Khabar Lahariya

How a UP Village Is Still Grappling With a Curable Disease Like Pneumonia

Unavailability of medical services is consigning a patient to a death sentence.

Kandeha, Bundelkhand: Shivbali Singh, a resident of Kandeha in Bundelkhand, is not amused when he is told about the ‘World Pneumonia Day’ which was on November 12.

“Instead of celebrating these special days, the government needs to do a lot of ground-level work to understand how to eradicate the disease in areas such as ours which have high prevalence,” he told us.

Semiya Devi, a 30-year-old resident of the village in Mau block of Chitrakoot district in Uttar Pradesh, has suffered recurring episodes of pneumonia from a young age. As she spoke to us about the debilitating effects of the disease, her despair made her seem older than her years. “I experience severe cough and breathing issues and when this peaks at 4 in the morning, I am not able to sleep,” Devi said and added that the fever usually lasted for at least a month before subsiding with the help of medicines, only to return again later.

She does not know as to why her condition has not been fully and permanently treated. “Till now, we must have spent over Rs 80-90,000 on treatment and have gone for treatment to Allahabad, Karwi, and local nursing homes,” she said. “Despite the medicine, I don’t get relief, especially when my problems peak at 4 in the morning.”

Also read: Pneumonia Kills a Child Every 39 Seconds, Health Agencies Say

Many people, both old and young, in Kandeha complain of suffering from pneumonia. There were reports of four children and six adults suffering from pneumonia on the day Khabar Lahariya visited the village. The number of those afflicted with the disease fluctuates throughout the year.

The village also defies many popular misconceptions about the disease: that it occurs more frequently during childhood, that it is a one-off occurrence and that it occurs more often in the winter. Kandeha has no pneumonia-free season. Its residents have received little or no support from the local government health centres, and are forced to spend money on medicines and consultations at private pharmacies and hospitals, over generations of recurrent illness.

Pneumonia is a leading cause of death and the leading infectious disease killer worldwide, responsible for an estimated 2.6 million deaths in 2017, according to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD). Most of these deaths (75%) are concentrated within two populations: 809,000 deaths were of children under five years and 1.1 million deaths were of adults aged over 70 years.

Since 2000, India has consistently had the highest number of pneumonia and diarrhoea deaths amongst children under five years of age and childhood pneumonia contributes to 17.1% of IMR. The incidence of adult pneumonia, though less documented in government records, is reported to have risen by more than 100% in India in the past three decades.

Sixty-year-old Kamaliya Devi, prostrate on a bench, is a testament to the severity of the disease among the aged. “I suffer from severe cough, cold, and difficulty in breathing, and also experience tightness and swelling of joints. Since I cannot visit the hospital frequently, I get medicines from the ‘store’ which cost a lot of money but are not very beneficial,” Devi said. She contracts the disease in any season, and can only speculate as to why it is recurring. “Sometimes it’s caused by drinking water from other places,“ she said.

Vinod Kumar Yadav, the chief medical officer of Chitrakoot district spoke to Khabar Lahariya at length about the training given to the village ANM (Auxiliary Nurse Midwife) and ASHA (Auxiliary Social Health Activist) workers for detecting cases of pneumonia. This training, however, was more to do with prevention than treatment – early-stage detection of the disease in new-borns, checking for the status of breath, temperature etc.

When asked about the prevalence of pneumonia in the district, he responded by saying “We see very few cases of pneumonia, and whenever any are detected, patients are sent to the hospital.” He didn’t have any specific information about Kandeha.

While the CMO stuck to the official line – that the government does keep an eye on pneumonia – he didn’t acknowledge any of the ground realities. On the ground, there is a serious lack of support at the local government health centres and hospitals for patients of pneumonia.

Also read: In Uttar Pradesh, Healthcare Reforms Are Far From Reaching Hospital, Patients

Keerti, a 22-year-old pneumonia patient and mother of a six-month-old child said, “I don’t go to government hospitals for treatment because there is no point”. Keerti’s mother-in-law spoke with prejudice about the young woman and said, “If we had known that she suffered from this condition, we would never have gotten her married into the family”.

Uttar Pradesh has had the second-highest number of reported deaths from pneumonia at 78,470 in the country, as of 2017. None of the villagers we spoke to had received hospitalisation, no matter how serious their cases were. The data also reflects this reality – more than half of the children with severe pneumonia in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar do not receive required medical care, according to a survey conducted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Pneumococcal Vaccine (PCV), which prevents the most common form of pneumonia in children, was introduced as late as 2017 and many children are still not receiving their full schedules.

In a world where diseases like tuberculosis and pneumonia are curable and no longer have to consign a patient to a death sentence, Khandeha in Bundelkhand is symbolic of the extent to which this region has to travel to keep up with the smart and digital nation. It is no wonder that Shivbali Singh was impatient and dismissive of World Pneumonia Day.

Khabar Lahariya is a rural, video-first digital news organisation with an all-women network of reporters in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh.

In Rural UP, the Fight For Alimony Can Stretch to Two Decades

What keeps most women off the uphill battle are mounting legal expenses through this time.

Geeta has been separated from her husband for the past 18-19 years. Life has been much the same for her since her short-lived marriage.

Though legally divorced and entitled to alimony payments from her husband for herself and her children, Geeta’s husband has not given her a single penny. Legal battles and countless visits to the police station later, the situation has remained much the same.

What is worse, several of Geeta’s belongings are still at her husband’s house. Even though police have records of these possessions, there is no way she can get them back.

