Development of socially appropriate technologies according to
the ideas of Gandhi : Gandhi technologies
Citation for published version (APA):
Hoda, M. M., & Wilde, de, A. (1975). Development of socially appropriate technologies according to the ideas of Gandhi : Gandhi technologies. Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven.
Document status and date: Published: 01/01/1975 Document Version:
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1
) D
Development of
Socially Appropriate Technologies
according to the ideas of
Gandhi G A N D H I M.M. Hoda A. de Wilde 81 BL. TECHN I SCHE UNfVERSfTEJT 1111111111111111111111111111111 *9312710* EINDHOVEN T E C H N 0 L 0 G I E S
·.·
Varanasi Eindhoven, January 1975t
1. Introduction
2. 1. Name of the project 2. 2. Ins ti tues
3. Needs of the country and of the institute
4. Aims
5. History
6. The Gandhian Institute of Studies 7. Proposed activities
7. I. Institution building
7. 1. 1. Support for the Appropriate Technology Development Unit 7. 1.2. Information and documentation centre
7. 1.3. Mobile extension service unit 7.2. Previous survey of the study area 7.3. Description of the study area
7.4. The development process and participation of the poor 7.5. Sectoral plan for cottage and small industries
7.5. 1. Objectives and methods
7.5.2. Industrial Profile of the block
7.6. Development of rural and domestic technolgies
8. Notes concerning staff personel involved in the project
9. Description of inputs of the Eindhoven University of Technology 10. Description of Gandhian Institute inputs
II. Notes concerning the organisation of the project 12. Stages of the project
13. Financing 14. Follow-up
!. Letter of intend between the Gandhian Institute of Studies and the Committee for International Cooperative Activities.
2. Annual report of the Gandhian Institute (72 - 73) 3. Leaflet of the TOOL foundation
4. Outline of the project
5. Notes on a meeting with the minister of small scale industries of India A.G. Sharma , staff of his department, mr. Hoda and mr. de Wilde
The direction and form of development aid has for a long time been used to support a small percentage of the population in their efforts to build up a western way of life. This has led to an ever widening gap between the rich
and the poor in the developing countries. If this is true for the various forms fo development cooperation in general, it is even more true for technical aid projects without exception.
India, with its population of 600 million people is a vivid example of this. On the one hand it possesses a highly developed level of mechanization, on
the other there is an underdeveloped substructure which faces ever increasing difficulties in finding a livelihood. The Gandhian Institute of Studies as a well-established institute of social studies has identified the need for an integrated approach, in which technology, social science and traditional cul-tural patterns are welded together to produce a genuinely socially appropriate technology. For this an Appropriate Technology Development Unit was established in 1972. The most important activity of this unit was the compiling of a Direc-tory of Appropriate Technology, soon to be published and which included 900 items of indigenous existing technologies. In order to fortify this unit the Gandhian Institute contacted the T.H. Eindhoven which is in the forefront of those universities that on a policy level are turning their attention to the problem of choice of technology in the economically weak areas of L.D.C. 's (see policy of the CICA, Eindhoven 1975).
Dr. M.M. Hoda visited Eindhoven in may 1974 and an urgent request for assistancE was put to A. de Wilde at the O.E.C.D. conference on lowcost technology held in Paris, September 1974.
Immediately following the conference Dr. Hoda again paid a visit to Eindhoven, which resulted in a letter of intend between the Gandhian Institute of Studies and the Committee for International Cooperati\e Activities (see appendix I).
In December 1974 A. de Wilde paid
a
visit to the Institute in Varanasi, which resulted in a joint project proposal.1
In the project several organisations are involved, such as the TOOL foundation , in which several organisations in the Netherlandsare working together in the field of socially appropriate technology. These organisations are already for several years solving technical problems of individuals in the rural areas of L.D.C. 's by conveying scientific information to meet the perceived needs and possil:ilities of the requesters, taking into account, use of local material, use available sources of energy, need to increase the capability
of local people, lack of capital and need for labourintensive solutions and othe· criteria.
The project has already been discussed with mr. A.P. Sharma, honorable
minister of state for small scale industries, who expressed the wish to make a quick start with this project and was awaiting with great interest the development of such a promising interdisciplinairy approach: to the
essentially simple but very wide spread problem among India's 500.000 villages.
2. 1. Name of the project
Development of socially appropriate technologies according to the ideas of Gandhi,
"Gandhian Technologies"
2.2. Name of the dutch institute
Eindhoven, University of Technology,
Committee for International Cooperative Activities. Name of the Indian Institute
Gandhian Institute of Studies
Appropriate Technology Development Unit P.O. Box 116
RAJGHAT, Varanasi, India
Responsible for the execution is the department of Industrial Engineering of the Eindhoven University of Technology and within
the department the section for "socially appropriate technology" (to be established). Responsible persons for execution A. de Wilde and B. van Bronckhorst.
3. Needs of the country and the institute
Even after decades of development, the basic contours of the Asian eco-nomic scene have changed but little. Agriculture continues to be the main provider of employment and creator of wealth in the developing economies of this vast region of the world. Development efforts, aimed at moderni-zation and revolution of agriculture, could not even get off the ground, mainly because an outmoded and inegalitarian agrarian structure and the vested interests generated by it. The mass of the people have remained as poor, as illiterate and as unorganised as ever. If anything, the widening development gap between urban and rural sectors has brought
added complications and made the problems of growing population, mass unemployment and underemployment, even more untracable.
During the course of development, for example in India, the government did institute efforts for the development of the rural poor, small culti-vators, marginal farmers and landless workers, but all these efforts failed to improve their socio-economic conditions. Benefits often went to those who were already better off. Even subsidies and grants meant for them were largely usurped or entirely eaten away by the village elites in collusion with officials. A number of studies conducted about
the functioning and evaluation of community development projects and national agricultural extension service blocks in India by national and international bodies, have reached the finding that about 70 per cent or even more of the resultant benefits had gone to village elite groups like big agriculturists and to the more affluent. Thatever gains if any, went to the poorer cultivators were considerably smallerl.
