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An instance of Rural Development in India: A Case Study of a Model Village

Hiware Bazar, Maharashtra

Article  in  Journal Of Rural Development · November 2020

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Ayan Roy Chowdhury

Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur
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Instance of Rural Development in India: A Case Study of a Model
Village Hiware Bazar, Maharashtra

AYAN ROY CHOWDHURY

MURP, 2nd Semester

Rural Development and Planning (AP6222)

IIEST, Shibpur

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 Contents

Abstract..............................................................................................3

Introduction.......................................................................................4

Process of planning for village development .................................5

Present condition of the village .......................................................5

Process of transformation of the village .........................................8

Features of Change Process .............................................................9

Leadership, Hurdles and Issues ....................................................10

Conclusion .......................................................................................11

References ........................................................................................13

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Abstract
In this seminar paper instance of a village development in India has been
described briefly which have earned a reputation for themselves as model village
with multi-faceted development. Hiware Bazar, situated in the Ahmednagar
district of Maharashtra is India’s model village. The village with the highest GDP
in the country. The process of Self-governance was discussed in the Indian
Constitution where power of rural communities were decided by states through
elected panchayats for future economic and all round development of the village.
By involving people in participatory planning the development is carried out by
the elected representatives along with their Panchayat staff. At various parts of
the country in last 10 years number of panchayats by involving the village
people has progress further about the planning for their villages which
transformed their villages into prosperous, well- endowed and democratic
communities. I n c a s e o f Participatory planning all village dwellers were involved
along with dedicated leadership of village leaders and village elders.
Systematic implementation of projects and voluntary involvement we r e
i mp l i e d .
This seminar paper deals with a case study of a village named Hiware Bazar situated
in Maharashtra which were among such village which have transformed a lot
from water-scarcity, poor and deserted villages and schools to economically
energetic, environmentally stable and socially cohesive communities. It has
become the models for participatory village governance and development
planning. This village shown that with united efforts and some key initiatives, all
Panchayats across the country just by involving and working together with their
communities can also establish such transformations in their own villages in a few
years.

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Introduction
In 1972 village Hiware Bazar was largely hit by drought and after that the
condition of the village getting downwards day by day as the wells were dried
and water scarcity took place. Situated in the rain shadow area of the Western
Ghats, the village receives erratic and uneven rainfall of less than 400 mm. This
resulted in the formation of uncultivated lands and there is hardly any source of
income. The consequences of this was depression, alcohol addiction that results
in low efficiency of workers, domestic violence, and migration. During 1989-90,
less than 12% of the cultivable land was under cultivation. The wells of the village
used to have water only during the rainy season. As there was huge
unemployment the village habituated in making, drinking and selling country
liquor. Every family of the village were suffering from these issues. Problems
boost up as there was no support or governance in the village. Moreover the
under-performing government officials were posted in the Hiware Bazar Village.
Earlier there was a small school in the village with only two rooms and after 4 th
grade the students had to travel 7 kms for their study. Due to lack of proper
sanitation and water, the health facilities were hardly available. Child mortality
was a regular phenomenon in this village. As a result, most of the families fled to
Pune, Mumbai and other nearby cities in search of new life. But at the end in 1989
one leader with his friends began to tackle the problems, along with his village
people, systematically and energetically. Their target is to make the village fertile,
prosperous, happy, well-endowed and beautiful village that everyone in India
dreams of. One leader, working together with all others in the village, changed it
back to a vibrant, lush, and green with well- supported community, and with all
facilities and amenities.

Location of Hiware Bazar

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Process of planning for village development

The process of village development planning in Hiware Bazar involves

identifying the current problems in the village and finding out some ways to solve
them. It also involves identifying the future desired goals and systematic ways to
achieve them.
In general the process of village planning must be directed towards meeting the
basic life needs of all the – safety and security of persons and their possessions,
housing, water, sanitation, electricity, roads, transport and communication
facilities, livelihoods, education and health facilities. The process of village
development and planning is based on the successful processes of local self-
governance, village planning and development by a number of Panchayats across
the country.
A postgraduate son of a village named Popatrao Pawar gave up his cricket career
in Pune and came back in Hiware Bazar in 1989 to create positive transformation
in the village.

