Why should the beneficiaries provide materials and labour?

Charlie 2 – Paul Whitehouse and Ellie Cree

The poverty cycle – Why should the beneficiaries provide materials and labour?

Indranagar is a village in the HD Kote Taluk (regional district) of Mysore District. It is a relatively small community with just 90 families belonging to the scheduled (the lowest) caste. Like most communities in the area the population has minimal standards of living and economic means. 

The community is highly dependent on agriculture for their income, as most of the villagers either rent privately owned land or work on other peoples land to make a living. Day labourers have little job security as their employment depends on the weather and their health.

Other problems that the villagers face include a poor level of education, with the majority of the population illiterate or only educated to primary level. The village has a poor relationship with the local government which has resulted in a lack of provision of basic facilities such as a health centre or reliable links to the nearest hospital. Many believe that this situation is worsened by corruption within the local government.

However the biggest problem facing the village is the lack of health care and sanitation. There are only seven working toilets for a population of 400 people. Open defecation is common practice as toilets are not considered a high priority.

As a team of UK and Indian volunteers we are working with Raleigh International and MYKAPS to create 12 eco-sanitation (eco-san) units with beneficiaries who have contributed 8000 rupees worth of materials and one labourer. This is a high financial commitment considering the average daily wage of 100 – 150 rupees.

The main reason that beneficiaries are required to provide materials is because it is believed this is the most effective way of breaking the poverty cycle and making the units sustainable.

So what is the poverty cycle?

The poverty cycle is a paradigm used to illustrate the many factors that affect poverty and how they interconnect.

Here is a diagram of the poverty cycle when applied to our village;

We are hoping to break this particular poverty cycle. By providing eco-san units some members of the community should see an improved level of health creating a positive knock-on effect on other factors within the cycle. However providing the eco-san units alone would not be providing a sustainable solution. In order to break the poverty cycle in a sustainable manner we need to tackle to causes of poverty rather than treat the symptoms. For example; if we were simply to build the infrastructure for the eco-san units without backing it up with education as to its functions and benefits then the unit may not be used properly, if at all.

In recent years the approach to international development has changed. This is due to the rise of (or a greater awareness of) a dependency culture. This culture is prevalent when aid workers are perceived as givers who require little or no input from the local community. As a consequence people from within these communities become dependent on constant aid and support and are unable to maintain or improve their standard of living without it.

By asking the villagers to provide materials and labour we are ensuring they have a financial and physical involvement in the project and are therefore more likely to maintain the unit. A person who has been engaged in the construction of a unit will have a greater understanding of how to maintain it and would hopefully feel a sense of ownership. In addition to this we are also planning to provide health and hygiene training to members of the community to maximise our impact during our time here. Some cultural behavioural norms will need to be tackled during this education.

Breaking the poverty cycle

By building the eco-san units we are interjecting the poverty cycle at the point of ‘lack of sanitation’. Improving sanitation should in turn reduce health issues meaning less money on pills and bills. The hope is that this will also mean less need for children to work on the farms to maintain a family income if an adult gets sick. The obvious bonus there is that children will be less likely to be taken out of school, giving them a greater chance to push for a better life for them and their family in the long term.

The useful output of an eco-san unit is that is provides fertiliser which can be used by farmers or sold for income generation. Here we can also have a breaking effect on the ‘little or no income’ stage of the cycle by creating a free source of revenue for beneficiaries.

There are many other factors such as the caste system that affect the quality of life, however by targeting primary causes of poverty we can strive to improve the standard of living in the village. The aim of the project is not to solve their problems, but to provide a platform for development. Living and working with the villagers allows for deeper levels of interaction and mutual learning resulting in a more effective and sustainable development project.