Community Empowerment towards Environmental Sustainability

Draft Report April 2002-October 2002

Uttarakhand Environmental Education Centre Almora, India

2

Community Empowerment towards Environmental Sustainability

Phase 1: Project: Community Capacity Building for environmental sustainability Duration: December 2001- March 2002 Partners: UNESCO Asia and the Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, Bangkok

Uttarakhand Environmental Education Centre, Almora, Uttaranchal, India Village community in Maichun and Women teachers from different parts of Uttaranchal

Presentation on the first phase: Date: 28-29 March 2002 Place: UNEP Bangkok Phase 2: Project: Development and Implementation of the Community Action Plan Duration: April 2002-October 2002 Partners: UNESCO Asia and the Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, Bangkok

Uttarakhand Environment Education Centre, Almora, Uttaranchal, India Village community in Maichun and Women and teachers from different parts of Uttaranchal

3

Background:

Commissioned by the UNESCO Asia and the Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, Bangkok, this project on Community Capacity Building for Environmental Sustainability began in December 2001 in India and Nepal. The first phase of the project focused on understanding community attitudes towards environment through participatory action research (PAR). Local traditional methods of environmental management were studied and documented in Maichun village of Almora district in the Central Himalayas, Uttaranchal, India. The project embarked further to assess the relevance of the traditional practices of environmental management in the context of changing economic and social situations in villages. Gender, caste, education, class, age based variations in attitudes and aspirations were found to be crucial determinants of behaviour towards environment. Different orientation and training needs were identified for young and elderly women, adolescent boys and girls and for the whole community. The whole exercise in phase 1 at Maichun led to the need for more work in the future to reorient and educate participants to be able to make informed choices for survival and to strengthen their sense of community to regulate those influences that pose threats to environmental, economic and social sustainability. The report of phase 1 is available at a UNESCO website http://www.unescobkk.org/education/appeal/topic04b.htm.

At the review meeting on Community Capacity Building for Environmental Sustainability in Bangkok on 28-29th March 2002, project leaders shared their work in phase 1 of the project. Dr. Lalit Pande, representative of Uttarakhand Environment Education Centre, Almora emphasized the need for continuation of work in Maichun and phase 2 of the project titled “Development and Implementation of the Community Action Plan” was initiated.

The activities under phase 2 for the period April-September 2002 are documented herein.

4

Introduction:

Environmental sustainability is a complex concept to define and to implement particularly when related to rural societies in remote mountainous areas such as the village Maichun, in this project, in India. Maichun, as we have reported earlier in phase 1 of the project, is currently experiencing social, environmental and economic transition-local dance and songs, stories, the dialect and the traditional practices provide a glimpse to the rich ecological literacy that had developed over centuries in the past but facing serious erosion now. The community has long left the business of basket weaving from ringal (a variety of bamboo found in the village forest) and plastic goods invariably litter the village land and pollute the water sources. The notion of community cohesiveness, a sense of belonging to the land and to the village, simplicity and truthfulness are values not as strongly cherished by the young people as valued by village elders. The young people dream of a wealthy consumerist life-style, away from their village. This obvious unease about village life among their children troubles the village elders who know that the village can survive if a few leave but such is the lure to leave that everybody wants to go out and once there, people change, most of them visit the village as guests once in a while. Parents and grandparents also know that in the city most of their children would end up living in slums earning menial wages while in the village all of them have a home and some land.

For people of Maichun, agriculture is more than an occupation. It is a way of life that maintains continuity between generations and allows individuals freedom to make decisions about the land, the seeds, the cattle, the water and other commodities. By carefully rejecting and sometimes experimenting with hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides the people of Maichun, especially women, have been able to maintain their freedom of choice and autonomy. The community prefers local village-based decision-making processes rather than opting for state rules and laws that they feel cumbersome and alien to their culture. The village forest is still protected and managed by the village committee, a collective water supply system with mutually agreed community rules for equal distribution has been maintained even after pressures from the state to join the big water supply systems, water sources are protected as sacred places and common management of agricultural fields to protect vegetables from wild animals was common until recently. However, the fact remains that most of the people do not regard these activities that contribute towards sustainability or for environmental improvements but more as traditions of their village that must be followed. So, the word “sustainability” is new for the people of Maichun although for generations they have been collectively managing their village and practicing sustainability as a part of their tradition.

The village life is sustained with an array of closely interrelated activities that depend on the forest, agriculture, water, cattle and the local market. Together, these components make an interesting system, the village ecosystem, which we took as a unit to understand the concept of sustainability in Maichun. Agriculture, the basis of the village economy, depends on the surrounding forests through several organic processes that replenish and regenerate the soil. Green fodder from the forest is fed to the cattle in the cowshed. Dry leaves too are collected from the forest floor to put beneath the cattle as leaf beds. Soaked in urine and mixed with cow dung the remnants in the cowshed are lifted manually and dumped in the compost pit for further degradation. Later, this organic

5

manure is used in the agricultural fields to sustain grain and vegetable production. A system, consistent with the ecological principles has supported and nourished life in the village for centuries maintaining diversity, stability and resilience. However, things are changing fast. The younger generation, formally educated and exposed to the outer world, lacks the capability to visualize these practices as organic links collectively feeding to a system that nourishes and sustains life in the village and in surrounding towns. In their haste to run away from the village, the young men and women do not seem to have the time to understand their own village and their own people, neither do they receive any orientation towards this in school. With increasing difficulties in meeting their daily survival needs, due to environmental degradation in the region, mothers too are less likely to spend quality time with children and to educate them about practices and values that have sustained their community in the past.

Palta was a community activity in which the whole village regularly took turns to mix properly the already degrading ingredients of compost collected in small pits near each household and carry it to the fields. The practice strengthened the community ties but more importantly good quality compost was fed to the cultivated fields. The system having lost its relevance now has two consequences. First, the grain production in the fields has gone down. Several families in the village now complain of declining agricultural yields so much so that food is not even enough for six months in a year. Second, the young children in the village do not see compost as a resource for sustainable agriculture. In fact, they are ashamed of working on the land. The girls for aesthetic reasons (nail paint would be spoiled and the compost stinks were some instant remarks form girls) and the boys for livelihood (what will we do in the village? We go to the city, earn money and live comfortably- the boys say).

The problem is compounded with the fact that traditional practices have often continued without understanding their relevance and contributions to village life and to society at large. The essence of the practice was diluted with each generation following it without comprehending its principles but just continuing with it for the sake of a tradition and a slow but definite impact on the village sustainability occurred. These impacts were too small to be noticed in the village in the early stages and when they became apparent and obvious for everyone to notice them, it requires resources, the time, and knowledge to regenerate or improve them- a task that nobody in the village can do alone.

Other villages of Uttaranchal, too, are experiencing similar problems. In the last century, massive deforestation in the region has had a devastating impact on the local ecological and economic sustainability (Shiva, Guha).

