Then I started to count the facts that easily contradicted the eye. The total population of Bihar is close to 83 million with close to 43 percent living under poverty line. It is said that 89 percent of the expenditure is dedicated for non-functioning administration and interest. Male literacy is about 50 percent and female about 25 percent. Furthermore, with the lowest per capita GDP of any state in India, it was quickly evident that the beauty all around me was nothing more than a mirage. A mirage that would vanish when I got a little closer.

The train pulled into the Gaya station on time. After a little confusion at the station, I finally managed to meet the "Welcome Party." At least six BGVS district committee members, including the effervescent Manpur block coordinator Binod Kumar had come and I was soon swimming in a sea of names. I was a little embarrassed at all the attention but this mutual initial awkwardness quickly dissipated when they realized that I had already been to Bihar couple of times earlier.

Once we reached the heart of Gaya - the reality was overpowering. Debilitating poverty, choked traffic, overflowing sewers and a sense of gloom around, belied the fact that this was the sacred of all sacred places in India or perhaps the world - "The land of Buddha." Gaya is the city connecting two of the holiest towns in India - Bodhgaya for the Buddhists and Parashnath for the Jains. Surely tourism alone has a potential to uplift this area of its misery. But then again this is a recurring theme in Bihar, a state of unrealized potential.

BGVS had arranged a nice hotel room for my accommodation. Most people from the "welcome committee" stayed back and a few more came in later. In a few minutes I was sitting amongst the nucleus of the Gaya District Committee.

Shiv Narayan Prasad - President

Mohan Prasad - Vice President

Binod Kumar - Secretary (Also the block coordinator for Manpur)

Nagendra Singh - Treasurer

Rameshwar Prasad

Birendra Pathak

Anil Kumar Chauhan

Shiv Bhajan Mandal

Surendra Kumar Chauhan

There were usual pleasantries exchanged with polite questions about my journey and background. I could sense a flood of questions waiting to be unleashed, once this formal dance of politeness is over. I was expecting all kinds of questions on the purpose of my visit, HBP and AID, but I was totally unprepared for the stares of more than a dozen eyes at me. The conversation slowly moved to my purpose and my plans for next four days. Like a good host they answered my questions before asking their own.

Gaya district committee comprises 17 members and there are 22 blocks in the district. Manpur is fairly representative of the average progress made in the district. Manpur has about 68 villages and about 150-200 odd sporadic small settlements. These villages are governed by twelve panchayats. Some more just than others. I should point out here that by this time all my illusions of my proficiency in Hindi had shattered beyond repair. After an hour I was quite ashamed that I could not complete even a single thought without using a few English words. Fortunately, all district members were familiar with English and did not have problems in understanding common English words. Looking back, the trip did more good for my Hindi than years of schooling ever did. But I digress.

I then talked about HBP and AID. None of them had any knowledge about HBP or AID. They had some rough idea from Dinesh Prasad (State Coordinator) about some foreign agency interested in funding a few programs but nothing more. After giving a brief background about AID and HBP. I discussed the planned collaboration between AID and BGVS Bihar in detail. Selection of Blocks, the programs done in Tamil Nadu, past collaborations with Dr. Sunderraman and Thomas Franco. They were quite familiar with the names and were quite impressed with the plan and thought that it could work.

Most of the BGVS members were either retired or were working full time. There were no full timers, primarily because there was no outside support. The caliber and diversity of the people around me was quite astounding. All castes were well represented and each was given a chance for a leadership position through yearly elections. Shiv Narayan Prasad was a retired professor with a doctorate. Mohan Prasad had a bachelors and had large property holdings. He had also been to jail for standing up against a panchayat leader, and had been separated from his brothers for his socialistic inclinations. Rameshwar Prasad had a remarkable career in academics. Professorship, chair of department, college principal and several papers to his name. In the end, Binod Kumar had already accomplished a lot at a young age of 30. Immediately after bachelors, he joined the socialistic movement and single handedly transformed his village - Baradih. We did not talk in detail about the state of block and role of BGVS thus far, as we would have plenty of time to do this in the next few days. The discussions remained at a high level. I could sense a little mistrust in the role and intentions of outside organizations. Perhaps the reason is that after having worked for so many years in solitude, with little recognition and a minimal outside support, they are little skeptical of the good intentions of others. In the next few days these same feelings would be reflected in the villages too. They are also a little disillusioned by the false promises of government to support their efforts. I hoped that in the next few days I would be successful to win their trust and friendship.

