Valni villagers be the change they want to see

NAGPUR: Valni surprises you the moment you step out of your vehicle. With cement roads, an organized garbage collection system, toilets and water supply in each home, a closed sewage system that collects water for reuse and many other initiatives, it is a pleasant departure from the image that a typical village conjures up.
Located about 20km from the city in Kalmeshwar tehsil, Valni is an ideal example of community work and its role in development of any place.Residents here have changed the face of the village through collective work and by availing a number of government schemes. A majority of villages are either unaware of these schemes, or are not interested in them. Sometimes, officials keep the schemes under wraps due to corruption.
But Valni is the exception. Here, the roads are so clean that crop produce like soyabean, tur etc is dried on them. The village is plastic free, and villagers themselves run the garbage collection system with a dustbin in each house. There is at least one fruit plant in each house and flower-bearing trees in all village lanes. There are plantations in all four corners of the village. In fact the tree guards are unique and cost just Rs 25-30. At the outlet of sewage of each house, a banana tree is planted. Another thing which catches the visitors’ eyes is the paintings on the walls of many houses. If anyone has failed to notice any activity, the paintings will tell you what more to look for.
All these efforts have been applauded. Valni is recipient of the Sant Gadge Baba Gram Swacchta Abhiyan and Nirmal Gram awards. “But the first steps towards the change began in 1983 years back with revival and expansion of the Valni lake. It is 18 feet deep and covers 19 acres. In good rains, it fills up completely. Before that the village survived only on water tankers. Today, even in peak summer and drought, the village uses its own conserved water,” said Keshav Dambhare, a former sarpanch and one of the pillars of the change.
In fact the lake now attracts not just a varied Indian bird species but also migratory birds. The lake never dries up, even in summer. Almost every child in Valni is now a good swimmer. Every village animal bathes and swims in the lake. The lake water is used only for animal consumption and watering trees, that too only in summer.
The rejuvenation of the lake generated a lot of silt which was used in the farms. In fact, the murram and stones dug out from the lake bed were used to build a 500-metre road connecting the village to the farms. The fish in the lake — Rohu, Maral and Katla — give an annual revenue of Rs 3 lakh for both, villagers and contractors from outside. The water body has raised the groundwater table around the village. Neither hand pumps nor farm wells dry in summer. At least 60-70 farmers have small or big farm ponds.
The revolution continues beyond water with some change happening every day. “Sundays are especially meant for ‘shramdan’ where villagers from the age of 14-18 years to even senior citizens contribute in various developmental activities. In the shramdan, the bio-waste is segregated and used for making compost while the remaining is disposed of without burning. There is a migrant population that lives on the outskirts of the village. To prevent pollution of the lake waters by them, the villagers have constructed dry toilets,” said Dambhare.
He added that the villagers organize some or the other community event every Sunday. “It keeps our bond alive and we cook and eat in the Haunman temple courtyard, also built by shramdan next to the lake,” he said.
Besides these, Valni, with a population of about 1,120, is also prosperous agriculturally. The village grows traditional crops like cotton, soyabean, tur but is gradually shifting towards unconventional crops too. Dambhare himself owns a one-acre ‘heart garden’ with just the plantation of Ticoma Gaudichaudi flowers for rearing honey bees at the entrance of village. In another ongoing experiment, he is also growing Phalsa (Grewia asiatica), a fruit which looks like jamun and sells at Rs 200/kg. The nursery is ready to be transplanted in the field.
The village also has a women’s cell of self help group as well as those associated with other activities like bhajan mandal, community cooking group and Anganwadi women.
“The village, however, still remains disconnected from the nearest primary health centre in Kalmeshwar by either buses or autorickshaws. There is no dispensary for any medical emergencies,” said Kamlatai Bende, an anaganwadi worker who too is an integral part of the tree plantation in the school and angawnwadi premises. But the village does have a school up to Std VIII.
“We did nothing for winning the awards. We have a permanent 25-30 member team which maintains each activity,” says village social worker, Sunil Yesankar.
The team is led by Dambhare, Diwakar Gawande and dedicated individuals like Nathuji Phalke, Krishna Bhade, Dharamraj Bhange, and the present sarpanch Bhushan Burkute. Narayan Gomashe, Vishnu Bende, Lakshman Pal and Ashok Sontake, dedicated workers who are paid for their work by the panchayat, are the biggest strength of the village, says Dambhare.
“Initially there was resistance. But when villagers realized that the panchayat was paying a tax of Rs 3,900 with no electricity, water and roads, they decided to pool in resources and manpower and now we pay higher tax with no regrets,” said Gawande. Phalke is teaching people to switch from chemical to organic fertilizers and farming, watershed management and regrowing millets and pulses.