Similarly, green revolution in India was considered a wonderful programme in the early stages but slowly people began to realize the underlying consequences of a massive technology-oriented process of agriculture. Regeneration of the land, destroyed by heavy irrigation and application of chemical fertilizers, is a major challenge, India faces today, but it also shows how unsustainable the system has become.

What relevance do the principles of sustainability have in Maichun? Should environmental sustainability issues be discussed in the village at all and in what context? If people want to go to the cities, what differences the project will make? How do we ensure that there is no backlash in the process the project initiates in the village? These were some of the questions that we asked ourselves and to the community people in Maichun. Answers to these questions were complex and often reflected uncertainty about

6

the future. However, while we struggled to find answers we learnt that in Maichun environmental, social and economic sustainability issues are closely interrelated and any attempts for improvements would require a holistic and systematic approach. Further, building up a self-reliant village economy guided by the vision of co-operation, simplicity and elegance could be a way to persuade the youth to live and earn their livelihood in their village. However, we also realized that to be able to support the rural economy the land must be fertile and healthy. Simultaneously, development of knowledge and skills in the village could make people capable of taking effective decisions about their lives and to put them into action. We also understood that problems of environmental deterioration, reflected in inadequate agricultural production, migration, poor water quality, health problems and devaluation of community and culture, far from being simply solved by some technological intervention or through market regulations, require knowledge, attitudinal changes and skill development among common people. Local initiatives and creativity could provide more relevant and diverse mechanisms for improvements in the village.

We have designed this project to address problems that people face in their daily lives. Land degradation was identified as a major problem together with the issue of erosion of community.

The following document unfolds the intricacies of the process that initiated a dialogue about environmental, economic and social sustainability in Maichun. The first section presents a list of core sustainability issues that have emerged during the process. The second part documents the process and includes comments on team building. Strategies for participation are included. It also presents a brief note on community practices conducive to the goals of sustainability. The last section provides conclusion and some suggestions for future work.

7

Core environmental sustainability issues: What is to be sustained, views from Maichun: ►In Maichun, the community perceives the environmental sustainability issues as inclusive of social and economic trends. There are thematic as well as practical overlaps between sustainability issues such as the quality of agricultural production (indicator of environmental sustainability) and health of the people (indicator of social sustainability). Similarly, loss of indigenous forests near the village (negative indicator of environmental sustainability) would not only mean decline in total agricultural output and water shortage (indicator of economic sustainability) but also loss of leisure time for women (indicator of social sustainability). Therefore, understanding sustainability in Maichun meant understanding various components of the village ecosystem-the land, the water, the people, the animals and the vegetation and their interactions with each other. ►The long-term perspective on development is inclusive of sustainability of all components of the village ecosystem. It questions the short immediate gains made by exploiting nature and advocated that food, fodder, fuel wood and water are necessities that the land should be able to provide to nurture and to sustain life in every village and its surroundings. Development enthusiasts may argue that ecological deficit areas could survive by importing food, cooking gas and animal feed from other regions as prosperous cities draw their requirements from all over the world. This view, in our opinion, reflects a shortsighted vision of development and indeed avoids issues of sustainability. The reality is that the current trading systems and economic development considerations accelerate resource depletion on the earth. Thus, while supporting a part of the population in a particular region of the planet, these processes may trigger negative environmental impacts on the productive bioregion by constantly depleting and not replenishing the natural resource-stock. Further more, money or technology cannot produce food or water, it has to come from the land and for that we have to work with the nature not against it. ►The people of Maichun say-“water is life and we can not make our land productive without having our own water systems. Even if we advocate pumping water uphill from distant sources or try to depend on piped water supply from the government we will fall into problems because the water source-wherever it is located should be able to meet our requirements and as all over Uttaranchal forests are depleting and water sources drying up, there is little potential for continuous supply of water. On top of that we are not alone here, other villages would also need water from the same source.” This long-term vision for careful use of natural resources emerges from real-life experiences and reflects on the knowledge with which small communities such as the people of Maichun have been able to survive and sustain themselves. At the core of this world-view lie values and beliefs that guide the people to be patient and careful with nature and to be generous to people in surrounding villages. It also reflects on a society that is rooted in trust and co-operation and believes in sharing of natural resources with others. If the village ecosystem is degraded, the human as well as other life forms suffer-the vegetation, the microorganisms, birds, animals all face problems of survival and continuity in the region. Rivers, springs may go dry or and grain production comes down causing misery and insecurity to all living organisms as a healthy life cannot exist on unhealthy environments.

8

►The concept of sustainability protects and fosters local cultures and diversity. The idea of local sustainability promotes the idea of diversified economies and self-reliance. Inherent in the concept is the view that communities, who know their land and other resources best can survive and adapt to the local conditions most comfortably so that a diversity of ecological and cultural values and practices flourish. It also advocates careful selection and promotion of ecologically sensitive economic practices to revive and boost the local trade. However, threats to this vision are many and real. Here, we could briefly discuss the village sustainability issues in a wider context, specially, in relation to the state development policies. Being a newly created state, Uttaranchal, faces shortage of funds that the government tries to meet with the loans from international development agencies. Development agencies, however, believe that Uttaranchal needs to be “developed” in line with standards that have guided development in western countries or in other parts of India. Thus, subsidies are being provided for hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides to develop agriculture. Money is also given for projects on forest management and for development of the water sector in villages. Projects have also been created for promotion of environmental education in schools. The consequences are already apparent. Heavily under debt, the state, wants to generate as much money as possible by attracting outside investments as well as by generating local employment. Immediate benefits accruing to the farmers through chemical farming go well in line with this need. Being content by these temporary achievements both the government and the people do not bother to ask questions that relate to the sustainability of these development projects, neither they relate them to the long-term effects of these interventions.

In their enthusiasm to promote agriculture to remove poverty and to provide food to the poor, the state and development agencies have overlooked the basics of agriculture in Uttaranchal. Hybrid seeds nurtured by chemical fertilizers and pesticides promise higher yields and this creates an illusion of progress in villages, especially among youth, who crave for immediate benefits. The illusion of business in external markets, which is believed to be very rewarding, has, therefore, attracted a lot of attention, however, in the absence of irrigation in upland fields, the land soon becomes unproductive. Confused, the people start again replenishing the soil by reverting to the use of compost. This is exactly what some women in Maichun did. The men bought in the chemical fertilizers and hybrid seeds and asked the women to try some high yielding varieties of wheat in rain-fed fields. After, six years, women realized that the soil fertility had gone down and they stopped using fertilizers and reverted to their own crop growing methods.