Geeta. Photo: Khabar Lahariya

“I have been treated like a slave since the first day of my marriage. I took care of the house but even my basic necessities were not looked after. He would only come and beat me up at night,” says Geeta.

Like Geeta, many women who may have escaped a life of abuse with a divorce, now lead bleak and uncertain lives with no financial help from their former husbands.

In the Banda Family Court alone, from where Geeta is fighting her case, there are 707 cases pending since 2015. Most of them relate to the recovery of alimony payments. The legal process is tiring and involves spending substantial legal expenses, time and energy. Then, there is the social taboo of being a divorced woman.

“I find it difficult to get by even now. People often tease me,” says Geeta, whose problems are compounded by children who do not support her, emotionally or financially.

“My son has started bothering me for money and says he wants to go back to his father. The man earlier used to deny that he was even his son,” she says.

Maya. Photo: Khabar Lahariya

In what is a travesty of women’s condition in India, Geeta’s is not the worst case scenario. Maya, also from Banda, experienced not just abuse and insult at the hands of her former husband, but had to witness the brutal murder of her own sister who was also married to the same family, at the hands of her in-laws.

After harassing and beating the sisters everyday for dowry, the family burnt Maya’s sister alive. That day, Maya filed a complaint with the police. The case was won but the monthly payments never came. “I have been fighting the case for the past 20 years. Although it is in my favour, I have not received any money. Once, a women’s rights group, Vanagana, got involved in the case and caught him, so he paid some money,” says Maya.

“After filing the first complaint against my sister’s murder, I moved to Panna and then to Satna for safety. But as I couldn’t support myself, my brother brought me back home to Banda. Since then, I have fought four cases and one of them is in progress now. My husband had also filed a case against me in Panna, which I won but it cost me Rs 7,000 in legal charges.”

Maya’s lawyer cannot lobby for her any further because she has no money to bear further legal expenses.

Steep legal expenses are also one of the biggest problems confronting women. According to Shabeena Mumtaaz, a social worker with Vanagana, legal expenses are one of the biggest hindrances affecting women’s decisions to file a case. “They say that it is a choice for them to either earn from a day’s labour or come to court and spend on travel,” says Mumtaaz.

Vanagana provides free legal expenses and compensation for travel in cases relating to divorce, abuse under IPC’s Section 498, dowry and so on. “But there is a limit as to how much support we can provide and even a lawyer’s honorary services are also limited to a certain period,” she says.

According to the law ministry, more than seven lakh divorce cases were awaiting adjudication in courts at the end of December 2017. Of these, Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of pending cases at 2,64,409 which is 38% of the national total. Pre-divorce proceedings take a long time because of the thrust of family courts in the country to promote ‘conciliation’ and discourage the ‘breaking down of the institution of marriage’.

Also read: Abandoned Women Vastly Outnumber Victims of Triple Talaq and It’s Time Modi Spoke Up for Them

Claiming support after divorce is also a tough battle because of the lack of cooperation by the police, according to Banda lawyer Nyay Ahmed. He says, “Often police report that the perpetrator of violence or the husband is not traceable, has changed his location, or that they cannot afford the payments.”

The degree of pendency of divorce cases is family cases, the circuitous battles women have to fight post-divorce begs the question if the recent bills that supposedly emancipate women from such struggles take too myopic a view of the situation. This, of course, is a predicament not restricted to women of one faith or community.

Khabar Lahariya is a rural, video-first digital news organisation with an all-women network of reporters in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh.

How Much Freedom Did the Triple Talaq Bill Bring for Muslim Women?

“If the husband of a woman goes to jail, what will the wife depend on for her livelihood and where lies her freedom?” asked lawyer Sadhana Dwivedi.

Banda (Uttar Pradesh): Subi Begum was waiting outside the Banda civil court for the hearing of a case she has been fighting for years. “I feel at peace when I think that now a husband cannot just give a talaq at whim. He has to be wary of the consequences and will think twice,” she said.

She went on to say that previously, a man could just give a triple talaq via mobile or in writing. “It had become a game for them, where the threat lay in everyday conversations,” she said, adding that a man should not be allowed to leave a wife and marry multiple times. “When a man gives talaq, our blood boils and we feel our life withdrawing from our bodies. But how would men understand this?” she said.

Subi is a Muslim woman who had married a Hindu man against her family’s wishes, only to discover his abusive traits later. Taking advantage of her Muslim identity, he would constantly threaten to give her an instant talaq, which she refused to accept. Finding herself trapped with nowhere to go, after several negotiations, she was allowed to live in a separate room with her daughter in her in-law’s house.

Khabar Lahariya spoke to several women like Subi for whom the recent passage of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019 was significant. The Bill has been hailed as a great achievement for gender justice in Indian history and may have given temporary reprieve to Muslim women from the prospect of a sudden abandonment of marriage. However, it still left the future of several women uncertain.

Watch | Salman Khurshid On Triple Talaq Bill: Why Not Strengthen Muslim Law Instead?

Shabeena Mumtaz, a social worker in Banda, pointed out that there was no freedom for women as long as they were still trapped within the confines of the marriage. “What is the point when the talaq is not acknowledged but the husband is sent to jail?” she asked. “The woman will be under the control of her in-laws, who will harass her, both mentally and physically.”

Shabeena further went on to say that owing to the patriarchal mindset prevalent in India that discriminates against ‘separated’ women, the woman cannot go back to her parent’s house either. “It also needs to be specified how the husband will support the woman after going to jail,” she said.

Sadhana Dwivedi, a lawyer, said that the idea of freedom for women warrants the question of how it can be sustained. “If the husband of a woman goes to jail, who will the wife depend on for her livelihood and where lies her freedom then?” she said. Dwidevi said that this freedom would be hard to digest, considering the unfavourable and ambiguous circumstances.