In the evening, Binod Kumar and Rameshwar Prasad volunteered to show me the sacred land of Bodhgaya. It is about 20 odd kilometers from Gaya. A remarkable place. Temples built by various countries representing their unique flavor of Buddhism, a serene atmosphere, hypnotic chants and the "tree of enlightenment" leaves one with a sense of awe. "Look within, thou art the Buddha." Bodhgaya seemed like a sanctuary keeping out the insanity pervading everything around it. None of us spoke much during the stay, guess the words seemed unnecessary and trite at the time. On the way back, the conversation centered on the legendary Jai Prakash and his socialistic ideas. Most of BGVS members in Gaya had a socialistic attitude and had been quite active in such movements in the late seventies and early eighties. It appears that such movements although on decline are still very prominent.

Over dinner, Binod Kumar and I discussed the schedule for next four days. I had already informed him that I was more interested in spending considerable time in visiting few villages than a little time in a lot more. Over next three days he had arranged meetings in eight villages with an all district committee meeting on the last day.

Our first stop was in a village called Baradih - de facto headquarters for BGVS Manpur. It is home to about 400 families. The main occupation is agriculture - largely paddy and wheat as in the rest of the district. During the off seasons most men become migrant laborers. This is also largely true for the entire district of Gaya. Baradih is probably the most progressive village in the Manpur block. Developmental programs started here with the inception of BGVS in Gaya in 1991-1992. Since then consistent programs have been orchestrated by BGVS in the village. The village is also given a sort of preferential treatment by the members. There were couple of reasons behind this. Some of the more prominent BGVS members - Binod kumar and Rameshawar Prasad - were either from the village or were from nearby villages. Secondly, Binod Kumar and his cohorts started a primary school and lot of sustained efforts has gone into developing it. Consequently, lot of block volunteers feel emotionally close to the village, sometimes at the expense of the other villages. I took a tour of the two room block headquarters, which also doubles up as the school office. I took a cursory look at the BGVS books and training guides, various tables and charts and pictures made by the students. I asked to walk around the village and talk to a few people. The village was well maintained. Brick houses, working drainage and sewage system, and the availability of electricity was impressive. The villagers were obviously conscientious about their surroundings and understood preventive health care.

We then proceeded to the village meeting attended by about 50 residents, equally represented by men and women. Over next few days I realized that the ratio of the gender representation in a meeting would be one of the strongest indicator of the developmental level of that village. Binod Kumar started with explaining the purpose of the meeting and the agenda we that will be followed. Then we had a quick round of introduction with each attendee giving a reason for attending. Most were curious to learn about why someone from US has come to their village. I could not sense any skepticism only curiosity. I gave a brief introduction about myself, AID and elaborated upon AID's commitment to collaborate with BGVS. Kusurba Devi was the president of the buniyaadi sabah in the village and she began with the little bit of history, programs that happened in last few years and the current problems facing them. It all started with a series of Kala Jathas (street plays) during 1992-1993. A few villagers - both men and women, from Baradih and around having a penchant to perform came together to form the Kala Jatha troupe. They were trained by BGVS Bihar and then went around the district performing plays on literacy, health, superstition, women's empowerment and other social ills. Then Binod Kumar with assistance from other BGVS members opened a primary school in the village, so the children did not have to travel to the neighboring village and imparting a better quality of education. The turn around in last few years has been quite impressive. There has been dramatic increase in female literacy, from 15-20% to about 50-55%. Including elder women who were taught through adult literacy programs that were conducted by young school-going children. Women have gained lot of confidence and have begun to assert themselves in village matters. Today, at least everyone understands the importance of hygiene and health.

Then I spoke to Nilu Kumari, who is the first woman in the village to complete bachelors from a college in Gaya. She now teaches in the village school. She talked about using women's cycle rally as a successful vehicle for women's upliftment. It was to demonstrate the independence of women by using a cycle as a metaphor for freedom from the patriarchal norms of the society. This cycle rally went around in 15 blocks and that motivated lot of young women to learn to ride cycle, which consequently encouraged them to join high schools and colleges that were located at some distance from respective villages. The Kala Jatha troupe has now dwindled. Largely because lots of women have gotten married and consequently nothing significant has happened in last 3-4 years. There is a need to restart the program.

