Before: benefits appropriated by the wealthy and powerful
Reflect - recognising injustice and alienation
Planning and acting for justice
Bureaucratic stagnation - drastic local action
Sharing and inspiring others

The following is a brief case study of one Reflect Circle in Putulamahula Village of Khaprakhol Block that depicts how the Reflect Circle, locally called as Yojana Kendra, has initiated processes through organizing poor and marginalized women for the assertion of their basic rights. This is just one among the several such success stories emerging in many places through Reflect Circles with strategic operationalisation of the Micro Level Plans (MLPs).

Before - benefits appropriated by the wealthy and powerful: The Government of India has a scheme for the economically poorest people called Below Poverty Line (BPL). This scheme is exclusively meant for the poorest sections of the population and government provides many subsidies and other benefits under social security and many other government schemes to the people in the BPL list. In Putulamahula village prior to the initiation of the MLP process, the BPL list included the upper caste, economically well-off and the elite and influential sections of the village, completely ignoring the real poorest and marginalized sections.

The elite and influential sections along with the economically well off people in the village used their immediate and maximum access to information about different government policies and programs to register their names in the BPL list, either through influencing, putting pressure or bribing, and had been ad infinitum extracting benefits from this scheme. Meanwhile the poorest and marginalized sections were deliberately deprived of information about schemes by the local level government officials and even the local elected representatives to the Panchayati Raj institutions. The prevalence of large scale illiteracy and ignorance among the poorest and marginalized sections, whose priority had been to arrange two square meals a day to feed their families, meant they had no information about the BPL scheme, its provisions and the people of the village who had been availing the benefits.

information on schemes for starving people in Bolangir villages:
only for the literate?

Reflect - recognising injustice and alienation: Once the Participatory Micro Level Planning (MLP) was in place in Putulamahula village in shapes of Social Map, Resource Map and well being analysis, the poorest and marginalized section came to know about the villagers who were economically well off, belonged to upper caste and elite sections, being credited with maximum resources under their control.

The MLP, then, was followed by comprehensive analytical discussions in the Reflect Circles among the Reflect Participants. The circle facilitator, while discussing various government schemes meant exclusively for the poorest sections of the population, also discussed the BPL scheme. And from there the Reflect Participants came to know how they had been kept deprived of access to the government scheme meant for them while the well off sections in the village had been taking benefits from that particular scheme.

Then, it became the major issue for the Reflect Participants. They were continuously discussing their deprivation and the process of their alienation that had been strategically devised by a racket encompassing the local level Government officials, local elected peoples' representatives and the elite and economically well off sections of the village so as to cater to their vested interests smoothly and effectively.

Planning and acting for justice: The discussions, in the Reflect Circle, were then followed by a plan to assert their right to get enlisted under BPL. The Reflect Participants first of all put the matter in the Palli-Sabha (Hamlet level People's Assembly and decision making body). However, considering the delaying process in Gram-Sabha for taking up this issue, they formulated a different strategy.

the poorest women of Putulamahula village went to the District Headquarters of Bolangir and participated in a district rally to pressurize the administration on the BPL identification issue. They met the District Collector to pledge their demand for the rectification of the BPL list (see picture below). They even pleaded before the District Collector-cum-Magistrate to conduct an enquiry on how the poorest of the village were left out from the BPL list and the economically well off were incorporated.

The District Collector immediately directed the local Block Development Officer to look into the matter. But as usual in a bureaucratic practice particularly at the lower ladders of the bureaucracy in a state like Orissa, the 'Looking into matters' either consumes lot of time or is deliberately disregarded simply as a piece of grievance by the people that need not be paid any heed to. Days passed by and nothing happened. The people's grievance was put in one of the files among the hundred of bunches being wrapped with the red clothes and rest on the racks of the office.

Bureaucratic stagnation - drastic local action: The Reflect Participants, not having received any response to their grievance for a prolonged period, again sat together and started discussing the matter. Since the matter was not taken care of either by the District Collector nor the Block Development Officer and while no initiative was taken by the block administration for the rectification of the BPL list, the Reflect Participants decided their future course of action.

One day the entire poor families of the village went to the Block Office and insisted the Block Development Officer rectify the BPL list of the village, incorporate the real poor people in the list and issue the BPL cards on the same day. While BDO tried to ignore their demand, the people protested and warned that if the things are not sorted out on the same day they would not leave the Block Office and would not go back to their village. Even then the BDO did not pay any attention to their demand.

Then the people lost their patience, because in one hand they had sacrificed their day's wages and on the other hand the non-receptive and complete ignoring attitude of the BDO had raged the demonstrating villagers and in retaliation they locked the BDO and all other officials in their office. All the villagers sat on 'Dharna', or sit-in, blocking the front main entrance to the Block Office and stopping anyone coming in or leaving. Immediately, the Police had to come and intervene.

The message passed on to the District Collector and the Collector issued instructions for taking immediate action. Accordingly, the BDO without having any options left for him took the initiative and on the same day the BPL list was rectified. The enlisted names of the well off families were deleted from the list and the real poor families were incorporated. On the same day itself the BPL cards were issued to the newly enlisted members in the BPL list.

Sharing and inspiring others: This has become a pathfinder for many other Reflect Circles in the District. And actions have been incessantly initiated by the Reflect Participants taking on issues with the local administration not only in case of BPL scheme but also for so many other issues that have been identified through the MLP process.