices” for 2011-2012.
Dewas, Ponds, Reva Sagar, Local Community & an evolution of a Crusader
Dewas was one of the most drought districts of Madhya Pradesh since few decades. Water was supplied to the city through railway. Groundwater level was going down gradually due to continuous uses of water in irrigation and domestic purposes. The economic condition of the villagers was too pathetic and hopeless.
The soil of Dewas is a fertile soil but the agricultural productivity was reduced too much in recent decades. The agricultural productivity is not only based on the quality of soil, if it is then the productions should have been increased by few hundreds percentages in Dewas. For the past many years the farmers of the district Dewas did not sow Rabi crops, and if they did, the out put was meager. The underground water level had gone down more or less up to 1000 feet.
In these hopeless and critical circumstances, a visionary, downtrodden and enthusiastic public officer, Umakant Umrao, IAS, took charges as the district collector of Dewas. He changed the whole scenario of the district Dewas by his concept of “Economics of water” though Dewas had lost all hopes for a change. He motivated farmers to accept responsibility individually rather than the society and it was made certain that the uses of groundwater would be based on harvesting of groundwater. He told Ground Report India, “If farmers & their families are happy it means society is happy”.
Water Level in Dewas after water works:
The concept of Reva Sagar & Bhagirath Krishak:
As an effort to resolve the critical situation of water, a concept was introduced by Umakant Umrao to convert “save water movement” into a social movement of “Economics of Water”. This was accepted by the farmers as a new thought and was called as Reva Sagar Bhagirath Krishak Abhiyan.
The holy river Narmada is the life of Madhya Pradesh also of district Dewas. Narmada is not only a river, it is a source of religious beliefs. Reva is one of the many local names of Narmada. Following the religion beliefs the farmers suggested the ponds constructed by them in their fields should be called as Reva Sagar.
Bhagirath in the Indian mythology, brought the holy Ganga in the earth his miraculous efforts. The farmers who construct the Reva Sagar(s) in their fields are called as Bhagirath Krishak in Dewas district.
The concept of Reva Sagar construction started to spread from one field to another, one block to another and from one district to another. The neighbour districts got information about the unexpected result of hundreds of Reva Sagar(s), constructed in the Dewas district in the first year of the campaign. As a result, the people from neighbour districts ie Sehore, Shajapur, Ujjain, Harda, Khandwa, Raisen, Dhar, Vidasha, Hoshngabad, Bhopal and other, started to come to see the Reva Sagar(s) and showed their wishes to learn from the farmers of Dewas district.
The concept of economic of water in Revasagar crossed the limit of the district and was expanded into districts of Malwa and Nimad region. Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh started to support Bhagirath Krishak(s) to construct Reva Sagar(s) in the entire state.
Umakant Umrao told Ground Report India that for starting he targeted big farmers, who could have taken risks to construct Reva sagar. But because of the impacts of continuous droughts, big farmers also felt the need of financial help to construct the Reva Sagar(s). He called a meeting of all the bankers of the district were organized and invited officers of eminent banks including the Chief Manager, NABARD, Bhopal. Because, it was the first experience to avail loans from the banks, the bankers did not show any interest in this respect. But in a meeting at the district level, the bankers were assured about the repayment possibility of the loan and the various technical and economical aspects of the project were discussed and a project report was prepared, and bankers were assured about the profitability of giving loan for Reva sagar and its repayment potentiality. In order to avail loan from different banks, a team of block level C.M.O. and Block Panchayat was formed to complete all the bank formalities for the farmers.
Umakant Umrao motivated farmers to transform Dewas district into a district of ponds from a drought district by constructing Revasagar(s):
According to the farmers:
Less Fertilizers but More Production
Farmers told Ground Report India that it is their own observation that the rain water collected in Reva Sagar has more soluble nitrogen compared under ground water which is useful for Rabi Crops. The collected water of Reva Sagar for irrigation, has fertilizers inbuilt which comes from the waste of Rabi crops, is sufficient for the growth of the plants. The farmers of the district Dewas also told with great enthusiasm that they use fertilizers less than in comparison to previous years but the production increased as well as the growths of various plants have also increased because of the uses of Reva Sagar(s) water. In the Reva sagar the fertile soil also got collected along with water in the Reva Sagar. After the rainy season the fertile soil could be shift back in the fields, by this method potentiality of the fertility of land also increase significantly. The soil erosion could also be stopped.
Saving of Electricity and self-dependency
Reva Sagar is a surface water storage. So farmers do not have to depend on the expensive electricity to run costly heavy bore-pumpsets for irrigation, the farmers could irrigate their lands by using traditional techniques as Charka. The farmers are self-dependent because of Reva Sagar(s) the shortage of electricity is not a hindrance to the farmers for farming.