Similar has been the experience regarding cooperct:ive crganisations which were found mostly to be managed and dominated by the wealthier section of the rural community like influential agriculturists, money-lenders, traders and businessmen. It has been revealed by many studies that the benefit of credit cooperative societies, consumer cooperative societies, marketing cooperative organisations, had been monopolised by the upper strata of the rural community. The same disequilibrium is reported about the other rural financing agencies including nationalised banks in India. In the wake of the "green revolution" it was expected that the marginal farmers and agricultural labourers will also be able to get the benefit of this major change. But, indeed, this too was in the favour of the well-to-do cultivators, that is, farmers possessing large and
medium-sized holding, because only they could afford the costly provision of inputs like better seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, intensive irrigation, costly tools and implements and machineries, managerial ability and the capacity to undertake the risks involved. As a matter of fact this
great technological change in agriculture has proved to be disadvantageous from the viewpoint of employment to agricultural workers, as mechanised farming has enabled the progressive farmers to replace agricultural workers with labour saving equipments and machines. Not only that, this
change has reduced the dependency of those farmers on hired labourers, sharecroppers or tenants. The latter are being squeezed out and evicted. Thus, the "green revolution" has helped the progressive farmers in making
l)G overnment o f ~ 1n ia: The Fourt:h Evaluation Report on Community ProJect and d" ' . . NES blocks, page 18.
huge profits on the one hand, and, on the other, deprived the farm
labourers, share-croppers and tenants not only of the benefits of techno-logical change but in many cases of their existing means of livelihood also.
In sum, whatever social, economic and cultural transformation has in-fact taken place, completely by-passed the rural poor, whose socio-economic condition has either remained stagnant or deteriorated even further. Is there any way in which these unfortunate people can be made to sense the promise of economic development and taste some of its fruits? The answer from all sides in a chorus is "popular participation". But, alas, the mere invocation of this magic phrase is unable to settle the question. The further question needs to be answered as to how it can be brought about. Considering the impossiblitiy of an amorphous mass of people participating in a meaningful manner, the conclusion is
irresis-tible that only when the poorer sections of the rural community are able to effectively organise themselves for protection and promotion of their own interests, and have forged the appropriate instruments of their will and action, will they be able to enter the mainstream of the national endeavour.
Indeed, the organisation of the rural sector is imperative but by no means simple. Several problems arise. What institutional pattern would be most suitable for the purpose? Rural communities being heterogenous comprising various categories widely scattered with overlapping and at times differing economic interests, can they be contained in one single organisation? If so, will the differing interests cause any insuperable problems in servicing the membership and in the smooth functioning of
the organisation? If, on the other hand, the different interests need to be organised separately, can these separate organisation cooperate with each other for securing the common objectives and in what manner? Likewise, there is a host of questions regarding the functioning and organisational set-up of rural organisations.
The "organisation gap" in the rural sector does not, in any case, seem likely to be closed through a recourse to the traditional structures of organisation. Democratic organisation based en the widest possible participation of the people, not merely by subscribing to its aims but also participation in its functional apparatus and its processes of planning, implementation and evaluation, can alone cope with the task. This can materialise only if labour organisations, both national and international, and voluntary agencies devoted for the upliftment of the poor and also governments should join their hands together in helping "organisations of the poor" to formulate their own programmes of develop-ment, agricultural and industrial, educational and technical, social and economic.
In a way, some sorts of organisation of the rural poor have always been there in India, and elsewhere, but they are largely irrelevant in
the context of the present economic and aocial situation. What needs to be carefully considered is the structure and institutional pattern most suitable for answering the present needs and tasks. Having done
that, it would be a relatively easier matter to either adapt the exist-ing organisations to that pattern or form new ones. Since, however, cultural, social and economic situations and traditions differ so diely from region to region, perhaps no pattern will be suitable for all countries or all part of the same country. There is, therefore, a need
for experimentation and careful assessment and evaluation of the working of different institutional patterns for drawing up necessary guidelines in this connection. Two things, however, appear to be obvious. One is the need to ensure that all groups of the rural poor are brought together in an umbrella organisation, so as to reduce the possiblitiy of different groups working at cross purposes and undermining each other's efforts for achieving the common broad objectives. The second is to form effec-tive economic and social institutions for specialised activities of various economic and social groups. But both types of organisations will have to be closely linked so that each receives sustenance and strength from the other and helps in the building up a united, strong, self-reliant and economically viable movement of the rural poor able to ensure econo-mic development with social justice.
The Gandhian Institute as an institute for social studies recognized in these sense, the need for an interdisciplinary approach in which the technological part is also represented. Not technology in a way as it has until now normally been practised, but technology applied in the so-called socially appropriate way. For this purpose the institute has established an Appropriate Technology Developmett Unit.
4. Aims
4. J. Long term aims
- To establish a dynamic local capability to innovate technology which is socially appropriate to the local rural community at
the Appropriate Technology Development Unit of the Gandhian Institute of Studies in order to support rural development pro-grammes in the surrounding region of India.
- To develop a local capability to operate an information and do-cumentation centre and a network of information acquisition and dissemination catering to socially appropriate technology. - To develop channels by which technological innovation and
de-velopment may be connnunicated to the village level and by which the requirements for technology at the village level are identi-fied and communicated to institutions of technological capability.
4.2. Innnediate aims
The innnediate aim of this proposal is to put forward a scheme for working collaboration between AIDU, GIS and THE in the context of socially appropriate technology. Such a collaboration is extremely relevant because activities and experience at THE, under the aus-pices of CICA, have ensured it a place in the forefront of thos~
institutions with expertise in adapting technology to the needs of low income rural communities
Within the context of the foregoing the innnediate objectives are - to establish a workshop facility for ATDU to design and/or develop
and test processes and machinery for the cottage and small industry sector, or agricultural and domestic tools and equipment for the village community sector (see section 7. 1.
!.).
- to set up an information and documentation centre to acquire and disseminate information of socially appropriate technologies
(see section 7. 1. 2.);
- to establish a mobile extension service unit that will complement the existing extension organisations in providing technical assis-tance in setting up and operating new small industries and in identifying and satisfying non-industrial technological needs
5. History
With the help of the London Intermediate Technology Group, an 'Appropriate Technology Development Unit has been set up at Gandhian Institute of Stu-dies. Sri M. Hoda, an engineer by profession who had long experience of work with the London Group of Intermediate Technology and a colleague of Dr. E.F. Schumacher has been appointed Head of this unit. Dr.