“In fact, the woman will get harassed even more for sending her husband to jail and will have to face the torture of her in-laws,” she said. “If cancer is growing in your body and you don’t cut it off, is it not fatal?”

“The husband and the wife will neither live together nor be allowed to separate,” she added.

Nyaz Ahmed, another lawyer in Banda, said that the issue of separation and reconciliation remained largely unaddressed. “The onus for reporting to the police lies with the wife or blood relatives,” he said, and asked what would happen once the husband returns.

“Will the husband accept his wife after coming back from jail and will the wife be able to live with him too?” he asked, saying that the law needed to be reexamined. “The problem is faced by just 5-10% of women, in all religions. One should make a law for all religions. It is not right to apply rules for just one religion.”

“By bringing a civil issue under the ambit of criminal law, what will be the effect on the woman and her family?” he asked, adding that it was uncertain whether this law was in solidarity with Muslim women or designed to send Muslim men to jail. “We only wanted the end of talaq-e-biddat, but not by making it a criminal offence,” he said. “Marriages need to be compulsorily registered in all states, so that the divorces can be mediated under the general marriage laws in the county.”

The district head of Banda’s BJP unit, Lovlesh Singh, in response to allegations about the political motivations behind a law for a particular religion, said, ““Where is the question of religion here? If my sister or my daughter is suffering due to the threat of triple talaq, and this is taken away, where is the question of religion? Where are we saying that you cannot read namaz?”

Also read | ‘Complete Charade’: Activists, Civil Society Groups Condemn Triple Talaq Bill

Amongst the non-Muslim communities, the view that prevailed was that a simple criminal prohibition was an end-all solution. Kanti Pandey, a resident of Banda, said, “Now, a woman will be able to lead a good life with her husband and kids.” She further said, “Sometimes men act on their whims – even when the salt or spice in the food is not good, they can spring a ‘triple talaq’ on the wife anytime. Now, this will stop and the man will start understanding the wife’s role a bit more.”

But for women like Anwari, the fight has taken an ugly turn.

She has been an unwelcome guest in her extended family’s house after her husband gave her a triple talaq a decade ago. She is still battling the case out in courts. Though the bill’s passage cannot reverse the struggles she has and will continue to go through, she said, “I feel content that now the man will stay at home and take care of his family.”

Khabar Lahariya is a rural, video-first digital news organisation with an all-women network of reporters in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Rural Electrification Still a Distant Dream for Some Uttar Pradesh Villages

Though meters were installed over a year ago, around 50 houses in the Gujwa Majra village have never been connected to the electric grid.

Gujwa Majra, Chitrakoot: Turgwan Gram Panchayat’s Gujwa Majra village stands as an example of how hastily drawn conclusions of 100% rural electrification are misleading. Around 50 houses in the Gujwa Majra village have never been connected to the electric grid despite the meters having been installed over a year ago.

“The meters have been installed for a year but there is no electricity supply. We are poor and cannot even afford Rs 40 for kerosene oil to light lamps,” said a resident of the village, Medki Devi. There are several such villages in Chitrakoot, that are also recognised as forest villages, which are still without electrification.

Launched in September 2017 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Saubhagya scheme had a target to electrify all ‘willing’ households in the country by March 2019. According to government data, of the 26.04 million households targeted under the scheme, 99.93% or 26.02 million households had received an electricity connection by March 31. The remaining 0.07% or 18,820 households, yet to receive last-mile electricity connectivity, are in Chattisgarh.

However, the village of Gujwa Majra has not been electrified completely. Sunil Kumar, a high school student, claimed that several students, including him, used the light from household chulhas to study. “In the evening, we can study for only a couple of hours as there is no other source of light. If I am not able to study, I will not be able to pass this year’s exams,” he said.

Also read | Modi Announces 100% Electrification – But That Doesn’t Mean Everyone Has Power

Medka Devi also said that, due to the installed meters, electricity bills were being sent to some homes. “When there is no electricity, why should we pay the bill?” she said and added that around 250-300 people in her village were forced to live in darkness.

“We have to eat in the dark to save the high costs of oil lamps. There could be snakes and worms around the food that we cannot see. I have two school-going daughters who study using the chimney light because we are not able to afford kerosene oil every day,” she said.

Shanti, another resident of the village, also expressed how difficult conditions became in the evening. “We cook food using the light from torches. My son is not able to study at night,” she said.

Harimani claimes that, after multiple requests, officials assured the residents that lines and poles would be laid out in a few months to electrify the village. “But then, nobody listens to us after. If we have light, our bore wells would work and children would be able to study for more hours,” she said and added that a generator costing Rs 10,000-20,000 had to be hired using a loan during weddings. “We have to do this as we cannot feed guests in the dark, can we?” she said.

Villages like Gujra Majwa that have the least number of households in a gram panchayat are often neglected and are the last to benefit from large government schemes like electrification. However, residents claim that they are just as entitled to their basic rights. “We have elected the government with expectations; they should come to our houses and see what we go through. They have dug the holes for the poles, and then they left,” said Medka Devi.

Turgwan Panchayat has around 2,000 households, of which, most, in different sub-villages, are under various stages of electrification. The Soubhagya scheme’s government portal reports that 69 households have been electrified out of 68 households that had been targeted. It, therefore, had achieved the 100% electrification distinction. Chitrakoot district too reported 100% electrification with 1.43 lakh rural households electrified and none pending.

