FIELDWORK SEGMENT

PRM 2012 14
An Exploratory Study of Village
Based on studies in Mauzampatti Village

VILLAGE: Mauzampatti
GRAM PANCHAYATH:Gauripur
BLOCK: Barhara Kothi
DISTRICT: Purnia
STATE: Bihar

HOST ORGANIZATION: Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society (BRLPS)

Submitted by:
Abhijit Mitra (33001) and Apurba Chowdhury (33068)
Faculty Guide: Prof. Pratik Modi

In partial fulfilment of the requirements of FWS of the Post Graduate Programme in Rural
Management

INSTITUTE OF RURAL MANAGEMENT, ANAND

2012-2014

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Successful execution of an event requires the efforts of many. Without their efforts, guidance
and assistance, those events would have never seen the light of the day. This
acknowledgement goes towards expressing our heartfelt gratitude and sincere thanks to all
the persons who enabled us to have a fruitful fieldwork.
We are indebted to IRMA for providing us with such a unique opportunity of learning and
express our deepest thanks to Prof. Asmita Vyas, our fieldwork coordinator for handling the
fieldwork efficiently.
We would also like to express our gratitude to Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society for
enabling us to undergo our fieldwork through their esteemed organization. We are grateful to
the organization and its staffs for their kind assistance and the learning it enabled through the
RAC.
We express our thanks to our host family who allowed us to stay in their house and accepted
us. We also express our gratitude to the people of Mauzampatti for providing us with the
opportunity to observe, participate and learn from their lives. Last but not the least we also
thank Prof. Pratik Modi to take time out of his busy schedule to review this report.

Abhijit Mitra (33001)

Apurba Chowdhury (33068)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................1
2. SCOPE OF STUDY ............................................................................................. 1
3. OBJECTIVE ........................................................................................................ 1
4. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................... 2
4.1

Primary Sources of Data Collection ................................................................ 2

4.2

Secondary Sources of Data Collection ............................................................ 3

5. INTRODUCTION TO MAUZAMPATTI ........................................................... 3

5.1

Location and Access................................................................................... 3

5.2

Host Family ................................................................................................ 4

5.3

Challenges Faced........................................................................................ 5

6. VILLAGE SOCIETY.............................................................................................6
6.1 Distribution Based on Caste and Religion .................................................... 7
6.2 Society and Family.......8
6.3 Health ............................................................................................................ 9
6.4 Education ....................................................................................................... 9
6.5 Transport ..................................................................................................... 10
6.5.1 Roads .................................................................................................. 10
6.5.2 Railways ............................................................................................. 10
6.6 Entertainment and Media .............................................................................. 11
6.7 Festivities in The Village ......................................................................................... 12
6.8 Migration ................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
7. VILLAGE ECONOMY..13
7.1 Agriculture14
7.2 Animal Husbandry17
7.3 Village Markets.19
7.4 Labour...20
ii

7.5 Money and Finance.20

8. VILLAGE POLITY...21
9. VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS.25

9.1 Aanganwadi....25
9.2 Middle School22
9.3 High School26
9.4 Village Post Office.....27
9.5 PDS ...........................................................................................................27
9.6 MGNREGA28
9.7

Jeevika ..................................................................................................... 29

10.VILLAGE LIVELIHOODS29
11.THEMATIC INSIGHTS.31

12

CONCLUSIONS............................................................................... 34

13

ANNEXURE..................................................................................... 35

iii

List of Abbreviations:
1. APL- Above Poverty Line
2. B.Kothi- Barhara Kothi
3. BPL- Below Poverty Line
4. BRLPS- Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society
5. CRP- Community Resource Person
6. DTH- Direct to Home
7. K.M- Kilometre
8. NRHM- National Rural Health Mission
9. PDS- Public Distribution System
10. PRA- Participatory Rural Appraisal
11. PRM- Program in Rural Management
12. RAC- Rural Action Component
13. SC- Scheduled Caste
14. ST- Scheduled Tribe
15. SHG- Self Help Group
16. VO- Village Organization

iv

List of Tables
1. Profile of Mauzampatti
2. PRA for daily schedule
3. Information related to Gram Panchayat
4. Impact of JEEVIKA and SHG
5. PRA to access impact of JEEVIKA and SHG
6. Income expenditure of Sukhiya Devis family (monthly)
7. Profile list (rich families)
8. Profile list (poor families)
9. PRA for services and opportunity mapping

List of Figures
1. Sources of data
2. Distribution of families in relation to poverty
3. Population distribution
4. Time line of mobile penetration in the village

vi

List of Annexure
1. Sampling Plan
2. Case Study of Sushil
3. Case Study of Sukhiya Devi
4. Profile of 5 Rich Families
5. Profile of 5 Poor Families
6. Services and Opportunities Mapping
7. Resource Mapping

vii

1. Introduction
Under the Field Work Segment of the PRM course we spent 50 days at village Mauzampatti,
which is located in Purnea district in the state of Bihar. The time we spent in the village, with
the people gave us an opportunity to know and experience rural life, to understand the
challenges they face, through their perspective. The Field Work gave us an opportunity to
know and see the functioning of various government and non-government institutions in the
village. Our theme papers, microfinance activity in the village: operations, status, challenges
and opportunities and farm based livelihoods and interventions gave us rich insights into
the factors that play a role in the lives of villagers. It also gave us an opportunity to have an
insight into the working of our host organization, Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society
through self help groups. Our Rural Action Component provided us with an opportunity to
learn through practical tasks.

2. Scope of Study
The scope of our study is limited to Mauzampatti village which belongs to Gauripur
panchayat in Purnea district of Bihar. This report attempts to make an effort to enable the
reader see the village through our eyes. We have tried to cover the village stay from different
perspectives so that our vision is not clouded and our judgment is not biased. As much as was
possible we have tried to have representative views of different groups of village living in the
village.

3. Objectives

Sensitization: through our stay in the village, by being a part of the village life, to
understand and comprehend rural life and the issues attached with it, through the eyes
of the people

Institutions: to observe and understand the functioning of various government and

non-government institutions working in the village, their impact on the lives of the
villagers.

4. Methodology
In order to cover our goals, we adopted certain methodologies which helped us in collecting
data and information regarding the different aspects of rural life. We relied on both primary
as well as secondary sources of data in our efforts to understand rural life. Throughout our
stay we could see the penetration of JEEVIKA into the lives of the villagers. We participated
extensively in SHG meetings. The five poor and the five non-poor households were identified
by observations and by talking around. With each household we interacted at least twice
during our stay. Apart from this during SHG meetings we spoke with as many didis as
possible.
Figure 1: Sources of data
collection

4.1 Primary Sources of Data Collection

1. Surveys: We conducted basic household surveys. The village consisting of large
number of households, we conducted stratified sampling to select the houses for our
survey. The details of the questions asked as well as the methodology followed is
described in the annexure.
2

2. Semi Structured Interview: This method was the one through which we interacted
most with the villagers. It enabled great rapport building and helped us conduct the
survey after that. Through this method we could find out ground realities about
various organizations.
3. Unobtrusive Observation: This was the methodology used by us during transect walks
and during our initial days of village stay. We also found this method to be of
particular use when we observed rituals in the village. Through unobtrusive
observation we could find out how participants behave in a SHG meeting and also
family dynamics during festivities.
4. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA): PRA is used to include the knowledge and
opinion of the people in formulating policies that concern them. In our case we used
PRA to find out aspects about the village about which no written data was available.
Doing a PRA on our own was a very unique learning experience for us. The villagers
taking part in PRA helped us understand issues through their perspective.

4.2 Secondary Sources of Data Collection

The major sources of secondary data are as follows:

Sarpanch

PDS Dealer

School

Village Ameen

JEEVIKA

All of them helped us by providing data related to the village and its various institutions.
JEEVIKA also facilitated aspects of data collection related to our theme papers.

