School of Rural Management 
 

 
 

KIIT UNIVERSITY

BHUBANESWAR-24

VSS (Village Study Segment)

Place:-Dhrahar Yamuniya
Block: Dhamdha
Distt: - Purnia
State:-Bihar

Instructor: Prof. B.S. Mishra 

SRM, KIIT University 

SUBMITTED BY: 
Ajay Singh 

Jyoti Prakash 

Patanjali Kumar

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Introduction

Purnia District popularly known as a Poor Man’s Darjeeling.The district of Araria, Kathirhar

and Kishanganj were craved out from the Purnia district. Dharhar Yamunia is a village comes

under the Panchayat Mogaliya Purbandha (East). This village was established about 1920.

The village containing 690 households and which is situated at West of Kosi river. The

village comes under the district Purnia in Dhamdha block which is situated longitudinal 86

59’ 6" to 87 52 35"E and latitudinal 25 13.80" to 27 7 59" N. The total area of the district is

3,229 sq kilometere. The length and width of the district is north to south -23 KM and east to

west-48 KM. The Purnia district with Dharhar Yamunia is connected around its territory

with different districts-Araria district in north, Katihar & Bhagalpur district in south, west

Dinajpur district of west bengal and Kishangaqnj district of Bihar in east and Madhepura and

Saharsha District in the west. This village is situated at about 45 km from district headquarter

in the south direction and 10.30 km away from Dhamdha block. The population of the village

is 3656 with 1835 men and 1821 women and the sex ratio of this village is 965/1000. The

literacy rate of this village around 37.41% and male literacy rate is 43.11% while female

literacy rate is only 28.89%.and children literacy rate is 40.23% (out of 37.41%). Dharhar

Yamuniya village has 15 castes and most of the caste are belongs to backward caste. They are

from Hindu, Muslim, Christian religion and their own language is Hindi and speak “Santhali”

The area of this village is 1531 Acre in which 1030.50 acre is cultivated land. The land in this

region is invariably fertile due to natural resources. Mainly maize, wheat and rice are

cultivated in a year.

The political situation of any locality is very important one which decides the present and

future development and Dharhar Yamunia village is one of them. Development programme is

to be implemented by Village Panchayat with the approval of Gram Sabha. Some programme

is going like –NREGS, SGRY, PMGRY, IGAY etc. The infrastructure available to the
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village is not up to the mark and hence people feel like inept in order to take any initiative to

generate options for livelihood the reason being lack of monitoring and proper channel sing

of the government run projects along with the problem of lack of any private institutions

involved in this process.

Objectives

To know about the village from scratch and experience their style of living and experiencing

the thing is the major objective for our study in the village. Being a very new person for

village and the agricultural activities it is also our objective to feel the various domains of

rural lives viz. cultivation, lifestyle, local dynamics etc. Main approach for the village study

is as under-

i. To try and understand the livelihood systems of the village.

ii. To understand the village life and realities, particularly village poor.

iii. To try and understand the vulnerabilities in the rural production systems.

iv. To try to understand the significance & role of various institutions (Non Government

Organizations and Community Based Organizations) linked with the rural areas.

v. To blend classroom learning of rural management with the field experience.

vi. To develop plan for development of village.

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Geographical status (Dharhar Yamunia)

a. Longitude - Purnia District - 860 6" to 870 35"E

b. Latitude - Khagaria District -250 13" to 270 7"N

c. Area of Dharhar Yamunia - 1165Acre

Extended Length and Width of the Village

North to South – 3 KM

East to west - 1.5 KM

Purina is the Head quarter and sub division of Dhamdha block which is established Year-

10.05.1981 as per vide letter no.-07/T-01-207/79 dated 30th April 1981

Surrounded villages

North- Nipania village

South- Sanjha Ghat

East- Barena

West- Purnaedha Panchyat and Koshi (3 km)

Block- Dhamdha

Police station- Dhamdha

Post office and Garmin, Central and state Bank - Dhamha

Rainfall and Temperature-

Average rainfall- 1411.52 mm

Maximum temperature- 45.5 centigrade (June)

Minimum temperature- 8.8 centigrade (January)

Demographics of Dharhar Yamuniya

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This is about the demographic features of the population of Dharhar Yamuniya, including

population, density and education level, health of the population, economic status, religious

affiliations, and other aspect of the population.