Schumacher was to become the first Director of Gandhian Institute and a pioneer of the idea of Intermediate Technology.
Following the Gandhian line of utilising simple machines for development in rural areas, this Unit would collect information about the
indi-genous and improvised implemenes of the country, educate all categories of people about their utility and introduce such courses in engineering colleges and other appropriate institutions for popularisation of
appropriate technology geared to development, particularly in rural ares. The people in the villages iwould be imparted training in far-ming methods, conservation of water, irrigation of basic industries and craft, besides undertaking preventive measures with simple tech-niques for arresting diseases. It is hoped that this unit throught its programmes of research education and information will give a direction to the employment of the huge labour force of our country with small layout of capital and inBtallation of simple machines. If earnest and honest work is done in this direction, it will definitely make an impact to improve the condition_of the villages to help them earn higher wages and to increase production and consequently the wealth of the nation would increase with the participation of the
ma-jority of the masses of India.
The most important activity of this unit was the compiling of a Directory of Appropriate Technol9gy soon to be published an whichincluded 900
items of indigenous existing technologies. In order to fortify this unit the Gandhian Institute contacted the T.H. Eindhoven which is in the forefront of those universities that on a policy level are turning their attention to the problem of choice of technology in the economically weak areas of L.D.C. 's (see policy of the CICA, Eindhoven).
Dr. M.M. Hoda visited Eindhoven in May 1974 and an urgent request for assistance was put to A. de Wilde at the O.E.C.D. conference on lowcost technology held in Paris, September 1974.
Immediately following the conference Dr. Hoda again paid a visit to Eindhoven, which resulted in a letter of intend between the Gandhian Institute of Studies and the Committee for International Cooperative Activities (see appendix 1).
In December 1974 A.de Wilde paid a visit to the Institute in Varanasi, which resulted in a joint project proposal.
6. The Gandhian Instituteof Studies]
In the year 1972-1973 the Institute added several new fields of speciali-zation to its curricullum of studies; among which was the Appropriate Technology Development Unit. The Technological Unit is associated with
the name of Dr. E.F. Schumacher, the head of the I.T.D.G. at London. In January of 1973 he delivered the Gancih:L Memorial Lectures and helped to establish the Appropriate Technology Unit. The Inst:ic,te has for a
number of years systematically been emphasizing the need £or a n2~1 approach
1) .
to technology and it was largely due to his initiative that an appropriate technology cell was set up in the Ministry of Industries (Government of India). The establishment of the Technology Unit of the Institute onehopes shall be a forerunner to many others and the Institutes of social sciences which have not as yet been concerned with this area may turn their
atten-tion to this new field and find in it a moot point of analyses of the emerging society.
The other fields of specialization of the Institute include Family
Planning and a number of projects on societal violence and peace research. Administrative Report
Regular meetings of the Board of Management are held each year, in which such subjects are discussed as the reorganisation of staff, preparation of seniority list and ratified appointment of staff. Then there are regular meetings of the Administrative Committee and the Finance Committee.
The Gandhian Institute of Studies is a voluntary non-profit organisation registered under the Societies Registration Act of 1860. The Institute received maintenance grants from the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerela, and Rajas than. The Government of U.P., in addition to its maintenance grant also gave an adhoc grant. The Ministry of Education Government of India, also released an adhoc grant besides its maintenance grant.
Grants were furthermore received for research projects and seminars from the Indian Council of Social Science Research, Gandhi Peace Foundation. National Council of Educational Research and Training, I.T.D.G. Ltd. London, Family Planning.
Foundation
The Library of the Institute counts a total of 15.000 books, covering sub-jects like Economics, Psychology, Sociology and Social work, Political Science etc. The journal section of the library consists of Indian and foreign magazines. The total number of these journals both subscribed and exchanged is 235.
The Institute publishes a quarterly journal called "Interdiscipline". It is deveoted to Social Science, research and documentation. Originally published as Social Science Abstracts, the journal expanded its focus and research orientation towards planned social change for a peaceful social order and a better future.
Programmes
The basic objectives of the Institute are a) to help in the development of knowledge regarding human and social evolution leading to the growth of a balanced human life and world relationship based on love and coope-raticnand b) to help in the application of this knowledge to the develop-ment of Indian Society.
Keeping these objectives in view, the Institute carries on both fun-damental and applied study and research in various fields, namely Socio-logy and Social Work, PsychoSocio-logy and Education, Economics, Political
Science, Indian Government an<l Politics, Regional Planning and Appropriate Technology. The Institute formulates its projects in conformity with its avowed objective, keeping in view the practical utility in the context
of the existing problems of the country. The studies of the Institute are both interdisciplinary and subject based and are done mainly by the staff of the Institute belonging to various disciplines of social sciences. The Institute disseminates its research findings to a wider audience through publication of books, reports, monographs, reviews, seminars, conferences and its own quarterly journal "Interdiscipline"
(see ais; aprendix "K" of the Annual Report
=
App. II).The following studies were among others undertaken during the year
1972-1973: '
- Nature and dimension of rural poverty in Eastern U.P. - Local Party Organisation - a behavioural study
- Evaluation Study of Niwali
- Education and Social Change among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes - Studies on violence
- Appropriate Technology and Research.
Seminars
- Seminar on Population Policy for India, a Gandhian approach - Seminar on Appropriate Technology.
This Internaional Seminar on Appropriate Technology for a non-violent society was held at the Institute for 3 days in February 1973 and directed by Dr. E.F. Schumacher.
The main objectives of the seminar was to focus attention on the role of technology as a crucial instrument in promoting economic growth, consistent with social justice to ensure a reasonable livelihood for the masses of
India. It was pointed out that the Government of India and the United Nations have come to realize the importance of an appropriate level of
technology linked to rural unemployment. Following the Gandhian line of utilising simple machines for development in rural areas, the Appropriate Technology Unit would collect information about the indigenous and im-provished implements of the country, educate all categories of people and introduce such courses in engineering, colleges and other appropriate institutions for popularisation of appropriate technology geared to develop-ment, particularly in rural areas. The people in the villages would be imparted training in farming methods, conservation of water, basic indus-tries and crafts, besides undertaking simple preventive measures for arresting diseases. It is hoped that this Unit through its programmes of research education and information will give direction to the employment of the huge labour force of India, with small layout of capital and the installation of simple machines.
