Local Member of Legislative Assembly, Makarand Patil in discussion with Jayashree Rao and Abhay Shah at GrampariGrampari, the village and environmental development initiative at Asia Plateau, Panchgani, the IofC centre in western India, celebrated 127 newly elected Gram Panchayat (village local government) leaders. Of the 24 Sarpanches (village heads) attending the celebration, 13 were women. They were joined by 21 Upa-sarpanches (Deputy Sarpanches) on Friday 17 September for a meeting presided over by Shri Makarand Patil, Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) of the area. Among them were 30 women elected to all levels in the Gram Sabha, the smallest unit of governance under the Indian constitution.

Grampari was set up to address the twin issues of poverty and climate change by empowering rural communities to drive change and by demonstrating environmental best practice. It runs training programmes on leadership at the village level, empowering local women leaders and offering skills training to youth

Thanking IofC and Grampari for the unique work being done for the villages Patil explained that the sirpanch and the grampanchayat had more powers than even the MLA and that they should be aware of it and exercise it for the uplift of their villages. His own political career started from the level of Sarpanch. “The position you have been elected to is not just to enjoy the honour, power and respect it brings with it. But it is an opportunity to work village”, he said and informed that Satara district will soon qualify to be declared as a ‘Nirmal Zilla’ or ‘clean district’ denoting that each home in the district will have its own toilet or everyone will have access to proper toilets. He referred to his visit to the ‘MRA Centre’ as a school boy and whilst he had admired the buildings and the beautiful vegetation, he had not understood what went on in it. Now he was glad to learn about IofC and Grampari from close quarters. .

Recently elected leaders at Grampari meeting for their felicitationSix of the leaders present had participated in Grampari’s first training programme early last year. Ashok Mandre had taken the decision then to close down the three liquor shops in his village of Abhaypuri. Promptly on returning to the village, with the help of a large section of the village he managed to get the owners of these liquor shops to close down the shops. He confirmed that the liquor business in the village still remains closed. He had come with his wife, a newly elected sarpanch, who was also honoured. .

Film on Kaldare clean-up.

Two ‘Gram Sevaks’ (village workers appointed by Government) spoke of the changes that had comes to the villages because of the training at Grampari. “On coming to Grampari, I changed myself’” declared one of them, “it helped my family too –not only the village. Whenever you ask us, we come here with pleasure, because we do not get this kind of training anywhere else, and we go to many other places for training.” .

A short film showing the transformation of the village of Kaldare was shown and Ankush Parkande, many times saranch, spoke of the strategy he used to inspire ‘shram dan’ (contribution of physical labour) from the opposition: he personally would go with his friends to the area of the opposition and start cleaning and doing up the roads there. Then without any resistance everyone, irrespective of what party they belonged to, would pitch in to work in any part of the village building roads, cleaning-up storm water drains and so on. This time when a lady stood against him for the election, he withdrew from the race. This defeat does not make any difference to his support to and cooperation with the new leadership. He has the firm conviction that it is the will of the local people and not the Government schemes that can bring in development to the villages. .

Ashok Kadam, former sarpanch of Malatpur, had worked hard to organise the meet. Instead of garlands to honour the leaders each one was presented with a hand-made cotton bag and a book on environment. Lunch was served at the newly installed stone tables and benches in the open area..

Women decide to meet regularly

During the sessions after lunch several offered to come to help whenever there were programmes at Grampari. On the suggestion of one of the lady sarpanches all the ladies decided to meet regularly once a fortnight at Grampari on a Friday. They will also work to organise a 3-day workshop. Abhay Shaha, one of those responsible for Grampari, said this would help them understand their needs and plan to meet them. .

One of the highlights of the meet was a presentation by a remarkable young American couple, Jarad and Sowmya. Jarad is an expert on water management with a doctorate in the subject and Sowmya on sanitation. They started an NGO in the USA which now has 400 volunteers. The couple have been helping people in some of the least developed parts of Africa on water management, health and other related matters. Their dedication is inspiring. They have made Grampari their base for the next year to work in the villages of the area to help the villages become self-sufficient in water management and related matters..

Solar Lantern making classes at Grampari

The first batch of students for solar lantern makingThe newly elected Panchgani Municipal President, Kiran Jankar, inaugurated Grampari’s solar lantern making course on Wednesday 15 September 2010. The course, which is being run in collaboration with the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), New Delhi was fully booked out before the opening. Mr Rajiv Nath from NSIC has come to give a start to the coaching while Sachin Belose of Asia Plateau, who has done a trainer’s course at NSIC in New Delhi, would be conducting the three months training. This will equip the village youth with the knowledge and skills to put together and maintain solar lanterns. This is the first of many employment generation training courses Grampari plans to start for the village youth. Many of the students are young women..