Travelling salesmen!

Two two wheeler shops!

These two people are door to door salesmen, who reach the interior parts of villages to sell the vessels. They know the needs of the local community and take the vessels which would be needed during each season. With the summer about to set in, households would need vessels to carry and store water. So both these salesmen carry vessels for that purpose. They might sell at least half of them by the end of the day! They travel about fifty or so kilometres one way to do this. 

They earn their livelihood from this. But they provide for those who cannot travel to shopping centres. 

The rural India of villages is different from the urban and semi-urban culture. The mobile phones and Television net work might have penetrated the villages, but not the other amenities. 

I know of a family who moved from their urban home to live in a village to help the farmers learn sustainable farming practices. In three years, he got the farmers organised so well that they produce vegetables which they export to some middle east countries. The farmer's income have doubled when their products have found a market !

The rural India is looking for people who can bring welfare measures to them!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

At the dawn !

Anna and I have many struggles to adjust to when we live in a village. Recently we waited for a month to get a climber to drop the coconuts. To get a labourer to work in the farm has become increasingly difficult. If the electricity were to be cut off due to a branch of tree falling on the transmission lines, we may have to wait for the whole day or another day before it is mended. It is occasional we have friends visiting us. There are days at a stretch when we have to manage without internet. We do not have newspaper delivery at our door step. 

But these difficulties fade into the background when we begin the day. Yesterday when I walked out  of the cottage into the courtyard at dawn, I was moved by the sights and sounds in the garden. 

All these birds who could be photographed at that short time when the sun was just rising, mad me feel that we are surrounded by an avian world each day, singing for us. 

What is so special about these birds!

They live publicly and quietly except for their birdcalls.  But for the birdcalls, one would even not notice the unless one become a bird watcher!

They occupy the public space quietly. During the flights between places the bird droppings of undigested seeds become the means for a forest to grow a few years alter. 

The trees are adorable because they are the home for the birds. 

The birds wake me up each morning telling me a lot more about eh richness of the world in which we live. We are inclined to live preoccupied, but the bird visitors tell me a lot about to abundance of goodness all around us.

When there is a hate language spoken in public places when we read the news papers or watch in the TV, or hear fire accidents, war threats, political enmity and harassment, to me the sight and sounds of birds give enormous consolation of something to look for and carry over to others a message of hope and mission!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

Farmers are losers!

The petrol and diesel prices have been on the increase in the last three months. But prices of natural rubber, black pepper, nutmeg and recently onions have been on a steady decline.

The agrarian crisis in rural India is unprecedented. There is colossal distress.

The market is controlled by those who are resourceful. 

A farmer who produces banana from his field lost his 300 banana plants in the flood in August. The remaining two hundred plants were damaged by the strong wind last week. His investment of about 75000 rupees, all taken as bank loan, brings him no return during this season. He choked words when he spoke to me about this distress. 

The story of the onion cultivators is even more devastating. With the price of onions dropping to about ten rupees in some places, the farmer does not get back what he invested!

I wonder whether I can trust what I see and hear each day. With about 70 people dying with a fast moving train, running over those who were watching a fireworks in Amristar, there is not even an expression of regret from the railways or the driver of the train. It is now three months since the devastating flood in Kerala. Except the 20000 rupees given to those affected by the flood, there is no further action to support people. The state government is engaged in a storm over the supreme court ruling permitting women to go to an important place of worship in south India.

I wish that political parties, civil organisations, churches, temples, mosques, etc. would become more socially committed. When would the distress of others touch us to give freely and fully whatever we can!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo) 

Beings without identity!

I was still occupied with what I read in the UCAN India news edition quoted below, when I set out for my mid day walk. With the best of my efforts, my 35 mm camera, could capture only a silhouette of a Koel. The bright  light covered its identity. 

That is when it struck me that the 10 million people affected by the recent cyclone are in the media light, but each person is only a number, whose identity is submerged in the collective news of devastation. None of us would fully know the real story of each person and its full impact on their lives in the near and far future! They lost their houses, belongings, property, means of livelihood, prospects of survival and perhaps hope of living!

The following was the news item. 

"The Coastal areas in Orrissa could take a year to recover from the devastation of Cyclone Phailin, according to Catholic Relief Services, with some 10 million people affected, many of them homeless.

The toll could have been much worse were it not for mass evacuations, prompting the UN to call India’s preparations for the giant storm a “landmark success story in disaster management”.

In Ganjam, home to more than 3.5 million people, nearly a quarter of a million houses were destroyed and crops have been wiped out with total damage estimated at 30 billion rupees (US$487 million) in the town alone.

In Balasore, the district worst affected by flooding, an estimated 900,000 people have been displaced as vast areas remain under water.

“We need to think about Balasore as water is standing there and creating problems as compared to other places where the cyclone has come and gone and people have started bringing their lives [back] to normal,” said Shumlansky.

People are going back to their damaged or destroyed houses without any belongings, he said, and many have seen their means of earning a living destroyed.

In the small town of Anjirapally, 10km down the coast from Ganjam, some 12,000 fishermen have urged the government to replace or repair their damage, destroyed and lost boats so they can feed their families again."