5. Introduction to Mauzampatti
5.1 Location and access:
Mauzampatti comes under Barhara Kothi block in Purnea district of Bihar. It belongs to
Gauripur Panchayat. It is located at a distance of about 60 km from Purnea. Mauzampatti lies
in the flood prone zone of Koshi river. The village suffered from a terrible flood in 2008 but
after the incident due to shifting in the course of the river the village has been freed from such
3

dangers. The village can be reached from B.Kothi as well from Bihariganj. The village can be
reached from Purnea for people coming from far off parts of the state. Buses ply from Purnea
to Bihariganj. For people coming from other parts of the country the can first reach Patna,
which is the state capital. From Patna buses ply to Purnea which can be used in
transportation. Auto rikshaws link the village to both B.Kothi as well as Bihariganj. The
buses plying are infrequent. At night, after 7 it is difficult to find transport to the village.
Mauzampatti is also connected by rail to Banbankhi and Bihariganj. The rail line being
narrow gauge, the train speed is very slow and it also remains crowded on most occasions.
Table 1
Profile of Mauzampatti
Mauzampatti Profile
Name of the Village

Mauzampatti

Name of Gram Panchayat

Gauripur ( 19 Kms)

Name of Block Panchayat

Attappady (19 Kms)

Name of the District

Palakkad (60 Kms)

Boundary

North

Morballa

East

Barhara Kothi

West

Bihariganj

South

Mathiyani

Name of the Parliament constituency

Purnea

Name of the Assembly constituency

B. Kothi

The area of Mauzampatti is spread across homestead, agricultural land and common land.
The population is primarily divided into Yadavs, Harijans and Muslims. The houses are
arranged in loose clusters based on caste. One aanganwadi centre, two schools, panchayat
bhawan, roads and two ponds are located on the common land of the village.
5.2 Host family
Mr. Anil Yadav hosted us during our fieldwork stay of fifty days. We were provided a
separate room containing a cot. For lavatory we used a common facility shared by us and the
workers in the house. There was a tubewell near the lavatory which was our water source for
4

our toilet needs. We were provided with drinking water from a separate tubewell. There is
high iron content in the water but unlike in B.Kothi the water is clean. Our food arrangements
were made in the house of our host family itself.
Our host family was very caring. They provided us with necessary beddings and accepted us
whole heartedly into their family. We were lucky enough to celebrate the festivals of Dushera
and Diwali with the host family.
5.3 A typical day in Mauzampatti
Day begins early in here with most of the men folk waking up between 4 to 5 a.m. The gents
of the village wake up between 5-6 a.m. day starts for women with the cleaning of the
household between 4 to 6 a.m. in between their activities the women also have the
responsibility of serving tea to the members of the family as they wake up.
Then the women get busy in preparation of breakfast between 6 to 8 a.m. Both the male and
the female members share the task of tending to cattle with the men tending to them as well
as milking them while the women folk are responsible for feeding the cattle. Though the task
differentiation in attending to the cattle is not strict milking the cow is an activity strictly
performed by male members.
The members of the house leave for agricultural work at about 8 a.m. and return by 12 p.m.
After taking bath the gents are served lunch at about 12, while the women of the house eat
food only after feeding the male folk of the family. Typically, lunch gets over by 1.30 p.m.
Between 3 to 4 p.m. the male folk of the house either rest or chat with friends while the
women complete the household work or sometimes rest. Preparation for dinner by women is
generally done between 7 to 8.30 p.m. Men of the family take dinner between 7.30 to 8.30
p.m. while the women take dinner between 7.30 to 8.30 p.m. After cleaning the utensils and
attending to minor household works villagers typically go to sleep by 10 p.m.

Table 2
PRA for daily schedule
Source

PRA Activity carried out with the members of different SHGs

In order to ascertain the daily routine by villagers

Purpose

Particapants

Sukhia Devi, Rama Devi, Ambika Devi, Ganga Devi, Gita Devi,
Gunjan Devi, Laxmi Devi, Shakuntala Devi, Rekha Devi

5.3 Challenges faced

Mauzampatti does not have an electricity connection. There is one Mr. Lakhandev who
provides generator supply for four hours during evenings. During our initial days of stay we
found this to be the greatest challenge. Gradually, we modified our daily routine in
accordance with the lifestyle prevalent in the village. Apart from this we had difficulties in
communicating with some of the Jadav households belonging to the upper strata of the
society. We also faced a lot of difficulties in interacting with government officials in terms of
accessibility and cooperation. All said and done, we took these challenges as minor hitches in
front of the bigger picture of fieldwork.

6. Village society
Mauzampatti consists of 419 households with a total population of 2023. There are a total of
120 scheduled cast households while the rest consist of other backward castes. The entire
population consists of 227 households which are below poverty line which is almost 50% of
the total number of households.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.
Population Distribution

Distribution of families in
relation to poverty

29%
46%
54%

SC

BPL

71%

APL

OBC

Mauzampatti has a sex ratio of 900 females per thousand males. The desire to have a male
child exists in some parts of the population. It was very prominent about a generation ago but
mostly now people are developing awareness about limited family size. The average number
of members per household is 5. One of the reasons of this happening is that the children
separate into their own families after marriage. Most of such families have strong bonds. The
parents usually shift with the eldest child. We found out the facts mentioned above from the
sarpanch, amen and through our interactions with the villagers.

6.1 Distribution based on caste and religion

Entire population of Mauzampatti can be classified as under:

Yadavs- Most of the land in the village is hold by Yadavs. They were the Zamindars
in the past. Owing to the children increasingly splitting from their parents the land
owned by individual households has reduced. Presently, they own 3-5 bigha(1
acre=1.5 bigha), on an average. The primary occupation of Yadavs is agriculture.
Apart from personal cultivation those who own large plots of land also lease out their
land for share cropping. Many of the Yadavs are engaged with the government sector
too, the main occupations being that of teacher and in railways. We found that
irrespective of the salary there is tremendous prestige associated with public service
jobs.

Harijans- Most of the Harijans are landless. They do agriculture on the basis of share
cropping. During the agricultural season they work as agricultural laborers, both in
producing their own crop as well as laborers for hire in the land of Yadavs. During
7

other times of the year they earn their livelihood by working as migrant laborers
mostly in mandis of Delhi and Punjab.

Muslims-There are only 8 Muslim households in the village. At the start there was
only one Muslim family, gradually the family expanded and the children separated to
start their separate families. They are mostly marginal farmers. Their source of
livelihood being agriculture and working as migrant laborers. The muslims lived in a
close cluster. Though they were not marginalized in village functions and institutions
still we found less than normal interactions of them with the villagers. But, more than
anything else this was due to their less number of households.

6.2 Society and family

Most of the households in the village exist as nuclear families. But, though they exist as
nuclear families they stay in the same compound while cooking separately. Elders are
respected in the village but their opinion is not sought in matters of family. Old parents
mostly stay with their eldest child. There are a few rare cases where the children have left
their old parents to themselves. The opinion of women in matters of family interest is listened
to but there are also instances of husbands beating up their wives. Dowry system is highly
prevalent in the society. Factors such as education, land holdings, occupation act as deciding
factors in the amount of dowry the grooms can ask for. Government jobs are held in high
regard.
Housing Patterns
Most of the houses in the village are mud walled with thatched roof. Only well to do Yadavs
have pakka houses. Such households have brick roofs with the houses having two rooms on
an average. Almost all the houses have a provision for sleeping in a thatched structure called
machan in open which is used by guests. The roofs are thatched using straw and bamboo.
Most of the houses have no toilet facility. In fact, having toilet is a luxury which only the well
to do families have. The houses are located in loose clusters on the basis of their caste. The
Harijan households are located on two clusters on either side of the main road. The eight
muslim families are located in a cluster near one of the Harijan clusters. The Yadavs, are
spread throughout the village. They too are located in a loose cluster formation.

