This was exactly how things were in Gadha, a remote village in Maudaha block of Hamirpur district in Uttar Pradesh.

The village has one junior high school, one primary school and one anganwadi centre. But this quite considerable infrastructure was completely useless.

The primary school, which has 323 students enrolled, has two shiksha mitras. For several months one of the two shiksha mitras never attended school, leaving the burden of ‘educating’ all 300-plus children to the other.

The junior high school, with 89 students, had one teacher who never turned up.

The anganwadi centre existed only on paper; the designated anganwadi worker lived in Hamirpur and never came to Gadha.

This was the situation until a local chingari sangathan decided to do something about it.

Chingari sangathans are groups of public-spirited citizens, panchayat members and members of self-help groups that have been started by a PACS Programme partner, the Akhil Bhartiya Samaj Sewa Sansthan ( ABSSS), in many parts of Bundelkhand through its network partners. Antyodaya Sansthan, a partner organisation of the ABSSS, has helped set up several chingari sangathans in Hamirpur.

These chingari sangathans have been remarkably successful as local pressure groups (see earlier story, ‘ Chingari sangathans at crossroads’).

In Gadha, members of the chingari sangathan first warned of a talabandi, or lockout, at the school. On December 5, 2006, the school was shut and group members began on a relay fast.

The following day, other people of the village rallied around them and declared that if their demands were not accepted they would start an agitation from December 8.

The local print media covered the relay fast and the agitation made headlines in a number of newspapers.

Pressured by the bad press, the district administration woke up. The assistant basic education officer offered to attach the Gadha school to another school. The villagers rejected his proposal and continued the fast.

Finally, the administration appointed five teachers, two for the junior school and three for the primary school.

Emboldened by their success, a meeting was called of chingari sangathans in 21 gram panchayats in Hamirpur, on December 18, to do some strategic planning to tackle other problems.

The meeting was attended by a large number of people from Bhaturi, Bhaismari, Gadha, Padohari, Tolamafi, Lewa, Chhani, Baijeamu, Kapsa and other neighbouring villages.

Several issues were discussed, such as the drought situation in the region, lack of irrigation, a midday meal ration scam in Padohari village, and the total failure of the midday meal scheme in Chandi and Bhaturi villages.

A primary school in Khair had had no teacher for three years, and more remote villages in the region had no education facilities at all.

These issues were taken up with the district administration. On December 22, 2006, hundreds of women turned up for a demonstration outside the Hamirpur district headquarters shouting slogans and holding up boards listing their demands.

The demonstration took the district administration by surprise, as this was the first time such a large number of women had gathered to demand their rights. A memorandum was handed over to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), together with 40 other memoranda listing the problems in 21 villages.

The SDM promised to look into the demands. And, to the amazement of the women, the district administration arranged for transport to take them all home!

Among the demands in the memoranda were:

• Measures to ease the water and irrigation problem, such as declaring the district ‘drought-prone’, installing more powerful pumps, and filling ponds.
• Proper implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
• Timely payment of old-age pensions.
• Appointment of schoolteachers.

The demonstration led by women has already brought results. Water was released into canals and 800 acres of land were irrigated. Midday meal rations were inspected, and the scheme regularised in many village schools. The public distribution system too was regularised and pension problems of the old, widowed and handicapped looked into.