INDIA, October 21, 2011 (livemint): Less than 37 miles from Udaipur is Madla village in the rugged interiors of southern Rajasthan. It’s an unusual sight for a Sunday afternoon. A group of daily wage laborers, having taken the day off, are assembled in a quiet hut next to a swaying maize field. The womenfolk of the village are equal participants in the discussion that’s unfolding.
This is a meeting of Madla’s Gram Samuh, a collective of the village’s households, over the issues of water and sanitation. Every fortnight to a month, the samuh gets together to debate and take decisions on health, education and other issues of development affecting the village. Their proudest achievement has been the village school, built by the government but run entirely by the samuh–the teachers’ salaries are paid from the gram vikas kosh (collective village fund) formed out of contributions of residents.
The Gram Samuh and Gram Vikas Committee, the elected body that runs a notch above the samuh, are concepts introduced–and reiterated over a period of 30 years–to the village by Seva Mandir, the non-governmental organization (NGO) that has activated similar processes in 654 villages in the region. Seva Mandir’s approach to development isn’t about doling out 10 blankets to the “poor” every winter, but empowering people to participate in their governance; simply put, enabling people to produce their own blankets.