The rise and fall of the Pani Panchayat in Maharashtra

Water equity through participatory management brought succour to drought-stricken villages in the state, but its success saw beneficiaries abandon the very principles on which it was based, leading to subsequent failure.Pune, Maharashtra: It was as a seven-year-old growing up in Naigaon that Balasaheb Kad saw the concept of Pani Panchayat transform his drought-prone village into a region of plenty.“Canal construction, lift irrigation schemes and collective management of water resources benefited many farmers,” he recalls.Additionally, strict norms followed for choosing the low water-intensive crops by farmers, resulted in improved groundwater reserves giving a boost to the village economy. So much so that the Naigaon model became an epitome of success in managing water resources, replicated in many other parts of the state in subsequent years.However, the very success achieved went against the idea of equitable-water distribution. Ample water saw farmers plant water-guzzling crops like sugarcane, and today, the Pani Panchayat concept of water equity lies shattered, as Kad, currently the sarpanch of Naigaon, laments.The Pani Panchayat model of water equityIt was the visionary Vilasrao Salunkhe who first mooted the concept of water equity, after observing the plight of rural folk during the 1972-73 drought in Maharashtra. Being a common property resource (CPR), Salunkhe felt that water should not be distributed in proportion to the size of the land.Thus was born the Pani Panchayat, a specific model of integrated micro- watershed development pioneered by the Gram Gourav Pratisthan (GGP), a voluntary agency based in Purandar taluk of Pune district. Herein, groups of farmers formulate and implement community irrigation projects based on mutually agreed-upon principles of water sharing.Salunkhe’s model of participatory development so impressed the then Maharashtra chief minister Vasantdada Patil that he coined the slogan 'Pani Adwa, Pani Jirwa,' (hold water, harvest water) in consultation with Salunkhe.The Naigaon experimentIn drought-prone Naigaon, water had always been scarce. The land could be cultivated for just four months in a year. The women, recall Tarabai Kad (65) and Ashabai Waghale (70), had an especially tough time, having to walk 4 to 5km daily to fetch drinking water. Barring a couple of homes, no one, henceforth, kept animals.In 1972, the village suffered a devastating drought. Taking 40 acres of barren land from the village temple trust, Salunkhe constructed a pond on it. He followed this up by building several small and large seepage ponds in many villages. When the rains arrived in June, the ponds accumulated water, reducing the severity of the drought and leading to good crops.He also initiated various rainwater harvesting schemes to improve groundwater reserves. This helped stave off droughts and make villages self-sufficient in water in the long term.The principles of Pani PanchayatThe Pani Panchayat system functioned on the basis of 'Panchsutri', or five principles:Water should be shared on the basis of the number of members per family, not in proportion to the land owned. Every household was given water rights up to a maximum of 25 acres, with an allocation of 0.5 acre per capita. Land in excess was to be rain-fed. All members had rights to irrigation. These rights were not attached to the land. If the land was sold, water rights would revert to the Pani Panchayat.Members were to contribute 20% of the initial capital cost, with the remaining 80% being provided by the GGP as an interest-free loan, in case of non-availability of government subsidy. In case of availability of 50% through government subsidy, the remaining 30% would be met by GGP as an interest-free loan.  Landless labourers could avail of water rights to cultivate land owned by others on an informal basis.  Water-intensive crops like sugarcane, banana, or paddy were not included in the cropping pattern.The project was to be entirely administered by beneficiaries with the help of a Pancha Committee comprising member-beneficiaries. How Pani Panchayat worksPurandar taluk in Pune district receives about 500mm of rainfall annually. Following the 1972 drought, 85 million cubic metres (MCM) of water was made available in Mahur village under a project of the taluk. It involved building countour bunds to trap rain water and constructing a percolation tank at the foothill. For the next few years, the area continued to be traditionally farmed.In 2006, the Mahurjai Water Utilisation Society was set up in Mahur village on the lines of the Pani Panchayat. As part of this society, farmers undertook plans on proper utilisation of available water. Over time, as the demand for water increased in line with the area under cultivation, the farmers together decided to utilise the pond water only four days a week. 110 MCM of water was successfully made available, through appropriate water management from 64 sources, which lasted in summers too.As against only 10 quintals of grain cultivated earlier, production rose to around 100 