Attending a day-long function in Sambalpur last Tuesday was a revelation for this columnist. The occasion was the felicitation of 50 ‘Change Agents’ unearthed by volunteers of ‘Yes We Can’, a unique organization that aims to find 1000 such Change Agents over the next few years (it has already identified 200 and felicitated 150 of them).
It made this columnist realize how little mainstream media cares about people who are doing wonderful work at the grassroots level without ever soliciting or expecting attention, unlike many of our city based NGOs, civil society organsiations (CSOs) and sundry other do-gooders who thrive – even survive – on media spotlight. It also made him feel personally guilty as a media person with over three decades of work behind because he had never heard or read about several of these 50 change agents.
Meet Dharmananda Guntha, a Kandha Paraja tribal from Koraput district. Having realized very early the devastating effects of deforestation on the lives and livelihood of people, this man from Sariaput in Nandapur block started a small initiative by persuading the people of his village to start protecting the local forest in the early 1980s. Today, the small sapling planted by him nearly four decades ago has grown into a massive tree with people in 951 villages protecting over 30, 000 hectares of forests in the area under the banner of a district level federation of forest dependent people. At 70, Guntha is not exactly a spring chicken. But his clarion call of ‘Dangar Amaara Maa’ continues to reverberate through the hills and forests of Koraput.
Disturbed by the stranglehold of the money lenders on the local tribals and the rampant corruption in the delivery of welfare schemes, Era Padiami from a remote village in Malkangiri district assembled like-minded youth from his area and started working to end the twin evils that kept the local tribals, mostly illiterate, in a vice-like grip. He and his colleagues have freed over 700 bonded labourers from the clutches of money lenders and ensured land pattas for 50 families in his panchayat. They are now working overtime to make sure everyone in the area has a voter card, Aadhar card, ration card and a bank account and get the benefits due to them under various governments schemes without having to pay the customary ‘cut’ to the officials.
Ramesh Chandra Biswal, a PhD from Kharagpur IIT, was in the US, the ultimate land of opportunities for every educated Indian youth, working as a post-doctoral scientist in Clemsan University. But he chucked it up all and returned to his native village in Nayagarh district with a resolve to do something for farmers after reading about a series of cases of farmer suicide in his home state in 2015. It did not take him long to realize that at the root of the farmers’ misery was the presence of a whole chain of middlemen, who not only usurp the bulk of the farmer’s rightful dues but also force the consumers to pay much more than they should in their effort to earn undue profits. The outcome was Village Mart Pvt. Ltd, a company Ramesh set up with his savings and contributions from some of his US based friend to buy stuff directly from the farmers at a highly remunerative price and then selling them directly to the consumers at a price they can afford.
These are but three of the people who are fiercely motivated by a desire to usher in change in their areas and are going about their work without any fuss. They come as a breath of fresh air in an environment contaminated by negativity all around.
It is about time the media turned its gaze away from the shenanigans of politicians and depressing news about rape, murder and worse - at least momentarily - to focus on such people, who are selflessly working for change at the grassroots level. Not only will it encourage, motivate and inspire more people to start thinking about contributing positively to society; it will also reassure the consumers of news that all is not lost and there is still hope left, after all.