Also read | Modi’s True Test in Providing Electricity Will be to Move from Villages to Households

Ravi Gupta, a junior engineer at the Mau block powerhouse, claimed that “38 households have been given a power connection in Gujwa Majra”. He added that work was underway as holes had been dug and poles had been transported.

“Bills will be waived off, once the connection starts, for those people who are receiving them without having received an electricity connection,” he said. The records of 100% electrification were seemingly cited based on the claims of the contractor who in charge of the work. The junior engineer has never visited the village to check the actual progress of the scheme, the people of Gujwa said.

It remains to be seen if the remote hamlet of Gujwa will be left out altogether from the Soubhagya scheme – which has already earned its numbers and recognition. Since the launch of Saubhagya in UP, 74.4 lakh households have been reportedly electrified and the state has declared saturation in all of its 75 districts.

The minister of state (IC) for power and new and renewable energy, R.K. Singh, had also singled out UP for its accomplishments under the Soubhagya scheme.

Khabar Lahariya is a rural, video-first digital news organisation with an all-women network of reporters in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Affordable Housing Is Only for Those Who Can Afford a Bribe in UP’s Sarumal

Paying the bribe – almost 20% of the cost of the house to be built – is depriving families of housing under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin.

Lalitpur, (Uttar Pradesh): In Sarumal village in Uttar Pradesh’s Lalitpur district, residents claim that they are being deprived of housing under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) because of their inability to pay the pradhan a bribe of Rs 20,000.

Among the claimants is Hariprasad Kushwaha, who has a family of ten that has been waiting for an allotment for a long time. But the only thing standing between them and a safe and permanent home, they say, is the bribe.

“They say just get the money and you will get your allotment, otherwise forget it,” he says. The bribe, which is almost 20% the cost of the house to be built, can be financially crippling for families.

This prerequisite laid by the pradhan certainly contradicts the ambitious goal of ‘Housing for All’ set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s affordable housing scheme, which aims to put a roof over the head of every Indian by 2022, to coincide with India’s 75th year of Independence.

One of the main highlights of the scheme was to use the SECC (Socio-Economic and Caste Census) data to ensure that the benefits reach those who really need it. With accusations of corruption and bribery, right from the lowest levels of bureaucracy at the village level, the question arises whether the system created to deliver it is really as transparent and fair as it is made out to be.

There are other layers too to the scam going on in Sarumal. When the list of eligible beneficiaries comes out, the ones who can afford to deposit the bribe get the funds and build their houses in the name of others.

Sarumal villagers report how “those who have tractors and vehicles are getting new houses built with the PMAY-G funds, but the poor still live in run-down tenements”.

The situation gets worse in the monsoon. Kuccha houses in Sarumal are made of mud walls with tarpaulin sheets as a roof. Badi Bahu, a resident, says, “If it rains, our houses get flooded and we place buckets to collect water leaking from the roof. But when it gets too much, we have to move out. We currently live in a makeshift tent made of sticks and plastic sheets.”

She doesn’t really have an answer as to why they haven’t received their housing benefit yet. “We have lived here for over 30 years. My children have filled the forms but we still aren’t getting the houses, and nobody listens to us. What can be done now?”

Even food has to wait, because the constant drip of the rain puts out the chulha cooking fire. “I can’t make food whenever it rains. Even though we’ve put plastic sheets above, they give way eventually and have to be replaced,” says Morabai, whose stove lies outside her home.

Also read: How the PM’s Affordable Housing Scheme Went From Promising to Dysfunctional

There are many more residents who say that they would have built a house by themselves if they could afford hefty bribes in the first place. “If we want a house we have to pay Rs 20,000,” says Hari Prasad. “If you can’t pay the money, you won’t get a house. And if you object to this system, you will be left out of the scheme.”

The scheme offers support for house construction at Rs 1.2 lakh per house. There is an allotted budget of Rs 19,000 crore for 2019-2020 to achieve its target of 1.95 crore houses by 2022. However, a report by the Accountability Initiative notes that 35% of the sanctioned houses have not been completed, even after two years.

As per the ministry of rural development’s latest progress report, over 1 crore houses have received their first instalment. UP, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha are the leading PMAY-G beneficiaries, having received over 50% of the funds disbursed by 2018.

Of the 12 lakh plus households in UP, Lalitpur has 32,343 households eligible to receive benefits and Sarumal should have 86 houses that have been finished or are near completion under the scheme.

Also read: No Place to Call Home for Residents of Rural Uttar Pradesh

Sonu Rajak, a representative of pradhan Zubeida Bano, denies the accusations about bribe. “These are all false accusations. Till now, 66 houses have been built in the village under the scheme and seven more are pending.”

According to him, a new list of 425 names for affordable housing has been drawn up for the village but is still awaiting government sanction. “No money has exchanged hands. Till the government does not sanction the house, we cannot do anything,” he claims.

Recently, in Odisha, the state government admitted to rampant corruption where officials were exploiting rural housing schemes to extract money in exchange for housing sanction. Here in Sarumal, the villagers who have spoken out against these corrupt practices face the wrath of the pradhan with their allotment being blocked, rejected or given to another. They continue to live in temporary homes, with a hope that someone higher up takes notice and takes their allegations seriously.

Khabar Lahariya is a rural, video-first digital news organisation with an all-women network of reporters in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh.

In Two Districts of UP, Loan Waiver Crisis Is Driving Farmers to End Lives

An increasing number of farmers are receiving bank notices, and unable to pay off the loan, are killing themselves.

