Bommasamudra Village Study and PRA

Participatory Rural Appraisal PRA is a method of village study to know the reality of villages and the clear picture of all resources and facilities available there. I attended four days PRA theory sessions facilitated by Dr. Prakash Bhatt. On 10 February, Tuesday, I reached ‘Gram Chetana’ training centre, Soorashettikoppa, with my all co-fellows for the village study. We were told that this training centre was made by participatory efforts from villagers and this training centre is an entrepreneur of BAIF (Bhatia Agro Industries Foundation) organization. BAIF is a leading organization in the rural development field that has been working since 1967 and founded by Dr. Manibhai Desai. The journey of BAIF in Karnataka started in 1980 and BAIF-Karnataka now works in 20 Districts.

In the evening I visited village Kamplikoppa with all co-fellows Program Manager ChinnaBabu and PRA trainer Mr. Prakash Bhatt. Here we were welcomed by village people. We used tools of PRA like- Venn diagram, seasonal mapping, focus group discussion for dairy and milk, matrix ranking for vermi compost, time line for sanitation and disease and resource mapping.

On the second day we were divided into separate groups for the village study. I was in the team for Bomm samudra village study. There were four members (Lakshmish, Jagadish, Meenakshi and Ajay) in our group.
I reached the village after walking about 8 Kilometres. Here one facilitator, Mr. Shettappa from AME Foundation helped us in interaction with villagers. We had a meeting with about 30 people where we introduced ourselves to them and told them about our objective. In this meeting they told us that they all are busy from morning to evening in farming. We decided to collect demographic information of the village, we questioned village people about village population and other data and visited Junior High School (1st to 8th) and Aganwadi worker to take the related information on education and health of the village.


Key Information about the Village:
} It's 13.5 k.m. away from Hubli city.
} Population of around 1519.
} Main source of income is agriculture.
} It has Palya to east, Kardikoppa to west, Balagali to north and Varur to south.
} Around 300 families stay in the village.
} 100% of the households are connected by electricity.
} 70% are pakka houses and rest are kaccha houses.
} Only 30% of the houses have toilet facilities.
} Village contains 60% Kurubas, 30% lingayath, 10% Badigas, SC/ST and Muslim and Valikar.
} There are 5 water tanks and 7 bore wells, out of which 2 bore wells are not working.
} Many youngsters are in the driving profession.
} PHC is situated 1 km away from Bommasamudra at Harlikatte.
} Around 98% of deliveries are done in hospitals.
} Malaria is common during the rainy season.
} “Mid- day meals contributes to children’s participation and healthy development” – Head Mistress.
} TB (2-3 cases) in a year found and HIV (Human Immune deficiency Virus) positive (1 male & 1 female).
} Around 21 residents are disabled,which includes mental and physical disability (deaf, dumb etc…)
} The village has an Anganwadi and a school that teaches till class 8th standard.
} School has 230 children and 7 teachers.
} Main crops: jawar, soya beans, cotton, groundnut, paddy, chikku, maize, sunflower
} The area is surrounded by black and red soil
} Agriculture, carpentry, petty shops, coolie, small hotles are the main sources of income.
} Natural sources: two ponds, one Government and one private and 120 acre of fodder is there in the village.
At evening time after 6 pm most of the villagers used to come back to the homes from their daily work and aggriculture farms. But I had to go back 'Gram Chetana'. So we did two personal Interviews and left the village at 6 pm.

On the third day we started with transect walk and during the day we used PRA Tools like: resource mapping, matrix, Venn diagram, family visits and collected the related information from the villagers in participatory way.

Important Learning:
Castism is not followed by villagers; they celebrate all festivals together. Women and men both work in farms and go to markets. Language is important for deep interaction with villagers. Villagers have talent but they are not getting the platform to enrich their hidden talents. Attitude towards women is gender biased. Cattle are much more costly compared to north India. Pre-planning and some knowledge about villages is must before using PRA techniques.

Challenges:
Could not involve women for group activities with men. Gathering of villagers as much as required for participation. Villagers’ expectations.