Madhoupur has been in the news in the local and regional media for over two years, and its issues are well known to the local Congress MLA who arranged Gandhis visit.

As one media person from Banda said: Madhoupur was chosen for Rahul Gandhis visit because the people here voice their problems clearly and frankly.

This is the direct outcome of work done by the chingari sanghatan in the village.

Chingari sanghatans are village-level advocacy bodies promoted by PACS Programme partner Akhil Bharitya Samaj Sewa Sansthan ( ABSSS) and its network partners across five districts of the Uttar Pradesh portion of Bundelkhand. (To read more about chingari sanghatans click here).

The chingari sanghatan in Madhoupur was started in 2003 by ABSSSs network partner Krishnapitra Sewashram Attara (KSA) that works in this part of Banda.

The Madhoupur chingari sanghatan has 50 members, most of whom are from the villages scheduled caste colony that houses around 280 families.

The sanghatan has fought many battles. The longest, and still incomplete, battle was to make public distribution system (PDS) foodgrain available to families living below the poverty line (BPL).

The reaction of people involved in improper implementation of the PDS and other welfare schemes has been extreme. One KSA activist, Sadashiv, was so badly beaten up he could not walk for three months.

Ration card mess

The village of Madhoupur has a population of approximately 3,000 people. By any reckoning there should over 500 BPL ration card holders in the village. However, when KSA started working here in 2003, under a PACS Programme project, it found that only 441 ration cards had been officially distributed in the village.

When Sadashiv and other KSA activists began to study how many BPL families had ration cards and were getting foodgrain properly, they were shocked to learn that only 10 BPL cards were in the possession of the families concerned. The rest were in the hands of the ration shop owner (kotedar) who was obviously pocketing the foodgrain allotment of BPL families and selling it in the open market.

This was not an isolated case in this part of Banda district where KSA works. A similar racket was found operating in Kazipur village in the same (Mahua) block.

KSA successfully fought to cancel the ration card licence in Kazipur (read story here) and forced the district administration to take similar action in other villages.

However, the Madhoupur kotedar appeared to have strong connections within the political and bureaucratic machinery. Even after a long six-month struggle, involving the media and agitations at the tehsil level, no action was taken against him.

The kotedar was finally suspended only in December 2005, but the inquiry report was a sham, says Sadashiv. The kotedar got away lightly.

The situation changed somewhat after the 2005 panchayat elections. The newly elected pradhan complained about irregular distribution of PDS rations and after several letters to the district magistrate and collector (DM), and divisional commissioner, blatant black marketing stopped to some extent, says Sadashiv.

However, when the time came to prepare new BPL lists and issue ration cards accordingly, in October-November 2006, the pradhan chose to give cards selectively to people who were close to him.

The issue of ration cards was nullified in 2006 across Banda district by the DM, on account of several irregularities, one of which was that the BPL lists were not read out in the villages.

New ration cards were finally issued in February 2007. Around 240 BPL cards were given out in Madhoupur. This was a victory of sorts, but inquiries made by the chingari sanghatan and KSA threw up several anomalies:

• Fifty-four families that were on the BPL list earlier were inexplicably removed from the BPL card holders list.
• Cards of 21 Antyodaya card holders were cancelled.
• Cards of five BPL families were given to other families.
• Fifty-one non-BPL families were issued BPL cards. The beneficiaries included seven people related to the pradhan, seven people related to a panchayat official, five people related to the kotedar, and 11 people who were close supporters of the pradhan.

Enraged, around 100 people led by Sadashiv went to the DMs office in protest on February 9, 2007. The DM ordered that no rations should be distributed until the matter was investigated.

Sadashiv had to pay the price for organising such protests. On February 17, 2007, three people approached him as he was walking towards Madhoupur and severely beat him up with lathis. The assailants were allegedly close to a muscleman involved in fraud in the food-for-work programme; the chingari sanghatan had raised its voice against this too.

