Hiware Bazaar used to be a non-descript village in Maharashtra's semi-arid region – a region hit by constant drought and
crop failure. But, today, it is a village with 54
millionaires living in it. How did this transformation come about?
The key step was the proper utilization of the Employment Guarantee Scheme funds that were made available to the village. The funds were used for water conservation work. Water conservation structures were built to capture rain and recharge the groundwater. Whatever rainfall the village received was trapped and stored in the soil. The assured
availability of water meant assured incomes for many marginal farmers – and made the difference between penury and self-sufficiency.
The second step was the availability of bank loans for farming.
Another important milestone was the revival of the denuded forest by the panchayat (village authorities). This was carried out with the help of donated labor of the villagers themselves. Planting of trees on denuded forest land could only succeed because the panchayat could persuade the villagers not to graze their livestock in those designated areas.
The availability of water in the soil has other, tangible benefits for the villagers as well. With the increased availability of grass, livestock numbers and milk production has also gone up manifold.
Within the span of a single decade, the number of families living below the poverty line has fallen from 168 (out of 180) to only three! Hiware bazaar has been declared a model village by the state government, because the villagers showed initiative in the following areas:
~ a ban on liquor,
~ a ban on cutting trees,
~ a ban on grazing in forest areas,
~ family planning and
~ contributing village labor for community work.
Hiware bazaar is an object lesson in how to bring prosperity to the rural hinterland. The success of Hiware bazaar can be gauged by the fact that many families that had migrated from the region to Bombay (in search of work) returned to the village with the spread of prosperity. It also highlights the critical relationship between the availability of water and success in agriculture. Another lesson to be learnt is that the village authorities must be closely involved in any activities meant to preserve the local ecology. In other words, participation by the village authorities was the critical factor for success – because it is the villagers themselves who must plan for their future.