Village Fieldwork

Segment (VFS)
PRM 2019-21

VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT REPORT

Village: Isora
Gram Panchayat: Isora
Block:Isora
District: Bhavnagar State: Gujarat

Prepared by:

Chitra Yadav (P40173), Tavishi Gupta (P40156)

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the VFS

of the
Post Graduate Programme in Rural Management

INSTITUTE OF RURAL MANAGEMENT ANAND

December 2019
Table of Contents

Acknowledgment...........................................................................................................................IV
List of Abbreviation....................................................................................................................... V
List of Tables.................................................................................................................................VI
List of Figures..............................................................................................................................VII

1. Identification of the Village and Households..................................................................... 1

1.1 Identification of Village .................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Identification of Households:............................................................................................ 2

2. Brief History of Settlements ................................................................................................ 3

3. Street-Wise Facilities ........................................................................................................... 4

3.1 Structure and Infrastructure .............................................................................................. 4
3.2 Communication and Water management .......................................................................... 6
3.3 Water Management ........................................................................................................... 6
3.4 Irrigation and Other details ............................................................................................... 6

4. Employment.......................................................................................................................... 7

5. Agriculture and Livestock ................................................................................................. 10

5.1 Introduction and Land holding patterns .......................................................................... 10
5.2 Agriculture ...................................................................................................................... 11
5.3 Livestock ......................................................................................................................... 13

6. Financial Institutions ......................................................................................................... 14

7. Education and Schools....................................................................................................... 19

8. Health Service and Hospitals ............................................................................................ 21

8.1 Hospitals and Other Health Facilities…………………………………………………...18
8.2 Health Problems………………………………………………………………………...18
8.3 Dietary Habits and Nutrition .......................................................................................... 18
8.4 Malnutrition in Isora....................................................................................................... 19
8.5 Health Services ............................................................................................................... 20

9. Governance and Welfare Programs ................................................................................. 21

9.1 Local Governance ............................................................................................................ 21
9.2 Welfare Schemes ............................................................................................................. 22
9.3 Households’ Awareness and Access to Welfare Programmes ........................................ 23

10. Shocks and Coping Mechanism ........................................................................................ 24

10.1 SRADH Analysis........................................................................................................... 24
10.2 Coping Mechanism Framework Analysis ..................................................................... 25

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11. Climate Change and Village and Household Response .................................................. 26
11.1 Households’ Awareness ................................................................................................ 26
11.2 Green Governance ......................................................................................................... 26

12. Income and Consumption ................................................................................................. 27

12.1 Income ........................................................................................................................... 27
12.2 Consumption.................................................................................................................. 27

13. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 29

13.1 Village Level Problems and Suggestions:................................................................... 29

References ..................................................................................................................................... 31
Summary of RAC.......................................................................................................................... 32

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Village fieldwork segment is an integral and most important part of IRMA’s life as a
participant. The successful completion of VFS gives us immense pleasure. This
acknowledgement attempts to express our deep sense of gratitude to all those people who helped
us in our endeavor towards rural sensitization and in the process, shaped our lives.

Firstly, we would like to extend our gratitude to the Institute of Rural

Management Anand and Prof. Satyendra Pandey, VFS Chair, for providing us with a great
opportunity to understand and explore rural life.

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our host organization, Coastal Salinity
Prevention Cell (CSPC) for hosting us. We would like to thank our host in the village, Mr.
Poonam Chand and his family for providing us a great stay and generous hospitality. We are also
grateful to our reporting officer Mr. Dhruv Joshi for providing us with all the necessary insights.

Lastly, we would like to thank all the people of Isora village, who took part in surveys
with great enthusiasm and eased the process and helped us in understanding different aspects of
rural life.

Chitra Yadav
Tavishi Gupta

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 LIST OF ABBREVIATION

Foundation HH- Household

MGNREGS- Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee

BPL-Below Poverty Line

Mission PDS- Public Distribution Store

PHC- Public Health Center

OBC- Other Backward Class

CSPC- Coastal Salinity Prevention Cell

MPHW- Multi Purpose Health Worker

PHC- Public Health Center

SBI- State Bank of India

WHO- World Health Organization

FGD- Focused Group Discussions

SBM- Swachh Bharat Mission

MSP- Minimum Support Price

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Streetwise facilities ..........................................................................................................4

Table 3.2 Ownership of land and livestock .....................................................................................6
Table 4.1 Simpson’s Index ..............................................................................................................8
Table 4.2 Employment Structure of HH ..........................................................................................9
Table 5.1 Land Profile of farmers ..................................................................................................10
Table 5.2 Cost-benefit analysis of crops ........................................................................................12
Table 6.1 Interest rate charged by financial institution..................................................................15
Table 7.1 Analysis of School Facilities .........................................................................................17
Table 8.1 Child Z-Scores ...............................................................................................................19
Table 10.1 Strategy adopted by HH ...............................................................................................24
Table 13.1 Project Costing .............................................................................................................30

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1 Village Map ......................................................................................................... 1

Figure 5.1 Crops Grown in the village...................................................................................11
Figure 5.2 Livestock in the village ........................................................................................13
Figure 9.1 Gram Sabha meeting analysis...............................................................................21
Figure 10.1 SRADH Analysis................................................................................................24
Figure 12.2 Comparison of average monthly income and expenditure ................................ 28

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 1. IDENTIFICATION OF THE VILLAGE AND HOUSEHOLDS

1.1 Identification of Village

The village Isora is situated in Bhavnagar district, Gujarat and comes under Talaja tehsil.
The current population (2019) is about 1900 and the number of households are 250, a 41.25 per
cent and 11.11 per cent increase respectively in the past eight years. The entire village follows
Hindu religion and is subdivided into six castes: Brahmins, Kolis, Maharajs, Naai, Bhadwaad
and Barot in decreasing order of their social hierarchy. The village includes General category
and OBCs and has an outward aversion towards SC. The major occupation of the village is
agriculture, where the marginal small farmers; and the landless laborers dominate in
composition. The average rainfall is 660 mm and the land of the village consists of black soil.
Agriculture labor work is very much prevalent and the village witnesses a huge amount of labors
coming from nearby villages to Isora and going to other villages from Isora on a daily basis for
the same. The nearest factory is located in Alang (7 km away) where many men work as casual
laborers. The primary means of transportation within and outside the village is a ‘Chakra,’ which
is an efficient open roof vehicle and can carry up to 800 kg of load.