It is a national tragedy of pain and distress!

I wish, their story and starvation would not be lost in the heat of the political divide and polarised election campaigns we watch in India now, a type of which I have not witnessed since I began to be aware of political happenings in India, for about fifty years!

There are millions living without an identity or an address! They long for us to hear their stories! Their future can be shaped by our goodwill and collective response of generous support!

M.C.Mathew(photo and text)

A farmer's delight

Every farmer has a dream when he sows the seed that he would be able to harvest the fruits. Between sowing and harvesting there is a long wait with tending the field and fighting pests, natural calamities such as drought, flooding, etc.

As we watched acres of land of paddy ready for harvesting, we paused at the road side to take in this magnificent sight. Most of the farmers depend on the harvest for their main source of income. A large number of them borrow money to cultivate the land and pay back only to borrow again at the time of next season of cultivation. That is how they land in debt trap from which many do not recover. The farmer's suicides that we often hear about is a devastating experience for the families, for whom there is no respite in spite of several schemes the governments offer such as subsidized electricity, manure, seed cost, etc. 

In the developed countries, land farming, cattle farming, etc. have become costly and many farmers are giving up their farms and the governments pay a compensation for their lost income. In Switzerland, the cattle farmers are paid huge subsidy to maintain their farms and animals.   

One of the emerging forms of farming in rural India is community farming where, some farmers who own small portions of land join together to cultivate so that the overhead expenses are shared and there is a substantial benefit at the end. 

I have a suspicion that rural India has another set of realities from the urban India. It is a 'non-shining' other India. As Anna and I have come to a rural setting to live, we are getting a feel of the challenges and adversities we face. The 'trickling in' effect of the free market is too little for the farmers. We need more initiatives to foster the well being of farmers who own  little land.

Anna and I are glad that we have an opportunity to have a new learning experience in rural India.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)   

Community taxi service

I came across a refreshing  initiative by a community in Koraput district of Orissa.  

Their village used to be connected  with the main town, which is 20 kilometers away, only twice a day by public transport. There are several days, when the bus will not turn up. So, with the help of a loan from the bank, some unemployed youth, with the support of the local Member of the Legislative Assembly, bought two second hand jeeps, which now transport people at fixed times of the day, often six times in a day. This now gives access  for children to travel to school, people to take their farm produce to the market, and people to hospital when they fall sick. 

I was told the story of a woman in child birth who needed to be transported to a hospital in this jeep. The baby was born before she arrived at the hospital .The first aid care, the driver received as part of orientation to this community taxi service, helped him to be a midwife at that time (the jeep was not overcrowded during that trip). 

The youth who run this taxi service have paid back the loan and now consider enlarging the service. The maintenance of the taxi service is done by two of them, who have in the mean time got trained as mechanics.

Amidst all the gloom we encounter due to the poor state of affairs in rural India, I have collections of several stories of determination and enthusiasm of people, who use their resource for their well being. 

When we look to others to help us, it can be a indefinite wait. When we collaborate with others, it generates a self propelling momentum.  

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Innovations in rural India

There is always a surprise when we drive through rural parts of India.

I have been used to watching initiatives in rural areas to generate power or cooking gas from animal or human waste, or use solar energy, water turbines, etc.

This was the first time I noticed buildings with wind mills attached to them to generate electricity from wind energy. It is expensive to erect wind mills and maintain them. Bur in the long run it may pay off as power cuts are for longer hours in rural areas.

 I noticed that educational institutions or factories are going in for wind mills as technology is now available and maintenance is possible now. I heard some one who is knowledgable say, that it is feasible for buildings which have open areas around without obstruction by tall trees or buildings, to depend on wind mills for their electricity need.

The rural India is changing in technology; but it is still cut off from the main stream for medical care. More educational institutions have sprung in semi urban and rural India; but not health care institutions. 

There is an opportunity for younger  health care professionals  to make rural India their home for providing health care. 

M.C.Mahtew (text and photo)

Marketing strategy of a rural poultry farmer

This poultry farmer whom Anna and I talked to at Pollachi, had an interesting story to tell about the reason why he dyes the chicks.

He has been a poultry farmer for thirty years and the sale price of chicks dropped considerably over the last five years. His son, who was learning painting at school one day took a chick, which he had painted green, to his class room. All of his class mates wanted chicks which were painted in rainbow colors. The farmer was able to sell the chicks for double the normal price. 

That is how he started doing this commercially, by starting a home made dying unit to color the chicks. He used to sell about 200 of them every month. 

But other farmers have also started doing similarly. So he has to bicycle to a distance of 80 kilometers each month to sell all the chicks, he dyes. He says, with families staying in multistory buildings, children are not encouraged to keep pets at home now. He is working on a new strategy of having a farm for broiler chicken, which according to him will yield better profit.

This farmer who studied only up to third standard has worked on sound marketing strategy and adapted it to meet his needs. 

Making changes will be necessary to adapt to circumstances, keeping sound foundations of morality and ethics in all the choices we make.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)