The Unit will also publish a journal and organise studygroups and collect documentation on selected appropriate technology and equipment.
Staff roll
Officers of the Institute
---Sri Nabakrushna Chaudhury Sri Jayaprakash Narayan Sri Radhakrishna
Professor Sugata Dasgupta Sri B. M. Pande
Professor V.K.R.V. Rao Dr. Bimal Prasad
Dr. Raj Krishna
Professor Sugata Dasgupta Sri B. N. Juyal
Sri R.K. Bhattacharjee Sri Talat Kamal
Sri M. Rafiq Khan Smt.Sudarshan Kumari Sri Ram Bhushan Sri S.V. Singh Sri S.P. Mittal Sri A.B. Singh Sri S. Sundaram Sri Om Prakash
Sri Ramesh Upadhyaya
2~E§!!~~g!_2f _~~Y£h212gy_§g~-~~~£§!i2g
Dr. B.B. Chatterjee Sri S.S. Singh Km. Saroj Mehrotra
Sri Om Prakash Srivastava
2~E~!!~~~!_2f _~£2~2~i£~
Dr. T.P. Singh Sri Amritananda Das Sri Brahmanand Sri L.M. Chandola Sri B.P. Pandey Sri G.S. Dubey 2~E§!!~~~!_£f _££1i!i£~1-~£!~~£~ Sri I. N. Tewary
Sri Mohd. Showeb
Chairman President Treasurer Director Registrar Honorary sciences Honorary national Honorary professor of professor of relations professor of
Professor and head senior research fellow Research fellow
"
"
"
"
"
"
II"
II"
"
II Research associate"
"
II Field assistantProfessor and head Research fellow Research assistant Research assistant.
Senior Research Fellow
11 II Research fellow " II II associate fell ow associate
"
Senior Research Fellow Research Fellow
social inter-economics
Cell on Indian Government and Politics Sri Nageshwar Prasad
Dr. V.R. Dutta
Senior Research fellow Research fellow
Sri N.C. Bose Sri Hanuman Prasad Sri Aqbal Singh Dr. D.R. Yadav
Sri R.K. Awasthi
Sri Sharada Prasad Singh
Vice-principal
Special Training Officer Lecturer
"
"
Assistant lecturer
1.!1?.!~!:i_~!_g.U
Sri Hira Rai Librarian
Sri Lakshmi Narain
~!~i~~!-~!5!:!:! Sri Nirmal Chandra Sri Manikant Roy
Sri Virendra Narayan Jha Sri Chandra Bhushan Thakur Sri Manikant Jha
7. Proposed activities 7.1. Institution building
Assistant librarian
The main thrust of this project is to build institutional links where-by theory - both technological and sociological - may be joined with practice in meeting some of the small industrial and other needs of the target area. The basis for this process will be the executing institutions and they will provide the platform on which the necessary new
institu-tions can develop. The purpose of choosing to build instituinstitu-tions is in order to provide continuity and permanence for the time when the out-side functioning and support is removed. The objective is to strengthen and broaden the institutional capability of the Gandhian Institute of Studies to enable it to undertake a deeper range of interdisciplinary rural analysis,problemsolving and extension work.
7. 1. 1. Support for the Appropriate Technology Develop~ent Unit.
The availability of works_!:hop facilities is a prime requisite for the technology component of this programme . At the
moment there is no such facility and it will be essential for such an institution to be developed. The workshop will be a part of the Appropriat1 Technology Development Unit. Its establishment will enable the manufacture and testing of prototype equipment the need for which has already been identified. (see sectoral plan for cottage and small industries - sec-tion 7. 5).
The method it will adopt will depend on the technical features of the particular industry and the economic and social constraints of the "client" community. Broadly,however, its work will adopt one of the fol-lowing approaches, although for any production process or equipment more than one of these approaches may be incorporated. It may scale down modern technology by reducing the throughput size and eliminating
the labour-saving devices; in most cases this will require a total re-design of the ~ant from which only the technical principles will be retained.
It may invent and/or develop entirely new machines, tools, equipment and processes in order to provide a technology for utilising local materials,
perhaps wastes. The purpose of this may be to add value to local raw materials at the local level rather than at some remote processing centre or to generate income or some other utility from an otherwise waste
resource. This approach will require genuine innovation in that there has been virtually no previous development work on such an approach to
technology.
It may redesign successful equipment in order to adapt it for village use. This is the approach usually implicit in the phrase "technology transfer11
and requires a fairly straight forward, if ingenious, adapta-tion of proven equipment for the constraints of village use - such as lack of maintenance facilities, or for village manufacture - perhaps by a blacksmith .
Having developed, and proved, appropriate designs it will assist existing institutions (and thereby reinforce and support their position - see
7. 1.3.) to set up new small scale industries. Although this may be thought of simply as a technological extension process, there will be a continuing need to adapt the technology to individual circumstances, in which
the economic and social viability of the designs are anticipated to figure more prominently than the technical performance. A crucial role for the w:>rkshop will be the technical 1 iaison one, of moni taring progress and quality and of increasing and improving production. This will give a 11
rolling programme11
nature to the activities of the work-shop and will ensure that socially appropriate technology is truly an organic growing concept.
Additionally the feedback emanating from the operating experience of the 1
'consumers1
'will generate new demands and specify new needs. The running of the workshop, and the extension dimension, will re-quire a staff of three engineers. Their salary will be paid by NUFFIC. The technicians, five in total, will be paid for partly by NUFFIC and partly by the Gandhian Institute. Initially the equipment require-ments will be deliberately liniited. I t will be better to allow the
technical facilities to grow with demand and opportunity rather than to equip a 11
white elephant11
; flexibility must be a keyword.
The roof of the workshop will be used as a solar-collector which Yill drive a generator and/or a waterpurrp.