Figure 1.1 Village Map

 The village has one entry point, connected with Devli village and leading to the main
road (4 km from Isora); and one exit point leading to Padri village. The majority of functions are
held in the ‘main bazaar’ chowk which is dominated by Brahmins and Kolis, while there is also
another street that is dominated by the lower-middle class koli community and is located just a
kilometer away from the Main Bazaar. Majority of the lower income groups and marginalized
groups live in the extended, underdeveloped part of the village that is towards the exit point.
While the main streets have Pucca roads built at different points in time, the area occupied by the
marginalized section lacks streetlights, pucca roads and most of the houses do not have sanitation
facility. The anganwadi and the primary government school is situated in the middle portion of
the village. There are three temples devoted to lord Shiva, Ganesh and Goddess Sheetala. Also,
there are six grocery stores inside the village. While the panchayat, private doctor and middle
government school is within the village, the nearest bank and post office is located 2 kilometers
away in Devli village. The taluk, Talaja is 10 km away from Isora, where the nearest bus station,
hospital, police station is located. The nearest PHC is in Mathhawada village, 5 km away from
the village and alcohol store is 2 km away from Isora. There is no waste management/ sewage
system.

1.2 Identification of Households

The team followed stratified and convenient sampling, where all the 14 households
reflect diversified occupation, caste, landholdings, income and household sizes; and also
conducted two Focused Group Discussions (FGDs), semi-structured interviews with the
Sarpanch, MPHW, Anganwadi worker and Talati. The average HH size of the surveyed HH is 7
and the average income is 32,000 per month, while the average expenditure of all the HH is
17,600 per month. The sample includes HH with landholdings such as: 3 marginal and small
landholders, 1 large and medium landholder families each and 6 landless HH.

2
2. BRIEF HISTORY OF SETTLEMENTS

As per the information gathered from the village elders and the Sarpanch of the village,
Isora shares a history with the king of Bhavnagar. The village was founded in the year 1869. The
early settlers where not more than 30 in number and were of Barot community, that pioneered in
art and street drama. With time, more communities migrated to village.

Due to the focus of the male members of Barot community on leisure activities and a
highly consumerist attitude towards life (which is a result of the communities’ culture and
history, beliefs), there have been instances in the past where the wealthy Brahmins have bought
huge acres of land from some Barot families so as to explore more opportunities of growth.
Perhaps this is the primary reason why most of the Barot families could not sustain for long and
migrated; and both the number of community members as well as the existing member’s land
holdings decreased drastically.

Since the foundation of the village, at most 20 households have migrated out of the
village and the primary reason included better employment opportunities and in pursuit of
education opportunities.

The Ganesh temple, located inside the village is considered to be very important and is a
century old. Although different communities’ worship different gods (The concept of ‘Isht
Dev’), the entire village has consolidated views about the importance of the Ganesh Temple.

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3. STREET-WISE FACILITIES

3.1 Structure and Infrastructure

Isora is mainly divided into eight streets. All the households are electrified but the
electricity comes for not more than 16 hours in a day. Every household has a pipeline
connection, the water of which comes from Narmada River. This is a state-level scheme. Some
of the houses are multi-storied, while most of the houses are Pucca in nature. The village
possesses adequate streetlight facilities.

Table 3.1 Streetwise Facilities

Pucca Road % of brick Number of Streetlight

No. of HH
Street Street/Bast Since houses houses functionality
in Each
ID i Name having Pvt
Street
toilets
5 200 72% 84% YES
1
0 0
2 0 0 - - YES
Main 3 200 54.83 90% YES
3
Bazaar 1 4 %
2 0 83.33 66% NO
4 Vara Bazaar
4 %
0 100% 100 ABSEN
5
4 % T
Dhara 3 0 86.66 70% NO
6
Vistar 0 %
1 0 86.66 40% YES
7
5 %
Sheetla 2 201 66.66 62% YES
8
Basti 1 9 %
Source: Village Survey

The least percentage of Pucca houses is in the street 3, which consists of a vast variety of
castes a well as classes. Sheetla basti is another street that has a relatively low percentage of
pucca houses owing to the presence of lower middle-income groups belonging to the historically
deprived fisher community of ‘Kolis.’ This is also the street with only 62 per cent penetration of
sanitation facility. Most of the houses have availed SBM scheme but the funds allotted here not
sufficient to get the pit dug in the hard rock area. Further, there is a lack of behavioral change in
the villagers of this region pertaining to usage of toilets. There were cases where even with the
presence of a functional washroom, the elders of the HH would opt for Open defecation.

4
 Street number 7 and 4 also have abysmally low number of toilets. One of the reasons can
be that these areas are farther away from the center of the village which is the main bazaar. Also,
these are the areas with Kachha streets and more number of landless and marginal farmers. In
streets such as Dhara Vistar, even when the availability of toilets is merely 70 per cent, the
relatively higher percentage of brick houses can be accounted for owing to the presence of a
couple of higher middle-income groups who have been able to diversify successfully. Many of
the pucca houses also lacked proper sanitation facility.

As can be observed, the village doesn’t have a proper infrastructure when it comes to
roads. The Pucca roads have existed for more than 10 years only in the major streets, such as
main bazaar and street number one (which is the main street connecting the village with other
villages). In Sheetla basti, the Pucca road was recently built due to frequent requests by the
villagers. While street number 5 lacks street lights, most of the streets that are well connected to
the main road are also well lit and functional. The lack of availability of street light is due to the
low number of residents and the small size of the street. Street number 4 and 6 also do not have a
functional street light. These are the streets that can be seen as relatively underdeveloped as
compared to the entire village due to the lack of high-income groups and the lack of spillover
effect of the development in the high-income families. Even when the number of houses in the
center of the village, main bazaar, is very high, a huge spillover effect is observed owing to a
large section of population in that street owning medium lands and having better educational
qualifications than the rest of the village. This area (Main bazaar) is dominated by both the
Brahmins and the Kolis, while other castes also reside here. All the medium farmers who belong
to the higher middle-income group and have a decent literacy rate in the family belong to the
Brahmin community in this street.