Banda/Mahoba (UP): “He had gone to sow rice in the morning, came back and collected the gobar. Then he asked for water to bathe. I gave it to him, after which he said he is going again to the farm to work. I gave him food to take along, as he set off with all his tools. I kept thinking he’s gone to the fields. But when my son went at around 9 pm to check, his tools lay unused as he hung from a neem tree. He never even climbed trees before, but there he was, hanging from a tall neem tree,” said Godiya, shrouded in white, as she mourned her husband Lala’s death by suicide on the morning of July 14 in Mugaira village, Nairaina block, Banda district. News of her husband’s death reached her due to the chaos in the village after the body was discovered. Breaking into tears, she says that from now, she will fear the sound of chaos. Her son, who travelled outside the village for work, has to now take care of the fields.

Neighbors and relatives of the family report how Lala had been burdened by agricultural loans, loans from relatives for his daughter’s marriage and medical expenses for his wife, who has been sick for the past four years. The bank notice was what had finally pushed him to kill himself.

Lala’s suicide is just one of the many incidents that mark the increasing loan waiver crisis in Banda and Mahoba districts that fall under the Chitrakoot division of Bundhelkhand. A crisis sparked off by an increasing number of farmers being served bank notices by the local branches of Aryavart, a Regional Rural Bank (RRB) and as we have been reporting since months. Data from banks says that out of 1.10 lakh farmer in Banda, more than 8,000 have received notices so far.

So much so that in the month of July alone, six farmers from Banda and Mahoba who have received notices have taken their lives. In the case of Lala, the bank manager, Laxmi Narayan Dwivedi claimed that there had been no pressure on him and that the notice is sent to clear up the accounts of farmers whose loans had been waived. He said, “If he wanted, he could’ve received more credits. His loan had been waived. But after the notice, he never visited the bank.”

Also Read: Loan Waivers Continue to Be Elusive for Lakhs of Farmers in Uttar Pradesh

Lekhpal Shyam Sunder, from Mugaira village, said, “We found from the bank if any action had been taken against him. He had taken a loan for Rs 50,000 in 2015, but it was waived off. Only Rs 6,570 were left to pay off as interest. But he never came to ask about it.”

He added, caustically, “If it happened by accident, his family would have received some benefit. But since it’s a suicide, they cannot.” Lala’s death may be brushed off as ignorance of banking procedures, though even a small amount of Rs 6,000 is enough to ring alarm bells for a marginal farmer in Bundhelkhand.

Every farmer’s story is different

But every farmer’s story differs. Hardesh, a farmer from Vijaypur village in Mahoba, had taken a tractor loan 8-10 years back. He still owed around Rs 12 lakhs and Rs 2.20 lakhs of this loan to the Allahabad UP Grameen Bank. He took his life on July 17. His son Umesh said ten days before his death, Hardesh told his family about the harassment from bank officials. “They started coming home almost twice a week. Our fields are lying dry, there is hardly any grain produce. How will we pay the 19% interest?” he asks.

Rajendra, a farmer from Pippar village in Banda died of a heart attack, unable to deal with the fact that he cannot afford his daughter’s marriage and pay off a loan of Rs 70,000. The stress of being unable to repay loans/interest, of being deemed ineligible for loan waivers, whether one is a marginal or large farmer, is writ large on many such villagers in Banda.

Bueraucrats seem unable to gauge the seriousness of the crisis. Sandeep Kumar, deputy magistrate, Banda said, “Whenever such an incident happens, we try to give relief through any means possible. This week itself, 14,000-15,000 farmers have received benefit of PM Kisan Yojana. If farmers are facing any problems, they should approach the agriculture department or the district magistrate.”

Also Read: Will PM-Kisan Eventually Evolve and Replace Farm Subsidies During Modi 2.0?

Ashish Kumar Dikshit, a social worker, provides a realistic view of the situation. “If farmers are taking their lives at this rate in two blocks of Chitrakoot division alone, you can imagine the state of farmers in Bundhelkhand. I know more than two dozen farmers who have loan arrears of up to Rs 30,000 and are not eligible for loan waivers,” he said. Small farmers are losing from all sides, withot any support from the reigning or opposition parties, Dikshit said. “The farmer votes a party to power when they promise loan waivers. It’s the biggest deceit when this is not fulfilled,” he says.

Meanwhile Sharad Kumar Sinha, the divisional commissioner of Chitrakoot, had nothing new to inform us. “In Bundhelkhand farmers face a different situation due to water scarcity and drought. They are able to take only one crop, hence both the state and Centre have introduced special schemes for Bundhelkhand.” On the deaths of farmers, he says, “There may be several reasons, be it hunger, or loans or something else. We have not received any information regarding farmers taking their lives due to loans.”

As per records, 14 lakh farmers in Bundhelkhand owe more than Rs 1,000 crore in loans to government banks today. More than 3,000 farmers have killed themselves between 2001 and 2014. After 2015, comprehensive government data on this has not been published.

Khabar Lahariya is a rural, video-first digital news organisation with an all-women network of reporters in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh.

A UP Govt Scheme to Aid Stone Artisans Has Left Them Worse-off

‘One District, One Product’ introduced in Gaurahari village is an example of handicraft and livelihood development schemes often being abandoned in the middle, leaving traditional artisans to fend for themselves.

In 2018, the stone-work artisans of Gaurahari village in Uttar Pradesh’s Mahoba were lauded by the president and chief minister Adityanath for their work at a crafts summit in Lucknow. Now, a year later, they have nearly lost hope of any future for their craft and have become distrustful of government schemes for its revival or development.

In January, the chief minister launched ‘One District, One Product’ (ODOP) scheme to encourage sales and visibility of indigenous products/crafts at the district level. This flagship UP government scheme has left these villagers wary of any future support programmes.