Similarly, the forest history of Uttaranchal in the last 55 years (after independence) has developed in response to contradictory rules and policies of biodiversity conservation and interests of timber and mountain herbs. The recent projects on forest development, however, recognize that the local people should be partners in the process of sustainable development but the essence of sustainability is diluted in practice by policies that merely confuse the village residents and aggravate cynicism and alienation. The people of Maichun, therefore, have too long bargained with the government to allow them to keep the village forest under their own management. They have also resisted sharing their water supply systems with the government and through efficient and effective management they have shown that they can protect and develop their own collective resources.

9

►The answer to the question of defending local sustainability is inclusive of the capacity of the local people to be able to reject or negotiate development processes that exploit natural resources and destroy communities and their way of life. However, the dividing line between sustainable development and economic imperialism is thin and hazy. As political discourses and globalization processes promote the idea of economic growth as the major concern for development, other voices, particularly the voices of poor people from villages like Maichun, remain unheard. ►Uttaranchal has the potential to grow as an organic food producer as villages still practice traditional farming but it needs to be promoted consciously by the Government and the people together and the time to do it is now. Every village managing its own affairs with knowledgeable people and skilled workers with the ability to become self-reliant and food sufficient may not be a wishful dream, but a reality. Some of the considerations that would favour and support local sustainability in Uttaranchal are outlined below:

1. More or less equal distribution of land amongst community people, relatively less aggressive caste and class division in villages makes it easy to promote ideas of equity and cooperation

2. As we will notice in the next section of this report, the most important issues that the community in Maichun prioritized for sustainable development were plantation to support agriculture and household needs and vegetable production for livelihoods. This prioritization of community needs reflects that the people still want to root themselves on the land and on the village commons. However in the absence of relevant information and a vision for ecologically sensitive development they get easily attracted by a materialistic lifestyle perpetuated by global economic forces

3. Central and necessary to the concept of sustainability in Uttaranchal are the perspectives and work of women, especially promoted by organized women’s groups, who have long been resisting development policies of external agencies. While adhering to traditional practices women have been able to provide alternatives to current development by continuing innovations through small village-based projects and setting examples for local sustainability. These women have come together across barriers of age and caste and class to promote ideas that they feel are suited to their societies and conducive to the goals of local sustainability. By careful testing in villages, the women have come forward with agendas of development that are feasible in their own settings (UEEC Annual Report 2002).

4. The Government of Uttaranchal and UEEC are in the process of introducing environmental education as a separate subject in grades 6-8 in all government schools. Local sustainability and livelihoods is the core concept that has been promoted through this subject. Currently more than 60,000 students have been studying sustainability in schools and the number will increase each year. These students can help in a great way to promote environmental sustainability in the region.

5. The people of Maichun do not want to alienate themselves from the global market economy but prefer to carve out a space for themselves by resisting forces that marginalize them and create an illusion of progress based on monetary gains. A

10

mutually supportive community guided with the vision of sustainability could provide a different vision to current development paradigm that promotes individualism, consumerism and greed.

6. On a positive note, views from Maichun encourage sustainable development workers to construct conceptual and practical foci of development that are based on the realities of life of those people who still believe in sustainable development and are eager to work on these issues.

11

Understanding environmental sustainability: The process:

As phase 2 of the project on Community Empowerment towards Environmental Sustainability began in April 2002, the UEEC team met again to plan and discuss the future work. Lessons from the first phase of the project had shown the importance of the local context to sustain a project on environmental sustainability through an innovative and systematic approach to development. Traditional knowledge systems, sense of community in the village, village infrastructure such as the Jan Milan Kendra (community meeting place), the pre-primary education centre all contribute towards sustainability, nevertheless the issue here was not sustainability in rigid environmental terms but more of an educational process by which the local people develop capabilities to regulate processes that threaten survival of all life forms in the village in changing socio-economic and environmental situations.

The participants emphasized that the project will: Work with the community in Maichun as a collaborative team to foster community

initiatives Activities under the project should be philosophically consistent Build a team of motivated workers Create a programme that will develop awareness and knowledge and build up skills to

strengthen practices on sustainable development in Maichun and work with the community people to help spread these practices in other villages of Uttaranchal

Document the process Suggest changes that are needed in Uttaranchal to move towards environmental

sustainability Assess effectiveness of this project

These self-imposed goals have guided our work in Maichun from April 2002 to October 2002. From the beginning we believed that all people involved in the project should feel that they have a role in planning and shaping the project and its products and the following sections in this report show that if environmental sustainability workers trust people and have faith in local capability building processes, it is possible to come up with many new and exciting ideas that could enrich the already growing understanding of sustainability in the world. Identifying sustainability goals:

To start consultation sessions with the community people, UEEC planned a series of meetings at Almora and in the village. We had also hoped for a visit of the UNESCO representative from Bangkok in June which unfortunately could not materialize due to the restrictions on travel of UN staff.

A team of 22 people from Maichun village came to Almora on 5th June 2002. They left home early in the morning so breakfast awaited them at the UEEC office. The journey to Almora had made some of the women sick and they were complaining of headache, nausea and giddiness. This was soon taken care of and informal talks started in the canteen itself where all participants had breakfast together.

The aim of the first meeting in phase 2 was to review findings of the first phase, appraise the participants about developments in the project and to identify sustainability goals that the community people had to set for themselves.

12

Figure 1. The women of Maichun on their first meeting at UEEC Almora.

The people sat in a circle on the floor in the conference room of UEEC. This

seating arrangement gave the room an informal and homely feeling and made women comfortable in front of men (our visits to Maichun earlier had made it clear that women hesitate to sit on chairs in front of their male relatives and we felt that their first visit to UEEC should be comfortable-the gender issue involved in the practice could be addressed slowly after some discussions on women’s development with the community). Soon, the UEEC staff started a chorus and women of Maichun joined in. At the end of the song, we asked the young boys of Maichun to join in a next song which emphasized the importance of community with women and youth taking the leadership to foster values of love, respect and community cohesion in the village. Then, the women said that they want to sing another song in the local dialect. They took the lead role and others followed. Dr. Lalit Pande welcomed all participants and introductions followed. Many participants already knew each other because of frequent meetings in phase1 and prior to this meeting. An orientation to both the project and the workshop was given. Ms. Anuradha, a staff member of UEEC, presented the summary of the work of phase 1, a part of which had already been discussed in the village earlier. The results of the PAR exercise were of interest to the community people and they asked many questions during the presentation. An interesting discussion on the use of compost and chemical fertilizers in the agricultural fields took place when a man from Maichun said that “chemical fertilizers are useful to us but we do not know the correct methods of application of fertilizers in the fields”. Women and other men in the village, however, were of the view that the sandy texture of soil and lack of irrigation facilities in the village make it necessary to use compost rather than chemical fertilizers that need more

Comfortable and confident in new settings As a part of the workshop, we had planned only two songs. However, women were encouraged to speak up and feel easy in the beginning of the meeting itself. They were all smiling while singing the song in their own language and during lunch two of them said that they wanted to learn more songs on women’s development and on village life.

