Gram Sewa Mandal, Gopuri-Paunar 2016
Background
and thought process of Gram Seva Mandal
6th May 1934, Vinoba
Bhave and his path mates founded Gram Seva Mandal near Wardha city. Vinoba had
a good vision of connecting struggles to constructive works in such a way that
the principles for which we struggle become part of lifestyle. Gandhiji gave a
call of ‘Let’s go towards village’, during the freedom struggle, to reach to
the last person. As a result, many youngsters started working in the villages –
with ‘Charkha’ as an effective weapon
of peace. Vinoba connected several such
diligent youngsters along with their families to raise ‘Gram Sewa Mandal’, with the objective of establishing a model
village which is self sufficient in aspects of food and clothing; at the same
time it would produce small machinery for cottage industries to bring about ‘gram swavalamban’ (village self
sustenance) in nearby villages. This work started in Naalwadi village. Soon,
the work increased and more families got associated. With the help of Jamnalal
Bajaj and with the monetary aid raised by Gandhiji, more land was bought near
Wardha- Nagpur road. Some simple but durable, eco-friendly houses were built
for individuals and artisans families under the supervision of Radhakrishna
Bajaj. Some small scale industries, goshala (byre), offices were built
keeping in mind the objective of serving the village community. Gandhiji named
this tiny village as ‘Gopuri’. The buildings standing here are best examples of
vernacular architecture of its own kind. They are the historical heritage from
our freedom struggle.
Even today the work on Agriculture,
Cloth making and Oil extraction is carried keeping alive the basic notion and
thoughts behind the place. Some changes are also happening considering the
contemporary struggles and by connecting them to the constructive works.
Various types of Charkhas and
machinery needed for gramodyog
(cottage industry) are assembled at ‘Saranjaam’
department. Parandham Publication is
working as media to spread ideology of Khadi, Gram Swaraj (village self sustenance) and Vinoba’s thoughts and
ideas. Some individuals are operational
in the nearby villages keeping Gopuri as their base. They are visiting nearby
villages and understanding issues faced by village communities at the same time
discussing with them and connecting the villages with thoughts of gramodyog. In
today’s globalized, centralized world, such small self-sufficient villages are
challenging the giant ascendancy through their peaceful work.
Now, especially since the past one
year, new fellows are dedicatedly working with GSM to advance its work. They
are working day and night with determination and a voluntary attitude. Some
experiments of community life, community kitchen and collective community
economics are going on.
Cotton
to cloth
India is the second largest cotton
producer in the world. Clothing is a basic need of all human beings. Why then,
are the producers – cotton growing farmers – committing suicide by the
thousands, in spite of having so many ‘consumers’? The main cause behind this is the centralized
textile industry. A cotton growing farmer has an option of either selling
cotton to middleman or 5-6 yarn mills. There is a difference of maximum Rs.
200/- per quintal. So, basically mill owners decide price of cotton and the
farmer has no option but to accept it. Mill owners purchase materials from
cheaper sources - be it from the country or from abroad. One mill generally processes
cotton grown in over 300 villages. Cloth made out of surplus goods and
centralized mechanized mills may appear to be cheaper in cost but in this case
neither the mill cloth producer nor consumer is made to pay real cost or
environmental cost of the production.
Cotton growing farmers do not even get production cost, leave alone the
fair price. Now, Bt cotton has added more complexity in this. Artisans (weavers, spinner women) from the
village get unemployed because of mills. Moreover, so many carbon miles are
added in cotton to cloth to consumer journey.
Considering these complexities, if
cotton is converted into cloth at local level village economy will increase,
artisans would get work, villages would prosper as well as ‘cloth self
sufficiency’ (vastra swavalamban)
would be achieved. With this thought, Gopuri has a unit of minimal mechanized
sliver plant, spinning section, weaving centre to convert cotton to cloth
locally.
Sliver
plant
Cotton is brought to sliver plant from GSM’s own farms or from
nearby farms giving preference to organic, indigenous cotton. We are trying to
get more and more indigenous cotton. The sliver plant machines in Gopuri are
functioning since 1920. For the last few years sliver plant was non-functional
because of a lack of capital to purchase raw material. Now, with some efforts
and investment, the sliver plant is being restarted. At present, efforts are
being made on a war footing, to restart all these machines, even by trying to
obtain spare parts for these machines from dysfunctional old mills. This sliver
plant can make slivers out of short staple indigenous cotton. Therefore, it is
essential to run this sliver plant to sustain indigenous cotton varieties.
GSM's pre-spinning unit is quite different. It uses unpressed lint
instead of pressed bales to start with. This itself reduces quite a lot of
energy consumption. Another thing is that it consumes locally produced cotton
thereby reducing the ecological cost of cotton/lint transport.