Both the Anganwadi and the middle school along with the private doctor of the village
are present on the main street, which has a diverse representation of all the castes, classes and
landholdings.

5
 3.2 Communication and Water management
Every household has at least one mobile phone while none of the households use
telephones or have a Wi-Fi connection at home. While villagers are familiar with the concept of
solar pump and solar lights, the sarpanch has given evidences of the panchayat introducing solar
lights that the local thieves stole eventually.

All the houses have access to pipeline water and this water is also used for drinking
purposes without going through the process of purification. It has a slightly muddy appearance
and is odorless but it gets muddier in the rainy seasons. Only 20 houses (6 in the main bazaar, 7
in the street number 1 and 3 in street number 4, 2 in street number 6 and 2 in street number 8)
have proper storage facilities for water.

3.3 Irrigation and Other details

Maximum number of agricultural landholders resides in street number 1 while street
number 5 has a lot of landless villagers who are primarily involved in agricultural casual labor
work. Similar patterns can be seen when it comes to owning livestock. This livestock is also a
source of additional income for the families and help in elevating their standards of living. While
there are a couple of Bharwad families that only own goats, one family each is present in street 3,
6 and 5. Most of the HH have clean source of energy but still prefer to use Chulha because of its
traditional relevance and villager’s habitual preference. The table below shows the ownership of
livestock in the village.
Table 3.2 Ownership of land and livestock

Source: Village Survey

6
4. EMPLOYMENT

The Village’s employment structure is not at all diverse. Major number of the households
are deriving their livelihoods from agriculture and animal husbandry and most of them are
simply sustaining as they lack the idea as well as the capacity to invest. Apart from agriculture,
the village also consists of 1 bicycle repair shop, 2 tailors, 6 grocery shops and 1 vegetable shop
that is run by two, three, eight and two self-employed workers respectively. There is no
employment opportunity that could provide an assured and constant (of not increasing) stream of
income to the houses. No woman is self-employed in business activities. Diversity in the
employment options that exist inside village is extremely limited to just a few professions
because of the small size of the village and its proximity to the tehsil and boat scrap factories.

In order to earn their living, most of the households (especially women) are involved in
casual agriculture labor work where the wage rate depends from one season to another, ranging
from 150 per day to 300 per day. The remuneration for some jobs such as cotton picking is based
on the mann (Local unit, 1 mann= 20 Kg) collected per day. There were also many cases where
part of the remuneration included some portion of produce of the owner’s land (shared
cropping). This was the case most observed in medium and large landholders. Many HH
included male members who would go to Alang and work as factory laborers during the lean
period, where the wage rate per day is Rs. 400. Despite higher wage rate in Alang, there are HH
that prefer to work as casual agricultural labors owing to convenience.

The employment opportunities outside the village (within 5 km radius) do not include
any factories or other options. All the businesses in mentioned area have self-employed workers
who belong to the same village (Devli/Padri/ Tarsara). There is also a huge influx and outflow of
labors to and from the village for casual agricultural labor work. Casual laborers are required
during transplanting, weeding and harvesting season in agriculture. The cash crops such as
cotton and groundnut provide a lot of employment and a high per day wage rate in a particular
season of the year. They villagers spend no more than 4-5 days in the field for each of these
agricultural activities.

7
 The team has calculated the Simpson’s Index of the 14 households. It provides a measure
of diversity and information on diversity in opportunities accessed by villagers. The team has
calculated the diversity index for the number of interviewed employed in different primary
occupations (Figure 4.1).
Here, D represents Simpson’s Index:
𝐷= Σ𝑛(𝑛−1)𝑁(𝑁−1)
-‘n’ represents number of people employed in one kind of employment sector
‘N’ represents total number of people accessing all kind of opportunities.
Number of people accessing employment opportunities inside and outside village and
calculation for Simpson’s Index is tabulated below. The team has excluded agricultural labor
work due to the high seasonality associated with it.

Table 4.1 Simpson’s Index

Number
of people Number of
accessing people accessing
employment employment
opportunities n(n- opportunities n(n-
Establishment inside this village 1) outside this village 1)
Vegetable
shop 1 0 0 0
Groceryshop 8 56 0 0
Bicyle
shop/tractor repair 2 2 2 2
tailor 3 6 1 0
factory 0 0 0 0
Flour Mill 0 0 1 0
Barber 1 0 0 0
Total 15 64 4 2
N(N-1) 210 12
SIMPSON'S
DIV 0.695238095 0.83333333
Simpson's
index 0.304761905 0.16666667

Source: Household Survey

Here, the Simpson’s index provides probability of two person belonging to same category
of employment when they are randomly selected from the sample. Since the Simpson’s index of

8
diversity (in employment opportunities that are inside the village) is 0.695, we can see that the
sample is employed in many small establishments. However, it cannot suggest that diversity in
the employment opportunities available to villagers is high because most of these businesses are
owned and run by the household members. There has been no addition to employment
opportunities in the past 15 years.

The index for outside village opportunities is 0.833. This infers that opportunities
accessed by our sample size outside village is diverse but as one can observe, the number of
people going outside for such opportunities is low. Here, the radius is taken to be 5 km from the
village. While almost all the employment opportunities are accessible owing to the huge
frequency of chakras running from early in the morning, different household members have
different comfortability levels when it comes to travelling. Most of the landless labor are bound
to make their ends meet while those owning even small land pieces of land indulge in
subsistence farming and barter activities. Table 4.2 shows the employment structure of the
interviewed households.