If required engineers, technicians or other specialists from THE will assist the workshop staff, for short perioch. Additional costs, i f
For both training and study purposes research fellows will come to THE throughout the life of the project; the maximum duration of stay will be one year. Their travel expenses and salary will be paid by NUFFIC. On their return to India they will be employed in the Appropriate Technology Development Unit.
7. 1.2. Establishment of an information and documentation centre.
An information and documentation centre will be established to serve as a technical library for the Appropriate Development Unit. The centre will form one link in an international network of information centres in the field of socially appropriate technologies. Other centres at present are the TOOL Foundation and the Development Technology Centre
(D.T.C.) which is connected with the Institute of Technology, Bandung in Indonesia. A library of books and other documentation of appro-priate technology will be set up to provide a permanent reference institution. At the same time information on socially appropriate technologies in use and under development in India will be collected and systematically registered.The more generally applicable parts of this information will be published as a Directory of Appropriate Technology. There will be a continuing =xhange of information between the institutions mentioned above, otherdevelope& country information centre such as I.T.D.G. London, and the growing number of centres in
other regions of the developing world, for example the Technology Consultancy Centre in Kumasi, Ghana.
Headlines of the bulk of this information will be made available to institutions, groups and individuals involved in rural or techno-logical development in other parts of India by means of a journal which will be published regularly. The publication of the directory
and of the journal will be paid for by the A.T.D.U. which will be partly financed for this project by "Brat fur die Welt" - a West German funding agency. The establishment of the documentation and in-formation centre will be financed by the NUFFIC. It will include the cost of books, funds for subscriptions etc. the purchase price and running costs of a photo-copying machine. In order to set up a do-cumentation system in the centre a Dutch dodo-cumentation officer will be appointed for two years. After this two year period the work will be taken over by an Indian counterpart.
On the moment that the proposal is supplied to the NUFFIC, negotiations are held with the Netherlands Volunteers, to send a documentalist
through the S.N.V.
The TOOL foundation as the main centre on 8ocially Appropriate Tech-nology will supply the A.T.D.U all the information in this field. The administration cost for this service will be paid by NUFFIC.
7.1.3. Creation of a mobile extension service unit
It is necessary to create a link between the workshop facility and those institutions already involved in rural extension work in the villages. The mobile extension service unit will play and active part in introducing socially appropriate technologies to the client commu-nities. It is, of course, intended that the equipment or machinery made or adapted in the workshop is for use in the villages. It will,
however, be advisable to have an intermediate proving site before mass introduction to the villages. This will allow the testing of prototypes under actual field conditions. This stage can be carried out in conjunction with the small industry, training centre SEWA-PURI and some selected villages in the study area in Ghazipur through the link with the organisation of the rural poor':,
After the technologies have been tested in these places and if necessary modified, extension may take place in a large number of suitable villages. For this purpose the mobile extension service unit will be essential .
The mobile extension team will be based on the workshop and will pro-vide technical assistance to staff, workers of other organisations such as G.I.S. or the Indian government, and direct to village groups in those villages where there is no adequate extension coverage. The area in which it will work is described in section 7.3, and its work will be mainly c~ncerned with improvements or innovations for
the cottage and small industries described in section 7.5.
Its principle task will be assist the local craftsman, entrepreneur or village group to install the equipment and to operate it or connnence production. It will also have the function of publishing and demon-strating the potential of new or improved technologies by demonstration of the equipment at work and presentation of the financial, or other, benefits to be expected from its adaption.
The manpower requirements of this unit will be drawn from the work-shop staff, perhaps supplemented by volunteers and students from India and the Netherlands. A fully equipped cross-country vehicle will be essential; the financing of this is provided for in the funds requested from NUFFIC.
7.2. Previous survey of the study research
The extension part of the project is partly concerned with assistance to the project "organisation of the rural poor".
It is expected that this project also will get support from the S.V.O.S. and via the foundation TOOL from the dutch government. This project is situated in the Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh. A study team of the four organising organisations: ICFTU-Asian Regional Organisation New Delhi, Gandhian Institute of Studies, Varanasi, the Appropriate Tech-nology Development Unit and the Indian Development Group U.K. carried out a study on this area, collected data and other information. Some of
their findings are given in section 7.3.
7.3. Description of the study area Location:
Ghazipur (25°191
- 25054' N and 3304' - 85°581 E) is one of the eastern
most districts of Uttar Pradesh, bordering the Bhojpur and Rohtas dis-tricts of Bihar, from which it is separated by the Ganga and Karmanasha rivers. Along with district Azamgarh to the north, Ballia to the north east, Jaunpur to the west (and Deoria) it forms the "core" of the back-ward region of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Ghazipur is one of the five
dis-trict units comprising the Varanasi Administrative Divison; and it is, as a matterof empirical fact, in the regional hinterland of Varanasi city.
The conch-shell shaped district (area:3,371.2 sq.km) is divided into 4 Tehsils (sub-divisions); from west to east: Saidpur, Ghazipur, Mohamma-dabad, in the north of the river Ganga, and Zamanie to the south. Since the Zamania Tehsil is out off by the river, this substantially reduces its viability as a district unit. Again, the general movement patterns for economic activities and higher order services from the Saidpur Tehsil is more towards Varanasi than the district town of Ghazipur.The Ghazi-pur Tehsil, which is the smallest of all the four (area 672.9 sq.km)
occupies the proximate center. So does the Ghazipur Block and the Ghazipur town. On the map it is a neat arrangement but being a riverine tract, distortions occur in terms of connectivity and actual travelling time and distances.
The chunk of twenty villages which have been selected for the proposed pilot project for the organisation of rural poor and for which this inte-grated development plan is being prepared, comes within the jurisdiction of Ghazipur Tehsil. There has been shuffling and reshuffling of the different block boundaries in the district during the last decade. The study area was previously in the Ghazipur Block but now it has been
transferred to the Karanda Block. However, these villages are situated in the close proximity of the N.H.29 which connects Varanasi and the Ghazipur town. Kusumih Kalan, one of the important villages of the pilot area, is almost in the middle of Ghazipur town and Nand Ganj - a gro-wing marketcentre. The distance between these two places is about 20 kilometers. The selected area is in the west of Ghazipur and east of Nand Ganj. River Gangi flows through the project villages.
