This report is in fulfillment of the rural research requirements at MICA

1. Rural
Research
Project
Ghodegaon,
Maharashtra
Utsav, Samhita and Ramya

2. Section one:
Introduction

3. Introduction to the Education System in India
India has been the hub of education from ancient times. Starting from ancient universities like
Nalanda to modern day equivalents of the IITs and IIMs, India has remained in forefront. While
the nation talks of achievements in areas like astronomy, nuclear sciences and attributes the
successes in the services industry to the quality of education in the country, it still hounded
with issues related to education in the rural India.
With the second highest population and a developing economy, India struggles with issues of
primary education, literacy and its ability to provide quality education in rural India. With plans
like Universal primary education, midday meals, India has tried hard to ensure primary
education to all the children in the country. The only state to achieve this goal so far is Kerala.
The Ministry of Human Resources and Development, created on 26th
September 1985, deals
with all levels of education in India. Under the ministry of Human Resources and Development
there are two departments, which deal with school education and literacy (Department of
School Education and Literacy) and higher education (Department of Higher Education)
Structure of the Education System
Pre-Primary Education is not a fundamental right in India. There is very little information
available on the pre-primary education in rural India. “While primary education provides the
fundamentals of all formal learning" (Neeraj Sharma 1997), preprimary learning may be called
the foundation for both education and personal development.1
In the absence of government
support, Pre-primary education remains still a privilege of Urban India and of those who belong
to upper classes.
1
India: Pre-Primary and Primary Education, http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/652/India-PREPRIMARY-
PRIMARY-EDUCATION.html

4. Figure 1 : Structure of Education System in India
Primary Education in India is one of its stronger links. When the eight five year plan was made,
the government laid huge emphasis on reforming the primary education in India and
implemented their plan of universalizing primary education across the nation. They
concentrated on three important factors of access, retention and achievement, which ensured
that the education was accessible to children, that they continued their studies and used it to
achieve their goals. As an effect of this plan, by end of 2000, 94% of rural India had primary
schools within a kilometer and had upper primary schools within three kilometers of range.
While primary and upper primary schools are present across the country and significant efforts
have been put to ensure that quality education is available and students don’t drop out of
them, the higher education remains a major issue in rural areas. While government high
schools teach in regional languages, the urban and sub-urban schools teach in English. The
issues faced by higher education schools are multifold. While there are language barriers, the
major issues are in the areas of availability of trained teachers, quality of study materials and
the effort required ensuring that the content is relevant to the student and his future.

5. Also, the institutions are heavily subsidized by the government, which makes the cost of
infrastructure and operations very low; while the study materials are not always subsidized by
the government. The cost of the study materials, like textbooks, notebooks and stationary still
falls on the student. Consequently the number of students who drop out after primary
education is very high, especially in the rural parts of the nation.
Another problem plaguing India is the dearth of teachers. India faces a shortage of eight lakh
teachers in primary and middle schools in terms of numbers. And amongst the already existing
force, the numbers of teachers who are willing to go to rural parts of India to teach are very
less. 2
Analysis of Education Data (2005-2006)
The website of Ministry of Human Resources and Development, http://education.nic.in/, has
selected education statistics updated for the year 2005-2006. An analysis of this data, keeping
state of Maharashtra as the focus has been done.
Below is the data showing the number of institution that offers various kinds of education. This
data again comprises of the entire state of Maharashtra, rural and urban parts included. The
number of pre-primary schools is very high due to the fact that each of these schools can house
only a very small number of students. Also, they are highly concentrated in the urban areas of
the state. As the graph shows, the number of primary schools is reasonably high but as we
progress towards higher education, the number of institutions offering higher education
gradually drop. This emphasizes the fact that as the education levels progress, the number of
dropouts increase, also the effort put by the government to provide higher education is
insufficient.
2
Times of India, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/India_faces_a_drought_of_teachers/rssarticleshow/3199178.cms

6. Figure 2 : Number of education institutions in Maharashtra, 2005-06
If we were to look at the split up of the institutes providing higher education and the nature of
courses offered by them for the state of Maharashtra, we would see that the major chunk of
institutes provide courses in Arts, Science and commerce. The figure below shows the statistics
collected by Ministry of Human Resources and Development for the year of 2005-06.
Figure 3 : Split up of courses offered in Higher Education Institutions in Maharashtra

7. The next set of data shows the teacher to student ratio for higher education institutes. The
lower the teacher to pupil ratio, the healthier is the system of education. Though some states
show a higher teacher to pupil ratio due to the fact that the number of students is very less and
there are more teachers available. In this case, it reflects high dropout numbers of the state.
As seen in the chart, Maharashtra ranks way below states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and
Karnataka in terms of the teachers to pupil ratio in higher education.
Figure 4 : Teacher to Pupil Ratio, State wise
The dropout rates of students are shown in the figure below. As it can be seen from the figure,
the percentage drop out of students increases as we approach higher education.

