IU Impact: On the Road to Change
Channel: VideoVolunteers
Date: 2014-01-13

VV-PACS Community Correspondent Shabanam has gone from strength to strength as she takes on infrastructural issues faced by different communities in Varanasi District in the Northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Through her latest efforts, employing her wit and charm, she won over the community in Bhavani Village and ensured that the road they had wanted for nearly a decade got constructed. The below is a tame version of the account that Shabnam animatedly narrated over a phone call. 

"I started working on this project in August 2013. I remember it had rained a lot that day. I was sitting at the Village head's house in Bhavani Village to get some paper work done for myself. Bhavani is where my mother's family lives. 

In the middle of a conversation with Bhola Devi, the village head, I heard a child being scolded for playing on the road. I wondered what the big fuss was about so later when I saw the child I asked him why his mother was so upset.

'I fell and broke my hand sometime ago while playing here that's why mummy gets scared', admitted Ashutosh. 

The village road at the point in time had turned to sludge because of the incessant rain. When I asked around a few people agreed that it was a nuisance. Though an internal road, this was the one that women used to take their cattle grazing; it is the only way to get to the market outside the village; to get to jobs etc. I started wondering why it wasn't being repaired. 

When I returned a few days later to get some interviews for the video I planned to make, it started becoming evident that I had ruffled some feathers. The previous village head, who had served three terms (15 years), had failed to take action to repair the crumbling road. The current head hadn't done much either. Both camps now feared their reputations being tarnished. 

My initial attempts to film went nowhere. Most people refused to talk to me. Some were certain that I was going to achieve nothing. Some did want to talk; they'd wring their hands in frustration, narrating their travails on the road but freeze up in front of the camera. I honestly wanted to stop filming and drop the issue right there. Was it worth it having to listen to people say stupid things about you when all you were doing was help them? 

I decided that it was. There were politics at play and though I wasn't involved, it was easy to understand that keeping me quiet would help maintain a status quo. Though how the construction of a road was a bad thing, I could not understand. The first thing I did was to get the village head, Bhola Devi on board.

Being a female village head is a difficult job. Most have never done anything apart from cook, clean and produce babies for their husbands. Bhola Devi's husband does run a lot of the village's affairs but she is slowly coming out of that shadow. I was able to see that while working with her.

She wasn't comfortable with being interviewed nor was she comfortable with her shortcomings becoming public knowledge. I explained that it was OK and that there was still time to change things around. Technically, the village head is the one in charge of carrying out work like constructing roads and fixing water connections. I offered to put her get in touch with the Member of Legislative Assembly, Mr T. Ram to get the work finished.

I went around and interviewed the few people who were willing. On every visit to the village, it was the children that greeted me with most enthusiasm. Their endless questions about what I would do with their interviews and the photos I took of them encouraged me to carry on with the work. 

Read the full story here: http://www.videovolunteers.org/iu-impact-road-change/