THE SETTING

Muzaffarabad, the capital city of Azad Kashmir (AJK) is situated at the juncture of two rivers, the Neelum and the Jhelum demarcating Neelum and Jhelum valleys respectively. These valleys, in their own melodiousness, rather sing for their scenic beauty and natural inhabitation. These beautiful valleys, with terraced landscape, steep slopes, and high mountains are blessed with lush green forests. The mountains are studded with natural and precious mineral resources. The State of AJK is situated at the north-eastern frontier of Pakistan, sharing its borders with India and China, and has an informal affiliate status with Pakistan. Consisting of some of the most rugged terrain, AJK has five administrative districts, running through its length (33-35 Aº) and breadth (73-75 Lº), of which Muzaffarabad occupies the northern tip and covers almost 30% of the Sate area.

The forest and mineral resources represent about 25% of the total income of the State. The potential is much higher. However, degradation of natural resources is also pervasive. The day-to-day life of its inhabitants can be measured from the per capita income of about US$220 which is almost half as that of Pakistan. Muzaffarabad district being a remoter place with harsher climate has even less to offer to its inhabitants: their per capita income is in the range of 40-60% of the State per capita. Major part of the population depends upon agriculture and livestock, although a few people send remittances from Pakistan and abroad, to augment their meager farm income.

Komi and Kot are two small communities situated at about an hour’s drive from Muzaffarabad city on the mountain heights of the left bank of Jhelum river before it joins Neelum river. Within 15 -20 kilometers of aerial distance, the Komi-Kot plateau gains abrupt height from Muzaffarbad’s 700 meters to some 1,500 meters. The windings access road with treacherous sharp turnings, studded with a few sites of perpetual land slides, offers panoramic scenery to the traveler. But such are the difficult conditions in which our community members reside. Komi-Kot is the site of where our case study begins.

THE INITIAL SITUATION

Realizing the disdainful state of affairs and acting on the principle "better late than never", the Government of AJK, with assistance from the World Bank, launched a development project some four years ago. The project, known as Northern Resources Management Project (NRMP), recognized for the first time the critical role of participation of communities in the development process. The project aims at making optimal use of public services by involving communities proactively. There were institutional weakness in the line agencies, such as Departments of Planning and Development, Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, and within them, Units such as, Land Use Planning, Policy Planning and Implementation, Rural Roads, etc. A strategy was carved out to try to balance the demand and supply of public sector services in the agricultural and allied disciplines. A top down set up of such services which face severe budgetary shortfalls in the operations and maintenance had already eroded users confidence. Therefore, supply of these services already dwindled to almost naught. Women, as equally useful members in the communities, were more often forgotten as recipients of such services. Consequently, with mismanagement of natural resource of this region abound, optimal use of these resources for better living remained only an allusive dream.

A Women in Development (WID) section, perceived to work through the Departments of Agriculture (DOA), Animal Husbandry (DOAH), and Forestry, was seen as a vehicle to bridge the gap between the public services and private users of lesser fortunate gender. While it took a while for the WID program to stand on its feet, it is now headed by a Coordinator (based at Muzaffarabad) and supported by one Lady Field Supervisor (LFS) and two Field Agents (FAs) at the district level. In order to provide incentive to the rural women before they really comprehend the long-term serious issues of natural resource management, WID undertakes a range of activities, varying from social organization of the women folk to the identification of development interventions. The focus is always on their participation in micro-schemes or household type income generating projects such as establishing kitchen gardens, poultry ventures, fish ponds, and dairy production. Complementary activities, which augment their family income and reduce pressure on natural resources (fuelwood, soil erosion, loss of soil organic matter), such as handicrafts skills, improvement in health and child care, etc. also receive priority from the WID staff. Once confidence of a community is obtained, natural resource management agenda follows.

Initially, WID staff conducted a full survey of all districts, including District Muzaffarabad, through rapid rural appraisal (RRA) type techniques in two months time. In Muzaffarabad district, several sites were selected (including Komi-Kot, Saran, Majhoi, Ghal and Dhanni Bakslam) which had the potential for establishing village level forum for women. Consequently, Women Development Committees (WDC) were organized. The WDC at village Komi-Kot was imparted training in different fields, such as cutting & stitching of dresses, embroidery, cloth dying, food preservation, vegetable cultivation, forest nursery raising, etc. Encouraged by the initial interest shown by the WDC members in absorbing such training, and putting them to productive use, the WID LFS/FAs broached the idea of a little bigger micro-project at one of the regular WDC meetings. Because of the confidence gained with the community, some members started appreciating future benefits which collective efforts can bring while utilizing common property rights for the good of a group within the community.

During the RRA survey, it was noticed that the water resource in the area of Komi-Kot is abundant. Long ago, people of this area used to cultivate rice. The crop not only satisfied the needs of the farmers but the surplus was sold. However, with the passage of time the area got barren due to poor natural resource management practices. WID staff studied the area with a view to employing modern techniques, and ways and means which would involve lesser labor and funds but will bring more profits to the communities alongwith protecting their natural resources. Keeping in view the water resource availability at Komi-Kot, it was decided to consult the Fisheries Department for the WID staff to be sensitized with the fresh water aquaculture practices.