8. Figure 5 : Dropout rates across states
While the efforts of the government to ensure good quality primary education has borne fruits
across the nation, the lack of effort to solve the problems related to higher education is leading
to decay in the education system.

9. Section two:
Location Analysis

10. Location Analysis
We have chosen Ghodegaon, a village in the Ambegaon taluka of the Pune division in the state
of Maharashtra in India. The next section analyses the location of the village top down, from
the state it is in till its map traced from the Google earth tool.
Maharashtra
Figure 6 : State of Maharashtra
Located in the west coast of India, Maharashtra is the third largest state by area and the second
largest state by population. With a population of 96,752,247 inhabitants, Maharashtra is the
second most populous state in India.
Maharashtra covers an area of 307,731 square kilometers which is about 9.84% of the total
geographical area of India. The capital of the state, Mumbai is the financial capital of the
country and the largest city in the nation. With the highest per capita income, the state
contributes to about 15% of the country’s industrial output and 13.2% of the GDP (2005-06).

11. Marathi is the official language, also the most widely spoken language. Marathi is spoken by
68% of the population in the state. The other languages spoken are Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Non-
Scheduled Languages, Telugu, Kannada and Sindhi.
History of Maharashtra
The Marathas rose to power under the leadership of Shivaji in the 17th
century. They fought
against the Mughals, who were ruling a large part of India. The Maratha Empire expanded to
cover most parts of northern India and survived for almost a century. The empire ended after
the third Anglo-Maratha war and most of Maharashtra was made a part under the Bombay
state. After independence, the state of Maharashtra was formed on May 1, 1960.
The state is officially divided into thirty five districts which are grouped into six divisions. These
divisions are Aurangabad, Amravati, Konkan, Nagpur, Nashik, and Pune. Historically, the state
has five regions which are Vidarbha or Berar (Nagpur and Amravati), Marathwada
(Aurangabad), Khandesh and Northern Maharashtra (Nashik), Desh or Western Maharashtra
(Pune), and Konkan (Konkan).
Figure 7: Divisions in Maharashtra

12. The major cities in Maharashtra are Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur,
Aurangabad, Amravati, Jalgaon, Solapur, Sangli and Kolhapur.
Pune District
The city of Pune is also known as the ‘Queen of Deccan’ due to scenic beauty and rich natural
resources. Pune city is known on across the world due to its educational institutions. The
district is also an important military base. It is also the most industrialized district in western
Maharashtra and is an important IT hub in India. Pune exemplifies an indigenous Marathi
culture and ethos, in which education, arts and crafts, and theatres are given due prominence.
Pune is the cultural capital of the Maharashtra.
Figure 8: District level map of Pune

13. Geography of Pune
The district of Pune is located between 17 degrees 54' and 10degrees24' north latitude and 73
degrees19' and 75 degrees 10' east longitude. It has an area of 15.642 square kilometers. The
Pune district is bound by Ahmadnagar district on north-east, Solapur district on the south-east,
Satara district on south, Raigad district on the west and Thane district on the north-west.
Pune is the second largest district in the state and covers 5.10 % of the total geographical area
of the state. Pune district forms a part of the tropical monsoon land and therefore shows a
significant seasonal variation in temperature as well as rainfall conditions.
The district is geographically divided into Ghat, Sub Mountain, and Plain and scarcity zone.
Figure 9: Geography of Pune District
Ambegaon is a tehsil in the Khed subdivision of Pune. It has a part of its land in the plain zone
and the other in the scarcity zone. Though Ambegaon is technically the taluka head, most of the
main administrative offices was shifted to Ghodegaon when the dam was being built on the
Ghod River. Currently all important government offices are based out of Ghodegaon.

