PM’s Adopted ‘Adarsh Villages’ in Varanasi Race Against Deadlines

Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj

Prime Minister Narendra Modi adopted Nagepur and Jayapur villages in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh to transform them into ‘adarsh’ or ‘model’ villages. So The Quint spoke to the locals to see if their villages had actually improved.

Both villages were adopted under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana launched in October 2014. The scheme vows holistic development, with a focus on physical and institutional infrastructure. The scheme also calls for integrated development across the sectors of agriculture, health, education, sanitation, environment and livelihood. Basically, life was meant to have gotten easier with access to basic amenities in the chosen villages.

Now, let’s see if that has happened.

Jayapur was adopted a month after the scheme was launched in November 2014 with a 2016 deadline by which it was to attain ‘model village’ status. Nagepur village, which was was adopted in March 2016, was to transform by 2019.

There is no doubt that visible progress has been made in both villages. In terms of infrastructural development, this has meant the establishment of banks, the laying down of pipes by Jal Nigam, and new post offices and aanganwadis.

Residents of both villages, however, had grievances. While they are happy that water pipes are being laid, they also worry about how the set-up will work without a drainage system in place.

Rekha Devi, who teaches at the aanganwadi in Jayapur village, told The Quint:

Once the water pipes begin to work, where will all the excess water drain out to? These are legitimate concerns.

Rekha Devi

Aside from the lack of draining system, Rekha’s biggest concern is the way in which the newly-constructed aanganwadi is being treated.

While the aanganwadi is in use with a few children inside, glass panes lie shattered in the corners of the room.

We are all of a lower community, Schedule Caste primarily. Here, there are Singh caste and others who are jealous that we have all these benefits and educate our kids here. There is no one to keep check and windows are arbitrarily broken.

Rekha Devi

In the same compound as the beleaguered aanganwadi, there is a girls’ school. But instead of being used for educating girls, the big classrooms are used by around 80 women, who make Khadi cloth in the empty space there instead.

Neither village has a co-ed school post class 5 and neither has a hospital yet either.

They said the hospital will be constructed, but the work has not even begun. Everyone goes to a government hospital five kilometers away from here.

Nagepur Resident

The main concern for Nagepur residents came to the fore when The Quint met Poonam – employment.

Poonam has 4 children, and with a shy smile, asks us to guess her age by looking at her. The biggest problem for her is that there aren’t enough jobs.

Four women came in 2016 and 2017 and took our names, villages, aadhaar numbers and mobile numbers. They said they would give us work making pickles or papads or give us sewing machines. What will women do if we’re not given work? Men are forced to go to the city to make Rs 250-300 a day since there’s no work here.

Poonam

The village head, Paras Natraj, said there was a room near the bank where women were taught work like sewing and making papads. While the women The Quint spoke to didn't seem to be aware of these classes, Natraj shrugged off responsibility, saying it wasn't his up to him to ensure that they attended. However, he did say that there was still need of a school post Class 5, a hospital and a drainage system.

Despite visible progress in terms of infrastructural development – in the form of banks, post offices, water pipes and aanganwadis – both Nagepur and Jayapur have many more boxes to tick before they can rightfully claim the 'adarsh village’ tags – more so for Jayapur, which is well past its 2016 deadline.