Dial C for Change: Alternative Narrative on Transformation

Organizing the poor into saving groups, enhancing the productive potential of natural resources and creating a cluster of diverse production centres have been the broad framework for transformation in the lives of the poor in Gumla district

F or many, the poor are considered passive recipients of change—the idea being to pull them out of poverty by creating exogenous opportunities that they can cling on to. Whereas the poor don’t resist the plans made for them, they often have very little faith that the plans will work, or work as well as claimed. As a consequence, they not only underestimate the claims that such plans make but also procrastinate before becoming involved with them. Rightly so, as such plans rarely transform their lives. Because context-specific change has not been suitably defined, age-old misfortunes have yet to be transformed. The path to future prosperity has yet to be paved.

For over six decades, the state-driven processes of rural emancipation have attempted to bring about development and, yet, the number of poor has only multiplied and poverty in its diverse manifestations has deepened. The trouble is that the state continues to persist with its distinct ways and the schemes rolled out to transform the lives of poor people, with the intent of development, remain trapped within the convenience of time, scope, space and even policy. However, there is a difference in Gumla, Jharkhand, a rain-fed district that is predominantly tribal, where non-state actors have partnered with the state, to create ‘nudges’ tailored to suit local ecological conditions. The undulating terrain, the dusty landscapes and the dilapidated households have, for once, been witness to actual change. The economic success is evident but the crux of the story lies in the manner in which the convergence between the state and the non-state, the formal and informal institutions, and business and civil society has been engineered to script an ‘alternative narrative’ of social transformation.