GADCHIROLI : THE BIG STORY, THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA MISSED!

Gadchiroli, one of the most backward districts of India, is silently undergoing a huge transformation and appears poised for a giant leap forward. By enhancing connectivity through infra and allied projects such as road, rail, air and mobile telephony, Gadchiroli may soon end the isolation, the district has been perennially in. And there’s much more.

Why isn’t the country’s main stream media watching, wonders ace documentary film maker and Indiainput’s National Editor, Ajay Ramakant. Read on & mail us your feedback.

 

A daily wager, 43 years old Tulsiram Narote’s life is changed these days and it becomes evident by the swag as he takes out his recently acquired smartphone from his pocket. A resident of Rekha Tola, a small village, about 35 kilometers from Gadchiroli, he points towards a new mobile phone tower in the village, right behind him. For him, to be able to watch the news as they happen in any part of the country is a big deal and nothing less than a privilege. “Earlier, we had to rush to the neighboring town about 5 km away. Not anymore. “Now every house has at least one mobile phone,” he claims, as I spot a group of kids, huddled on a concrete bench, watching an animated nursery rhyme on a smartphone. As I leave, I find women folk from tribal community happily chatting on their mobile phones. A new normal. Moreover, even about a few kilometers away from the village, the speed of the internet is impressive. Gadchiroli is now more strongly in to the national mainstream.

 

Tulsiram Narote with his smartphone is a symbol of the massive transformation, Maharashtra’s  Gadchiroli district appears going through right now.

 

 

On 11th July 2023, the entire district was grappling with heavy floods. Almost disconnected from the rest of the world, the sky over the district still continued to be heavily filled with dark clouds and a ‘Red Alert’ was sounded for the next 72 hours. It was then that the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis did the unthinkable and unprecedented. And very much unlike their predecessors. They left Mumbai, straightway reached to the district, headed to the ground, taking stock of the situation, monitoring the relief and rescue operations. They even announced the relief measures then and there. The initiative did make some headlines, as a mark of the new state government’s resolve for the far off remote district.

 

Much has happened since then. The most unmissable being, the frequent trips to the border district by its guardian minister, Shri Fadnavis.

 

The Gadchiroli Before!

 

Media missing out on a big positive story from Gadchiroli isn’t a new phenomenon. When the district gave out  extraordinary performance in 2010-11, awarding forest rights, under the Forest Rights Act 2006, there wasn’t any big discussion either.

 

 

When in 2022, the Pranhita Pushkar Utsav was organized in Sironcha with a never before fanfare, festivities plus facilities, with the then opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis and the then Urban Development minister Eknath Shinde in attendance, it unfortunately went largely unnoticed in the national circles. Even recently, when as the state home minister and the district guardian minister Shri Fadnavis bravely did a night halt in the troubled district, the regional media nodded and spoke in appreciation, while much more could have been done by the national media.

 

As a frequent visitor to Gadchiroli and the adjacent state of Chhattisgarh since last three decades, all of this remains etched in the memory. Having shot some of my best documentation projects in these areas, I had always wondered whether these areas will ever come off their self imposed isolation, correspond with the rest of the nation and make positive headlines..?

 

Thankfully, an answer seems closer as Gadchiroli has been transforming at an unbelievable pace, during the last few years.

 

All this has a backgrounder. The last district on Maharashtra’s eastern side, Gadchiroli is home to big rivers and bountiful nature. With thick forests on its sixty eight percent area, Gadchiroli has plenty of green cover, hills, remote villages and hamlets. Widely known as one amongst the most backward districts of India, some of its talukas like Dhanora and Kurkheda have figured in the past, among those with the worst human development index. It has also been at the receiving end of the most violent incidents involving militancy from those with the far left ideology. Blessed with thirty eight percent tribal population, rich in culture, arts and traditional life style, Gadchiroli is a treasure for the mankind with immense potential. The district was left far behind by other similar districts of the country. Today it is busy seeking to keep pace with the rest of the nation, silently undergoing a transformation, visible since about two years now and can be seen readying itself for a huge take off.

 

Gadchiroli: The Changing Face!

 

 

Just imagine. A government Medical College will soon begin admissions from the coming academic session in the district. This is huge for a district that till date, had only ambulances to wait for, during the civil medical emergencies, for the ailing or the injured to be shifted to Nagpur, full 170 kilometers away. Not anymore, hopefully.

 

Here’s more. The district now proudly hosts a state of the art Steel Plant to make the nation prosper further and rewrite the Gadchiroli story in terms of employment and economic development.

 

It all began moving many times faster and taking shape, the moment Shri Devendra Fadnavis, the state’s Deputy Chief Minister, took the guardian ministership of Gadchiroli, placed himself firmly at the driver’s seat and resumed what all was left unfinished from his earlier stint as the state’s CM. He began visiting frequently, taking stock of the progress in meets and review meets, even making night halts.