14. Ghodegaon Overview
Ghodegaon is located in the Ambegoan Taluka. It is second largest village in the Taluka. It is
surrounded by lot of important landmarks, one of the being the IUCAA telescope at Girawali.
The other is the Dhimba dam, which is built on the Ghod River.
Figure 10: Mumbai, Pune and Ghodegaon
How to reach Ghodegaon
To reach Ghodegaon, one can start from either Mumbai or Pune. From the Mumbai-Pune
expressway, near the last toll at the Pune end, one needs to take the road to Chakan. This road,
the NH50 passes Chakan and then goes to Manchar. One would notice that these are highly
industrialized areas of Maharashtra. There are MIDC complexes on this stretch, with companies
like Bajaj, BMW, Mercedes and L’Oreal having their manufacturing units on this road. From
Manchar, a small state highway in the direction of Bhimashankar, a popular tourist spot leads
us to Ghodegaon.

15. Figure 11: Road Map of Ghodegaon
The village of Ghodegaon is surrounded by sixteen other villages that fall into the Ambegaon
taluka. As a part of our study we have visited certain parts of the taluka which are
explained through the Google earth maps below.
Ghodegaon is a village on the banks of the river Ghod, hence the name Ghodegaon. Ghod River
is one of the six rivers in the Pune district. As it can be seen from the image below, the area
around Ghod River is protected as it is a green belt, with highly fertile land and a perennial
river. This area is also has a huge number of protected animal species. The panthers are one of
them. The forests of Ambegaon district is protected by the government and one can see the
panthers walking freely in and around the village. Till date they have not harmed the people
living in the villages. The abundance of flora and fauna coupled with the availability of water
from the Ghod River makes this area highly prosperous.

16. Figure 12: Ghod River and Ghodegaon
The next map shows an overview of the village, with the main landmarks of the village marked
on it. The Panchayat office, the Court, the Friday market are the State Transport bus stand are
the important landmarks in the village. The road junction that houses the Panchayat office and
the bus stand also becomes the economic hub of the village. All important shops, offices are
situated in and around this junction.
The Friday markets, also known as a ‘haat’ happens near this junction. All the villagers gather
on Fridays in this open land near the mosque, where they set up their stalls and sell their
produce.
The milk depot, the temples, the factories, the mosque are all around this junction which forms
the focal point of the village.

17. Figure 13: Panchayat, Court, Bus Stand
Below is the image of the Girawali IUCAA telescope, which we had the privilege of visiting
during our stay in Ghodegaon. This is a two meter long telescope that was installed in Girawali
at an altitude of 1000 meters above the sea level. There is an observatory and a guest house for
the scientists who work.
Figure 84: IUCAA Telescope at Girawali

18. The detailed Google earth maps of all the other locations are attached in the annexure. These
include places which were visited for the study as well as other important locations in and
around Ghodegaon.

19. Section three:
Ethnography

20. Ghodegaon: An Introduction
Nestled somewhere in Ambegaon taluka of Pune district, lies the village of Ghodegaon.
Fourteen kilometres west of Manchar on the Nashik-Pune highway, Ghodegaon lies on the road
to the jyotirlinga of Bhimashankar and Shivneri, the birthplace of the original Chhatrapati. The
route passes over hill and dale lined with fields and more fields, the shetkari homelands of
Maharashtra, growing cereal crops; this is not the sugar belt. Manchar, the spot to get down for
Ghodegaon from Pune, presents itself as yet another Indian small town, made prosperous by
the busy Nashik-Pune highway, with its dhabas and medical shops. The bus to our destination is
to be had here, and one takes ones place among a melee of navvaris, turbans, and pan-stained
mouths.
The first stop is at Landewadi, which would not be noticed if not for the Bhimashankar High
School, a flashy residential school reminiscent of Panchgani. Opposite it is another school,
which on first look promises to be another such five-star school, but on closer inspection by
reading the Marathi title-board declares itself to be the Zilla Parishad Madhyamik Shala! Plod
further on, and the foothills of the Western Ghats raise the level, only for it to be brought down
by a doughty restoration of the not-yet-finished Deccan. Thus a natural roller-coaster ride is
offered to the rider, though the state PWD has tried to mitigate by providing a decently
motorable road, and even the infamous S.T. buses co-operate. The valley between Landewadi
and Ghodegaon bursts into orange and purple and green, the colours emanating from the
marigold fields. At the destination the road turns sharply left to head on to Bhimashankar. To
the right is Ghodegaon, the length of which is traversed in five minutes. It pretends to have a
main road, at the end of which is the S.T. stand.
Ghodegaon is the real headquarters of the taluka, though it is named after the smaller
Ambegaon. It comprises two parts, the old village bazaarpeth and a newer part on the
Bhimashankar road. The two are connected by The Bridge, a major landmark of the town
spanning a nondescript nullah overgrown with weeds. The newer part contains the A.P.M.C.
market yard, so is called the duyyam bazaarpeth the second market district. One notices a
Kapaleshwar Steel Mart strangely reminiscent of Kapaleeshwara of Chennai, the patron God of

