Skip to main content

Techniques, resources can't get rid of rural poverty. We need the will


By Moin Qazi*
Before I opted for a rural career, I had always imagined that all rural poor wee dimwitted and this was the primary reason of their misery. Most people whom I consulted before embarking on my rural mission admired my aspiration but moderated my enthusiasm with caveats. “They know a lot more than we do. You can at best learn from them.” “Don’t try to supplant their culture; that will be the greatest disservice.” I initially wrote off these responses as an attempt to unnerve me. Later I realized that these advices were not pure banter.
My fertile, overheated conscience was further stung by my academic reading of the sufferings of people in Latin American countries. Driven by guilt, buried under the weight of my attractive job and haunted by the sight of excruciating poverty every day, I volunteered to spend the weekends off from my office with villagers, trying to make up for the fact that I had so much while they had so little.
In my early days a career in banking truly appeared intellectually vegetating, at least for me. There were others who considered it a coveted career. For them it provided an exciting mental adventure and of course enviable salaries and perquisites. Then there was that regal feeling of presiding over huge piles of currency notes. I had little fascination for figures and at least in the initial years banking appeared more a number cruncher’s delight. . I was delighted more by peering beyond the dry lifeless figures that statistics were made to appear and observing the millions of human actions that these figures represent. It is all too rarely that a sense of style and an eye for beauty are found to co-exist with a head for facts and figures and a flair for statistical analysis. I was fortunate in being endowed with both. Numbers may have never amused me but I had developed a flair for them. Nevertheless I was not uncomfortable with them.
I had never enjoyed mathematics in my education days. The formulae would spin dizzily around me in my head and I could rarely balance any of the balancing equations. I remember dazed nights spent trying to memorize the periodic tables.
I had heard people talk of a short posting in villages as a way of getting away from the bustle of urban life. They would speak of the bucolic charm of the countryside and dream of images of harmonious simplicity. Indian city dwellers often refer nostalgically to “simple village life.
The rustic images hold a unique fascination, both compelling and absorbing. The acrid bluish smoke of cow-dung fires, the cattle returning to the family compound, a meal and then talk around the fire, or a festival celebration of one of the hundreds of gods and goddesses the villagers worship. No two villages are alike; in some class and caste conflicts simmer, in others they’re nonexistent; some villages are rich and mechanized; others live in another age; in some villages, there is comparative equality between men and women; in others the old hierarchies dominate; some villages are open to change: others fear it like the plague.
The fact that despite decades of attempts at developing rural areas, much remains to be achieved suggests that the answers may lie elsewhere. Every developed economy has followed a path which begins with agriculture being the main source of income for the majority of the population, and ends with agricultural employment being a very small fraction of the total labour force. The shift has always been from a village-centric, agriculture-based economy to a city-centric, non-agricultural economy—as agriculture becomes more productive, labour is released into manufacturing and services, which have higher productivity and incomes.
I saw how some of the world’s poorest and most oppressed people are changing our world. But nowhere was my journey through development more influenced than in an unassuming village where I stayed whenever I had the chance over the last fifteen years. This village, Wanoja, became a microcosm of all I saw elsewhere, stuck as it was in centuries of tradition. Only the names changed. It provided me with friends and joyful moments and sometimes gave me hope in human progress. But, just as often, it crushed that hope in the nasty friction between irresolvable social divisions. Even in the violence that submerged my village I saw the hope of people breaking the status quo and gaining a voice. I saw women grappling with intense poverty. I heard the struggles of the women at the grassroots. Initially I often broke down in confusion, not knowing what contribution I could make, but over time I decided that my future lay with these poor but tenacious women who were fighting daily misfortunes to build a decent future for their families.
I saw villages that enjoyed a dramatic increase in crop yield and incomes after agricultural scientists advised farmers on watershed techniques—a fancy term for digging ditches so good that soil is not washed away. While it will not solve India’s deep-rooted agriculture problems, better information can significantly boost food production and rural incomes.
If only they could be convinced that building the foundations for development, such as constructing water-harvesting structures, or investing in good breed animals for future dairy profits, was of equal importance to that of building the a community well, then rapid changes in the livelihoods of the people could happen.
Women are using whatever their levers of authority provide to bring about change in their societies. The World Bank’s World Development Report on gender equality and development shows progress in some areas, while in others gaps between men and women stubbornly persist. In India, the World Bank team discovered that measures like the introduction of quotas for women in the Panchayati Raj, or village level government, has led to better access to clean water and sanitation, crimes against women being reported more often, and a jump in prosecution for those crimes.
The quotas have certainly been useful in ensuring that women are equally represented and have the opportunity to improve the quality of governance. Women have the potential to turn around the pyramid of their societies. Enabling them to participate in an active, informed, and meaningful manner in the governance of a village is the key to making each village, in the words of Mahatma Gandhi, a “perfect democracy based upon individual freedom.”
For this to happen, women need to actively compete in the present political game in the rural arena. It’s going to be a much harder, longer road than policy wonks may imagine. But if they have the will, they can succeed. They know from their past lessons that they have the tools and they increasingly need to summon their political will to support reforms that can engender greater empowerment for women.
We now have the techniques and resources to get rid of poverty. The real question is whether we have the will.