A lot of women had one question in mind. Literally translated the question is, after literacy what? Now that significant number of girls and young women are going to school and a lot of elder women have been educated due to the adult literacy programs, what happens next? They do not know what to do with the newfound learning. Interestingly, they equate literacy with an ability to earn money. Most do not realize the innate benefits of increased awareness of rights, better hygiene and confidence as ends itself. Most wanted to start some small industry - sewing, etc to do earn some more income. Without a sermon on the benefit of education, I suggested that they come up with a plan to propose to AID. Something along the lines of Sarvodaya project in Banaskantha. The problem I see is that there are no special regional skills they possess, so I wonder how will they be able to compete with prominent local handloom and textile factories.

Then there is the issue ineffectiveness of Public Health Centers (PHCs). The story in this village is pretty much reflective of stories in all the villages that I visited. Dysfunctional PHCs with corrupt doctors and nurses are a problem. They only distribute vitamin and iron pills periodically and are rarely available during the cases of medical emergencies. Even if they are available, the villages are forced to buy expensive medicines when they should be given for free. Interestingly the villagers themselves equate good treatment with injections, increasing the overall cost further. They opt to get expensive shots administered rather than taking pills or changing the diet.

There was no concept of village health activist (VHA) or women's savings group in the village. I discussed why is it important for them to maintain statistics in a register and also described the idea of a women's savings group in detail. Most seemed interested and were willing to try with some help from the BGVS members. On the issue of a VHA, most agreed that only with a little stipend anyone would be willing to take on the responsibility. This would also be a recurring theme, which is contrary from original direction proposed in the HBP proposal.

I did not realize that we were already talking for more than an hour and the enthusiasm and outspokenness of women was quite impressive. Now it was time for lunch and I thanked everyone for their time and promised to return within a year. We were then served excellent lunch cooked at the Mr. Binod Kumar's house. My first meal where all the produce, rice and other ingredients had come from no further than 2-3 kilometers. Then I hung around the school talking to few students and teachers. They follow the curriculum developed by BGVS and after class sixth, some of them go to the government high school which is about three kilometers. The main problem is that very few girl students are allowed to go to the high school because of expenses due to uniform, stationary, etc.

Then the kala jatha program started on the school stage. More than 100 villagers and the prominent members of the BGVS district committee came to watch. The MC - Umesh Kumar - thanked BGVS committee (each one by name!), villagers and students for coming. He then put me in the spot to come to the stage and say something. Note to everyone - be prepared with a speech in advance. Thanks to Alka, I had jotted down some points earlier.

The program started with a literacy song, women's empowerment song - "Jaago hind ki naari", followed by skit on the importance of balanced diet, then a skit on importance of hygiene and preventive care, and finally a hilarious piece on common superstitions. The final performance included some common magic tricks that are employed by Ojhaas and sadhus who claim to cure every ill, to impress unsuspecting villagers. Lets see if you can figure this out - how can you cut a banana without peeling it?

This was my first opportunity to witness the kala jathas. The effectiveness of the medium was self-evident. Not a single person left the audience during the two hours the troupe performed. And most of the people had already seen it before.

There is little doubt that Baradih is the most developed village in the block. With an awareness and enthusiasm that was not seen again in any other village. It is ready for the next step for appointing and training a village health activist and then starting a women's credit program. There is a need for some kind of direction for the village. Now that all the pre-conditions are fulfilled, it should not take too much to reach the next level.

Sikahar, inhabited by about 300 families, is only about a kilometer from Baradih. Binod Kumar, Mohan Prasad Yadav, Rameshwar Prasad and I took a short ride to the village. We would become inseparable for next few days. Sikahar has a semi-functional government primary school. We had a village meeting in the verandah of the primary school. The village was quite a contrast from the one in Baradih. About 25 odd people attended the meeting. There were only 4-5 women present who were quite vocal throughout the meeting. We started with the usual round of introductions, with me elaborating on my purpose of the visit.

Even though Sikahar is only about a kilometer away from the Baradih, it seemed that we had crossed through a time portal. Hatched huts, unpaved roads and a poorly maintained community center was quite a contrast from the conditions in Baradih. The general problems in the village were no different than those listed in other reports from Bihar. However the most interesting observation was the resentment against BGVS in this village. They felt that BGVS were completely partial to their neighbor - Baradih, and neglected them completely after the initial Kala Jatha and cycle rally programs. There was absolutely no follow up. Although there was some awareness of the importance of literacy and health, the increase in enrollment has not been encouraging. The tirade of women in the meeting embarrassed the BGVS and most were lost for words. Binod Kumar acknowledged the lack of commitment and offered no excuses.