quintals. Interestingly, this was achieved without the use of hybrid seeds or chemical fertilisers. Alongside, afforestation was undertaken on the upland, with 3,000 trees and grass being planted. The measures resulted in year-round fodder availability and generated increased employment for villagers.In Naigaon, the locals offered their farmlands adjacent to the streams for seepage of ponds and nala construction. Once the water bodies and the groundwater were rejuvenated, farmers started growing wheat, sorghum, flowers, and vegetables. Many set up custard apple orchards. Regeneration of the village economy saw employment generated for entire families.For women, it was a huge relief to be freed from the drudgery of fetching drinking water from sources miles away as the nearby ponds and groundwater reserves sufficed for the need.The collapse of the systemUnfortunately, once water was ensured through judicious administering of resources, the very principles governing its management were ignored by the beneficiaries. In Mahur, farmers started cultivating sugarcane, which the Panchsutri principles had barred.Justifying the departure, farmer Ram Jagtap  tells 101Reporters, “We had saved water by applying rules of controlled extraction from the waterbodies. It was through our own efforts that we made it last through summers, which probably the government couldn't. Seasonal crops do not guarantee the kind of returns sugarcane can; sugarcane can enrich lives.”The sarpanch of Naigaon, who saw everything unfold in his village, recalls the decline of the Pani Panchayat system.“Once the PVC pipes arrived, many wealthy farmers left the group, and the peasant community broke up. Having learnt how to bring water to their farms, courtesy the Pani Panchayat, the rich farmers embarked on separate lift irrigation schemes for themselves. Many planted sugarcane in their fields. Thus, Salunkhe’s idea of sustainable development was shattered,” Kad explains.Naigaon resident Sanjay Hole, who had worked with Salunkhe in his village, says: “Salunkhe used to insist that at least half an acre of land be cultivated as per the principles of the Pani Panchayat. Many schemes were then implemented in Naigaon, Purandar and other parts of Maharashtra.""Salunkhe always insisted that villagers accept the Panchasutri principles wherever the scheme was to be implemented. This brought in success, which came to be appreciated by the then chief minister Vasantdada Patil, Mohan Dharia, and Yeshwantrao Chavan when they had visited Naigaon."Regretting the loss of what had been achieved once, Hole tells 101Reporters, “At Hiware Bazar, a farmer, Popatrao Pawar, told us how he had learnt about watersheds from the work of the Pani Panchayat in our village. It left us embarrassed since now, sugarcane is grown here.”Over time, Naigaon saw the collective decision-making approach failing. “Those days, farmers conducted meetings to prepare irrigation schemes. Now, they are quarreling within a family for not being able to come to appropriate sharing terms of their well water.”“Once the PVC pipes came, borewells took over. As the area under horticulture increased, groundwater levels were disturbed,” Hole adds.The underlying reasons for departure from the participatory model of the Pani Panchayat, though, were summed up by Salunkhe’s daughter Sonali Shinde, who is now Managing Director of the Pani Panchayat."The principles of the Pani Panchayat that brought the lower castes into the mainstream seemed daunting to big landowners. As a result, the concept survived only in some parts of Satara and Purandar taluk, instead of the entire state,” she says.Sugarcane politicsWhile mooting his idea, Salunkhe had warned farmers against cultivating sugarcane, which if planted between January and August would not allow water to be sustained for the rest of year."However, this idea did not interest the rich in the society," says Nilesh Kulkarni, who had worked with Salunkhe."In Maharashtra, a lot of politics revolves around sugarcane, sugar and sugar mills. As a result, he was opposed by politicians."Kulkarni further highlights how sugar mills function as co-operative societies and constitute a massive vote bank, with a strong hold over local politics. This hindered the Pani Panchayat model from attracting the political support needed.He continues: “Moreover, in 2000, when Salunkhe met Sunderlal Patwa, the then rural development minister, in Delhi, Patwa had been dismissive of this water-equity model, deeming it too ideal.”“He had compared it to a daydream,” Kulkarni recalls Patwa as having said. “He called it so even though the system had brought in initial success and seemed worth a shot amid the drought crisis.”The current scenarioRecently, authorities sanctioned Rs 2.62 crore for the repair of the many canals and water bodies that Salunkhe had built when he worked in these villages. The repairs are currently underway. While the implementation of the noble idea appears to be on the decline, it remains to be seen whether villagers will wake up to the benefits of the Pani Panchayat and cooperative management in the days to come, once again.Edited by Rina MukherjiAll photos sourced by Sunil Balasaheb Dhumal

