First introduction to the village
On September 20th, 2002, the local AID-MN group in Minneapolis arranged
a presentation by Rangasamy Elango about his model village.
Rangasamy Elango is the Village Panchayat President of Kuthambakkam village
in Tamil Nadu in India. The title of the presentation : "An experiment in
SELF-GOVERNANCE (swaraj), SELF-RELIANCE AND ECO-FRIENDLY DEVELOPMENT".
Like many other people in the audience, I was impressed with what Elango had achieved in his village. For those who did not see his presentation, here is a brief summary.
How Elango transformed Kuthambakkam
Elango, a chemical engineer, working in Central Electro Chemical Research Institute (CECRI), in Chennai, left his position in 1994 and returned to his village. He describes his village as a typical Indian village, about 700 families, "no one had any job or income", "80% of the men were drunks", "the women were beaten up", "children could not look up to their parents as role models".
He started building houses for his villagers to replace their thatched roof houses. He obtained assistance from the government to buy raw materials but insisted on the villagers putting in their labor. He re-built the main roads, sewer lines and other village essentials. At this point he ran out of ideas to keep the villagers gainfully employed.
Then Elango thought of producing many of the common day items consumed by the villagers, such as food items, everyday consumable items etc. Instead of spending money which they did not have, to procure the same items from neighboring larger towns such as the city of Chennai, Elango started producing these items in his own village.
In a period of 6 years, Elango has succeeded in turning his village where 80% of the men folk were unemployed and "drunks" into productive members of their village.
I came away from the presentation impressed with this turn-around that Elango had achieved. My main question was whether this village concept could be "scaled-up" and used in all villages. I also hoped that Elango did not achieve 100% employment in his village by creating a barrier around his village and not procure a single item from his neighboring villages, let alone from the city of Chennai.
My visit to the village
While I was in Chennai during October 2002, I went to see the miracle that Elango had created. I needed to satisfy myself that the same transformation could be implemented at other villages. The Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Foundation in Chennai, a Mr.P.Chandrasekaran, arranged to take me to Kuthambakkam on Oct 23, 2002.
Elango took us on a tour of the village. We started with the common meeting facility ("Samathuvapuram") in the village. Villagers can use this facility for various functions, family celebrations, religious ceremonies etc regardless of their caste. On this day, we visited the section of this facility used for providing trade skills for some of the village women.
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Elango had secured a contract with a shoe manufacturer. The women in the centre were knitting the top portion of a shoe. They had also produced some hand bags and purses using jute and other materials.
The school in Kuthambakkam has about 100 children. A few senior students have attended a school in a nearby city to learn more about computers. Elango hopes that some of these college students will return to the village and become part-time teachers.
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Building houses for the villagers
There are about 1000 families in Kuthambakkam. Each family lived in a thatched roof hut ("kudisai"). Elango obtained government assistance to buy the necessary materials to build each house. He taught the vilagers how to make bricks from clay that are sun dried. The Tamil Nadu government provided about Rs 45,000 to get materials for each house. The villagers, provided the labor to construct the houses. Almost 90% of the huts have been replaced by brick houses.
When I visited Kuthambakkam, I saw Elango measuring the size of another house being built. Houses are about the size of the hut they replace. Home ownership is key to making the villagers responsible citizens of the village.
These housing allowances are available throughout the State of Tamil nadu - may be even across the rest of India. In some other parts of the State, we were told that these housing subsidies were received by many local panchayat leaders but no houses were actually built.
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Elango took us through the "production centre". In this centre, the village men and women receive training to engage in revenue producing activities. In most of the projects listed below, the resulting products are cheaper and the process provides employment to the village men and women.
Raw Thoor dhal is processed and sold in Kuthambakkam and neighbouring villages. This project will provide Thoor dhal at cheaper prices and provide employment to rural women.
Excess milk available in Kuthambakkam and nearby villages will be processed into marketable milk products.
Using an age old bullock cart wheel fitted with bearings and pulleys, Elango has constructed a machine to mix soap ingredients and make soap.
A well maintained toilet is essential for maintaining health and hygiene of the rural (or any) population. Elango is setting up nearly 200 low cost toilets in his village.
Prepare bakery products like bread, bun, biscuits for consumption by the village population.
In this section, the ground nuts are shelled. The oil is extracted. Some ground nuts are used to make ground nut candy.
[The Production Centre details were taken from the Tamilnadu Foundation Newsletter dated November 2002.]
Since the successful transformation of Kuthambakkam, 4 or 5 neighbouring villages have sought Elango's advise and are on the mend. Elango is now in the process of creating an "Academy" in Kuthambakkam that will serve as a place to teach Panchayat presidents from other villages to come and learn.
Some past residents of Kuthambakkam who had left the village and gone to cities like Chennai looking for economic opportunities, have now returned to the village. Unable to find significant jobs in Chennai, they had become accustomed to urban squalor. Elango was apprehensive that these returning residents may create similar dirty units in the village.
Why the Indian villages have remained poor, according to Prof P.V.Indiresan.
[Prof P.V.Indiresan is a frequent writer in Hindu, Outlook and other Indian newspapers and magazines. He is a past-Director of IIT Madras and currently involved in many Development organizations in India. Collection of Articles by Prof Indiresan ]
It is time the government tackled the poverty of villages rather than the poverty of villagers. Villagers cannot get rich so long as villages remain poor, too poor to attract modern industry and commerce. As a thumb rule, at least 80 per cent of the rural population must make a living in non-agricultural occupations."...Prof Indiresan.
Ram Krishnan
St.Paul MN
November 18, 2002
rkrishnan46@Yahoo.com