Table 4.2 Employment Structure of HH

Large Large
Primary Landless Landless Marginal/Small Marginal/Small Farmer Farmer
Occupartion male Female Farmers Male Farmers Female male Female
Casual
Labour 6 0 5 1 0 0
Agricultural
Labour 6 5 1 1 0 0
Barber 1 0 0 0 0 0
Cattle
rearing 7 4 0 0 0 0
Salaried Jobs 2 4 3 2 3 2
Stitching 0 2 1 0 0 0
Business 1 0 2 0 4 0
Farming 0 0 3 4 2 2
2 1
TOTAL 3 5 15 8 9 4
5 2
N(N-1) 06 10 210 56 72 12
0 0. 0.7 0.66
Simpson's .7945 780952 0.8381 0.75 22222 667
Source: Household Survey

As observed, male, in all the landholding categories have more access to employment
opportunities than women can, while for the female member of a large landholding family, more
than the access to opportunity, there is a sheer lack of willingness to work.

9
5. AGRICULTURE AND LIVESTOCK

5.1 Introduction and Land holding patterns

Village is divided in three parts. When one enters the village, the entire scape is such that
the central residential area have farms on both sides. Land pattern is very symmetrically
segmented; on left, we have farmers having significant land holdings and good irrigation facility
because of Shatrunja dam and Kairi river on this side. Farmers having smaller size farms that are
more fragmented, and lack irrigation services are dominant in the right side of the village. Table
5.1 shows the land profiles of farmers covered in primary survey.

Table 5.1 Land Profile of farmers

Criteria Number of households

Marginal Farmer (0-2 Acre) 3

Small Farmer (2-4 Acre) 3

Medium Farmer (4-10 Acre) 1

Large Farmer (>10 Hectare) 1

Landless Farmer 6

Source: Household Survey

The small farmers mostly use private bore wells. This is one of the major reasons why
their lands are not as productive as those on the left side. Due to the lower ground water levels,
the water coming from these wells is saline in nature, hence affecting the productivity. Gross and
net cultivated area is 700.94 and 322.809 acres respectively. Area irrigated by Government
canals (mostly left side) is 150.6 acre while around 120 acres is being irrigated by mechanized
bore wells. Around 40 acres is allocated for grazing and pasture. Also, there is no forestland
inside the boundary of the village. Currently, at the village level, ten farmers are involved in
organic farming and are associated with CSPC.

10
 5.2 Agriculture
Farm uses pattern is almost the same for all the farmers irrespective of the amount of
land holding. Land is divided for subsistence, grazing and cash crop farming. Mostly small
farmers are involved in subsistence farming while the large farmers tend to allocate a significant
portion to cash crops as well. The cash crop grown are cotton, groundnut and they usually
occupy four months before being harvested in November. They also feed their cattle with cotton
cake as to improve the fat percentage level. Throughout the year crops like Jawar, Bajra are
grown for self-consumption and for feeding the cattle. Most families grow vegetables for
themselves rather than buying from outside.

Figure 5.1 Crops Grown in the village

Source: Household Survey

A mix of chemical and bio-fertilizers are used to maintain the health and fertility of soil.
Nowadays, villagers are trying to minimize the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the
farming. Cotton requires a huge amount (both in quantity and variety) of fertilizers and
pesticides, so does maize. Average cost of chemical fertilizer is Rs.350 per bag of 50 kgs.

11
 The chemical fertilizers, which they use, are like Urea, DAP, Sulphate and Phosphate and
cotton require the most amount of fertilizers. Sometimes farmers also go for home remedies in
agriculture.

Table 5.2 Cost-benefit analysis of crops

Season Crop Average Average Average

cost of output value of
cultivation per Produced per Produce per
bigha bigha (Kg) bigha

Kharif Cotton 10,000 400 45,000

Kharif Groundnut 7,000 400 40,000

Kharif Maize 7,000 1500 35,000

Rabi Bajra 5,000 2000 20,000

Rabi Wheat 7,000 2700 30,000

Rabi Onion 10,000 1500 30,000

Rabi Black 5,600 1000 40,000

Gram

Zaid Jawar 4,000 2500 25,000

Zaid Bajra 5,000 2000 20,000

Source: Household farmers

It is very much evident that the maximum average produce is offered by cotton. This is
the reason why most of the farmers prefer to grow cotton despite the huge investment involved.

12
 5.3 Livestock
Majority of the households in Isora own livestock. Cows, Water buffaloes, goats and
bullocks are the only livestock animals in the village. There is no poultry farming. Most of the
houses prefer to rear buffaloes due to higher fat percentage in its milk and hence higher rates
given by the dairy cooperatives. There are approximately 200 buffaloes in the village. Villagers
sell out their milk to any of the three Milk Co-operatives present in the village. While one of
them belongs to Amul, the other two are private local units. Milk is sold after keeping some
amount for the self-consumption. Closest government veterinary service for villagers is available
in Talaja, which is ten km away from the village. In an emergency, on call doctor service is
available. Government and private veterinaries provide services of artificial insemination,
vaccination and disease treatment. Cooperatives collect milk two times in a day. Average rate
that villagers receive is Rs.38-40 per liter, and is calculated as per the fat content.

Figure 5.2 Livestock in the village

%Of Livestock

6%

16%

78%

Buffaloes Cows Bullocks

Source: Household survey

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6. FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

There is no financial institution inside the boundary of the village but there is a gramin
bank two kilometers away. Villagers also use financial services from three other Financial
Institution (FIs) located within 10 km reach. Out of these four institutions, only two are
providing depository as well as loan services for various purposes. One of these two institutions
is a private bank and the other one is gramin bank. Villagers mostly tend to reach private bank
for personal and education loan while gramin bank for agriculture related loan requirements.
However, since most farmers are risk averse and prone to many risks like fluctuation in
Minimum Support Price (MSP), weather conditions and market linkage they only tend to take
loan for personal requirements. Because of the extensively implemented policies like Jan Dhan
and e-shakti most households including women have bank accounts, as many women thought
this would enable them to benefit from many special financial schemes and services. As the
motivation for opening accounts was based on incorrectly perceived information, most women
accounts are not functional anymore.

