This book by celebrated journalist Sh. P sainath has aptly been called ‘the Bible of Development Studies’. It is based on his journeys through some of the poorest Indian districts from the period of 1993 to 1995. Through this compilation of short stories bundled together into seperate chapters, each focussing on different developmental problems like unemployment, poverty, migration, usuary, etc, Sainath has presented a much needed humane, and sometimes horrifying, understanding of developmental processes.
Sainath, at multiple occasion within the book, has mentioned that the problem with developmental studies has always been that focus had hovered around statistics and its practioners had failed to realise development as a ‘process’. In the book, he does precisely that. He tells stories. Simple stories of people like Ratnapandi from Chennai, Puchchi from Ramnad or Subhaso from Surguja… Stories are numerous and the common theme that underlines them all is how we have failed as a state. The story of Puchchi (literally meaning ‘insect’) is a blow to those who claim to have iradicated slavery. Sainath observes how the practice has trasformed itself in name and appearance but still remains the same oppressing reality. People like Puchchi and Adimayee (slave) have remainedbonded labourers all their lives and that too without any cash payment.
Sainath points to the flawed developmental policies of the govt. Examples are ample. Milch cows were provided to the Pahariyas of Bihar. They never asked for them and couldn’t even afford their feeding costs. So at the end of the whole process, the animals were dead and the Pahariyas were deep in debt. Another instance is of how the milk surplus district of Naupada in Odisha was ‘selected’ for developing a new ‘miracle cow’. As one can expect, all the decade long project achieved was pushing the local Khariar breed almost to extinction and making Naupada milk- deficient.
There are many instances throughout the book that break your heart. You are almost forced to understand how poverty is not just a number. It seems almost unimaginable for us (who are reading this on internet) to know that there are people in our country who don’t even have a house to call their own or a steady source of income! It looks like a futile excercise when we see the ‘experts’ trying to put a number at poverty figures. The more pertinent question remains. How we going to provide a source of regular income to the poors or a proper education to the children? Are we not (the govt and the more affluent class) at fault? Is it not the fault of bureaucracy that the ‘Dhurua’ tribe from Makangiri couldn’t get any benefit reserved for the scheduled tribes just because an ignorant govt official recorded them as ‘Dharua’!!! This had created a rather amusing (may be not for them) situation where one brother was a beneficiary while the other wasn’t.
I might be a little over two decades late for writing a review. But then, some books are never out of ‘time’. I belive that even if, through me, this book reaches a few more hands, that would be a great service to the authors work. After all these years, one can just hope that the situation is not that bad today. But when one hears about thousands of farmers’ suicides over the years, one feels things have rather remained the same. Its really depressing to hear, on the 69th independence day, of twenty five thousand farmers asking the President to let them die. Again the pertinent question is not the number of farmers but the situations and processes that are pushing them towards suicide!
I hope the readers of this blog give a sincere reading to this seminal work of Sh. P. Sainath.
himkireet 