A New Building in Tebhaga

Tebhaga is small peaceful village in Anand Pradesh. The Motia River flew by the village and forked into three streams he before it merged into the sea, some 40 kilometre ahead. There were about 450 households in this village with a population of 2,561, more than half of them were Mudirajus, a small fishermens backward caste, who had moved in from the coasts and had become agricultural labourer. However, majority of the land was owned by a few Reddy families and an even fewer Kamma families. There were six Muslim families in the village as well, who were traders who ran shops of general merchandize. It was a lush green village, with paddy fields stretching to the horizon. You could also see large spots of dark green, scattered over the light green carpet. These were mango trees. Tebhaga was connected to a state highway by a 4 kilometre long road, which had been recently upgraded under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. This road ended at the Chaupal of the village. Houses of ten out of the 15 Reddy families and both the Kamma families were in and around the Chaupal. On two sides of this area, there were the shops, including a tea shop, ran by a Mudiraju young man. There was an Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) attached to the Primary Health Centre located at Madirpur, about 15 kilometres from the point where the village road met the highway, also on the bank of Motia River. Just a kilometre before the junction, in Angthi village, there was a primary school, which was attended by 35 children from Tebhaga. There was a Anganwadi in the village, which was run by Kumudini, the Anganwadi Worker. Especially on the days when the ANM visited the village, Kumudini used to organize lots of programs with the children, which the ANM was also interested in. As they never seemed to have enough budget, Kumudini ran the Anganwadi in a shed belonging to Ramachandra Reddy, which he had volunteered to allow them to use. She used to keep all her records in their house only, which she thought was safer than her own little hut. In the village three years back they (a group of people who had come from what they called Ajeevika district office) had started some womens savings groups. There were three such groups in Tebhaga: Maha Laxmi Group, Shiva Chandi Group and the Annapurna Group. 17, 21 and 13 women were members of these groups. None of the women from either the Reddy or Kamma families had become members of these groups. These groups met regularly and saved some money every month. They also lent the money collected by them to the members when they needed them. They also had to

open their accounts in the bank, which had a branch in Madirpur. Over the last three years of effort the groups had built up their funds to about 29, 37 and 25 thousand respectively. Last year they got a loan from the bank as well. They have been repaying that amount as was told to them at the beginning. Maithilidevi reminded of their dues every time. So the bankers thought very well of the groups. Maithilidevi, was not a member of any of the groups, as she was from a Kamma family. She had studied in School before she got married in this village. But as she was respected by all, all the three groups went to her for advice. Reshmi, one of the officers from Ajeevika, had informed the women in the village that this new project that has been started by the Government of India, called the NRLM could make funds available to them for any of the activities that were taken up by them for their livelihoods. She had said that this program also encouraged use of funds from other schemes of the Government and she will help them to get those funds. For example, she had illustrated, if they wanted to build a road, and villagers themselves worked for constructing the road, then their wages could be paid from another scheme called MGNREGA, while material cost if any, could be financed by NRLM, as a community asset. Now the women were confused. Akruti, Ganga and Nagalatha, the three Presidents of the three groups: Maha Laxmi SHG, Shiva Chandi SHG and the Annapurna SHG, decided to consult Balaji, the Sarpach of the village. Balaji was very happy to suggest that they built a Community House, which could be used for multiple purposes. But Ramachandra Reddy was keen that the SHGs built a Godown which could be used for storing their grains after harvest. He argued that this was directly linked to their livelihoods. The ANM however preferred to have the Community House, with one room allocated for storing her medicines and some space for tying bandages and injections. Kumudini also agreed to this idea, as this could give her the necessary space for the Anganwadi, though she actually wanted an independent space for it. In her view, whenever a space is shared between adults and children, the elders always got their way. After these discussions Akruti, Ganga and Nagalatha went to Maithilidevi for her advice. She suggested that they all meet at the Chowpal in the evening to discuss what they should ask from Ajeevika. She said she would also send her son to fetch the ANM and the School Teacher for the meeting.