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Washim People Visit Amritapuri

April 2008: Amritapuri: Washim's leaders bring to Amma their proposals for the region.

Construction Proposals Offered to Amma

On April 25, 2008, leaders and sons of farmers from Washim came to see Amma in Amritapuri. Amma had requested Washim's leaders to draw up plans and submit proposals to her. They requested an educational institution, a hospital and the provision of numerous water-storage ponds in the villages to irrigate crops and help bring back the water table. They have also requested Amma to build a Brahmasthanam Temple there, because they believe if a temple is built, God's grace will flow to them.

Interview by Amrita TV

The group from Washim appeared the same night on Amrita TV. The leaders said that Amma's visit to Washim had profoundly affected the people. The said that many felt their depression had lifted.

Speaking for the group, Vijay Jadhav, a Member of the Legislative Assembly, said that they felt so blessed that Amma had come to their impoverished district. He said, Amma had blessed every one of them and given them tremendous strength and courage through her darshan. The mental state of people had improved so much that it was his hope that the farmers would not resort to suicide anymore.

Ravi Marshetwar also spoke. He said that the peoples' morale had received such a boost from Amma's visit and that their confidence and self-esteem was returning. There was even a mood of joy-a feeling of being hugged by their very own mother. The fact that the children no longer had to discontinue their studies was a tremendous relief.

New Opportunities for Employment

Young men from Washim took Amma's darshan in Amritapuri. They were on the way to AIMS Hospital to work as electricians

Amma is offering 200 young people from Washim jobs at AIMS, the Mata Amritanandamayi Math's super-specialty hospital in Cochin, Kerala. Amma feels that farming families should have at least one member who has a trade or profession, and at least one income be independent from the success of the harvest. In April 2008, one of the first groups of farmers' sons came to Amritapuri for Amma's darshan and then to start their new line of work at AIMS.

Ravi Marshetwar:
"After meeting Amma, people told us their experiences. Hundreds of farmers told us they felt their depression had left them since meeting her. The young men with us all have relatives who are being helped by Amma. Their mothers came to see them off at the bus station when we left Washim. These women hold Amma in very high regard and cherish the fact that their boys could come here. They told their sons, 'You are going to the house of a saint. Don't create any disturbance there. Bow down to Amma and work honestly.'"

With their income, the young men are now able to help support their families in Washim. They will be paid a monthly stipend and receive free food, medicines and accommodation.

Darshan with Amma The young men said, "We feel very happy to be here, we like this environment. We have met Amma, and after her darshan we feel our morale has been boosted-so with Amma's energy, we will work now."

"My father committed suicide," said Santosh, one of the boys hired for AIMS electrical work. "My mother is very happy that I'm now under Amma's umbrella. My sister is getting 150 rupees a month from Amma for the next few years, so now she can complete her education."

PERSONAL TESTIMONIES
"The cost of building a pond is $1,200. Twelve hundred dollars can save a family."

In January 2007, Ravi Marshetwar, an independent social worker in Washim, requested Amma's help on behalf of the farmers in Vidarbha. With Amma's assistance, Ravi says that the situation immediately began to change for the better.

Finally, in April 2008, Ravi returned to Amritapuri, as part of the team of Washim leaders who came to submit to Amma their development proposals.

When Amma heard Ravi's own story, how he had decided not to marry, but to dedicate his life to uplifting society instead, she was very happy, clapping her hands, and saying we need more people like this. "If every family gave at least one child to society, we could do so much, and turn this earth into a heaven."

Ravi:
"I'm a civil engineer. I worked for 10 years in Muscat before returning to Vidarbha. For the last five years I've worked as an independent social worker, helping the families of farmers who have committed suicide. I adopted the village of Malegaon Taq in Washim. It has a population of 120 families, about 1,000 people. I built a dam there on a hillside. It can serve many ponds eventually, but it needs pumps and pipeline connections. I am financing this with the my savings. I live simply, as a brahmachari. My brother and father also help the people; it's the way of our family.

"I've been taking Amma's darshan for the last seven or eight years. In January 2007, I came to Amritapuri to tell Amma the problems I was facing in Washim. She listened to me with tears in her eyes. She said she would think about it all. Then in June, she sent Br. Eknath to help us. Amma wanted to educate the children and give work to the womenfolk, so together we started the work and formed a Mata Amritanandamayi Samiti.

"Vidarbha, the eastern region of Maharashtra, has 12 districts, six of which are very poor: Washim, Akola, Amravati, Buldhana, Yeotmal and Wardha. The main problems are the lack of good education and the lack of water. Although we have enough rain to grow certain crops, it is not being properly stored. There are no dams or reservoirs and no funds available to help the poor farmers in rain-harvesting. This water-shortage problem can be solved at a practical level. We have an example in Israel, which annually only gets 15 centimeters of rain, yet grows crops from harvested rain. Vidarbha gets 135 centimeters of rain-nine times that of Israel. Still, here there is drought because we have no funds for rain-harvesting.

It is in these districts where thousands of farmers are committing suicide.

