Promised ‘Gram Swaraj’ Eludes Varanasi Villages Narendra Modi Adopted

This is the first article in a series of ground reports looking into whether the Bharatiya Janata Party has kept its poll promises in the last 10 years.

This article was first published on March 14, 2024 and has been republished on March 17, 2024.

Varanasi: On a cold morning in December 2023, Mahesh Chauhan, a 48-year-old Dalit man, was digging a pit in front of his kutcha house made from mud, unburnt bricks, bamboo and plastic. His neighbours in the Harijan Basti, a segregated neighbourhood of lowered caste Hindus in Domri village of Varanasi, were helping him. Chauhan decided to dig this pit after his goats were stolen while he was sleeping in the open. The two goats were worth nearly Rs 15,000 – an amount so huge that his daily wages could take months to compensate. Under such circumstances, a pit – making access to his kutcha house harder – was the only way to secure his home.

Over the last one decade, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has adopted eight villages in Varanasi under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY). Chauhan’s village Domri, next to the river Ganga, is one of them. Under this scheme, each parliamentarian in India adopts one village from their constituency to make it a ‘model village’ within their tenure. Modi announced the SAGY in his first Independence Day speech in 2014, with promises of smart schools, universal access to basic health facilities and pukka housing for homeless villagers.

However, Domri is far from being a model village. In the absence of a house, most families in the Harijan Basti say they survive the monsoons under plastic and use a thin cloth for protection from mosquitoes when sleeping outside. For many, the cold becomes more unbearable than summer and rain. But the lack of housing worst hit Chauhan when his goats were recently stolen. He asked, “Could my goats have been stolen if I had a house?”

After announcing the SAGY in 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party in its 2019 manifesto seeking a second term had promised ‘gram swaraj’ with Saashray (pukka houses for all living in kutcha houses) by 2022, Sujal (tap water for all) by 2024, Suchna se Sashaktikaran (digital connectivity through Bharatnet for all panchayats) by 2022, Sadak se Samriddhi (massive road connectivity) and Swachata se Sampannata (100 % disposal of liquid wastewater).

However, The Wire’s reporting found that in most of the villages adopted by Modi in Varanasi, the “gram swaraj” promises are not yet a reality. In Jayapur, the first village adopted by Modi, many Dalits do not have houses and functional toilets. In Nagepur, the situation is similar – and additionally, the roads too are in poor condition. In Parampur, the whole village has taps installed but those taps have no water. In Puregaon, for the last two months there was no water supply when The Wire visited in December. Many Dalits and Yadavs live in mud-houses there. In Pure Bariyarpur the Dalit neighbourhood was separated from the village to create a new village, Jogapur. While Pure Baryarpur has amenities, many Dalits in Jogapur have no taps. The water in handpumps is so polluted that one can see it with bare eyes. Some have got houses under the Indira Awas Yojana. In Kakrahiya, which is an exception, villagers say their condition was better even before Modi adopted them. Many have taps, water and pakka houses. The Wire also saw inaugural stones of  a school and road by Narendra Modi in the village. Villagers say that is because the village is dominated by “upper castes.”

Himanshu, an associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)’s Centre for Economic Studies and Planning said there are many issues in the design of policies. “The subsidies given for these policies are hardly enough and local corruption makes it even more difficult to make a change on ground. The toilet is a good example. They are bound to be non-functional because with such little money, hardly any good toilets can be made. Similarly in Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the subsidy is not sufficient to be able to build a proper house. Then there is convergence between various programmes, for instance people are given a toilet without housing or people are given housing without tap water.”

This was corroborated on the ground by The Wire. While Lal Dhar in Jayapur has a toilet with a broken door, he has no house. Similarly, Mohit Chauhan from Domri village does not have a house but he has a tap and a toilet. Karma Devi from Nagepur has no house, no toilet but she has a tap where water comes three times a day.

The Wire has reached out to the Divisional Commissioner, Varanasi and District Commissioner, Varanasi for comments on these findings. This article will be updated when they respond.

Housing

In the absence of any independent housing need assessment, Modi’s government revamped the Indira Awas Yojana as the Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY), which is a credit-linked subsidy scheme to facilitate affordable housing by 2022. It is 2024 and the plan is still incomplete.

Chauhan’s wife, Barkha Devi, 37 told The Wire that they have applied for a house under Narendra Modi’s Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana nearly 5 times. She said “Including Aadhaar card, PAN Card, two copies of the passbook, and the photograph we have given to Pradhan four times. This time we applied once again. Recently the DM sir came (to Domri). At that time, while shouting they told us that… Mahesh, Barkha.. your house is passed. However, after six months we were informed that the awas had not passed.”