 

It was indeed pleasantly surprising for the rest of the state, when he recently announced that investments worth rupees one lac and fifteen thousand crore have been committed for Gadchiroli. Yes, just the one district. To add to this, he aims to minimize the connectivity isolation for Gadchiroli, by various ways including connecting the district to Mumbai through two Samruddhi Express Highway linkages, which will reach Gadchiroli from two sides.

 

Shri Devendra Fadnavis, along with the Chief Minister Shri Eknath Shinde, an ex guardian minister of the district himself, have drafted a real, transformed Gadchiroli story. During this bullet paced transformational journey, Shri Sanjay Meena, IAS, the outgoing district collector and a hard task master administrator, has ably demonstrated how big plans can be envisioned, mapped on the table and realized on the ground.

 

On August 26, 2021 Meena had constituted a District Transformation Committee, that went on to actually spearhead the campaign, to execute and monitor the turnaround. Today, the change is there for all to see.

 

The Gadchiroli turnaround!

 

Here are a few snippets of the Gadchiroli turnaround :

 

Rail connectivity: After full seventy five years of independence, the wait for a railway line in Gadchiroli is now over. Finally, the work on the Wadsa- Gadchiroli Railway line has commenced. The government’s vision and the matching administrative pace led by Shri Sanjay Meena, has made it possible.

 

Airport: Till a few years ago, any suggestion for a possible airport in Gadchiroli would have been considered a crazy & a wild idea and loudly laughed at. Today, everyone knows that it’s going to be a reality soon and is very much past the phase of just surveys and reports.

 

 

Mobile Towers: While the rest of the nation have been happily using cellphone networks to communicate, Gadchiroli had been struggling to find even a decent network connectivity in most of its regions. Not anymore. The district administration’s efforts paid off as a proposal for cent per cent connectivity involving erection of a total 605 Mobile towers by BSNL, AirTel and Jio received a boost. Almost 180 have been completed, most of these have gone live as the work progresses on the rest of the sanctioned lot in a phased manner. A total 400 new mobile towers are expected to become operational in the district by the end of the current year, says a district administration official, I spoke to.

 

I also heard, that the outgoing District collector Sanjay Meena had even begun working on the state government’s vision of connecting every single school in the district by broadband connectivity.

 

Ensuring, the real Beneficiaries get it! Under the Citizen Benefit Distribution System, the district transformation center has so far collected data of roughly 8 lac 45 thousand beneficiaries out of an estimated total 11 lac 66 thousand population, to compile a data base and to check how well the benefits of various welfare schemes actually reach them.  As an indication of the administrative drive, many of the deserving citizens could receive benefits under multiple schemes. Programmes like Shaasan Aaplya Daari (estimated 6.9 lac beneficiaries), CM Mahila Sashaktikaran Abhiyaan (over10 lac beneficiaries) and Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yaatra (estimated 2.5 lac beneficiaries) were hugely successful, something which was unthinkable till a few years ago.

 

 

Skill training: As you step inside the Gadchiroli’s newly established Tata Technologies CIIIT center, another milestone by the state government and one of the largest CIIIT centers in the country, to offer international standard training courses as per the international Industry 4.0 technology norms, the hugeness of the facility startled me! I got to witness a laser printer print a unique image of the new Sansad Bhavan. The facility even has an assembly line of robotic operations. Currently two batches of ITI (Industrial Training Institute) students, each batch of twenty students- most of them from tribal families- are receiving practical skills in Electric vehicle repair and robot operations of three months each. The facility also is offering an on the job training for PG students of science. Most importantly, these students will be able to deliver any challenging job in any related industry anywhere in the world. The trainers there, Bobby Khobragade and Sanjay Kadam, both originally from Gadchiroli district, enthusiastically demonstrated how a 3D printer prints objects and artifacts. Back home from their earlier places of work, both expressed pleasure for the opportunity to train youths from their own district and provide them the wings.

 

Another one is the Alpha academy, an employment enhancement center offering technology oriented courses and 21st century skills, which is making students from tribal families learn full stack web development courses including  computer graphics, coding and programming etc. I met a few youths who till last year, were busy grazing the cattle at their village farm. This year, they have developed a few websites in the well equipped Alpha academy lab. The websites they have developed, look world class.

 

‘Disha’ for the the residential schools!