6.3 Health
People, as a part of their daily life, follow a three course meal. Their breakfast consists of roti
or puffed rice, muri. Rice is the staple diet of the people. People consume roti made of
corn or makai. Well to do families eat roti made of wheat. Meal mostly consists of,
rice/roti, daal and a fry. The people are not in a habit of consuming fruit. We did not observe
children suffering from diseases of malnutrition such as kwashiorkor or marasmus. Obesity is
not widespread in the village. Most of the villagers use dantun instead of brush. Chewing of
beetle is frequent amongst the people. The average life span of villagers is about 70 years.
Consumption of alcohol is widespread amongst the poor Harijans while it is seen as a bad
habit amongst Yadavs. We found that though alcoholism is seen in negative light throughout
the village, the poor basically use it as a means of escape from the hard work they did during
the day. Smoking is also seen in a negative light. There is no public health system in the
village. The nearest health centre is at B.Kothi, which is 7 km from here. When sick, the
Harijans and the Muslims first visit the village quacks (but only for minor illness). If not
cured the sick are taken to B.Kothi or to Purnea. For minor illness such as cold and cough
people also refer doctors in Bihariganj.
People do realise the benefits of limiting the family size, though the desire to have a male heir
is still strong. People prefer their wives to undergo tubectomy rather than themselves
undergoing vasectomy. They falsely believe that vasectomy might reduce their strength and
thus their working capability in field. We found out from the health centre at the block they
out of total 400 cases of birth control related operations only 5 have been vasectomy; the rest
being tubectomy. The doctors informed us that efforts are made to raise awareness but the
effectiveness of such efforts is low.
6.4 Education
Distinct pattern of continuance of education is observed amongst the three castes. Though the
villagers are aware of the poor state of education in the village, mostly only Jadavs make an
effort to send their children outside the village for education. Those who can afford send their
children right from lower classes to Purnea, Banbankhi and Patna to study. The Harijans do
not send their children to study outside. Hence, the discontinuance of education is most
amongst the Harijans. During our informal sessions with the Harijans, we found that mostly
the reason is due to non availability of funds. Though, quite a few of the interviewees

expressed the reason being poor education scenario in the schools. Also a few number of
households said their wards go to school only for mid day meal.
Infrastructure
Apart from all the facets of infrastructure already mentioned, the villagers meet at a chaupal
regularly for discussion of everyday issues which is near the panchayat bhawan. Water table
being good in the village clean drinking water is available at a depth of about 25 feet. The
rich households have their personal tubewells while there are a few government tubewells
which are used a community asset. There are 6 such tubewells out of which only two are in
working condition. As the number of tubewells is less the villagers have to wait in queue for
their turn. The high school claimed that the school playground has been encroached by the
harijans, a claim which was vehemently denied by the harijans. There is a plot of fallow land
almost one bigha which the children use to play cricket and football. We did not observe any
discrimination in usage of the common resources.

6.5 Transport
6.5.1 Roads
Mauzampatti is located on the road linking B.Kothi and Bihariganj. Private buses and auto
rickshaws ply on this route. The buses ply at an interval of half an hour whereas the auto
rickshaws are infrequent. Vehicles for transport become a rarity after 7 p.m. The road was
constructed a year ago and though pakka it is already damaged and filled with numerous
potholes. The primary reason as told by villagers is the plying of heavy trucks on the road as
this is the only route linking Purnea and Bihariganj. Kacha roads traverse within the village.
The roads become muddy and difficult to tread on during monsoons. Cycle is a common
mode of transport for the poor here while well to do families own two wheelers. Possession
of Bolero is seen as a status symbol amongst the rich.
6.5.2 Railways
The nearest station is at Raghuvansh Nagar, which is 2 k.m. away. Train plies four times in
the route. The train runs from Bihariganj to Banbankhi and is a narrow gauge line. The
nearest junction station which can be used to reach various parts of the country is at
Kishanganj, which is 40 k.m. away (source: PRA).
10

6.6 Entertainment and Media of communication

Landline telephone had entered Mauzmpatti in as early as 1980s. Only the rich households
possessed telephone then which they also allowed others to use at a rent. Gradually, the
mobile revolution engulfed the village. At present none of the households possess landline.
Most of the houses have mobile phone except the poor Harijan households. One can see
widespread penetration of cheap mobile phones in here. The first mobile operator entered the
village in 2000. From then the number of operators has increased in the village out of which
Airtel has the maximum penetration.
Figure 4
Time Line of Mobile Penetration in the Village

The above timeline shows that in the initial years of 2000 the pace of entry of new players
was slow but from later part of 2005 this pace has increased rapidly. At present four service
providers are functional in the village; Airtel, BSNL, Idea and Vodafone. Mobile phones
have provided an important linkage with the outside world. Very few people read newspaper
in the village and the language is vernacular. As there is no electricity in the village people
listen to happenings of the outside world through radio. However, apart from politics the
knowledge of people on other issues is limited. Very few people have television and only
four households have DTH. These houses have solar panel or generator. The movies watched
are mainly in Bhojpuri. Apart from few very poor households we found out through survey
that every household has a mobile phone. Also through survey we found out that the average
number of mobile phones with rich households is two. There is also widespread usage of
mobile phones to watch movies.

11

6.7 Festivities in the village

Major festivals which are celebrated in the village are:
Jeetiya
Makar Sankranti
Holi
Karwa Chaut
Dushera
Diwali
Chath
We were lucky to be able to celebrate Dushera and Diwali in the village. The most
significant observation was the manner in which the entire village came together during
festivities. Even, the supplier of generator power provides four hours of free power supply
in the night of Diwali. The temple of Lord Barneshwar located 5 km. away sees huge
footfall on Sundays.
6.8 Migration
The village Mauzampatti has a large proportion of households belonging to landless farming
segment. As they have no other income option apart from labourer, uncertainty in getting
work in the village and in nearby areas forces them to migrate to areas like Delhi, Punjab to
earn money. Some of the marginal farmers who do not have any regular source of earning
also opt to work in those states due to increase wage and certainty of work.
Most of the villagers work in Punjab in different mandis during agriculture harvesting
seasons once for paddy and another for wheat. Apart from the rich yadav households, on an
average, 2 members from each family work as migrant labourers. This we found out through
our surveys. The primary work of migrant labourers working in mandis is to pack the cereals
in bags of specified size and for every bag packed they are paid which varies from mandi to
mandi. Typically a migrant labourer is paid Rs. 5/- for packing a bag. Villagers went Punjab
twice a year, works for around one and half months and earns anywhere between Rs. 40000/-

12

to Rs.50000/- every year. The adult male member of the family works as migrant labourers
while the female members remain in the village to look after the households and kids.
Villagers mostly go to Delhi to work as labourers in construction sector and real estate sector.
Here they have to work for entire year and often go with the other members of the family.
Both male and female of the family work as labourers. With both the family members
working they earn up to Rs.1.5 lakh in a year. They come back in village during festival time
like Diwali, Holi etc.
While the male members of the family went to work as migrant labourers the women member
find it very difficult to manage the family. They remain so busy with household work that
they hardly pay any attention towards the studies of the children or cleanliness. Also to incur
day to day family expenses they often end up borrowing from villagers at high rate of
interest. The situation becomes worst when any member of the family fall ill as they do not
have any money to expend or anyone to take them to nearby health centres.
Various government schemes like MGNREGA fail to provide any work to the villagers.
There is a great need to implement this scheme letter and spirit so that at least the people
from poorest of the poor families get 100 days of guaranteed work. This assured source of
income will reduce migration to a large extent. Also improving the wage rate of agriculture
labourers and stopping of harassment of lower caste workers by the upper caste will also
reduce migration. From our observation we found that no member of the family wants to
migrate by living his family behind in the village. But the uncertainty of earning sources and
their availability compels them to migrate.

7. Village economy
The entire population of the village Mauzampatti depends on agriculture as their source of
income directly or indirectly. Though among some rich households there are some people
who are engaged in government services like railways, teaching in government schools,
various other state government departments etc. The trend among lower caste households is
to work as migrant labourers in Delhi and Punjab as most of them do not possess any
agriculture land and other sources of income are highly irregular throughout the year.

13

7.1 Agriculture
Major crops grown under agriculture are paddy, wheat, maize, tobacco, pulses. As there are
few large farmers in the village, barring those farming remains mostly at the subsistence
level. Out of the total land area of 900 acres, 760 acres of land is under agriculture (source:
Amin, mauzampatti village).
Around 7% of the total villagers is large farmers with operational land holding of more than 5
acres. 62% of the villagers belong to small and marginal farmer category with operational
land holding of more than 2.5 acre but less than 5 acre and less than 2.5 acres respectively.
31% of the villagers mostly belong to scheduled caste are landless farmers. (source:
household survey)
Though the village is well connected to nearest markets, marketing channels are not well
developed. Farming practices are mostly indigenous. So the crop production remains low.
Though in recent times people attached with different SHGs started cultivating paddy under
System of rice intensification (SRI) technique which is fetching them higher crop yields. But
cases of crop failure once decreased the confidence of SHG members towards cultivating
under SRI technique. Most of the landless families are practising farming under Batai basis.
Under this system farmers take land on lease from large farmers and contribute equally
towards purchase of inputs like seed fertilizers etc. and also has an equal share on harvests,
SRI technique is beneficial for these farmers as it is suitable for small landholding.
The soil type of the village is Sandy loam and it has a good water holding capacity. Most of
the farmers grow two to three crops in a cropping season.
Paddy remains the main crop cultivated by all the farmers. The sowing time of paddy is in the
month of July and harvesting is done in the month of October. Majority of the farmers
cultivate paddy without the use of any modern technique. While the households who are
attached with SHGs of Jeevika cultivate rice under System of Rice Intensification technique.
Cultivating rice with this technique has doubled the production of rice to these families.
Paddy is mostly used for self consumption purpose by the marginal farmers where as the
small and large farmers sell the paddy in nearby markets or to the middlemen.
During Ravi (November to March) season, the farmers cultivate either wheat or maize where
some of the families with very small landholding also cultivate tobacco. Wheat is mainly
grown for consumption purposes as well as for selling in the market where as maize and
14

