REGION
| Location | Living condition | Economy | Intervention of SPAR
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Patharpratima and Kakdwip in the South 24 Parganas district are two blocks, a collection of deltaic islands, situated at the southern end of West Bengal in the Sunderbans. These working areas of SPAR are some 95 - 90 kms. away from Calcutta. Tidal rivers, remoteness from the mainland and lack of accessibility due to poor communication are the challenges for the people there, for us also! |
These islands are part of the Sunderbans infested with varieties of poisonous snakes and freaks of nature. Every year, hundreds of people die of snakebites. In spite of this, most of the time antivenin is not available at the primary health centers. People have no option but to go to Diamond Harbour subdivisional Hospital, around 2 hours uncertain journey for treatment. |
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Poverty has reduced the people to a desperate state. The villagers are used to go deep into the mangrove forest to collect wood and honey which they sell at a very low price to the middlemen. In such a risky occupation a number of villagers are killed by the royal Bengal tiger and crocodiles lurking beneath the jungle or water. There are hundreds of hapless widows in the villages whose husbands had been mauled and killed maneaters. Against such threat, people have to continue their pursuits for lack of sustenance. |
The economy of this deltaic region is marked by poverty. The main livelihood of the people is agriculture; though fishing, specially catching prawn seeds, is also an important occupation. Women folk of these areas can be seen catching prawn seeds at the edge of the water all day long. The main occupation of agriculture is also not profitable. The saline soil is not conducive to large-scale agricultural production, nor it is good for any other crops except paddy. After harvesting, many land holdings are leased out at a low price for turning them into large fishiries. Saline water is let in there for culture of prawns and some other varieties of sea fishes. After six months or so, the lessee take away the fish, drain out the water and give back the land to the owner for rice cultivation. By this time the saline water has reduced the productivity of the soil. Thus the owner of the land neither gets any advantage of the fisheries, |
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nor profit from the production of paddy from the said land.. To counter this loss of productivity, the people use large amounts of chemical fertilizers and grow hybrid varieties of paddy. In such a situation, the people in these areas fall prey to the unscrupulous local moneylenders which is making them more marginalised. Eventually their land also loses productivity, adding to their misery all the more. |
Changes brought about by SPAR
| Working area | People | Programmes | Impact | Self Help Groups(SHG) | Region |
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SPAR is working in
33 villages spread over in 3 blocks namely Patharpratima, Kakdwip and Namkhana. Basically the main thrust is on women’s empowerment. They now have become more aware of their rights and have mobilized them to fight against all types of social injustice. They have succeeded in improving their status in the family as well as in the society. The number of collective protests by women against different types of injustices has gone up.
The ethnic composition of these villages is diverse. The total population is 113494. The Hindu community is the predominant one, though there is a considerable number of Muslim families also. In one village, there are also a few tribal families, mainly Mundas.
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Among the Hindus, the upper castes as well as the scheduled castes are present. Of the total population
70.05% are Hindu, 12.44% are Scheduled Caste(SC), 1.87% are Muslim, around 0.44% are Mundas.
Most of the people are either daily labourers or small marginal farmers. .The women here are very much oppressed. They look after the family and also work as daily labourers. They are mostly deprived of education and health facilities - mostly superstitious, illiterate and under nourished. Then literacy rate is 48% on an average. The women have to shoulder the burden of their families, but they seldom get the recognition they deserve The girl child is deplorably neglected. They are not allowed to play or go to school.From an early age they work with their mothers.
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Programmes :
Under the EED programme of facilitation of people’s organization, village committee, central committee and workers meetings were held regularly for discussing pros and cons of different development initiatives taken in the villages.
Major activities of SPAR are related to organising people and making them aware, capacitation of the people through trainings, seminars, workshops and meetings . People's organisation is capacitated to undertake peoples plan through participatory process and to implement such plans mobilising resources locally and from outside. These plans include nursery and plantation programme, alternative education and health practices, setting up Community Centres, development of irrigation facilities and kitchen garden. |
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Four health centres are being run in four villages with people’s contribution and SPAR’s support. One registered homoeopath doctor pays visit to each centre once a week. Ten pre-primary non-formal education centres are functioning in 10 villages where the poor children belonging to the age group of 3 – 6 years are attending regularly. Total number of learners of these centres was 550. Fifty six villagers were supported to undertake the kitchen gardening programme fruitfully. |
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Under the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojona (SGSY) programme,
255 Self Help Groups were formed
with 2704 BPL families. Total deposits of these groups are Rs.
57,45,167.00. Bank loan received varied between Rs.15,000.00 and 37,000.00 per group. 120 groups comprising 12,000 families, have received such bank loan. With this financial support, they have started pisciculture, kitchen gardening, poultry, piggery, goatery, fish trading and agricultural operations. Besides, 13 SHGs have been formed without any financial support from Govt. They are practising inter-loaning among the members for income generation activities at the village level. |
After the intervention of SPAR women and men in this area have become more aware, active and enthusiastic in respect of the sustainable development of their villages. They are spontaneously taking part in the process. The women folk have made several organised efforts to counter injustices in their families and society.
The P.O. has developed a documentation system of their own. Previously, maintaining proceedings tracks of the meetings was quite difficult for these village women. Now, the P.O. members regularly record the resolutions of the meetings and follow up the deliberations. The P.O. members have also developed their own accounting system. |
The referral groups of women have also been able to make the people aware about the need for sustainable eco-friendly agriculture. The people have started using green manure/bio-fertiliser in agriculture. With this knowledge, many of the families in the villages have started their own compost pit without any support from SPAR or the P.O.
The women have taken initiative for educating themselves. With support from SPAR they have formed community centres in their villages in which they conduct adult education centres. The awareness of the women about the need of education has also made its mark in abating the rate of dropouts of the children from the regular schools. Now, the women are sending their daughters to the schools for their education. |
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