Dr Mohinder Kumar
Farm-households in Khunda village generally have to face shortage of family-labor to work on family farms. Therefore, all of them have to hire wage-labor, a trend which started in 1999. In contrast, people of Minjee village in the same district of Kargil have surplus unemployed wage-labor. With commercial farming, rich plantations and potential for 100% irrigation by river Drass/ ‘nallahs’/ glaciers, it would be interesting to see whether resourceful village like Khunda ever faced the question of physical and economic survival.
Village Weekly
Khunda is located in Drass block of Kargil district in Ladakh. It is situated at mid-point on the highway connecting Kargil with Drass, at distance of 65 km from Drass and 55 km from Kargil. Entire population is notified as Muslim Scheduled Tribe (ST). Average size of land holding is 34 acres -unbelievable and extraordinarily large. With population of 250 persons in 40 households which are all farmers they own 1350 acres of agricultural land. Village common land of 150 acres (10% of total land) for private cultivation is insignificant and inconsequential. Farmers of Khunda unlike other villages are too big to appropriate meager common land for personal cultivation. A majority (75%) of the farmers is large-sized farmers (i.e. 30 farmers out of total 40); only 25% or 10 farmers are marginal/ small-sized. This is a unique village in the sense that it is predominantly a large farmers’ village which is generally prosperous. At the same time it has a small pocket of poverty among 25% households which are listed as Below Poverty Line (BPL) households. Therefore, in our villages prosperity has its necessary concomitant in the form of poverty. Why prosperity cannot be an absolute or universal fact of a village is the question. This question primarily applies to Khunda. It is quite rare that villages have such favorable land-man ratio of 5.4 acres as Khunda has.
Farmers grow wheat and cultivate all types of vegetables; surplus produce is 35% (not much) and sold on commercial basis in Drass and Kargil. Plantations include willow and poplar trees.
Villagers speak common languages “Shina” and “Balti’. Khunda people could spare some time, effort and resources to preserve rich local cultural traditions, skills, and arts. People from Khunda enjoy and participate in ice-skating, snow-skiing, horse-polo, archery competition, etc. held at Bhimbhatt near Drass each year. They celebrate Id-ul-Zohra, Id-ul-Fitr, Id-e-Milad, Id-e-Milad-nabi, Id-ul-Azhar, Id-ul-Shab-e-Neraz, Id-ul-Shab-e-Barat, Id-e-Gyarushi Sharif, and Muharram (new-year in November-December). It is satisfying to see that young school-going students could remember names of all religious festivals at ease. Villagers spend Rs.3-4 lakh on marriage functions. Entire village joins groom’s family in “barat”. Garlands of paper currency notes and flowers are commonly used.
Panchayat Ghar building is under construction in the village. Forest wood is not much required since all households have their trees on owned farms. Hill stones are used free of cost by all villagers though outside people/ contractors working on projects have to pay for it. Under ‘Chukhiyal Canal Irrigation Project’, pucca “kool” (canals) were recently completed, which are benefitting farmers of Khunda and five other villages in Chaukhiyal mouza.
Main occupation of the village is farming; their allied occupation is Government job (military, police, education department, school-teacher, etc.) or private business -mainly in tourism (taxi) or other petty trade. Despite producing marketable surplus, they express no requirement of agricultural market in village. It is indicative of emerging shift in occupational pattern -from commercial farming to service and private business because labor supply is scarce. Chemical fertilizers and seeds for farming are supplied in sufficient quantity by Agriculture Department and Cooperative Society in the village. Still it is strange to see that farmers want to shift from farming to service and business, but not agri-business or farming as such on more commercial/ capitalist and associated or organized way like Farmers’ Producers’ Companies (FPO). It is so because they are not aware about the concept of FPO.