Theirs was once a thriving and renowned craft of Gaurahari stonework, wherein they made a wide range of handicrafts, statues and ornamental utensils out of a particular coloured stone called gaura patthar. The soft texture and radiance of the stone made it suitable for such work. Over 70% of Gaurahari’s artisans were dependent on the trade.

The village is bordered by several hills made of this stone, which they mined for raw material and sold to several cities outside the state. It was among the many renowned handicraft items of Uttar Pradesh. According to state government estimates, UP alone contributes 44% of the total handicraft exports from the country. The Indian textile and handicrafts industry is one of the largest employment generators after agriculture. The sector employs seven million people, which include a large number of women and the poor. Continuous revival and development programmes are hence necessary for its sustenance.

In 2018, Gaurahari stonework was selected for the ODOP scheme. According to its guidelines, the scheme offers comprehensive support and development interventions such as skill development assistance through training programmes, production support through the establishment of a common facility centre, marketing development assistance as well as financial assistance.

However, according to the artisans, hardly any of these promises have materialised. ODOP’s website though proudly showcases Gaurahari craft as its project from Mahoba district.

Kalindi, an artisan and master trainer, said: “The art of stone craft is dying. Our village was selected for the implementation of this scheme twice and even the budget had been passed. But I don’t know why it hasn’t been released yet. I even requested the DM to intervene so that the craft stays alive. They involved NGOs for its implementation and they just focus on the number of items produced to meet targets after which there is no looking back.”

His sense of dejection was palpable, as he added: “I am against such schemes now. Next time it comes, I will not teach anyone and others like me will also not participate.”

The only component of the programme that has been implemented so far is the training sessions, which were plagued with problems too. He reports that: “In this village itself, around 400 people have received training, of which I myself have trained 200-250 people. They should have chosen more number of youth in the age group of 18-25. Women take the most interest in this work. But there were even people from the 70+ age group selected in the training programme.”

The trainees too feel deceived for not having received any of the proposed benefits. Parvati, an artisan who had received the training sessions, said, “I have been trained in the workshop but haven’t received any payment yet. How will I know why this is so? Is it the people from the top or the middlemen? When our boss isn’t receiving payments, how will he pay us? It takes months of instruction to be able to start making one’s own pieces. We can’t do this and start delivering on orders just within a few days of training.”

Virendra Kumar Verma, another trainer, said, “I was enthusiastic initially about this initiative, but don’t feel the same now. We had gone to Lucknow last year for an event attended by the president and chief minister, where there were good sales.”Post this, things have only gone downhill.

He says, “According to the scheme guidelines, the trainees should receive Rs 200 per class and the trainers also are supposed to receive a fee. Tools are also to be given to the students. Only 25 people have received these so far, and we have sent a list of 100 people who are yet to receive them. With all of these delays, I don’t think this scheme will work.”

To top it all off, government imposed-norms have placed the final nail in the coffin of Gaurahari craft. The reserves of gaura patthar are no longer freely available to be mined. An accident that happened at a mining site in 2016 leading to the death of two labourers employed by a private contractor lead to a blanket ban on mining in the area. The erstwhile dumpsite for the mined rock is now the only reserve. To compensate for the shortfall, the local authorities had a novel ‘solution’, as reported by Virendra Kumar, “Out of two trainings, they have mandated training in brass statue making also this time. Why did they do this, when the scheme is about one district and one product?”

The DM of Mahoba offers various reasons for why brass has been included in the programme: “There were 4-5 casualties caused sometime back when the gaura stone was being mined, after which its mining was banned. So, as a substitute, we proposed brass products which were doing well. We have now given a proposal for a brass product training institute. Training for gaura craft hasn’t happened much, and we have had a meeting about this in the village.”

Khabar Lahariya is a rural, video-first digital news organisation with an all-women network of reporters in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh.

World Population Day: How Sterilisation Procedures Put Women at Risk

Population control policies have been around since the 1950s, but medical services remain to be poor.

Veena Soni could become just another statistic in India’s high fatality rate by female sterilisation. The young mother of two, who had undergone a tubectomy in 2014 at the local Community Health Centre (CHC) in Tarun block of Faizabad, UP, had never imagined that the surgery could lead to a life threatening situation, so many years later. Tubectomy or tubal ligation is a surgical procedure to block the fallopian tubes that convey eggs to the ovaries, and thereby prevents a pregnancy. She is 3-and-half-months pregnant today and the baby is in fact growing inside her fallopian tube.

After feeling persistent pain for some time, she has only recently established her pregnancy when, after many consultations, one doctor finally advised her to go for an ultrasound. The medicine and injections provided some respite from the pain and frequent vomiting while she awaits further treatment. She has to be cautious in her every move as the fallopian tubes could otherwise burst.

Her husband Surendra Soni is the sole earning member and has a hardware re-sale business. He says, “Many doctors made us run around and we could have never guessed it was due to a pregnancy. How is it possible after the operation?” Despite doctors warning her about the dangerous situation, Veena reports that the doctor at the CHC in Tarun told her to not take any medicine as it would be okay, and that the baby would ‘fall off’ on its own.

As for the others, Surendra says, “How can doctors at the ‘biggest hospital’, Mary Queen (Lucknow), let us off with just a warning that anything can happen at any time?” What is in fact delaying her operation is a mere documentation holdup that needs to establish that her sterilisation has been a failure. Only then would the family receive compensation for the unaffordable surgery. The Family Planning Indemnity Scheme 2005, states that the woman can claim compensation with district authorities within 90 days of the “occurrence of the event of death/failure/complication”. But government officials sometimes interpret this time period as starting from the date of pregnancy or from the date of the surgery.