If machines of this sliver plant can be made
even smaller, such that a group of 10-12 farmers can together make slivers
within the village, that would bring up more decentralisation and less
dependency on larger mills. With this goal, smaller sliver plant machines had
been designed years ago. Now, further research and development is being
undertaken to reduce the size further and to aid decentralization.
Spinning
Department
After
making cotton into sliver, making it into thin but tough yarn requires skill
and hard work. Spinner women in spinning department work hard to make such thin
but tough yarn. Women from Naalwadi and nearby villages spin on 8 spindle ‘Ambar charkha’ at Gopuri spinning
department every day. Here, yarn from count 25 to count 100 is made. To make
such yarn charkha needs to be rotated with a steady & fast speed at the
same time making sure that yarn is not breaking, if yarn breaks it needs to be
linked without losing speed. Coordinating all this is a skillful job.
Along with this, 58 charkhas are
being used at homes in nearby villages. Spinning department gets yarn of count
25, 30, 40 and 50 from those charkhas. Besides, few people from all over the
country send yarn, hand spun on peti-charkha and get woven cloth in return.
Speciality of hand spun yarn is
that, good quality tough yarn can be obtained from short staple indigenous
cotton. Moreover, electricity is not required in this process, which makes the
yarn more eco-friendly.
Weaving
department, Naalwadi
The
Weaving section of GSM is at Naalwadi village
near Gopuri. GSM originally was started here in 1934 and later shifted to
Gopuri as the work expanded. Earlier, skilled weavers from Savli village near
Satara were invited here. Most of them left because weather did not suit them,
but they trained local weavers. Now these local weavers stay at Naalwadi
weaver’s colony and work on wooden handlooms. Entire family joins in the
process of starching yarn, drying it, making bobbins, setting warp threads,
etc. Here, handspun pure khadi yarns are used for both warp & weft and 100%
pure Khadi cloth is woven. The weavers are skilled to weave thick cloth of
count 20 to delicate cloth of count 100. Weavers are also covered under
artisans’ welfare schemes.
Training is conducted for new
aspirant weavers. GSM is also associated with 20 weavers at Kamathi.
Naalwadi had cloth bleaching and
dying unit. Now for past several years it is not functional. There are efforts
going on to restart the unit and use eco-friendly dyes.
Khadi
& Gramodyog selling centers
GSM
has three selling centers in order to reach the hand crafted and eco-friendly
cloth to more and more people. Gopuri has ‘vastragar’
where the main stock is stored. Khadi and gramodyog
products are also sold here. Khadi cloth
sold here is mostly made at GSM. Best quality and textured cloths of variety of
colors and shades can be bought at a reasonable price over here. Ready-made
shirts, dresses, cut pieces, hand stitched bags are also sold. Khadi cloth is
also bought from various sister organisations from all over India, in order to
make more variety available to customers. It is stringently checked whether
those centers make 100% pure Khadi.
There
are two selling centers in Wardha city. ‘Swarajya
Bhandar’ is right in the heart of the market and ‘Khadi Bhandar’ is near the bus stand. GSM has its own ‘Khadi
Bhandar’ in Sevagram Ashram campus and at its premises in Gopuri.
Cloth
is not only a basic need but is also a statement of our lifestyle and
principles we believe in. Purchasing a piece of pure Khadi cloth is promoting
fair returns to weavers, spinners, farmers and also to the soil!
Agriculture and Dairy department
GSM
does farming on around 40 acres of land following ecological and sustainable
farming principles. Most of the seeds used here are indigenous seeds;
completely avoiding Genetically Modified (GM) and growing various types of
crops for conserving food diversity. Crops are planned to fulfill food
requirements and also to produce raw material for cottage industry. Mainly, cotton,
sorghum, wheat, groundnut, tuar, ambadi,
mustard, vegetables, varieties of fodder grasses are grown. Cowdung and sanjeevak- a mixture of cow urine,
jaggery and gram flour is used as a fertilizer. We save seeds for next cropping
season and also for selling to other farmers at a reasonable price.
Farming preparations started here in
GSM, in summer, with contour marking in most of the farm plots to achieve water
conservation. Followed by minimum tilling to conserve the organic carbon in the
soil and then dhoolperani (sowing in
the dust) was done. Soil on these farms is rich black and friable because of
the use of organic matter over several years.
Seeds being straight line, good quality
produce for several generations can be assured. Seed Sovereignty is need of the
hour. New-comer individuals are doing experiments with ‘seed conservation’ at
GSM. Various special character seeds are collected from several places and are
conserved here. They are trying to multiply those seeds thereby bringing in
food diversity. Presently, various breeds of cotton are collected from all over
India. Some special seeds are perennial cotton, brown cotton, etc.
