Rural Development Tourism –A New Indian Fad
By Moin Qazi
01 January, 2016
Countercurrents.org
There is a new phenomena catching up with the corporate world .It is,rural development tourism—brief visits which may be part of a CSR initiative of corporate houses who plant saplings in a few villages and then spend a fortune to run massive banner lines tomtomming their commitment to Rural India. Roadside tarmac meetings with the more influential people in rural areas, asking the predetermined questions. Car convoys with the entourage zooming through a crowd of villagers awed by the grand peacockry, as often American expatriates are dispatched who require SUVs. Vehicles are a classic expense because donor agencies love to have cars which can dazzle people and draw attention. These projects really require grassroots workers who can stay a few days at the centre and get full insights into the problems and the needs of the villagers.
The aid structure often involves top-down decisions, incredible bureaucracy and paperwork. Most development practitioners will tend to agree with me that aid personnel normally interact little with the project beneficiaries, and are more interested in the documentation of the partner agency than confirming whether it is practicing what it has documented.
Lack of time eliminates the open-ended question; fact checking is impossible, and prudent, hopeful, or otherwise self-serving lies become accepted as truth. Refugees in a rural camp said of government officials that “They come, and they sign the book, and they go”, and “They only talk to the buildings. We have to crane our necks in the caustic heat just to see them, forget about talking with them.” “They slouch in grimy plastic chairs under a nearby tree. Or else they plonk themselves down where they can and start beavering away.”
The visitor sets out late, delayed by last minute business, by subordinates or superiors anxious for decisions, by breakfast delayed at his wife’s eagerness to pack some sandwiches for the husband lest he might have to take a nibble of the unhygienic outside food; there could be a last-minute cable or telephone call from an upcountry colleague. Or delays might come from mechanical or administrative problems with vehicles, or by urban traffic jams. Even if the way is not lost, and there is enough fuel and there are no breakdowns, the programme usually still slips behind schedule. The visitor is ensconced in the luxury of the Land Rover seeking a temporary escape from the rigours of an imposed rural visit through music on headphones.
As the entourage arrives, accompanied with a haversack of sandwiches and soda-water bottles, there is a gala welcome, a tribal dance by girls, women in traditional attire daubing vermilion on the foreheads of the temporary gods, dignitaries warming hands on flickers holy fire, local notables (headmen, chairmen of village committees, village accountants, progressive farmers) waiting obsequiously for a darshan (view) of the dignitaries. Whatever their private feelings, the poor have been told earlier that they should give their children an early bath and dress them in their best clothes. The school teachers have been helping the girls rehearse the welcome dance for the dignitary. All are mouthing slogans that will portray the visitor as a great saviour.
Buntings have been hung; the villagers had kept awake overnight cleaning the entire village. Girls had got up early to deck their front yards with colourful rangoli (ornate patterns drawn with coloured chalk powder). As the dignitary’s car zooms in, you have the village official in his pinstripe suit chasing the car with impeccable etiquette to be the one privileged to open the door and usher the visitor into a new world.
A day before the visit, the local host is provided with an assortment of high-end brand-name accessories: Bombay Dyeing bed sheets, pillows covers, towels, napkins, toiletries and more. A complete set of Italian crockery in the car of the hostesses will precede the visitor’s arrival. They will manage the high tea exercise. The entire consignment of assorted biscuits and choicest dry fruits will be provided. There will be a wide variety of welcome drinks such as coconut milk, Coca-Cola, coffee, tea or milk; at least one should exactly fit the visitors’ tastes.
The traditional turban is strung around the dignitary’s head along with garlands. Speeches are made. School children sing or clap. Photographs are taken. Buildings, machines, construction works, new crops, exotic animals, the clinic, the school, the new road—all are inspected. Some special group—the Self Help Committee or the women’s handicraft group, its members dressed in their best clothes, is seen and spoken to. A small demonstration of manufacture of cottage cheese being done by a girl entrepreneur, a knitting salon by a group of girls and a display of traditional sweetmeats prepared by women are put on display. The guest tastes a few sweetmeats. The elderly woman gets a whole pack nicely wrapped and passes it on to the driver to be delivered to the dignitary on reaching home base. They nervously respond in ways which they hope will bring benefits and avoid penalties. As the day wears on and heats up, the visitor becomes less inquisitive, asks fewer questions and is finally glad, exhausted and bemused, to retire to the rest house, the host official’s residence or back to an urban home or hotel. Before returning, he asks his deputy to write remarks in the Visitors Book using the most fulsome adjectives and he mechanically signs off without bothering to read the remarks. Villagers suggest they have prepared a special meal for the dignitary, putting their culinary skill to the best use. A few offer packs of custard apples and exotic local varieties of vegetables which are mechanically directed to the driver for safekeeping. They are politely told that the dignitary has a restricted diet and prefers to stick to it. After the dignitary’s departure, the village swiftly returns to normal, no longer wearing its special face. These people have no time for piffling sentimentality when there’s living to be done.
Moin Qazi is a well known banker, author and Islamic researcher .He holds doctorates in Economics and English. He was Visiting Fellow at the University of Manchester. He has authored several books on religion, rural finance, culture and handicrafts. He is author of the bestselling book Village Diary of a Development Banker. He is also a recipient of UNESCO World Politics Essay Gold Medal and Rotary International’s Vocational Excellence Award. He is based in Nagpur and can be reached at [email protected]