Time savings
According to the farmers, in 100 hours, around 10 acres of land could be irrigated by the tube wells at the rate of 2” delivery of water. However, Reva Sagar, with the help of diesel pump, could irrigate around 50 acres of land in 100 hours at the rate of 5 to 6” delivery of water.
Bio-diversity transformation- the Animals, Birds, Migrating Birds, Wild-Life and Environmental Conversation:
Because of Reva Sagar(s), after the rainy season many birds like hens, duck etc are seen near the ponds. In Reva Sagar(s), there are enough water even in the months of May/June thus migratory birds and long-cranes have started to come here from the cold regions.
The pasturelands are formed naturally because of the Reva Sagar(s) as surface water bodies thus in past few years; deer, jackals, hyena, fox, porcupines and other wild-animals could be seen easilty in the area.
Ground Report India teams have seen large group of deer, jackal, fox, porcupine and long-cranes in various trips of the area for ground reporting.
Raghunath Singh Tomar & Funeral Ceremony of Tube-Well & Celebration of the Birthday of Reva Sagar
Mr Raghuveer Singh Tomar of Harnawada village is a big farmer having 80 acres landholdings. He was using tube wells for irrigation purposes. He was cultivating Soyabeen and Gram. But production wasn’t good due to frequent power cut and decreased water table. He constructed tank of 1.00-hectare size, which is 12 –15 ft deep at a cost of Rs 5.00 Lakhs. He is still taking the same crops but production has increased due to increased area under crop and proper irrigation facility. This tank provides sufficient water to his rabi crops. He received profit of Rs 1.20 lakh, Rs 5.00 lakh and Rs 8.00 lakh respectively in last three years by cultivating Dollar gram. Later on he closed his tube well and performed the symbolic funeral of the same. According to Sh. Tomar this tank has providing him dual benefits viz good fertilized soil from the tank silting and reduces the cost of water pumping. He has been identified as Bhagirath Krishak and disseminating the concept among other farmers.
Funeral Ceremony of Tube-Bore-Bell :: The Devil
The Birthday Ceremony of Reva Sagar :: The Protector
Prem Singh Khichi & concept of Community Pond only for wild-life:
Prem Singh Khichi, more than 70 years of age, is one of the most aware and progressive farmers of the district Dewas. He is a big farmer. Recently, he motivated farmers to have a community pond which will not be used for irrigation. The community pond will be used by domestic animals, wild-animals and birds.
It is a Social Learning Process :: Dr Abbas
Dr Abbas, PhD, an agriculture scientist in the agriculture department, says “The efforts and victory made by local farmers have become a live community training centre for the farmers of other districts and states. It is also a learning process of the local community. Experts of different fields visit here for mutual give & take of the experiences, knowledge and information.”
He praises Umakant Umrao, he says, “I wanted to serve society being a public servant but there was no way to do it. He showed me a path of meaningful life. I enjoy working with farmers. They give love, respect and trust. I am part of their families now. It is really amazing to get love from the community.”
Persons of International Water Management Institute, IWMI; Food and Agricultural Organization, FAO; Centre for Science & Environment, CSE; Wikimedia/Wikipedia; The Chartered Institute of Journalists, London; International PEN; Indian Institute of Technology; Indian Institute of Management and others have visited Dewas to meet the farmers to understand the concept of Economics of Water.
Mutual Trust & Internal Bonds in the Society:
Farmers told Ground Report India about the changes in attiudes in the villagers after the economic empowerment due to Reva Sagar(s). They said there were many incidents of fightings based on egos and vested interests. Raghunath Singh Tomar told, there is not a single case in last 5 years of fightings based on egos/castism/religion etc.
A very interesting thing has been generated, if a farmer needs a farming equipment then he goes to other’s house and collect equipment and use in his land and handed over to any other to use but at last the equipment reaches to the owner safely.
Awards:
Umakant Umrao, IAS, as a JALADHEESH (the God of Water) in eyes of local farmers: Umakant Umrao gained the trust of people by mixing amongst them and became a part of their own social and individual families. Umakant Umrao was going to the farmers’ fields even in very hot days to dig Reva Sagar(s) in their lands. He became a common farmer to motivate farmers to change their lives.
The words, the talk and the efforts Umakant Umrao poured into the farmers to convince them; are alive in their minds and hearts. As a result, the farmers have been following the approach suggested by him for the Economics of Water even in his absence. Now medium and small scale farmers also are coming ahead to construct Reva Sagar(s) in their fields. They are even ready to take bank loans for this purpose as they have witnessed its benefits.
The Malwa region, a traditional agricultural region has large number of big farmers who are capable to dig tanks in their fields but instead of investing on tanks they were dependents on tube-wells which was a failure. Umaknat Umarao motivated them to participate in Rewa Sagar campaign and assisted them by all means as training, demonstration, financial support and encouragements to make it a successful community movement.
