Tracking the Drought-III Dry days in Shivpuri
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COMMENTS 
In Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh, the government provides impressive figures of relief works, fodder and water provided to the drought-hit. But in village after village, people have to trek kilometres to collect water, and claim they see no trace of government supplies of grain or fodder as they fight to survive one of the worst droughts in recent history
In Taparpura village in Pohri tehsil of Shivpuri district in the northern part of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, everywhere you look you find pot-bellied, unkempt children, emaciated cattle and poverty. The only hand-pump on the outskirts of the village yields water intermittently. A single pot of water and it runs dry. Then people have to wait a couple of hours for water to trickle forth again. All the wells in the village have run dry. No fodder or grain from the government has reached the village, according to some villagers.
Shivpuri district is 100 km to the south-west of Gwalior and an equal distance to the north-west of the state capital Bhopal. The Madhav lake in the Madhav National Park (MNP), located on the outskirts of Shivpuri town, has for the first time in 50 years, gone almost completely dry. There have been reports in the local newspapers of fights breaking out following water disputes and of swords being used to settle these fights.
Next stop, village Nanora, 5 km from the block headquarters, Pohri. Nanora has a population of 900. All the three wells in the village have run dry and the residents have to trudge to nearby Maar, 3-4 km away, to fetch water. Even at Maar, people have to stand in queue and patiently wait their turn. Here too the villagers claim they have received no fodder from the government, which claims to have provided fodder to needy villages. In fact, they say, Fajita has lost one bullock, Karga has lost two male heifers and Raghu has lost a bullock for want of fodder.
No relief work has been undertaken in this village so far, in spite of the villagers submitting a petition to the district administration about the lack of water and fodder on May 13, 2003. They also deposited Rs 2,500 at the tehsil office for the installation of a hand-pump under the Swajaldhara scheme on March 16, 2003. No hand-pump has yet been installed. Elderly Prahlad from this village says he even gave a petition to Jyotiraditya Scindia, Member of Parliament from this constituency, when he visited the region in a helicopter. The petition requested drinking water, relief works and fodder (straw, actually!). But even the young, well-educated MP from the royal family of Gwalior has not been able to help the people in his constituency fight for survival in one of the worst droughts in recent history.
In the next village, Amarpura, Mohansingh says that he and other villagers have to get water from a distance of 2-3 km. No fodder has reached their village, from the government or any other source. The emaciated cattle in the village are dying a slow death, and he showed me a few animals that seemed to be waiting for death to relieve them of their misery and hunger. Already, Tarachand has lost four cows and one heifer, Mohansingh has lost seven cows and Posu has lost six cattle, comprising two cows, two male heifers and two female heifers.
At a few relief sites, children 10-12 years old were engaged in physical work. This is in gross violation of the Child Labour Act. At the relief site behind the campus of NGO Sambhav, at Pohri, Raksha, a student of Class 3, was digging, collecting the loosened earth and transporting it in head-loads to be dumped. Children played and rested under a few stunted trees at the site, and the agency undertaking the relief works had provided no crèche for them, or even water! This is in contravention of norms that prescribe that both crèches and drinking water facilities must be provided by agencies engaged in relief work.
On May 30, 2003, a Jan Sunwai (public hearing) on food security in the midst of drought was organised at the Adarsh School in Pohri town of Pohri tehsil. The event was organised by the Jan Shakti Dal and the Sahariya Jan Andolan, two local sangathans (unions) with support from Sambhav that has been working in this region for the past 10-12 years.
Around 600-700 people attended this Jan Sunwai. Dozens of people deposed before the observers (consisting of a local lawyer, the principal of the local school, Professor Jean Dreze from the Delhi School of Economics, representatives of the media, etc). Each told a tale of non-receipt of water/grain/fodder in their villages, of cattle deaths, late payments for backbreaking work done at relief sites, low payments vis-à-vis work done…
What is a drought? The Pocket Oxford Dictionary describes it as "prolonged absence of rain". For the government, drought is a "condition of deficient rainfall coupled with a significant fall in agricultural output (in terms of annawari), falling to below 37% of the normal output or production". Governments are usually very wary about declaring a region drought-affected and the decision to do so is carefully considered. In the event of a district being declared drought-affected, the Collector is empowered and responsible, under the Drought Act, for starting relief work to relieve the distress and hardship faced by people.
According to the Madhya Pradesh Gazette of August 16, 2002, the state government declared a drought in all seven tehsils of Shivpuri district. This decision was based on the indicators established by the government and annawari (crop output from sample plots estimated by means of crop-cutting experiments/visual estimates) calculated by traditional methods.
Rainfall in Shivpuri district during the last monsoon, June to September 2002, was only 51% of the normal annual rainfall of 816 mm. This affected crop production and the annawari for the district was found to be an abysmally low 19%, varying from a low of 11% for Karera tehsil to a high of 31% for Khaniadhana tehsil.
The government has initiated a number of activities to tackle the situation and reduce the misery and hardship of the people. As of May 24, 2003, the statistics were:
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These are impressive figures. But where is all the relief going? It does not seem to be benefiting the needy villages of Pohri block, where cattle deaths are widespread and men, women and children seem to be poorly provided for.
Shivpuri was the summer capital of the Scindias, who, as the generals of the Marathas, ruled this region in the recent past. The temperature at Shivpuri is a couple of degrees lower than that of Gwalior, on account of the thick forests in this region and its greater altitude. Shivpuri has a couple of palaces, and chhatries (cenotaphs), which tell of its royal past. It also has the Madhav National Park, which is home to a variety of flora and fauna. Tatya Tope, one of the leaders of the 1857 uprising (first war of independence, according to some), was hanged by the British at Shivpuri. A statue and memorial to him are found here.
This region of Madhya Pradesh is strikingly feudal in character. Shivpuri has a literacy rate of 21.26 % (rural). The female literacy rate is likely to be lower, at around 10%. The Sahariyas are the major tribe inhabiting Shivpuri district and the neighbouring region. They are a primitive tribe with low literacy, poor health status (including malnutrition and TB) and low self-esteem.
In the face of one of the worst droughts in recent history, the precarious existence of the vulnerable and marginalised Sahariyas is further threatened. Unless urgent steps are taken by the district administration, in the mission mode, large-scale cattle deaths and even a few human deaths cannot be ruled out.
(Meher Gadekar is a specialist in rural development and management. In this series of articles, he will be tracking the drought in the Western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra and the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.)
InfoChange News & Features, June 2003