tobacco is grown at marketable surplus. Income generated from selling of crops acts us the
main source of earnings to the farmers.
Pulses are mainly sown during the month of April and harvested in the month of July and
grown for consumption purpose by the large farmers.
Usage of farm machinery was mainly in the form of rented tractors. There are 8 tractors in the
village which charges Rs.600/- to cultivate a bigha of agriculture land. Some of the farmers
also use indigenous plough to cultivate their land.
All the agricultural lands in the village are irrigated. During rainy season the village receives
plenty of rainfall. But major source of irrigation is ground water which is available at a
distance of 15 feet from the ground level. Farmers use pump set for irrigating their lands. The
large farmers have their own pump sets which they also use to rent to the small and marginal
farmers. The rent of pump set varies from Rs.70 to Rs.100/- per hour of irrigation.
Agriculture input practices
The main agriculture inputs required are labour, seeds, fertilizers, pesticide and irrigation.
Seeds: Most of the farmers used to store seeds of previous year to use them in current year.
While Jeevika do provides seeds to the members of SHGs at a very nominal cost.
Fertilizers: Major fertilizer used is
Urea: Market price Rs.400/- per bag (1 bag=50 kilo)
DAP: Market price Rs. 1400/- per bag
Potash: Market price Rs. 1000/- per bag
Vermicompost: Market price Rs. 5/- per Kg
Micronutrient fertilizers such as Zinc, Ammonium Sulphate etc.

15

Comparisation of cost of cultivation and yield of wheat using SWI method and indigenous
method (Land 1 acre):
Seed

Seed treatment

SWI method

Indigenous method

10 Kg/acre @ Rs. 25/ Kg

40 Kg/acre @ Rs. 25/Kg

Total: Rs. 250/-

Total: Rs. 1000/-

With Bavistin

No seed treatment

Cost: Rs. 20/Ploughing

Irrigation

Vermicompost

5 ploughing @ Rs. 600/- per 5 ploughing @ Rs. 600/- per

acre

acre

Total: 3000/-

Total: 3000/-

4 irrigation @ Rs.70/hour

2 irrigation @ Rs.70/hour

(1 irrigation= 5 hour)

(1 irrigation= 5 hour)

Total: Rs.1400/-

Total: Rs.700/-

400 Kg/acre, 3 times @ No Vermicompost

Rs.5/Kg
Total: 6000/-

Fertilizers:
Urea

13.5 Kg/acre, 3 times,@ Rs. 50 Kg/acre, 2 times,@ Rs.

400/- per bag (1 bag= 50 400/- per bag (1 bag= 50 Kg)
Kilo)

DAP

Total: Rs. 800/-

Total: Rs. 324/-

50

Kg/acre,

once,@

Rs.

27 Kg/acre,@ Rs. 1400/- per 1400/- per bag (1 bag= 50

Potash

bag

Kg)

Total: Rs.756/-

Total: Rs. 1400/-

13.5 Kg/acre,@ Rs. 1000/- 25

Kg/acre,

once,@

Rs.

1000/- per bag (1 bag= 50

16

per bag

Kg)

Total: 270/-

Total: Rs. 500/-

9 labourer @ Rs. 40/hour

3 labourer @ Rs. 40/hour

Total: Rs.360/-

Total: Rs.120/-

Total cost of cultivation

Rs.12380/-

Rs.7520/-

Yield

28.8 quintal

9.6 quintal

Price

Rs.1000/quintal

Rs.1000/quintal

Total earning

Rs. 28800/-

Rs. 9600/-

Surplus

Rs. 16420/-

Rs. 2080/-

Labourer

(Source: Household survey)

7.2 Animal Husbandry: Majority of the villagers rear animals. Among the livestock reared,
cows, bullock, calves, she buffaloes are reared by hindu community while the muslims
mainly rear hens and goats.
Most of the milch cattle are of indigenous breed and are very low in milk productivity. Most
of the villagers use the milk to meet their daily consumption needs and no milk from the
village is sold to outside markets. The calves are reared so that they can be sold when they
grow up. The bullock are mainly used for ploughing agriculture land or used in bullock carts.
20 harijan families also have she buffaloes as milch cattle. Milk from she buffaloes is higher
in quantity than cows and most of this milk is used for self consumption purpose only.
All the 9 muslim households of the village rear hen and goat. The hens and eggs are used for
consumption purpose as well as selling in the village and periodical hat at Morballa. The
goats are purchased from market of Bihariganj and sold in market of Banbankhi every week.
Though the margin earned from selling goats is very low(ranges from Rs.100/- to Rs.300/per animal), it gives a stable source of income to the muslim households.
17

Price of animals:
Cocks

Rs. 200/-

Hens

Rs. 120/-

Goat

Rs. 3000/-

Management of animals:
Most of the cattle are taken off to nearby fields or grazing lands every day for their feeding.
They graze through the whole day and return in the evening. The goats are given with leaves
as well as grass. While the hens mostly roam through the surrounding households to get their
feed they are also provided with rice bran to eat. Most of the breeding activity is done
naturally with the help of male cattle doing the mating service. A veterinary doctor also
comes to the village from Barhara Kothi upon phone call to treat the animals in case of any
diseases. He also performs the artificial insemination (AI) service to the animals.
Consumption:
All the households of the village are sufficient in their food grain requirement. Not a single
family of the village starves for a single meal in a day. Though the quality of diet is very low
especially in the lower income Harijan households as most of them rely on rice and wheat.
The rich Yadav households have sufficient earnings to cope with illness, rituals, festivals
and ceremonies. But the population of mostly small and marginal farmer and landless
laborers previously face uphill task of managing these expenses especially health related
issues. They used to borrow from rich Yadavs at a very high rate of interest which they
often find difficult to repay. But after the intervention of Jeevika through SHGs, the poor
villagers are at comfortable position to deal with any extremity with easy source of finance
at a very low rate of interest and flexible repayment policy.
Among government services, most of the poor people are unaware of the benefits they are
entitled to. Under ICDS (Integrated child development services) scheme vaccination is given
to the children. Asha workers are engaged in providing polio drops and dealing pregnancy.
Though old age pension is provided to the villagers, they are often irregular and
identification of proper beneficiary remains an issue. Some of the villagers are provided with
houses under Indira Awas Yojna, but they have complained about non receiving of entire
18

amount money they are entitled to under the scheme. The gram panchayat is nowhere as
large scale corruption and lack of willingness to implement government schemes remains
the main hurdle between the government programs and common man.
7.3 Village markets
The village itself does not have any market. Villagers have to go to block Barhara Kothi to
purchase their daily needs. Bihariganj block of Madhepura district is also a good market
which is around 8 kilometers away from the village. The village has five small kirana shops
which are located in different parts of the village selling almost same kind of products. The
typical products sell by the kirana shops are as follows:
Rice
Flour
Different kind of dal
Cigarette, tobacco, guthka etc
Mustard oil and spices
Biscuits, chocolates
The scale at which these shops are operating is very small and apart from few items like
tobacco, cigarette, biscuits etc. villagers prefer to buy from nearest markets.
Though the village does not have any haats, nearby villagers also access haats in nearby
villages to purchase their daily household items. A list of those haats along with day of
occurrence is given below:
Morballa (Distance: 5 KM): Monday, Friday
Ragubansh Nagar (Distance: 3 KM): Thursday, Saturday
Mathiyani (Distance: 2 KM): Tuesday, Sunday
Major items sold in these haats are different kind of vegetables, meat, fish, locally produced
gamcha, local toothpaste, local cosmetics, food grains, spices, sweets, fast foods like bread
pakoda, onion pakoda etc. There is also tea stalls, barber shops, cycle repair shops, footwear
shops, tailors, cobblers etc. Both sellers as buyers in these haats are mainly from nearby
19