Karanda (corresponding to Karanda Pargana) includes villages north of Gangi which for the purpose of this report has been identified as the Kusumih Kalan sub-region. These villages in this sub-region are cut off
from Karanda by Gangi and as mentioned above are connected with Ghazi-pur and Nand Ganj as narrated above for all social and economic services. Like Kusumih Kalan sub-region there are other sub-regions in the Karan-da Block. These regions and sub-regions bear some of the connnon charac-teristics of the Ghazipur district, but they differ widely in many res-pects. They not only differ in land and social conditions, socio-economic characteristics and dominance dependence patterns, but also call for a different order of development priorities.
Geographical characteristics
These villages are situated within the fold of the Gangetic plain which is a featureless plain of homogenous level and whose formation is ex-tensively Gangetic alluvium.
The soil is generally fertile. The nearby flowing rivers are the Ganga and the Gangi. Ganga has vast potential of lift irrigation while Gangi is just a rivulet and has no existing or potential irrigational use whatsoever, unless, of course, an effort is made to introduce some
sui-table project for tapping the water resources for fruitful utilisation. The soils are of most inferior quality in this area. The drainage system is defective and the problem of sar (Saline Soil) is very pronounced. The district is in a region of high precipitation (the average rainfall of the decennium 1951-61 being 108.3") and it would appear that in rain-fall it is on the safe side.
However, operative questions are : (i) imbalances both in space and time - nearly 90% df precipitation is in rainy season within a span of
45-60 days (at times 30 or more cm in 24 hours); most of it is drained and consequently there is shortage of water and moisture for Rabi culti-vation; (ii) it is variable and unreliable and KHARIF cultivation usually starts amidst uncertainties; (iii) frost and cyclonic rains may damage standing Rabi crops; (iv) not only summer crops are difficult , but extreme dry conditions for most part of the year cause considerable imbalances in well and tubewell irrigation. Seasonal abnormalities are treated as an essential reason for distress and backwardness. Demographic and socio-economic characteristics
Total population of the project villages is 17,528 comprising 8,904 males and 8,624 females according to 1971 census.
The sex ratio has been fluctuating in the past, due to migration of males but in this census, males have outnumbered the females. Between
1961-71, there was a 20.00 percent increase in the Block population: 19. 1% for rural and 22.8% for the urban. A villagewise look at the per-centage change (1961-71) in the project area shows wide range of varia-tion from 8.69% to 57. 14% but majority of the villages had populavaria-tion increase much higher than 20 per cent. Population projection of the
district and Gttazipur Block (at that time project area was within Ghazipur Block) indicates a formidable rise in population by 1981. The district-ij one 6f-the highest density areas in the state; 39l persons per sq.km (1,015 per sq.miles in 1961), 453 per sq.km in 1971 and Ghazipur Tehsil has the highest density within the district (429 per sq.km or 1,111 per sq.mile). For Ghazipur Block (rural area only), it works out to 422.3 persons per sq.km.
The age structure of the rural population of Ghazipur Block given in table I below shows that it has a youthful population; it is typical of the district and region population
Table 1 - Age structure (number and percentage), 1971, Ghazipur Block.
Age (years) 0 - 14 15 - 59 above 60 total Rural population persons 60.7 (44. 2) 66.6 (48.6) 9.9 (7. 2) 137.2 (100.0) (in thousands) male female 31. 9 28.8 (46. I) (42.5) 32.3 34.3 (46.5) (50.6) 5.2 4.7 (7.6) (6.9) 69.4 67,8 (JOO.O) (100.0)
Kusumih Kalan sub-region is one of the three sub-regions of Ghazipur Block which was later segregated into Karanda Block. The age-structure shown in the above table is also representative of the project area un-der study.
Like Ghazipur district, the sub-region under study is also predominant-ly inhabited by the Hindus. Out of the 2,587 households in the project area only 198 households are Muslims, all others are Hindus. The major caste composition is shown in the following table.
S 1. no 2 3 4 5 6 7 Kalan sub-region Castes Brahmin Kshatriya Yadav Bind Harijan
Muslims (mainly wea-vers) Others (village ser-vice castes, artisans etc.) Number of households 59 163 341 734 598 198 494 totaal 2,587
This is basically an area of the scheduled and backward castes; upper caste population is in a minority. Harijans and Binds form the bulk of the agricultural labourers.
The ratio of Hindus and Muslims in the districr is 91.8 to 8.2. The scheduled castes constitute 18. 1% of the population. Among the scheduled castes constitute 18. 1% of the population. Among the scheduled castes, the Chamars, who form the bulk of the landless agricultural labour, ac-count for 19.58 per cent of the rural population in the Block; and 9.8% of the urban population, that is, Ghazipur town.
The joint family institution is still prevalent in the study area. The average household size of the project area is 6.8 as per the 191 Census whichis a little less than the Block average 7.4 in the same reference year. The average size in 1961 in the district was 6.44 in rural areas and 5.57 in urban areas. The same increasing trend is in evidence since 1941. The household size tends to be higher among the land owning castes, especially in those cases where some of the male members are in service. It is generally small in the case of the
Literacy
The overall literacy percentage for the Block area is 23% (male 36% and female 9%) while for the Kusumih Kalan subregion it is only 16%
(29% male and female 4%) in 1'971. The literacy percentage for the study area like the Block has registered a faster rate of increase but in no way it can be treated as a big change. However, at the village level literacy ratios· are directly related to the social or caste composition of the population. Literacy and school-attendance are low in the villages in which middle and low status groups are predominant.
Occupation
According to 1971 population Census data only 27.20% of the total popu-lation in Kusumih Kalan sub-region were workers, and 72.80% were
non-workers . Workers are mainly engaged in four types of occupations in the study area.
Out of the total 4,758 workers, there are 3,071 cultivators, 1,137 agricultural labourers, 213 household industry workers, and 337 persons in other services.