 

Gadchiroli is home to almost thirty eight percent tribal population, that also includes particularly vulnerable tribal groups. The customs, blind faiths, taboos, traditions like early marriages, early pregnancy, malnutrition and child deaths in remote areas, pave the way to several health-related problems. There is also a potentially life-threatening practice that forces menstruating women during their periods to stay outdoors in unfriendly surrounding. The district has a high prevalence of anemia and malnutrition. According to the National Family Health Survey 2019-20, about 66.2% of women of age 15-29 years are anemic. The district has observed a rise of 28% in number of anemic women from 2015-16 survey. Almost 4% of children are malnourished in the district. The curative intervention is already being exercised but still there seems to be the need to exercise IEC, mostly with the school going children and adolescent students being the next generation.

The solution, Disha, through ‘Educate Gadchiroli Fellowship’, is a unique initiative conceptualized by the outgoing district collector Sanjay Meena, that aims at spreading awareness and initiating behavior change by strengthening the School Health Education Program through academic intervention. Disha is about doing away with misconceptions and taboos, about removing stigma around the tabooed notions by sensitizing different stakeholders and bringing these notions into mainstream. Seeking to inculcate appropriate health & hygienic practices among the adolescent students in the district, the simple thought behind DISHA, is “healthy kids will be the healthy tomorrow.”

A specially designed activity book titled, ‘Disha: Health and Hygiene Education’ is introduced and taught by specially appointed trainers cum coordinators called Fellows. This curriculum includes different modules about cleanliness & hygiene, about our food, nutrients required, human body, physical & psychological changes with age, Menstruation, Reproduction and Pregnancy, various infections, locally prevalent diseases and health services available, addictions etc. The district collector also visited and interacted with the students, strengthening the bond of friendship, mutual trust, sharing of thoughts on positive changes in behavior.

‘Disha’ is already showing positive results, that are to be seen to be believed. I have interacted with a few parents who narrated interesting incidents of behavioral changes. Almost all students have effected changes in cleanliness and hygiene in their family, when back home.

 

The Ekal Center class rooms that are changing the villages.

 

 

If I am asked to cite one project by the district Transformation Center that has deeply touched and transformed lives in Gadchiroli district forever, it is this. The Ekal Center is a unique and first of its kind project for any tribal population district in the country. For years, the tribal villagers have been visiting the forests to collect minor forest produce like Mahua, Hirda, Behada, Charoli besides others. They also depend on Tendu leaves and Bamboo to earn their livelihood. But, the main impediment has been the market, mostly underdeveloped and controlled by a system that is dominated by contractors, called ‘Thekedars’ wherein committed terms and conditions are often broken and Gramsabhas feel cheated, duped and exploited as they have to wait longer for the promised returns.

 

 

The impasse is now finally broken by the district administration’s initiative, based on community forest rights and collective cooperation by strengthening the Gram Sabhas that have community forest rights, though training and capacity building! To put it in a nutshell, the District administration signs MOUs with Gramsabhas and gives a week long class room training to their representatives, followed by another week for ground level implementation, with the Gondwana University as the knowledge partner. The Gramsabha representatives are trained in modules including laws like PESA (Panchayats- Extension to Scheduled Areas), Forest Rights Act 2006, the MGNREG act, the Biodiversity act and vital topics such as the Biodiversity notebook, forest management, marketing, computation, keeping records and audits etc. The participants are made to visit the nearby forest area. During the eight days of practical training, after the classroom learning part, the trainees work in the Gram sabha and are guided by the visiting resource persons on topics including Shivar Pheri, a walk for a new vision to understand the finer points about forest management.

 

Maharashtra government has recognized the villages, who have received community forest rights, as MGNREGA agency. The GR (government resolution) came in being on November 30th 2021. This has given prominence to such gram sabhas. Activities that can be undertaken in their community forest area.. may it be tree plantation, or water body strengthening.. the gram sabha can decide, plan and execute. Thus, since the Gramsabhas are also acknowledged as MNREGS agencies, the villagers can get the work when they need it for livelihood and which simultaneously adds to their village forest like digging lakes or making fire lines. Simply brilliant. Even the NEETI Aayog bosses have also praised the initiative.

 

The hope is, if possible, let these skill learning facilities, or anything similarly positive a development in Gadchiroli, make a big headline somewhere about the changing face of the district and the tribal people therein. Let the nation take note of these positive realities, too. Anyways, my objective of this report, is to place on record the mammoth transformation of Gadchiroli envisioned by Shri Shinde & Shri Fadnavis. Also to applaud the great work done and the missionary zeal exhibited by concerned all in the Central as well as the state government, plus in the divisional and the district administration. Hats off to the officers, the young men and women in the District Police as also in the District Transformation Center, who could make the seemingly impossible, actually happen on the ground! Kudos to the exemplary leadership by Shri Sanjay Meena, IAS who made it all look so easy and achievable. Gadchiroli will always remember & miss you!

 

Let’s be hopeful, as the new district collector Sanjay Daine, IAS comes with a similar track record from his two year tenure as the CEO, Zilla Parishad Hingoli.

 

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