When the people of Madhoupur learnt about the incident they gathered in large numbers and brought Sadashiv to the village. A police case was filed against the assailants, who filed a counter-complaint. Sadashiv was detained by the police for 12 hours. He was unable to walk for three months following the incident.

The struggle for proper distribution of rations continued. In May 2006, the chingari sanghatan filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, demanding an explanation of how BPL families were identified and ration cards given.

When they did not receive a response from the administration the matter went up to the State Information Commission and two hearings were held in Lucknow.

The block development officer (BDO) then proposed a compromise, in August 2007: he would cancel 41 BPL cards given to ineligible families and issue the same number of cards to families that deserved to get BPL rations.

The chingari sanghatan accepted this solution and, accordingly, the BDO issued a letter to this effect.

But this too was only a partial victory. After suspension of the kotedars licence in Madhoupur, foodgrain allotment was shifted to another village, 10 km away. The people of Madhoupur had to walk 10 km to get foodgrain; some families did not make the effort.

Anyway, foodgrain was not being made available on the due date, and the kotedar continued to sell BPL rations to ineligible families.

The chingari sanghatan complained and a departmental inquiry was ordered. Finally, in February 2008, the administration alloted a PDS foodgrain distribution license to Munna, a dalit member of the chingari sanghathan from Madhoupur. BPL families of the village are now expected to get rations without difficulty.

However, the situation is far from close to the Supreme Courts orders in the Right to Food case.

There are still many families in Madhoupur that need government-assured food security and are denied it. Shivkali is one such person. Her husband has a mental illness and does not work. They have five children, and no land. Every day Shivkali cuts firewood from thickets along the Ken river that flows along the village, and walks to Banda town, 10 km away, to sell the bundles. My whole day goes in walking and selling wood, she says. She returns to the village with Rs 20 to Rs 25 and has to buy foodgrain at open market prices as she has no ration card.

Other battles

While the chingari sanghatan has not had outright success in its struggle for proper distribution of PDS foodgrain to all BPL families, the struggle empowered it to fight on other fronts too.

The weapon it used was RTI. Till January 2008, around 70 applications had been filed in the names of different villagers demanding information on the NREGS, BPL lists, midday meals, scholarships, Indira Awas Yojana allotments, and the running of schools.

This tactic appears to have worked, at least on one front: implementation of the midday meal scheme in the village has improved. Children get meals according to the menu; they even get kheer (a dessert). Though not strictly within the rules, three or four extremely poor people with no families are also given free midday meals.

The cooking and serving of food is regularly supervised by a very active chingari sanghatan member, Rambabu.

Rambabu is one of the few sanghatan members who can read and write. Sadashiv says: We encourage him to take the lead in all the struggles. Rambabu emphasises that they are fighting only to get what the government has promised.

There has also been some success on NREGS. Initially only 50 job cards were issued in the village, and, till December 2007, work was allotted only once -- at a pond 12 km away. After the chingari sangathan persistenly pressurised the local administration, work was alloted in the village on December 27, 2007. Around 160 people got work. On the eve of Rahul Gandhis visit, job cards were issued in their names. Subsequently total wage payment of Rs 2 lakhs was also made.

Distribution of largesse

Rahul Gandhis visit prompted the administration to take other desperate measures in Madhoupur.

After a gap of 10 years, electricity supply to the village was restarted (it had been cut on account of non-payment of bills and damage to wires). Handpumps were repaired. Fifty kilos of rice and an equal amount of wheat were stocked in the village for the benefit of 14 extremely poor families that were on the brink of starvation.

Chingari sanghatan members were not impressed by this distribution of largesse. When Rahul Gandhi arrived they shouted slogans like Garib gaon mein rota hai, afsar ghar mein sota hai (While the poor suffer in the village, officials sleep at home).

Rambabu concludes: Our struggle will continue. We will not be bought over by half measures.