There have not been any significant changes in the adult literacy numbers and health indicators in the village. It is not surprising that when these villagers compare the state of their village with that of Baradih, they do feel a little ignored and jealous. The surprising aspect that these villagers chose to play the blame game rather than choosing to get inspired by the possibilities and take matters in their own hands. I guess this is the lack of confidence in their own abilities to change that we constantly hear and read about. I brought up this point with Binod Kumar later in the evening. He agreed that this is one of the most difficult challenge that BGVS has found difficult to overcome. Even after a successful initiation of programs, it is difficult to shake off the dependency of the villagers in BGVS to sustain the programs. BGVS has successfully instituted a Buniyaadi Sabah in most villages but most have become dormant after the initial enthusiasm. BGVS Gaya lacks full time volunteers to constantly monitor different villages, which results in concentrating efforts in a few places.

Going back to the meeting, I asked those present to think about what sort of collaborations are needed with the BGVS to solve the issues in the village. And moreover, what level of commitment would be needed from BGVS and from the villagers for successful completion of programs. I hoped to get the point across that BGVS can do little without their complete involvement. Most people expressed their ignorance to what is needed in the village. They are looking at BGVS for training and guiding them to achieve progress. There was however an enthusiasm of doing something constructive and a belief in the leadership of BGVS workers. Mohan Kumar then promised to take a more proactive role in Sikahar. In the end, we thanked them and asked for their leave. Some villagers lingered around for a few minutes to find out more about my purpose and involvement in their village and BGVS.

Mastalipur is a much smaller village inhabiting about 171 families. The development level is somewhere between Sikahar and Baradih. It is about 2-3 kilometers from Sikahar. Rekha ji is the soul of the Buniyaadi Sabah in the village. She is also a teacher in the primary school in Baradih. She is very active in the women's affairs in the village and takes pride in the progress made by women in Mastalipur. We were received in the house of Rekha ji with a refreshing glass of lemonade and some home cooked snacks. Rekha ji is very active in the village and primarily responsible for sustaining women's literacy drive in the village. Apart from the women's literacy programs there has not been much done in the village. An ad hoc meeting was called by inviting some active women in the village. We talked about starting a savings group and ideas to start some sort of a vocational program for the literate women. As was the case in Baradih, most women are interested in using their literacy skills and the resultant confidence to make their lives better.

Rekha ji then mentioned about the personal sacrifices she has to make to teach and take active interest in the affairs of the BGVS. She thinks it will be easier to motivate others to take full time responsibilities if there was a small stipend attached to the position. It will be easier to convince their husbands that apart from social prestige, there is a monetary benefit in the work too.

It had starting to get dark and it was time to call it a day.

Binod Kumar, Birendra Pathak and Mohan Prasad Yadav picked me from my hotel at about 9am and we proceeded to their favorite breakfast place. The magic of two-inch paranthas and the spicy aaloo-ki-sabji still lingers in my memory. We talked about the plans for the day. He had set up meeting in two villages - Sohaipur and Ganjas. In the evening he had planned to take me to the famous Buddha cave temple near Bandhua. It is purported that Buddha spent two weeks in the cave meditating before finally attaining enlightenment in Bodhgaya.

We reached the village at about 10:30 AM or so. The meeting was scheduled at 11 in a primary school that doubled up as a community center. We were greeted by a very well respected, Shyam Nandan Mishra. He is the "wise man" of the village. He has seen it all from the independence struggle to the changing political winds in the country and the region. He was also very active in the socialistic movements in the seventies and eighties, but now he is retired and offers guidance to the villagers from time to time. He was very disillusioned by the youth of his village. He believes that everyone is getting more self-centered and there are very few who thinks about the upliftment of the village. He gave an example of how there is not even a proper road that connects the village to the highway. This hinders the transportation of the grains and increases the maintenance of the tractors. He is too old to fight battles and others in the village do not come forward to sustain a struggle.

By then the primary school had ended and the teacher also joined us for a chat. The primary school had only two rooms and had students till class 6^th. There were about 100 children enrolled in the school with only one teacher. There were no teaching aids and the school received minimal help from the government. The books were donated by the BGVS and he did his best to teach with the limited resources at his disposal. Moreover, he was required to do other governmental chores - collecting census data and monitoring local elections. This distracted him from the primary responsibilities of running the school. He also finds it difficult to take vacations, as there is no backup to take over the school. The high school in the village caters to the whole block. There are about 400 students enrolled and is very efficient. This high school also serves as the center of BGVS activities like Kala Jatha training programs and holding mass meetings in the block.