Social classification of villagers

According to our survey out of total households, the OBC household: 233, ST household:

291, SC households: 141 and the general household: 6.Whereas, the village has 139 Muslim,

509 Hindu and 42 Christens households.

Caste wise classification of house holds

SC ST OBC General Total

141 291 233 6 690

20.43% 42.17% 36.52% .87% 100%

(Source: village survey

Religion wise classification of house holds

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Hindu Muslim Christian

509 139 6

79% 20% 1%

Source : village survey

Population

Total Population :- 3656

Total Male :- 1047

Total Female :- 951

Total Boys (up to 18 yrs) :- 788

Total Girls (up to 18 yrs):- 870

Sex Ratio: - 768/1000 (female/ male)

(source:- village survey)

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Language

Official: - Hindi

Spoken: - Santhali , Angika and Avadhi

CELEBRATION OF FESTIBLE IN THE VILLGE:-

In the Dharhar Yamunia village, Villagers celebrted the festivle like Holi, Chath Puja, Durga

Puja, Diwali ect. But they are also celebrated their own fesitvel is Sarhul. The most of the

people celebrted who belons to Aadivashi communityt or who those speak Santahli

language. They celebrated this festivble every year in the month of January but the one thing

is that the time and date of the celbration of this festivle fixed by the old people in the village

and before fixing the date of festible they all ensure that there was every one happy in the

village. This festivle carry one six days. They all had celebrated each and every day.

In the first day of the festible they went outside the villges mean all went to the field where

they killed the cook or hen and in the same day of the evenig all the house hold membre

made a food and ate there.

In the second day they made a PACHI (it is a kind of wine) , first of all they took a maize,

wheat, Rice after that they fried it well and then they mixed a Ranojan ( medicine) with the

help of it they leave of an hours. They will made it . The next day they celebrated a

KHUNTO DANGRA. In this festible they tied a ox in a tree and in the neck of the ox they

had also tied a some bread, mala and some money after taht they put a circle around the tree it

is called boundary it means those who will take the money. If the person was not able to took

the money all villages beat him and if they won they got all the money. Next day of the

KHUNTO DANGRA they went to the each household and carry alongwith the meat and

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murrhi and the next day all the male person went to the pond or river to caught the fish and

female also went to the river alongwith to collected the fish. In the last day of the festible

means on sixth day all the male membre in the family went to the forest ti kill the animals

like rabbit, mouse, owl,etc whatever they got. They killed each and every thing in the forest

which they found expected leave the man.In the same day of the evening they all are

celebrated this festible.

The main and important thing that we found that in the village was they all are using TIR –

DHANUSH to killed the animals.

(source :- focus group discussion)

Educational Status of Darhar Yamunia

Dharhar Yamunia is a village in the Dhamdaha Block of Purnia district. This is one of the

most backward village of this block. The major problem of the village is illiteracy. According

to our survey the overall literacy ratio of the village is 36.02%, where the adult male literacy

rate is 43.11% and adult female illiteracy rate is 28.89%. While talking about child education

the overall literacy rate is 40.23%.

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For child education, there are two schools, one is ‘Makhtab’, where 1st to 5th standard study is

available. The other school is ‘Sankul Madhya Vidyalaya’, which is a residential Government

school where 1st to 8th class is available. The school has aprox. 1100 students from the village

and the nearby villages, in which 52 students are living in the hostel.

Educational status of Dharhar Yamunia

Male Female Total Male Femal Child

literac e Literacy

y Rate Litera Rate

cy

Rate

Adult Child Adult Child

Literate Iliterate Literate Iliterate Literate Iliterate Literate Iliter 43.11 28.89 40.23

ate

449 598 342 446 201 750 325 545

1047 788 951 870 3656

Total: 1835 Total: 1821

The school has 11 teachers including of two assistant teachers. There are two cooks and one

security guard. Musical instruments and game equipments are also available for the student’s

entertainment.

