Ranchi, March 25: Little did Shyam Benegal know when he made Well Done Abba that his satirical take on rural corruption and political powerplay would actually go on to do a favour to several villages of Jharkhand.
Taking a cue from Benegal’s critically acclaimed movie, a German-based funding organisation, Welthungerhilfe, has come forward to develop four blocks of the state into model blocks.
If everything goes off well, Sahebganj’s Barhait block, Dumka’s Jama, Pakur’s Littipara and Khunti’s Torpa will undergo a major makeover over the next five years, starting October 2013. The project is aimed at ushering in quality life to villagers by improving demand and supply of various government schemes related to health, education, employment, social welfare and water and sanitation.
Representatives of Welthungerhilfe, Kiran Sharma and Subhankar Chatterjee, said they would collaborate with civil society organisations (CSOs) for implementing the project.
The agency held a state-level consultation on “Improving access to information towards developing a more transparent and accountable governance system in Jharkhand” in Ranchi on Monday to understand perceptions of government officials as well as CSOs regarding facilities, bottlenecks and output of new initiatives.
Representatives from various departments like health, education, panchayati raj, State Institute of Rural Development, and also those from Unicef, State Committee for Protection of Child Rights, Ekjut and Network for Enterprise Enhancement and Development Support (NEEDS) and LEADS (Life Education and Development Support) were present.
Kiran Sharma, country director (India) of Welthungerhilfe, said: “Films like Well Done Abba, I am Kalam and Peepli Live, which depict the development scenario or the lack of it in India’s rural areas inspire us to chalk out future strategies. These films depict today’s picture.”
Vishnu Rajgadia of Panchayati Raj Resource Centre, SIRD, pointed out that Well Done Abba was a film about a “stolen well”. But in Jharkhand, every village has missing wells. “Well is a small example. In Kanke block, there are no water tanks. Actually, the issues is about water bodies, which exist on papers but not in reality,” he added.
Ekjut representative Keya shared her experiences of Participatory Learning Cycle, which was implemented in West Singhbhum to control neo-natal deaths. Adopted by Jharkhand Rural Health Mission, the model was launched in Santhal Pargana districts.
Appreciating the move of Welthungerhilfe, T. Hembrom, deputy director (IEC) JRHM, said problems faced by both the government and grassroots people were known to all. “We welcome handhold support to do away with the existing gaps,” he said.
Panchayati raj works deputy director Pradeep Kindo said capacity building of PRI representatives was a welcome move for which the department was ready for convergence with other departments.