By now the meeting had started in one of the rooms in the school. The classroom was clean with freshly painted walls. There were colorful illustrations from well-known Panchatantra tales on the walls and painted alphabets and numbers. The president of the Buniyaadi Sabah - Jeeksha Choudhary, greeted me and very formally asked me to take a seat with other BGVS members. There were about 30-35 people present in the room out of which only there were only 2 women. When asked the reason for a poor representation of women, I was told that BGVS did not ask specifically for women to be present. Also it was close to lunchtime and most women would be busy cooking lunch.

The meeting started with the usual introductions and a couple of lines of the purpose of attending the meeting. Most said that they were there to see me who has come all the way from the US to their village. We started with a BGVS song sung by Birendra Pathak - " ab jaag uthe hain mere gaon ke log..." Most discussed the poor state of the education in their village. One teacher for 100 children is nearly not enough. They appreciated the commitment of the teacher but one person cannot handle all the responsibilities. One person remarked that they could easily find two committed teachers in the salary drawn by the teacher. There is still a significant gender inequality in the village. The reasons resonated with those discussed in Baradih. Although the enrollment of girls had increased over past few years in the primary school, very few are allowed to attend high school. The two most common reasons being increased financial costs and need for domestic help. The PHC infrastructure is poor and there has been little done to eradicate TB from the area. About 70%-80% cases of TB are in the dalit community. The caste divide prevents dalits to attend common meetings in the village. There were a couple of dalits in the meeting believed that the caste barrier is still strong but applauded the efforts of BGVS of spreading the message of humanity.

The villagers were also a little concerned about the irregularity of the BGVS programs. But here the refreshing change was that they blamed themselves for not having regular village meetings to discuss their own problems. Mishra ji said that unless all the villagers do not come together and start discussing the problems and possible solutions, no progress can be made - even by BGVS. All those present then promised to hold regular meetings and put their problems in front of BGVS collectively.

Once the meeting ended we were once again treated to a fabulous meal cooked at Jeeksha ji's house. His nephew sat next to me while we were eating. A curious boy indeed! He had tons of questions on the US and Europe. Asked me in details about all the cities I had visited. He had an excellent knowledge about the geography of US. He even knew the major cities in Texas. He was in seventh grade and studied in the high school in the village. He enjoyed school very much and seemed like a voracious learner. I asked him his subjects and he rattled of the names in hindi - Bhautigi, Rasayan Shastra, Ganit, Itihaas, Bhugole, Rajniti Shastra, English, Hindi, etc. I had to ask him to slow down as it was taking me while to process the names! I decided to quiz him on math. Currently he was studying - varg and varg mool - upon some assistance by Mohan ji was root and square root. He could easily compute mentally the square root of 9, 25, 81, 225 - all the way up to 625. I had little doubts that given the right encouragement and resources there was little that he could not accomplish. His favorite subject was Chemistry and wanted to go to college when he grew up. His main ambition was to go to College! And not to join a profession. Nothing could be a better indication of the state of education mentality in the village. I encouraged him to follow his dreams and spread his ambition to his friends in school.

We then reached Ganjas. This is Mohan ji's village. He is a well-respected figure in the village. Although estranged from his brothers, he bears no ills towards his family. Very philosophically he explains that this is an indication of a non-confrontational attitude that is a bane in today's society. "Gandhi ho, lekin parosi ke ghar ho." (There should be a Gandhi but in the neighbor's house.)

Ganjas is home to about 125 families. There is a building for a primary school but is lying vacant, as there are no teachers to teach. The children have to walk at least a couple of kilometers to reach schools in neighboring villages. They have to cross the hazardous highways that have resulted in a few accidents over the years. We had the meeting in community shelter next to the main highway. We had to pause the meetings several times as noisy trucks and buses passed by. The meeting was attended by about 35-40 people, including about a dozen women who spoke little during the meeting. As usual we began with introductions and a song by Birendra ji.

The state of the village was similar to that of Sohaipur. There was no follow up after the programs in 1994. The president of the Buniyaadi Sabah acknowledged the need to resuscitate the programs by holding regular meetings. He compared Newton's second law of motion to the state of the villagers - without the assistance of an external force the state of the village and its inhabitants cannot change! He impressed upon all those present that BGVS and its volunteers are only means, the real work has to be done by all of them.

After the meeting Mohan ji treated us to the local palm fruit. And then his son Raju gave me the most memorable gift a beautiful hand painted parrot inside a handcrafted frame. I will cherish it for a long time to come.