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Male literacy rate- 43.11%

Female literacy rate -28.89%

Source:- village survey

STATUS OF LIESTOCK IN THE VILLAGES:-

In the villages, the condition of livestock was good there are total 1414 livestock includes

cow, calf, ox, poultary, others (pig). But they donot have any source of income from this,

they had used all these for eating purpose (not including ox) or gave them to her daughter as a

drowry. The average livestock per household is two. In the village people had more goat

because they thought that it can be cheap and easy to feed and it can also gave to his daughter

at the time of marriage as a dowary. After looking this we had suggested to improved the

goat rearing in the villages because the village has potential. The status of livestock in the

village is given below:-

Name of livestock Total no. Of livestock

Cow 308

buffalo 186

ox 99

Calf 166

Goat 520

Poultary 74

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Others (pig) 61

(Source: village survey)

AVERAGE INCOME & EPENDITURE OF THE VILLAGE

In the villages, the source of income of the villagers are agriculture, wages labour, salaried
job, migration, Business, some agricultural activitues and other some activities. most of the
villagers depend on the wages labour.

Average income of the house hold in the village:-

Agriculture : 23375

Wage Labour 10031.25

Salaried Job 3750

Livestock 0

Fishery 1500

Migration 13500

Bussiness 11325

Small Industrial 0

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Art and Craft 0

Forest Produce 0

Allied Agricultural 1950

activities

Others 156.25

Total Income of House 66425

Hold

Food Consumption 26410.42

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Clothing 2785.42
Fuel 1552.5
Toiletries and Cleanliness 2001.25
Transport 2980.42
Electricity/ Gernator 176.25
Housing 3313.54
Health Care 3418.67
Education 5381.25
Festivals/ religiois activity 3164.58
Socail Functions 493.61
Interest Payment 2070.83
Irrigation water 4276.04
Fertilizer 7056.25
Pesticides 717.5
HY Seeds 4179.17
Others 355.21
Total Expenditure of House Hold 70194.76
Average expenditure of house hold on various Items :

(Sourece:- vss questionair)

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Agricultural Profile

Agriculture is the main source of livelihood in this region. The land in this region is

invariably fertile and mainly wheat, Jute, Rice, Mung etc are cultivated in a year but maize in

this is cultivated twice in a year. Most of the farmers are used High Yielding Seeds (HYS) of

Maize, Wheat, Paddy etc. Most of the farmers using SWI method to increased their

productivity. This scheme is ran by Jeevika with the help of ASA but this scheme is only for

those person who have join the membership of SHGs. Whole agriculture here can be

classified in to three based on the season i.e. Kharif (aghani), Rabi and Garma. Primary

occupation of the villagers is agriculture and major crops are wheat, paddy, maize, mustard,

rai etc. Not much technology is involved in harvesting of crop or sowing of seeds. Ploughing

of land is done by tractors, some people still go for traditional ploughing. They believe that it

increases the fertility of the soil or few of them own the bullocks. Farmer in this area uses

both chemical as well organic fertilizers. They use very less pesticide, if it is necessary for

some crop in very low concentration. If we see the previous history of the village than we see

the occurrence of pest and weed is increased in last 15 year.

We have met with varieties of persons in village. People have strong acknowledgement of

benefits for using high yield seeds especially for the wheat, maize, rice, mustard and rai for

sustainable agricultural outcomes.

(Source :focus group discussion)

Crop cultivation

Crops And production

Corps periods Average Average Goverement Gross Net Profit

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Prooductio Expenditure rate (per earning (Per acre)

n (per 1 acre) 100kg) (per 1

(Per 1 In 100kg acre)

acre)

In 100 kg

Paddy August- 8 5,000 1,000 8,0000 3,000

November

Maize –I Oct- Feb 35 6,000 800 28,000 22,000

Maize-II March-June 35 6,0000 800 28,000 22,000

Jute June-Sep 8 4,000 1600 12,800 8800

Sunflower Nov.- 8 5,000 1400 11,200 6200

March

Wheat Nov-April 15 6,000 1200 18,000 12,000

(source :- focus group discussion)

NOTE:-

One more important Cash crop which they cultivated is Sugarcane but due to the closing of

the Banmankhi sugar mill, transportation problem resist them to produce Sugarcane.