All size-classes of farm households in Khunda are more interested in permanent Government job than anything else. Even 200 sheep-goats owned by 10 marginal BPL farm households seem to be of no commercial use. Households face difficulty of sheep grazing on pastures as they have to cross river Drass by a bridge located 2.5 km away from the village in absence of foot-bridge in Khunda village, which could have reduced their walking distance by 5 km daily. Anyway they are not content with their sheep-goat husbandry occupation either since lure of elusive wage-labor constantly attracts them. Fisheries Department helped them financially with construction of two ponds in Khunda for pond fishery on subsidy basis involving two farm households. Each fish produced by them weighed half kg. But still marginal farm households could not expand this fishery venture and capitalize on that experiment despite huge demand of fish locally, in Drass and Kargil. The lure of free-market wage-labor opportunities outside Khunda is too much enticing for BPL farm households. They run after elusive things more than they concentrate on entrepreneurship opportunities existing right within their reach or door steps. Right education, training, orientation, sensitization and capacity building of human resources and entrepreneurship development or group formation or farmers’ producers company, etc. are lacking in the village.
There is another understandable form of “paradox of plenty”: Abundant private wealth in the hands of 75% rich big farm households co-exists with poor State of public amenities in the village: Veterinary center is 4-5 km away in Chaukiyal village on upper reach of the hill. Patwari never visited in the village except when called, since land records are reported as intact and perfect. But it is not certain whether crops and yields of farmers, particularly 25% BPL marginal farm-households are intact. It is the duty of Patwari to do ‘girdawari’ (yield-survey) of crops each year regularly. But it is not done. Street lanes are ‘kutcha’. The office of Integrated Child Development Center (ICDC) may be seen operating from a dilapidated ‘kutcha’ building. Water from drains, melted glacier, and tributaries of nallahs flows freely in the streets and goes waste. There is no proper drainage or sanitation. Power supply in winter is restricted to 4 hours per day. In comparison, village Minjee in the same district, 15 km from Kargil city had 20 hours per day power supply. In 2009, military had installed three-four solar lights in Khunda streets under “Sadbhavna” Project; however, all lamps were defunct and dysfunctional in 2013. “No one knows why solar light system failed”, is reply from villagers. They are not much concerned about power supply during summer. Drinking water is not a problem in summer as village has hand pumps and drinking water piped supply scheme sourced from ‘chashma’ and supplied through pipes to all the 40 households. But in winter they face huge problem in water supply due to snow. For dispensary they need to walk up the hill up to 4-5 km to go to Chaukiyal village. There is no private doctor clinic and no medical shop in Khunda. Public transport service does not exist; only private mini buses ply. The village has only primary schools because it is a small village. Children go to neighboring villages/ town for higher education. They go to Choukiyal for middle school; to Bhimbhat (on main Drass-Kargil road) for high school; to Drass for senior secondary school; and to Kargil for college education even as college reportedly does not have proper building or rooms to accommodate all classes.
BPL marginal farmers face the greatest problem of finance. They have no access to banks. They borrow money from “one another” within village which basically implies “big farmers”, “permanent employees or servicemen”, “businessmen”, etc. Average amount borrowed is Rs.5000 to 25000 for five to six months. Khunda is prime example of class-divided village economy having hierarchy of sharp economic inequality and differentiation. It has paradoxes of plenty and poverty and of large farmers and BPL marginal farmers. Yet the aspiration of all of them is common: Permanent Government service.
Adversities are afflicting mainly 10 most poor and desperate households, constituting 25% of rural households though other households have also faced some of the problems commonly. Their first problem is related to education of children. But it is not a big insurmountable difficulty. There are two primary schools in this small village (one Government school and one private school). For further education, there is facility available and availed by villagers in neighboring villages and town. Bus/ Sumo taxi transport facility is available easily. People’s second problem is related to unemployment. This village is a mix of poverty and prosperity. On the one hand few households own very big and large holdings with plantations of willow and poplar trees, there are few (10) households which are landless -mostly jobless and sometimes casual laborers. They live by earnings from wages at subsistence and below-subsistence level. Basically their problems are related not just to unemployment but also inadequate food, inadequate warm clothes during winter, inadequate fuel, inadequate/ no finance or money to start any economic activity. Temporary coping mechanism of casual wage-labor activity comes to the rescue of these poor households. The idea of forming Self Help Groups (SHG) has not yet occurred and penetrated in the circle of thoughts of this village, including agencies or NGOs. Possibly visible prosperity hides poverty of other few households. Households on their own or village as a whole has no clue to tackle difficulties and adversities. Poor households resort to borrowing from other (rich) households and return the same in 5-6 months in installments to repay their informal loan (without interest).
