It is a very difficult task to report on the changes which happened over the last 10 years throughout India, even if one focusses particularly on this region. From the many trips around the area I made own observations on newer developments and by asking the many questions that arose during the last three months I got some ideas of what must have changed and how it must have been some years ago. One thing which is striking are the roads. Very new highways connect Indore to its neighbouring cities and even out here the roads are good. Only about four years ago the way from Indore to Kasravad lead over a narrow, winding and dangerous road over the mountain range (not a high one, but still the slopes are steep) whereas now the highway is wide and the trucks can easily creep up the hills. So according to all the people I've asked, travelling from city to city became much much easier and faster. Nowadays very comfortable nightbuses are available for almost every route and public transport in general is very convenient, which I can say from my own very positive experiences. The people are extremely helpful and look after women (especially white women). The guy who collects the fare makes sure one is on the right bus, makes even sure one gets the best seats and many times people even want to offer you food. In the nightbuses too, the drivers would stop any time to make sure one could pee, though these stops were not only unproblematic. Still, they made us feel safe and comfortable. During daytime, more and more even Indian women travel alone for long distances. Slowly and in tiny steps I believe that women start to emancipate also on the countryside.
In the research office I worked in a team of only men. In our trial fields however, women workers are employed (as many as men). The reason for this is the fact, that most of these young women will get married sooner or later and leave their job. Therefore the effort to instruct a young woman to do work in the office and get involved into the research activities is not worth it. I asked Lokendra from my team about the equality of opportunities for women and men. He said that nowadays girls have equal chances to get education and parents don't make a difference. But still, girls and women face many of difficulties. If they are able to work, even the journey from home to work and back home again in the evening is a challenge. Here, I never see a women ride a motorbike alone or with her children. In the cities, this is becoming a common thing. But out here, women only sit at the back of a motorbike with their husband or male relative. So the female workers always need to arrange a way of transportation and usually don't travel alone. Only a few days ago I captured them on a photo when they took the chance to get a ride home on a tractor which was passing.
Dharmendra, another guy from the research team, pointed out that mobile phones were so much more expensive ten years ago and now, only one decade later almost everyone or at least every family owns one. Even in the tribal villages there are mobile phones.
Of course, also motorbikes were rare ten years ago. The villages where therefore also not well accessible and villagers could not easily reach other places but mainly had to walk. Lokendra told me, that they did not have a two wheeler when he was a child but they used to have a horse. Horses were important in order to go and check and watch over the fields at night time. But nowadays one cannot see many horses around.
And of course, farming became much more intensive. Many farmers now have irrigation facilities which made it possible to increase the yields enormously. So these farmers earn more and can also afford motorbikes, mobile phones and TVs.
Hence, many things became much easier for the majority of people around this area. But when it comes to women, it is a long way to go!
I think that in the next ten years rural India will develop extremely fast. Agriculture will further intensify and labour will be replaced by machines. This trend can already be witnessed now and labour is becoming much more expensive. I guess that the farming sector will shrink, small farmers might not be able to survive and young people will leave the villages for the cities. More people will have cars, even out here. But hopefully the women will be on the winner side. And hopefully the very precious knowledge about traditional farming and seed sovereignty will not be lost completely thanks to a trend towards sustainable development and the conservation of knowledge.