The PMAY does not promise a free house, rather people need to pay their share for building one.. Amid the dwindling economy, many people are unable to pay their share due to a dip in their incomes and their houses remain incomplete. The government’s own data as reported by The Hindu shows that a total of 5,13,654 houses are ‘unoccupied,’ despite completion, across the country. Moreover, a parliamentary standing committee found that in a rush to show output, on merely physical completion of houses in the absence of basic amenities, the buildings are being counted as ‘completed’ houses.

Amid policy issues faced during implementation of PMAY, in 2023, the Union government withdrew the allocation of 1.44 lakh houses from about two dozen states including Tamil Nadu, Bihar, West Bengal, and Rajasthan, and gave these to the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh as additional allocation. Uttar Pradesh is a key state with 80 parliamentary constituencies. Even though other states pleaded with the centre for more allocation, UP was awarded additional funds despite having one of the highest allocations in the country.

Despite that, many people in the villages of UP are still living in mud houses, including Lakhandar Ram, a 55 year old Dalit man in Pure village adopted by Modi. He said, “For centuries now we are living in a mud house. There is no help from the government. Our great father and father have died without a house. We have not even got even a single room.”

As Himanshu put it, “The subsidies and designs are not enough to change the social structure of society. Even if you give them a house, a Dalit is going to be in Dalit neighbourhood.

Water

Under the “Nal se Jal” programme the Modi government promised a piped water connection to every household by 2024. However, according to estimates, only three out of four rural households are likely to have drinking water tap connections by 2024, despite promises of 100% coverage. The work has not even begun in 5% of homes as per the government’s own data.

Like PMAY, UP is the biggest beneficiary of the centre’s Har Ghar Jal scheme. On paper, UP’s progress is impressive. For instance, only 5.1 lakh — or 1% — of the state’s households had tap connections when the Har Ghar Jal scheme was launched. This grew to 32 lakh by August 2021 and to 42 lakh by August 2022. As of now, half of Uttar Pradesh’s households have taps and pipes – on paper.

However, in many villages there are pipes, but those pipes do not have water. The Wire found in Modi’s adopted villages of Puregaon and Parampur that the taps had no water; in Puregaon the water connections were never built, while Parampur’s residents said they hadn’t received water for the two months preceding our visit. In Jogapur, next to Modi’s adopted village Bariyarpur, there were no taps. Sunita Devi and Chandroli from Jogapur showed The Wire how the groundwater taken out of the hand-pump in their village was polluted. Even after filtering that water with a cloth, sand made the water undrinkable.

According to a report in The Hindu, of Uttar Pradesh ‘s 98,455 villages, only 13,085 have reported being fully pipe connected – and only 2,837 of these have been certified by the panchayat as having taps with water. Thus, in reality, only about 3% of UP villages can be said to be 100% certified as Har Ghar Jal villages – a stark contrast from the total number of connections in the state.

Kisnawati Devi from Naricha area of Parampur said, “Water is a big issue for us.” Often villagers arrange water from nearby villages where there is still water in taps by paying a monthly payment of Rs 100. Often that means if they fill water once, they use stale water for days. Kisnawati said, “When the water machine starts, we have to leave everything and run towards it with a bucket. That bucket full of water is used for everything the whole day, whether it is washing clothes or bathing. Then again we have to run in the evening to refill water.” She added how difficult days get for women during menstruation. “The cloth remains stained for days. If we get water, then only we can wash it,” she said.

Digital India

“Suchna se Sashaktikaran,” a promise to bring digital connectivity to all panchayats in India by 2022 is also lagging after missing multiple deadlines. Out of India’s 2.5 lakh gram panchayats, around 2 lakh gram panchayats have been connected through BharatNet. However, this does not mean that these gram panchayats have functioning internet. Only 6,307 panchayats have active Wi-Fi as per Bharat Broadband Network Limited data on January 29, 2024. The Wire was not able to verify how many villages adopted by Modi were connected with the internet as most of the gram panchayat offices were closed, and the BBNL data does not reveal the names of the connected panchayats.

Roads

Despite Narendra Modi’s promise of robust road connectivity, many villages adopted by Modi do not have functional roads. The road in Nagepur village, outside Rajnath and Sushila’s kutcha house, is completely broken. Since there is no drainage or sewerage lines, the dirty water flows through the gully and often gets trapped in potholes. The couple, in their 60s, have now led their entire lives without roofs. They said, “People who do not have a roof do not care about the roads.” Their daughter-in-law, 28-year-old Karma Devi, asked if they will ever get a better standard of living, especially since her husband is often unemployed. She said, “He works for two days, then sits at home for the next two days.” While cuddling her newborn, she pointed towards a pothole-filled route and said, “Road…this is what it is…”

Azhar Ansari from Pure village claimed that when Modi adopted their village a road widening programme was sanctioned. He said, “The road was supposed to get longer and wider. It has not happened yet. At least the tasks that they have taken, they should be fulfilled. Else an inquiry should be set up.”