In a village having no formal institution inside its boundary, local institutional groups like
SHGs and Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) become very important, but the same could not be seen
in our case. Anganwadi worker was heading the only SHG of the village, but due to non-
credibility and lack of community engagement programs the regular deposits were not coming
on time, hence the group was not sustainable. The only informal and functioning group was
Caste specific (Brahmin), people from brahmin community would pool money to perform
various religious functions. People were also taking loans from local moneylenders especially
when they could not find any other source of taking loan also the banks proceedings involve a lot
of paperwork. Though, the rates at which they get could be as high as 24% p.a depending on
many factors like cast credibility, some people still prefer them as the terms and conditions are
flexible. For education, most people here do not prefer to take loans, as they are afraid about the
repayments as the returns are expected after a long duration.

14
Table 6.1 Interest rate charged by financial institution

Source: Villagers

15
7. EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS

In Isora village, there is only one Anganwadi center and one middle school. The
Anganwadi center is located on street number four (Vara Bazaar). There are a total of 35
children enrolled in the Anganwadi, which is operated by one Anganwadi worker and one helper.
The Anganwadi is responsible for providing mid-day meal to the enrolled children as well as the
pregnant women.

There is only one middle school of Zilla Parishad in the village, from classes 1st Standard
to 8th Standard. It was established in the year 1984 as Gujarati medium. There are a total of 150
students in the school, out of which 60 are girls and 90 boys. The school has seven male teachers
and no female teachers. The school building is in a good condition. There are different
classrooms for all standards however, children till 5th standard have to sit on the ground. Mid-
Day Meal Program is carried out within the school and there is no significant gap between the
displayed menu and food served during school hours.

For further education, students attend the schools in the nearby village. Majority of
students attend either the Government School or the the private school, located in Devali which
is 2 km from the village. The government school provides education and mid-day meal facility to
students from 1st Standard to 8h Standard. Also, the students get Shishyavrutti, which is a major
reason why parents prefer admitting their children in this school. Further, girls get free cycles
after 8th standard as part of Saraswati Sadhana Yojana (SSY) of Government of Gujarat. Majorly
villages send boy child to attend private school, as they feel they provide better higher quality
education than government school. Most students travel by foot to both the schools. Also, there
is no incidence of absenteeism of teachers in middle school in school and other two in the nearby
village. Basic sanitation and drinking water facilities are also available in all the three schools.
The literacy rate of the village is 71.36 per cent, where the male literacy rate is 86.45 per
cent whereas Female literacy rate is 55.46 per cent. The village literacy rate is higher than the
national average. As depicted from the literacy rate, male literacy is very high as compared to
female literacy. This is because households prefer to send male counterpart in the house to
school as compared to girl child. They are usually the one’s left behind to do household work or
work as agricultural labor.

Our findings on the basis of our data indicated low female participation in the schools;
primary and secondary level as compared to males [Table 7.1]. Furthermore, parents encouraged
girl child to go to government school only for the amount of Shishyavrutti. The sex ratio of the
village is lower than the sex ratio of India. Over the past 5 years, there was a slight decrease in
the number of female students pursuing education in the school after 8th standard. One of the
reasons for the same was negligence on the part of parents plus the gender roles.

16
 Table 7.1 Analysis of School Facilities
School Type Distance Grades Total % No. of No. of Qualification of
Name Taught Students Female Teachers Classrooms Teachers

Zilla Parishad Isora Govt. 0 Middle 150 40 7 8 Graduate

Km

Navi Devli Private Private 2 Km Higher 350 35 12 15 Post Graduate

School Secondary

Zilla parishad Devli Govt. 2 Km Higher 180 65 8 10 Post Graduate

Secondary

Source: Village& Household Survey

17
8. HEALTH SERVICE AND HOSPITALS

8.1 Hospitals and Other Health Facilities

Healthcare infrastructure is quite poor in Isora. There are no proper healthcare centers in
the village. There is only one private clinic. The Nearest Public Health Center (PHC) is located
at Mathawada village which is 5 km away from the village. The equipment and facilities
available here are very limited with only one male doctor, there is no female doctor in the PHC.
People generally prefer government and private hospitals which are located in Talaja town which
is 11 km from the village. Emergency ambulance service is available for pregnant women, which
is reliable according to the villagers. Majorly, villagers preferred using private health care
because of better facilities and affordability. There were a few cases where people suffered from
the major ailments like Chikungunya, nervous problem which increased medical expenses up to
Rs. 50,000 annually, and they prefer getting the treatment from the private hospitals for these
kinds of diseases as treatment is not available in PHC or private clinics. Villagers access public
hospitals at the time of delivery and the women also seek nutritional help during pregnancy from
the Anganwadi center located in the village premises. None of the villagers finance their health
expenditure through debt.

8.2 Health Problems

Primary health problems that the people face in the village are mainly due to impure
water, variations in weather and unawareness regarding public hygiene. Mental health problems
are minimal to non-existent as the lifestyle of the people is very simple. However, there are
minor health ailments like a cough and cold, fever, muscular and joint pains which are frequently
observed in the village. Further, after interacting with people we found that most people in the
village fall sick due to the lack of clean drinking water. People are very much ignorant towards
maintaining cleanliness and hygiene in the house and surrounding area, which further caused
frequent cases of fever and influenza. Other health issues like pain in joint/muscular pain is
recurrent in the village due labor-intensive work and access to poor and low-quality food
supplies. They don’t take a balanced diet. As a result of which, they feel such pain in their body
as they grow old.

8.3 Dietary Habits and Nutrition

The consumption of food in the village is a function of the produced, thus limiting it to
only Wheat, Bajra, Dal and green vegetables grown in field. The villagers fail to get required
nutrition. Consumption of milk and milk-based products is very high in the diet because most of
the families rear cattle of some form. The average calories intake per family is approximately
1800-2000 kcal per day which is very less than the nutritional requirement recommendation of
2,400 kilocalories a day for a person in the rural region. Consumption of tobacco is also high
among the villagers however; the consumption of alcohol is not that high.