13

water. A teacher from Maichun said: “if we use chemical fertilizers, we keep putting it for each crop whilst compost nourishes soil for a much longer time”. Mr. Anand Singh of Maichun was of the view that people use chemical fertilizers only when compost is not enough. However, women of Maichun preferred compost in the agricultural fields and men said “we better leave this matter to women who are responsible for agricultural work”.

Figure 2. Reviewing the work of the first phase.

Mr. K. S. Suyal, a staff member of UEEC, started a discussion on the future of

villages in Uttaranchal. He explained the physical and socio-economic changes that are occurring in villages and gave examples of successful initiatives taken up by communities for improvements in environment and gender in different parts of Uttaranchal.

Discussions then turned towards the aims of development. Participants explored the meaning and the scope of the term ‘development” and shared their ideas about development in the context of Maichun village.

14

Figure 3. Discussing the future of the village. After lunch, the issue of women’s development was discussed. Initially, the

women were hesitant to take part in discussions and we had to ask them specifically about their views but when after a lot of encouragement two women still kept quiet we decided to explore it further. During tea break, we asked them casually what the matter was and they said that they were afraid of men who would make fun of them back in the village.

The issue was discussed in the meeting and women were happy about it. They invited us to visit their village to form a women’s group. This led to an open discussion on the role of UEEC in the project. We emphasized that it was that of a facilitator and not of a provider. The community should understand first why they wanted to have a group and how do they go about it. We also emphasized that if the community wanted to have a committee and not a group that was also fine with UEEC because the project was their own and they should decide what they want to do. The process of formation of the group in which the community takes decisions was important and UEEC could only facilitate the process-this meant that UEEC would not form the women’s group or constitute the committee but everyone in the community contribute towards this and other parts of the project.

15

Figure 4. The session on gender equality at UEEC Almora. The community people felt that the formation of a women’s group would help

women organize regular meetings at a common place in the village. In these meetings, women could raise issues that they were concerned about. This was an open-ended discussion and the participants felt that more thinking on this issue was required.

Identification of community sustainability goals was a complex issue. It was noticed that although many traditional practices were conducive and still relevant to local sustainability issues, especially in relation to land and water management practices, the community people could not relate to them as processes towards sustainability.

After much discussion, the community people identified the following issues that were of immediate relevance to their lives:

Plantation on a part of the grassland near the village Some employment activity-may be weaving Cleaning and renovation of the traditional sources of water (springs in the village) Animal husbandry Construction of a community owned room near Gupta Ganga (a sacred place in

the village)

16

Figure 5. The village map drawn by the community people at phase 1 of the project was a useful reference in the future meetings.

At the end of their first full day together with UEEC staff at Almora office, the community people were pleased with the spirit in which the meeting took place. They felt the need to “see” their village from a different perspective. The village map that they had drawn on paper during PAR was a useful reference for discussions on environment and development but a three dimensional model of the village could give more details. The group agreed that such a model could be made in Jan Milan Kendra (community meeting place) at Maichun. The UEEC staff agreed to visit the village on 12th June 2002 to help the community develop a model of the village.

The new members of the UEEC team, Ms. Suman and Mr. Suresh, who were not involved in the first phase of the project, wanted to become familiar with the village and raised this issue during the meeting. The community people invited them to Maichun on the 8th June 2002. Follow up of the meeting:

Ms. Suman and Mr. Suresh visited Maichun on the 8th June 2002. Mr. Amar Singh and Ms. Geeta, who had already emerged as community leaders in phase1 of the project, met them in the local tea-stall. The team took a round of the village and talked informally to the village residents. At the community meeting place, where tea was served, the young boys of the village brought up the issue of wages for their work while working on the project. A young boy, smiling, offered that he could give good quality mud for preparation of the model to UEEC staff at a low price. Clarifying approach:

A Knowledge-based initiative The danger of appropriation of the project by a few in the community is at best mitigated in the beginning of the work itself. The educational approach promotes initiatives that enable people to develop ideas together and helps them put their thoughts into collective action. Money shouldn’t be a motivating factor- knowledge should.

17

In the evening of the same day, a review meeting was held at Almora and the issue of development of the village model was discussed. The team members felt that the project should discourage individual benefits as it may adversely affect the process of building up the sense of community among people. This was a conscious decision based on UEEC’s former experience of working with rural women’s groups and community-based organizations in the state of Uttaranchal.

Another important consideration was to promote activities that people were interested in and willing to do given their time constraints and other resources available around them. A participatory constructivist approach: Making a model of the village: Mr. Suresh Bisht and Mr. K. S. Suyal arrived at Maichun in the early morning of 8th June. The community members gathered soon and a discussion on the process of building up a village model was held. During discussions, the UEEC staff made it clear that it was community work and no individuals were particularly benefiting from the exercise. This discussion had a positive impact on community people, especially young boys, and they started helping in the process.

A few adolescent children of Maichun, who had done this exercise in their schools as a part of environmental education, began developing the model of the village by initiating discussions on the importance of the activity. Soon, other members of the community joined in. Informal discussions during the process helped people understand what, why, how of the exercise and the model was developed in an atmosphere of congenial enthusiasm.

As individuals started to work in a group they began trusting each other’s ability and developed confidence in collective action. A young boy in the group said “I came because I was curious to know what happens here. When I saw other people working, I joined in, but it’s fun”.

The women were amused to see the agricultural fields, the houses and the trees in miniature forms. A piece of string symbolizing the water-supply system in the village attracted their attention. Women, very rightly indicated that the location of one of the water sources was wrong. They seemed to have more knowledge about water and land related issues than men and gave several other suggestions to improve the model. This was soon taken care of and the UEEC team agreed to visit the village again on the 15th June 2002 to discuss the future work.

Build on earlier experiences and capabilities of people

In Uttarachal, students of grades 6-8 study environmental education as a separate subject. Designed and developed by UEEC, this programme offers several exercises that promote sustainable development practices in the local context. The state education department has now accepted the programme as a part of the regular school curriculum

Students, who had studied environmental education in their schools became “experts” on activities related to the development of a village model. Parents were requested to listen to their children as they started working on the model. Benefits were two fold: (a) adolescent children gained confidence in their capabilities (b) the elders in the village saw the worth of education their children were receiving in schools.

18

Figure 6. People of Maichun exhibited great interest in understanding their own village through the model that they had made themselves. Identifying challenges: All members of UEEC team met at Almora on 13th June 2002 to reflect on the previous days learning experiences and to relate it to the project. The process appeared to be educational and a learning experience for the community as well as UEEC. A dynamic, process-oriented, people-centred approach of identifying and responding to village needs had kept the community informed of all developments in the project but still there were people who had never attended a meeting! It was not that these women and men were not aware of the project; the UEEC staff had already met them informally in their homes, in the agricultural fields and at water collection points during their visits to the village, but more involvement on their part was needed to ensure participation of the whole community in decision making during planning and implementation of the project.