villages within the periphery of 5-7 kilometers. We can see that apart from Wednesday,
there is a haat in everyday of the week. The vegetable growers of the nearby villages use
these haats to sell off their produce. Also villagers highly dependent on these haats for
purchase as well as selling.
There is also a big cereal mandi in Gulab Bagh which is 5 Kilometer from Purnia town and
around 60 Kilometer from Mauzampatti. This is a big mandi where farmers from all around
Purnia district come to sell their cereals. Selling in this mandi ensures better return of their
produce. Barring few big farmers of the village Mauzampatti, all the farmers sell their
produce to middlemen and these middlemen in turn sell those produce in the same mandi.
The major reason to sell cereals to middlemen comes out to be high transportation cost
involved in taking those grains to the mandi and also lack of storage facility.
7.4 Labour market:
The labor market in the village is highly unorganized. Most of the labor employment
available in the village is agriculture laborer. But due uncertainty of wage employment
majority of the landless laborers and marginal farmers migrate to Delhi and Punjab. They
earn anywhere between Rs.40000/- to Rs.50000/- in year from there. Most of the work they
engaged in is in cereal mandi and construction workers. For agriculture, the wage rate is as
low as Rs. 80/- a day for intercultural operations like weeding to Rs.125/- a day during
sowing and harvesting season. But as the male members of the family migrate during these
seasons, mostly women and old age family members work as agriculture laborers in the
village. But most of the large and small farmers of the village complained us about lack of
availability of labor due to large scale migration where as the migrant laborers complained
about lack of availability of work and low wage rate to the causes of migration.
7.5 Money and finance:
Most of the lower income households of the village are members of different self help
groups that are being run by Jeevika, the flagship project of Bihar Rural Livelihood
Promotion Society. In earlier years before the intervention of Jeevika, villagers in time of
financial needs resort to rich Yadav households, who in turn charge very high rate of interest
and also set very rigorous repayment policy. Most of the villagers borrow for meeting health
expenditure, household expenditure, house construction, purchase of cattle etc. The money
borrowed by villagers increase at an alarming rate due compounding of interest. Jeevika
20

through its different SHGs given financial assistance to the poorer villagers and most of the
villagers in turn have repaid all their debt taken from informal sector.

8. Village Polity
Village polity is one of the most important aspects effecting lives of villagers. Mauzampatti
being a strong hold of Yadavs and that the state is rules by people from Yadav communities
for long remains an important player effecting the politics at both village and block level.
Also they dominate in every aspect, exploit the poor villagers especially the harijans and
engaged in caste based politics. The harijans has long been exploited as they have been
forced to work in rich Yadav households as bonded labours and typically every member of
harijan families were forced to work in Yadav households. They have been denied of basic
amenities, wages and the only thing they were given was twice a meal every day. And if by
any chance the harijans borrow some money from the Yadavs, they have to work for rest of
the life if they fail to repay. The proper demarcation between the Yadav households and
harijans is easily observable as the Yadavs often use derogatory terms against the harijans.
For the last five years, there is a little respite for the harijans as various interventions by
Jeevika has changed their lives. The reasons for the same are as follows:

They have repaid majority of their borrowings from Yadavs

Most of the male members of the harijan households went to work as migrant
labourers and this has become a stable source of earning for their families

A number of harijan households have started practicing agriculture under Batai basis

The women due to attending SHG meetings on regular basis has increased their
awareness level

Now no harijan in the village works as bonded laborers in Yadav households. But the harijans
are still unaware of their rights and entitlements. For instance the PDS shop owner of the
village use to come once in three months and distribute the grains of only one month. The
harijans are of the thought that this is what happening in the village since past and this is their
entitlement and they are happy with it.

21

The formal power structure of the village can be defined in the following way:

Mukhia

Up Mukhia

Sarpanch

Up Sarpanch

Ward Memeber

The village Mauzampatti is under Gauripur gram panchayet. The Gram panchayet has 19
villages under it. Gram panchayat is the formal organisation associated with the village.
Table 3
Information related to Gram Panchayat
Name of the Panchayat

Gauripur

Total population

19000

Number of wards

76

Name of the Mukhia

Hiralal

Name of the Sarpanch

Anil Yadav

(Source: Anil Yadav,Sarpanch)

Functioning of the Gram panchayat
There are four ward members in the village Mauzampatti. These ward members are
accessible to all and are main person of contact between the ordinary public and gram
panchayet. But most of the villagers have complained about the non functioning of ward
members. Their main work is to gather information from villagers and present those in
panchayat meetings so that the issues can be resolved at the earliest.
22

Sarpanch: The sarpanch Mr. Anil Yadav belongs to Mauzampatti village. The sarpanch has
the task of coordinating with various ward members to implement various schemes of the
government.
Mukhia: He is the main person engaged in interacting with various administrative personnel
at the block level.
Gram Sewak: He is the main government functionary responsible for implementing various
government schemes in the village. He works in liaison with the mukhia and sarpanch. He
has task of organising panchayat meetings and also distributing pensions under oldage
pension scheme and widow pension schemes. The payment of the same is highly irregular.
Rojgar sewak: The main person entrusted in implementing MGNREGA in the village and
payment of the same. But he is unavailable for most of the times.
From our observation we found there is hardly any implementation of government schemes
in the village even though there is existence of those schemes in pen and paper. Schemes like
MGNREGA are a total failure in the village which is implemented through the panchayat.
Majority of the households of the village do not have any sanitation facility although a
number of government schemes like total sanitation campaign is going on at different villages
of the block. The Sarpanch and Mukhia hardly pay any attention to the problems faced by the
villagers. They rather remain busy in pursuing their own interest from panchayat.
The various government functionaries like Gram Sewak and Rojagar Sewak also acts in
pursuing their own interest rather than giving enough attention to implement the government
schemes. People often find it difficult to approach these functionaries for their problems.
Though rule is to hold a panchayat meeting every month, the meetings are irregular and the
ward members are unaware of what is going on in the panchayat. The decision are mostly
taken by Mukhia and Sarpanch without any consultation with the wars members. The
panchayat office is also very bad in shape with no doors or windows in it and becomes a
playing option for village kids.
A point to note here that influence of Jeevika in the life of villagers is immense. The
members of different SHGs discuss their problems in SHG meetings and try to find out ways
to curb those rather than depending on panchayat. For instance, as the distribution of food
grains from PDS shop is highly irregular, the SHG members purchase food grains by taking
credit from Jeevika. Also Jeevika plans to start implementing various schemes like
23

MGNREGA through their various channels. People of the village have a special place for
Jeevika in their heart due its transparent approach.
An integrative view of the village society, economy and polity
The village Mauzampatti has long been dominated by the Yadavs. The economic and
political empowerment of Yadavs has long been associated with the social perception among
the villagers and the ownership of land. Being the landholding community, they use to
enforce their power in every activity happening in the village. The people from the lower
community, specially the Harijans obey their dominance without any question and this
remains one of the reasons for their deprivation till date. Due to this dominance, the Yadavs
political progress remains remarkable as they have occupied every decision making authority
like Sarpanch, Pramukh, Chairman of village school board etc. Due to holding these positions
for long time, they have made a lot of money by depriving the common man and by
becoming richer which increased the gap between upper caste Yadavs and lower caste
Harijans. These privileged Yadavs also increased their gaps from lower caste villagers in
terms of education. The Yadavs become educated and get jobs in different Govt. departments
while the other sections of the society remain deprived. The society is ridden with the adverse
impacts of casteism. The lower caste people are ignored in every decision making process.
Their economic and social position remains very low and is an indicator of their
backwardness.
Also because of very low land holding or no land holding the lower caste people are forced to
employ themselves as migrant laborers to look after their family. There is practically no
health care facility available to them. They are less aware about their rights and Govt.
benefits they are entitled to. All this can be attributed to their lack of economic, social and
political empowerment.
In recent days a considerable effort is directed from the Govt. to improve the economic,
social and political condition of the deprived section of the village. In a remarkable
achievement for the first time a villager from the lower caste community has been elected to
the post of sarpanch though she is only a constitutional head. The long perceived equation
between the society, economy and polity has started to change. Lower caste people,
especially the women, through the interventions of Self help groups have made considerable
progress towards breaking the societal barriers due to their considerable economic progress.
They now send their children to schools (though the quality of education is a major cause of
24

concern), practice improved agriculture practices, are aware about family planning, their
entitlements from the Govt. etc. This slow but steady progress of the lower caste people has
drawn considerable criticism and resistance from the Yadav community as they see this as a
threat to their age old dominance.
The village society, economy and polity of the village Mauzampatti are dependent upon each
other. Though through various interventions the Govt. is trying hard to change the societal,
economical and political situation of the village, it will take time to reach the benefit of such
interventions to every nuke and corner of the society thus creating a Holistic development.

