VARANASI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s model village is disintegrating and his people are unhappy.

The dirt road in Jayapur, which got a new lease of life after the village was adopted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under the MPs’ model village scheme in November 2014, is already coming apart.

“The road was built by a private company claiming that it would withstand heavy vehicular load, but the reality came to the fore within a year,” said Gauri Shankar, a resident of Jayapur

“While the road was being built we objected as they were just placing bricks over loose sand but no one listened. See the consequences now,” said Surendra Varma, another villager, removing the bricks and displaying the sand underneath. Jayapur, which is just about 30km from Varanasi, shot to fame after the PM named it his model village, but it had already been adopted by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) under its ideal village scheme in 2002.

Jayapur is dominated by the Other Backward Class (OBC) community of Patels who constitute nearly 45 per cent of the population of the village of around 4,200. Most Patels are prosperous landowners. The upper-caste Bhumihars also have a large chunk of agricultural land in the village and they constitute nearly 20 per cent of the population. The rest are Harijans, Gonds and Mushars who work as agricultural labourers or do other menial work.

The showpiece of Jayapur’ is ‘Modi Ji ka Atal Nagar’, a well-organised array of 14 houses fitted with solar-powered lights and fans, built on the fringes of the village, and housing the marginalised Mushar community. Though each house has a separate kitchen, most of the women still cook outside on earthen stoves with wood and dung as fuel as no LPG connection has been provided to them.

“We still cook on earthen stoves and have to work hard to collect wood and dung for them. We avoid cooking in the new houses as smoke will spoil the tiles,” said Manju, slaving over a stove in an old mud hut located just behind the new houses. Most of the men from the community work at brick kilns. They alleged that influential kiln owners pay them less and trap them by providing loans during lean months leaving them forever indebted.

“They provide us monetary help during the marriages of our girls and other emergencies and then make us work at fewer wages for months. We never get out of this vicious trap,” said Sonu Banwasi. Then there is a cluster of mud houses belonging to the scheduled tribe Gond community in the heart of the village. The inhabitants, mostly labourers, alleged that they are still subjected to caste discrimination .

“We cannot avail any facility meant for the poor as our names are not being included in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) list despite pleading constantly with the ‘Pradhan Ji’. It is all in vain because we are only eight families, not a significant count in terms of a vote bank,” said Prabhu Narayan.

However, the Gram Pradhan, Durgavati Devi’s son Rahul, who spoke on her behalf, said there are some technical difficulties in enlisting the Gond community in the BPL list which will be sorted out soon.

The Gonds fall back on quacks for medical treatment as there is no Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Jayapur and the nearest Community Health Centre (CHC) is three kilometres away.

Manorama, a Gond woman suffering from fever for the last few days, is being administered a glucose drip in her hut by Jagdish Prasad, a quack. “I am only intermediate pass, but I have learnt the tricks of the trade seeing other practitioners,” he said.

The government primary school at the village saw significant changes after the PM adopted Jayapur as his model village. Each class now has solar powered fans and lights, the school has bio-toilets, and students and teachers have desks and benches. “It came as a great respite as we had nothing in the name of infrastructure earlier. We did see an increase in the enrolment of students,” said Sadhana Srivastava, the principal.

She admitted that dropout rates are high as most of the students are from the economically weaker section and have to contribute to the family income. “There is no boundary wall here and security of children is a matter of great concern for us. Moreover a junior high school is required as girl students are reluctant to travel outside the village to study for fear of being molested,” said the principal.

Several bio-toilets have been installed at the village, including those at ‘Panchayat Bhawan’ but they are in pitiable condition due to lack of awareness and proper maintenance. The pipelines connecting adjacent tanks were found broken at many places. Some toilets are being used for bathing by women at the ‘Harijan basti’ and a few toilet pits have become garbage dumping sites.

Although a modern bus stand with swanky benches has been set up, no buses ply on the route and the lone police assistance booth is always deserted. “For some months after the inauguration, a private bus was being run but that too stopped later on,” said Sujit Kumar Gupta.

The village pond constructed is in a miserable state as it is covered with water-hyacinth and highly polluted.

District level officials refused to comment citing the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) in operation for Panchayat elections. However, a senior official who wanted to remain anonymous said, “Stand-alone development certainly differs from the cooperative model of development. State government was not taken into confidence and most of the work was done by private stakeholders under CSR.”

Gram Pradhan Durgavati’s explanation: “Developmental issues are often compromised due to the tug-of-war between the centre and state. The state government’s reluctance to cooperate is creating hurdles in the way of development at Jayapur.”

—By arrangement with The Statesman/India

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2015

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