In 1971, the distribution of workers was 88% primary, 5% secondary and 7% tertiary (according to the Colin Clark classification). The sharp decline in secondary sector is indicative of the decline of household industries, such as, Olighani, earthen pottery, and handloom weaving. It is important to note that the dependence on agriculture has progres-sively increased as compared to 1961 distribution, which means progress is not accompanied by an intra-sectoral diversification, such as farming to village industries.
Land holding size and land utilisation pattern
In the Block (as in the district) small and marginal farmers are pre-dominant. As many as 66 per cent of the farm households operate a farm size of less than 1 hectare; and 86.2 per cent (including less than 1 hectare farmer) less than 2 hectares. However, in the study area farmers with a landholding upto J hectare are 624. per cent and less than 2 hectares (inclusive of 1 hectare) 86.2 per cent of the cultivating house-holds and 71.4 per cent of all the househouse-holds in the area. Compared
to the percentage of small and marginal farmers in the BLock their percentage in the study area is the same. Of all rural households in India, small and marTinal farmers represent 52 percent and agricultural labourers 24 percent • According to the definition now adopted, small farmers are those having holding between I and 2 hectares in irrigated areas and between 1 and 3 hectares in dry areas and marginal farmers are those having holdings of one hectare and below2 .
J. Interim Report on the National Commission on Agriculture on Reorientation of Programmes of Small Farmers and Marginal farmers and Agricultural labourers Development Agencies, Government of 1ndia, Ministry of Agricul-ture, New Delhi, August 1973, P.7
Table 3 - Distribution of households by size of land holding, 1971
Land size in hectares no. of percentage of
house- household farm household
holds landless 444 17. 2 NA Up to 1 hectare 1338 51. 7 62.4 1.00 to ]. 99 hectares 509 19.7 23.8 2.00 to 3.99 hectares 208 8.0 9.7 4.99 to 7.99 hectares 77 3.0 3.6
8.00 hectares and above 11 0.44 0.5
Total (all households) 2587 100.00 NA
Total (farm households) 2143 NA 100.00
Housing_
According to 1971 Census, in the district of Ghazipur, households with 5 or more rooms accounted for 29.4 per cent with 3 rooms 19.4 per cent, with
2 rooms 19.4 per cent and with I room 16.4 per cent. The remaining 15.4 per cent had no rooms. This indicates the accute housing problem in the area which is mainly related to the problems of low income and poverty. The average density per room was 2 in both villages and towns. Mud is still a predominant material for construction of house walls and tiles for roofing. In the past, earthen pottery had predominance over all types of village industries. But a shift towards brick walls, lintalled roofs is inc re as i ngly seen in the vi 1-lages. In the study area every household has its own house; therefore, there is no homestead problem. Poor people do not own spacious and pucca houses but simultaneously there is not muuh congestion and slum-like-atmosphere. Household income
There is no reliable source of income data at the microlevel, therefore, a sample study of income pattern was conducted in 2 sample villages represen-ting the study area and in all 74 households wE::re surveyed from among the dif-ferent categories of households inhabitating these villages. Five broad cate-gories were adopted for the purpose of income analysis. The average annual income per household with various sources of income has been analysed in table 4 given below.
Table 4 - Average annual invome per household of small farmers, marginal farmers, and landless agricultural labourers (1972-73).
Type of household Sample Average Income Income Income
house/ annual from earned from other
holds income agri- as agri- sources
culture cultural labours I. medium farmers 8 10,273 5,429 4,844 (2-8 hectares) (934) 2. small farmers 8 3,434 2,755 679 ( 1-2 hectares) (381) 3. marginal farmers 48 I, 895 805 270 820 (having land (316) holdings upto I hectare) 4. Landless agricul- 6 1,310 210 1, 100 tural labourers (262) 5. landless miscel- 4 1, 365 1, 365 laneous workers (27 3)
Figures in parentheses show per capita annual income
Approach paper on Fifth Five Year Plan, Uttar Pradesh, p.3, has given pro-visional per capita income at current prices Rs.515/- and of India Rs.589/-in 1969-70. KeepRs.589/-ing this fact Rs.589/-in view, it can be said that small farmers, marginal farmers and landless agricultural labourers in the study area have their income much less in comparison to State or national per capita income. Again, if "Approach to the Fifth Five Year Plan" document (published in June
1972) is taken into consideration, rs.37/- per capita per mensem is needed to maintain a reasonable minimum level of living. In other words, Rs.444/- will be needed by a person in a year to have a reasonable minimum level of living. Thus, from every point of consideration the above four indentified groups of rural poor have a vulnerable level of living. Inter-group comparisons of the income of rural poor show that landless agricultural workers are worst off. Marginal farmers and landless agricultural labourers are below the
pover-ty line whose socio-economic condition is deplorable. With certain exceptions so is the case of ot l:er landless miscellaneous workers in the rural sector of the study area. Most of them are village service caste like washerman, barber, etc. The income position of the medium farmer's households IB satis-factory, the reason behind this fact is that their earning from agriculture is considerably high on the one hand, and their earning from other sources than agriculture is also substantial on the other. The income of medium farmers households is manifold higher than the small farmers, marginal farmers and
It will be rather interesting to make a reference of the findings of an unpublished study on rural poverty conducted in five sample villages of the Ghazipur district by the Gandhian Institute of Studies, for Dr. M.L. Dantwala, the well known Indian economist. In all 160 sample poor households were
studied comprising those households who, either have a landholding of 5 acres or less or have no land i.e. landless. The distribution of these households according to the per capita income, as per the findings of this study has been as given in the tabular form below.
Table 5
Total no. of sample households
Households 160 percentage 100
(no. of household)
classification according to per capita income per mensum (1973-74
Rs. 15 or less Rs. 16-30 Rs.31-40 Rs.41 and above
24 69 30 37
18 40 19 23
The analysis of the above table makes it clear that among the rural population who have a land holding of 4 acres or less or are landless are preponderably below the poverty line. Here the percentage of the poor below the poverty
line is as high as 87 per cent of the sample. Both the sample studies, dis-cussed above, have reached the same conclusion.
7.4. The development process and participation of the poor
From the description of the socio-economic pattern in the area, it is evident that within a backward region the small and marginal farmers, agricultural labourers and some of the artisan groups as well as som e of the service caste group form the bulk of the rural poor.
