Aatam Manthan-2   

Rehli block Sagar ( MP)

HARIT PRAYAS Review meet in village

The concept of AAtma manthan – 2 was to see the change that has taken place in the Bundelkhand region by Harit Prayas. It started with a new concept of conducting the “Review meet” in the village. For the first time in the history of Caritas India any Review Meet has taken place in any of its project villages. Review meet was scheduled in Sagar District at Jamghat panchayat of Rehli block. We were supposed to say in a primary school of Jamghat village which was near at the center of the Project area. The reason behind this Review meet was to feel the “Real Rural India” closely and which actually happened with the involvement of PRI members and the community of village.

We started our first day event with discussion on the works that were done in the respective project villages of the partner Diocesan organizations and then on the same day we went to see two project villages of Harit Prayas namely Kadatha and Juna. In Kadatha we discussed on the issue of including women in the Farmer’s club membership and empowering women to do sustainable agriculture practices, we also discussed the importance of inter-loaning in Mahila Mandals and initiated them to do collective farming. In Juna we discussed on the issue of practices in Organic farming with a farmer who is doing organic farming in all his land by the initiation of Harit Prayas. We were able to interact with the PRI members of village and we discussed on the issue of work that has taken place under MNREGA. At night we had a discussion among our team and with the community on the issue of “Gunghat System” prevailing in most villages and on the various other prospect of the village.

Next day we started our village visit in two more project villages of Harit Prayas named Semra Gond and Samnapur Kala. In Semra Gond we had a discussion on importance of organic farming and various other tools and technique that can be involved in doing improvised organic farming. We also discuss on the need of doing savings with the Farmers club and empowering the women to speak in front of men. The best part of the village was Mahila Mandal and Farmers club were sitting together discussing with us different issues of village. In Samnapur Kala we saw total support of PRI members to the Farmer’s club and Mahila Mandal both the Secretary and the Sarpanch of the village was their during the meeting, they shared the MNREGA work in the village and how they are hand in hand with Harit Prayas team trying to provide benefits to villagers. An important achievement that we saw of Harit Prayas field was availability of CFL in the village an initiative that is taken to save energy and to reduce the cost of electricity for the villagers.

When we came back we shared our experience of entire 4 project village and what are the measures that needs to be taken to make this Harit Prayas project successful. At night we had a rejubinating cultural programme from the other partner NGOs and from the community of jamghat which was worth to see. The most important thing about this village stay was to feel the true India, we ate what they were eating, we slept how they are sleeping, we drank the same water which they were drinking. The only reason for this two days village Review meet was to feel the sufferings and trauma that they suffer regularly and this was important to take measures and make Harit Prayas impactful.

By MVSS-Sagar HARIT PRAYAS team