Sarpanch Diaries

namaskar

we’re all villagers each and every

one of us can trace the journey of our

lives

back to a village our cities are filled

with people

who left villages in search of

opportunities for themselves

and for their children we may stand tall

today in a city but our roots

are in our villages a village still is

the foundation of our country

and i believe if that foundation is

strong our nation will

flourish if we let that foundation

weaken

all the benefits we enjoy here will

slowly but surely

disappear it is with

this belief that i went back to my

village soda

it is why i do what i do as little as it

may be

but it’s why i sleep well knowing that

i’m trying to make a village-sized dent

in the universe 12 years ago

soda had suffered one of its worst

droughts

in memory animal carcasses were

everywhere

dead from starvation and thirst

and with all groundwater declared unsafe

even for the purpose of irrigation

the village and the people who lived

there were only stirring down the battle

when i went back i quickly realized i

had to stay

the small donation the pat on the back

the call me if you need anything i

realized just wasn’t going to be enough

good intentions are good but not enough

so i decided to roll up my sleeves and

got to work

i wasn’t just fighting against the

ravages of a drought i realized i was

fighting

to bring a community together and i

couldn’t do that

as an outsider i couldn’t do that as a

visitor

or even as a well-intentioned resident

i realized i had to lead from the front

and so i fought the punjab elections and

became surprised

in 2010 i served as a panchayat leader

for 10 years

and my experience dropped me a few

things

that i would like to share with you all

today

sustainable development real

transformational growth

that changes lives can only be brought

about by those who

know the reality of life in other

villages

i cannot emphasize enough how important

it is to begin working at the grassroots

irrespective of which sector one chooses

to eventually venture into

we all need to sensitize ourselves about

the grassroots reality

it is only then that we will be able to

bring about the kind of sustainable

development

that is needed to change the face of our

nation

and i do believe it can be fun one of

the many benefits of working at the

grassroots level

is the involvement and engagement from

everyone in the community

beginning with the elections itself the

punjab elections are often

an endearing experience because of the

participation of

every individual i have not seen the

kind of

fervor or excitement and constituents

like i’ve seen during the panchayat

elections

every individual including children

participate with full

enthusiasm enthusiasm in the hope

that the new leader that they are

choosing

will bring them the change they wish to

see and rightfully so

because this is the only level where the

actual execution of development projects

can be personally monitored to ensure it

is carried out

as envisioned the quality maintained

and funds appropriately spent

of course all of that is possible only

when someone with the right intent

chooses to effectively be

part of that process while i did swim

against the tide

pretty much all of the ten years i also

realized

that it really is not that difficult to

fix the challenges

in our villages smallest interventions

can reap

huge benefits which are really

very easily visible in a village

what people need to recognize is pretty

much this and the fact

that luckily even today i feel that most

of our villagers provide us a

fairly clean canvas to paint beautifully

upon

but for that to happen people with

varied expertise

need to come together to help do so

anyone alone even as a village leader

cannot do justice to that painting with

one’s limited expertise

while i personally was aware of the

issues of the village

i actually began my journey by listening

and interacting with people from each

and every household

i wished to understand what their needs

and priorities were

and if it weren’t for that and the

drought i honestly

would not have known where to begin work

from because

every single aspect in the village

needed attention

and with that began my journey as a

serpent that taught me the many

shared challenges of panchayats across

the country

in 2010 soda had a population

of about 7 000 people

and we were allocated funds of rupees 20

lakhs

from the central government and the

state government

for the entire year of this 20 lakh

the central government had already

allocated half of it

to spend on constructing a public

building

so what was i starting with i was

starting with a budget of 10 lakh rupees

for the entire year for everything

i also quickly realized that not only

could the panchat

not use the funds as per its own

discretion

we could only submit a list of projects

but projects to be executed

are actually chosen at the district

headquarters

and approved by the officials there

thereby

leading to an immense mismatch between

what the village wants

and what actually gets approved funding

is actually not as easily

available nor as easily sanctioned as

people may think

it at least definitely wasn’t in our

district

often hindrances were posed by the very

administrative body

that is supposed to support grassroots

development

in addition to those challenges there is

also

a lack of expertise leading to

very poor interventions and development

process carried out in villages

for example i am no civil engineer

but having to design plan

and supervise the infrastructure

development including construction of

roads

often left me wondering if i was

actually adding to the challenge

when a new road and its wrong gradient

could leave their distant houses at a

low level

thereby leading to water logging and

perhaps a bigger mess

during the monsoons in such

challenges is where i really believe

that invention intervention and the

expertise of people

from within our societies needs to come

forth

and as of these challenges weren’t

enough

there is also a very basic skew

in the very structure of the panchayat

in rajasthan the panchayat secretary who

happens to be a government employee

may receive a salary of more than 70 000

rupees a month

while a sarpanch and please pay heed a

serpent gets 4

000 rupees a month and the other elected

panchayat members

receive an honorarium of only rupees 200

a month

which comes to them as a sitting fee

so for the parallel structures to work

together

respectfully would it not be a logical

step to ensure they were brought at

power

caste literacy and gender discrimination

further distorts that structure

let me give you another example we had

to desilt our lifeline

the village reservoir which was our only

source of potable water

but even in the 21st century

unfortunately

