SPS Site Visit July 2012

~ as reported by Hemanth Krishnan (AID Tempe)

Overview O SPS has been working in Tumkur district, Karnataka

for the last 1½ years.

O Hemanth visited 3 villages ~ 30km from Tumkur.

O Accompanied by: O Gangapur, SPS community organiser from Bellary who has moved to Tumkur.

O Umesh, a young guy who has been a community organiser for 6 months (including 4 months of training).

O Ningamma, another experienced community organiser from Bellary.

O Pulli, Treasurer of SPS.

O Spoke to villagers and SHG’s.

SPS community organisers Ningamma, Gangapur, Umesh and Pulli.

View of Shivasandra village, Gubbi taluk. One of the mining affected villages where SPS is working. The mining areas are within 2-4km from these villages.

Village Demographics O Most families have 2-3 acres of land, though a

drought situation (due to mining or climate change) means land is not always cultivable.

O Men cultivate land if there is water. Otherwise work in cities (Tumkur, Bangalore) at daily wage jobs.

O The women all stay at home. Some are college educated (BA etc.).

O All the children go to school.

SHG meeting at Shivasandra village. The SHG’s meet at the village primary school.

O There are multiple SHG’s in the village (~15 members each).

O Have been operating for 5-6 yrs.

O Meet every week. Each woman saves Rs. 10-20/week.

O No-one in these villages goes to a moneylender any more.

O Banks trust SHG’s to repay loans- a woman who is an SHG member can get a loan at a relatively low 1-2% interest rate.

O Similarly, hospitals are ready to provide emergency care.

SHG account book in Honnenahalli village.

Impact of Mining O The villages are ~3km from the main road. Narrow

dirt roads connect to and within the villages. School is right next to one of these roads.

O Trucks used to carry iron ore along these roads- phases in which 50-100 trucks would suddenly pass!

O Noise was disruptive to the school; dust kicked up and spilled from trucks affected farming and health.

O Dust problem aggravated by nearby mines- no buffer zone of trees- wind would carry dust to the villages, coat coconut plantations- trees visibly dying.

Path to one of the deeper interior mines- almost impossible to figure out there is a path leading to a mine! Only reachable by jeep.

Dump yard for excavated soil inside the mining area. Some mines are big, others smaller, sometimes individually owned.

Impact of Mining O Borewells have been dug down to 1300 ft (!) without

any water- could be due to mining.

O Villagers tried to agitate to stop the trucks going through. Since SC order, mining has stopped for last 1½ yrs- situation is better.

O Only a handful of the men were employed in mines. Villagers sorry for the loss of employment but glad mining has stopped.

O No objections to mining per se, but saw only harms and no benefits to the village.

The way this hill has been cut up can be seen clearly. According to mining rules, each step should be mined for 5 yrs before creating another step!

Left: Rocks crushed in the hills used to be transported to cement factories. Right: Mining machinery that has been sitting idle for a year.

The range of colours is due to different minerals the rocks contain.

SPS team at the mine.

Agriculture being restarted in the mining areas.

There are lots of peacocks in the area, which have been coming out more since the mining stopped. They could hear peacock calls throughout the time there!

SPS’s role O During last year, SPS has been understanding the situation

in the area and gaining trust of the villagers.

O Govt. officials have shown up in the past, made promises and failed to deliver. SPS’s message is that “we can’t build anything for you, or give you money, but can give you training and direction”.

O Community organisers play a key role and are very adept at connecting and communicating with the villagers- Gangapur and Ningamma’s experience was clearly visible.

O Villagers were glad that Gangapur and Umesh would be living there.

Discussing the current situation in the villages with Mr. Shankaregowda, a leading farmer activist and de facto head of the village.

NREGA Awareness O Umesh and Gangapur have been creating awareness

about NREGA and how to get jobs under the scheme. O E.g. People had not got jobs, so community organisers asked

whether they had filed a complaint? Villagers said yes, but on further questioning, it turned out they had not obtained a signed and dated receipt of complaint from the Panchayat office- this meant officials could claim they had not received any complaint.

O Challenges: e.g. need to urge villagers not to collude with officials in falsifying records. For instance, if an official offers to pay a worker Rs. 1000 for work that has not been done- in return for a Rs. 500 commission- some people might be inclined to accept this offer.

Networking O SPS has built a good circle of people in Tumkur- Shivkumar

Malagi (a reporter for the Deccan Chronicle), President of the Tumkur Science Centre, Principal of the local college and others.

O Helping to go through the Lokayukta report, the rehabilitation and restoration plans- focus on bringing those responsible for illegal mining to justice.

O SPS is working in collaboration with another NGO in the area. The local contact person works with NABARD and has been working with the SHG’s. This NGO asked SPS to join them due to SPS’s expertise on mining issues, its larger reach, and experience with training.

Future work O Umesh and Gangapur to work with 14 mining affected

villages in the area- have a schedule to visit them regularly.

O Is SPS identifying local volunteers? Many of the current community organisers (such as Pulli, Ningamma) joined SPS this way, when S.R. Hiremath was working in their villages. The organisers ask SHG members to volunteer for tasks. E.g. To find out from the other women what work they would like to take up- SPS can then find someone who could provide training.

O Contrary to SC order, govt wants to resume mining and implement R&R in parallel – S.R. ji has gone to Delhi to file a petition on this.

Team photo!

"The village land belongs to the village and not to the govt." "Grow forest and preserve the nation." This is written at several places around the villages.