20 Years of Disha
1991:Uttarkashi Foray

An earthquake of severe intensity struck Uttarkashi district on October 21, 1991. The earthquake devastated Uttarkashi city and adjoining rural areas, killed about 1,000 and maimed many more. Naturally rehabilitation of victims became a priority for the government and other organisations, including non-government organisations. All of them pressed into service of the victims.

With the progress of the relief operations, it became clear that so much devastation was caused because the residents of the area did not use earthquake resistant technology for constructing their dwellings. In view of this revelation a government organisation, Council for Propmotion of People’s Action and Rural Technology (CAPART), assigned itself to demonstrate to the residents earthquake resistant construction technology. It decided to do so through voluntary organisations. CAPART chose Disha as one of the partners in this endeavour.

At a tripartite meeting, Disha, CAPART and Uttarkashi district administration a decision was taken that Disha would primarily work in rural area of the district. The meeting also finalised seven villages in Dunda development block where this task was to be taken up. All these villages had a large population of Scheduled Castes and below poverty line people.

Following a survey in the selected villages land was acquired at suitable sites in consultation with the villagers. Construction of model demonstration homes and community centres began a few months after the survey when logistical arrangements were completed. Disha constructed community centres at Udalka, Dunda and Nakuri villages and also a model home at Udalka village. These structures were later handed over to the village representatives.

At Udalka village irrgigation canals were broken at several places and the organisation restored them. This helped the villagers restart agriculture operations.

Even as this work was progressing, the organisation’s workers stationed there interacted with the villagers and concluded that the latter needed the organisation’s presence for some time to come for their development. On the demand of the villagers they organised a few training in stitching and knitting.

But these were only piecemeal arrangements. If the villages were really to be developed, it was concluded, key strengths of the area were to be made use of. The land in all the villages was found to be highly suitable for agriculture and horticulture. A small beginning in this direction was made through raising saplings of fruits and vegetables. The holistic approach was, however, to work on natural resource management and development on watershed approach. These are described later.

Legal Aid

As movement of the downtrodden and the poor progressed, vested interests slapped a few cases on the organisation. In view of this a need was felt to know more about the law of the land. Accordingly, a legal aid programme was initiated in the organisation. This programme aimed at making the people, more particularly women, aware of the laws concerning their lives.

A series of training for the organisation’s workers in legal aspects were held at the organisation’s headquarters. Back in the field a number of camps were organised to make the villagers aware of the laws cocerning their lives. These camps addressed issues like land reforms (see below), village common land, minimum wages, equal wages, etc. Laws related to women were given prominence so as to tackle menace like dowry and violence against women. In later years, violence against women became the organisation’s one of the major areas of intervention.

Some of the workers soon became quite an expert in police and court procedures as they often went to police stations and courts in connection with numerous cases. They shared their experiences with the villagers and the villagers soon knew what they had to do in case a crime occured in their villages.

Land Reforms

Among the many issues that the two fronts – GKMM and MMELKM – one was the issue of landlessness. The fronts brought before the organisation the irregularities in land distribution by the government on patta (lease). It was decided that there was need to intervene to tackle this issue.

To begin the two fronts held a series of meetings to discuss the issue at Badshahibagh and Rehna villages. These meetings decided that they would contact revenue authorities to visit some of the worst affected villages for an on-the spot study of land problems. In many of these villages the allottees did not have possession of the land allotted to them.

Later an intensive survey was carried out in the area to build further understanding on the issue of landlessness. A total of 258 cases of landlessness were reported from 10 villages. It was also found that about 200 people in these villages were allotted lands in the beds of Yamuna and other small rivers.

Following this a campaign was launched to tackle the issue. The campaign included petitioning before the authorities and filing court cases. Through the concerted efforts of the fronts and the organisation several instances of landlessness were successfully tackled during the ensuing years.

Electronics for Women

This activity was taken up on the initiative of the then Electronics Secretary to the Uttar Pradesh, Rita Sinha, who happened to visit the organisation. She explored the probability of helping women to assemble electronic items near their place of residence.

For the implementation of the activity elaborate arrangements were made by entering into multilateral agreement between Disha, Khadi and Village Industries
Commission, Central Electronics Secretary, UP Electronics Secretary and UPTRON, an Uttar Pradesh government undertaking, engaged in production of electronic consumables, more particularly television sets, radio sets and cassette recorders. To tackle management issues, a separate holding organisation – Pragatisheel Gramodyog Sansthan – was formed.

After the formalities, the training began in November 1991. The instructor of the training was from UPTRON. Since the learners did not have formal qualification in electronics, the instructor used novel methods to impart the training. At the end of the three month training, 30 girls qualified.

The trained girls, however, had to wait for three months before radio cassette recorder kits arrived for assembly. But the kits were not those for which the girls had been trained. These kits were sent back. In the coming two years nearly 150 kits of radio cassette recorders came in two lots. The girls assembled them and the product was sent back to UPTRON.

The project failed in its pursuit because it could not generate bulk and the participating girls could virtually earn nothing. The girls lost interest. Because of administrative problems the project was abandoned in 1994.

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