Grassroutes Journeys to India`s Heartland – Dreams of Dusty Roads with Inir Pinheiro - 1/2

India`s remote villages are now attracting city dwellers, who are eager to swap their desk job and the stresses of metropolitan living for clean air and a more traditional way of life – if only for a few days.

The village of Purushwadi is perched high in the jagged hills of Maharashtra state in western India, where life for the tribal farmers has hardly changed for centuries. Locals live with their animals in mud-brick houses with dried cow dung floors, there is no electricity or running water and the day revolves around backbreaking work in the fields under the harsh rays of an unforgiving sun.

Purushwadi is 140 miles (220 km) away of international finance, media and entertainment – a hot, polluted, noisy and crowded city of at least 14 million people. Most say that the journey has been worth for giving a fresh perspective on life away from daily focus on money and climbing the career ladder. In few short hours, the city dwellers can swim in a crystal clear river, help farmers thresh wheat, chopped wood with a long handled axe, and eat home – cooked food with local in the dim light of their huts.

There's a poetic experience coming here and understanding what this simple life is all about, being in touch with nature, how people live by little means, with absolutely no electricity, simple farming.

About 70 percent of India`s 1.1 billion people live in villages like Purushwadi. But as cities like Mumbai expand, fuelled by the country`s economic boom, the gap between urban rich and rural poor is widening as never before.

Inir Pinheiro, whose company Grassroutes takes white – collar city workers and middle class youth group to Purushwadi and another nearby village, says it is important such lifestyles are not lost completely. It is an endeavor to get people into villages to realize the beauty of India, he says. The idea, ultimately is to get the communities to connect. Every day  in India, we`ve had more than 10 farmers killing themselves.  The dynamics are so awry.

The money goes straight into the 450 strong community, supplementing their income from the cultivation of rice, wheat, millet and pulses – and crucially, stopping them for heading to the city to look for work.

Says Inir, " the two most powerful forces of life are Love and Hope. Being born and brought up in a developing country. I’ve borne witness to this fact all the days of my life. But if you endeavour with the truest intent, the universe unveils to fulfill your dreams. I’m a great believer in dreams and the power of dreams. Wherever and when I get the opportunity I encourage people to dream".

The purpose of every endeavour is never to win… but to get people to join you in the movement. The poor and marginalized do not need charity or sympathy, they need opportunities to provide for themselves, says Inir, interview.

Q: You are offering a fresh perspective to city dwellers to assist farmers during their stay in the remote village Purushwadi. Would you like to introduce the village of Purushwadi, location, economy and villagers?
Inir: Purushwadi is a village in Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra. It is situated in the hilly area of Ahmednagar,  220 km north east of the commercial capital of India, Mumbai.  The village is surrounded by mountains on all the sides. Earlier this village was called as ‘Purunchwadi’ but as the name was a little difficult to pronounce gradually people started calling it Purushwadi. (which translates as the Male Hamlet).

Some of demographics
Population of the village according to the census of 2001: 650
No. Of households: 105
Almost all the villagers belong to the community of ‘Hindu Mahadev Koli’s.
Most of the villagers live in the main village called locally as Gawathan whereas some of them stay in the Wadi (hamlet) which is at some distance and which is also called as Zaap.
Village Name: PURUSHWADI - Block (Taluka) - Akole  
District: Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India
Local Village Council (Grampanchayat): Vanjulshet  ( Near by 2.5 km. )
Total house holds 105, population: 550-600, geographical area is 378.74 Ha, average rainfall: 970 mm, predominant Hindu Mahadev Koli tribe
Livelihood source: farming
Major crop are paddy, pearl millet, pulses - lentil, black mustard, horse gram, wheat
Educational Facilities: distance from the village
Nursery:  (Anganwadi)- (0 km )
School: classes from 1st -7th Standard (0 km )
Health Facilities: Primary Health  Center, in the neighboring villages (3 Km)

Q: What are the responses so far by city dwellers of Mumbai to live away from daily focus on money or climbing the career ladder?
Inir: 95 % of our clients are from the urban cities of Mumbai and Pune, there has been a varied feedback. The following could be a few clustered feedback type, realize the importance of nature, urban cities especially Mumbai is very devoid of nature, while one works 6 days a week for over 12 -14 hours.

They don’t come in intimate contact with nature. This lack of contact brings about strange changes in lifestyles and mindsets. While on a Grassroutes journey the tourists get a boost of pristine nature and unspoilt environments.

They experience a sense of belonging and the warmth of a community: money and a sense of community belonging are inversely proportional, witnessing that the greatest wealth of the villages is their sense of community is an eye opener for many tourists.