9. Village institutions
An institution is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the set
of behaviour of a set of individuals within a given community. (source: wikipedia.org.
Institution).
9.1 Aanganwadi- Aanganwadi means courtyard shelter in Hindi. They were started by
Indian government in 1975 as part of the Integrated Child Development Services program to
combat child hunger and nutrition. In Mauzampatti one aanganwadi center exists. It is located
in a separate hut. The student strength is 40 consisting of 15 girls and 25 boys. The average
age of the students lie between 3-5 years. There are two designated aanganwadi teachers but
during our village stay we found that the teachers remain absent most of the time. The lady
who cooks for the children makes the children recite basic poems and numbers; an alarming
fact being that she is illiterate. The aanganwadi centre provides daily meal to the students and
also Rs. 250 per year for uniform.
The ministry of women and child development has led down the following rules for
aanganwadi workers (AWW). These being, regular, quick surveys of families, organize preschool activities, provide health and nutritional education to families especially pregnant
women, educating women about family planning. It is also to follow the following points of
Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program:
Holistic Nutrition
Pre-Nursery Education
Vaccination
Regular Health Check Up
Health and Hygiene

25

We found during our visit that only vaccination is followed to the word. Apart from the
regular vaccination of children polio drops is also administered through this centre. The
attendance remains more than 80% on most days, though, the primary reason being meal and
not study.
9.2 Middle School-The name of the middle school is Mauzampatti Middle School. It was
established in the 1964. Classes from 1 to 8 are conducted here. The school has student
strength of 705 with ratio of 50:50 for boys and girls. There are 10 teachers and a headmaster
in the school. The subjects that are taught are Hindi, Maths, Science, History and Geography.
Monday to Friday the school functions from mooning 9 to 5. Saturday is half working day
while Sunday remains a holiday. There are several Government schemes that are followed in
this school, namely:

Sarvasikshya Abhiyan Under this scheme schools are provided with funds for
infrastructure development

Mukhyamantri Poshak Yojna- Under this scheme students who maintain a

minimum of 75% attendance are given Rs. 500 for purchase of uniforms

Balika Poshak Yojna-Rs.750- Under this scheme girl students are provided Rs. 700
provided they maintain a minimum 75% attendance.

Mid day meal scheme- Under this scheme mid day meal is provided to students
daily.

Scholarship-A scholarship of Rs. 1400 is given to sc, st students

We found out that the student attendance remains dismal, on a given day only 30% of the
students show up. The reason provided by the teachers was that the students turn up only
when some money under schemes is given. The parents on the other hand gave the reason
being the teachers not observing their duty properly. There was widespread report from the
parents of Harijan children that they are specifically turned away from the school. On further
probing we found out that the money which is provided for purchase of clothes for the
school, mostly end up being used in household uses. So, the children turn up in dirty, torn
clothes and the teachers turn them away. We also found out that also the teachers were not
interested in spreading education in the village. They drew their salary and preferred to let
things be as they are.
9.3 High School- The higher secondary school in the village is named as Gyanvati Higher
Secondary School. Currently the school has classes only 9 and 10; classes 11 and 12 are to
26

start working from the current year. We saw buildings were being constructed for the same.
The student strength is 422 with a ratio of 50:50 for boys: girls. There are 8 teachers who
teach in here. Only about 50% of the students from the middle school continue their studies
here. The primary reason for the dropout being to supplement the family income. We found
that the teachers are much more serious about studies in here than the middle school. Apart
from the subjects taught in the middle school the children in here are also provided with
physical education.
The schemes that are functional in here include:

Providing uniform and cycles to the students who maintain a minimum of 75%
attendance

Scholarship to the tune of Rs. 1800 for sc, st and physically handicapped students.

9.4 Village Post Office

The village has one post office which is housed in the hut of the post master. It operates with
staff strength of 3 from 10.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. the post office performs normal functions of a
post office. But, it does not have facilities for speed post or for parcel. The post office also
has provisions for savings account and for recurring account facilities. Currently the post
office has accounts of 200 villagers. The minimum balance required for opening an account
is Rs. 200. This post office also doubles as the point of payment for MNREGA.
Grameen Daak Beema Yojana is a flagship Government scheme that functions through this
post office. Under this the minimum premium amount is Rs. 100 while the maximum policy
amount can be Rs. 300000.
9.5 Public Distribution System
Public Distribution System (PDS) is an Indian food security system. Established by
Government of India and managed jointly by the state governments it distributes subsidised
food and non-food items to the countrys poor. The major commodities which are distributed
through PDS include staple grains such as rice, wheat and kerosene. Food Corporation of
India, procures, maintains and issues food grains to the state. Distribution to the poor is
managed by state governments. In Mauzampatti for PDS the families are provided cards. The
colour of the card is based on the status of the family in reference to poverty line: yellow card

27

is given to Antodyay families; red card is given to BPL families while blue card is given to
APL families. (Source: Anil Yadav,Sarpanch and Household Survey)

Antodyay- The families belonging to this category are provided with 21 kg rice at Rs.
3 per kg, 14 kg wheat at Rs. 2 per kg and 2.75 l of kerosene per month at Rs. 17.5 per
l per month.

BPL- The families belonging to this category are provided with 15 kg rice at Rs. 6.78
per kg, 10 kg wheat at Rs. 5.82 per kg and 2.75 l of kerosene per month at Rs. 17.5
per l per month.

APL- The families belonging to this category are provided with only kerosene oil at
the rate of Rs. 17.5 l per month.

In paper the PDS dealer is to distribute grains every month but while conducting informal
interviews with the villagers we found gross misappropriation. We got to know that the
dealer actually comes once in 3 months and also cuts a portion of the designated quantity.
The quality of rice provided under the scheme is of inferior quality.
9.6 MGNREGA
MGNREGA stands for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. It is an
Indian job guarantee scheme, enacted by legislation on August 25, 2005. This scheme
provides legal guarantee for 100 and 50 days of employment in every financial year to adult
members of any rural household willing to do public work related unskilled manual work at
statutory minimum age of Rs. 120. If they fail to do so the government has to pay the salary
at their home. (Source:wikpediai. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act).
In Mauzampatti the major works provided under MGNREGA include planting of trees, soil
filling of village roads, pond digging. The stipulated wage is Rs. 144 per day. Payment of the
money to the beneficiaries is done through the village post office. The number of job card
holders is 120. One of the undesired consequences of MGNREGA is the scarcity of manual
labour during cultivation period. Through survey questionnaire we found out that no work
has been provided under MGNREGA in the past year. Only one person in the village is
entrusted with the maintenance of 300 odd saplings which were planted as a part of
afforestation programme. Even he complained of irregular payments for his work.

28

Comparison of APL, BPL and Antodyay Families

Under MGNREGA three varieties of cards are issued depending upon the position of families
relative to the poverty line. For antoday families a yellow card is issued which entitles
kerosene oil at 2.75l per month at a rate of Rs. 17.5/l, 21 kg of rice at Rs. 3 per kg and 14 kg
wheat at Rs. 2 per kg. For BPL families a red card is issued which entitles kerosene oil at
2.75l per month at a rate of Rs. 17.5/l, 15 kg of rice at Rs. 6.78 per kg and 10 kg wheat at Rs.
5.82 per kg. For above poverty line families a blue card is issued which entitles them to only
2.75 l of kerosene oil at Rs. 17.5 per l.
9.7 JEEVIKA
Stretching over an area 94,163 square kilometre, Bihar supports more than 8% of the
countrys population. Desiring to provide solutions to rural poor the state government has
initiated a project to promote rural livelihood in association with the World Bank. This
project is implemented through a society registered under the state government as Bihar
Rural Livelihood Promotion Society (BRLPS). It aims to provide livelihood options and thus
to improve the lives of rural poor. Currently it works through the following four programs,
institution and capacity building, social development, microfinance and livelihood.
BRLPS works through SHG s. BRLPS enables the formation of SHG s and through them
capacity building. Women in SHG s are encouraged to save through their respective SHG s.
They can then take loan when they require. The broad objective is to build self sustaining
institutions of women, empower them and build a viable and bankable womens community.
Didis in the village come together to form SHG s. the Shg s come under VO and Vo s are
organised in cluster level federation. Mauzampatti has the VO named as Maa Tara VO.