21. cabbies. South Indian culture makes its more familiar impact in the form of idli-dosa sold at the
New India Hotel, which true to Indian usage, is an eatery, not a place to stay. The flashiest place
in town, it evokes the Pankaja Cafe of R.K. Narayans Malgudi, though no one might have
noticed it were it in Thane or Pune. A worthwhile meal is hard poli, underboiled vegetables and
ration rice - a term used by Army wives to describe the poor quality rice given as rations. The
favourite meal of the townsfolk however, is pan-supari, the heady odour of which permeates
the thoroughfare of the village.
Yet, Ghodegaon (and perhaps other villages) is not Malgudi. It has a functional Rural Hospital,
and the S.T. stand is well-connected to the rest of Maharashtra. The very fashionable NIIT and
Aptech both have a presence alongside the Ambegaon Taluka Vidya Vikas Mandals Arts and
CommerceCollege and an Industrial Training Institute. Bhimashankar also dominates the
economy, as a number of rest-houses and eateries of several classes dot the place. And the
marigolds are always there.

22. Ethnography of Ghodegaon
Village Profile
Ghodegaon is situated in the green belt of Maharashtra and the soil is black and fertile. The
terrain is a mixture of plains and hills. Both pucca and semi-pucca residential houses are seen
here and the commercial establishments are pucca constructions. On an average every
household has 4-5 members.
Ghodegaon being a fertile belt, most of the land is used for agricultural purposes. Due to the
distribution of land amongst the various generations of a family, an average farmer possesses
land of the size of 1-2 acre. These small farms are located in clusters of 5 or 6, indicating the
original sizes of these fields before familial division. The farmers live in the residential area of
Ghodegaon which is demarcated from the farms. Farmers sometimes grow vegetables like
tomatoes near their houses whereas the farms growing staple crops being large are located
away from houses.

23. On an average, Ghodegaon grows two crops a year. Sometimes the farmers manage a third
crop if the water supply suffices. The lower lands grow sugarcane, groundnuts, potato and
tomato on a rotational basis. The higher altitude farms in the hilly areas grow rice, wheat
(gahu), jowar and bajra.
Ghodegaon has a mixed population which is distributed across different age brackets. The
teenagers mostly go to Mumbai and Pune to pursue higher education after schooling in
Ghodegaon. The sex ratio appears to be 1:1 and the average income of a villager is around Rs
1000 – 1500 per month.
Majority of the villagers are Marathas. However, there are other castes like Mali, Matanga,
Bondh and Adivasi. At the obvious level, people don’t lay too much importance on the caste,

24. but the caste does play a significant role at the subconscious level. The village has a Hindu
majority with a small population of Muslims living in a separate area (near the Friday Market).
Again the Muslims claimed to be happy ‘living as one’ with the other villagers.
The literacy rates are high and the panchayat claims it to be 90%. Although schooling is done in
Ghodegaon, the villagers prefer sending their children to either Pune or Mumbai for higher
education in colleges.
Although the majority is involved in farming, the other noteworthy occupation is trading. The
trading primarily deals with selling agro-products to the dealers in cities like Mumbai and Pune.
Many villagers also work as laborers in the nearby SEZs of Chakan and Manchar. The major
companies employing these villagers are Bajaj (Chakan) and Amul (Manchar) besides 8 to 9
other factories. There are also some who act as local laborers in the farms of Ghodegaon and
they are paid Rs. 50 – 60 per head. A good number of villagers also participate in politics and
consider it as an occupation.
Ghodegaon Panchayat is the seat of the Taluka Panchayats. The Ghodegaon constituency
witnesses 8000 votes and is divided into 6 wards represented by 17 members. Currently 14
members are from Shiv Sena, who won the election 6 months ago. The panchayat members
include 1 adivasi, 1 matang, 2 itar magasu and 7 women.