With the time and his dedication, he became very popular amongst the farmers as Jaladheesh- God of Water as mentioned in some of the inaugural stones by local farmers.
The farmers remember him in very deep corner of their hearts, maybe next generations will not know him but the stories will be told to the next generations about him as a genuine and live crusader.
The thought which made him a Crusader:
“As in industrial economy, electrify solar energy petroleum product etc are treated as critical inputs, in the same ways water is treated as a critical input in agriculture. Farmers could earn more profit with irrigated agriculture than non irrigated agriculture. A farmer who does not have the source of water, if he uses the captive irrigation method, he could earn more profit, which is other words can be named as Economics of Water, Gender Empowerment and protector of the Wildlife & Environment”.
“Five years before, I had a dream to see 10,000 Reva Sagar(s) in the area; today it is a reality not a daydream. Now, I have a dream to see 10,000 millionaires according to US$ currency in the area; I do hope it will be a reality in coming years. I am waiting to see one more dream after few years.”
There has been much excitement in the Ground Report India team as we move from a monthly eJournal (which will still continue) and bring to you this detailed quarterly journal.
This print magazine has arisen out of our concerns and awareness for a balanced media representation of the ground realities of present day India. We presently feel that the Indian media does not provide sufficient attention to the situations of the ‘common man’. I believe that the print magazine of Ground report India is timely, as the push for India to provide an economic growth that is inclusive to the hundreds of millions of Indians who still live on less than $2 a day.
Today, the world is a global village. Poverty, the environment, climate change, economy and peace cannot be understood or tackled without first understanding the ground realities of the major human-populations of the world. As readers of Ground Report India, you can influence policy making, by mobilising, motivating and campaigning for a better world. We want to keep you informed with the ground realities in India and the world, to help your understanding. This is our contribution to your efforts for a better world.
Ground Report India is a large apolitical family of journalists, lawyers, social activists, professors, environmentalists, government officers, youths, students, businesspersons and political activists who believe in positive media and work for a better world.
The history of Ground Report India is a short one, but in that time we can reached to a wide community of readers with important information. Ground Report India was started as a monthly eJournal in 2009 (www.groundreportindia.com). It is now one of the most widespread Indian eJournals for constructive media, ground reporting and citizen media in the world. Ground Report India, eJournal, has around 45,000 regular readers in more than 60 countries but reaches to around 15,00,000 readers in more than a hundred countries through social networks. Subscribers include members of United Kingdom Parliament, European Union Parlia- ment, Indian Parliament, the faculty and alumnus of eminent international universities such as Harvard University, Boston Univer- sity, University of Michigan, Oxford University, Cambridge University, Australian National University, Sydney University, East Angela University, New York University, McMaster University, Ottawa University, and top Indian universities like IIT, IIM, JNU. Our readers also include international media including BBC, CNN, Ground Report, Wikimedia, and Wikipedia.
I am privileged to introduce to you the first edition of the quarterly journal of Ground Report India. Ground Report India quarterly journal continues to build on the vision and mission of the eJournal. Ground Report India is a citizen and constructive media for ground reporting.
For each edition of the magazine, Ground Report India team tours for 70 days in hundreds of areas of various states of India for ground reporting. Because of our efforts to report concretely from the ground, Ground Report India is a quarterly magazine.
This inaugural issue of the Ground Report India journal will explore a number of current issues India is facing at the moment, with a strong focus on the Jan Lokpal Bill and democracy.
Our next edition will be focused on Water and Agriculture. Our team will tour for 75 days from 5th October 2011 in hundreds of areas of 12 states of India.
I am very thankful to you for all of your supports. Please enjoy being a part of the family of Ground Report India and we look forward to your continued support. As a citizen media we rely on your feedback and suggestions to continue to work towards our goals.
For the past 20 years more or less, I have been in touch (active or passive), have been working or have worked with various known Social Personalities, Media Celebrities of Social Activism in India, known/ unknown Ground Activists, International Awardees, Mainstream Political Persons, RTI/RTF/RTE/ NREGA Activists, Activists of Gandhi’s Ideology, Organizations of Gandhi’s Ideology, Groups/Individuals of Ideology of Violence and others in India.
Generally for the past one decade, I have been spending an average 6 months or more per year in remote areas of different regions. I try to spend a minimum 1 to 2 months in a region continuously being active with local people. By doing this I get opportunities to understand various types of persons, their views, their understandings, their problems and their reactions to ongoing systems. I feel that there are different layers of worlds in India and they are not mutually related, are not mutually understood and are not known to others.
I feel India needs fundamental changes in various systems with ground understandings of society and her segments. I feel that without completing the basics, actions such as running in Parliamentary Elections cannot be tools for the changes India needs.
India needs to understand why have her political systems been moving towards failures? Until the fundamental causes of failures will not be explored, India cannot move towards changes or transformation.