The WID section, through monthly meetings, decided to help the Komi-Kot WDC in establishing fish ponds with technical assistance from the Fisheries Department because WDC members were quite determined to undertake this project for realizing the communal benefits. The Fisheries Department welcomed the idea and appeared on the site. A three day training workshop on aquaculture was held and an educational visit to a fish farm for the participants was arranged as well. A considerable number of rural women enthusiastically participated in the training. They showed keen interest and asked different questions, especially on survival rates, feeding practices, and feed for the fish. Such questions were answered to the entire satisfaction of the participants. They were really astonished when told that the fish would feed on grass, and they can extract food from the animal dung which was easily available in the twin villages of Komi and Kot.

Thus the president of WDC at Komi-Kot showed a keen interest in establishing fish ponds. The WID staff mediated the services of a fisheries expert who provided full technical know-how to the community. Ultimately, the WDC decided to spare 2 kanals of land area (1/4th of an acre) to establish fish ponds. Certain reservations also crept in at the same time because no one in the area had tried such a venture before. The WDC president expressed her worries about the wastage of the 2 kanal land. When inquired about the earning from this land by cultivating other crops like maize and rice, she confessed that the earnings were no more than Rs 7,000 in a year ($150/annum). But she chuckled when told, by fisheries experts, that instead she can earn about Rs 30,000 per annum by establishing fish ponds. The WDC president was now more than satisfied. So the site was selected for the ponds keeping in view both the natural resources (soil and water) and full participation of the WDC members..

Now the problem of digging the ponds erupted as how to go about. It was decided to dig the ponds with the help of a Shovel Dozer . Then the WDC president jotted down a resolution which was duly signed by every member of the WDC.      On July 21, 1996, WID section received a resolution duly signed by the community members giving their full consent in favor of the idea. WID staff, thus doing considerable spade work for making the idea work, arranged a visit of the senior officials of NRMP, DOA, and Fisheries Department to Komi-Kot. These officials not only expressed their satisfaction but, in fact, the Secretary of Agriculture announced a prize of Rs 1,000 for the WDC to mark his satisfaction. He promised to provide a dozer and bucket-shovel for digging the ponds. DOA deputized an agricultural engineer to work on the feasibility of reaching the dozer at the site. The whole work was to be done in 35 hours dozer time. But due to unforeseen delays, the dozer could not be managed in time. This created some anxiety to the President of the WDC.

One fine morning, she reported to the WID staff that people of Komi-Kot were worried, and suspicious, due to this delay despite her assurances that the task would be completed eventually. So after a continuous struggle of about three months, the dozer, at last, safely reached Komi-Kot. Of course with one problem creeping up after another. The entire village population gathered around the dozer with a meaningful shines in their eyes. The digging of the two ponds and the related work was completed in three days time. Besides the preparation of ponds, the feed supply for the fish was also arranged. At last, on May 6,1997, fingerlings were put in the ponds. In six months time, first-ever fish harvest for the residents of Komi and Kot communities was ready for sale. Tributes were paid to the rural women of Komi-Kot who came up with the idea of fish ponds. Now where there were barren pieces of land, two twin "Fish Ponds" stand glittering in gold at an altitude of about 1,500 meters. The WDC members operate and manage these ponds to supplement their household incomes.

The experts from Fisheries Department and members of the WID section visit these ponds once a month to ascertain the success of this tiny project. The dream has come true. It is not only the women group who is benefiting from the fish ponds at Komi Kot, but the entire community is watching curiously and with open eyes. Some are making mental notes how to replicate this kind of microenterprize, or come up with another kind of thematic venture which would fit into WID’s mandate. The WID staff, the NRMP staff, and fisheries experts have all a deep satisfaction on this achievement.

The public sector agencies in AJK have been shy to a large extent to involve communities in the planning and execution of any development initiatives. Most sectors of the economy have male dominance. So is with public sector agencies. Creation of WID, for the first time amongst a hostile public sector environment to recognize women’s role, has been a courageous step. Though small, yet an effective cadre of female social organizers, working on contractual basis, tried to bring women folk into the development process which focused on the natural resource management. WID, being a small section in the Agriculture Department and essentially tied a development project (NRMP) for its survival, has shown remarkable resilience and outreach to induce thoughts of cooperation and recognition of common property rights (grazing, forest protection, water-sharing, etc.) among the rural women folk of AJK.

It is very early to measure any significant impact on the overall economy because only two years have gone for the program to show its mantle. WID, however, does not service even a fraction of the rural women needs (15 WID staff for 1.5 million women of AJK with almost no other female-exclusive organization). All it could do was to create some islands of excellence (several dozen WDCs were formed) and demonstrate how public-private sector linkage can synergize the grassroots level development process. Some further institutional innovations are required to link WID with NGOs, or encourage create NGOs, or provide torch lights to NGOs who would dare enter these melodiousness valley bottoms with terraced lands and steep slopes in a bid to lift the morale of its inhabitants and try to bring them out of the webs of poverty.

The most important lesson learnt from this micro-project is that when the community recognizes the benefits of an initiative like this one, it really becomes very interested in completing such a micro-project. No matter, how difficult the initial institutional inertia may have been to break, the community is prepared to walk an extra mile to protect its environment, to conserve its natural resources, only when the way is shown to it. Social organizers helped the community in understanding and comprehending the different options around it for the betterment of its stake-holders. Once a community is convinced, then majority if its members are willing to contribute to the communal productivity. To replicate such experiences, the key lies in "dedication of the workers", "energized institutional frameworks", and "identification of target groups which are likely to be the most responsive" because of the past neglect and lack of confidence.