COVID-19: When 21 members of joint family in rural Maharashtra fell ill

With love, care and timely medical intervention, 21 members of a joint family living together in Mandavgan Farata, Pune, who were infected with the coronavirus, recovered without any casualties. Pune: The second wave of COVID-19 has been devastating, with some families losing multiple people to the virus. The scenario could have been just as tragic for Ashok Rohidas Jagtap, a farmer from Pune district, and the 20 other members of his joint family comprising four generations. But they overcame the ordeal.  Hailing from Mandavgan Farata village in Shirur taluka, 100 km from Pune city, Ashok tested positive on April 21. As the remaining members of his family include four people aged over 65, the village panchayat decided to conduct a Covid test on all of them. Excluding Ashok, 20 members of the family tested positive, with only three of them spared from the infection. The youngest patient included a one-and-a-half-year-old boy and the oldest, a 75-year-old man. Ashok (53), a member of the gram panchayat of Mandavgan Farata, said his family is big as his father, his uncle and their families all live together. The 24 members include eight women, seven men, and nine children. Ashok, who grows melons, was the only member of the family who used to step out of the house during the pandemic in order to sell the family’s farm produce. He said he would quarantine himself in a separate room to keep the rest of the family safe from infection. Ashok used to visit the market yard in Pune and came in contact with adatdars (brokers), other farmers, vendors, as well as customers. “During the week (before I was tested), I had fever and body pain, but I ignored it as I thought it may be because of exhaustion. When the pain increased, I visited a family doctor, who suggested a Covid test. On April 21, my report came positive. As I was serious, my doctor suggested I get admitted to a private hospital,” he said.Ashok is the head of the household and his diagnosis left the entire family worried. That is when the gram panchayat decided to test everyone. Of the 20 other family members who tested positive, 15 had mild symptoms and five were admitted to the COVID-19 centre in Mandavgan Farata. Ashok, on coming to know that nearly all of his family had been infected, was overwhelmed with guilt. “I felt I would be the only one responsible if any of them succumbed to virus. I could not have forgiven myself if anything had happened to them,” he said. In-house Covid warriors All the household and family responsibilities then fell on the three who were not infected — Pooja Suraj Jagtap, Adika Santosh Jagtap and Akash Bapusaheb Jagtap. Pooja and Adika were busy in the kitchen most of the time, cooking immunity-boosting food for the patients. Akash would deliver the food to the Covid centre and hospital. When he would get time, Akash would go to the fields, but he could not finish many of the tasks as the farmworkers hired by the family refused to come to work out of fear of catching the virus.Ashok’s son, Suraj Subhash Jagtap (27), said that his wife, Pooja, and brother’s wife, Adika, looked after the whole family. “My one-year-old son Aditya lived with us, and without his mom, for more than 10 days. We were all scared at first, as negative news was pouring in from outside. But our grandfather and grandmother motivated us, they never showed any kind of anxiety. All the time, they would talk to us and tell us that nothing would happen. Their positive words inspired all of us,” he said.Kantabai Rohidas Jagtap (70), Ashok’s mother, said they were scared, but did not show it. “Everyone started to take care of each other. Daughters, sons-in-law, nephews, and other relatives also helped us. With the love and support of each other and our relatives, we got through the hard times. I have seen humanity in this critical situation. Now, senior members of the family will take the vaccine and others will too,” she adds.Ashok’s uncle, Subhash Mahadev Jagtap (70), said the family’s farm suffered losses as workers stayed away from their farm and Akash could not harvest the melons or water the crops alone. “It is a big loss to the family, but at least all of us are together,” he said.Dr Manoj Bhosale of Varad Vinayak Hospital, Mandavgan Farata, said it is important for patients to stay optimistic. “A doctor tries to save every patient, but patients should also believe in themselves. This is the thing I saw in the Jagtap family. As a farming family, they had strong immunity. But also, no one in the family panicked in this critical situation. They took care of each other. This is when I saw the benefit of a joint family. Their love for each other makes them strong. Now I always give the example of the Jagtap family to every patient,” he said.Looking at the prediction of a third wave in India, Ashok said the virus is bound to infect everyone eventually. “The key is not to delay treatment, be optimistic and love each other. Also, get vaccinated. We are getting the jab too.”

