VILLAGE LIFE IN INDIA AND NEPAL
As is happening worldwide, subsistence farmers in India and Nepal are being relentlessly driven from the land, and the migration to towns and cities in search of almost non-existent jobs is creating the most appalling slums. Everywhere the rich are getting richer and the poor desperately poorer. Mono-cropping for sale and export is taking over from local self-sufficiency. Although vast surpluses are harvested, more and more people cannot afford the food they grow. Exceptions to this trend can be seen in the remote tribal villages beyond the range of the "trickle-down" economy, as well as in some enlightened projects where sharing and cooperation are the keynote.
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AMARPURKASHI RURAL POLYTECHNIC (5)
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Mukat Singh. |
Amarpurkashi village in Uttar Pradesh is the home of Mukat and Jyoti Singh. For over 30 years they have struggled to set up a Polytechnic based on the needs of the rural poor. In spite of years of opposition from every level of government, they have now succeeded in establishing all stages of education from primary to high school and a small university campus in the village. The schools are attended by children from several surrounding villages within 10 miles and the university from far further afield. In all stages of education the emphasis is on local self-sufficiency, sharing and mutual cooperation. Amarpurkashi still suffers from the national policy of cash-cropping, larger land holdings |
and the movement of surplus manpower to the towns to engage in industry, considered to be the main source of Indian wealth. (6) Nevertheless one cannot visit Amarpurkashi without experiencing the warmth and trust of their human relationships. Each year the community is host to a number of volunteers from Europe who not only help the project, but benefit greatly from the experience.
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Mukat Singh & family with Trude Albright Sweeny |
Rice, sugar cane & potatoes |
Primary School classroom.