Social changes or Transformations always need lot of works, sacrifices of Individual Identities and egos, also cannot be done with shortcuts. It is like planting a tree; the tree needs care, water, sunlight, soil, nutrients and time then it starts to give fruits.
India needs to understand the holes in her Electoral, Political, Executional, Judiciary, Media and Constitutional systems. The changes need self-motivated movements from the masses of India and the masses can be motivated only by live sources of motivations. Live sources of motivations cannot be generated by Media. Even a responsible and social accountable media cannot generate live sources, the media can only support to strengthen live sources.
Individuals, who project themselves in Media as representatives or sources of motivations for changes/transformations in India, should be analyzed carefully not being biased and above of vested interests.
India needs fundamental changes in her social, economical and political systems. These changes should not be made or projected by markets or corporate bodies. Currency should not be the base of economy.
After political independence from Britain India always needed/ needs/will need to form an economy based on villages and basic structures of Indian society. India continued to use British execution systems and has been using, which were made to rule on India. Because of these major mistakes major percentages of common India do not enjoy freedom or independence.
Changes were made to show Sovereignty of India but basics of systems were not changed. Efforts were made for political powers in name of Independence. It was pre-assumed that with political powers everything will be changed and India will be better for all, but it never happened. In India people still think that only political powers can make fundamental changes thus they do not make efforts or explore possibilities other than electoral politics.
Since independence India could not form better needed systems because concentrations were/are only on political powers and electoral politics. By these mistakes, gradually the political power centers are being empowered continuously. The common person and public of India have become increasingly weakened even though Political independence was joint efforts of and for people of India.
Political independence was achieved after slavery of centuries thus social institutes and social education systems should have been formed parallel to the efforts for political independence.
These parallel efforts were not made because India had a tendency that everything can be done/changed only by political powers, still India has this tendency.
India could not form better systems even in many decades of independence by political power because political powers are strengthen in the cost of common people of India thus common people of India are weakened increasingly.
Jai Prakash Narayan led a movement for Total Revolution (known as the JP Movement) but again the same mistakes on the peak of movement were done – political powers as centers of Social changes and Transformations and a movement for Total Revolution was ended with formations of short term central governments. Did those governments transform any change? No.
Seeds and visions of a historical mass movement that could lead towards Total Revolution were damaged by historical mistakes and again unaccountable power centres were strengthened.
Power centres became more unaccountable for common people. These things have been weakening Democracy in India. Power centres do not feel fear from public and mass pressures, they are being increasingly unaccountable for the common public of India.
There is an emerging trend in India- Changes, Transformations, Revolutions all are being done in, with and by Internet. Even though in the virtual world of Internet it seems that too many efforts are occurring to change in India but things are being increasingly worse on ground. Internet is being misused by youth as medium for expressions of their reactions without doing sincere actions on ground.
In India it is easy to generate various pseudo power centers by projecting virtual illusions. Thus knowingly or unknowingly these illusions motivate people to move into electoral politics. These moves cannot change systems in India towards social accountability because they do not have bases of self-motivated real masses.
India needs decentralization of powers by empowering local civilian councils as policy making bodies and should have higher status than government officers and employees. India needs strong social institutions for policy researches, making and implementations.
Things should be done where they are needed, should not be done by projection or plantation of needs or by following others blindly.
India needs sincere efforts with long-term vision, sacrifice, unbreakable social commitment and ground understanding.
a very layman who cannot see the big things in this media based movement
(About the photo- Vivek Umrao Glendenning is talking with the mass for decentralization of powers and economy with the around 100,000 villagers in a mass meeting organized by his organization.)
Just because I had/have different views on Anna Hazare’s media sponsored movement, I was abused by flag-bearers, photo-badge-bearers and email/sms forwarders of Anna Hazare. I was asked that did I ever do anything for society, I was called as anti-nation and pro-corruption. Now when Anna has finished his fast, I have few questions in my mind.
I am not very high intellectual also not highly dedicated as the Anna Hazare’s badge/flag/email/sms bearers. Many of the followers of Anna Hazare’s movement are highly dedicated, as they did not stop to take bribes though they were participating in evening candle-marches and marched with the flag of Anna Hazare in favour of Anna Hazare. It was matter of their dedication for anti-corruption movement that they called me many times for hot discussions though they never forgot to take bribes in last 15 days.
Because of their depth of dedication, honesty and objective observation capacity I do believe that they have a tolerance to listen opposite side.
I do not want to say anything for Anna Hazare as an individual, his works in Ralegao and out of Ralegao (if he really did works outside his own native villages except fasts for few days as pressure tactics) and his entire life-span of more than 70 years.
Anna Hazare knows better than I do about his honesty, his commitments, his vision and his interests thus I prefer to leave these matters.
But some important points on Anna’s Jan Lokpal Bill, civilian society and his latest fast, I would like to raise.