They also learn the art of story telling and practice it. We mostly lead boring lives, we  tend to read the same newspapers, do similar things, hence when it comes to sharing our lives with our colleagues we tend to have nothing much to talk about. Grassroutes story telling is one of the most ancient forms of passing knowledge systems. 

After witnessing the lifestyles of the villagers, many city persons realize that, though the villagers have nothing, they are content, this realization is a real eye – opener’

Q: Would you like to introduce us to Grassroutes organizations, its aim, beginnings of your innovative undertaking, inspiration…? 
Inir: Grassroutes is a responsible rural tourism movement that is building a network of village tourism destinations across India, where in tourism is owned, managed and run by local village communities. Grassroutes vision is to conserve and promote local lifestyles, knowledge systems, environments, economies and  traditions by empowering the local communities to access and avail of sustainable opportunities

The reasoning behind Grassroutes is that the greatest challenge facing India - as is the case with all of the developing and poor countries is - lack of opportunities.

This lack of opportunities leads to a lot of problems some symptoms include the a local political party MNS attacks on Non Maharastrians or for that matter the insurgency issues we have in most of the North Eastern states of India, or with the Naxal movement in India.

You know, we are all sane people, who would love to live a life, and provide for our families. The issue is that the opportunities for me to live a life and provide for my family are rare  - if non existent -  in most parts of rural India by the way India still lives in her villages. Because of lack of opportunities, the youth or people are easily motivated when someone comes along accusing or blaming another for the lack of opportunities.

When we look at opportunities, we need to address the 3 A’s of opportunities, i.e. awareness of what are the different facets of the opportunities, availability of resources and skills sets, accessibility to markets or technology or platforms to earn from the opportunities.

Because of the scarcity of opportunities this leads to exploitation of already over stretched natural resources, migration to towns and cities, causing problems for you and me, loss of local cultures, traditions, lifestyles and sense of community.

The need of the hour is - as with Maslow’s hierarchy which is food, shelter, first, then followed with providing for the family, followed by the community and environment lastly are self aspirations.

A similar principle has to be applied in rural development. Sustainable livelihood opportunities first, followed by opportunities to provide for the family, followed by building of the community and environment and lastly self aspiration, professional guidance: professionals who could tap into opportunities and utilize their skill to develop sustainable opportunities along with investment of time and money. Hence the need of the hour is sustainable opportunities.

We’ve selected responsible rural tourism as a means of creating sustainable opportunities due to tourism the world over has been the greatest multipliers of economic development. And tourism requires relatively lesser investments in setting up, and tourism also provides platforms of exchange, exchange of thought and understanding.

However tourism has also been the greatest exploiter of local communities. The medium of responsible rural tourism, where the local communities are at the centre of the entire process ensures the benefits of tourism - at the same time minimizing the ill effects of tourism. Projects like Grassroutes have showcased huge benefits for local communities as well as tourists.

The need of the hour are social entrepreneurs who could bring in business skill sets and acumen into this sector, as well as for funders (governmental, non governmental or private) to invest in such a business model.

Q: What is the ultimate aim to connect such diverse communities?
Inir: The ultimate aim of Grassroutes is that by creating sustainable opportunities especially in rural India, local communities are provided incentives to conserve and celebrate their unique way of life, leading to conservation of local lifestyles, traditions, knowledge systems, biodiversities and local economies.

Q: How does your undertaking work in practice, partners, associates, how do you advertise, promote, who can apply to go, collect station, means of transport..?
Inir: Grassroutes model can be divided in 3 parts, i.e. facilitating the development of the village as a tourism destination, marketing and product development of tourism in the village, quality control and monitoring of tourism in the village.

Let me elaborate facilitating the development of the village as a tourism destination:

We have a particular checklist for the selection of the village. However in every partnership its always robust, when all the stakeholders give the go ahead and get involved, hence after we shortlist a village, we orient the local communities on
our module of tourism, and conduct a good 2-3 months of orientation and demonstration visit, after which the community has to come together and do certain things to give us the go ahead to initiate the program in their village.

While developing each village as a tourism destination, the uniqueness of the villagers’ lifestyles is documented and is showcased in each and every step of the process. Infrastructure support, training programs and institutional building programs are followed after the community gives the green signal. A village tourism committee comprising of representative of various sections of the village is formed to oversee the functioning of tourism in the village.

Coming soon Part Two Grassroutes Journeys to India`s Heartland – Dreams of Dusty Roads with inir.

Image: Mumbai city dwellers assisting farmers in Purunshwadi, courtesy Inir`s gallery

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