Participatory Angle
Until and unless the rural poor can participate in determing their own well-being our rural development programmes would yield limited results. The question is how do we involve the rural poor? Is there a particular methodology for such involvement? The answer is ‘yes’ and there is a distinct process of involvement which has to be initiated. This involves a radical shift in the approach to rural development towards participation of rural poor in planning, implementing and monitoring rural developmental programmes.
This is where the latest techniques in- the field of rural development called RRA/ PRA (Rapid Rural Appraisal/Participatory Rural Appraisal) techniques come to a major role in not only initiating a process of dialogue with rural poor but also making them participate in planning and decision making. RRA/PRA can form a sound basis for demystification of villages for the officials planning and implementing rural development programmes and help in dispelling fallacies about villagers. The techniques help in rapport building with the villagers.
The techniques are quite simple and much depends on the art of brining out the repertoire of information which the villagers have. It can be viewed as rapport building with the villagers in order to facilitate participation. The primary data collected through such rapport-building can often check and support secondary data. Such depends on the way in which a rapport is established with the villagers. If no such rapport an be formed with the villagers the information revealed is either a minimum or superficial or just not available. If villagers cannot be activated to participate in village appraisal, the application of RRA/PRA techniques become difficult.
There is a learning process involved on the part of the person seeking the information. The more the person wishers to learn, the more is the information collected. The techniques are better used if applied in an open, informal and relaxed atmosphere. Not only are the attitudes important, the power of observation of the interviewer is equally‘ important. The greater is his power of observation, his ability to make the villagers participate, the larger is the information collected. Since much depend on the way the rapport is established and kind of interactions taking place, it is difficult to comprehend the amount information which would emerge in the process. The flow of information can be semi-structured where the interviewer has a mental or written checklist for approaching different issues in villages. This can be revised and improved on the basis of the perceptions of the villagers. Group interviews with villagers generally have an inbuilt process of ‘tribulation’ where the information collected can be checked and endorsed by different members of the group present. Some implicit assumption of RRA/ PRA techniques can be mentioned as follows. The villagers have necessary information available with them as well as the necessary expertise in different areas of village life. Such information can be offered provided the villagers have an opportunity to do so.
Participatory Rural Appraisal
Long year of planning for rural poor has undoubtedly made India rich in experience of designing and implementing poverty alleviation programmes on scales which are comparable only to that of a low income country, namely China. However, our richness of experience is quit tainted because our learning by doing has moved at a slow pace and the not yielded the desired results. While it has been possible to reduce very few from the ‘poverty trap’ others have remained as poor as they were. Some have also experienced further deterioration in living standard while some others have sided into this trap and have become poor in the process. The programmes have failed to raise all poor households above the poverty line and the process of economic growing has been such that in effect it has impoverished many in the process.
The major routes of poverty alleviation programmes in India are broadly through generating employment, meeting basic needs and public distribution. The employment routes consists of providing income or purchasing power to the poor either through self-employment or wage employment and thereby attacking poverty directly of poor households – Self-employment of poor is based on IRDP (Integrated Rural Development Programme) and wage employment is through JRY( Jawahar Rozgar Yojana ) Schemes and others. Income generated through employment programmes is essential for poor households in meeting their basic necessities of life but there are other requirements besides income or purchasing power. Such requirements are integrally connected with the productive capacity of the poor households and its daily existence. These constitute the basic needs of having subsidised food, water supply, rural roads, education, health etc. The area approach takes care of areas having hostile agroclimatic conditions like areas which are drought-prone or desert prone and which accentuate poverty. The official programmes of poverty alleviation, by and large, take care of different facets of poverty excepting the Tow end’ poverty as far as the complexities of poverty are involved. But the approach to poverty and rural development remains highly deficient as far as people’s participation in rural development is concerned, because all such programmes are formulated and implemented from above. And none of the programmes meant for poor are realiy able to involve the poor. This is the fundamental deficiency of the approach itself on which all these programmes are based a view which is implicit in the minds of many policy makers, officials and urbanites is that most villagers are ignorant, superstitious not adequately motivated and not much interested in the their well-being. This view is implicitly reflected in the approach to planning, in data collection, in the delivery of goods and services through rural development programmes. It is also present in monitoring and evaluation of such programmes and in the behaviour towards the villagers and other related issues in rural development. Such view is based on certain misconceptions and judgemental biases. It mainly arises from an elite bias, a mental framework which is intrinsically urban and closed mind having little or no interaction with village life. As long as such and approach exists our rural development programmes cannot produce satisfactory results.
The Techniques:
The major RRA/PRA techniques are described below. They are participatory mapping and modelling, participatory transects, time line, participatory diagramming and ranking and scoring,
- (a) In participatory mapping and modelling, the villagers prepare maps/models of the village profile with chalks, colour and other materials either on ground or on paper. Such maps may be of dwellings in the village, of farms and fields, water collections , forests, soil etc.
- (b) Participatory transects involve systematically walking with the villagers through an- area discussing about the aspects of village life observed during the walk. It may relate to people’ resources, soil, technology etc.
- (c) In the technique of time line, an historical account is given by the villagers of how different aspects of village life have changed. Since it is difficult to remember exact dates the villager may be helped to broadly connect the changes with major events, political regimes or a culture of years,
- (d) In participatory diagramming, the villagers prepare diagrams and charts either with chalk or other materials of various socio-economic and
physical phenomena such as wages received, food consumed, prices, crops grown, rainfall patterns and others, - (e) The ranking and scoring techniques can be applied to learn about the priorities, preference and choices of villagers in matters of occupation, food , fuel, fodder, energy-use and others.
Most us would tend to believe that there is little to learn from the villagers. Here, the participatory techniques show that experience profile of t he villagers is much wider and richer than what many of us can comprehend. For instance, a poor villager has been economic struggle from very close quarters. His case history weights disproportionately in favour of bas days. His wages, his consumption patterns, his expenditure have seasonal patterns and his capacity to survive and adjust to bad days and his power of tolerance are on a much higher plane. His powers of comparison, his preferences, his ranking have rational basis and are based on his practical experience and no mechanical questionnaires can bring out the insights, and the rationale which form the basis of his priorities and preferences, ’fill now the villagers have been under-estimated to a considerable extent . Bata collection bas been undertaken mainly on the basis of urban perceptions of villages for mechanical stock taking of villages on that basis.
Participatory Rural Appraisal can be time consuming. The years of wisdom which have the villagers have need time to be revealed. They cannot be described instantaneously. The long years of toil and hardship, the intense fluctuation of wages and prices, the labour calendar , the crop calendar, the wealth of households and other aspects need adequate time to be discussed. However, compared to the survey method the time required is much less, some of them would have to be placed in the historical time line. A villager’s power of expression is not through a sophisticated language, jargons or tools but a simple techniques of participation.
The participatory techniques rest on the involvement of the villagers and can revolutionize rural development. They envisage a process of rapport-building with the villagers. In fact, the information case of such techniques can be fully tapped only when adequate rapport is established with the villagers for whom rural development is being planned. The techniques help us in knowing the rural poor and appreciating their perceptions, their needs and aspirations and also involve them in a participatory manner in planning and decision-making for betterment of their quality if life. They reiterate the fact that it is the approach to rural development which forms the basis for successful implementation of rural development programmes.