So long planning for rural development has been conceptualized and con-cretized in the shape of certain recognisable sectors of public
invest-ment. After the Second Five Year Plan the growing food shortages led to a certain kind of ad hoc thinking in which agricultural development becomes almost synonymous with rural development. The strategy of
in-tensive agricultural area development and the package programme which is upposed to be the harbinger of so called "green revolution", was based on the hypothesis that as agricultural development proceeds it will create newer demands for goods and services which will bring up
other sectors of rural economy. The hypothesis in fact was derived from what is called the percolation effect. However, the last few years
conclusive evidence has already been produced to show that the theory has not worked. An outstanding example is that, generally speaking
the increase in agricultural production and prices have not led to any corresponding increases in farm wages.
The other fond expectation that did not come through was the theory of "participation". It was commonly understood that participation was neu-tral to a host of structural factors, that it was possible to make people participate in the developmental process through dissemination of infor-mation and other educational methods like demonstrations, exhibitions etc. There is also conclusive evidence to prove that participation is not neu-tral to structural factors. The process was further vitiated by the fact that the progranme inputs whether in agricultural development or industrial financing or even in medical care, were not available in the universal criteria. In other words, the inputs fall short of the demand once the programme became a running concern, thus giving scope for the influence system to grow around these services, whereby a few influential persons, acting in collusion with the development bureaucracy, decided who gets what. This naturally acted to the detriment of the rural poor. Yet another assumption which ultimately proved to be fallacious was that
the village represented some sort of a community, a collective represen-tation of the interest needs, aspirations of the entire village popu-lation and that ona>basic infrastructure inputs are provided the entire population have a fair chance of receiving their benefits. Here again the factors of status, power and influence supervened and even in the matter of distribution of irrigation water of tubewells and canals the village influentials corner most of the supplies. The same process has operated even in the distribution of certain facilities like medical care, emergency relief, etc.
As already stated agricultural development forms the most crucial element what goes on in the name of rural developr;-ient. The bias of "green
revo-lution" in favour of the bigger cultivator is well known. The problem is that the strategy of green revolution not only leaves out the small and
marginal farmers, but a large proportion of the rural population is not directly tied to the farm economy, on the other hand the demand for goods and services that modern agriculture generates, leads to the displacement of the various artisan groups traditionally associated with the servicing of the agricultural, economy.
As far as other sectors of the rural economy are concerned, the investment outlays are relatively insignifican~excepting some schemes of training of artisans - which mostly remained on paper - there are no schemes operation for upgrading the household industries through technological innovation or credit and market servicing. In the service sector, helped by superior educational and influence status, the rural rich very easily corner most of the opportunities and, since agriculture can still be car-ried on with the help of low paid farm labour, the land owning classes can easily perform a dual role both in the farm and service sector. From the foregoing analysis it is very clear that the existing elitists plans do not intend to or at least practically fail to cater to the de-velopmental needs of the rural poor who are low not only on economic status but social and power status as well. The problem of planning for them has to be tackled both at the programmatic level as well as organi-sational level.
There is a basic agreement among the development scientists, who want to tackle the problem of poverty in a direct manner, that a massive programme of rural work is the only way out of providing relief to the uneducated, unskilled mass rural population. The contrary view is that at the take-off point (where some people believe Indian economy is)the country can ill afford to divert resources for such relief and amelio-rative programmes. In addition, it is also argued that such investment causes inflationary trend. As a result of the dilemma in which the policy makers found themselves, the election eve (1971) crash programmes of rural employment also went crashing to the ground. Without denying the validity of the seemingly opposite point of view, the problem can be resolved by identifying such rural workers projects which will strengthen the agricultural production base and whose gestation period will be re-latively short.
At the organisation level, Ministry of Agriculture initiated two types of agencies - a) Small Farmers Development Agency (SFDA) and b) Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Labourers Agency (MFAL) which are working on pilot project basis in limited proceed;; all over the country. There are several programmes under the above agencies for raising standard of living of rural poor through a prescribed production based developmental proces-ses. How far rural poor have been benefited under these schemes is yet to be analysed and propagated.
From the above discussion, it is evident that the participation of the rural poor in the developmental processes was limited and they were mostly cornered by the village influentials and did not receive their
7.5. Sectoral plan for cottage and small industries
Assistance will mainly be given to the)sectoral plan for cottage and small industries. The basic elements of this plan are given below. 7.5. 1. Objectives and methods
The main focus of industrial plan is to increase the employment level and income of the poorest of the population of the region under study by modernisation of the existing units, or identifying new units based on techno-economic appraisal of the resources, skills and demand for manufactured goods and commodities in the area. The subsidiary objective
adopted is to suggest industrial plans for rehabilitation of the groups of the traditional artisans and rural processers affected in the economic transition by upgrading technology used or by providing channels of
mobility from traditional to new sectors by extending opportunities for use of their skills, values and aptitudes.
The ultimate objective of rural industrialisation may be summed up in the philosophy of achieving a self-supporting, balanced growth by provi-ding employment to the surplus labour in the village-based
agro-industries and thus releasing the bursting demographic pressures of surplus labour in the countryside. It is presumed that industriali-sation would offer that economic independence, without which political independence may prove a snare and a delusion.
This can be only feasible practical solution of the problem of migration (pull or push) to the town areas, resulting into the solution of the over-crowding or excess of labour supply in the urban areas causing mulitple problems of labour management.
Methods of analysis and planning: a survey of all three types of indu-stries, large and small scale, on a census basis and cottage scale on sample basis, was undertaken in the study area. Reconaissance survey of the industrial conditions in the area, evaluation of industrial develop-ment efforts under various agencies and detailed discussions with the
related authorities were also conducted. On the basis of industrial develop-ment potential in the area, block and the district, a few proposals for industrial development has been made for the area under study.
7.5.2. Industrial profile of the block
In order to have an industrial prospective view of the area under study, it is essential to examine industrial profile of the block and the district, of which this area is an integral part. The industrial profile of the
block, as of the district, is very unsatisfactory. There are no mineral or forest resources in the block or district.
However, the area has had a tradition of household/artisan based indu-stries.