Leadership responsibilities were shared between Mr. Amar Singh and Mrs. Geeta Latwal but a clear gender difference was reflected in the second-line leadership. Mr. Amar singh supported by members of the traditional village committee, who were respected like him in the village, was more assertive whilst Mrs. Geeta Latwal had no such supporters. Women of the village were still not articulate and confident and needed some help in this connection.

Adolescent children, especially boys, who had dropped out of schools and were un-employed, wanted some guidance regarding their livelihoods.

Develop educational activities with the community

The model of the village is a useful tool for understanding environment. It shows the physical environment, human beings and animals and helps explain their interrelationships and the process that occur in keeping the system functional. It also permits the community to understand the effects of individual and cumulative actions on land, water and on the whole village. In Maichun a lively discussion took place on the changes in village environment when the people were examining the model

19

The feasibility of training programmes and future meetings were to be explored in

relation to these realities keeping in focus the local environmental sustainability issues. Addressing some core social beliefs with environmental sustainability as an intrinsic principle: A small team of experienced community workers and educationists of UEEC was welcomed by the community at the Jan Milan Kendra (community meeting center) on 15th June 2002. Just outside the center, the village model was displayed. It was bright and colourful and looked attractive. Soon, Mr. Anand Singh, a retired schoolteacher, of Maichun started explaining various components of the village ecosystem to participants. Taking help of the model, he showed the forests, houses, agricultural fields, water sources, irrigation canals, grasslands, village paths, sacred places in the village and explained interrelationships between them. In the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Lalit Pande explained again to the community that the project had an educational focus and should be seen as a continuous process of learning about the village and of putting into action what had been learnt. In a friendly tone, Dr. Pande reviewed all developments under the project and requested the community people, especially women, to put forward their views on what they had thought of after developing the model of the village emphasizing that it’s the community viewpoint that matters in the project and it would really set the agenda for the future work.

Reorient participants at regular intervals It is important to reiterate the project goals and expectations at regular intervals throughout the project. Each meeting with the community, in this project, began with an orientation to the project and each time the information brought up more questions as people tried to clear their ideas and expectations from the project

20

Figure 7. The retired schoolteacher of Maichun explained to the community the village ecosystem and its components.

Importance of community cohesiveness was another issue that was discussed in the meeting. Faces of elder people of the village were beaming with joy and pride when they talked about the traditional methods of forest and water management. The village forest, harvested and protected by the village committee in Maichun and the collective water supply system maintained by the people help keep alive the sense of community in the village. What did the new generation think about it? On the whole, the young boys, girls and daughter-in-laws of the village showed a respect towards the efforts of village elders in maintaining the traditional practices and nurturing values that bind the community together but at the same time they were more influenced by the market-economy. Readymade clothes, consumerist items (television, telephone, radio, grinder, electric fans etc.) were more desirable than simple home made essentials and accessories. These desires could be met only if they had more cash and for that everybody wanted a job in the city.

Figure 8. Meeting at Maichun focused on understanding the village ecosystem and importance of

community cohesiveness. The issue of livelihoods for youth was also discussed. After a lot of discussions, the young boys said that they could initiate some

income generation activity in their own village. Vegetable growing was an option that everybody supported. Further discussions, however, revealed that many years ago the village residents used to cultivate potatoes in substantial amounts that used to give them enough cash to meet their daily requirements throughout the year. The community had a system of each family providing a watchman to save the crops from monkeys. Each family earned differently depending on the size of their landholding. Later on, families with small landholdings started to complain that the system of each family providing an

21

equal share in the process was not fair and the system collapsed. The potato fields were left uncultivated as monkeys from the surrounding forests continued to come there in search for food.

The issue of participation in decision making of the whole community was raised in the village meeting. The community was of the view that the people who had come to Almora for the meeting on the 5th June were carefully selected in a village meeting which was held on the 1st June 2002. A representative from each family attended the meeting at Almora. Also, representative from all resident families in the village had attended the village meetings. On the whole, the community people were satisfied with this arrangement and asserted that everyone in the village was contributing towards the project. Sustainability goal emerged: As we have reported earlier in this document, meetings in the beginning of the project failed to bring forward a community sustainability goal, although the essence of sustainability was very much a part of the traditional practices as well as discussions during meetings.

The development of the community sustainability goals required six meetings between UEEC and the community, organized during June-July. In Maichun, on the 15th July 2002, sustainability surfaced as an essential value for maintaining the sense of community and for environmental improvements in the village. The participants discussed the village economy, talked about gender roles and differences in intergenerational values towards life and identified the challenges these changes posit before the community. The community expressed the need for an orientation towards approaches that would help the people move towards a future that would be much brighter than today.

The participants desired a society which would foster love and care for others and has equality and justice. Sustaining a village system that could provide enough food, milk, water, a good forest and productive cattle was identified as an essential components of sustainability. The goal as identified by the community has since then valued as a sustainability goal for Maichun.

Reviving the old method with new insights

Livelihood opportunities were one of the main concerns of village residents of Maichun. Instead of raising new hopes for technology-dominated, externally designed income generation activities, which UEEC may not have been in a position to fulfill, the project participants patiently explored other alternatives. Reviving the old system of vegetable growing was acceptable to the village elders, as it would strengthen the community ties. It gave confidence to the youth who agreed to earn their livelihoods with some dignity in the village itself. The women too supported the idea of local food production, as it would stop migration of boys to the cities.

Explore possibilities, don’t run away from the village

The idea of earning a livelihood with dignity in the village gained further ground when Mr. Shivraj of Maichun narrated his experience of working in a printing press in Delhi. After, passing out of school, he went there to get a job. He worked in the printing press for almost five years but became increasingly despaired by the whole situation. His salary did not increase but the cost of living did. Unable to sustain himself in the city, he came back to Maichun. Now, he wants to initiate some activity in the village itself and other young boys were listening to him!

22

Figure 9. Community sustainability goal took six meetings (in the village and at UEEC) to emerge. Testing validity of the sustainability goal: 8 people (4 men and 4 women) from Maichun participated in a meeting held at UEEC Almora on the 16th June 2002. 58 rural people, mostly female, of 7 community-based organizations from different parts of Uttaranchal shared their experiences on environment and women’s development. It was the first experience of the village residents of Maichun to be exposed to the work of women’s organizations in Uttaranchal. Participants of other community-based organizations were eager to meet the women and men of Maichun as they had already heard about their forest management strategies from UEEC in earlier meetings at Almora. Through introductions, the participants learnt more about each other and the meeting started in a cheerful atmosphere, the participants smiling at others with a tinge of recognition in their eyes. Taking our cue from the earlier discussions at Maichun, we started talking about the issue of local livelihoods. The following issues emerged out of these discussions:

Throughout Uttaranchal, active women’s groups have been able to protect and improve the local environment. Protection and regeneration of forests and water, production in agricultural fields have been high in the agenda throughout the last decade and continue to be so in the new century

Community sustainability goal Community sustainability goals were difficult to achieve in the earlier stages of the project. Although, several community practices contribute towards local sustainability, people lack the capability to visualize them as processes that could be weaved together to achieve a common goal. The educational inputs from UEEC extensively dealt with this issue and after a series of meetings with the community, the sustainability goal emerged. Further, educational inputs were than based on this goal.

