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Dilasa

Introduction idarbha is in the Northeastern part of Maharastra. Vidarbha is also infamous in

last two-three decades for the highest number of farmer suicide. Inside Vidarbha,

in the district Yavatmal, it had the highest number of farmer suicide. Dilasa has

done a unique job. It has been recognized as best social innovation in terms of

income generation of farmers, pulling them out of the suicide trap and empowered more

than three lacs of farmer family. Vidarbha is Maharashtra's most drought prone and the

least economy generating region where annual rainfall is about only 250mm. They have

developed new methodologies of irrigation and also rediscovered the classical irrigation

technique used by the ancestors centuries ago. Right now, with the intervention of Dilasa,

there is zero farmer suicide whereas in present day Maharastra, there are eight-ten farmer

suicide per day.

Background Shri. Madhukar Dhas was born in a shepherd family

where earning bread for everyday consumption was

difficult. In that time members of this type of families

normally got married at the age of fifteen because in

marriage they usually received ten-twelve goat as

dowry. Education was a distant dream for a child.

Accidentally, young Madhukar admitted to school

because his mama (mothers brother) wanted so. Even though he went to school, his daily household and field

chores were not stopped. During this time, he worked in

sugarcane fields, with builders to earn some extra

money for his family. Somehow he has been graduated

in History and he went for further study to become a

lecturer in college. That time, Madhukar stood third in

class and after completing M.A., he went for a lecturer's

interview. However, even after performing well in an interview, he was asked for a bribe

to get the job. After that day, Madhukar left his pride of holding a degree and went back

to Vidarbha. During that time when Medha Patkar started Narmada Bachao Andolan

and Madhukar joined in that movement. Madhukar saw the scarcity of water and

realized the importance of water as a livelihood. He decided to work to solve the

problem of water because it is the right thing to do.

The problem of Water and Suicide Trap The average annual rainfall was only 200-400mm and to get access the drinking

water, one has to travel at least 4 to 5 kilometers. Many women died falling into well while

collecting water because the stairs were too stiff and the well was at least 30 feet deep.

Due to low and insufficient rainfall farmers who earn their livelihood in rain-fed cultivation

were hugely affected by recurring drought and these pushed them to take a loan from

Mahajans. Continuing crop failures for two or more years and low returns many farmers

sold assets before ending their lives. Deprived any hopes of escape from the growing

V

My mother had a sister of thirteen fourteen years of age. One day she went to bring water from a well, located 4 kilometers away from her home. After climbing the high stairs of the well, she fell into the well. There are more sixty women died in our village in that way while bringing water for ours."

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burden of loans, farmers committing suicide so that their family will receive the

compensation from the government and might get out from the loan.

Dilasa Madhukar received some fund Medha Patkar to start his work for water. We worked

for two years and after that he further received fund from Vilasrao Deshmukh to continue

his work. In 1998, he met Mansur bhai, an engineering genius, and they started working

together. In that time, the expenditure of Dilasa was Rs. 41 per day and sixteen years

later, the daily expenditure raised to Rs. 3 lac. Currently Dilasa is working at 6 districts, 14

blocks, 1060 villages in Vidarbha and Maharastra region. In that journey, Dilasa got

supports from various organizations and trust like Sir Ratan Tata Trust, Axis Bank

Foundation, NABARD, Caring Friends Mumbai, OXFAM and many more. In support of Tata

trust, Dilasa started studying shepherd communities of Maharastra and they came to

know about gravity based irrigation technique. This was the genesis of Phad System and

after that Dilasa developed 240 such scheme. Dilasa employed mostly 10-12 failed

students and taught them those technical methods. Because of the low understanding

of English, those technical documents were translated in local Marathi language for

effective training. Right now, Dilasa has 1700 employees who are working together to

implement different irrigation and farming techniques in Vidarva religion. Right now,

Dilasa is involved in various projects and activities including but not limited to Livestock

Development, Agriculture, Traditional Seed, Farmer Support Center, Uncultivated

Vegetables, Different types of Irrigations etc.

Phad System

This is very low cost small irrigation system manage by Small group of farmers in which

the flowing water in the river/Nallas is diverted to nearby field through pipeline or open

channel for protective irrigation of crop. Double crop production is possible under Phad

irrigation system.

Pata System

One of the farming methods Dilasa has encouraged and supported in the region is

the PATA method that mixes a variety of legume, cereal and vegetable crops to reap

the benefits of the soils nutrients. Its an ancient method that is helpful for small farmers to sustain their families as well as improve their income. So far Dilasa has helped around

3 lac farmers to adopt this method from their 65 of such projects and benefitted from it.

Doha model

Dilasa developed the Doha model of rain water harvesting structure. This model helps

in diverting a stream by using many of the unused canals across the villages to recharge

the ground water in the nearby wells. This solved the drinking water problem for 75000

farmers including 4300 households and solved irrigation problem for 10000 acres of land.

Conclusion Dilasa wanted to extend their support from 84000 families to 11000 families by 2019.

To make sure that there will no suicide in farmers family, they want to create village level support community, then block level, district level support community. They want to map

and estimate the consumptions of everyday requirements so that they could plan

accordingly to meet the daily demands of those support communities. Above all, Dilasa

is developing a sustainable model to come out from the suicide trap of the farmers and

using water effectively to increase efficiency in agricultural output.