Present condition of the village

In last 15 years the average income of the village has risen up to 20 times from
Rs 832 to Rs 24000. Each village residents earns almost double the average
income of the top ten percent of the rural population of India. The villages has
now the place of 54 millionaires. The number of wells has increased to 217 from
97 as well as the irrigation land which has increased from 120 ha to 300 ha.
Farmers grow at least three crops in a year sometimes four with a past experience
of one unreliable crop a year following the rules of crop rotation and abandoned
the use of water-intensive crops, and instead vegetables, pulses, flowers and fruit
that use less water were grown. Grass production has increased drastically from
100 metric tonnes to 1000 metric tonnes in just 4 years (2000-2004) due to the
ban on open grazing. The villagers started focusing on cattle farming, results in
an increase in milk production which further produces large revenue. Back in the
mid-90s, about 150 litres of milk were produced per day, and today milk
production has increased to 4000 litres per day. In 1992 there were 180 families
in the village standing below poverty line and surprisingly now there are no such
families under B.P.L category according to the sarpanch of the village Popatrao
Pawar. The village has potential to tackle any kind of challenge launched in their
way by Nature or man-made. Slowly and steadily the village documented growth
and prosperity which results in reverse migration.

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 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12
Total rainfall (mm) 427 387 199

Total available water 417 378 194

From available water, exclude:

Total runoff 31 23
Evaporation loss 146 132 68
Runoff +Evaporation (% of available water) 42 41 35

Remaining water is in:

a) Surface water storage 21 19 10
b) Ground water recharge 42 38 19

c) Soil moisture 125 113 58

d)Artificial groundwater recharge 52 53 29
Actual available water for use (a+b+c+d)
240 223 116
Required water for village (e+f+g) 234 211 110

e)Drinking water need (human & cattle) 4 4 3

f) Agricultural needs 226 203 104

g) Water needs - other uses 5 4 2

Surplus/Reserve water 5 12 6
Water Budget in Hiware Bazar

In low rainfall years, water for agriculture is adjusted. To aid crop planning, the
village has evolved rules-of-thumb.
Rainfall (mm) Allocation
< 100 Drinking water only
100-200 plus kharif crop
200-300 plus rabi crop
> 300 plus summer crop
Source: Hiware Bazar panchayat

Quality of life in the village also grown up remarkably and the villagers now
started to live in bungalows rather than small huts which costs them Rs 5- 6 lakhs
,moreover some reports claim that some bunglaows were built by professional
architects. The village has underground drainage facility and it has improved in
various ways like solar light, gymnasium, open air auditorium, piped water
supply, primary healthcare centre, veterinary clinic, schools, nursery, community

6
centre, and library. A college is also present in this village apart from number of
schools .The literacy rate is 100% and the village also aiming to achieve 100%
computer education in schools now as well as in the whole village near future.
The village is the home of 270 motorbikes, 25 four wheelers and 17 tractors where
as in ‘80s it had only one motorbike. No family in the village is without TV and
telephone.
Hiware Bazar is also socially exceptional. For only two Muslim family in the
village the society has contributed to create a mosque for them. Only two
households has landlessness issue and all others resides in pakka houses showing
signs of equity. The village has their own rules of conduct and if anyone perform
some crimes then the matter were internally solved by the villagers in presence
of the sarpanch. From basic understanding it can be said that if police are involved
then it will complicated the scenario and distort the record of the village.
Moreover the community also donated for the victims of Tsunami and Kargil war.
Communal hand pumps were set up at various public places in the village to
expand drinking water provision to the houses without private connections or
wells. The Gram Sabha decided to revoke the sale of village land to the outsiders
and gave first priority to the landless villagers to purchase the land. With share
cropping and loan assistance measures, they managed to own a land.

Landholding Size Number of Percentage of

(ha) Household household
Landless 0 22 11
Marginal <1 29 14
Small 1-2 40 20
Semi-Medium 2-4 61 30
Medium 4-10 37 18
Large 10+ 16 8
Total 205 100
Distribution of Land Holdings at Hiware Bazar in 2002 -2003
Source: Equity in Watershed Development by Priya Sangameswaran