The spirit of competition turned a barren village in Pune green

A chance decision to participate in an NGO’s annual competition on soil and water conservation has turned this drought-prone village in Maharashtra lush and water surplus. Pune: Sayambachiwadi in Baramati tehsil in Pune district, once stricken with drought, is now a picnic spot with a large lake and thriving agriculture. The vision of local elected representatives and aid and expertise from the Paani Foundation has helped transform this village into a water surplus one. At the epicentre of this transformation is the village lake, spread over 6 acres of land. Manicured lawns slope down the embankment beyond which lies a massive water body in which boating activities were held before the lockdown. Crash guard and drains abutting the asphalted road, fencing, walking track, an open-air gym and benches give this tank bund a plush, well-maintained look.  Located some 60 km from Pune and 30 km from Baramati, the village is spread over 1,403 hectares with a population of 1,800. The village receives moderate rain even during the monsoon and could harvest only the Kharif crop. Post the monsoon, the villagers had to rely on water tankers even to meet their drinking water needs. Four defunct lakes in the village only worsened the issue. Sayambachiwadi had to shed many inhibitions in order to bring about this change, driven by an outlook of villagers not to be tied down by the vagaries of nature, in general, and the southwest monsoon, in particular. The Water CupA gram panchayat decision to participate in the Satyamev Jayate Water Cup organised by the Paani Foundation ushered a turnaround. The competition was hosted annually from 2016 to 2019 and thousands of villages in Maharashtra competed in it. Shramadaan or donation of labour is the key point of this contest in which the villagers put into practice what they learned in the training.The idea to pitch their names into the ring came from Sunanda Rajendra Pawar, chairperson, Sharadabai Pawar Girls’ College in Malegaon, Baramati. For seven years, NSS students from the college had been undertaking camps in Sayambachiwadi. As part of these annual camps, the students had constructed seven bunds (an earth bank used to regulate the flow of water) in the village from 2011 to 2017. In 2018, when the gram panchayat first considered taking part in the competition, they faced a mental roadblock. The condition that an equal number of contestants had to be women who needed to undergo six-day training for the competition outside their village was met with disapproval and the proposal fell through in the gram sabha. Taking note of villagers' objection to the participation of rural women in community outreach initiatives, especially the need to undergo training in a different district, Sunanda took the lead to convince them. Her intervention on the importance of water conservation increased women's participation in the project through meetings, study tours, and this collective hard work helped the village overcome their reservations.When the proposal was again tabled in 2019, Jaywant Bhapkar and his two friends from the village volunteered. Jaywant said, “At the gram sabha with my friends when no one volunteered for training, we registered our names seeing it as an opportunity for an outing. Since the rule mandated we needed an equal number of women – friend's wife, a GP member, and a 65-year-old tagged along.”An open-air gym and a walking track around the lake has turned the area into a popular spot of people from and around the village to gather (Picture courtesy: Sunil Balasaheb Dhumal)Training Day“The training was in Bichkool, a village in Satara district, where the welcome overwhelmed me. Different water conservation structures were built there. They helped us understand how these structures worked through demonstrations. We witnessed how a drought-stricken village was now water surplus. All of this changed my casual attitude,” Jaywant said, remembering the training days.The returnees shared their Bichkool experience at the gram sabha. But septuagenarian Parubai Narayan Bhapkar remembered that residents of Sayambachiwadi were lukewarm initially to the idea and didn’t commit to participating in the work, believing it would not change things. Prithviraj Lad, the coordinator of Paani Foundation Baramati taluk, helped turn their reluctance into enthusiasm by showing them films of villages that had benefited from the training.Participants gradually increased in number. On the eve of work, a torchlight march was taken in the village. Everyone took an oath before the Swayambhu (village deity) to work honestly in the competition. The village ultimately lost out in the competition, but they won in the long term. Out of 19 types of structures that could be built as taught in the training, the local geographical conditions permitted only seven of them to be built. Groups were formed and each group was assigned a task. Villagers