We had our breakfast at the usual place. Everyone seems to know us by now. We did not even have to order - the paranthas were placed promptly before us upon our arrival. Birendra ji could not accompany us today. I would surely miss his enthusiastic singing. Instead we were joined by one of the prominent social workers in the area - affectionately called - Kalu sir. He is also a fellowship recipient from ActionAID. This quirky habit of people in Bihar to use ‘Sir' as a form of respect was quite amusing. Probably one of the remnants from the colonial times but it almost felt satirical now.

Kalu ji is intimately familiar with the problems in the area and currently working on raising the living conditions of the Bhuiyan people in the Gaya city.

There is only a broken unpaved road from the main highway to the village of Bandhua. After a 20 minute teeth chattering and bone rattling ride, we reached the community center in the village. The natural beauty of the village and its surroundings mesmerized me. It was a perfect representation of all romantic notions one has of an ideal Indian village. The images of a perfectly symmetrical mud huts surrounded by fields, gentle breeze blowing making the smoke from chimneys dance in unison, and children swinging under the huge banyan tree can only be experienced and not described. Unable to resist the breeze, we decided to have the village meeting in under the Banyan tree. As a result however, the idyllic scene of children on swings and village elders smoking on charpoys under the shade of the huge tree was disturbed temporarily.

It was an all male meeting. There were only about 15-18 people in attendance. It is said that the month of May is a big marriage season in Bihar. A lot of people in Bandhua could not attend the meeting because of the traveling to other villages to participate in various ceremonies and rituals.

We began with brief introductions. There was no song this time as neither Binod nor Mohan ji could remember a complete song. Bandhua has about 100 Bhuiyan and 70 Rajput families. This was my first account to witness a place where the caste divide was overt. Bhuiyans are considered to be the lower caste and are relegated to do the so-called menial work. The village had separate hand pumps, and settlements to sustain the divide. There was a primary school near the village up to class 7^th but very few children from Bhuiyan caste were enrolled. There was not anyone from the Bhuiyan in the meeting to really comment on the cause.

Mohan ji later told me that the cause was primarily monetary and not societal. The children were not discriminated in the school in anyway but just that parents cannot afford to send them to school. As they need them to help out in the fields and other temporary work that can fetch extra money. They do not see the value of educating their children yet. Even if the children are enrolled, the attendance is very erratic. Even though there were seven teachers in the primary school, they lacked commitment to teach well. At least two were on leave at any given time and rest only teach for a couple of hours every day. Those present in the meeting were generally very displeased with the quality of the education.

Irrigation was another major problem in the village. Agriculture was solely dependent on the monsoons. On the pretext of a dam on the river Falgu that flows through the district, all the existing water tanks have been neglected by the government. As a result the water table has receded quite drastically. Most bore wells now require re-boring to a deeper level. This has made water very scarce in the village. Moreover Bhuiyan women cannot get water from the hand pumps controlled by Rajputs which forces them to walk a few kilometers to get water. They asked me if AID could fund boring new wells. Apparently, government had sanctioned some money for new wells but the money never reached the village. They protested in front of the BDO office but gave up when some were roughed up and threatened. I asked them to write a proposal and give to BGVS workers. At least it will encourage them to come together and think collectively for a common cause.

And here one person had the courage to ask me the question which I am sure would have been asked in other places, if not for politeness. "What is my ulterior motive in visiting the village and supporting the development efforts by BGVS?" I do not believe that any answer will be satisfactory as they are all accustomed to big words and promises by politicians, panchayat offcials and other social workers. I decided not to answer the question, instead asked them to ask me this question again during my next time, if they felt that it was still warranted. As you can see I had already picked up a little Bihari guile in a couple of days.

We reached Mehmanchak at about 2pm. The afternoon sun was beating down in full glory. It was probably the hottest day yet. Mehmanchak is one of the most backward areas in the district inhabiting about 40 families from Bhuiyan and about an equal number of families for the other castes. The caste divide is open with two separate settlements and wells for the Bhuiyans and for other so-called upper castes. The well in the Bhuiyan area was very ill maintained and dirty. There was no proper drainage system around the wells, so consequently all the contaminated water as a result of activities near the well such as washing clothes, cleaning utensils and bathing seeps back in the well. This results in frequent cases of diarrhea and other water related diseases. None of the hand pumps in the Bhuiyan area are working creating a severe drinking water problem. There is no electricity and any kind of irrigation infrastructures. They have to go to Gaya for any health problems, which is sometimes unaffordable. The primary school is up to 5^th class. There are about 50-70 children attending. Only about 50% male students manage to go beyond primary school and none of the female students ever reach 5^th class.