25. Village Resources
Ghodegaon is 100 kilo meters away from Pune and Mumbai lies approximately 200 kilo meters
to the west. These two cities are well connected with Ghodegaon through National highways.
The nearest commercial hub of Manchar is 14 kilo meters to the east. S.T. buses are the main
mode of transport to travel to these cities or the nearby SEZ, besides the shuttle taxis which
carry people and goods to the nearest villages and towns. In fact the S.T. buses connect
Ghodegaon to all the nodal towns around and the bus depot is centrally located in Ghodegaon.
Ghodegaon has 4-5 hospitals and a Grameen Rugnalaya. However, in case of grave medical
requirements, people travel to Pune or Mumbai in search of better medical facilities. They have
maternity facilities but if there is a need for caesarean birth then a surgeon has to come from
Bhimashankar. The current cleanliness drive has improved the general health standards of
Ghodegaon.

26. There is a post office right in front of the Panchayat office. There are a number of PCOs
especially in grocery shops or in shops which sells mobile connection. Idea cellular has a very
good network in the village besides Airtel and BSNL. There is an absence of Vodafone’s network
in the village which was a surprise as Vodafone has an extensive network in Maharashtra.
Ghodegaon also has a District Magisterial court. There are 40 advocates and 1 judge in the
court. The approximate number of Civil Cases is 250 and Criminal Cases 500 per year. Civil cases
looked more into property disputes and Land issues, mostly amongst family. Criminal cases
constituted accidents that occurred frequently, due to its closeness to the highway and also
marital abuse and maintenance cases. There were no communal or caste dispute cases as per
the advocates of the court.

27. Power supply is the biggest problem at Ghodegaon with load shedding of more than 8 hours a
everyday. The load shedding is especially severe during the summers with power cuts lasting
for more than 12 hours!
Dimba Dam on Ghod Nadi (river) is the main source of water for irrigation. The water reaches
the fields through canals from the river or though pipelines with motor pumps from the Dam.
The ground water level being good, many households employ tube wells for their domestic
needs.
The people here also have poultry farms. It provides an alternate means of income from the
same land. The excreta of the chickens are also used as manure to make the soil more fertile.
There are organization like Amro and Seguna, which provide everything to the farmers, from
the construction of the shed to providing them with the bird food and taking the birds back in
45 days. They pay around Rs. 2.50/ kg of bird they get back after 45 days. This is a security net
for the farmers if the rains don’t come timely or if there are some problems with the crop that
year.
Almost every house has cows. Each cow gives around 14-15 liters of milk which they sell at co-
operative societies which collect milk from the families in Ghodegaon and sell it in the Amul
factory nearby.
Ghodegaon has 2 English medium schools and 2 Marathi medium schools. Total number of
students, including primary and secondary sections, is around 3000. The only college at

28. Ghodegaon is affiliated to the Pune University and has courses in BCA, Commerce, Arts and
Science and has around 600 students studying in it. Currently there are no diploma or
professional (Engineering or medical) colleges here, although an engineering college is coming
up in this village.
Ghodegaon sees a lot of festivals being celebrated over the year. Ganesh Chaturthi and Navratri
are the main festivals here along with Bael Gada (bull race). There are many temples in and
around the village and Harishchandra Mandir is the famous one. There are also 2 masjids in
Ghodegaon.
WorldVision, an NGO has worked on this village and villages in the nearby areas. It is a Christian
humanitarian organisation working to create lasting change in the lives of children, families and
communities living in poverty and injustice. With more than 50 years of experience in India,
World Vision works in 24 states across the country through
 Development that is community based, sustainable and transformational
 Emergency response and disaster mitigation,
 Advocacy initiatives that are grassroots based.
World Vision India is a national NGO in partnership with a network of over 100 other entities
within World Vision International. World Vision India is registered as a society under the Tamil
Nadu Societies Act with its National Office based in Chennai.

29. In Ghodegaon it has led the “Swachhata Abhiyan” amongst other such health related programs.
It works with children and schools to teach them about basic hygiene and healthy living.