built continuous contour trenches (CCT) in the barren areas and revived natural water stream paths. Mud from all four defunct ponds was removed and dumped in 50 hectares of fallow land. Absorption pits were built in every house to retain water. Eleven interlinked farm ponds were created which filled up during the monsoon. (Inset) Work being carried out at the lake which now has enough water for the boating activities (Picture courtesy: Sunil Balasaheb Dhumal)The CCTs, around 6 feet wide and 3 feet deep, which if laid out side to side would stretch out to 9 km, have helped increase the water storage capacity of the lake. Overflow from two such CCTs during the monsoon feeds the lake and the rest recharges the groundwater, which has helped increase the irrigated area to almost three and half times what was before. Also, bunds were constructed on 250 hectares of land. With the village receiving copious rainfall in 2019 and 2020, all the old and new water sources in the village started overflowing creating an abundance of water in this once water-scarce village. The area under cultivation in the village was 80 acres in 2017 and this went up to 300 acres in 2020, including 250 acres under sugarcane, a notoriously water-intensive crop.“Living in a drought-affected area, I had never cultivated cash crops. But in 2012, I started planting an acre of sugarcane. At that time I had some water in the well, so I added drip irrigation. All the while I was scared about the scarcity of water. After the water conservation work was done for the foundation, my well is full of water. Now I have five acres of sugarcane crop, in which four acres are under drip irrigation. And I don't worry about water anymore, but I know the value of water,” said Appasaheb Bhapkar, a farmer from the village.(Inset) A chain of ponds were constructed, which was among the many activities that were being coordinated from the panchayat office (Picture courtesy: Sunil Balasaheb Dhumal)An era of abundance Manohar Bhapkar, a former GP member, said that currently there is plenty of water in the village, which is a great relief to the villagers even during the pandemic. During the competition, he was responsible for managing the suction pits, 260 of which were being constructed in the village. This initiative helped treat wastewater from every household there.  Suman Suresh Kamble, a former sarpanch said, “Now my village is not drought-prone. In the past, we had to undertake a long trek every day for water and rely on tankers for water. Now our wells are full in summer also. From the gram panchayat fund, we started boating activities in the lake, created a garden around it, a track for exercise and an open gym for citizens. This now attracts people from Baramati and Pune.” Bamboo is also being grown on the embankment and it is expected that these activities will increase the panchayat income. The efforts have also helped the village to improve groundwater levels. Lad talks about the village’s water budget which was calculated by accounting for and averaging water use in every household and for each activity. “Sayambachiwadi requires 269 crore litres of water. Before the water conservation in 2018-19, the village had a water deficit of 163 crore litres. After the competition in 2019, the village is left with 53 crore litres of surplus water and water available in wells at 3 meters,” Lad said.(Left) Lush green crops in Jaywant Bhapkar's fields. He was one of the first people in the village to be trained in the techniques that have ensured that wells are full of water even in the summer (right) (Picture courtesy: Sunil Balasaheb Dhumal)“This has created a peculiar problem in that farmers have turned to water-intensive sugarcane. Proper planning of available water is essential. Meanwhile, due to the pandemic and lockdown since March 2020, we could not carry out water budgeting at Sayambachiwadi. Water conservation work will be beneficial only if farmers plan their crops by available water according to budget,” Lad added.“As part of water budgeting, we are educating farmers to opt for drip irrigation and grow crops with less water. We have drawn up a five-year plan using various sources of funds under which bunds will be constructed on 200 to 250 hectares each year and 2000 saplings planted and nurtured every year, said Pramod Jagtap, who was the interim sarpanch.Sayambachiwadi is now a model for other drought-hit villages with villagers from outside the Pune district undertaking study tours. Rohit Pawar, MLA of Karjat Jamkhed, who visited the village said, “I will strive to implement this project in my constituency. Two groups from Karjat-Jamkhed visited Sayambachiwadi. I like the dedication of villagers, who invest government funds properly.”This article is a part of 101Reporters' series on The Promise Of Commons. In this series, we explore how judicious management of shared public resources can help the ecosystem as well as the communities inhabiting it.

