The Hindu Business Line : Kutch revisited: Road to rebuilding begins, or ends, with distance

MAURVANDH village near Khavda, situated in a vast nothingness of bare space, is 80 km from Bhuj. Its 30 Muslim families with some 30 children have no school, no primary healthcare centre, no water, road, electricity or ration shop. Their women, hiding their faces behind the pallus of their sarees, live packed and sealed in mud homes, never straying even to the next village. Their men work for 15 days, trudging to Bhuj or Rajkot and come back with their earnings to spend a month. When they run out of cash they start the voyage back.

But on January 26, this village for the first time will celebrate Republic Day with the help of the Maldhari Rural Action Group (Marag), an NGO based in Bhuj.

The men walk some 5 km to Dinora Mota or Dinora Chhota village to buy rations. For any Government-related work, it is either Khavda or Bhuj. Pregnant women have to be taken in horse or donkey carts to Khavda, and then in buses to Bhuj if they turn serious. Mir Mohammad, who works as a teacher with Marag said they generally eat bajra wheat with mirchi. Vegetables and rice are meant only for bada dins or festivals.

As our car turned off the sand tracks at Khavda and entered Dinora Mota, we were welcomed by a few surprised villagers, donning well-cared for black beards.

Dasrathbhai of Marag, who came along with us from Bhuj, took us to a Government school where around 30 girls and boys were making kites. One classroom lay in shambles while seven classes were being held in turns in another room. Rashid Jhakrubhai, the teacher, talked to us about the Government's plans to build a six-room school over the coming months.

On the kites the kids, dressed more with dirt and sand than clothes, were scribbling messages in Gujarati with coloured pencils: saaf rahiye, swasth rahiye; ek do, beedi, tambakoo phek do; macchar hatao, malaria bhagav. Hanifa Beebi in Class one did not grasp it all and was enjoying splashing colour over her white paper kite.

Dasrathbhai sent for Mir Mohammad, who came in a scooter. His general knowledge is strong and he helps the seniors and juniors in the villages with the latest news. He plans to sit for the Class 12 exams and become a journalist (God bless him).

It was Mir who led us to Maurvandh village to meet the men in a tiled room over cups of tea. Marag has started a centre for children to learn the basics.

"It's not a proper school. There are no classes," Dasrathbhai admitted.

When we stepped into the room the kids folded their hands in a namaskar but could not go ahead as they knew neither Hindi nor Gujarati. "In this area they speak Kutchi or Sindhi-Kutchi," informed Mir, and Dasrathbhai added that the Gujarati books had to be translated into Kutchi or Sindhi-Kutchi to help them.

There are 80 villages scattered towards the Sir Creek on the India-Pakistan border, which is 70 km away. Most of the villages are accessible but the residents of some have not even heard of Gandhi or Nehru. "Only a cycle can enter the villages like Simli. After the quake when some relief agencies distributed Lux and Colgate, the public did not know what to do with it," claimed Mir Mohammad.

On the way back, we halted at Ludia village to have a glimpse of the much-acclaimed Gandhi Gram. Last March, Viren Joshi of Gandhi Ashram was getting the villagers who had lost their homes to build bhoongas. Gandhi Ashram supplied the raw materials free for the village folk to put up bhoongas. Today, there are 57 of them neatly placed in Ludia village, with a school (Class one to seven) and toilet facilities.

Achar Maya, who had dressed up the interiors of his bhoonga with embroidered cloth and has a black-and-white TV on a table, is a satisfied human being. His wife is into handicrafts and their two kids look healthy.

One is not sure if the Gandhi Ashram is going ahead with its programmes detailed on a display board at the entrance of Ludia. It has become the showpiece of Kutch's rehabilitation plans for dignitaries to pay a visit.

And Ludia is just about 10 km away from Maurvandh.

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Kutch revisited: Road to rebuilding begins, or ends, with distance