Overall the village is neat and clean where every home has toilet and each house
uses biogas. Environmental conservation and sustainability includes organic
farming and substantial energy are derived from biogas and solar sources. The
degraded forests and private lands were revived in past 20 years by planting 35
lakh trees. The village also has a patch of land where 100 types of plant species
are preserve and the forest serves as a living place for flora and fauna.
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Process of transformation of the village
The process of transformation is not an immediate effect but a step by step effort
of the whole community of the village and of course the sarpanch Popatrao Pawar.
The journey begins when Popatrao came back to his village gave up his potential
career in the city in 1989 and started to teach people the bad effects of liquor
thereby boosting up the overall environment of the village. He tried and succeed
with the help of local youth to stop vice and conflict among the villagers, liquor
shops, gambling places. The first priority which the villagers set by themselves
includes safe drinking water, irrigation water, employment, education and health.
Water scarcity, the issue which was first addressed and a percolation tank was
constructed in 1972 under drought relief work under the supervision of a wrestler
who resides in the village. But in 1982 some repair works of the tank has been
done which was not fruitful as the water demand was still high. In 1993 Popatrao
Pawar decided to resolve this issue from the grassroot level with the help of some
youthful friends after inspired by the work of Anna Hazare in Ralegaon Siddhi.
To tackle the chronic problem of water scarcity they works as voluntary unpaid
labour to build 4, 20,000 back to back contour trenches on 70 ha forest area along
the hill near to Hiware bazar with afforestation to execute the watershed
development and afforestation programme. The works which were undertaken
in the programme are as follows:
 Construction of deep Continuous Contour Trenches (CCT),
 Construction of percolation tanks
 Widening and deepening of drain beds
 Construction of cement storage tanks
 Plantation for soil and water conservation,
 Adoption of Chloride Mass Balance method.
All these works were implemented through Employment Guarantee Scheme
(EGS). It was the labourers from the village itself who built the structures
thereby improving their livelihood.
Moreover the adjacent wells were recharged and the irrigation land increased to
70 ha from 20 ha and as a result of that there was 50 % water surplus in the village
by 2006 and the water table in the village rose from 70-80 feet to 20 to 25 feet.
The next step was the rejuvenation of the poor functioning village school. The
educational administration appointed teachers at the village schools as a
punishment posting which results in little learning and poor functioning of the
school. Together with the youth, Popatrao managed to take a hard step by locking

8
the schools for two months pressurising the administration to assign good
teachers and a positive outcome took place. Later in few years some strong steps
were also taken by the youths of the village regarding the extension of the school
building, monitoring of the schools. They donated their own lands and works as
a voluntary labourers to improve the standard of the education and environment
of the village school.
In 1994, Adarsh Gram Yojona of the Maharastra government included Hiware
Bazar and under this program about 52 earthen dams, 2 percolation tanks, 33
loose stone bunds, nine check dams in a series on the downstream nallah were
build. All of these were achieved by the imposition of seven rules - Donation of
labours, Ban on defecation, Ground Water Management, Family Planning,
Ban on Liquor, Ban on open Grazing, and Ban on cutting trees.

Donation
of labours
Ban on
cutting Ban on
trees defecation

Ban on
7 Rules Ground
open Water
Grazing Management

Ban on Family
Liquor Planning

7 rules in Hiware Bazar

Features of Change Process

The comprehensive and organised involvement of the society is confirmed
through everyday meetings where consultative and participatory methods used
for decision making of course with a strong leadership as a start-up factor. Every
condition of the development planning were discussed, well precised, decided

9
together, and utilized with shramdaan on daily basis which were controlled by the
Gram Sabha which shows the transparency and continuous engagement of the
society. Every decision are taken by the sarpanch after consulting with the adults.
Any suggestions with no exceptions from the children, are welcome from
everyone. One girl suggests to introduce the HIV tests for the couples before
marriage which was successfully implemented.
Resources were secured from the past years initiatives from the government
projects which includes watershed development programs, Drought prone Area
programme, Rural Sanitation, Women’s Welfare programme and others. After the
community based combined effort in the village development, individual increase
in resources has increased but surprisingly no loan has been taken from the
government and benefits of the subsidies were not implemented. This shows the
principle of Self-reliance. Moreover the Schedule caste population has not been
allowed to enjoy any subsidiary scheme which eliminates the concept for
discrimination.
During the “Ganpathy Utsava” the community of the village arranged one idol
instead of each in different places which proves the strong cooperation.
‘Samodayik khetri’ is the another example of cooperation and social bonding
where two or three families work together in each other’s farm which solves the
issue of labour unavailability , high wages of the manual labourers and long
distance.

