Four decades of planned development have widened this gap. All the government programmes designed by our planners in the name of the poor have only benefited the rural rich and the officialdom responsible for delivering these schemes to the poor. They have earned the title of "gate keepers" not having allowed any development benefits to reach the poor to raise their status.
How can a village develop under these conditions? Yet, if it does, it makes news. Rural development and poverty alleviation have therefore been topics of great interest and experimentation for the researchers.
That Ralegan Siddhi, a small village in Parner Taluka of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra is undergoing overall transformation under the leadership of Shri Anna Hazare attracted the attention of Dr. Antia, the Director of FRCH.
We, at the Foundation for Research in Community Health, Bombay, have always seen health of the people as an indicator of their quality of life and not dependent on the number of doctors per 1000 population or to the drug budget of the Primary Health Centre. Dr. N.H. Antia visited the place and noticed that without any direct inputs into health care services, there has been a remarkable improvement in the health status of the people. Integrated socioeconomic development played an important role in the improvement of the health of the people. Dr. Antia suggested that a detailed study of the Ralegan phenomenon should be undertaken. Thus he inspired us to undertake an in-depth study of the developments in Ralegan and document it for the benefit of development activists and interested readers. Even during the course of the study Dr. Antia paid regular visits to Ralegan and we are grateful to him for his valuable inputs through his analytical insights into the development process of Ralegan Siddhi.
The data collection and field interviews
were conducted during the period from Jan. 1986 to Feb. 1986 by one research
investigator and then from July 1986 to October 1986 by Shri Dashrath Panmand.
During these six months the researchers stayed in the village, observed
the whole process from close quarters and gathered valuable insight and
information about the development of Ralegan by informal interviews with
a large number of people during the latter's leisure time. We also talked
to the people of neighbouring villages - namely Pimpalner, Pandoli, and
Sangvi Surya -
to get a different view as well as for
making a comparative assessment.
Jamshedji Tata Trust extended financial assistance to undertake the study and paid for the salary of Dashrath Panmand and other expenses incurred for the study. However the salary of Ramesh Awasthi was paid from Ford Foundation's institutional grant to the FRCH. Hence we are grateful to Jamshedji Tata Trust and the Ford Foundation for supporting this study.
We owe our gratitude to various officials of the Ralegan branch of Maharashtra Bank, Ahmednagar District Cooperative Bank, Soil Conservation Department, Social Forestry Department and other departments of Parner Taluka Panchayat Samiti and Shri Ashok Bedarkar of the Rural Welfare Board of the Dorabji Tata Trust, Padmashri Anil Lakhina, former collector of Ralegan, for readily giving us details of their experiences in Ralegan Siddhi as well as all the information about this village. Young and enthusiastic veterinary doctor of Ralegan Siddhi, sub-centre ANM ('Auxiliary Nurse Midwife') Joshibai, the Gram Sevak, Talati local teachers and all the members and office bearers of the local Tarun Mandal and Gram Panchayat as well as the villagers of Ralegan Siddhi extended full co-operation to us and gave valuable information about their journey from drought stricken and ill-famed Ralegan (because of its liquor dens) to an ideal village of Maharashtra. Without the co-operation of all these people it would not have been possible to complete this study. We owe our gratitude to all of them.
We are greatly indebted to Shri Anna Hazare, the architect of new Ralegan. He helped us with a lot of information directly through discussions with him, and indirectly through his lectures, question-answer sessions with groups of visitors who flock to Ralegan Siddhi almost every day. He arranged for our stay in Ralegan Siddhi as also for our meals in the hostel. Our stay in Ralegan and our interaction with Anna Hazare gave us an invaluable opportunity to learn a lot which we are sure will continue to inspire us for a long time in our lives.
Sincere thanks are due to Mr. Elly Fernandes, Ms. Swati Tambe and Ms. Chandra Nadar who typed the manuscript a number of times and finally to Ms. Kavita Landge and Ms. Nagmani Rao for bringing it out in a presentable book form.
PUNE
Ramesh Awasthi
March 1994
forward
back
table of contents
Anna Hazare Home
Page
my home page