The village meeting was arranged in the primary school. There were about 30-35 people in attendance. The meeting was quite disorderly where some went on and on to describe the extreme poverty of the village. I could not bring myself to talk about education or savings group in a village where there is not even proper drinking water. There is only one person in the Buniyaadi Sabah who is also a part time teacher in the school. There was really no program done by the BGVS in the village. For the most part there seems to be an extreme dependence of the villagers on the outsiders. It would be a challenge to instill some sense of confidence in the villagers. After the meeting we took a walk around the village and the problems highlighted during the meeting were obvious.

Today was my last day of my brief visit to Gaya. Binod Kumar was as usual on time and he treated me to some local delicacies. The only thing on the agenda was to attend the meeting of the BGVS district committee. We took a brief detour to visit the famous Vishnupad Temple. Where people from all over India come to offer oblations for salvation for their dead parents and forefathers.

We reached Khadi Gram Udyog in time for the meeting with the other district members. Khadi Gram Udyog gives them facilities to hold meetings and seminars at no cost. Out of the 17 members there were 14 present.

We started in a usual way, i.e. with a song. "Hum aise hain diwaane, duniya ko badal kar maanenge ..." (We are crazy enough to want to change the world.) I finally had a chance to talk to Umesh Kumar who is the director for the Kala Jatha Programs in the district. He is in the midst of forming a new team for Kala Jathas and restarting the programs in the district. The sole objective of the meeting was to discuss my impressions from last three days and chart a course for the future.

Some key points that emerged from our discussions:

• There was some funding from BGVS from 1992-1995 that enabled them to sustain various programs in the district during that duration. There has been very minimal support from BGVS since, limited to training of self-help groups and literacy programs. The committee has been under cash crunch that has hampered its ability to expand programs beyond a few villages.
• The health awareness plays during 1992-1995 were a huge success and lead to some remarkable changes in the mindset of people. There is a need to do these plays on a regular basis.
• Volunteer attrition is a serious problem in BGVS, especially at a village level. For example, the original Kala Jatha troupe is nearly dysfunctional. All the training and experience somehow needs to be transferred to the new volunteers before the old volunteers leave.
• Consider a regular allowance for the village full timer. This would increase the effectiveness and commitment of the full timer. Otherwise it is difficult for the full timer (usually women) to justify so much time away from home to her family.
• Drinking water and irrigation problems in most villages. Public hand-pumps do not work and it is difficult to solicit regular maintenance charges from the villagers. There is a dire need for tube wells in five villages in the Manpur block.
• Apart from the hygiene related health problems, there is a need for training for midwives. They still use infected knives for the procedure for reasons pointing to age-old superstitions.
• Primary education infrastructure is poor. If schools do exist the teaching is minimal. Rather than having schools in every village which are at a close proximity of each other, fewer bigger schools should be opened and all the villages should be linked by good transportation and roads.
• The caste divide is probably the most difficult obstacle to overcome. Bhuiyan caste is still being marginalized and their living standard has not changed in hundreds of years.
• Literacy is not perceived to be an end in itself. There needs to be some viable options for new literates to convert literacy to earnings. The general feeling about literacy can be captured by a popular saying - "Padle, subah kunye mein dube." (After literacy, there is no option but to jump in a well.)
• Outsiders are still looked with skepticism in villages. After years of exploitation, the general feeling is any outsider is here only for a selfish motive. It took 2-3 years to earn trust in some villages. There are still a lot more villages to be covered. Although almost everyone acknowledges the good work done by BGVS so far.
• The panchayat elections are often marred with violence and rigging. Most villagers are afraid to even cast their vote. Therefore worthy candidates never get elected. Binod Kumar stood in the last elections but lost for the same reasons.

Then the discussions centered around BGVS Bihar and BGVS in general. I wanted to get a sense of the collaboration with other committee members in neighboring districts and the relationship with BGVS Bihar. There is some collaboration with immediate districts as there is a constant two-way flow of district members. But there is little learning from more progressive blocks of Jehanabad and Nevadah. The only time they meet is during state camps that happen very infrequently. Moreover there is no travel allowance for the members that hinder their ability to take trips to other districts and blocks.