COVID-19: Until recently, patients testing false-negative struggled to get admitted to Pune's govt. hospitals

In Maharashtra, COVID-19 admission protocols in hospitals had not adapted to the new realities of the disease until a union government directive cleared the air. Pune: Earlier this month, Ms Deo* (name changed to protect privacy) from Latur, Maharashtra wanted to get her 73-year-old father admitted to the government hospital there. He exhibited several of the COVID-19 symptoms though his RAT (Rapid Antigen Test) came out negative. However, his HRCT (High-Resolution Computed Tomography) score was 11, indicating a high degree of infection of the lungs. The Civil Hospital Latur declined to admit him saying they required a positive test result. Meanwhile, Ms Deo took her father to a private hospital where he was tested again, but this time an RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription- Polymerase Chain Reaction) test was administered. He tested positive and the patient was finally shifted to the Civil Hospital. The whole ordeal cost the family three days and more than Rs 25,000. The old protocol in government hospitals of insisting on a positive test result before admitting suspected COVID-19 patients was delaying treatment and may even be costing lives. The second wave of infections has somewhat been attributed to a more dangerous mutant variant B.1.617, the so-called ‘double mutant strain’ which is known to throw up false negatives. Considering this, doctors have been recommending an HRCT to get a clearer diagnosis. But anecdotal evidence in several instances suggests that hospital protocols in Pune hadn't caught on. Infectious Disease Specialist Dr Amit Dravid said that there are now increasing cases in which RT-PCR and antigen tests are negative but lung infection scores more than 6. Such patients should be treated as covid-positive but government protocol doesn’t accommodate this, he had said. Delays in treatment caused due to this may risk the condition of the patient. Like in the case of 40-year-old Dinakar*. With an HRCT score of 13 but a negative RT-PCR test, he was forced to get himself admitted at a private hospital when he was denied admission in a state-run hospital. When the private hospital started running low on oxygen, he was forced to shift. He was once again rejected from the government hospital for the same reason and he had to try at yet another private hospital. All the while, his condition kept worsening.In another instance, when 31-year-old daily-wage labourer Sunil* started exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms, he wanted to get admitted right away, partly in order to protect his pregnant wife. While his RT-PCR test said he was negative, his HRCT score was at a worrisome 16. When he called the Pune Municipal Corporation COVID-19 war room, he didn’t get a proper response. They said they would call him back and he never heard back from them. When he called them again 15 hours later, the operator told him that he wouldn't be admitted to a government hospital without a positive RT-PCR test. Sunil then decided to search for a bed in a private hospital, rushing between Hadapsar, Wagholi and Deccan. By the time he finally got a bed, his wife was distraught. Dipti Jadhav, a social activist, said that they had been encountering many such cases in the past few weeks where HRCT scores are more than 10, but public hospitals deny admissions on account of negative RT-PCR or Antigen tests. People then had no option but to go knocking on private hospitals. Not only does this process take a lot more time, risking the patient slipping into a critical condition, but the hospital bills also run in lakhs. “Why are we still following outdated protocols?” she had asked.Until a union government directive dated May 9, there hadn't seemed to be a consensus within the state public healthcare system about how to deal with such cases. Dr Dnaneshwar Mote, a member of the state’s COVID-19 task force, said that there are three methods of detecting the virus - RT-PCR, RAT and now HRCT. If RT-PCR and Antigen tests are negative and the lung infection score gleaned through a CT scan is at least 6, the patient is treated as corona positive. “This is the protocol that we asked government medical staff to follow. If this is being violated somewhere, we will correct it as early as possible,” he had said. While Pune’s District Health Officer Dr Bhagwan Pawar admitted that such was the directive from the state, he added that the lungs could be infected for other reasons like pneumonia, so a positive RT-PCR or Antigen test is a must. Meanwhile, Dr Rohidas Borase from Sassoon Hospital claimed to allow admission of such cases, citing there were no problems with the protocol. Dr Manoj Khomane, a medical officer in Baramati tehsil in Pune district, said that 10% of beds in Covid hospitals and care centres should be reserved for SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Infection), emergency and Covid-suspected patients. “Such beds should be allocated to the patients whose coronavirus tests are negative but lungs are infected. In my experience, the test results for such kinds of patients turn up positive after two or three days. So government hospitals should not reject them,” he had said.To ensure this, the Union Ministry of Health released a “revised national policy for admission of Covid patients to various categories of Covid facilities” that said, “a suspect case shall be admitted to the suspect ward of CCC (Covid Care Center), DCHC (Dedicated Covid Health Centre) or DHC (Dedicated Covid Hospital] as the case may be.”