A village wish list nobody expected

The Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department is discovering a side of rural people they'd never known before. When it allowed them to make a list of things they wanted changed or bettered within their communities, the leaders expected to see roads, houses and sewerages on it. But here's what they found: cleaner graveyards, full attendance in schools, institutional deliveries, and even ponds for birds and animals! These demands were listed out by residents of 6,021 gram panchayats from across 29 districts as part of the state government's `Namma Grama, Namma Yojane' (Our Village, Our Plan), a project that gives people a forum to tell the government what they want done in their neighbourhoods.
The demands under the project, claimed to be first of its kind in the country, will be placed in the public domain on August 20, coin ciding with Sadbhavana Day celebrations using `Panchatantra Software' of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department.
HK Patil, minister for RDPR, said: “These plans have been evolved through participatory rural appraisal system. The process is indeed revolutionary as these plans have been listed and finalised by the people during gram sabhas and ward sabhas and sent to the state government through taluk panchayats and district panchyats. In a way, these give the real pulse of the people.“
Patil said leaders would assume that people only had housing, water, roads or sewerage on their list of priority.“But here is a list you and I couldn't have guessed. What is even more interesting is that none of these demands require any financial backing and can be met with community cooperation and participation. There are more than 70 such demands listed out by the people. All these will be uploaded to the website and placed in the public domain,“ he said.
What's on their minds?
The list made by the people turned out to be full of surprises. They wanted clean graveyards; a warehouse to store firewood for cremation; 100 per cent attendance in schools; all deliveries at maternity centres, among others. A few even sought ponds for animals and birds in their villages and wards.
“What you find unusual could be `usual' for others, and vice versa. That's the beauty of this list. We are excited about this list because it gives us an insight into the minds of the people,“ said Patil.
Graveyards tend to be neglected by all, especially in terms of cleanliness, explained a senior official from the RDPR department.
“Nobody bothers about their maintenance until there is a death in the village or the community. They stay covered in weeds usually. It is great that people have realised this and want to clean up,“ he said.
According to Patil, these 'perspective reports' are done for a five-year term and every year in April, people are allowed to add or delete from the list. The implementation of these projects will be monitored by gram panchayats and the action-taken report will be put out every year.