The State Vs The People

The grace of Indra has been checked by Pawan. And we are heading for yet another drought. I wrote too soon, it seems. The rains had been coming down adequately. However, since then there has been a continuous breeze all across the area, sometimes even reaching high wind speeds. Coming from the plains of Baluchistan and Sindh, these winds have taken the rain clouds away from the desert and dried the crops. And the winds have also affected the roots of the grasses; such have been the speeds. Even the world-famous and hardy sevan grass has been unable to withstand the strain of the winds. And then the cooling effect of this continuous breeze has also prevented a low pressure from developing over the area. What was being tagged as an ‘eight-anna season which could become a sixteen-anna one with just one more rain’ is now being declared by the people as yet another drought. And once again the major worry remains that of the cattle.

Cattle-rearing is the major activity in Barmer and their population far outstrips that of humans. I once did read somewhere that Barmer has the highest per capita consumption of milk in India. I forgot to tag the source of that figure, for it would have been useful to check with the ground realities. Cattle-rearing basically needs three things in a non-polluted environment - water, grass and space to graze. Other than the pollution part, all three have been in increasingly short supply here in Barmer over the years. As agricultural farms develop, they take away natural grazing lands. Rains in short supply don’t allow the grasses to grow and water to collect in reservoirs. Fearing just this sort of season, I had gotten active before the summer to remake an old nadi in my village.

A nadi is a man-made water reservoir which serves as the principal water source for man and beast. A bit like the beri but of a much bigger size, and Indra permitting, even volume. Nadis have been around as long as man has lived in the arid and desert regions and are in fact a perfectly good example of water harvesting. And one that predates any green activist, green seminar and green ngo. The people of the desert know all these techniques but it is the state that needs to learn them. My experience says that.

The nadi in Jasol, my village, is perfectly positioned to trap rainwater as it flows down from the catchment area. Jasol is fortunate in that it has a seasonal river that flows to its north and the village itself is at the base of low-lying hills to its south. The Luni river once gave the wells of Jasol its very famous sweet water but is now the source of its agricultural decline. The water in the wells has been polluted, probably beyond repair, by effluents discharged from dyeing mills in the nearby Balotra town. (More of that later.) And the hills are, thus, the only means of getting clean water other than water tankers from nearby villages. So it was in January, in his last days as sarpanch of Jasol, that Ishwar first broached the subject of the nadi. It was clear that the work had to be done before the rains set in for the village to benefit in any way. As a child I do remember that the nadi was repaired every summer by the people of the village, without supervision and without payment. But since then the state has assumed the role of knowing all and doing all. And so things had changed in the case of this nadi, circa 2000. The people wanted the nadi repaired and be paid by the state while repairing it. So a fund was sanctioned for the nadi and work to repair and increase its area began in March.

The labour involved was local and the work progressed at a fairly good pace. In the area the nadi became the subject of much conversation and much appreciation for the social benefits of this work. Until it hit a sub-soil gravel patch. The new sarpanch spoke to me and we concurred that the only solution was to use a mechanical digger. The machine was of immense help for all of two days. The state, after all, is still socialist and on the third day orders came for the work to be stopped. "Collector sahib has said that since no labour is being used, this work has to be stopped." I spoke to the collector and his reply was stock, trademark, state socialist: "Somebody has complained that a machine is being used and since we need to use as much labour as we can for drought relief works, the machine cannot be used." "There is no labour anywhere in the world that can dig through this physically," I told him. "There is no provision in the drought relief works for using machines," he said. And so the conversation continued. But the work stopped, the sanctions ceased and the people complained. For when the rains came, the nadi was not ready to take full benefit. But the state is unmindful for it has to ensure that people get on the muster rolls, even if they are underpaid. And even if the cattle may suffer in the drought of 2001.

(The writer stood for elections as the bjp candidate in Barmer, Rajasthan. He is presently working full-time in the constituency and is writing a fortnightly column on life and development issues in Barmer.)