18
 8.4 Malnutrition in Isora
Isora is a home to a maximum number of malnourished children. We tried to estimate the
BMI and H/A (Height to Age) Z-score to understand the malnourishment in the village. We
collected the sample data of height and weight details from children till 18 years of age. Please
refer the below table for the same [Table 8.1].

Table 8.1 Child Z-Scores

Sr. No Age Height in inches Height in cm H/A Z-score

1 3 32 81.28 -3.63
2 4 33 83.82 -4.39
3 5 38 96.52 -3
4 5 37 93.98 -3.24
5 7 41 104.14 -3.32
6 8 49 124.46 -0.57
7 8 53 134.62 1.21
8 9 48 121.92 -1.8
9 9 48 121.92 -1.8
10 10 51 129.54 -1.5
11 10 42 106.68 -4.92
12 11 50 127 -2.45
13 12 55 139.7 -1.75
14 12 53 134.62 -2.1
15 12 54 137.16 -1.74
16 13 48 121.92 -4.66
17 14 64 162.56 -0.147
18 14 63 160.02 -0.477
19 14 65 165.1 0.73
20 15 57 144.78 -2.47
21 15 58 147.32 -2.1
22 16 57 144.78 -2.64
23 16 64 162.56 -1.35
24 16 69 175.26 1.86
25 17 54 137.16 -4.99
26 18 62 157.48 -2.51
Source: Household Survey

19
 Mean H/A Z-score= -2.067
Children are defined as stunted if their height-for-age is more than two standard
deviations below the WHO Child Growth Standards median. As per WHO, stunting is the
impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated
infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation.
The mean H/A Z-score of the above sample is -2.067 which tells us that children in Isora
village are moderately stunted.

8.5 Health Services

If we look at Chlorinate Well services, health worker visits once a week, doctor visits on
call and government official visits once a month. Services such as Malaria Eradication –
Spraying, Blood slides, Quinine Pills and Blindness Prevention & Cure are currently not
provided in the village on regular basis. However, are available on call service. Services such as
Immunization of children, Help Pregnant Women - Iron & Vitamin Pills, Deliver babies, Food
Supplements - For Breast Feeding Women and for Children, General Health Education, Family
Planning Education, Contraceptive Distribution and HIV-AIDS Awareness are provided by
health workers once a week, and doctors and government officials visit once a month for the
same.

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9. GOVERNANCE AND WELFARE PROGRAMS

9.1 Local Governance

Isora village has its own gram panchayat. The recent panchayat was constituted in 2017.
There is a seat reserved for woman candidate and OBC community for Pradhan. Also, there are
district and block seat reserved for both women and OBC community.

Isora has nine elected representatives in the current panchayat, one being woman out of
nine. The decisions regarding roads, street lighting, seasonal unemployment and school and
education are held by elected panchayat. Whereas decisions about sanitation and sewage,
irrigation facilities, electrification, credit and input subsidiaries for farmers, school and education
are managed by government officials at the block level. Drinking water is a major issue in the
village and decisions for the same are held by Gram Sabha.

The Gram Sabha holds only two meetings during a year. An average number of
attendants in the Gram Sabha meetings is around 10-12. Out of total people attending meeting,
all are males, there is zero female participation in the gram sabha. The villagers cited different
reasons for not attending meetings. Majority of the people stated that they were unaware about
the meeting, followed by issues seemed irrelevant to them and time barriers. The proportion of
the different reasons for not attending meetings have been shown in the figure below [Figure 9.2]

Figure 9.1 Gram Sabha meeting analysis

Reasons For Not Attending Meetings

5%

35%

60%

Unaware about the meeting Issues seemed irrelevant Time barriers

Source: Village and Household Survey

21
 9.2 Welfare Schemes
In Gram Sabha meetings, most frequently discussed issues are education, transport,
health and employment schemes. The government facilities and schemes regarding the health
issues discussed in Gram Sabha meetings is not available for the villagers. The few people who
attend meetings, they also attend it for the sake of information and participate only through
passive observation. It is evident that schemes regarding the issues which are never discussed in
the Gram Sabha meetings are yet out of reach for the people. Less discussed issues in Gram
Sabha meetings like street lightning, credit facilities, irrigation has resulted in an absence of
these facilities provided by the government. The important schemes that have been implemented
by the GP at the village level are discussed below:

a. Swachh Bharat Mission: 30 toilets are constructed so far under the Swachh Bharat
Mission in the village. INR 8000 to the OBCs has been granted for the construction of
the toilets in their houses. There are a few toilets have been constructed but they are
not functional. Even the ones who are functional are not used because people still
prefer open defecation. There is a need to bring behavioral change in the people to
bring out a permanent change.

b. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana: Over 60 households are benefitted from this scheme
which provides LPG connections to women from BPL families. Majority of the
benefits related to scholarship and Ujjwala schemes were received in the bank
accounts directly.

c. Ration cards: All the villagers have access to Public Distribution Store and ration
facilities under BPL card benefits. However, they do not get full benefits of it as PDS
store does not provide sugar and kerosene.

d. Other Programmes: Many other schemes like Integrated Child Development Scheme,
Scholarships, Midday Meal Scheme, Right to Education etc. are implemented by the
Isora GP. Based on the survey conducted, all the children of the village receive
scholarships provided to school kids. Children are provided Mid-Day Meals in
schools and also fee concession in private school under Right to Education act in
nearby private school. Likewise, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is prevalent but does not provide employment for
more than 20-25 days. Majority of children have bank accounts to avail the benefits
of the scholarship. The Gram Panchayat has failed in providing sewage system,
functions for climate change and green governance.

22
 9.3 Households’ Awareness and Access to Welfare Programmes
People are aware of the programmes relevant to them but no common awareness about
schemes. The applications and other related documents for getting scheme benefits are forwarded
to the Zilla Parishad and are verified there. As a result, people feel burdened by the legal
procedures and documentation process to access the schemes. However, they get the benefits of
government schemes on time and do not have to pay any additional amount to avail them.

