When I travel I like to listen to music that is in direct contrast to the place I’m visiting. In Mongolia it was Motown and living in Malawi it was mostly bluegrass. Here in India I’ve been listening to a lot of country music. With lyrics like “from her cowboy boots to her down home roots/she’s country” (She’s Country by Jason Aldean) and “Now when we first met you promised we’d get/a house on a hill with a pool/well this trailer stays wet and we’re swimmin’ in debt/and now you want me to go back to school (Did I Shave My Legs for This? By Deana Carter), the sentiment is hardly Tamil and wholly American rural poor. States like South Dakota, Kentucky, Alabama, and Montana that top the charts for the poorest counties in the U.S. (source: U.S. Census 2010) aren’t known for their bustling cities which puts some of our poorest families living on the outskirts of town. In stark contrast to the days of the Oregon Trail, rural America is no longer a popular place to be. It’s much more glamorous to live (and practice social work) in New York City or San Francisco or Washington D.C. Music snobs everywhere are rolling their eyes, but this week the likes of Faith Hill and Kenny Chesney got me thinking about identity.
A farmer in Venkatrengapuram
This week we traveled to several farm sites with SST. Because they’re working within an agrarian society, agriculture is at the core of SST’s initiatives and was our focus this week, which made me wonder about rural identity here in India. Popular films like Born into Brothels and Slumdog Millionaire exposed the tragedies of urban poverty and made “urban slum” nearly synonymous with “India,” but the particular plight of the rural poor has not made it to the big screen. As SST focuses exclusively on rural community development, I was curious to see how people in TKI made sense of living both remotely and in poverty.
This week we spent a day in Venkatrengapuram, a dry-land farming area where SST had partnered with the local community to organize massive watershed projects. Their goal was simple: to improve the livelihood of dry-land farmers by increasing their access to water. Prior to the completion of these projects, the community relied entirely on the monsoon rains to supply water for the banana and rice paddy crops that are their main source of income. If the monsoon was late, irregular or insufficient, crops failed and families were left without an income for that year. When SST began the watershed project, 65% of the land had lain fallow for three decades and rainfall was at an all time annual low. Poverty and forced migration for paid labor work affected nearly 50% of the population. For farmers whose families have farmed the same land for generations, the idea of selling out is devastating. In selling, farmers were not only giving up their livelihood, but also their identity as agrarians.
In 2009, SST began the process of partnering with Venkatrengapuram. In 2012, the project was officially completed and by the time we visited the area there was evidence of two percolation tanks that were each providing water to around 15 farmers, several wells had been constructed, and SST had aided farmers in applying for government subsidies for drip irrigation systems, agro-forestry benefits, and tractor subsidies. For the farmers we talked to the impact had been huge. They were able to make a profit and extend their land as well as purchase some of their own farm equipment, which cut down on rental costs. On a larger scale, the impact is also impressive. Upwards of 75% of the land is now arable. It was fascinating, however, that the largest impact – and the one thing that makes this project a success – is not a massive increase in income or fancy new tractors, but that migration has decreased from 45% to 25%. People can stay on their land. They can stay who they are and they’re a little less poor. It’s not glamorous. The bad years are still bad, but now there’s some water. And I think Loretta Lynn and Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, the Dixie Chicks, and all the farmers in Venkatrengapuram would agree: a little plot of land and a lot of hard work is better than any big city lights.
CUSSW in Tamil Nadu 2013 