Third problem of village as a whole pertains to winter season. As Stated earlier electricity supply is maintained for four hours a day only. It causes problem in heating to keep house warm, studies of children and other common use like house-lighting. Other problem during winter season is related to snow -not removed from roads for many days together. National Highway towards Drass remains closed for five days in a stretch and road towards Kargil it is closed for 15 days in a stretch, before roads were cleared. Deposits of snow on highway continue for at least four months during the winter season. For power problem, all villagers have installed solar lights by spending Rs.5000/- each. They also use kerosene oil in oil-lamp as each household is regularly supplied 10 liters of kerosene oil per month. Though road clearing machines are deployed by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) sometimes on specific request from Sarpanch if the problem is acute, those who can afford to shift to Kargil city they use this strategy of shifting and staying there for 3-4 months with their relatives, friends or in rented houses or in tent; this is so because Kargil has better access to food, basic amenities, necessities, services even as traders (shopkeepers and provision store-owners including butcher shop-owners) store groceries and necessary items for selling which sufficed for six months during harsh winter. Therefore, shifting to Kargil city is better option than starving without food and necessities in Khunda, particularly even as they have purchasing power.
Fourth difficulty faced by villagers, particularly Bakarwal shepherds is related to foot-bridge on river Drass. Since shepherds from bakarwal/ Gurjar households are required daily to move to the mountain and hill top for grazing their cattle (including small ruminants) on pastures, they use a bridge situated 2.50 km from village Khunda, which involves considerable loss of time in taking circuitous route and walking extra 5 km (two ways) while pastures are situated nearer and in front of village across river Drass. Even as they bring cow dung collected from pastures while returning to village, it poses greater problem and hassle involved due to more distance, and they feel they get tired daily. It affects their efficiency and performance next day. There is no solution or coping strategy in sight other than that they expect construction of foot-bridge for which they have not yet approached the district authority. Sarpanch is aware about the problem and he could take up the issue with authorities for a project on foot-bridge. He is yet to act on this. Villagers aggrieved that even small task of awareness creation on MNREGA, KCC and SHGs, etc. is not done by Gram Panchayat. Hence their problem of foot-bridge on river Drass at a site near village Khunda does not see feasible solution in near future. So, the only recourse available to them, i.e. bridge situated 2.50 km away from village is being used without alternative optimum option.
In non-farm sector, there is scope for vegetable processing in Khunda at household level. In service sector, village requires small business shops for cement supply for construction activity as village is prosperous with big land-holders employing migrant wage-laborers, electrical goods shops, etc. Village does not have veterinary center even as people used to take their cattle to neighboring village Chakhyal (5 km away) on top of hill, which is difficult. Doctor/ compounder from Chakhyal would visit by calling though villagers need veterinary center in their own village Khunda since it would be more comfortable. There is no Government bus service from village. Private Sumo charged Rs.25/- from village up to Drass if they wanted to visit town for any household task or office task in BDO office or other urgency, which involves expenditure of Rs.50/- for each visit and return. Villagers require cheaper public means of transport even as condition of road (highway) is good. Link road and village street roads are in bad condition. Stones are laid on ‘kutcha’ road which is not comfortable for conveyance. Villagers want greater supply of power, particularly in winter cold season.
Youth of Khunda village evince interest in developing a cricket ground for which vacant land is available near river Drass. However, they do not know whom to approach or what would be the source of funding of such project for sports ground in village even as they are very fond of cricket. Gram Panchayat is not active even for small public amenities, MNREGA works and wage-labor employment. It appears Khunda, with its paradoxes, is a big puzzle for the development practitioners. The village is resourceful and prosperous but it also has its share of poverty, which makes it a paradox of development. Khunda needs careful planning and organization of its rich natural and human resources.
(Author works for NABARD; views expressed are personal)
(Feedback at mohinder1966@gmail.com)
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