Lakhandar Ram, an elderly Dalit man and community leader, equated their village with hell and said, “We have no facilities here. I do not know how a drain was sanctioned a couple of years back. Otherwise every morning commuters abused us (because of overflowing liquid waste water).”

The construction of rural roads in India has taken a backseat from the last couple of years. The annual target of 47,171 kilometres of rural roads construction under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, was missed by 17,414 kilometres in 2023. The government was only able to connect nearly 617 hamlets with roads. The situation was similar in 2022 when nearly 7,991 kilometres of road sanctioned was not constructed. A year before that the target was missed by 9,487 kilometres.

Sujit Kumar Patel, who was pradhan of Kakrahiya villlage when Modi adopted it, claimed the village got a road and water during the Akhilesh Yadav government in UP. He said, “Under the Lohiya Yojana of the Akhilesh government, we got 8-10 aawas, for each awas 3.25 lacs were sanctioned. We also got a road made.” He claimed Kakrahiya village is one of the best in the region because people are very “active”.

When asked what was done under Modi’s tenure, he said, “Modi also did very good work,” but was unable to recount Gram Swaraj developments as promised by the prime minister. He said, “Look, we have 24×7 electricity , crime is almost over, roads are also very good.”

Sanitation

Another villager, Lakhandar, claimed the situation of toilets in their village is no good. He said, “Every morning we fight and abuse each other to urinate.” Ansari, his neighbour from Pure village, showed how the public toilets in their village have no water and said, “If Modi ji has adopted our village, they should send someone to see what facilities are here and what facilities are missing. It is his responsibility.”

In Jayapur village, in the toilet assigned to Lal Dhar, the door is half collapsed and the pit is almost full. Nearly 10 people use that toilet which has no tap. The women of Lal Dhar’s household are only able to use the toilet at night.  He says, “This is Modi’s village. What happened was that they did some fake work and went away.”

According to Swachh Bharat Mission guidelines released in 2017, “a duly completed household sanitary latrine unit shall comprise of a sanitary substructure that safely confines human faeces and eliminates the need for human handling before it is fully decomposed or a superstructure with water facility, and a hand wash unit for cleaning and handwashing.”

In almost all villages that The Wire toured in Varanasi, many toilets were completely abandoned as they had no roofs or their pits were full, making them useless.

Srinarayan Singh Patel, who was the pradhan of Jayapur when the village was adopted by Modi, claimed a lot has been done, such as the opening of two banks and a post office. When asked about the condition of the Harijan Basti in his village, he said, “Those who are remaining, it doesn’t mean they will not get it (housing).” Regarding the broken toilets, he said, “Those who have got it (toilets) before, upkeep is their responsibility, not the government’s.”

While he also claimed that the Panchayat office has internet, he said the work is slow because the complete money has not been sanctioned yet. He said, “Slowly, slowly the work is happening because after the BJP government came, these new schemes have come up. But it will take time. After complete funding is received, complete work will be done.”

Segregation

All the villages that The Wire visited were segregated based on caste and religion. In most villages, Muslims were rarely present. In Pure Gaon, where there is a Muslim population, there were separate areas for upper castes, Dalits, Yadavs and Muslims.

Himanshu told The Wire, “This feature of segregation is unlikely to go away because they are prime minister’s villages. Caste-related issues will remain. The lack of access is determined by local power structures. As in any other village of Uttar Pradesh, those will remain.”

He added, “The level of deficit is very high, it is not going to be covered in one year or even ten years,” however,  “Holding the government accountable is a job that democracy must do. Political parties must be questioned on these promises and they must be held accountable for not fulfilling whatever promises they made. That is supposed to be the job of the electorate.”

UPDATE on March 18, 2024, 8:40 am

The Varanasi Municipal Corporation informed this reporter via a direct message on X (formerly Twitter) that the District Urban Development Agency (DUDA), Varanasi conducted an inspection in Domri village and found that villager Mahesh Chauhan did not have a pakka house or any land, as reported by The Wire.

DUDA reasoned that currently new applications are not being accepted under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. The agency also claimed that Mahesh Chauhan had not applied for housing so far and they will process his application in the next financial year.

However, Mahesh’s wife Barkha had informed The Wire that they applied for housing at least five times. She also showed us a receipt that she got last time upon filling the form.