23

Three factors (a) shortage of jobs in cities (b) improvements in the transportation systems in Uttaranchal which means easy supply of readymade products in villages and (c) the realization among the youth that they would not be able to compete in the cities have forced the young boys to stay back. Many examples were cited by participants to illustrate the point that the young people had no other options left but to earn their livelihood locally

The issue of local livelihood should be integrated with the issue of environmental sustainability but the relationship between the two is complex and often raises conflicts of interests between people who have been conserving the natural resources and those who want to use them for their livelihoods

Opportunities to generate local work, consistent with the environmental improvements, need to be explored. At this end, the work of a community-based organization, Paryavaran sanrakshan samiti (environmental protection group) Pati in Champawat district of Uttaranchal was cited as an example. The organization has successfully ventured into the fields of fisheries and vegetable production and has shown a possible route to the process of earning livelihoods in villages

Listening to the experiences of the members of women’s groups, the people of Maichun, reasserted their desire to plant broad-leaf trees on a part of the village grassland. Currently, the land is used as an open-grazing field. The participants also agreed that for about a month from now, no meetings were to be organized at Maichun, as the community people would be busy in agricultural activities. Maintaining relationships: Ms. Anuradha and Ms. Suman of UEEC visited the village on 9th July 2002 “just to meet people there”. Although, some older ladies were at home and they could talk to them about the progress in the project in more details, most of the women were in the fields. Anuradha and Suman asked Lachima Devi and others at home if they could go to the fields too and were happily shown the way. Ms. Geeta Latwal accompanied them to the fields and on the way they met some young boys of the village. During informal discussions with the boys it was noticed that their attitudes towards UEEC staff had changed. Earlier, they used to describe them as “environmental people” but now they referred to them as didi (Hindi word for sister). They talked to them informally and asked about the project. They were also keen to know about income generation activities in Pati and wanted to go there. Anuradha and Suman were happy to learn that the people who had come to Almora on 16th July had talked about their experience of the meeting back at home. It was also encouraging to note that the young boys were thinking in terms of local livelihood and wanted to be exposed to new ideas and experiments, elsewhere in Uttaranchal. In the agricultural fields, women were busy hand weeding the crops of madua (a local millet) bhatt and gahat (local pulses). Very briefly, the women talked about the project. Anuradha and Suman requested them to come to Almora for a three-day training on women’s development that had been planned from 27th-29th July 2002. The women gave their consent as the pace of their work in the agricultural fields was going to slow down around15-20th July. The UEEC staff could not meet most of the men because it

24

being an auspicious day (when the whole village prays and offers grains and animals to the local deity) the community was busy in the village temple. Meeting at Almora: During 27-29 July 2002 eight women from Maichun participated in a workshop of 60 active members of women’s groups and women leaders engaged in environmental, social and economic development issues in villages of Uttaranchal. Women shared experiences of their work but most importantly discussed practices and values that help sustain women’s groups in villages. Members of women’s groups active on environmental and educational issues in villages for the last 15 years stressed that sustainable development of villages requires a long term perspective and a vision. Women’s contribution to the process of sustainable development is immense and continues to be so as more and more women are joining in and initiating work in villages.

Figure10. Eight women from Maichun participated in a workshop for experienced rural women leaders of Uttaranchal at UEEC, Almora.

The women of Maichun actively took part in the discussions and gave a presentation about their village with emphasis on water and land management, forest protection and agricultural practices. They also wanted to know the process of formation of a women’s group and discussed work that they can take up in their own village. The participants suggested an exposure tour to let women of Maichun identify the need for a space for themselves in the community and to promote leadership qualities. This could also provide an opportunity to see the work of women in other villages of Uttaranchal, give them new ideas and foster solidarity. A full report of the workshop was prepared and distributed to all groups including Maichun.

25

Formation of a women’s group: A women’s group was formed in the village on 30th July 2002. The whole

community participated in the meeting and a president and a treasurer was appointed. The major thrust of the deliberations had been on building women’s capacities so that they could plan, make decisions and take part in village development issues. Formation of a women’s group was considered a step towards this process.

Ms. Geeta Latwal, the teacher of the pre-primary center, explained to the community the advantages of having a women’s group in the village. She also stressed the need to develop active relationship between the center and the group. She pointed out that the center adopts a different learning style and it needs support and encouragement from parents especially women. The women’s group could monitor activities in the center, help in maintaining the center and discuss children’s development along with other issues. In the center, the children are encouraged to love and understand the village through outdoor experiences and they learn how to live as a community. The women’s group and the community could help promote these ideas and values in children who, she hoped, would take care of their village in the future. Exposure tour for women’s group: Twenty-one members of the newly formed women’s group visited a local community based organization, SEED, about 120 km from Maichun, during 15-17 August 2002. The organization has been actively engaged in promoting education, land, water, forests, mining, health and women’s development related issues by exploring and extending principles of collective management, community ownership and empowerment. The women’s groups have also been able to influence government institutions in various ways. During their visit to Paithani village, the women saw an evening center which extends support to children in post-primary stages in their studies and help widen their knowledge and build up skills by engaging them in carefully planned environmental activities. Linkages between women’s development and education were discussed in the meeting organized at the same place by the women’s group of the village.

26

Figure 11. Women of Maichun at the evening center of Paithani village. In Nauri village, the same evening, women discussed the process of the formation

of the women’s group but more importantly talked about the strategies to sustain a group, even when no external funds are available.

Figure12. Women of Maichun on their way to Nauri village.

27

The next morning, in Sanare village, women talked about the pre-primary education programme, visited the center and had discussions with the teacher about the roles of women in education and environmental work.

The women’s group of Shilang village was waiting for them in the afternoon. Hot, delicious but simple lunch was served as soon as the Maichun group reached the village. Later, the visitors learnt that each member of the village had contributed in the food preparation. Contributions came either in terms of kind (grain, fruit) or labour and the women of Shilang told them that collective work strengthens the sense of community and fosters solidarity in the village. The village history was discussed and the women of Shilang took the visitors to the village forest which they have been protecting and managing on their own. A village nursery is maintained and the seedlings transplanted regularly in the village forest. The women of Maichun were impressed to see that latrines and bathrooms were clean and used by all people in the village.

