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Knowledge of the Rural People
The Orissa Tribal Development Project (OTDP) highlighted the role and importance of the knowledge of the rural people in the process of the design and implementation of development projects and programmes. Several examples from the project’s evaluation may appropriately illustrate the above. For instance, when the evaluation mission visited a particular village in the project area, it noted excessive silting and damage to some of the Water Harvesting Structures (WHSs). This was surprising given that the WHSs had been developed only a few years earlier. Following discussions with the tribal people, it was learnt that they had impressed upon the concerned engineer for an alternative site for constructing the WHS. This was based on their intimate experience and knowledge of local climatic conditions, water flows and agro-ecological conditions of the terrain indicated for the WHS. However, their suggestions were disregarded and the decision to maintain the site selected a priori was taken by the project authorities, upon the recommendation of the engineer. Another example is the selection by OTDP of coffee as a crop for development on the lands allocated to the tribal people. Very little, if any, coffee was planted during the project by the target group, as this crop is traditionally not favoured due to cultural and economic reasons by the tribal people in Kashipur block (i.e. the project area).
The OTDP evaluation has illustrated the crucial importance to the development process of the knowledge of the tribal people. The tribal people have survived in their environs for centuries without huge amounts of money being spent on their development by governments or others, and over the years they have developed and refined valuable knowledge and problem-solving strategies not only concerning agriculture, farming systems, natural resources management and biodiversity, but also in the areas of health and education, and social organisation and mobilisation (e.g. by forming associations and groups for credit and savings, water use, home economics). Their knowledge and experiences need to be tapped more systematically, and blended accordingly with “modern” technical knowledge suitable to the context and environment in which the tribal people live and operate.
By making use of tribal peoples’ knowledge and experiences, development activities and projects will be relatively easier to implement, and their impact is bound to be far greater.
The evaluation has thus drawn attention to: (i) the need to avoid a one-way, top-down approach to knowledge and technology transfer; and (ii) the value and intensity of untapped knowledge of the rural poor, such as the tribal people in Orissa, which, if used appropriately, can be a useful catalyst in accelerating the development process.
It should also be noted that design missions ought to carefully analyse all aspects related to the tribal population’s practices before designing any form of development intervention. In this regard, among other areas, attention should be given to their cropping patterns and intensity, adoption of technologies, labour force availability. These issues could be analysed by undertaking special studies at the design phase, and kept uppermost during implementation so as to make the best use of locally existing skills and know-how and to ensure that the evolving requirements of the targeted populations are constantly taken into consideration and catered to.
References:
1. Completion Evaluation Report (214-IN)
2. Evaluation Report of Govt. of Orissa 1998
3. WFP Project Completion Report 1998