23
10. SHOCKS AND COPING MECHANISM

10.1 SRADH Analysis

The people of Isora have been coping up with the shocks like rainfall variability,
lowering of water tables, increase in temperature, Crop loss, Health deterioration. These kinds of
shocks have reduced the agricultural productivity. If we look at the coping mechanisms adopted
by sampled household according to SRADH framework, no household has adopted Shrinking
mechanism. Three households have adopted Reduction and adaptation mechanism by reducing
their daily consumption and adjusting lifestyle. Plus, nine households adopted reduction and
diversification mechanism. The analysis of coping mechanisms adopted by households according
to SRADH framework is shown in the figure below [Figure 10.1].

Figure 10.1 SRADH Analysis

Source: Household Survey

Table 10.1 Strategy adopted by HH

Type of Farmer Reduction Adaptation Diversification
(3)

SMALL (3) Reduce Adapt

MEDIUM (1) Adapt

24
 LARGE (1) Adapt

LANDLESS (6) Reduce Diversify

Source: Household Survey

10.2 Coping Mechanism Framework Analysis

When a household has an idiosyncratic shock, then the immediate impact is generally
either income loss or asset loss or need for cash. Coping mechanism or responses to such events
depend upon the stress caused by the shock. If there is medium stress on the household then they
will cope up with the event by either using savings or migrating or involving in labor work or as
for the help from a relative/friend. We tried to map the same framework to our village and
similar kind of pattern was observed. Awareness of coping strategies also plays a major role in
deciding type of choices.

The village faced major problems like crop loss in the past year because of heavy rains,
for which they had to use a major part of their savings and relied heavily on borrowings from
relatives. Many of them also had to seek alternate employment opportunities like agricultural and
non-agricultural labor. Apart from collective distress, majority of the villagers didn’t face
individual discomforts like abrupt health problems and accumulated debts due to already
distressed conditions.

25
11. CLIMATE CHANGE AND VILLAGE AND HOUSEHOLD RESPONSE

Climate is a major factor on which most of the activities depends and if we talk of village
then their livelihood is majorly dependent on this factor or in a shorter run we can say on
weather. The weather in Isora village is mild, pleasant, and dry.

11.1 Households’ Awareness

The people in Isora are more aware of climate change. Majority of the households have
shown their concern about the significant change in the climate and have discussed how this has
affected their livelihood. Main climate change indicators listed by HHs are:
1. Increase in temperature
2. Consistently falling water tables and others
3. Consistently falling water tables
4. The decline in the quantity of monsoon rainfall

The scarcity of clean drinking water is the biggest inconvenience faced by people. Every
villager gets drinking water from tap in their houses but the water is not fit for drinking. With the
passage of time, the temperature in the summer is increasing. Due to various changes in the
environmental condition, the existing farming activities are in danger.

11.2 Green Governance

As all the households believe that climatic conditions are changing, so as to

improve village level activities and for the development of the village, we looked at green
governance. It shows if government provides villagers 1 lac rupees for various activities
what all activities will they undertake. Overall, villagers want to spend 26.19% of 1 lac in
groundwater recharging and RO plant installation activity, followed by 20.61% and
13.19% in the construction of solar & wind farm and convert the degradable waste into
bio-fertilizer related work respectively.

Almost every person is happily willing to contribute Rs. 5000 every five years towards
the village development, priority being drinking water and development of common water
bodies. Villagers are also willing to allocate their 100 hours per year as labor or provision of
technical expertise.

26
12. INCOME AND CONSUMPTION

12.1 Income
Isora village exclusively dependent on agricultural related activities. The major source of
revenue of people is farming, agricultural and non-agricultural labor work. From the data
collected, the sample mean income for non-agricultural wages was found to be approximately
Rs. 8,000 annually and for agricultural labor, it was approximately Rs.6,300 monthly. There are
only eight households who are self-employed in small businesses like a grocery store, tailoring
and repair shop. Leasing of the land concept is not present in the village and farmers don’t even
prefer to grow crops on someone else’s farm. Also, very few salaried workers are there in the
village and most of them work in government departments as ANM, Nurse or Teacher.

Farming activities are majorly done in Rabi and Kharif season. Crops grown in the Rabi
season are Wheat, Bajra, Black Gram, Onion and those grown in Kharif season are Cotton,
Groundnut, Tur Dal, Maize. Farming in Zaid season is usually not done due to the scarcity of
water. Labor wage rate in farming is around Rs. 200-300 per day.

12.2 Consumption
The consumption pattern noticed in the village is a function of the home produce. Bajra is
the staple crop of this village. Wheat is the second most consumed crop. Majority of the people
are involved in farm practices, each of these households cultivates groundnut, cotton, maize,
black gram, Jawar. People also cultivate vegetables in relatively smaller patches mainly for
personal consumption, otherwise, vegetables are generally purchased from the market in Talaja
leading to an average monthly expenditure of approximately Rs. 800-1000. Meat and fish
consumption are not there in the village. Villagers rely heavily on the food grains provided by
the PDS. A very small percentage of people, purchase food grains from sources other than the
PDS. Other than their usual –food habits, people also prepare various types of delicacies on
various festivals.

There is an excess consumption of milk and milk-based products in the village. Also,
people sell milk in the milk dairies. Lack of consumption of nutritious food is an immense
problem for the entire village which has led to stunted growth and malnourished bodies.
Villagers consumption of sugar is high. There is heavy consumption of tobacco and only a
substantial number of people consume alcohol. Majority of the income is spent on medical
facilities, education, functions/ceremonies etc. Books, stationery and newspaper paper expenses
are also taken care off and some of them even prefer to send their children to private school
instead of government school which costs them a lot of money. Village young generation is very
fond of bikes and hence the expenses on two-wheelers are present in almost 80% of the
household. Very few people in village like to go outside for any vacation or eating purpose so
they save money on such activities. Insurance facilities are also less prevalent and people of the
village also don’t have knowledge about it. So, they don’t prefer to spend money on such

27
facilities. Major part of income is spent only on those things which are needed to sustain or to
live a basic life.