Rainwater harvesting was another area of interest to women of Maichun. The group saw various low cost rainwater harvesting techniques in the village and appreciated the point that women have been leaders in planning and implementing all these techniques in the village.

Figure 13. The women’s group of Shilang has maintained a village nursery.

28

Figure 14. Seedlings from the village nursery are transplanted in the community land in Shilang. The women of Maichun wanted to do “something like that” in their village too.

In all these villages, women’s groups have been successful in prohibiting liquor

among men, a common social problem in villages of Uttaranchal. The women of Maichun appreciated their efforts and wanted to do something like that in their village too. Exposure tour for men: The need to reorient and educate the youth about the environment, economy and community cohesiveness was apparent. However, it turned out to be “a relatively more difficult group” than women. While women were more receptive to the new ideas and extremely happy about their exposure visit and meetings they had attended, the young boys took more time to comprehend issues and were most reluctant to put things into practice.

An exposure tour for men of Maichun was organized during 27-29 August 2002. A community-based organization, Paryavarn sanrakshan Samiti, Pati, about 100 km from Maichun, was visited to educate and have hands-on experiences on issues related to environment and economic development. The organization has actively promoted fisheries, vegetable production through innovative water and land management practices to provide local livelihood opportunities to youth. The programme has been successful in providing adequate and satisfactory livelihood to young boys and has received appreciation and won several prizes from the local government departments.

On 27th afternoon, the staff of the local organization at Pati received a jeep load of men from Maichun. The group saw the work related to fisheries at Pati and Pamtola villages and discussed marketing strategies.

At Pati, a nursery raised by the village residents to ensure a regular supply of seedlings was visited. Broad-leaf tree species useful for villagers to meet their demands

29

of fuel wood, fodder, and herbs are raised in the village nursery and planted in the village forest. In the same village, many fold increase in grass yields have been achieved by simply enclosing the land, protecting it from open grazing. The Maichun group also appreciated the work related to water recycling in the village. The village faces water scarcity, especially in summers, when the local water sources dry up and the water pipe lines simply could not meet the growing demands. As a result, not a single drop of water is wasted in the village. The kitchen water is used for irrigation of vegetables. The rainwater is stored in plastic lined tanks and used for washing utensils, clothes and for irrigation.

Vegetable production is the source of livelihood in Joshyura village, which the group visited on the 28th. A profitable business is proliferating in the area as more and more people are initiating vegetable production in surrounding villages and selling them at good prices as “Uttaranchal vegetables” which are still regarded as of good quality vegetables in cities. Capacity building:

On 5th June 2002, when a team of community people arrived at UEEC for a meeting, Ms. Basanti Devi of Maichun said, “Who is running this project?” An instant reply to this question came from Anuradha (UEEC staff). “You would be doing that”, she replied. Puzzled, Basanti Devi looked her up straight in the eyes and asked how she could be running the project. She had never done it before. She was not a leader and she did not know how to talk in meetings. “You will learn as I am”, said Ms. Geeta, who was sitting next to them.

Later, Anuradha explained to the women and men of Maichun that the value of the project lies in building up a common understanding of issues that the community is concerned with, especially, in relation to environment and community development. In the process, the community would be left to decide on its future course of action without UEEC or any other leader telling them to follow any particular strategy.

The team also appreciated the point that in the process of community development some people appear to be more articulate and confident than the others but it does not necessarily mean that they have greater understanding of village issues. Within the village, gender, caste, economy, age, and education are important determinants of how people think, behave, perceive themselves, and relate to other people. Women’s gender strategic needs may be different from that of men and so would their training requirements vary. Similarly, the training needs of young people may be different from adults. Given these realities, the challenge, however, was to buildup capacities of all community members to understand and initiate some action on issues that they themselves considered useful and that would ultimately lead to improvements in the quality of life in the village.

30

Figure 14. Women gained confidence to speak in village meetings. The generosity of spirit required to make the village a better place to live has been

an important element of the work at Maichun. Ms. Geeta Latwal and Mr. Amar Singh introduced the project in the village and developed ideas of community cohesion and environmental sustainability but everyone contributed to buildup ideas and to direct the project in a way that it became educational for UEEC as well as the village people. Through their songs, Ms. Bimla and Ms. Heera helped generate new waves of thinking, repeatedly stressing importance of community cohesiveness and by weaving together environmental, social and economic fabric of the rural life. Women, as a group, made us all think and believe that continuing to work with the nature could only produce nutritious food and in the process of producing high quality food, every organism is important.

While writing this report, we continuously think of Ms. Basanti, Ms. Bimla, Mr. Anand Singh, and Mr. Shivraj as people who had been a tremendous support to this project. In the beginning, both Ms. Basanti and Ms. Bimla were shy and subdued like other women of their village. Looking at them, a staff member of UEEC had sighed, “my God, what are we going to do in Maichun?” However, by the end of the period these women proposed organizing regular village meetings under their own leadership to sustain the work under this project. They have actively participated in preparing a village land rehabilitation plan and are hopeful about the future.

What has made it possible to transform the women, youth and men of Maichun from isolated, marginalized and frustrated human beings to active, assertive and confident people? We list below some factors/strategies that have helped in the process of building up leadership among women and youth:

31

The project was clearly perceived by the community as an educational process. It was not based on money, not raised expectations for gaining benefits in monetary terms either

From the beginning of the project UEEC planned strategically to incorporate women’s issues in meetings. Although, no value added concepts were given, sessions were planned to have detailed discussions

Discussions on gender roles and gender relations within the household, in the community, in relation to the market and at regional/state levels

In every meeting, planning forced the participants to review their roles in the project

The community believed that the project was their own and for collective benefits

Carefully, the project discouraged individual gains and built up a sense of community

Born and brought up in villages themselves, the UEEC team members could easily relate to the community

Discussions were held in the local dialect, especially with women and the village elders

Figure 15. Women gained confidence to “sit on chairs and eat food” with village men.

Women were encouraged to speak in meetings. Just the idea of standing up and

expressing themselves in front of the village men was horrifying to many but once they began to talk, they realized that the men were not as “threatening’ as they thought to be

Songs became an important medium to connect

32

Elderly women in the village were visited at home to make requests to “allow” and to encourage their young daughter-in-laws to attend meetings, visit places etc.

Women were sent to Suraikhet to expose them to the work of women’s groups in relation to environment and women’s development in various villages

Young boys visited Pati to get new ideas about local livelihood

Figure 16. Dance and songs were an important part to connect and build up confidence in people.