Jan Lokpal Bill:
Did Anna team discuss Jan Lokpal Bill with people of India?
No they did not.
Then who made it and why is it called Jan Lokpal?
Civil Society:
How was civil society formed?
How were members of civil society decided? (I do not want to use word ‘selected’)
Anna Hazare’s fast started from 16th of August 2011:
Anna started fast on 16th August demanding PM & Judiciary under Lokpal and enact the Jan Lokpal Bill. However, before leaving Tihar Jail, Anna team had removed demand for Judiciary under Jan Lokpal.
The demands by Anna to end his fast during his fast and the results:
· Government take back its Lokpal:
Result- Government did not take back
· Prime Minister must be under Lokpal:
Result- Government did not make any promise and did not write anything regarding this in the letter to Anna Hazare
· Member of Parliament must be under Lokpal:
Result- Government did not make any promise and did not write anything regarding this in the letter to Anna Hazare
· Bill must be passed up to 30th August:
Result- There is not time limit, it can be held for decades
· The Anna’s bill should be directly debated in both the Houses instead of sending it for Parliament’s Standing Committee:
Result- Jan Lokpal Bill has been sent to Standing Committee with 4 more Lokpal Bills
· Government intervention must be minimum in appointments of Lokpal(s):
Result- Government did not make any promise and did not write anything regarding this in the letter to Anna Hazare
· The discussion on Jan Lokpal Bill must be under 184 with voting:
Result- it did not happen, discussion was done under 193 without voting
· Anna’s demand that after introducing their bill it should be debated and passed as law was not even given consideration.
I am not very intelligent to understand that why did Anna Hazare do fast and why did he end his fast.
I do not know why and what should I celebrate? I cannot understand the meaning of achieved second freedom by Anna Hazare.
International Journalist, the Chartered Institute of Journalists, London
Member, Wikimedia /Wikipedia Australia
Member, International PEN
Member, International PEN Sydney Centre
All discussions given below are based on advertisements received by me via sms/emails/updates in social networks and made by Anna’s team to get popularity-sensation. I am a very common person and I talked with hundreds of villagers/tribal/ground activists and urban common persons of the states Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana and Uttarakhand before writing points below.
I do not want to see things blindly just because of sensation made by electronic media.Why should I see a fake dream of a second freedom of India by Anna’s Lokpal?
The failure of strong and visionary J P Movement created big frustrations in the mind of youth who participated actively with the JP Movement. The movement produced unaccountable and corrupt leaders and no one could have moved towards Total Revolution even though Jai Prakash made efforts for thought process and political awareness while Anna’s team preferred to cash the vision-less hidden anger against corruption in the system to get popularity cheaply.
It could not be imagined the level of violence/frustration/reaction caused by this so-called hi-tech TRP-hungry-Tv-channel-based-media movement with full of lies and manipulations. The time will reveal that Anna’s team betrayed Indian people for glory and glamour.Indian people will be facing the results of their betrayals.
Anna and his team had no actual critical masses behind them thus they are behaving as drunk with superficial heroism and patriotism.They are betraying to enjoy this glamour. They cannot control reactions/chain-reactions now, things are beyond their capacities and will end with community frustrations/reactions and hate.
I strongly believe that Indians will feel high frustrations, reactions and violence after the fever………………
To get public support for a Bill, Anna is saying it is a second freedom struggle thus everyone must sacrifice everything for the nation.Formation of a Bill cannot be a freedom because many very important things are missing. I am sure that Anna’s so-called second freedom is fake and very superficial.
In JP Movement thousands of mass leaders were sent in jail for around 19 months and faced mental and physical tortures. This so-called second freedom Anna Hazare got in one day by the supports of TV channels’ OV vans without having critical mass supports. How cheap this is!!!
Many Indians are dreaming that Jan Lokpal Bill will bring all black money back to India and within a night, they will become rich and will enjoy luxuries.They are supporting for these dreams, they are not supporting for a nation building.
I have few questions about this dreamed richness:-
I do not think a paper known as currency or a binary digit in computer known as money in the bank could produce things. They are thinking that with the money they will be able to buy anything but the most important question is- who will produce things how and where?
I do not think currency can solve problems. Indians will be millionaires by currency digits only but will be having huge unsolved long-term chaos.
There are many baseless, fake dreams have been planted by the Anna’s team to get cheap popularity.How could it be taken as second freedom struggle?
In Jantar Mantar I saw Anna was saying that he is Gandhi. The Anna team planted manipulated and falsies ideals to get cheap popularity that in last few thousands years there was not a great person like Anna Hazare.
I started to think that Anna Hazare wants to be praised like Gandhi. Some Followers of Anna Hazare informed me that Gandhi was nothing but Anna is like God of India. I want to suggest followers of Anna that they should start to demand to Central Government to make a special act presenting Anna Hazare as God of the Nation.
