Exposure visit to Khediadurjan, Rajasthan

I have been wanting to write this blog the very next day i came from exposure visit but didn't get time.
Anyway here it comes..

This exposure visit to a very remote village in Rajasthan- Khediadurjan, is somehow very close to me and will remain to be so for two reasons:
1. I stayed in village with one poor family for 3 days, and
2. since this exposure visit was a part of selection process for job in SRIJAN, and i managed to get through this job. And lastly because i happened to learn more about the culture and ways of living of people in just 3 days...

I would like to thank my four dear friends, who made this journey a real memorable one.. Thanks to Rudra, Tanvi,Victo and Nabeel.

As we all started in Kota janshatabdi, i still remember how much we guys ate endlessly and the curious looks by people. They might be thinking that when are we going to stop eating. It was real fun though..

I remember the tea, which i got addicted to and the jeep drive and non-stop talks..

First day it was simply fun for us but the real shock came when we were told at night in Lakheri office that we are going to stay in village alone for 3 days and the villages would be about 40kms away from the other. Thanks to Manish that he informed us before and we prepared ourselves mentally, informing almost everyone close about it.. I remember my parents couldn't stop laughing and they were happy about it when i was real nervous...

Anyway, next day we were off to the villages assigned and i was to live in Khediadurjan village... We were given a list of around 12 tasks to do ranging from credit analysis of farmers to understanding the socio- economic stratification of village and the village dynamics...

Well, every thing has a beginning and so had this village stay. I was nervous, pointless, apprehensive after i was left alone in a house where i didn't even understand the language and i felt stupid that i want to talk and people want to talk to me but how to start... I started with using sign languages and listening to their conversations. After a few hours, i came across a person, Modu lal ji, who could speak hindi. With his help, i managed to talk to people.. Thanks to him that i could complete all my tasks, though that was not my only aim. I wanted explore more about this village - its culture and people...

I held meetings with SHG members in village, talked to farmers, individuals and i remember i used to move around the village and go to any family and begin talking, and i was accepted and welcomed so nicely by almost whole of village.. This made me realise that my earlier apprehensions and fears were baseless.. Everybody took care of me so well, as if i have known them for years...

Well, things are not always ver easy as i had to do some things in village which i had never ever done before like shitting in open, bathing under a hand pump with no privacy at all, driving a bael-gaadi, milking the cow and cutting the fodder for livestock... To many this would appear a waste of time and unrelated to my work, but i learnt the way people live, the difficult their tasks are and the meager they get paid for it.. And this made me actually feel the extent of discrimination that happens with people in rural areas.. I can bet that an urban and educated person may not be able to do half the work that a rural and illiterate person does.. This made me feel that on what basis are salaries distributed among masses. Yes, educated have brains and they have been developed by the education they get but how many rural people get that facility to get a quality education... But they are working hard..

Life in my village, Khediadurjan, started at 4 and women didn't stop to rest. From milking cows to cleaning to going to farms, everything involved hard work... And i observed that women do more work than men..
Despite more work that she does, she has to respect men and honour them like they are Gods.. How?? She can not sit on the charpayi if her husband or any one of her in-laws is sitting there.. She has to cover her face. Besides doing more work than her husband, she also has to take care of meals and make him eat first and then eat herself...
I also felt the simplicity in villages and how people trust each other blindly. For them, there is no need of a bank to save money because anyone who has extra money, gives it off to needy as a loan at a monthly interest of 2%. Ineffective implementation of MGNREGA was seen since people having job cards didn't get any work this year....

All in all this visit as a good learning experience. And as i was coming back from village to Lakheri office, i was thinking that India has two worlds- one which has all the facilities and is relatively developed to other world which will make an urban feel that he/she has gone in past as the condition is almost same that existed a decade back- no proper education, health and water facilities, which are the basic necessities. Forget about esteem needs... So there is a need to integrate the two worlds... Sooner people of both the worlds realise it and work towards it, better would be for India to reduce its dual character...because i believe the onus is also on each one of us as is on the Government and NGO's....

In the end, i would like to thanks SRIJAN, all the employees in Lakheri office and my dear friends, who supported throughout...