The current delay has made the harrowed couple even approach the district magistrate of Faizabad, who they say has promised to quicken the process. Though her fate lies uncertain, Veena’s case is one more casualty to India’s skewed family planning policies. Even the government has acknowledged this in the latest 11th Common Review Mission report of the National Health Mission which states:

“Women continue to bear an uneven burden of the terminal methods of family planning and sterilisation. As per HMIS in 2017-18 (till October) of the total 14, 73,418 sterilisation procedures only 6.8 % were male sterilisation while 93.1 % were female sterilisation.”

This is despite the fact that more than 1,000 women have died in the five years up to 2015-16 as a result of tubectomy related surgeries and that a vasectomy is an easier and safer procedure as compared to a tubectomy.

Also Read: Men, the Weak Link in the Push for Contraception and Sterilisation

The latest National Family Health Survey 2015-16 also reported that only 5.6% of those surveyed used condoms as a preferred method of birth control, and thereby women are left to figure out other means. Though the numbers indicate something that is beyond skewed, one needs to look at why this is the case.

Though India is the first country to have introduced a population control policy in the 1950s, it has consistently missed its targets since then. In the 1970s, the focus shifted to sterilisation as a means of family planning, with rigid target setting and quotas for vasectomies. Many men were forced into government camps that led to many deaths. Since then, there has been a social stigma around vasectomies, and instead the focus has been on sterilising poor women. However the camp-style mass sterilisation was ordered to be phased out by the Supreme Court in 2016, after one camp led to mass deaths of poor women in 2014 in Chhattisgarh.

Women who underwent sterilisation surgery at a government mass sterilisation camp pose for pictures inside a hospital at Bilaspur district in Chhattisgarh November 14, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Anindito Mukherjee

Today, though women are operated on an individual basis, they are still not made aware of any of its dangers and complications, especially on women with anemia, heart and lung disease, weakness and other health conditions. Newer forms of contraception introduced by the government are again meant only for women.

All these perhaps stem from the fact that are no male health workers at the community-level and the ASHA workers’ interactions are mostly with women regarding family planning options. Veena too had opted for the tubectomy on the advice of her ASHA worker, and the CHC at Taarun does not offer any vasectomy facilities.

Khabar Lahariya is a rural, video-first digital news organisation with an all-women network of reporters in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh.

UP: Delayed Aadhaar-Based Payments Continue to Cause Hardship to NREGA Workers

Apart from delayed payments, residents of this UP village also complain of missing job cards and foul play by local authorities.

Bambiya, UP: Three members from Mahari’s family including her son, daughter and her own self had taken part in NREGA’s work this year in their village of Bambiya of Tindwari block in Banda, UP. It has been more than five months and they are yet to receive their payments of Rs 5,000 each.

“They say the government has not yet released the money, how can we distribute your payments?” said Mahari, when asked of what the Pradhan and Panchayat Mitra of the village had to say on the matter. Receiving the payments on time were crucial for them this year, she said “We spent so much money on building our house and now we don’t have anything left for our daughter’s wedding. We had worked so hard, working till 8 and 9 pm every day at the worksite. “

NREGA worker Mahari. Photo: Khabar Lahariya

Many more families such as theirs have also been patiently awaiting their compensation for building a village pond, six months ago as part of the last NREGA work. Each worker has to receive amounts in the range of 3-6,000 each.

Also read: ‘MGNREGA Being Systematically Undermined’: 250 MPs, Eminent Citizens Write to Modi

Almost everyone claims that the pradhan is not giving the money and the Panchayat Mitra is not putting the money into their accounts. Rambaran, an aged resident of Bambiya says that he has never had to work this long for NREGA payments before. He has previously worked on many more projects such as ponds, wells and RCC roads.

NREGA worker Sunaina. Photo: Khabar Lahariya

Sunita, another resident who had also gone for NREGA work, had not even received a job card to attest for her participation. When asked how she remembers the number of her work days she says, “I have filled in my attendance every day and kept a count.” She also shared that people had pursued the pradhan so relentlessly for payments that he sometimes gives them 100-200 at a time. She said, “Once I had asked him for Rs 500. But when he gave me Rs 300, I handed it back finding it insulting”

Sunaina, another worker awaiting her payment surmised everyone’s exasperation “They are big folks, who are we to fight?”

NREGA Worker Sunita. Photo: Khabar Lahariya

Delayed payments, missing job cards and foul play by local authorities aside, there seem to be newer factors at play lately, in wage payments not reaching the hands of MGNREGA workers. Many villagers had pointed out how the payments are ‘put into their Aadhaar cards or into their SIM cards’ these days.

When contacted, the pradhan of the village, Budhh Vilas only repeated the same claim of the money not having been transferred from Lucknow. Dharmendra Kumar, the panchayat mitra, offered a more detailed explanation, “The money hasn’t yet come from above.”

Also read: The Deepening Crisis in MGNREGA Wage Payments

Regarding the change in the payments systems, he said, ”Earlier we used to send the demand draft for the total amount to be paid out to all based on the total number of work days as calculated in the computerised attendance records. Once the cheque arrived, we would deposit it in the bank and the money would get distributed according to each person’s share. Now it is different. The money sometimes goes into the Aadhaar cards and sometimes into their SIM cards, one can never be sure.”

This ‘new system’ referred to, of money going into Aadhaar cards or SIM cards, is one that came into force as a result of a directive issued by the Ministry of Rural Development in 2014 that it is mandatory for all NREGA workers to link their Aadhaar numbers with their bank accounts in order to receive their wages. The Department of Telecommunications had also issued a directive in the same year that SIM card owners and new applicants would have to enter their Aadhaar numbers in order to verify their identities.