In the month of August 2011, Anna and his team have realised very well their failure to generate a critical mass movement though they used a continuous hi-tech media sensation. Using these tricks Anna team got support of media, online patriots and unemployed youth of metro cities specially in the capital cities.But Anna team didn’t try to reach poor, villagers and common people of India.
They thought media sensation could create a critical mass movement. Because people of India wants to see a change in systems thus many ground activists started to support Anna as a chance to create a pressure on central government but they realise very well that Anna’s team will not lead for a change in system beyond Jan Lokpal Bill.India needs a critical mass movement not a show of movement.
I have been receiving SMS minimum 10 times per day for last 6 months about Anna Hazare’s greatness with full of manipulations and emotional sensations. Those SMS were suggesting how to show my support to great Anna i.e. I should wear a badge of Anna’s photo in my home, office and I should instruct my friends, family and colleagues the same. Now two days before SMS have started to suggest that I should instruct women to wear a badge of Kiran Bedi’s photo and should motivate them for march holding a banner of photo of Kiran Bedi.
If we want to believe Indian electronic media which is only interested in TRP rating, we must believe that Indian freedom struggle was full of shit and Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia etc are getting real freedom even though they are using media sensation, falsies and manipulations.
By seeing all these I feel Gandhi and others were fools because they spent many years on real ground struggling for integral development but they did not use OV vans of TV Channels, sms, updates in facebook/linkedin/twitter and others.
This is why the followers of Anna are entitled to abuse Gandhi and other persons to establish Anna Hazare as God of the nation.
None of the societies can be corruption free just by a law or media sensation.Social transformation or system change cannot happen in one day or two days, it needs a farsighted vision and long term ground efforts.
But who is trying for that. At least Anna and his team are not trying. They are only interested in their own glory. Maybe it is a second freedom for personal glory of Anna team but not for the entire India.
I will never support anything, which will kill democracy.
Anna’s Lokpal is built undemocratically, is undemocratic and moving towards fascism. It was drafted with undemocratic methods. No public discussion and concern were made before drafting the Jan Lokpal Bill. The members of civil society were not suggested by the people of India. There is no public representation in Anna’s civil society.
Anna’s team has been manipulating the emotions of public by creating illusions.Anna’s movement is only for a Bill nothing more.It is a waste and misuse of public energy and believes and betrayal. Anna has no capacity to stop this now and reactions after this fever. He is enjoying heroism on the cost of social transformation.
India needs very sincere visionary and long-term movement on the actual ground of masses for social transformation. One has to know the ground realities of India for a social transformation.
Tribals planted more than 80,000 saplings (young trees) in Dantewada, Bastar region of the Chhattisgarh State without any financial support by government or non-government funding agencies.
Koya Wes Social Institute, an voluntary social organization, formed by the local tribal youths has been motivating local tribal communities for trees plantation. For last 5 years thousands of saplings are being planted per year by the local tribals with the motivation of the Koya Wes Social Institute.
In the year 2010 from the January to July, local tribal communities planted more than 80,000 saplings in the villages as Kundenaar, Paalnaar, Faraspaal, Maasudi, Samloor, Siyaanaar, Binjaam, Gondpaal, Pandevaar, Kmaaloor, Kuber, Keshapur, Kamalnaar, Midkulnaar, Mangnaar, Purantari, Judiyavadam, Cheetalanka, Kaali, Tudparaam, Jhilka, Vaasanpur, Kundeli, Kameli, Nerli, Kamaavada, Dhurli, Bhansi, Toyaanaar, Masenaar, Ganjenaar, Cheetaloor, Kondum, Koolnaar, Matenaar, Chandenaar, Gadapaal, Chitagufa, Toyalanka, Netapur, Padapur and others in the district Dantewada.
Koya Wes started the trees plantation initiative 5 years before for protection of forest, environment and ground water also for the local economy.
Thank you for appreciation and contributions to establish and empower the Ground Report India (GRI) as a ground voice for the common people.
The Ground Report India is planning a Special Edition in the month of September 2010 on Water Issues and ground works on Water Issues in India. Please send reports of ground works on water issues for special edition.
If an organization has been working on ground and will provide travel and accommodation expenses (within India), GRI team will agree to make organic-reports in audio-visual forms.
Being co-founder of the Ground Report India (GRI) you are responsible to improve GRI, please do not hesitate for sending suggestions any time.
We believe that all the basic needs of human beings to stay alive, are produced by common society since the beginning of society. Capital was produced by common society and still it is produced by common society. In current market systems there is no accountability towards common society. The Current market and various centralised power centres are playing with the whole society by defining Economy, Education, Market, Development, Profit, Skills, Communication, Values and Management by using speedy but Virtual Economic Systems. By these speedy but Virtual Economic Systems, the inhumane market systems could spread far but superficially without having any concern with ground realities.
