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REPORT
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL BENGAL
March 2003
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KASBA
Contrary to the popular picture of the regular Indian farmer as that of a simpleton, Jitendra (one of our subjects for the survey at the village) was very agile and careful in balancing the answers to the questions thrown at him. However, some dubious issues that remained were: -
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| a. Female education: While the men and women were rather intent on getting all children educated alike, female education was looked upon as a waste of time and energy. There were complaints regarding the non-availability of 'proper' jobs for women, be it in the village or in the nearby cities. Further the villagers could not go on to explain the vigour with which they pursued female education in spite of its poor applicability on the vocational front. |
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b. Religion and caste divides: Jitendra was quick to emphasize that there was practically no communal or caste divide in the village. All children were treated alike, receiving the same education, food and water. He also sympathised for the low-income groups of the village which were unable to get the best the best the village had to offer due to sheer lack of monetary power. The Scheduled Castes and Muslims, who mainly comprised these low-income groups, could not access services like those of private tuitions.
At the same time, he also showed some signs of harbouring communal and religious sentiments. He was vociferous in airing the fact that the Muslim couples had upto six children and took little responsibility in providing them a descent upbringing. The trend was that they, since having a low income, would send their children over to his family home to play with their cattle. The children would stay there for long hours prompting him to give them some food and when they were old enough, to provide them with some sort of employment on his farm. He blamed the mindset of such people on their lack of education.
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c. Extent and effects of Politics on locals: The left has a strong presence in rural Bengal and Kasba is no different. The Panchayat is under the CPI(M). The villagers refer to one another as 'comrade'. Personal opinion has little role to play here as most are pressurized into being CPI(M) supporters. Two Panchayat workers informed us that the Panchayat officer bearers had grown in terms of their personal wealth, a measure of the prevalent trend in politics. There had been quite a few lapses on the administrative front as well.
e.g. the road to the primary school gets flooded each year during the monsoon, but despite repeated requests to repair the drainage system, there have been no efforts made by the Panchayat to solve this problem. The students have to wade through knee-deep water to reach their school, a problem persisting for the last three years.
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Although there seems to have been great efforts at educating rural population in terms of academics, birth control and communal harmony, yet there exists strong prejudice against the minorities including Muslims and SCs. There are half-hearted attempts of educating girls who continue to be looked upon as a burden for their parents, showing thus that a boy child is still preferred over a girl child.
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