Empowering Villages in Rural India

The Gram Vikas Committees (GVC) or the village development committee of village Ushan has now been able to resolve local conflicts on its own. They even deposited the benefits earned from the fodder of the common pasture land into their GVK...

There was a small piece of common pastureland in village Ushan, which was lying barren and was being used for open grazing. Years ago the Panchayat (the Government local council of village) had built a fence around the land.

Later, a few influential people of the village broke the fence for their cattle’s grazing. Eventually the entire fence was broken all over. The village wanted to put the common pastureland for good use for everyone. People had to buy fodder from outside at expensive prices and so they wanted to restore their pastureland. In several village meetings the issue was discussed. The Gram Vikas Committee (GVC) decided to restore their pastureland with the support from Seva Mandir.

The task of restoration included building the fence (to check the open grazing), planting trees, growing grass but most importantly ‘dealing with the encroachments’. The GVC had several meeting with the influential families of the village. Most of these meetings proved futile and the village could not move ahead. However, the GVC did not give up and explained to these families the common benefit behind their initiative.

Finally when the village got success in removing the encroachments the work began with building the fence. Some local trees were planted and grass seeds were sown. The village has been able to harvest grass worth Rs. 700/- this year.

Suni who is the member of GVC, Ushan says- “It was very difficult to ask the encroachers to withdraw from the land. It took months to our GVC to persuade them to cooperate with us. Since the pastureland is so new the production of fodder has been limited this year. And so we have sold the grass and the money has been deposited to our Gram Vikas Kosh (Village Development Fund). The people are happy in the village. The influential families don’t bother us”.

• Suni says - we earned Rs. 700 this year (PDF)