By Gautam Sarkar
Munger (Bihar): It is an unusual chapter of development being penned in Munger and Bhagalpur districts of Bihar. Poor Public Participation (PPP) is not in its literal sense here. In fact it is participation of the poor and downtrodden section of the society of the twin districts for their own development via wasteland management.

The Agriculture and Allied Services (AAS) Mission propagated by an enthusiastic 1979-batch bureaucrat and the then divisional commissioner of Munger Hem Chand Sirohi (presently Bihar Rural Works Department Principal Secretary), has taken up cudgels to imbue a new sense of life among the people who are Below Starvation Line (BSL).

The AAS Mission is an innovative initiative under Community Lead Model piloted primarily with the aim of reaching the poorest of the poor by communitising and developing unutilised public resources, says Sirohi.

A quick look at the statistics in the two districts reveals that agriculture is the main occupation providing sustenance to 70 per cent of the population here.

While only 29 per cent of total population in the region have been classified as working, there exists a significant discrepancy between men and women; only 13 per cent of the women are part of the working population as compared to 43 per cent men folk.

"A key feature of the mission is that degraded, waste or unutilised common property resources have been made accessible to the poor; regenerated, and transformed into sources for productive employment of the poor," he adds.

It is an approach that works with mainstream official schemes and does not seek to have separate projects and schemes with separate funds but rather intend to use already available official resources to reach poor.
 
The staffs for the mission are accessed from various departments and they then have the mission platform as an all-encompassing action-rainbow umbrella to converge and create synergy for sustainable and very high impact, the Mission statement says.

Launched in June 2007, this project has, of late, begun showing the result. Women are working on the wasteland, making them fertile, growing flowers and seasonal vegetables over it and the AAS Mission helping their produce for marketing in the local markets.

Their economic status has now been set in new mode. Manju Devi of Mentha Cooperative Society in Getti village of Sangrampur block of Munger district earned her share of Rs 20 by selling radish grown on the wasteland. She spent this amount on the repair of the hand pump on the land.

Socio-economic condition of the BSL people is gradually changing. The Mission has trained the illiterate women to write their names. Their children now go to the nearby schools and the men take up guarding of the plants and vegetables on the field during night.

The impact of the project has its impact on the naxal activities in some parts of the twin districts as well.

In the poverty-stricken villages of Tatia Bamber block of Munger District, where the then Munger Superintendent of Police KC Surendra Babu was killed in a land  mine blast by the Maoists, villagers are upbeat with the Mission results.

Shbrati and Urmila Devi along with hundreds of illiterate women from Chata, Paraniya, Maglinpur, Zitiarpur, Raja Rani Talab villages recently visited the pilot project of the AAS Mission to involve themselves in it.

"We had no option; but to follow the diktats of Maoists who not only fulfilled our needs in times but also fight for us to provide justice to us," Feki Devi of Chata village said.

The Self Help Group (SHG) formed under the mission of whom Feki was a member was optimistic of good returns from the sale of flowers. It means she would no longer be looking for the sympathy of the Maoists.

Interestingly, the Maoists too seem to be appreciating the ASS Mission project because. And the reason—"They too put emphasis on women empowerment," says Tatia Bamber block Ladies Extension Officer Ranu Bala Shah.

Havali Kharagpur Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) Ajoy Kumar Singh admits that the ASS mission has given the opportunity to an official like him for visiting any village freely.

Coordinator of the project Meera Devi who was kidnapped by the armed Maoists earlier was released only because the extremist group was convinced that the project was in the interest of the last person standing in the last row of below poverty line (BPL).

"After the allotment of a water cannel lying beside the areas along with the nursery project to Mentha SHG, the village women were engaged in fishery, poultry and duck rearing projects simultaneously," Meera Devi said.

Radical changes have already taken place in the 20 families of a most backward community—Musahar—living inside the historic Munger Qila.

Interestingly, under the pilot project of the AAS mission, 20 women from the Musahar community have been selected for Mentha women self-help cooperative society.

Giving further details of the project Sirohi said that a huge area of low lands located below the qila areas have been allotted to the Mentha SHG with an investment of nearly Rs 781,000, which would be financed under different on going welfare schemes.

"With a target of two years, the group is supposed to deposit 85.55 per cent of the money and every transaction is admissible only with the current bank account of the SHG," pointed out Sirohi.

He claimed that if everything runs properly, the Mentha SHG will earn net profit of 59.98 per cent of the total investment.