the government prohibits spending money

on machinery

for the purpose of rural development

because of which we could not use earth

movers to excavate the reservoir

so it could harvest rain water nor did

we have any money

to hire any machinery directly

so i began by inspiring the village

residents

to come together to voluntarily desalt

the reservoir i ran pillar to post from

february through may 2010

when even private companies deny support

and our district

has no industries thereby leaving me

with no option

but to turn my turn to my own courtesy

my father

and three of his friends in a span of

flat

four days i raised 20 lakhs

which was less than what we actually

needed but

helped us to get started with the entire

village joining in

removing about 20 feet of the deposited

soil

we successfully desalted 10 acres

of the 100 acres of the reservoir it

helped conserve water

for the entire year and not just that

it even helped raise agricultural

productivity by almost

70 percent eventually i did find donors

through my speaking engagements and

funding started trickling

in frankly speaking if it weren’t for

that

i doubt i would have managed to perform

as it did by delivering upon

every single demand the constituents

made

within the first term of five years

itself

as a result the village residents

campaigned for me yet again

and made me rolled into my second term

with uh with the thumping majority

we often made to believe that it’s very

challenging to work in villages because

of the village politics

the constant opposition and so many

nitty-gritties

involved that come in the way of doing

real work

but my experiences of working as a

serpent has made me believe a little

differently

a village resident who takes pride in

being

my opposition had for example

at the end of my first term told me that

while he continued to remain in the

opposition

within our own village he would

therefore never speak anything nice

about me

but he also did say that while visiting

other villages

outside of our panchayats he would

proudly state

that the work i had done in a span of

five years

no minister had ever done even in a span

of 50 years

so how did i manage to deliver despite

all that

through dialogues through creativity

inclusiveness a lot of humor

perseverance a deep convention

conviction

in myself and my ideas and

also of course by beginning to reach out

outside of the government to seek

support

and help i personally did not

wish to reinvent the wheel but be the

one

bringing together experts from different

sectors and be seen as an

agent in the village that connects the

dots and bridges the gap between the

government as well as the non-government

sectors

and the village residents the idea has

been to create a model village

in the true sense and local champions

who could help skill up the development

work

even if it meant a beginning with just

one village at a time

and build a momentum that could inspire

more people like you and i

to help villagers and speed up that

process of development that we all wish

to see

across our country

it is often easier to start something

new towards bringing the change as

compared to working towards finishing it

in our country what often seems to

happen within the development sector

is that various plans are made schemes

are launched

but we don’t see the end result like we

would wish to

or not in the shape that

it was initially planned i’ve also

observed that more often than not

projects are abandoned

and people move on to trying something

new rather than

finishing what they started many

unfortunately

are also left completely disheartened

we as citizens of the nation need to

participate

and even question and bring to the

forefront the grassroots realities

so we do not start asking those

pertinent questions

and demand the development it is not

likely to be visible

so let’s come together as a collective

force to make that change happen

there are a lot of possibilities for us

to begin this journey

for example we can

all volunteer in in various capacities

we can contribute by setting up groups

and reaching out

in the villages we can make it mandatory

for our students

starting at the very school level

itself to incorporate a field visit with

say a project in mind as a high school

geography or

as a bunch of high school geography

students from jaipur did

by conducting a joint survey of a hamlet

with a village youth and learned a thing

or two from

the local patwari who is the one who

maintains the land records in the

panchayat as well

college students i believe too should

do a part of the internship in villages

because i feel this is the only way that

we can blur the divide that exists

between the urban and rural

and hopefully bridge that divide

permanently

steps like these will not only help us

in bringing development

but will also help in preparing our

future citizens

such that they are aware of the current

situations

and equipped with the required skills to

continue this journey

of a holistic sustainable development

of our nation in my journey of these

last 10 years

i have had people support me in so many

different ways

my villages when they finally understood

what i was trying to do

and thereby helped me in executing all

that we planned

i had various donors and volunteers from

across the country join me

and after having experienced it myself i

can say

that support like this definitely goes a

long way

than any other scheme we may otherwise

come up with

for me my journey reflects what i

see as the future of grassroots politics

we need to shift from the top-down

approach to incorporating voices of the

grassroots

and attaining a balanced perspective

in developing the urban as well as the

rural scape alike

while also incorporating certain

traditional

or indigenous practices to keep that

beauty of a village alive rather than

looking at a

blanket approach to urbanization

as the only form of development

i firmly believe that if we involve the

people from the communities who are

who we are working for their

participation and support will be much

more be it at the micro level or even at

the macro

one does not need to necessarily become

a serpent as i did

or work in a punjab to create that

impact which is needed

we can all get involved by contributing

whichever way we possibly can

be it with our time our skills our

expertise

we can involve students who will find

immense opportunities to learn and of

course

as most of you would know even get

credits especially

good for those wishing to study abroad

social entrepreneurs and startups can

create social impact and pay it forward

to our society

creating a win-win for everybody

with that invite you all to take a trip

back to our villages

and find ways to build a stronger nation

together thank you