*Author of the bestselling book, “Village Diary of a Heretic Banker”, has worked in the development finance sector for almost four decades

Comments

TRENDING

Defeat of martial law: Has the decisive moment for change come in South Korea?

By Steven Lee  Late at night on December 3, soldiers stormed into South Korea’s National Assembly in armored vehicles and combat helicopters. Assembly staff desperately blocked their assault with fire extinguishers and barricades. South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol had just declared martial law to “ eliminate ‘anti-state’ forces .”

70,000 migrants, sold on Canadian dream, face uncertain future: Canada reinvents the xenophobic wheel

By Saurav Sarkar*  Bikram Singh is running out of time on his post-study work visa in Canada. Singh is one of about 70,000 migrants who were sold on the Canadian dream of eventually making the country their home but now face an uncertain future with their work permits set to expire by December 2024. They came from places like India, China, and the Philippines, and sold their land and belongings in their home countries, took out loans, or made other enormous commitments to get themselves to Canada.

EVMs: Govt must prove beyond reasonable doubt it's upholding mandate for free, fair polls

By Jerald D’souza  With the growth of India’s population, concerns about electoral fraud associated with ballot papers, also began to escalate. In 1989, the People’s Representation Act was amended to enable EVMs to prevent electoral fraud. In 1998, EVMs made their debut during legislative assembly elections and for the first time for general elections in 2004. However, criticisms against the EVMs and questions about their integrity have been raised by political parties, civil society and the general population. On 2 February 2024, there was a noteworthy demonstration of dissent where numerous individuals, including Ambedkarite advocates, legal professionals, and other members of civil society  convened at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar demanding the prohibition of EVMs. In 2024, the Supreme court had slapped down a petition to return to paper ballots on the basis that machines give “absolutely accurate results” unless human bias maligns them. The court stated that it was open to testi...

This Indian British Marxist blamed USSR's collapse in 1991 on Khrushchev's 'revisionism'

By Harsh Thakor*  Harpal Singh Brar, British Indian Marxist scholar and communist leader, has passed away in Chandigarh. He was 85. He was a lifelong supporter of socialism, Marxism, and the working class. He will be remembered among British Communists.

A groundbreaking non-violent approach: Maharishi’s invincible defense technology

By MajGen (R) Kulwant Singh, Col (R) SP Bakshi, Col (R) Jitendra Jung Karki, LtCol (R) Gunter Chassé & Dr David Leffler*  In today’s turbulent world, achieving lasting peace and ensuring national security are more urgent than ever. Traditional defense methods focus on advanced weapons, military strategies, and tactics, but a groundbreaking approach offers a new non-violent and holistic solution: Maharishi’s Invincible Defense Technology (IDT). 

Chalapathi's death in encounter suggests Maoists' inability to establish broader mass support

By Harsh Thakor* The Maoist movement experienced a significant loss during the Ramagudem encounter on January 21, with the death of Chalapathi (Pratap), a Central Committee member of the CPI (Maoist). His death, along with 15 others, marks a major setback for the movement. Reports suggest that his location was revealed to security forces through a selfie with his wife.

Why do we mostly resist and refrain from communicating on sanitation topic?

By Nikhil Kumar, Mansee Bal Bhargava* According to UN SDG Progress report (2022), at the present moment no targets for SDG 6 are expected to be met by 2030. In 2022, 2.2 billion people had no access to safe drinking water and 3.5 million lacked safe sanitation. Approximately 50% of the world’s population was reported to have been under resourced in enough water for part of the year and a quarter of that population was living under “extremely high” water stress. Add to it, droughts have affected over 1.4 billion people between 2002 and 2021.

CCG raises concerns over Indian State of Forest Report 2023 in open letter to environment minister

By A Representative  The Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), a collective of former civil servants, has expressed serious concerns over the Indian State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023 in an open letter to the Union Minister for Environment, Forests & Climate Change. The group has criticized the report's delayed release, flawed methodology, and misleading claims regarding the state of India's forests.

Govt of India asked to work for release of 217 Indian fishermen detained in Pakistan since 2021

By A Representative  Members of the fishing communities from Gujarat and Diu, Union Territory, held a press conference in Ahmedabad, urging the Union Government to take proactive measures to secure the release of Indian fishermen currently detained in Pakistan. Presently, 217 Indian fishermen, mostly from Gujarat and Diu, are held in Pakistan’s Malir Jail. Of these, 53 have been incarcerated since 2021 and 130 since 2022.

Operation Kagar represents Indian state's intensified attempt to extinguish Maoism: Resistance continues

By Harsh Thakor Operation Kagar represents the Indian state's intensified attempt to extinguish Maoism, which claims to embody the struggles and aspirations of Adivasis. Criminalized by the state, the Maoists have been portrayed as a threat, with Operation Kagar deploying strategies that jeopardize their activities. This operation weaves together economic, cultural, and political motives, allegedly with drone attacks on Adivasi homes.