People’s participation: -
Swami Vivekananda’s concept and Divyayan experiment
After the British come they did not come to be one with the Indian
people but to rule and exploit them; hence they introduce a system of
administration which crushed the autonomous character of the Indian communities
in the name of welfare administration. In the process, the small communities
lose their identity.
Written by A. K. Jasu
INTRODUCTION
We often
talk about people participation, but always it is interpreted in our own way.
We expect that people should affirmatively nod to whatever we say and if they
do not make a positive response we consider that people are not responsive. We
must appreciate that Indian rural communities survived for thousands of years
even without help from anybody. In this context the observation of Swami
Vivekananda is very relevant. Swamiji observed that many invasions took place
in India which brought about a change at the higher level of governmental
administration but it did not affect the autonomous character of the rural
communities.
In course
of time invasion got assimilated with the indigenous people. But after the
British come they did not come to be one with the Indian people but to rule and
exploit them; hence they introduce a system of administration which crushed the
autonomous character of the Indian communities in the name of welfare
administration. In the process, the small communities lose their identity and
respond to the same music which is orchestrated either from the national or
state capital. Today’s problem of extremism in different part of the country
can be attributed partly to this system of administration. Small people in the
village feel totally isolated in their own environment. Swamiji wanted that the
lost individuality of the poor framers, artisans, and craftsman should be
restored back to them. We have to think of people’s participation in the
context of this broad perspective.
METHODOLOGY
Now the question is how to go about in the matter
of getting ‘people’s participation’ in the developmental process? Firstly,
participation implies the community members are not passive recipients but
active partners who have a say in the matter of various level of planning and
implementation. But for a community to participate, it has to be an enlightened
and conscious group which takes keen interest in the whole process as also, if
necessary a say tailoring the programme fulfilling their requirements. Swamiji
said “all the wealth of the world will not raise a single Indian village if the
people are not taught to help themselves”.
Thus, creation of awareness
to understand the needs and their priorities, meaningful interaction with
community members is one of the prime necessities at the beginning of any
programme. How to create awareness? The answer is genuine love to serve the
community on the part of the agency or the individual involved is the first and
foremost criterion for the getting ‘people’s participation’. Then what next?
Clear understanding of the need of the communities. But how? The community
itself is capable of spelling out quite a lot of requirements and also the
priorities. It is can be clearly estimated by adopting the technology of
“PARTICIPATORY RURAL APPRISAL”.
EXAMPLE
AS MODEL
There are hundreds of success stories of people’s
participation through active involvement of Vivekananda Seva Sangh – a village
level developmental organisation, actively involved in all its adopted villages
of Ramakrishna mission Divyayan Krishi Vigyan Kendra. Some of them have
established as model are illustrated below:-
i)
Contraction of Dug well under “JALDHARA”
Scheme: Under this programme about 1200 irrigation dug wells were taken up
and completed by Divyayan in 64 villages of 13 blocks of Ranchi districts. A
committee of beneficiaries in each village was formed to look after the work
and take certain decisions. The beneficiaries were motivated not to fall prey
to middlemen or contractors, either in supplying of materials like stone or
construction work and take directly upon themselves the responsibility of
digging the wells. This encouraged them to utilize the raw materials locally
available and raised the employment opportunity, besides giving them a sense of
belongingness towards the well.
A
noticeable feature of the cooperation and collective approach came to light
when the farmers selected for construction of wells in different places, helped
on another to complete the work in time. The success of the dug well scheme in
the villages through active people’s participation has not only inspired the
neighbouring villages to take up such development programme but also has ben
appreciated by district administration. In fact success came due to the
empowerment to the community in true sense to take decision collectively by
themselves. It has proved that our village folks are really receptive to ideas,
capable of group action and whenever necessary, they are far more cooperative
than the urban counter parts.
ii)
Construction of 35 community centres: The
Vivekananda Seva Sangh of the villages did everything from scratch to
completion through participation of villagers. The site was selected by them
(donated by a villager very willingly) and they collected all the building
materials like sand, boulders for rubble blocks, broken chips etc. A village
boy was trained in masonry work and others joint and constructed the centre in
very short time. True motivation and empowerment can do wonders.
iii)
Organizing Kisan Mela: Since
1979, every year in some villages to preserve the cultural tradition and also
add motivation for agricultural production through technology dissemination, Kisan Melas have been organised. In this efforts right from planning,
collection for funds, food staff etc., and the entire village took part in
putting up stalls and stage. The remarkable capacity to organised such huge
events in which 5-10 thousands of people attendant is another example of the
success of people’s participation.
iv)
Such people’s
participation and mutual cooperation is not just restricted to economic
activity alone, but has spread to culture, to education, and health, and
sanitation programmes etc.
CONCLUSION
People’s participation at various level that is
understanding of their problems through direct dialogue, motivating them
through meetings and introduction, picking up right type of persons from
amongst them best on their enterprise inclination, formulating action plan,
taking them into confidence, involving them in day to day implementation of
programme, providing them necessary inputs, arranging for disposal for produce,
in fact could form the very base of rural development. Lastly I conclude with
Swamiji’s word “Do not spoon feed them, let them grow according to the natural
law of evolution, only stand by them and feed them with the noblest ideas and
the loftiest dream because the which is the imagination today can be made
realization tomorrow”.
**********
A. K. Jasu. Dean, Faculty of Integrated Rural and Tribal Development and Management,
School of Agriculture and Rural development, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda
University, Ranchi Campus.
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