Gairetganj, RAISEN, India (AWW) - Until about four years ago the Khan family at Gairetganj block of Raisen district in India's Madhya Pradesh state faced what was a no-win struggle against poverty.

   The Khans owned about 18 acres of land but were unable to produce enough food for everyone.

   The draught-like conditions had lowered water levels in the wells and the fields were parched because the region had seen little or no rain for several years in a row.

   "My husband was unwell and I raised my children with money earned from collecting and carrying cow dung (for manure) for other people," says Banno Bi, a mother of five.

   ''We had no food, we used to live in poverty and we were constantly faced with unemployment," adds Salim Khan, Banno Bi’s son. “We were paid Rs10 (less than a quarter of a US dollar) for picking wood for the Forest Department," he adds.

   Today the Khans are not only producing food for themselves but because they have adequate irrigation water, they have also ventured into vegetable farming, something that was totally unheard of in the region.

   The change was made possible by a massive irrigation drive under the World Bank-supported District Poverty Initiatives Project (DPIP), underway in five Indian states since March 2001.
 
   In Madhya Pradesh, the project covers 53 blocks of 14 districts and involves over 41,000 farmer groups –about 2.44 lakh beneficiaries.

   Most of the beneficiaries of the project are poor farmers and those belonging to indigenous tribes and scheduled castes – people considered to be “untouchable” by the Hindus.

   The fortune of the Khans – belonging to the minority Muslim community – began changing in early 2002 when villagers participating in a wealth ranking exercise identified them for DPIP support.

   They now are members of a self-help group – Pragati (meaning “progress”) – which serves as a forum for taking collective actions to improve incomes and livelihoods.

   Their first DPIP-supported task was deepening and reinforcing their well and building a fence around their land for growing vegetables.

   The DPIP also gave the Pragati group IRs 112,000 (approximately 2,545 U.S. dollars) and another IRs 8,000 (182 U.S. dollars) to its women members to buy a thresher.

   Today the group’s women have small enterprises – tailoring and bangle shops – and have paid back debts amounting to about IRs 35,000 (795 U.S. dollars).
 
   The Khans have also leased an additional 16 acres of land for expanding agriculture.

   Salim's son Shamim says, "Until recently we had only one set of clothes, now we have few more."

   It is a similar story in neighbouring Bilwani village where the six members of Sarswati Bai’s Ekta Group have set up their own businesses. They had borrowed IRs50,000 (1,136 U.S. dollars) from the DPIP for brick-making.

   This mixed group of men and women has about 14 acres of land between them but they did not have water for irrigation. They too have reinforced their well and have begun farming on land that used to be left to fallow all year.

   “Almost 50 per cent of our investments have been in the 442 water augmentation works, 483 drinking water schemes and 171 toilets,” says Ravindra Pastor, the coordinator of DPIP in Madhya Pradesh.

   He adds, “More than 250 acres are being irrigated with water from the stop dam on the Lalakhedi River. The Water Consumers’ Committee maintains and manages use and distribution.”   

   According to Pastor, the dam had cost IRs 1.25 million (about 28,989 U.S. dollars) to build but it has already helped bring a major turnaround in crop production – about IRs3.5 million rupees (about 78,652 U.S. dollars).

   So far the DPIP has spent IRs30 million (about 674,157 U.S. dollars) on the micro projects and plans to spend another IRs55 million (about 1.23 U.S. million) by the time it comes to an end in June 2007.

   More recently, the DPIP began its activities in Barmatal village at Tikamgarh block in October 2004 and has already helped to slowdown seasonal migration from the village.
 
   Chunubai and her husband Vinodi were among those that travelled to New Delhi and other cities in search of work every year. They have not done that for over a year.

   According to S.P. Tripati, the DPIP's district project manager almost 24 per cent of the villagers used to head out in search for work in 2000/01, and they spent four to six months away from their homes.

   Now most of the villagers stay back and work in their fields.

   Chunubai is a member of the Agarbaba Mahila Samiti, a self help group, that also has her cousins as members. They now grows chillies on a roughly one acre plot using water from a tube well installed with a IRs 55,000 (about 1,241 U.S. dollars) DPIP grant.

   "I like staying here. I finally seem to have some time-table to my life. I will stay and work here," says Vinodi.

   "We used to break boulders in Gwalior and Delhi. We did not go to seek work last year," adds Chunabai.

   The availability of water for irrigation made all the difference.

   "With the work now going on here my children may be able to see better days," says Bhagwat Singh Thakur a 72-year-old villager. “We never had so much water in the village.”

   Not all self-help groups have been as successful though – many have succumbed to group infighting and have not been able to do much even with the DPIP’s support.
 
   “We have had very little rain in these regions,” says R.B. Tripati, the DPIP’s media officer.

   “In areas where there has been barely 10-12 mm of rainfall over the last few years, these water structures have helped people continue to irrigate their lands to some extent.” (END/AWW/IPSAP/SM/BB/060306)