SEARCH and Mendha Lekha

After reading, discussing and hearing so much about a village, you definitely want to visit it. Today, we had an opportunity to do just that. But before we went to Medha Lekha, we visited SEARCH (Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health), which was founded by Abhay and Rani Bang in 1985. Both of them have worked extensively with tribals and have ensured that they feel comfortable in modern hospitals. They created a new type of hospital, which made the tribals feel at home. They firmly believe in the principal, “Think Globally, Act Locally” and it reflects in the work they done till date. We were also given a tour of the Tribal museum, this NGO is trying to set up.


Some pictures from the museum

Mendha Lekha

Before, I tell you about the village; let’s have a look at a few facts Devaji Tofa told us.

Menda Lekha has 105 families,100 hectares for farming and 1800 hectares of forest

809 villages have village rights in Maharashtra and the first district, which was granted the rights is Gadchiroli.

No government schemes are used in Mendha Lekha

Mendha Lekha has managed to earn a revenue of Rs. 1 crore by selling bamboo.

Now let’s have a look at what Devaji Tofa has to say on various issues:

On Independence

He said that there was no concept of slavery or freedom amongst the tribals because their villages were self sufficient. “Desh swatantra hua par gaon ghulam ban gaya”.  Self determination was taken away from the tribals, who were called pichde huye log or primitive people.

On how they take decisions in Mendha Lekha

He says that they strive to get sarv sehmati but everybody gets a chance to dissent. A decision is not taken till each and every one in the village has agreed to it. They believe in concept of “Vyaktigat sawal, par samuhik jawab”

On bureaucracy

He says, “Sarkari karamchari ki jaan kagaz me atki huyi hain aur adivasi ki jungle mein”

He told us about two anecdotes

Once a government engineer had visited their village and had refused to repair an agricultural machine claiming that it would take thousands of rupees. When he was about to leave, Devajo Tofa asked him to right down his name in the register (every visitor in Mendha Lekha has to write his or her name and sign). The engineer saw names of a lot of politicians and famous people and asked Tofaji, whether all of them had visited the village to which Devaji Tofa replied yes. Next day, the same engineer came and repaired the machine for Rs. 300.

In another instance, the District Collector, unhappy with the slogan “Dilli Bambai hamari sarkar, hamare gaon mein ham hi sarkar” called Devaji Tofa and others to his office. After shouting at them for an hour and calling them illiterate, brainwashed fools, the Collector calmed down and Devaji took this opportunity to explain the philosophy to him. The Collector, then, apologized profusely to Devaji Tofa and others and they returned to the village.

On why Mendha Lekha’s success is proving difficult to replicate

He says, the government sends buses and buses of people to Mendha Lekha every day and the people, too explain the concept to the visitors. Unfortunately, many of them just come to the village in order to get free food and money from the government and hardly carry back the philosophy to their villages. Also, getting everyone in the village to agree to something is difficult and that is why; no one really has managed to replicate their success.