Villages are rapidly vanishing—with culture, attitude and more……. This Durgapuja, I was in my village Akalipur. Akalipur is small village located in Nalhati-II Block of Birbhum district in West Bengal having 310 families. The Akalipur village has population nearly 1256 Nos. It has 300 years old Kali temple, established by Maharaj Nandakumar (who was hanged during English period). Big banyan tree stand still silently as a witness of history with flowing river Bramvani, and ancient sculptures are still lying. Along with Brahmins, Hanripar, Domparas are also existing. Most of the villagers are from schedule caste, involved in marginal activity which provides livelihood for less than 6 months and few are engaged in main work, cultivators and agricultural labour. Most of the rich house hold are doing job in the city. Fortunately now, these areas have ATM, TV- electricity& telephone, but no Knowledge of modern scientific farming. They forgot their indigenous technical knowledge. Agro agri/ aqua-culture based industries are not available. Most of the aquatic resource are either underutilized or un utilized. Killing fish in river, utilizing pesticide, is a common phenomena . Farmers are still poor. Interestingly most of the mud house dwellers are less prone to skin disease (during summer time) ,then so-called, cemented model village house dweller. I think this is not proper model of development, There is need for development of small scale agri/aqua related industry sectors in the village for which proper policy needs to be framed—so the villager should remain in the village. It was surprising to know that the most girls of scheduled caste community belonging to low income groups of the village are being married by the boys from Bihar without any dowry, rather, grooms pay hefty amount for getting married to these girls. It was quite interesting but the reason and the fate of these poor girls needs thorough investigation. The social function like Durga Puja, has been totally restructured by replacing the traditional cultural items like Jaatra Bowl, khemta naach etc. with Bollywood culture .Contrary most of the Kolkata puja pandals are now exploring village concept. traditional culture and ancient values.. Indigenous Technical knowledge is a traditional type of innovation acquired by the farmers and villagers that is stored in peoples memories and often expressed through social and cultural activities like stories, songs, folklore, proveds , dances, myths, rituals, community laws, agriculture/ aquaculture practices etc. We all have our root in village, if we , not alone, spare some time in a year in village and share the knowledge of modern aquaculture /agriculture system, concept of climate change with Panchayat and dig out the old ITK knowledge , its blend will slowly but steadily take the developmental scenario to a other/more positive direction. As Knowledge about locally available recourse is becoming basic capital and the trigger of development .
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 08:59:22 +0000
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