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Period –( July-November )

Avg. Prod. 1 acre – 350 Quintal

Govt. Rate – Rs. 150 per Quintal

Expenditure – 10000 per acre

Earning – 52500 per acre

(Source :- focus group discussion)

Crop distribution is given in the above table. The total area for the cultivation in the village is

625.25 acre. The area under wheat, maize and rice cultivation is appox. 48% and other crops

contribute 52%.

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Land use pattern

Agricultural Land - 625.25 acre

Agriculturable Waste land - 225 acre

Horticulture land (tree Plantation) - 2.10 acre

Permanent Pasture Land - 173.9 acre

(Note-excluded approx 300 acre has covered by Kosi River).

Irrigation water

Ground water is an essential and vital component of our life support system. The Dharhar

Yamuina village is situated on the bank of Kosi river (3 kmfrom west of the village). It has

huge opportunity for the agriculture. Farmers use the water of the Kosi River for the

irrigation purpose, but it is limited to the fields that are nearby river. The ground water level

is available at the depth . And concentration of Iron in ground water is high in Dharhar

Yamuina village. Iron in an essential element for both plant and animal metabolism.Soil

development processes result in increase in iron content. And a large part of agriculture land

is irrigated by ground water. The farmers use this water for irrigation purpose by the help of

diesel pumping set, and bore well. In this area, Diesel pump set is more successful than other

source of irrigation. First time, it came in 1964-65. According to villagers, Bore well is also

the source of irrigation and it was used in 1973. The level of bore well is 110 ft.

Source:- vss questionair

Infrastructure

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The infrastructure available to the village is not up to the mark and hence people feel like

inept in order to take any initiative to generate options for livelihood the reason being lack of

monitoring and proper channel sing of the government run projects along with the problem of

lack of any private institutions involved in this process.

Roads: – Road to the Purnia (headquarter of district) was pakka from long back, but the

distance of the pucca road fom the village is 10.5 km apart, the condition of this road is very

bad. During rainy season the connectivity of the village with the town breaks. People can’t go

for their work in the town; it affects mostly the non-agricultural labourers. Roads in village

field are mostly kachha. With a little rain all the kachcha roads change into muddy one.

During summer these roads are full with dirt. The bricked roads available in village are not in

the good condition.

Electricity: – NOT Available in the village.

Communication: – Telephone service is not available in the village. Most people of the

house hold uses their own mobile phone. One is most important thing was that in the village

the people was a also a brand consensus. but poor still depend on the pay phones for

connectivity. One postman is deputed for the post delivery in the village.

( source:- vss questionair)

Social Infrastructures

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Education: – Education is particularly valuable as a strategic investment in human resources,

as the social returns are high. The education of boys and girls has a tremendous impact not

only on their own development, but also on that of their families and communities. In

Dharhar Yamunia village, there is a middle school which is up to 8th standard; one BMC

primary school and one Nav Sijrit Vidyalaya. We discuss about enrolment of new students,

caste-wise enrolment, No. of Teachers, Qualification of teachers & teacher to pupils ratio

(TPR) of middle school.

In the middle school there was 1500 student enrolled in the school where only 250 students

came to the school. In that school has the facilitues of hostel where 50 students live and learn.

The teacher student ratio is 60:1. In this school, there are 1500 students and10 teachers. No.

of students in a year and teachers are limited.

Health: – There is no proper facility for getting treatment inside the village. There is no any

primary health centre (PMC) and additional sub centre (ASC) but health sub centre (HEC)

are available for Medicare facility to the villagers but it is in very poor condition and no any

facilities and it is closed. The common disease among children is stomach related problem.

Major health problem of adult people ranges from TB, stomach ache, whooping cough,

malaria etc. For severe ailment they go to Block or district HQ. The child mortality is high in

the poor section of the society. Maximum child death is due to malnutrition and ignorance

due to poverty and work load. Maternal health is directly related to the income condition of

the family. In poor section of society where people struggle for their life women condition is

extremely pathetic. During rainy season maximum disease affects the rural people due to

dirty environment. It create suitable environment for several water born disease and malaria.

Sanitation: – Almost all villagers used to go to open toilet here. Several middle class and
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poor people don’t have toilet. Although rich people have toilet but they uses it rarely because

latrine is filled by water and soil in flood situation. The male members take bath at the tube

wells, whereas the female members take bath at separate closed set up at their respective

houses.

