Melinda Gates visits maoist bastion in Jharkhand, no clue to state administration

RANCHI: World’s richest lady, co-chair, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) Melinda Gates visited highly Maoist dominated Torpa Block of Khunti district in Jharkhand on Sunday and spent around seven hours while the state administration remained completely clueless about her visit.
Despite the fact that she arrived at Ranchi airport on a chartered flight, Saturday night and went through road route to Torpa Sunday morning, none in the state administration including Ranchi Deputy Commissioner Manoj Kumar was aware.Cabinet coordination department and police headquarters too had no official information about the visit. Police spokesperson ADGP SN Pradhan and principal secretary, department of cabinet coordination SK Sathpathy admitted that there was no official information about the visit.
Taking strong exception to the uninformed visit which was kept a highly guarded secret, deputy commissioner Khunti Dr Prasad Krishna Waghmare said that it was a ‘foolish act’ on part of the NGO who arranged for the programme to keep the district administration out of loop. “She is an important personality and her security is the responsibility of administration,” he said.
She was here on a ‘learning trip’ to tribal village in Torpa block to understand about role of community organisation in supporting livelihood of women. The women empowerment drive in Torpa is being carried out by Pradan, a leading NGO. At Ranchi airport she said that she was impressed by the role of self-help groups in empowering women. “Jharkhand is a place where women needs to be empowered and community can act as a driving force,” she said.
An official communique released by BGMF read “The Jharkhand visit of Melinda Gates, was an opportunity to learn more about self-help groups (SHGs) as a platform for supporting those who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Learning from the visit strengthened our understanding about the importance of community organizations in bringing about positive change.”
Sources in the NGO said that her visit was kept secret on her request. She preferred not to disturb the tranquillity of the village and watch it in its natural state. Melinda believed that information to state and police administration and mobilisation of security apparatus in the name of her security would disturb the villagers uselessly and the purpose of her learning from natural surrounding could be defeated.
At Torpa she interacted with the family which has adopted intercropping with technical support from Pradan. The family informed Melinda that they have earned Rs.1.5 lakh during the past five years of adopting intercropping on a two acre plot. Sources in the NGO said that she was impressed to see Mango orchard and watermelon being cultivated in the same plot. Spending a long time on the farmers field Melinda met the women who have taken up goatery, horticulture and collective lac culture. She was told that Torpa block has nearly 800 women SHGs which indirectly engage 15 families each bringing about a change in the local economy.
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