Leadership, Hurdles and Issues

A true leader masters in this transformation process to be the long standing
sarpanch Mr Popatrao Pawar whose level of education and leadership abilities
matches with some social leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jayprakash Narayan,
Anna Hazare and others. He not only gained all youths and friends support
initially but his early career, success and participatory skills resulted in a position
of respect and leadership in the society. Even the elders of the village
acknowledged him for his capabilities. Mr Pawar represented India in the
international conferences which include SAARC and gave his speech at several
university and colleges. He became member of some committees involving
developmental activities in India. He has been the government advisor for the
replication of water shed programme in the state of Rajastan and Andhra Pradesh.
Moreover number of visitors from foreign countries spend time in this village and
examined the model of self-reliance and self-sustained.

10
However the intense opposition from the residents and political interference were
faced by Pawar at the beginning. Re-afforestation and systematic wasteland re-
generation became the tool for Pawar’s success and a positive relation has grown
between the Forest department and the village. However this relationship building
took time and constant effort. The entire 70ha forest land now is under the
responsibility of the villagers. With villager’s determination and effort made the
forest department in 1994, to bring the Joint Forest Management (JFM)
programme to the village. Application of strict rule produce visible results.

Conclusion
When wealth increases in Hiware, Hiware visitors can experience changes in the
habitants' lifestyles. Hiware has adopted a one-child policy per family. Not only
are births down, but it has almost completely eliminated the preference for male
children. There are also shifts in consumption habits, in addition to increasing
literacy and health. While nearly all the farmers in Hiware carry their milk by
bicycle to the dairy, a few are now coming by motorcycle. The first cars reached
the village, which would soon be followed by more. This slow but steady
transformation of this small village's metabolism is representative of a change
that will soon cover much of rural India.
Moreover the notion of investing in natural assets has significant consequences
for the rural poor's future prosperity in other Indian villages. Also essential will
be investment in the development of renewable energy and water supplies. Better
alternative is seen in some households in Hiware where they use biogas plants for
lighting and cooking. The government should subsidise the construction of biogas
plants in rural areas, leading rural India up the energy ladder but using renewable
energy instead of developing a dependence on non-renewable energy sources.
Biogas plants have the added advantage that the waste from manure can also be
used as fertilizer.
Another Hiware lesson relates to the potential supply of water in India. Hiware’s
water auditing system in particular has important lessons concerning the concept
of virtual water which is about the water needed to produce a commodity
throughout its whole life cycle, be it a grain crop or a hamburger.
The watershed development program in Hiware Bazar was carried out through
Yeshwant Watershed Development Trust and was successful as all stakeholders
including the citizens, NGOs, Gram Sabha, Gram Panchayat and the state
government came together. As regards water conservation and water

11
management, this is a remarkable case in point. The result obtained through the
program speak for themselves as the village's water table rose from 70-80 feet to
20-25 feet, appropriate crop pattern change was brought about and living
standards improved considerably due to economic stability. The program proved
particularly beneficial for farmers who were able to construct additional
structures for water storage. The resulting availability of good quality pasture
resulted in increased dairy farming and subsequent milk yield increases. The tale
of Hiware Bazar is one of the few in India where reverse migration was observed,
and people who had left impoverished returned.
But what distinguishes the Hiware Bazar story is the willing and unceasing Local
group engagement, and related attempts to improve people's attitudes. Even this
watershed protection plan meant that citizens who would not directly gain would
prosper as well. The role of the farmer leader of Hiware Bazar village Shri
Popatrao Pawar, around whom the entire community rallied to bring about the
transformation, is inseparable from the accomplishment. Indeed, the once
impoverished Hiware Bazar village has made some major steps in several fields
including agriculture, development of village infrastructure, conservation of the
environment, development of dairy products, livelihoods, sanitation, and water
management. With water crises in the country deepening, India needs to replicate
initiatives such as Hiware Bazar to ensure holistic sustainable development.

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 References

http://jalshakti-dowr.gov.in/sites/default/files/HiwareBajar-NGO-072018.pdf

https://www.vknardep.org/newsletter/2019/oct19/oct_19_newsletter.pdf

https://archives.tpnsindia.org/index.php/sipn/article/view/6362/6139

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/hiware-bazar--a-village-with-54-millionaires-4039

https://www.godrej.com/Resources/uploads/pdf/636316595908169544_Popat-Rao-Pawar.pdf

https://www.undp.org/content/dam/india/docs/DG/preparation-of-manual-for-
planning-integrated-village-development.pdf

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