Drinking water: – There are 690 house hold in the villag and almost have own handpump

and some have dont have. They are used to others handpump fo fullfill their needs.The hand

pump situated in the different part of village which is used by the villagers for drinking

purpose. There are 3-4 tube well but some of the tube well are in condition and used for

drinking and rest are used for agriculture purpose. Quality of water is average; there is high

iron content in the drinking water.

Local economy

Employment & Livelihoods

In Dharhar Yamunia villages, the villagers are involved in different occupation. In this

village, most of the occupation is based on the agriculture. Whatever, the farmers produced in

the field; they direct to the market of Purnia. But on the larger scale they sell to the Bajar

samiti. Here seems that middle man is also play an important role for marketing the

agriculture products. Some villagers have their small business like-Kirana(General) shops,

Barber shops ,Mistri, Readymade cloths etc. In the village there was a milkman who sell the

milk while other usesd only for eating purpose. Their businesses are mainly to sell the milk.

The cost of selling of one liter milk is around Rs. 15-20. Landless farmers work as a labour

on other land for different agricultural practices like irrigation, sowing, preparation of land,

weeding, fertilizing, harvesting, picking and grading of the product. Wages provided to the

labour vary with sex, number of hours of working and type of work. Most of the villagers

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went to the Delhi, Punjab, Kerla to sustain their livlihood where they get 3,000-4,000 per

month.

Market linkage

Villagers in dharhar yamuniya, whatever their products as well as services have direct link

with near Purnia, Dhamdha, and local market. But on the larger scale for the agriculture

product, they have went to the middle man to shold their product.

Market Place in Dharhar Yamunia.:-

In this village, there was total wekly three hatt held in the village or around the village, one

on Tuesday and Saturday and another is on thrusday and Sunday. The weeekly hatt held in

Barena which is 1-2 km away from the dharhar Yamunia village . In the hatt every person in

the village went to the hatt and brought they whatever they want. Its a loacal hatt where some

vendor came here and shold their items and the cost of the items are much higher than the

other market place. In my experiance i went to the hatiya alongwith shankulta didi she is

localite of that palce to purchased some vegitable like patota , cabbage etc after that i also

went to the local market which is 10.5 km away from the village , we found that the price of

such items are much higher. In the there was also a medicine shope where a children sold

some medicine, the boy who had sold the medicine was not much qualified he was matric

passed and he does not have any medicine licsened. But the quality of the medicine was

good. There was also a some carpanter and some local shop who shold there items.

Rural entrepreneurship status and scope

The main source of livelihood for the villagers is agriculture almost entire village population

directly or indirectly depends upon the agriculture. The people belonging to agricultural

activity are generally involved in the activities like cultivation of land, wage labour, and

livestock rearing. The village consists of 12 shops which include cloth shop, medicine shop,

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pan shops and grossary shops. There are rice and wheat flour mills present in the village. Due

to lack of local village market which is best source of local economy, villagers are also facing

problem. Salaries job holder, washer man, barber, quake, daily labour, artisan, carpenter,

money lender, milk seller, dairy co-operative, straw mill are other source of economy in that

village.

(Source :- focus group discussion)

Scope of entrepreneurship:

• There is the scope for making the flour of the maize.

• There is no big private agency in agriculture sector for disseminating the key market

information, and for supplying inputs.

• Cottage industries can provide a good scope of entrepreneurship for the women especially

the SHG women.

• There is a scope for forming cooperative for the villagers for selling all their produce which

they produce in their fields, like vegetables and grains.

• As there is a good scope of fish cultivation the village and particularly the youth can have a

source of business in this sector.

Political and governance systems

Panchayat

The political situation of any locality is very important one which decides the present and

future development. The democratic nature of Indian politics speaks lot about the belief of

people on their leaders. The leaders have their great influence over public. The Dharhar

Yamunia village is very good example for the democratic system of the politics, according as

the local leaders in this locality before the elections of PRI (2006), this area was greatly

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affected by the naxalites; there was no peace in the village. Now the problems regarding the

naxalites are almost gone. According as one of the villager now all the people of village are

working together to achieve the sustainable development of the village. Generally it was

observed that in Gram Panchayat, Sarpanch and Mukhiya don’t work together. But Amni is

one example where Sarpanch and Mukhiya participate in all the activities related to the

development and judgmental process.