10.Village Livelihoods
Asset base available to the people:

Human assets: The rich people of the village Muzampatti belonging to Yadav
community are well aware of outside world and its happenings. While the poor mostly
Harijans have limited interaction and knowledge with the outside world. Most of the
poor people are unaware of various Govt. sponsored schemes and their entitlements.

29

Diet of both rich and poor households mostly comprises of non vegetarian food like meat, fish
and rice is the staple food. The diet we found is good in quality and healthy. The villagers eat
healthy and work instead of having a sedentary life. Even the old persons in the village were
much more active and healthy than what we observe in cities. Education standard of the
village is very poor. The high dropout rate in schools is attributed to the reason that the boys
have to work as labourers and girls get married at an early age.
Social assets: There is a clear caste differentiation between the Yadavs and Harijans.
Interaction between both the communities are limited and more of the nature of authority of
Yadavs over Harijans.
Natural assets: The land of the village is fertile and almost all used for rice and wheat. For
irrigation, villagers depend on rain water and ground water which is available at very low depth
of about 20 feet (Source: Household Survey).There is a river in the village but it has changed its
course after the flood of year 2008. Seasonal availability of water especially during rainy season
is the main characteristic of the river. Drinking water is available through tube well and wells.
The rich households have individual tube wells while the poor mostly Harijans use Govt. tube
well.
Physical assets: Except the houses of few rich Yadavs, all the houses of the villages are built of
mud walls and thatched roofs. There is a pucca road in the village which connects the village
with Barhara Kothi and Bihariganj. The condition of the road is very poor. All other roads of
the village are kacha road. Sanitation remains one of the major issues as majority of the village
doesnt have any toilet facility (Source: Household Survey). For agriculture the small and
marginal farmers use rented tractors for land preparation while most of the farmers depend upon
indigenous varieties of seeds for sowing of crops.
Financial assets: Most of the lower income households migrate to earn money while small and
large farmers depend upon agriculture as their source of income. The large farmers do save
money by selling the agriculture produce while the small farmers end up spending entire
amount earned on consumption. The women from marginal farmers and landless labourer
families save with SHGs and also avail credit from those SHGs.
Organisational assets: The village has 17 SHGs working and all a village organisation. They
have been quite successful in engaging women from poorest of the poor household with
formalised financial system.

30

11.Thematic Insights
As a part of our fieldwork segment both of us (myself and Apurba) were needed to carry out
our individual themes. The prerequisite for selecting themes was that no two partners in the
same village should work on similar themes. Accordingly I selected a theme under
livelihoods and Apurba under microfinance. Initially the theme decided upon by me was
livelihoods and interventions. But, on going on about the theme I found nonfarm based
livelihoods to be lacking in the village so I narrowed down my theme to farm based
livelihoods and interventions.
Farm Based Livelihoods and Interventions:
The objective of this theme was to observe and understand the farm based livelihoods in the
village, Mauzampatti. In the village the primary source of livelihood being agriculture the
relevancy of the theme was very much justified. BRLPS, which works through JEEVIKA is
involved in improvement in improving the output of agriculture through SRI and SWI. My
efforts were directed to find out the improvements that SRI and SWI has brought.
Microfinance activity in the village: Status, operations, opportunities and problems
Microfinance is defined as the financial services to the poor and lower income groups of the
society who traditionally does not have the access to banking and other financial services.
All the microfinance activity in the village is going through various interventions by Jeevika
through its SHGs. Focus on SHGs to function efficiently to alleviate poverty from the village
has found to generate significant impact. There are 17 SHGs operating in Mauzampatti
village of which 10 SHGs have been formed more than 3 years ago and rest 7 SHGs are new
SHG.
Organisational structure
It is considered that individual members of different SHGs are main building block and they
are lowest in the strata. 10-12 members of the village are required to come together to form a
SHG. The major points kept in mind while formations of SHGs are follows:
All the members should be women
Members should belong to poor households and preferably BPL households

31

 Caste homogeneity should be kept in mind while formation of SHGs but there are
instances of mixed SHGs
A group of 15-20 SHGs operating in the same village or adjacent villages form a federation
of SHGs which is called Village Organisation (VO). In our village the name of the VO is
Maa Tara Village Organisation. The office bearers of every SHG are member of the VO. The
main purpose of VO is to coordinate the functioning of various SHGs, disbursement of loans
and implementing various awareness programs initiated by Jeevika. Cluster level federation
(CLF) is an apex functioning body at block level. All the VOs operating within the block
come together to form CLF. Office bearers of all the VOs are members of CLF. The main
functioning of the CLF is monitor and co-ordinate the working of different VOs.
Table 4
Impact of JEEVIKA and SHG
Criteria

Before

After

(weight age) (weight age)

1) Debt from informal sources

2) Self confidence

3) Respect in family and village

4) Savings habit

5) Say in decision making

6) Fulfilment of financial needs

7) Awareness

8) Convenience of getting loans as per requirement

9) Low interest rate and easy instalment

10) Literacy

Jeevika, provides an interest rate of 2% per month in comparison to 5% to 10% taken by

village money lenders. The greatest change that SGHs have brought is probably in the
inculcation of savings habit in didis as they are required to deposit a sum of Rs. 10 per week
in SHG funds. SHGs also act a source or providing loans to didis in times of their need. All
of these have raised respect for women in their families and in the village.

32

Table 5
PRA to access impact of JEEVIKA and SHG

Source

PRA Activity carried out with the members of different SHGs

Purpose

In order to ascertain the benefits availed and change happened in

the life of villagers after interventions started by Jeevika through
SHGs

Particapants

Sukhia Devi, Rama Devi, Ambika Devi, Ganga Devi, Gita Devi,
Gunjan Devi, Laxmi Devi

Modes of financing:
The members forming an SHG are monitored for 8 to 10 weeks and after that a joint bank
account under the name of President, Secretary and Treasurer of the SHG is opened in the
State Bank of India branch (SBI) of Barhara Kothi. Then the groups are provided with
following modes of financing.
Community Investment Fund (CIF): This is the loan given by VO to various SHGs
and is the initial finance received by the SHGs. The fund to the VO is provided by
state government. Every SHG upon satisfactory functioning are entitled to receive
maximum Rs.50000/- loan. The rate of interest charged is 2% per month out of which
1% interest remains with the individual SHG funds and 1% deposited with the VO.
Repayment is through 24 monthly instalments. Most of the members avail this finance
to meet up their household expenditure, health requirement. Out of the 17 SHGs
under VO 10 SHGs have availed these finance till date.
SHG bank linkage program: Under this arrangement loans are given by SBI, Barhara
Kothi branch. Here there is no restriction on the loan amount as the bank officials
assess the loan amount based on requirement of SHGs. The rate of interest is 11% per
annum and duration of the loan is 36 months. Loans availed mainly for the purpose of
repaying old debts from informal sector, purchase of cattle, house construction and
repairing and household consumption requirement.
33

 Health risk fund: The main purpose of the fund is helping the poor to focus on their
health problems and meet up health requirement at early stage of their diseases. The
maximum financial assistance is arrived at ten times cumulative savings of SHGs
with VO. Three months moratorium period is given to the members which is interest
free and after that 1% per month interest is charged.
Food security fund: As most of the SHG members belong to lower income strata of
the society and work as landless labourers, they have to purchase food grains from
outside sources. Financial assistance of Rs.200000/- is given to the VO to purchase
food grain after ascertaining the food grain requirement of individual members.
Micro finance interventions of Jeevika is instrumental in eradicating poverty, lowering the
debt from informal sources, increase in awareness level of women, increase in respect of
women both within the family and in the village.