Current market systems are talking for Entire Economic Development, Social Welfare and Total Development. However, what are the realities of the current market systems? Human Beings need food, clothes and houses for their basic needs. However, the most consumers of current market systems are too busy in virtual wants, then to have forgotten from where we are getting things of our basic needs. Humans are now being termed as Consumers. Communities are being termed as big, small, or emerging markets. Consumers can buy food and clothes without having any concern about the identity of the producer. Consumers pay a lot, but not for products; they pay for their virtual satisfactions, virtual wants, and these virtual things, are generated psychologically by inhumane market systems just for their Virtual Capital, i.e. Currency. All these markets, so-called economic boost and so-called developments are only for maximum 10% to 15% of total human mass. And this small percentage can not be increased because this 10% to 15% of total human mass enjoys Capital generated by other 80% to 85% of total human mass. This 10% to 15% can become 20% to 25% or some little more but it cannot become a larger part of the total human mass.
Current market systems create virtual things to sell, psychologically. They also create virtual developments by diverting our concerns from ground realities of major percentage of total human mass by telling us about so-called developments and so-called economic boosts.
Social Welfare and Social Economy can not be developed by Data Presentation, Statistical Charts, Graphs of Stock Exchanges or by projecting information/documents in various virtual or semi-virtual speedy market information systems.
Without having understandings and meanings of Labour, Production, Economy, Profit, Capital, Currency, Development, Market and Welfare, current systems are trying to control all natural and human assets. Virtual Economic Systems depend on Virtual or Semi Virtual Productions related to profit-making market ideas and information-speed tools. Specifically skilled human robots are producing these tools. These persons get much currency because they are primary human tools of current Virtual Economy Systems; thus, these specifically skilled human robots are supplementary tools of inhumane market/ economy systems. These inhumane market/economy systems work for the smaller part of total human mass even though they occupy/capture the largest share of natural and social assets by all hooks and crooks including organised & structural violence. Most total human mass of the whole earth does not use these productions.
Most human robots are working only for virtual or semi-virtual systems. Only to get some currency to satisfy virtual needs, these human robots follow Virtual Economic Systems having no accountability and responsibility to the society. These virtual or semi-virtual productions are being termed as Capital. By this, current economic systems are proving and are generating concepts that market systems are generating Capital.
It is a matter of open and direct mass discussions that any type of market or economy systems have social or moral rights or not, to use the largest share of assets for smallest percentages of total human mass. It is also a matter of direct mass discussions that current virtual productions should be termed as products, or not.
The profit-making ideas, profit-making concepts, profit-making techniques of management and current economic systems can not be praised as Economy Development or Social Welfare or Economy Boost. Only Currency is in base of all these ideas, concepts, techniques, management skills and economic systems thus Currency has become most powerful thing. Currency is trying to control all things of society without any accountability to society.
Currency is not Capital because it does not represent work or labour directly. The currency can represent work or labour virtually. The currency cannot be Capital. However, Virtual Economy Systems are empowering currency as Capital to dismiss fundamental rights of society on human and social assets. Market systems are capturing all social capital by empowering currency. Thus, who have currency think that they are generating capital and are working hard. Current market systems create these fallacies by virtualisation of social capital by killing social accountability.
Society is direct owner of all capital/assets. Various inhumane power centres as political power centres, market power centres, and other power centres damaged Social Ownership to get control over society. Inhumane market/economy systems and unsocial power centres establish many rules, definitions and laws with organised violence to get control over society.
To remove inhuman systems from society, to form a better Earth to live for all human, all of us should work to establish Society Owned Systems. Social Groups, Social Organisations and individuals will be trustees of Social Systems under Direct Social Ownership.
Proposed & Written By-
Vivek Umrao Glendenning First Draft in September 2007
• Any government employee, from chief secretary to village guard, who gets any salary or facility from government; should be directly called as SERVANT (SEVAK) replacing Officer. It should be compulsory in all name plates, all documents and in all types of conversations.
(It is contradictory that people take oath as we are servants of public of India, but they behave as master of public of India and are called Officers and Lords. For example, in some states, District Collectors are being called as JILADHISH, it means owner of district. It is undemocratic and violation of fundamental values of a Democratic Constitution.)
• Indian Administration Services should be called as Indian Public Facilitation Services.
(It was called as Indian Civil Services, ICS, and after Independence it was changed to Indian Administration Services, IAS. The term “Civil” is better than “Administration”. But Name was changed to show changes though Basic Characteristics, Rules and Attitudes were not changed. In a valued democracy, Governments and their structures are for public facilitation not to rule on them.)
