Exploring Mendha Lekha: An Ideal Village
Stepping out of the position of being a passive receiver of state largesse, a tiny village in Maharashtra has found its power, over the last two decades, in a collective decisionmaking process that takes cognisance of the needs and capabilities of each of its people, paving the way for enhanced confidence to interact with the government, agencies and the outside world, and creating living conditions and environment worth emulating
M endha Lekha is among the celebrated villages of India, along with other wellknown villages such as Hivre Bazaar and Ralegan Siddhi. Hivre Bazaar has undergone a remarkable transformation from being a drought-affected gram panchayat to a village that has adopted a three-crop farming system. This shift has made every family in the area a lakhpati. The credit for this transformation goes largely to the leadership of the young and educated village sarpanch, Popatrao Pawar. Ralegan Siddhi, in Ahmadnagar district of Maharashtra, is known for the transformation that took place because of the ridge-to-valley watershed work, as well some of the remarkable decisions of the gram sabha, under the leadership of Anna Hazare.
Similarly, among its other achievements, Mendha Lekha is known for being the first village in India to have been allotted Community Forest Rights on 1800 ha of its land. It is also quite uniquely famous for the functioning of its gram sabha and the negotiations the community has conducted with the government over the last three decades.
At PRADAN, our image of an ‘ideal’ village is one that has certain characteristics, which includes a significant change in the livelihood scenario, the active preparation and implementation of Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) plans in the village, and one where women are members of a vibrant collective—either of a producer institution or of an SHG Federation. It is a place where residents have negotiated strongly with the government to establish basic amenities in their village, have acted against the atrocities they face, have played a pivotal role in governance of their village, etc. Wanting to see one such ‘ideal’ village in the country, I visited Mendha Lekha, in Lekha panchayat, Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra.