Mr Raju is single-handedly organising the
re-forestation of his state (Pictures: Prashant Ravi)
BBC News,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8257563.stm
An Indian civil servant, SM Raju, has come up with a
novel way of providing employment to millions of poor in the eastern state of
His campaign to encourage people to plant trees
effectively addresses two burning issues of the world: global warming and
shrinking job opportunities.
Evidence of Mr Raju's success could clearly be seen on
30 August, when he organised 300,000 villagers from over 7,500 villages in
northern
In doing so the agriculture graduate from
'Lack of
awareness'
Mr Raju has linked his "social forestry"
programme to the central government's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(NREGA) which is also designed to provide employment to poor people.
I told the
villagers that they would get 100 days employment in a year simply by planting
tress and protecting them
Under NREGA—initiated in February 2006 as the
government's most ambitious employment generation scheme for poor people—the
authorities are bound by law to provide a minimum of 100 days of employment a
year to members of families living below the poverty line.
About 44% of
"The scheme has brought benefits to thousands of
families since its implementation," said a recent International Labour
Organisation report.
But Mr Raju says that Bihar—being the poorest and most
lawless state of
"This is because of a lack of awareness among
officials about the scheme," he said.
The poor monsoon this year has led to lower
agricultural outputs, while flash floods in some northern districts has made
the situation even worse, he said.
"So the idea struck to my mind, why not involve
families below the poverty line in social forestry and give them employment
under this scheme for 100 days?
"Under the scheme, each family can earn a minimum
of 10,200 rupees ($210)."
Target
The civil servant immediately made a blueprint of his
idea and got the support of senior state officials.
Villagers throughout the state have planted thousands
of saplings
In June Mr Raju released a comprehensive booklet of "dos
and don'ts" and distributed it to village heads and district officials.
His initiative meant that NREGA funds were fully
utilised—in the past this has not always been the case.
"I told the villagers that they would get 100 days
employment in a year simply by planting tress and protecting them. The old,
handicapped and widows would be given preference," he explained.
Every village council has now been given a target of
planting 50,000 saplings—a group of four families has to plant 200 seedlings and
they must protect them for three years till the plants grow more sturdy.
"They would get the full payment if they can
ensure the survival of 90% of the plants under their care. For a 75-80%
survival rate, they will be paid only half the wage. If the survival rate is
less than 75%, the families in the group will be replaced," the guidelines
say.
Under NREGA rules, each worker has to be paid 100
rupees ($2) per day for 100 days in a year.
Increase in
funds
Mr Raju even came close to planting one billion
saplings on a single day.
The scheme has become a huge success
"I started preparing for this and motivating
villagers by announcing the date as 30 August," he said.
"The target for every village panchayat (council)
was to plant 6,000 saplings from 6 am to 6 pm to achieve the target of one
billion. At the end of the day, we found out that we were just just short of
the target, but it was still a world record," the beaming civil servant
said.
Significantly, his scheme has even stopped the
migration of poor labourers from the area in search of employment elsewhere
during monsoon time.
"We never thought we would get employment for
planting tress and protecting them," said Paigambarpur village head Indra
Bhusan, whose community—like many others—planted over 30,000 saplings mostly on
both flanks of the 14 km embankment which criss-crosses their village.
The saplings planted are both fruit and non-fruit
trees. The non-fruit seedlings have been planted on the banks of the embankment
and on state and national highways—while fruit bearing trees are planted inside
the villages.
This year the central government has given more money
to the scheme.
Meanwhile, the
"Bihar has edged out
"It’s all become possible due to villagers. I owe
them a lot."