33

Challenges and limitations to environmental sustainability projects: Projects on environmental sustainability should be locale-specific. In countries, as diverse as India, the sustainability goal has to emerge locally from various agro-climatic zones or bioregions or from diverse communities. A standard approach for implementation will not work as each region has its own specificities of culture, economy and environment. Projects on environmental sustainability in the hill villages of Uttaranchal and perhaps all over the Himalayan region will require a holistic and systematic approach to create knowledge and skills to reeducate the common people, the students, the teachers, the environmental educators, the administrators and the policy makers to create a vision of development. Rural communities can offer interesting insights on local sustainability issues that the development workers need to blend in their programmes. This is not easy. Pressures of globalization are felt everywhere in the world and in the process of economic growth voices of the poor are overlooked by many. The challenges to environmental sustainability workers are, therefore, many. First, we need to develop clarity on sustainability issues. Second, sustainability is yet to be perceived as an important issue by common people. It has to be seen as an intricate component of educational, health, environmental, economic, cultural activities so that it is reflected in the everyday life of the people all over the world. Third, promoting environmental sustainability requires a different world-view. It challenges the technology dominated current development paradigm and rather advocates social, environmental, economic security enriched with cultural diversity and spiritual development. Although, there is a grand potential for promotion of natural, cultural and aesthetic values in countries like India, the fact remains that the life-style of the people is increasingly being regulated by economic reforms and globalization. In this hostile climate, nurturing values of sustainability indeed remain a challenge. Local innovative programmes exist in schools as well as in villages of Uttaranchal that have been instrumental in promoting sustainability. For example, the work of organized women’s groups of Uttaranchal shows several possibilities of activities that can be nurtured in villages to promote environmental sustainability. Recently, a federation of 400 women’s groups active in villages has emerged as an all women movement for local sustainability. Another set of people, who can help in promoting local sustainability are youth. Caught between indigenous and external (through media, travel etc.) value systems, the young people appear to be most confused and bewildered by the current development practices. In Maichun, too, youth appear to be an important group to promote sustainability. The environmental sustainability practitioners need to understand their perspectives and aspirations to make environmental sustainability a matter of daily practice.

34

Conclusion: The issue of land degradation in relation to the village ecosystem, which has long

been identified as one of the major environmental problems of Uttaranchal (Ashish, 1978, Jackson, M. G. 2000, Pande A. 2000, Pande L. 1999) was used as a main theme to re-educate the local project partners, especially the youth, about environmental, economic and social sustainability issues. Gender issues are critical in this endeavor as within a community, women, and men, youth and elderly perform different roles, perceive the village environment differently and have different ideas about livelihoods.

The vision of a local, mutually supportive, cohesive village community with small but active formal structures that represent the interests of all in the village and work towards a mutually agreed agenda of development guided our work in this project. Not really, a new concept for elderly people of Maichun, who had seen their parents and grandparents nurturing values for existence of organic self-supportive communities and who themselves strongly believed in the traditional systems, the project received tremendous support and good will from them. Building on the traditional knowledge systems, that the community had enough insights about, the project tried to examine external influences and changes that have occurred in the village in environmental, economic and socio-cultural contexts.

The most striking difference in attitudes towards life in the village including environment were found between the elderly people and the youth. The elderly people, both men and women, through their direct involvement in the community and careful management of the land, especially the village forest, have developed a sense of belonging and pride in their village, the forest and in them. Most of them, especially women, are illiterate. The younger generation, have different ideas towards life though. Educated and exposed to a glamorous world through media, especially television and magazines, the youth desire a life in the city. The village elders claim that as recently as two generations ago, people who went for jobs outside the village returned home after retirement to live with their people and to die in their own village. Now, people who go out to cities do not want to come back to the village, either for the sake of education and occupation of their children or just because of the hard life in the village. The sense of community, which earlier had been a sufficient motivating force to come back to the village, has lost its value somewhere with the passage of time.

The dream of a comfortable (rather rich!) lifestyle in the city seems strange when put into historical and economic contexts. Historically, the affluent families in big cities have always looked up to the hill people as honest, hard working home-servants. Even today, unable to get a well-paid job in cities, for which the young boys and girls are unqualified due to poor educational facilities in villages, a majority end-up serving as servants or become the source of compliant and cheap labour.

Could the young boys and girls think of some livelihood that they would be able to earn locally with dignity and self-respect? The first reaction to this question that the village elders and the staff of UEEC posed to the young people was a big no! Slowly, the idea of vegetable growing and value-added marketing of the

Building capabilities The challenge in this project appears to be reorient to and provide knowledge and skills to the youth to explore local livelihood opportunities and to build up self-esteem and confidence in them to be able to act on possibilities that they think are relevant to their needs and aspirations.

35

organic village-produce gained grounds and accepted by all-the young boys and girls, village elders, teachers, retired personnel in the village and the UEEC staff-as a promising endeavor. However, the practical difficulties were that the individual landholdings were small and scattered and continued to be redistributed each generation by family inheritance practices. Further, the local market has yet to appreciate organic food as a way of life.

Slowly, the people began thinking of overcoming these obstacles. A piece of agricultural land left uncultivated now was thought to be appropriate for starting organic vegetable production. Good quality compost could be developed in the village itself reviving the old methods. The forest could be protected and managed for sustainable production. Natural regeneration could be allowed in small pieces of land by regulating the practice of open grazing of animals and even plantation could be done in the village for the future. It was also thought that possibilities of marketing of organic food to the local shops could be explored in nearby towns.

By reviving the idea of vegetable growing, the community revived an old system of food production in the village although with a different strategy for marketing this time. The idea of off-season vegetable growing also propped up and as the project catches on, the community can initiate installing poly-houses in the village. The earlier difficulties of community non co-operation were discussed in regular meetings in the village and at UEEC and people are now willing to work together. On the whole, the process led to a positive note-it generated enthusiasm and has shown hope to the community people-hope that they themselves could do something positive for their village and live in an environment where people care for each other and extend help for improvements in the quality of life.

The concept of the improvements in the quality of life in Maichun is not limited to the life of human beings only but encompasses all living beings-the plants, the trees, the butterflies, the worms, the birds, wild animals and cattle, the water life etc. Growing native broad-leaf tree species in the village common land not only saves women’s time and energy in collecting fuel wood and fodder but also recharges the local water sources. It also means restoration and regeneration of natural environment in which diversity of life proliferates. It contributes to the local livelihoods by providing compost and water and creates new opportunities for provision. Instead of turning to the market for every second thing people need in the village, education and skill development components of the project can help them, especially the youth, to make informed choices, to innovate and to create as many things as possible, from resources that are already available around them.

Go Organic Majorities of people continue to practice the traditional methods of farming in Maichun. Chemical fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides have hardly any use in the fields, as most of the land is not irrigated. The mountainous terrain of the region is hostile to the use of large machines and therefore, prevents mechanical farming. As a result, the food is grown manually. It is hand pounded, cleaned manually and it is fresh, nutritious and organic. In economic terms, the value added quality of the food could fetch more money than the food grown mechanically. To begin with, UEEC employees were all willing to buy products from Maichun, even if they cost a little more than the usual price!