Government Scheme

NERGS –

NREGA is designed as a safety net to reduce migration by rural poor households in the lean

period through a hundred days of guaranteed unskilled manual labour provided when

demanded at minimum wage on works focused on water conservation, land development &

drought proofing. Objective of this guarantee yojana is to generating and obtaining for

employment within the time specified of fifteen days and works are started where and when

there is demand for labour and to ensure the rural households’ families are identified. Under

the scheme, information of Dharhar Yamunia is given below:-

Total House hold in the village:- 690

Total Population of the village:- 3556

Total No. Of house hold have Job card: - 56 (NAREGA)

Indra Awas Yojana-

Objective-

¾ To provide housing facility to the family of the rural poor.

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There are 226 families benefited in which 180 families are SC, in Dharhar Yamunia village

and these families are to be chosen from the list of homelees families living below poverty

line in open meeting of Gram Sabhas. 60 % of the resources available under this programmed

are reserved for SC and ST families.180 benefited families are SC. Rs. 22,000 has to be

provided for construction of new houses and RS. 10000 have to provide for converting mud

houses into bricks concrete houses.

Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY)-

AAY-The poorest of the poor households from the BPL are provided foodgrains (Wheat at

Rs. 2/- per kg and Rice at Rs.3/- per kg) under this scheme. Under this scheme initially,

beneficiaries was given to the State and accordingly ration cards were issued to the

beneficiaries, and subsidised food grains are being distributed to them 2001.

Extension of AAY- Under this scheme, beneficiaries are identified as per the instructions of

Government of India with priority to widows and single women, handicapped, terminally ill

persons, landless labourers, marginal farmers, rural artisans, daily wage workers, destitute

families and all primitive tribe families. The State Government has issued ration cards to

these beneficiaries and subsidised food grains are being distributed to them from March,

2005. Thus, presently 375 families are covered AAY and 35 Kg food grains per month

[Wheat at Rs. 2/- per kg and Rice at Rs.3/- per kg] are supplied to them.

Mid day scheme-

The Mid-day Meal Scheme is the popular name for school meal programme. It involves

provision of lunch free of cost to school-children on all working days. The key objectives of
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the programme are: protecting children from classroom hunger, increasing school enrolment

and attendance, improved socialisation among children belonging to all castes, addressing

malnutrition, and social empowerment through provision of employment to women. In

Dharhar Yamunia Middle School, Rs. 2.12 lakh was sanctioned for mid day meal programme

till Dec. 2008. Rs. 1.11 lakh are sanctioned in which Rs. 60,000 are for student of upper

middle classes (VI-VIII).

Old age pension yojana-

Under National Old Age Pension Scheme, Central Assistance is available on fulfillment of

the following criteria

• The age of the applicant (male or female) should be 60 years or more.

• The applicant must be a destitute in the sense that he/she has no regular means of

subsistence from his/her own source of income or through financial support from family

members or other sources.

The amount of old age pension is Rs 100 per month. This scheme is implemented in the State

and Union Territories through Panchayats.

Annapurna

A new scheme called Annapurna has been recently initiated by the Government of India

under which free food grains up to 10 kg per month will be provided to such destitute older

persons who are otherwise eligible for old age pension under the National Old Age Pension

Scheme but are not receiving it and whose sons are not residing with them. However, it is yet

to be implemented.
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(Ministry of Rural Development with the assistance of Ministry of Food and Civil Supplies

Short term (Immediate/1 year) and Long term (5 year) village development

plan

Long term-

To increase assistance to the poorest people, through food aid and income support. In long

term plan, village needs to invest in raising agriculture productivity to help meet the

branching demand for food and thereby reduce the pressure on the food price.

Requirement of high school-

Requirement of Dam-

Short term-

Short-term action is needed to provide small farmers with access to seeds, fertilizers and

credit.

Better plan for sanitation-

Better Road connectivity-

Requirement of Primary school in Mushahari tola-

Management plan for home food storage during emergencies like flood-

Necessities of a starch factory in same locality. 

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