Figure 12.1 Comparison of average monthly income and expenditure

Income and Consumption
120,000

100,000

80,000

60,000

40,000

20,000

0
Agricultural Casual Labour Small Farmer Medium Farmer Large Farmer
Labour

Income per month Expenditure per month

Source: Household Survey

We can see from the above figure [Figure 12.1] that agricultural labor, casual labor, and
small farmers are having less income compared to others and usually end up spending their
entire income. There is no saving done by them.

28
13. CONCLUSION

This stay in the village turned out to exceptionally insightful and completely
changed the assumptions we had about the village and rural life. Isora village has six
different type of castes and is majorly dominated by Brahmans and Koli community. As a
result, discrimination exists in the village. Agriculture holds an important place in the
lives of villagers. The gram panchayat in the village is not that effective. The benefits of
majority of schemes are not reaching to the needy. The people residing near the main road
are well off than the ones residing in small streets within the village. People are also not
very much aware about the government schemes. Many major schemes, like the Pradhan
Mantri Awaas Yojana (Gramin), Business support program, Ujala scheme etc., which are
successful across the country are yet to reach the village.

Daily commute is another major difficulty for the people due to the absence of proper
transportation and communication facilities in the village. The village does not have access to
buses or railway station. They use the local transportation Chakda for travelling. Even the
government subsidies are unable to reach to the villagers due to lack of knowledge and lack of
awareness. Poor education in the middle school is forcing the households to send their children
to private schools. Also, inaccessibility to health care facilities in the village has resulted in
higher expenses for the families.

Other Major issues related to the village are irrigation, employment, and drinking
water. The government intervention in providing irrigation facilities to the villagers can
help them in doing agriculture in three seasons. It will help in the reduction of
unemployment. The problem of drinking water can be tackled by spreading awareness
about cleanliness and purifying. Also, water can be saved with the help of rainwater
harvesting and other water conservation techniques. Malnutrition is also quite evident in
the village. The public distribution system here turns out to be a shelter for the general
public. It offers nourishment and non-sustenance things of fundamental necessity.

The villagers are still attached to their ethics and values which they have inherited
from their adults. Everyone in the village know each other by name and always willing to
help each other financially, socially or economically.

13.1 Business Plan

In Isora there is a lack of skills and employment opportunities which adds to the drudgery
of the people. Currently, demand for organically grown crops is on the rise, both in Isora and
nearby village. We suggest a NGO/firm to be established in the village for manufacturing
organic farming because there is demand for organic products in the market, higher cost of
inorganic fertilizers and pesticides. Plus, the required raw material production is available in the
village itself. The villagers can be provided training on producing organic products, agricultural

29
techniques, organic methods of crop cultivation and crop management to increase skill set and
provide employment. The following products can be offered:

1. Bijamrut: Used for seed treatment

2. Jeevamrit: Enhances the resistance of plants against pest attacks
3. Panchagavya: Promotes growth and provides immunity in plant system
4. Vermi compost Units
5. Neem Cow urine extract

This firm will provide job to at least 20-30 people. This will also help in attracting other
people to take part in the program and expand operations. Once the scale is achieved, we can
start selling to more villages and create a market for the products. The overall income level of the
villagers will increase with the help of this intervention. Eventually, the overall welfare of the
village will improve.

Table 13.1 Project Costing

Component Cost
Machine Rs. 50,000 per Machine (One Time)
Raw Material Rs. 20,000 per Month
Labor Cost Rs. 50,000 per Month
Packaging and Supply Rs. 15,000 per Month
Land charges 10,000 per Month
Total Cost per Month (Excluding Rs. 95,000
Machine Cost
Total Revenue Rs. 1,50,000 per Month
Total Profit Rs. 55,000 per Month
*Assumption

30
REFERENCES

1. Panchayat office
2. Block office
3. Census 2011 data
4. Organic Farming System - An Integrated Approach for Adoption under National
Horticulture Mission
URL: https://midh.gov.in/technology/Organic_Management_NHM.pdf (accessed
December 22, 2019)
5. Women's self-help groups, decision-making, and improved agricultural practices in India:
From extension to practice
URL: http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/Women's%20self-
help%20groups,%20decision-
making,%20and%20improved%20agricultural%20practices%20in%20India.pdf
(accessed December 22, 2019)

31
 Summary of RAC

Title: Strategies to augment women’s livelihoods and decision making through

institutional mechanisms

Isora is a village populated by 1900 people and 250 households, and consists a major
proportion of landless and marginal and small farmers. Under this project we tried to scrutinize
various variables that might contribute to the low socioeconomic status of the women. Our
objective was to propose an intervention strategy to financially and socially empower the women
of Isora village by thoroughly assessing their current status. Our approach towards the RAC
topic included a combination of primary, secondary research and designing the intervention. We
used stratified sampling method to gather a sample of 20 women of different caste, landholdings,
expenditure, age group and occupation. The team designed a thorough questionnaire consisting
of 50 questions so that our findings could project the following:

• The financial dependency of women on the male member

• Women’s decision-making power in productive resources and
• Women’s role in agricultural production

The questionnaire also aimed to reflect a woman’s as well as the male head of the
family’s view towards financial inclusion of women. In order to define women empowerment
from the rural perspective, we included a question regarding their view on women
empowerment. Apart from it, our primary research also includes basic family profile of 20
households. We have also explored the prospects of women’s unpaid labor and huge opportunity
cost involved as projected by the hours of work devoted on agricultural land and in the house
respectively. Our report is an in-depth analysis of various factors that lower the status of women
economically as well as socially. The team has interviewed the entire family of the respondents
to get a compiled version of perception about women in society from the perspective of
individuals of a household. Team also ensured to interview women individually so as to
eliminate any perceived threat/ hesitance in the presence of other family members.

The survey also included a section on Self Help Groups and on Menstrual Hygiene owing
to the unavailability of sanitary napkins within 10 km radius of the village. We have also referred
to an already existing case to roughly structure a livelihood intervention where the intervening
agency is proposed to be CSPC itself.

Based on the results of the survey, the team designed a livelihood intervention model that
aimed to include women in the process of production. The intervention is designed in such a way
that it caters to not just the resource-based approach towards development but also human based
approach, where women’s aspirations and skills are kept in mind to optimize the results.

32