one of the great tools is PRA [Participatory Rural Appraisal] ... I still have to learn this social approach to the technical development.
Mr. Anilbhai Shah [CEO of AKRSPI] was considered to be "guru" of PRA.. so he arranged a 3 day training program for all the staff to learn PRA.. one day in "sayla" [pre-PRA] one day in field [doing PRA] and one day for compilation of data/finding and presentation to the villagers...
As i was cluster incharge of "dhandhalpur" i was given responsibilities to select village for PRA in consultation with Rekha [CO].. Rekha recently started going to new village called "gundiawada" just opposite to dhamrashla village.. 6 km from "dhandhalpur".. so we chose that village..
Rekha informed villagers about PRA exercise date /time/ purpose etc.
the day came.. Anilbhai was fantastic in conducting sessions.. especially "dos and donts".. he was really amaizing speaker/ orator and facilitator.. i was really charged up.. infect all the participants were excited to implement what they learned on day 1.
next day early morning we reached to "gundiawada"... all [rather most of the villagers] came in meeting , we explained the purpose of PRA [to collect the information and get over view of the village] .. then we divided the villagers in various group...
I was with Natural Resource Management Group... we started mapping resources... after that we started mapping village mainly the streets , location of communities within it and broad mile stones....
one of the lady came forward and questioned "why are you mapping the houses ?".. one of the group leader explained in simple yet articulate way "this is to know who is living where in village, so it is easy for us to find you and come to you"....
we kept on doing exercise ... wealth mapping, seasonal calendar etc.. then came the lunch time,
we had to travel 5-6 km to for lunch so we promised villagers to come back in 1 hr time..
we have had nice lunch.. we talked alot on the info we collected.. it was fantastic.... we were excited to do some more exercise and infect transect walk..
we came back to village...and the moment we entered it look like a dead village.. most of the movement were ceased up... we were surprised !! we walked up to common place were we decided to meet... no one turned up... Rekha went around trying to find ppl.. she came back with pale yellow face...
she said we cant do PRA any more in this village.. lets go back..
we were almost shouted "why?"!!!!! and the story was stunning!!
The lady [from one of the strong community called "darbar"] who asked the question why we are mapping!!! she took the charge after we left the village and issued a strict warning to the villagers not to provide any information to us.. she said we are collecting info and mapping the houses means we are thieves and we will rob them all.....
all villages believed her and stayed away from the exercise..
Rekha and our group tried to convey the message that we are development worker not thieves or robbers... but no one listened to us!!!
we came back with heavy heart...
what an experience!!!
i was thinking on following:
1. AKRSP is working in the area for past 6 years..
2. AKRAP was working in the village just adjacent to "gundiawada"
3. AKRAPI was building a huge dam right next to that village..
how come they havent heard about us? how come they never show us ? [of course we pass by that village thousand time..!!]
how come they could interpret our well explained purpose of PRA?
was it necessary to do house mapping?
was it necessary to explain more sensibly?
was it a case of miss communication or a political motive?
was that lady wanted to be "hero" or "leader"?
....
well we came back with lots of fun , defeat and learning!!
Learnings:
1. we learned that it is more important that before we do PRA we need to have little bit more repot building in village.
2. WE shall be more clear in explaining purpose of PRA and various exercises especially mapping tools.
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nice to read
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