GWALIOR SCIENCE CENTRE M.P.
Ravines are formed by natural process. Large areas are cut into layers of mud and are transformed into high, glancing deep ditches or mountains of mud. Gradually the entire area is finished off and at some places it goes too high, in some too low. Often entire villages get wiped off…Despite the rivers, villages have water problem. At times they have one well in which water lasts only for an hour. Most people use camels for the transportation of water. Bhind and Morena face this problem on large scale…In the Chambal Ghat 5000 ha. of agricultural land is being transformed yearly. The Science Centre has conducted a study on this. The conclusions of this study – there has been a 36% increase in the formation of ravines in Bhind and Morena. 12 lakh people have been affected by it. Social, economic and cultural lives of villages are in a constant state of disruption and dislocation because of this. Villages are being displaced repeatedly. People leave on their own to places that seem to be a bit better to move when the land is cut into again. They face an uncertain future. At the new place there can be any number of usual problems of lack of electricity, water for housing.
…Villages have been fragmented. People live in groups of 5-20. Kinship and social relations have been broken. Villages that were once well-off have become symbols of poverty and unemployment. No other mode is possible as there are no pathways or tracks. The whole area becomes a labyrinth of ravines and one can easily get lost. Some villages have been left with no agricultural lands…There are many social problems because of this…Marriages have become difficult as nobody likes to send their children here. Chambal is also notorious for dacoits. The ravines give them places to hide…The police pose another problem; they accuse the people of conniving with the dacoits…It is as though life has become a punishment…
The government says that it cannot do anything for the people because of the dacoits. They are not interested in solving the real problem: that of the ravines. We believe that this is a very complex situation and cannot be solved by one single yojna/program. Government schemes usually fail due to lack of co-ordinated effort. These schemes have not been made keeping in mind the specific problem of ravines. Officials do not work with either the required sincerity nor an understanding of the problems. Government programmes are often a cause of conflict. The administration had initiated an irrigation scheme and under this programme some areas have been levelled for agricultural purposes. But very few farmers have got the benefits of this. It all depends on the number of politicians known to them. A canal has been constructed for irrigation. All the forests around this area have been cleared. Because of this, the problem has been aggravated. The consequences of attempts meant to solve problems are opposite to that of the intended effects…Dams have been constructed in some places. Here villages are being submerged. Some people are being displaced by the ravines, others by dams… people are encircled by problems. There are 5-6 rivers here, Chambal being the main one. People dependent on forests are now forced to move on the other areas. Pressure on forests has increased, water runs off because of soil erosion. All the water collects on productive land which gets waterlogged. Agricultural activity suffers in any case. First because of the ravines and secondly because of the destruction of the forests.
Women here follow the purdah system, dowry is practised. A small bit of information e.g. how many family members there are? “Let him come”, they answer. “He will tell you; how can we answer your questions without asking him”.
There are many social disadvantages. Family controls are very firmly in place. Bereft of employment or means of survival, families often sell women. Women are victims of sexual exploitation. They are not educated and are often killed at birth. They are abducted by dacoits, anti-social elements. The number of deaths occurring due to dowry are very high: women either commit suicide or are murdered. Sometimes women go out to cities in search of work. They are abducted in cities as well as in villages. There is no guarantee that a woman who has gone out of her house will return in the evening. Recently a woman was gang-raped in Bhind. Mental and physical harassment is both very acute. Phoolan Devi was product of such circumstances. Everybody cannot take such oppression and sometimes the anger it produces causes them to rebel against the system, no matter then, that the means adopted are incorrect. We have come here in search of a direction. We hope that women can get together at national level and solidarize with each other’s struggles on the issue of displacement.