30. Social Structure
The dominant caste by the strength of their population as well as in rank is the Maratha. Politics
is also dominated by Marathas. However, as per the civic compulsions, other castes are also
represented. In the Panchayat although women have a fair representation with the Sarpanch
being a woman, men still call the shots. All the advocates of the local court are Marathas with
no other caste being represented. Brahmins are respected but their numbers are quite small.
Other castes like Mali, Matanga, Bondh, Adivasis and Harijans are also there but in minorities.
Muslim are a minority forming 1 percent of the population.
The caste classification is polymorphic. The younger generation freely mingles across all caste
barriers in the schools and colleges as well as in the locality. The older generations avoid
crossing the barrier and interact across castes only during need-based situations. Although the
higher castes don’t belittle the lower castes, they do expect them to respect the superior status
of the higher castes. The lower classes are also conscious of their stature and avoid ‘crossing
the border’. In this regards, we happened to see an adivasi waiting outside a Maratha’s house
for some work and he wasn’t invited inside and the work was settled outside the house.
Professionally, fishermen are the most economically backward and they invariably belong to
lower castes like Harijan. They live by the river banks or across the Dimba Dam in shanties.
Many of them were displaced from the village’s mainland during the construction of the Dimba
Dam and they haven’t been compensated adequately.

31. The clothing is mostly similar for most of the Ghodegaon villagers with the signature white
Gandhi topi, along with a white shirt and a loose pant or a dhoti forming their attire. Clothing
doesn’t give away the caste of a person. Women mostly use bindi and cover their head with the
pallu of the Sari. Muslim women however refrain from using the bindi, but they do put on lot of
kaajal. The older generation of Muslim men have beards. The younger generation of both the
communities wear similar clothing and cannot be distinguished in any way.
The people are mostly vegetarian, including the Muslims. There is low availability of meat. So,
the non-vegetarian people are people who eat fish. Their breakfast includes poha and chai. The
farmers have bajra or jowar ki roti and onions. But slowly there is a shift to gehu ki roti amongst
the villagers. They make simple food but usually have a lot of mirch in their vegetables. Milk is
readily available as they have cows in their own house.
There is no single most important family in the village. People gain respect if their family
heritage and lineage is great. People also respect people if their son has gone to the city and
carved a name for themselves. Money matters but lineage has far more importance.

32. Village Culture
The Deputy Sarpanch in his interview mentioned that the villagers are very spiritual. While
taking a tour of the village on our own we saw a temple after every few houses. There must
have been around 10-12 small temples in the village itself and 2 mosques. We went to the
village during the Navratri festival and every temple was beautifully decorated. In the evening
women with their daughters went to the temple. There were less men at the temple during the
evening Arati. But men and women both went for satsangs in the late evening. Bhimashankar
has a renowned Shiv temple and Shivneri and Shirdi are also close to the village.
They do not give too much importance to education, but consider it important to have a good
job. They don’t mind sending their children to Pune and sometimes Mumbai for higher studies
if that would ensure a high paying job. Many of the Maratha caste boys stopped studying
before completing graduation and started their own business. The Brahmins studied more than
the rest of the castes. But the quality of education is far below expectations.
The girl child’s education is more as a modern day requirement in the marriage market than an
option of their employment. They send their girls to English medium schools. But education is
not a high priority for them.
We could not get an opportunity to talk with the girls. They were in school and once back home
they did not come out of their house. There were a few who studied outside the village in Pune,
but one can only draw conclusions on what their aspirations could be. Their life was very
restricted and was inside the house. Women of the village worked in the field with men. Old
women had their own fields and employed labourers to work on their fields. But the primary

33. objective of parents was to get their daughter married in a good family. The uneducated
women also wanted their children to study. They don’t believe that once the children leave
their village they would ever return back.
The older generation likes to continue with the hierarchies and rituals followed by their
previous generations. They look forward to their children’s return to the village. They like the
simple life of waking up, reading the newspaper, discussing with friends over a cup of tea,
moving around the village and meeting people, having a nice lunch back home, have a nap, go
out again in the evening, sometimes to the temple and then time with the family.
Marriages seldom occurred within the community. Women got married by the time they were
22 years old and men by 25 years. Inter-caste marriages were not welcome and neither were
love marriages. Adivasis got their daughters married even at the age of 15 years. There were
very few women advocates in the court, and women in general were home makers and
sometimes worked in the fields if the family did not have enough income to get labourers to
work.
The youth of the village aspired to garner respect from its society on the basis of a respectable
profession which provided good monthly income. They were not too keen in pursuing farming.
That was something which was their parents’ occupation.
The underlying culture of Ghodegaon is very patriarchal, conservative and orthodox in nature
with some modern attributes added externally. The youth might not be wearing the Gandhi
Topi and dhoti but they connect the innate value of a Maratha with these symbols. They might

