Dear Mr.Darshan,

Namaskar! Although two months have been passed from
the date of visit, extremely sorry for the delay in
sending the reports on my visits to IMTS, since
remained occupied in personal activities. As the
situation at home front became my priority to take
care off, I couldn’t finish the reports and remained
half. My mother was fallen sick and I had to spend
much time at her side for nursing. Secondly, there
were few other problems which needed my attention . I
know that I have really neglected in my commitments to
you people in apprising the developments time to time.
My conscience always hurts me for my negligence.
Please bear with me for the inconvenience caused. Hope
you will understand. 
First, let me send my observations on my visit to IMTS
in the month of June;

IMTS VISIT :

DATE OF VISIT:  15TH June to 16th June

As per my earlier plan and discussion with Mr.Khirod
Panigrahi, left Bhubaneswar on 15th morning by bus and
reached Baisinga around noon, which was around 230-240
kms., where I found Mr.Panigrahi waiting for my
arrival. The first village of our visit was
BHURUDUBANI. It was a small village consisting around
40-50 households, majority being from the ST
community. Since distance of the village was just
three kms. from the highway, accessibility was not at
all a problem. It took us fifteen minutes to reach the
village. Since the villagers were aware of my visit,
there was a small gathering in a common place. Shared
with the group for a while and discussed about their
occupational pattern and common problems in the
village. Most of the villagers were either marginal
farmers or totally landless. The prime occupation of
the people were share cropping or to work as
agricultural labourers during a quarter of a year. The
rest of the year, they work as labourers in
construction sites of neighbouring cities( Balasore,
Bhadrak, Cuttack & Bhubaneswar). Since my schedule was
fixed, I couldn’t spend much time with the gathering.
Instead, I preferred to meet the members of the women
group. The name NALAKUANRI SHG consists of 12 members
in the village. Couldn’t find all the members of the
group at one place. As it was RAJO time, all the women
members of the village were in a festive mood in
celebrating the occasion. Hence, we visited the
families to see the activities. What we found was all
the male members were busy in rope making activity in
all the families, since the women were not supposed to
do anything during RAJO festival. While discussing
with the male folk, it was learnt that, although the
programme was meant for the women members, but the
male members too assist the women in the activity
alongwith the old parents during their leisure time.
Some families I found that even the children assist in
the activity, when the mother remain busy in the
domestic chores. It was really pleasant to note that,
the entire family provide a helping hand to the women
folk in the production. The women members of the group
showed me the stock of the finished product, kept in a
central place of the village. A staff member of IMTS
collects the product everyday keeping a record of
day’s production. It was afternoon around 4pm rain
started pouring and my visit to the next village
became impossible. Hence, I had to cancel the
programme for the day. 

On 16th June(Sunday) my next visit was to village
KHAIRIBANI,which was the adjacent village of
Bhurudubani. It was a small village consisting of
around 40 households, majority being from the ST
community. As the villagers were informed the previous
day about the visit, found all the members of BINAPANI
SHG at a common place of the village. Here also the
situation was same like the previous one where the
male members of the family provide a helping hand to
the women members during their leisure time. Since
there was a heavy rain the previous day, the village
roads were muddy and what I found in the village was
that, the roofs of few houses weren’t covered properly
and the belongings of the respective families were
scattered in the verandahs. Talked with the members
and their family members regarding their developments
in the programme and the impacts it had brought in
their lives. They told about few problems being
encountered by them time to time in the locality. 

My last visit was to village KUJEGADI, which was about
twelve kilometers from Khairibani towards east.
Compared to the other two villages, this village was a
bigger village consisting of 70 to 80 families living
in three streets. This village had a sizeable no. of
households from general caste apart from the ST & SC
community. Found that few houses of the village were
concrete, some having RCC roof and some with thatched
roof. Looked like the people of this village were
better off  than the previous two villages. Met all
the members of RADHAKRUSHNA SHG consisting of twelve
members taken from all the three communities.
Discussed with them regarding the developments in the
programme and problems faced by them. Checked the
records and bank passbooks. Here also the members
narrated the problems same as the other two villages.
It was around afternoon I left the village for
Bhubaneswar. The observations and the problems has
been mentioned below;

OBSERVATIONS :

1. IMTS has paid the groups in term of cash during the
month of Jan.’02 for purchase of raw materials from
the market, which was not entered in their respective
bank accounts which should have done. When asked the
officials of IMTS the reasons for not doing so, they
explained that since it was already late in realising
the cheque and it was the peak time to procure the
materials, the groups decided to purchase the same
without further delay. 

2. When checked the accounts and discussed with the
groups, it was learnt that IMTS has paid the groups
@18,000/- for procurement of raw materials and Rs.
500/- has been paid to each member under Food for Work
progrmme. The records were properly maintained. Since
the first instalment was already utilised , the
balance amount was supposed to be paid to the
beneficieries for purchase of raw materials and
assistance under Food for Work. IMTS had met the
administrative expenses from its own sources. As the
second instalment was already released, hope by this
time it might have already distributed to the
beneficieries. 

3. One important factor of the programme was noticed
that, the women members get the support of the entire
family in the process of rope making. Previously in
some occasions they were even the victims of physical
exploitations by the employers. At least they were
relieved that no more they would encounter the sort of
situations. 

4. Although the groups have produced a sizeable amount
of finished product(ROPE), they have not been stored
properly, which was matter of concern. As mentioned
earlier, some houses didn’t have proper roofs. Hence,
it was advised to the IMTS officials to take the
matter seriously to store the finished products
properly since monsoon was first approaching. To
tackle the situation, IMTS has made arrangements to
hire a godown on rent which should be borne by all the
six groups.  

5. It was a nice sharing with the members regarding
the problems they had encountered from the local
traders involved in the same business. Prior to the
assistance provided by SEEDS, some of the members were
borrowing from the local money-lenders to purchase the
raw materials paying a high rate of interest. With the
intervention of IMTS, since they had lost quite a good
nos. of clients, they had started discouraging the
members. 

6. There was also a stiff resistance from the local
traders who had been doing this business since time
immemorial. Previously the SHG members were hired by
these traders as daily labourers. The women members
were paid a nominal remuneration for their
contribution. Since the local traders have lost the
services of most of the work force, it was natural of
their reactions. But the members were very firm on
their stand and confident of the achievements, which
was marked in the discussions. 

7. The groups had started selling the finished product
from the month of May, but stopped selling it, since
the rate was quite low. Hence they had decided to
start selling the product from the month of September
as it was the time to get a better price. While
discussing in the meetings it was learnt that, the
process of recovery would start from the month of
October. 

8. After my visit to the last village(Kujegadi),
Mr.Panigrahi had taken me to two other villages
Churumura and Unapura where IMTS has started running
two schools taking assistance from the government.
Gadadhar Sevashram (name of the school) is situated in
village Churumura under Amabagadia GP of the block
which was meant for the ST students. The other school
Krushna Chandra Sevashram is situated in village
Unapura under Merda GP which was meant for the SC
students of the block. Both the schools were
residential. Although initially IMTS had planned to
start with 100 students, but the response was beyond
imagination. There were around 140 inmates in both the
schools. Looking to the strength of the inmates, there
was no building  and proper manpower support to run
the schools. 

9. The villagers and the officials of IMTS came out
with different problems related to drinking water,
health and agriculture in the community. 

As mentioned, I had visited REACHD on 18th of this
month and my observation would be sent within a day or
two. Till then please bear with me. 

Bijay Patra