12.Conclusions: An integrative view of the village

Mauzampatti is primarily an agrarian village and its economy and the lives of the people too
revolve around the produce from cultivation. Distribution of wealth shows a clear
differentiation across communities in the village. All the rich households belong to Yadav
community whereas Harijans in the village are economically poor. Majority of the villagers
are subsistence farmers growing rice, wheat and vegetables. Surplus from rice and wheat
produce are sold in the market while vegetables are grown for household consumption.
Jeevika has brought about significant improvements in the lives of the villagers through
SHGs and through livelihood intervention techniques. Traditionally, Yadavs have been the
ruling class in the village. Even today, when it has become mandatory by law to give the
harijans the respect they deserve few of the rich Yadavs refuse to acknowledge this. Caste
based politics plays a strong role in the village which is represented in the fact that if a Yadav
stands for assembly elections from the village all the Yadavs will vote for him.
Big ticket government development initiatives are majorly a failure in the village. There is
widespread corruption in MGNREGA, PDS and NRHM. In most cases these schemes exist in
paper only and the money meant for them is channelized to pockets of corrupt officials. In the
past villagers have taken some of such officials to task but after short periods of suspension
they have returned.
34

Though, over the years the land value in the village has shot up to a present Rs. 3 lakh per
bigha on an average, the villagers dont want to move out. The villagers are aware of the
dismal state of education in their village and so those who can make an effort to send their
children to the district for education. Most of the transactions of the villagers occur in the
markets of Bihariganj or B.Kothi. Lack of electricity is a major concern which troubles the
villagers for which they have made numerous petitions but to no avail. After Nitish Kumar
came to power law and order situation has improved tremendously in the village. No major
incidents have occurred in the last 5 years.
Mauzampatti, in a nutshell is a peaceful place to live in. There are quite a few problems but
the villagers are proud to call the village their HOME.

13.Annexure
Annexure 1: Sampling plan
The village Muzampatti has 419 households. It was very difficult for us to survey each and
every household. So we decided to sample the households of entire village using stratified
sampling and the stratification is based on caste and religion. The graphical representation of
the plan is given below:
Strata (Population size)

Mauzampatti

Sample size

Yadav(290)

29

Harijan(120)

Muslims(9)

Annexure 2: Case study of Sushil

This is a case highlighting the story of Sushil, a person who has seen the fall from being
monetarily sufficient to being poor and who is getting up again. This case is also to highlight
the betterment of lives that Jeevika has brought.
35

Mr. Sushil belongs to the Yadav community. Grandfather of Sushil, Mr. Ramkrishna Prasad
was a well to do man. He had three sons. He was well off and commanded respect in the
village. He had a total agriculture land of 50 bigha and also possessed 10 cows. All was well
in the family till the sons got married. Sushils father Mr. Vikas kumar was the youngest and
the meek one amongst his brothers. Few years after their the brothers moved out of their
joint family. Citing the expansion of family amongst many other reasons the elder brothers
demanded major portion of the property. His brothers got 23 bigha each and also 4 cow each.
When Sushils father got married his grandfather transferred his one bigha to his father and
began to stay with. Sushils father had three sons and a daughter. With only 3 bigha in his
name and 7 persons to feed the condition of the family deteriorated. They lost their say in
village matters. Gradually when Sushil and his brothers came of age they took
responsibilities. Sushil works as VRP of Maa Tara VO while his younger brother Deepak
works as VRP of Ganga VO. His elder brother looks primarily after agriculture. As VO,
Sushil and his brother gets paid Rs. 10 each for each didi who initiate agricultural practices
through Jeevika. So now, though Sushils family is self sufficient in terms of food and
clothing he dreads the day his brothers decide to go their separate ways. As of now they live
in harmony and Jeevika has played a great role in this by providing the two brothers with a
source of income.
Annexure 3: Case study of Sukhiya Devi
A case highlighting women empowerment, the story of Sukhiya Devi.
Sukhiya Devi got married to Bahadur Mondal in 1993. She had no formal education. At the
start they were very poor with her husband working as a servant in a Yadav household. To
supplement the family earnings her husband worked in Punjab, earning Rs. 1000 per month.
Meanwhile Sukhiya Devis father in law suffered from paralysis and she had to take a loan of
Rs. 5000 at 5% rate of interest. She took an additional loan of Rs. 2000 also at 5% interest. At
such moments of distress she met Jeevika. She came in contact with Jeevika in June, 2007
through Bhagshri SHG. Convinced by the concept of group savings she initiated the
formation of Bhagshri SHG which had a total 13 members of which she was the treasurer.
Gradually, she ascended to the post of training organiser and now she is a CRP. As training
organiser her role was to train members during the initial days of SHG formation. As CRP
she is involved in the intrastate formation of SHG and participates in training exercises across
the state. For her work she is acknowledged in the district.
36

Table 6
Income expenditure of Sukhiya Devis family (monthly)
Spending

Amount (Rs.)

Earnings

Amount (Rs.)

Rice

1800

Training

2833

Vegetable and oil

1050

MNREGA

367

Wheat

480

Labour

3000

Childrens Tuition

500

Generator connection

60

Books

50

Clothes

167

Total

4107

Total

6200

Annexure 4: Profile of five rich families

Household details of five rich families are as follows:
The number rich people in the village Mauzampatti is about 10% of total population. Most of
the members of these families are literate and the children are sent to Patna or Purnia to
continue their study. The major source of income of these families is agriculture but some of
them also engaged in service sector also.
Table 7
Profile list (rich families)
Sr. No.

Name

Anil

Arun

Rakesh

Amar

Lakhan

Yadav

Yadav

Babu

Babu

Dev

Age

55

45

62

60

49

Caste

Yadav

Yadav

Yadav

Yadav

Yadav

Occupation

Farmer

Farmer

Farmer

Farmer

Business

Adult

Members

0-2 Years

37

6-18

Years

Total Family

3-5 Years

Members
Children not going to
school
12 Year girls not
educated
House

House

Modern

Modern

Modern

Modern

Modern

Details

Type

House

House

House

House

House

Electricity

No

No

No

No

No

Sanitation

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Water

No

No

No

No

No

Tank
Land

Irrigated

5 acre

4.7 acre

20 acre

22 acre

Holding

Non

5 acre

4.7 acre

20 acre

22 acre

Cow

Buffalo

Goat

Total

Migration

No

No

No

No

No

Television Set

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Irrigated
Total
Land
Animal

38

Annexure 5: Profile of five poor families

Household Details of five poor families are as follows:
Most of villagers surveyed in this segment belong to scheduled caste category as they
constitute poorest of the poor segment of the village.
Table 8
Profile list (poor families)
Sr. No.

Name

Mithilesh Sushil

Manoj

Chandeshri Raju

Age

25

31

41

55

60

Caste

SC

SC

SC

SC

SC

Occupation

Manual

Manual

Manual

Manual

Manual

Labour

Labour

Labour

Labour

Labour

Members F

0-2

Years

3-5

Years

6-18

Years

Total Family

Yes

Adult

Members

Children not going to

school
12 Year girls not
educated
House

House

Mud

Mud

Mud

Mud

Mud

Details

Type

walled,

walled,

walled,

walled,

walled,

Thatched

Thatched Thatched

Thatched

Thatched

39

roof

roof

roof

roof

roof

Electricity No

No

No

No

No

Sanitation

No

No

No Toilet No Toilet

Toilet

Toilet

No

No

No

No

No

Water

No
Toilet

Tank
Land

Irrigated

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

Holding

Non

NA

NA

NA

NA

NA

No Land

No Land

No Land

No Land

No Land

Cow

Buffalo

Goat

Total

Migration

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Television Set

No

No

No

No

No

Irrigated
Total
Land
Animal

40

Annexure 6: Services and opportunities mapping

PHC
6 Km
Primary
School

(B kothi)

Block office
6 Km

0 Km

(B. Kothi)

Mauzampat
tti

Railway Station

College

2.5 Km

19 Km

(Raghuvansh
nagar)

(Agali)

Panchayat
Office

Police
Station

0 Km

2 Km
(Raghuvans
h nagar)

Mauzampat
tti

Mauzampattti

Secondary
school

Anganwaadi
0.1 Km

0 Km

Mauzampat
tti

Mauzampat
tti

Bank

College

6 Km

60 Km

(B kothi)

(Purnia)

Post Office
0.4 Km
Mauzampattti

Hospital
18 Km
(Agali)

Table 9
PRA for services and opportunity mapping

Source
PRA Activity carried out with the SHG members of Mauzampatti

Purpose

Particapants

To understand the location of Mauzampatti in relation to nearby

institutions and resources.
Sukhia Devi, Rama Devi, Ambika Devi, Ganga Devi, Gita Devi, Gunjan
Devi, Laxmi Devi,Shakuntala Devi, Rekha Devi

41

Annexure 7: Resource mapping of Mauzampatti:

Source
PRA Activity carried out with the local residents of Mauzampatti

Purpose

Particapants

To understand the location of natural resources like water, forests, land in

Mauzampatti. Also to get an understanding of the spatial distribution of
houses and agricultural lands.
Sukhia Devi, Rama Devi, Ambika Devi, Ganga Devi, Gita Devi, Gunjan
Devi, Laxmi Devi,Shakuntala Devi, Rekha Devi

42