"Soya bean and cotton are the two major crops. Soya beans take 100 days to harvest. The land will yield only one soya harvest a year. During the growing season, soya needs rain three or four times. In Vidarbha, if there is no rain, their harvest is zero. The whole crop is lost, and the farmer loses his entire annual income. The farmers then often commit suicides because they are overwhelmed by the financial plight they find themselves in. They have insecticides, they know the strongest one, so they drink that.

"The yield of soya in Vidarbha is 12 quintals per hectare [approximately two acres]. Compare this with the USA, where the yield is 72-80 quintals per hectare, or in Israel with 2,000 quintals per hectare.

"In Malegaon Taq, Washim, there is a hilltop. There, we excavated three ponds, three-metres deep for three families. Due to the pond, they each earned Rs. 20,000 more. During the four-month period when the crop is growing, there maybe one month with no rain. If this happens, pond water is pumped out by a diesel pump and the crop is saved. The farmer has something to sell. The cost of building a pond is $1,200. Twelve hundred dollars can save a family.

"I want to excavate ponds in these six districts. I would like them to be six-metres deep. My village needs 50 ponds. The ponds also help to increase the water in nearby bore wells. The pond water seeps into the ground and raises the water table in that area. The water table in Vidarbha has fallen 200 ft! Because of this, the animals are dying. The deer are wandering into the villages searching for water and destroying crops. Foxes, monkeys, rabbits are dying. If we provide ponds, the animals can live, the birds will come back. These ponds are very important for the ecology too. If we can get these ponds, the women will also get jobs; they will be able to harvest and sow new crops. These ponds are key to creating jobs.

Ravi-happy to bring to Amma the development proposals for Washim

"Officials tell me they cannot use dynamite due to regulations. The farmer should match the funds the government gives for blasting, but these poor farmers cannot do that. They earn only about 1 USD (40 rupees) a day. The really poor farmer cannot get crop loans, so he cannot buy seeds. The banks know he cannot return on the loan if he has no water supply. A cotton farmer expends 2,500 rupees to produce a quintal of cotton, yet the market rate, his return, is only 1,800 rupees. Seventy percent of farmers in Vidarbha have less than two hectares [five acres]. Unemployment is high. Women, usually the mothers, can find work only once a year, during the rainy season.

"These conditions are very harsh on the poor farmer. For example, just three kilometers from Washim, a young daughter of a farmer was due to be married. But her father was ashamed to face the guests because he knew he could not pay the dowry. So he committed suicide. Now it's a bigger problem for the family. When I return, I will go there and offer help and give the widow a sari from Amma.

"Dams and ponds can make all the difference. Recently, a dam was constructed in a village, the people started growing wheat, and the women found work in the fields. A woman can earn 3,000 rupees a season. Work for women is very important. In India, the mother's well-being is crucial to the security of her family.

"If we can obtain earth-moving machinery and diesel pumps, we can build our own ponds. If we can finance 100 ponds, crop survival and yield will be very high. Then, in one village, I could show a miracle and the world would see."

Amma 'hands' are still needed...

Br. Eknath:
"The deep reason for the tragedy, more so than the loss of traditional agriculture, is that the people have lost touch with their culture. India's culture emphasizes taking only what you need from Nature and giving Her something back also. We need institutions to guide people back to this spiritual outlook. It is the backbone of human existence. Traditionally, there were institutions, in the form of good families who performed their dharma [duty] and in the sannyasis [monks] who carried the spiritual teachings, lived them and passed them on. But these have all but been destroyed by the forces of modern life. However, one 'Amma' can help thousand. This is what the people feel now.

"Amma is ready to help the people. But they have to work out what is best. Now they have to reconsider carefully what is best, not just spiritually but how to care for all of Nature, how to provide food for all creatures and not kill them. Instead of giving money, it is better to open village centres. Centres are needed in the villages to nurture a new mind-set, to give the people mental strength and foster their self-esteem- to foster spiritual values and knowledge of Indian culture so that they can discriminate and avoid the wrong turns and temptations of modern life.

"We have to start in the villages-people need to sit together and take good decisions in unison. The tradition where whole villages existed through joint cultivation of 2,000 to 5,000 acres has gone. Since the 1950s when land was redistributed [after Indian Independence], the farmland for each family got smaller and smaller and less and less economic. This year rain destroyed the orange, grape, wheat and mango crops. People are committing suiciding in Vidarbha due to these crop failures. Amma feels that now at least one member from every farm family should take up non-agricultural-based work. She is inviting 200 men from Vidarbha to come to AIMS to work as electricians, cooks, loaders etc.

"Just as Amma hands comforted thousands of people of Washim during her programme, now those same 'hands' are needed in every village." Ravi-happy to bring to Amma the development proposals for Washim.

Farmer Relief Project is announced

Farmer Relief Project expands

About Farmer Relief Project

Farmer Relief Project - updates

Projects to End Farmer Suicide - a report

A Visit of Farmers And Their Wives From Washim To Amritapuri

Amma's Visit to Washim, Vidharbha