Fulfilling Half Day in a Village

Visiting a village was one of the things I wanted to do since long. Though Jagriti Yatra filled that wish to some extent, today was better. (And ya desire for a longer visit still smoulders) I'd gone to an official visit today to Katgaon village in Osmanabad district in Maharashtra. The purpose is to monitor and report on a project supported by a corporate donor. It's a small village with population of around 5000. This post is about my travels, another about the impact of the NGO which I visited will follow.

The two-day visit started in Solapur with taking a room in Hotel Surya International. The room is good except for the fact that it has no tubelight (only CFLs) and there is no ironing facility at the hotel. But my colleague opined that there are no cockroaches and the bathroom is sparkling clean so it's a great deal :P

Moving on, we reached a training centre of Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP), the NGO we are visiting.
We saw the training as it happened. They teach through activities and games. (If business and management classes are taught this way there would be full attendance at BITS.) The game was to create a sample greeting card using craft materials, followed by a discussion. Using the card, the trainers would talk about cost and pricing, market research before production and variety and quality in manufacturing. E.g. a group prices a card at ₹10. Then the trainer asks what if I want to buy 1000 cards? Initially their main concern is that how long will it take them to produce that quantity. But then they are steered towards pricing them at maybe ₹9 for 1000 cards and hiring a helper to produce. Or to think beyond birthday and marriage cards to New Year and Makar Sankranti ones. It was amazing how well they were conveying the concepts in a way that the rural women were able to grasp immediately. This 12-module curriculum which ranges from motivation to developing a B-plan has been developed by Dr. Subhas of Dharwad and adapted to local conditions by SSP.

After attending the session we partook in the lunch that is arranged by SSP for trainees. Even here, SSP has given the contract to a household where a woman is the bread-earner as her husband is bedridden. We had what is known locally as a "rice plate", which is a misnomer as the dominant food isn't rice. The rotis are served in triangular pieces like naan since they are made on large iron tavas. The food was authentic good Maharashtrian fare.

After the gastronomical detour, we headed to the village of Katgaon. We sat in a small hall that can be called a temple compound as it contained a statue of the god Narsingh tearing Hiranyakashyap apart in his lap. It also had a tortoise statue on the ground. We talked with about ten women who detailed their pre- and post-SSP training days. I'll write about the talks as part of the impact post. For our report, we are capturing a video featuring beneficiaries. So around we went, positioning each one in their business-related domains. The first entrepreneur had started with one goat and grew her business to ten goats. But unfortunately all the goats were grazing in the fields so none were available for shooting. We were offered a buffalo as an alternative which we politely declined. 

Then, we set up a sari shop in a home followed by a women in the kitchen besides the chulha as she does food business. To get good lighting for the sari shop, my colleague and the cameraman stood in the bathroom of the house. The most toil was involved in capturing a vegetable seller. Seeing a cameraman and my colleague acting as the director; attracted the attention of the whole village. My colleague was exasperated trying to capture the woman's voice over the din. Lastly, we moved on to a field as the entrepreneur in focus is a champion of organic farming. We had the most fun there. Roaming around after the shoot was over, we heard peacocks' cries though they moved away too quickly. Then the whole team sat down on a mat to enjoy freshly plucked pink-fleshed guavas. My colleague also plucked some green imli. Just sitting there gazing at the beautiful surroundings was a perfect ending to my day.