RURAL HEALTH CARE-THE AMUL MODEL

Women and child development is a crucial area where Government of India has invested and continues to invest heavily though results at the ground level is barely perceptible. One of the major reasons for this lackluster development is lack of commitment on the part of the employees who are on the pay roll of the government to the cause, with the result there are cases of gross abuse of the system and the activity is present only on paper in most of the rural places in the country. Compare this with the program  of an NGO in Gujarat, initiated and supported by the redoubtable Amul cooperative of Anand that covers almost two million people and is a beacon of hope for half a million villages across the country. The enthusiasm of women and rural workers who operate the program is infectious and the country would have been much better of if thousands of NGOs working in different parts of the country had taken a leaf out of the this program in Gujarat state. Here is a tribute to the trio of Tribhuvandas Patel, Dr Kurien and Mr Dalaya, all not present now to see their vision come true, who were the founding fathers of India's much acclaimed white revolution for their vision and humane approach to the problems of rural India.    

"The premises of the Tribhuvandas Foundation (TF), a charitable organisation in Anand, Gujarat, are a hive of activity. In an open hall, surrounded by greenery, women are taking yoga and meditation classes to recover from post-natal issues. Mothers have come to pick up their infants after the morning session at the crèche. Expecting mothers are being checked and counseled by doctors. The foundation is an Amul initiative that provides healthcare to women and children in the villages of Kheda and Anand districts. "The most unique aspect of this programme is that it trains women to be self-reliant in dealing with healthcare issues in their villages," says Dr Viren Doshi, CEO of TF.There are two theories on how the foundation started. One version is that a moving statement made by a woman sowed its seeds; she wished she was born a cow because only then she would get the medical facilities provided by the dairy cooperative. "This inspired Tribhuvandas Patel to start TF. He was supported by Dr Kurien and HM Dalaya, who are considered with Patel the three pillars of the Amul revolution.  Another version is that when Dr Rajendra Prasad visited the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union ltd, well-known for fueling the white revolution, he is said to have remarked with amazement on seeing the mobile dispensary that he was amazed to see such facilities for livestock which are not available elsewhere for human beings. No matter, whichever version is true, today it touches the life of 16 to 19 lakh people in Gujarat, mainly women," Dr Doshi says. When Patel retired from the chairmanship Of KDCMPU, he was presented with a purse of six hundred thousand rupees, by the members of the village cooperatives—one rupee per member being the contribution. He used this fund with what he received as part of The Ramon Magsaysay Award, to start the Tribhuvandas Foundation for women and children. TF was registered as a public charitable trust in 1975 and started activities in 1980, with grants from National Dairy Development Board, Amul and UNICEF, and later from the Overseas Development Administration. It is now a Community health organisation, working mainly on reproductive and child health. "When TF started work, it was difficult to find qualified human resources in the dairy cooperative's area of operation. TF adopted the model of training women volunteers from the community to provide basic healthcare in the villages. Thus, it is a need-based program for villages run by the villagers themselves," explains Dr Doshi. The programme is dependent on three sets of people: the mobile medical core team of professional nurses and midwives backed by doctors, village health workers, who are trained for providing basic medical help, and village infant workers. The workers are trained to offer primary health care and health education door-to-door, in groups and at the Dairy Co-operative Societies Centres".

Some how India, as a country never realized the power of women and their immense talent and what the Tribhuvandas Foundation(TF) has done is to recognize this simple truth enabling them to empower the rural women to manage their own affairs with guidance, training and supportive efforts. It is conceded that Amul had the necessary infrastructure of health care for millions of milch animals belonging to the rural families and what it did was to augment the infrastructure with medical and paramedical personnel specialized in human development. Still what one can see to day in those villages where TP is operating presents a picture of self reliance which Mahatma Gandhi had envisioned for the country. If cooperative sector can do this why not the private industry which has the resources and wherewithal to replicate Amul's  rural development initiative? Industry bodies like FCCI, CII, ASSOCHAM and others must reconsider their policies on social front and follow the Amul route of rural development for creating a prosperous India by investing a portion of their corporate profits.

V.H.POTTY
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INDIGENOUS COWS VS HYBRID COWS-WHITE REVOLUTION'S UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES!

There are only a few investigative science journalist in India and some of their writings are truly informative and useful. In one of a recent writings by such a journalist it was dramatically revealed that India is mindlessly pursuing a program of replacing some of its native species of cows with hybrid varieties using massive insemination program under government tutelage. The operation flood started in Gujarat by late Dr Verghese Kurien also depended too heavily on hybridization and improving Buffalo population. No doubt buffaloes are high milk yielders and it makes sense from the farmer's view to buy a high yielding buffalo than a cow with lesser yield. But ignoring the other advantages of rearing local varieties of cows can have some serious consequences to Indian agriculture as being contended by this well respected writer. Here is the reference to her article which can be accessed from the web to understand her well thought out treatise.  

The reason, explains Hari Bhai who heads the foundation's desi cow project, is that sugarcane yields have seen a dramatic increase using cow dung from the indigenous variety of cows in Wardha. And indigenous cows are necessary for natural farming, which depends on cow dung and cow urine. Farmers have been earning up to Rs 7 lakh per acre and a yield of 80 tonnes in Wardha with natural farming. In contrast, the yield in farms in Uttar Pradesh is only 30 tonnes per acre. So, we are taking this concept to places where we are opening factories, so that sugarcane farmers get a good yield with minimum inputs, he says. Wardha farmers are being used as resource persons to teach natural farming to the Uttar Pradesh farmers. The farmers have been receptive, and in most districts, the concept is catching on, he says. The concept was first popularised by Subhash Palekar as "zero-budget farming". He has been going from place to place, teaching farmers the art of natural farming using cow dung from indigenous cows. Hari Bhai acknowledges Palekar's influence in the project, adding the latter is often consulted for the project. The Gir cows, which were once gifted to Brazil, have today become a huge chunk of the cow population in that country - as many as five million. Meanwhile, the total cow population in India, including indigenous and hybrid, is 190 million, of which 160 million are indigenous. India is seeing a steady decline in the number of indigenous cows. Between 1997 and 2002, there was a 10 per cent decline - leaving 185 million cattle. In 2007, they were further reduced to 160 million. The decreasing numbers are at the cost of genetic diversity and should concern as much as the fact that cows as a species are being fast overtaken by buffaloes, which were half the population of cattle on the last count.

The points raised in the above article deserve serious consideration by the scientific world and the policy makers because rapid declining of the gene pool of native cows can have disastrous consequences in a couple of decades' time, if adequate steps are not taken now. One may end up with a situation when native breeds can be found only in "Goshalas" maintained by Hindu religious organizations! It is unfortunate that in India every problem is tackled in isolation and lack of integrating them into a single policy never receives attention at the government level. If there were a holistic national policy on agriculture, livestock and food problems like the above would not have been neglected so long. With India becoming a top nation in milk production the earlier priority of increasing the yield can be moderated to accommodate the importance of native breeds who are a valuable ally of the farmer. 

V.H.POTTY

http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/

http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com