• There is a demand in India for ‘Right to Recall’ for public representatives from Parliament, Assemblies, Panchayats etc. There should be another high priority demand for Public Rights on government employees. Public should have direct and open rights to monitor any government employee and should have direct and open rights to dismiss or suspend or punish or remark in character-service book to any direct or indirect government employee or department or structure. Public of India should also have rights for social audit of any government department or structure.
(In a democracy, Government means representative of people. Because large numbers of people cannot sit to make decisions for each thing, issues, and for routine things thus systems of representations were evolved in history of human society and democratic systems came existing. Representation does not mean ownership or master ship. Representatives make policies for betterment of people and people provide them assets and money collectively (known as taxes). Government employees can never be masters or owners or superior to common people of a democracy because they are employed by people of democracy to serve people thus if people should have rights to call back their representatives then people must have rights to monitor/suspend/ dismiss/others for government employees. In India, there are too many holes in execution and policy making systems those violate Democratic Values like Government officers are superior to Public & Public Representatives.)
• All National/Regional/Local policies including- Judiciary, Education, Health, Development, Commerce & Finance and Others should be strictly verified by people of India as final and last authority. Local Public Representative Bodies should be final authority to form policy for themselves and government machinery are for execute them.
(If governments have not capacities/abilities to arrange direct & open systems for verification then they should not have rights of formations, executions and implementations of policies. India is a country of social and geometric diversities and cannot be understood by reading few lines of text books to qualify examinations to become Administrator and Policy Maker of public of India. Governments represent common people thus they cannot act as rulers and masters of People of India. Because governments make policies and work for welfare of People of India thus People of India should have final rights of verification of policies. It is commonly said that common people do not know betterment of them and do not understand things. Parliament and Assemblies are the highest authorities for policy makings and representatives are elected by common people for them, if common people can decide their representatives then they should have rights of verification of works of their representatives. People should have fundamental rights to verify policies, decisions, rules etc which are being made for them.)
• National/State Budgets are finalised by closed & centralised powers without being verified by Local Societies. How can big financial groups, high level secretaries and centralised political powers be Social Accountable without having ground understandings of Local Communities/Societies? How very small groups can decide for millions of time bigger groups without any verification or concern? These nonsocial, non-accountable and non-democratic processes should be changed publicly accountable systems. Budget should be verified by Local Social Systems and government machinery should execute the decisions of Local Social Systems.
(In many decades after Independence, it has been understood that there are big holes in governance systems of India. Things are being worse and moving towards un-accountability increasingly. Thus, policies should be verified by people of India. An open and easy verification structure/system should be formed to get active participation of people of India to empower Democracy to stop violations of fundamental values of Democracy.)
• All governance systems i.e.- Parliament, Assemblies, Panchayats, Execution Systems, Judiciary Systems etc should be converted into direct-open-public-facility-management systems from centralised-closed controlled-administrative ruling systems and should be made direct accountable to the People of India.
Dr Prakash Tyagi follows in the footprints of his father to serve the tribal community of the Thar Desert. Nowadays there is a new tradition formed by NGO owners to handover the NGO to their children, even though these children never served the community or the NGO as volunteers. But Dr Prakash Tyagi is not a follower of this NGO business tradition. He joined his father’s organization as a volunteer and served the community as a doctor for many years before becoming the director of the GRAMIN VIKAS VIGYAN SAMITI, GRAVIS. 
Talking with Ground Report India, Dr Prakash says “I visited interior villages with my parents and saw my parents serving and struggling for the needy people. My father became my ideal and I decided to serve the community rather than join the rat-race to build mycareer.” He also pays thanks to his mother, Shashi Tyagi, who is an educationist and a community social worker, and still motivates him today to serve the community. 
One big achievement of GRAVIS in the field of education is an education centre that was started by GRAVIS but after few years it was adopted by the local village community. Today this school is now being run and managed by the local village community. There is a nominal fee for the student in this school ,which is used in construction and maintenance of the school.
There is a breeze of NGOs sponsored tribal heroes in the media, on the internet and also social networking platforms for the Bastar region. Most of these sponsored heroes were or are paid employees of the NGOs working in this region. 
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the vice-chairman, the planning commission of India was surprised in his visit when he saw the campus. Ahluwalia said that the campus of the Aravali Institute of Management is a model for professional education institutes.
Umakant Umrao gained the trust of people by mixing amongst them and became a part of their own social and individual families. Umakant Umrao was going to the farmers’ fields even in very hot days to dig Reva Sagar(s) in their lands. He became a common farmer to motivate farmers to change their lives.
“As in industrial economy, electrify solar energy petroleum product etc are treated as critical inputs, in the same ways water is treated as a critical input in agriculture. Farmers could earn more profit with irrigated agriculture than non irrigated agriculture. A farmer who does not have the source of water, if he uses the captive irrigation method, he could earn more profit, which is other words can be named as Economics of Water, Gender Empowerment and protector of the Wildlife & Environment”.