All these were a part of the government’s Direct Benefit Transfer mission of delivering state benefits directly into Aadhaar link bank accounts. But it also meant that it is difficult to keep track of where one’s money is going if one has multiple bank accounts. The UIDAI guidelines say that the last registered account that is linked to Aadhaar would automatically be the account where transfers, benefits and payments would go into.

It also means that if one were to link their Aadhaar number with a new Airtel SIM, the Airtel Payments Bank would become default account, most often without one’s knowledge or consent. What has complicated the matter further is that after the ‘Right to Privacy’ was upheld by the Supreme Court in August 2018, in the case of Aadhaar cardholders, the registered bank account numbers of NREGA cardholders have now been erased from the NREGA website, leaving no means to track into which account one’s money has gone.

Also read: Continued Fund Shortage, Wage Payment Delays Have Put MGNREGA in Peril

Uttar Pradesh’s dismal record of generating only 64.17% of timely generation of pay orders under NREGA along with the new systems in place for more “efficient“ transfer of funds has only compounded the problems of NREGA workers. The Lok Sabha recently pushed the Aadhaar Amendment Bill to comply with the latest Supreme Court judgement, which may hopefully resolve cases such as in Bambiya village.

As for what people can do now to trace where their money has gone and what is being done to help them, Dharmendra Kumar said, “There’s a code which tells you where the money has gone. And if the money has gone to their phone, they will get it from Banda town, not here.”

“Only the educated can understand this enough to seek out their wages from the right sources. What about, says an illiterate woman?” our reporter asked him. To this, his response was simply, “They should take someone along then. “

Khabar Lahariya is a rural, video-first digital news organisation with an all-women network of reporters in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh.

MP: Villagers Forced to Repay Loans as They Await Swachh Bharat Funds

Several families who were encouraged to construct toilets were later told that their names don’t figure in the list of households who have been allotted funds.

Madumar, MP: “There were people building toilets everywhere and we were also told to do the same. We got the cement, stones, material all by ourselves on the assurance of getting the money for it. They can at least give us some of the guaranteed Rs 12,000” says Munni of Madumar village in Tikamgarh block, Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh.

Her family is one of the many who were encouraged by the sarpanch to start the construction of their household toilet as a part of the village’s toilet construction drive. Now, however, he says that some of these households don’t figure in the list of households who have been allotted funds.

In October 2014, the NDA government introduced the national Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) with the ultimate aim of ending open defecation in India by October 2019, which will correspond with Mohandas Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary. It differed from previous sanitation campaigns like the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, the Total Sanitation Campaign as its subsidy amount (Rs 12,000) for individual toilets was higher than the previously offered Rs 10,000 and Rs 4,500 respectively.

Also read: Four Years on, How Swachh Is Bharat?

Also, unlike the government’s discourse that the SBM is a people’s movement where communities collectively come together to encourage and initiate latrine construction and end open defecation, there are many reports of villagers having been coerced or pushed into building toilets of their own on the backing of false claims, as has happened in Madumar.

Moreover, many have built toilets by taking loans and are now having to repay interest on this. Bhuribai’s family has spent Rs 15,000 for a proper concrete-built toilet.

Bhuribai. Photo: Khabar Lahariya

She says “If we knew this would happen, they would not have built. We have been requesting the sarpanch for the money since the past two years but he keeps saying that your name is not on the list.” Her family belongs to the Ahirwar communities who fall under the SC category, and are supposed to be automatically deemed eligible as per norms.

Bhuribai’s toilet. Photo: Khabar Lahariya

Rati from another household says, “The sarpanch had even said we can build two toilets but money had come for only one. We had to spend money for all the material and now have no money.” They too had gotten a good quality toilet made of concrete bricks, metal doors and a roof. It even looks sturdier than their house that is built of mud bricks and has a makeshift door.

When Harischandra Rai, the sarpanch of the village was contacted he was firm in repeating the statement that had been reported by others: “Those whose names are on the list will get the money, not others. There is no scheme now for including those people who are not eligible for funds.”

Rati’s household toilet. Photo: Khabar Lahariya

This eligibility cited is based on a baseline survey list, conducted in 2012 to identify eligible households all over the country. Madhya Pradesh, like all other states in the country, is said to be more than 70% Open Defecation Free (ODF) as per official records.

Madumar village. Photo: Khabar Lahariya

However, in Tikamgarh district, more than half of the listed households do not have toilets yet. In Madumar Gram Panchayat itself, where 533 households have been deemed eligible, only 84 households have been verified as having had toilets constructed. Such a considerable number makes it unlikely that any of the families our reporter spoke to are not on the eligible’s list.

Also read: Why Households Are Being Excluded From Modi’s Swachh Bharat Scheme

When asked on what he has to say to those who have not received the scheme benefit, the sarpanch responded by saying, “If people have built toilets on encouragement by others, it is a good thing. I am happy that they have household latrines now, and I hope they use it. Maybe in the next phase, they will get the benefits. Even if they apply for the PM Awas Yojana there is scope for receiving money for the toilet construction expenses too.”

His unbridled confidence doesn’t let him acknowledge that applying for another scheme, in order to make up for the lapses in this, might also be an exercise in endless waiting. The wait is still not in vain for people like Bhuribai who say “We are still in the hope of receiving the money we had spent, by taking loans.”

Khabar Lahariya is a rural, video-first digital news organisation with an all-women network of reporters in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh.