A report submitted to

DR. SAURABH GUPTA

In partial fulfilment of the requirements of the

course

INDIAN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL

ENVIRONMENT

By
Abhishri Mohta

Section: D

Roll No. 188009

On
10-03-2019
 UNSAFE BEHAVIOR IN RURAL AREAS

As said by our former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, “the true story of India resides in its
villages.” I witnessed this quote in reality during the Rural Immersion Program and the topic
I chose to research upon was the extent of unsafe behavior of the villagers in the rural India.
The research and discussion was surrounded by two main topics, being the use of chemicals,
pesticides and fertilizers in case of farmers and fetching of water from deep and open wells
in the case of women living in those villages. During the season that we visited the major
crops grown were ground nuts, bajra, pulses and jowar and on an approximate they have
around .5-1 bigha of land which on an average .75-1.5 acres. They cultivable land that they
own is scattered along various part of the village and thereby it is difficult for them to sow
one type of seed on a large scale in order to sell it in the market. Instead, these farmers
produce seeds majorly for self-consumption and store the grains by creating small granaries.
I would first write a note on the use of pesticides and fertilizers followed by how the dug
wells are used by the female villagers.

We visited a village called Banwara, whose Gram Panchayat was located in Dhundhi and the
nearby village where I conducted the survey was called Vasna. Initially, when I asked the
farmers about whether or not they use pesticides and fertilizers, they hesitated and said no
because they knew about the fact that they are harmful for consumption and it is illegal to
use these chemicals. But later when I dig deeper into the conversation and made them
believe that we would not get them into any trouble if they tell us the working of the
chemicals they opened up and even showed us the bottles that they use for growing the
crops. They also asked us if we could help them through government in monetary terms so
that they can buy more of these. However, the major point that they mentioned was that
they use weed killing herbicides and not the crop growing ones because the weeds damage
their crops and decrease the crop yield. When asked about any safety precautions that they
take while using the chemicals they clearly denied and said that they just cover their face
with a cloth so that they do not inhale the spray gas. Also, they store bottles of the
pesticides within their houses and the residual is dumped in the gutter passing through the
lanes.

Some farmers were also of different opinion saying that they do not trust on how well these
chemicals would kill the insects and what is the assurance that the insects would not ruin
their field within the foreseeable future. One of the farmer said that the farm insects
produces their off springs at a rapid rate and therefore it is nearly impossible to control
their interference within the productive soil.

One such incident was quoted wherein the farmers could not identify that which insect or
germ was destroying the field and therefore could not take a suitable measure to kill them
and by the time they learnt about the insect the whole crop was destroyed and therefore
pesticides and chemicals are of no use to them in such cases. Another perception was that
these chemicals are easily wiped off with water harvest and they have drains and canals
passing through their farmlands from nearby wells which irrigates the land and therefore
the pesticides do little or rather no good to their crops. Some farmers feel proud about the
fact that they undergo organic farming as they understand that they are using the harvest
for their self-consumption and not for sale and therefore they believe in eating healthy.
Whereas others who are even selling a small portion of their total harvest in the market
were fanatic about the use of chemicals and were ready to use them if given at normalized
price.

Talking about drawing water from the open well by dropping the buckets directly was quite
prevalent. The major concern as raised by the females was that they do not have a proper
standing arrangement near the wells. They have to stand in the wet mud to draw water
which takes double the energy and because of lifting heavy buckets of water many of them
are undergoing through back pains at a very early age of their lives. Also, the wells do not
have two of the most important facilities.

One being a solid brick boundary to protect the children and the females from falling and
secondly the wells do not have lids and are kept open all across the year. Because of this
there is a constant fear of people falling into the well and the water that is consumed is
contaminated by insects and reptiles. When asked about do they boil the water before
consuming it, they clearly said no and informed that instead of boiling they strain the water
and avoid consuming the well water during rainy season. They store water from hand
pumps during monsoon and clean the well once the season is over before resuming its use.

Some wells also had stairs which went down till the bottom to reduce the effort of the
pulling the wheel or the rope. However, the stairs were not made up of cement but of mud
which were slippery and gullible. On asking why do not use hand pumps throughout the
year they said that during summers because of lack of water the water from hand pump is
contaminated with mud and after monsoon the pipe of hand pump is rusted and therefore
the water cannot be consumed in winters.

All in all, the basic hygiene and safety measures were not taken seriously in the village
because till now none of the major mishap has happened with the given set of conditions.
Additionally, these are the set norms and practices which have been going through ages and
will probably continue in coming future.