34. be going to the same college as other castes and religion and eat with them, but they will not
marry someone from another caste. The value of money has increased and they want to earn
early and grow fast.

35. Hierarchy of Values

36. Media Consumption
Media diffusion in the village
Newspaper has the maximum reach amongst men of the village. In various corners of the street
or in a restaurant there would be a man reading the newspaper in Marathi. English newspapers
were nowhere to be found. The newspapers include Saamna, Lokmat are available at the
newspaper shop. There is no delivery system at home. This makes it an almost exclusive
property of the men. Women are told about important news by their husbands. The newspaper
is a shared possession. Usually the elder most person in the gully or the retired teacher buys
the newspaper and then it is taken by the younger people or people who are working. The non
working people come and discuss the news with the shopkeepers and their neighbors as well as
in group chats in the evening under a tree.
Radio has its presence but it is not one of the preferred medium of either entertainment or
news.
Television penetration is surprisingly high in the village. People and restaurants have small color
TVs. In hotels it is put on throughout the day for customers to watch and enjoy. If there is
cricket then it is the sports channel or invariably it would be on the Marathi channel either ETV

37. Marathi or Zee Marathi. Women also get to watch television in their houses. One of the
villagers as well as a retailer mentioned that women look at an advertisement on TV for a
particular soap and then they come and buy that soap. Thus, TV definitely affects consumer
behavior of women. Men mostly watched news on the TV while women watched soaps and
movies. Women saw TV during the afternoons. Although the men said that they watched the
news in the evening they usually missed the news due to power cuts.
Satellite channels are available in Ghodegaon by Dish TV and Tata Sky. There is no cable
network as it is on a hilly terrain and cable network does not work well for them. The mobile
network is good in Ghodegaon especially for Airtel. But the network is very weak as one move
up the hills and cross the Dimba Dam. The surprising element was the deep knowledge of the
latest technologies in the phone. The users knew how to create videos and transfer them via
Bluetooth to our phones, while they were the same people who caught snakes for fun.
Media Behavior (reading/listening/viewing)
As one can conclude from the above observations, men are more prone to reading while
women are more affected by viewing and listening.
Perceptions of Media
The newspaper is considered to be the most authentic source of information while television
was more for entertainment and modern values. Satellite channels were accepted easily as they
connected and understood Marathi channels better than Hindi channels. Radio was on a
backburner after the entry of television. TV is slowly taking up the position of community
watching, but newspaper holds its sway.

38. Consumption of Information
Information about latest happenings, the state of the country and economy was taken from the
newspaper. TV provided information about the latest FMCG product which would be available
at some discount or has some special offer. But at the end of the day if the retailer tries to push
a product people take their word for it, in the case of soaps, and oil. But the scenario is
different for durables. Friends and people from the city provided information about durables
like a television or a refrigerator. As one of the villagers said:
“Dukaan daar toh kuch bhi bechega jisme usse faayda hoga. Uspe kya bharosa. Aur woh koi
service bhi nahii deta. Mehengi cheez soch samajhke khareedni hogi.”
(The shopkeeper would sell anything which would give it profits. How can one trust them? And
he won’t even provide any after sales service. When we are making a big investment we need
to consult and decide carefully)

39. Brand Consumption
Durable brands are decided by consulting other people on the village who have that product
and what kind of experience they have had. They also consult their friends and family in the city
as they believe they would know better. Philips has its presence in a number of households in
the form of 12-14” colour TVs.
Agro-inputs are bought from the Krushi Utpadan Kendra and the brands are decided either by
previous experience or by asking the seller at the counter. The village has a few such shops with
an array of seeds and fertilizer brands.
FMCG products were decided either by watching the ads on television and the decision maker
is usually the woman in the family. The decision changes if there are some special offers
running. The retail stores have a number of small SKUs available for most of its products.