A dairy farm of indigenous cows
compliments the organic farming. Gopuri has a cattle stock of forty odd
indigenous cows, bulls and calves. Cows are tied only while milking otherwise
they are roaming around the open cattle shed or grazing yard freely. Gopuri
farm produces fodder sufficient for the whole year. Oil cake from the Gopuri’s
oil press is also fed to the cows. However, some cow feed needs to be bought
from the market. Efforts are being made to become self sufficient in terms of
cow feed by reducing purchase of this feed from the market, alternatively by
growing right types of protein rich grasses in Gopuri farms itself. An important decision about cow feed was
taken with the consent of Saaldaar
and farm manager last month. Till now, cows were given cotton seed oil-cake,
bought from the market. But market cotton seeds are majorly GM seeds. There is
a risk that the GM component of the seeds may affect the cattle and the quality
of the milk. Therefore we are exploring alternatives to avoid buying of cotton
seed or cotton oil-cake from the market, bearing a risk of reduction in the
quantity of milk for some time. It was decided that purity of milk was more
important than quantity of milk. Cows are taken care like a family member. As a
result, customer queue up to buy the yellowish, thick, creamy milk!
Oil press center (Tel
Ghani)
Oil
is a main ingredient of Indian diet. Though oilseeds are produced in villages,
there is dependence on oil sold in the market. If oil is made at a local level,
it will reach every household in an eco-friendly way and in pure form. Farmers
would get back pure oil cake, of their own seeds for their cattle as added
bonus. With this purpose, GSM runs ‘cold press oil center’ (tel ghani). Oil seeds are brought from GSM farm as well as from
neighbourhood farmers. 100% pure oil is extracted using wooden oil press
mechanism. These days dieticians realize and recommend the importance of oil
extracted on wooden oil press. Here the oil is extracted in small quantity at
local place using locally available seeds without any kind of mixing &
heating, moreover it is slow speed process that allows the oil to drip for
hours and all the hard particles get collected separately, what remains is pure
oil. Thus making it healthy with no properties lost.
Presently, we have groundnut,
coconut, linseed, mustard, sesame and pure organic groundnut oil. GSM needs to
buy oil seeds when they are cheapest in the market so as to provide oil at
lowest possible price to the customers. GSM is trying to raise the capital for
the collective purchase. Customers are requested to make advanced payment for
their annual oil needs. This amount will be used for oil seed purchase.
Customers will be given receipt and oil passbook. By this customers will be
assured of pure oil for the whole year.
Paunar Center
One
of the centers of GSM is at Paunar Ashram on the bank of the Dham river. It is
adjacent to the campus of Brahmavidya
Mandir where Vinoba Bhave spent his last days. This hermitage was started
for individuals who wish to follow renunciation and work for the betterment of
society. Several practitioners from all over the world stayed here. Some of
them did experiments of ‘rishisheti’
- farming only with human muscle power- without bull or machines. Two old
practitioners still stay here.
GSM
runs its ‘publication center’ and ‘Parandham
Publication Center’ in Paunar Ashram with the motive of spreading Vinoba’s
thoughts though printed media. Several books written by Vinoba are printed
here. Year 2020 is Vinoba’s 125th birth year. With this opportunity
there is a proposal of reprinting Vinoba’s literature in a new form,
translating Vinoba’s coherent literature into English, which can guide the
world even today.
Big
portion of the ashram is lying idle in the absence of practitioners for several
years. No one could pay attention to the farm. A newly associated family has
joined along with one saaldaar family
from this year in order to keep the place alive, to keep the farming- dairy
experiments running, and give company to those two old practitioners. Now,
house repair is going on for these new members to stay. While this repair work
is undergoing, many old precious books, and personal items of old practitioners
are found.
Last month, ‘Palavi’ organization working with HIV affected children sent
around 15 adolescent boys and girls for a month long experience in the ashram.
They experienced a training of learning values through menial labor. Their day
started with Morning Prayer, followed by cleaning the campus, cooking, working
in the farm for the whole day and the day ended with the stories of Vinoba as
narrated by old practitioners from the Ashram.
After reading this, we hope that
this inspires you to visit Gopuri, share your skills & knowledge and/or if
possible give monetary contribution so that it helps the artisans and
individuals to continue their good work. One of the work is to bring awareness
through ‘Cloth literacy’, ‘Food literacy’ and ‘Farming literacy’ among people.
We hope that our genuine effort will be well received.
Check short video on Gram Sewa Mandal in hindi
Contact: Gram Sewa Mandal, Gopuri, Wardha – 442001