There is also a negative perception in the way BGVS Bihar lays down a certain plan and expects it to be carried out with no further direction. All the training is centered on that plan without taking into account the local realities in respective districts. As I could see, the disparity between villages in a single district is quite significant, and there can be no one size fits all solution. The members felt that there should be more direction and regular training from the BGVS Bihar. State level members should take regular trips (at least once in six months) and spend some time studying the on going programs and local village conditions. This will enable to offer a more context sensitive direction to them. Dr. Sunderaman and Thomas Franco have visited them recently. They hope that more such visits are planned by prominent personalities in the organization.

The villages in the block can be broadly classified into three categories.

• Level One:
These villages have reached the necessary level of development consciousness that supporting programs like women's saving groups, vocational programs and other ideas can be implemented. Villages like Baradih meet the basic indicators of the level of women's empowerment, literacy and self-confidence that more ambitious programs can now be tried. The challenge is to harness this enthusiasm and confidence to make these villages a model to follow by others around it. There should also be some attention paid to the regular volunteers from the village and turn them into full time health activists.
• Level Two:
These villages like Sohaipur and Mastalipur that have benefited from the health and literacy programs, but are just below the critical hump that can make them Level One villages. There needs to be a sustained push to expand the existing programs and recruit some active volunteers in the village. The people are open to change and already understand the benefits of programs. A few dedicated volunteers with adequate training is all that is missing.
• Level Three:
In these villages either there have been no BGVS activity or the impact of the programs has been non-existent. It seems that other more basic problems such as drinking water and irrigation need to be addressed before the community will be open to tackle literacy and caste problems. Villages like Mehmanchak fall into this category. I fear these villages, that make the largest composition of the block, will pose a major challenge to the HBP. These would require some innovative thinking and close monitoring for next several years.

The basic premise of above categorization is that the unit of development should not be considered as a block but a village. Contrary to popular perception there are enough variances in a single block that we should start evaluating development metrics for each village rather than a block. Statistics from a block can easily hide the remarkable progress made by a few villages and can also obviate the need to look non-performing villages at a greater depth.

The next steps that were agreed by the district committee were as follows:

1. Classify all the villages in the district based on Level One to Level Three categorization.
2. Formulate a plan for each village in the district for next 2-3 years based on the HBP. If it is difficult to come up with a plan for each village then identify a group of villages that is fairly a good representation of the three levels and use that as a planning model and replicate that in other villages.
3. There is little to no existing documentation of the programs conducted in the villages or progress made so far. AID and BGVS should actively collaborate in this aspect. AID should also try to make available these documents to other blocks and to the media.
4. There would be monthly communication between AID and BGVS Gaya to keep each other apprised of the developments and future plans. BGVS Gaya would try to get training to use email for a more efficient exchange of documents.
5. AID would evaluate some small proposals from the district to tackle irrigation, drinking water and supplemental education aids problems. AID should look into sending science books, charts, and other aids in the future.

After an exhausting three hour discussions, we all took a tea break and made some light chit chat. We then had a farewell photo session. After which Binod Kumar and Birendra ji (who met us at the station) waited with me until the train arrived. After a quick round of polite thank yous, promises and hugs, I boarded the train. It was then I realized the kinship that had formed among us. A sense of sadness crept over me when the train started to roll towards Delhi. In spite of all the challenges around, it was heartening to see tireless efforts from a few dedicated individuals who will stop at nothing. The change is slow but with a little bit of support from people like us can make it permanent. Lets commit ourselves to be a part of this change in years to come.

The words - "Hum aise hain diwaane, duniyaa ko badal kar hi maanenge" were still reverberating in my mind. And then slowly the people around me came in focus. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Buddhist monk in his traditional attire seated right across from me. It was going to be an interesting journey.

I would like to express my gratitude to the following individuals for making this trip a reality:

Binod Kumar, the effervescent and tireless block coordinator, for arranging and coordinating my trip. His patience in answering my constant flow of questions is commendable.

Mohan Prasad Yadav, Birendra Pathak and Rameshawar Prasad, who were gracious escorts throughout the trip. And thanks to the young Raju for giving me a precious gift to showcase his wonderful artistic talent.

All other district committee members who took out time to meet and have enlightening discussions with me.

And finally my colleagues in AID - Priya Ranjan, Karunesh Pandey, Alka Roy and Ravishankar Arunachalam to help me prepare for the trip and bugging me to complete my visit report.

ASSOCIATION FOR INDIA'S DEVELOPMENT (AID)

HUNDRED BLOCK PLAN VISIT TO MANPUR BLOCK IN GAYA DISTRICT

MAY 8^th to May 12^th, 2002

Prepared by:

AID Austin

nishj@umich.edu