“Village Sanghams - Breaking the Vicious Circles of Debt Trap.”
P. Ganga Raju of Gandiprolu village is one of the farmers who have been constantly in debt with the rich money lenders. He could never make a profit because the interest rate has been very high. His wife became a membr of the Asha Mahila Mandali started under the project.
Soon their experiences made them realize the benefits of being a member of a group ( Village Sangham ). During 2001, the Mahila Mandali supported the family with a loan of Rs. 20,000/- at a very reasonable interest rate. Utilizing the amount, he started making bricks and within 6 months, Ganga Raju was not only able to repay the amount, but also earned a profit of Rs. 10,000/-.
There are 8 Groups and 16 Sub groups in the village of Gandiprolu with 265 members. In total there are 40 Groups and 78 Sub groups with a total of 1,350 members.
“Sangham Executive Body Meeting.”
Keerti Mahila Mandali is one of the Sanghams formed in 1995 in the village of Jaggaram of Dammapeta Mandal. Jaggaram is a Panchayat Village and it comprises of 4 other project villages under its administrative jurisdiction, namely, Boorugumpu, Chennuvarigudem, Guruvaigudem and TM Gumpu. In September 2001, the state government alloted 22 quintals of rice to Jaggaram panchayat under the 'Food for Work Programme'. In the October meeting of the executive bodies of Jaggaram and other 4 villages, the Sangha executives discussed and decided to undertake repair of side drains, laying the drained earth on the roads and their levelling and gravel laying on all roads of the village under the above said programme.
Accordingly, it was decided that each family in the project villages under Jaggaram Panchayat works upto four days to complete all abvoe mentioned tasts. Based on this task allocation and the extent of work in each village, the executive body also decided to allot rice to each village according to the work done. These decisions were communicated to the Panchayat and accordingly, the Panchayat had passed a resolution in its November meeting on allocation of rice.
Sangha Executive Body Meetings consider common issues across a cluster of villaves and take decisions that do not affect the interests of other villages.
“Escalation from an Agricultural Labourer to Panchayat Sarpanch.”
Jaggaram is an interior village in Dammapeta Mandal. Till 2001, when it acquired the status of Gram Panchayat, it was a part of Ankampalem Gram Panchayat. In 1996, ACTIVE adopted this village for poverty eradication programme and ever since has been conducting many enpowerment programmes. During its interactions with the community ACTIVE found ever-lasting dynamism and leadership qualities in Mrs. Payam Laxmi and encouraged her to be a member of the Sangha executive committee. Both she and her husband work as agricultural labourers. While her husband is an illiterate, she studied upto III standard and can read and write. Her two kids are going to school. With her devotion to the Sangha activities, she becae its President in 1999. During her tenure, with her unstinted efforts, she could succeed in getting potable drinking water facility for the village in 2000. In this process she had to meet the local minister and visit the offices of Mandal Development Officer and Executive Engineer several times.
Having seen her commitment to the village development, the village Sangham encouraged her to contest for Sarpanch during August 2001 which she did. She won the election with a big majority againser her lone rival Kurasam Venkatamma and become the first Women Sarpanch for the Jaggaram Gram Panchayat. On her election, she reaffirmed her commitment by saying " Now my task to to get ration cards and land entitlement deeds for my people in Jaggaram Panchayat and other villages in its jurisdiction".
“Out of the Shackles of Poverty.”
Lankalapalli is a backward village in Dammapeta mandal which is 14 Km away from the Mandal Headquarters. All habitants belong to Koya tribal community. Vaggela Krishnaiah (37) is a resident of this village. He has two sons and two daughters. Being below poverty line, the family leads a miserable life. His kids do not go to school due to financial problems. In a Farmers' Training Camp (1999) at Ankampalem village, he experienced emphasis laid on organic farming. But Krishnaiah had deep rooted belief that, the more the application of chemical fertilizers, the more the yields and thus did not immediately act on Organic Farming.
In 2000, Vaggela Ramulu, a cousin of Krishnaiah raised paddy in a demonstration plot at Ankampalem village, in which, all methods exlained in Farmers' Training were implemented. Surprisingly, the yields tremendously went up to 32 bags per acre and capital cost went down from Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 2,500. By seeing results in these demo plots, Krishnaiah changed his attitude and experimented with similar cultivation and agricultural methods in the year 2001 on his own land of 1.5 acres. he got 34 bags of paddy from 1.5 acres. He has to see it to believe it. It was a great improvement during his 20 years of agricultural career. He wants to spread these methods to other friends. he said if he get get similar yields the following year, he would be freed from the shackles of poverty and be able to send all his children to school.
“From Loiter to Creative Thinker.”
Anil Kumar is one the two sons of Vooke Veeraswamy and Ramulamma of Ankampalem village. While he went to a Government School, his elder brother has been helping parents in their occupation. However, he was not regular to school and always loiters around with no aim. In 1996 ACTIVE started supplementary education centre in Ankampalem. Disgusted with the behaviour of Anil kumar, his parents admitted him in supplementary education centre in 1999 with a hope of change in their son's behaviour. The play way methods of teaching in Supplementary Education Centre drew the attentin of Anil Kumar towards education and he started attending School regularly.
On June 23, 2001, Anil Kumar participated in Bala Utsav, an event organized by the project to nurture creativity among children. Under the guided facilitation from his teacher, Anil Kumar made an illustration of India map. With his creativity, he used different colours to demarcate the states and small bulbs, operated by a battery to identify the capital cities. During the Bala Utsav his explanation to other children on his illustration was commended by one and all. While participating in the event, he noticed another experiment on the power of water pressure. The next day, he demonstrated similar experiment to his classmates and teacher with his own zeal and ingenuity, which was appreciated by his teacher and all alike. He always wanted to do something new and unique. His parents now have no bounds of joy, seeing the change in their son's mindset and character.