40. In clothes, the educated people know about brands, especially if their children are in the city.
But they would buy an unbranded trouser at Rs.500 than pay Rs. 1500 for a branded one.
Cars were few and far between. Mostly people had bikes for their transportation needs.
Advertising and Point of Purchase
The mobile phones and networks advertise through painted walls as well as shop display. Some
brands like Kit Kat had polythene branded and kept at retail shops for free. This ensured brand
recall.
In the Friday Haat, one observed a number of spurious brands in the market, with similar colour
combinations and names on the packaging. Thus the recall of a brand was mainly through its
packaging colour combination.

41. Retailers were given schemes to promote products with better margins for higher sales. HUL
had a very good network in the village with its representative coming at least once a week and
providing the retailers with Point of Purchase display materials. Point of Purchase provided
instant trigger to consumers and also made them aware of the offers available on the products.

42. Section four:
Talekarwadi

43. Talekarwadi: A case study
Located about five kilometers from Ghodegaon is Talekarwadi, a small village that has gained
national acclaim. Since we were staying in the house of the Talekars, they urged us to visit their
village. There was a Gram Sabha happening in the village, and we were invited to attend it. All
thrilled at the prospect of visiting a Gram Sabha, three of us started out for Talekarwadi. On the
way we stopped at the shrine of the Saint Krishna Das who was the patron of the village. The
shrine was well maintained with marble flooring and clean ambience.
The village which was about half a kilo meter from the shrine was a small nicely arranged set of
semi pucca houses. All of them painted the same color of pink. If one didn’t know that it was
village, it could easily be mistaken for a planned township or colony. We went to the newly built
Panchayat house and met the Sarpanch and interviewed him. While talking to him, we learnt an
astonishing amount of information. For example, the whole village has undergone a cleanliness
and sanitation campaign with the help of the NGO, World Vision. In this process, all the houses
have built toilets inside them and made proper facilities for sanitation. The village has won an
award from the ex-president of India, APJ Kalam for their cleanliness drive.
Also, a closer examination of the village revealed the extensive usage of solar panels as a source
of power. They also had modern water storage techniques and Sintex branded water storage
devices above the houses.

44. After the chat with the Sarpanch, we went on to visit the school in the village. There was a
primary education school in the village. Though it was the weekend, there was the head
mistress of the school who was there correcting class notebooks. There was also one of the
staff who takes care of the administrative jobs in the school. We were allowed to interview
them and take notes about the school. We were invited into the teacher’s room. Here we got to
see various interesting data on the notice board, like the number of students who are enrolled
in the school, names of people who are in charge of the school, its governing committees etc.
While talking to them, we learnt that they had a video documentary shot on the village. They
had a computer in the teacher’s room, and though the staff seemed to lack confidence
operating the computer, they managed to show us the video documentary. This documentary
explains how this village has transformed itself into a cleaner and more modern version of itself
through the help of World Vision.

45. From all the interviews done in Talekarwadi, this is
the basic picture of the village that we have gained.
The people here don’t have a perennial source of
water unlike Ghodegaon, where the Ghod River acts
as their saviour. In Talekarwadi, water comes at a
premium. People do farming during the rainy
seasons and winter using the water in the ponds,
which dry up in summer. They save the money and
water for the summer season, when they are
effectively without a source of livelihood besides the
cattle they own. The new canal system is something
which they hope will give them some relief.
They send their kids to primary school in
Talekarwadi, and those kids who want to continue
their education go to ghodegaon for higher
education. While they seem to have lot of respect for education and that too primary education, they
seem very sceptical about higher education. The village is connected to Ghodegaon through the road,
and there are about two state transport buses that commute on the road daily. Since, the buses aren’t
frequent and the distance to Ghodegaon is only a few kilometres, people walk or hitch rides on any
vehicles that are on the road.The most interesting part about Talekarwadi is that, when we came back to
college and did secondary research on the village, we found a blog on the internet which was hosted by
the village Panchayat. The link of this site is www.talekarwadi.blogspot.com.

46. Section five:
Communication

47. Sign Boards: A study of Communication Content
The study of signboards and advertisements in Ghodegaon served as a lesson communication
studies. We took the photographs of the signboards so that we can later study then and
understand the community better. For example we found that the names of shops are an
interesting phenomenon to study. When we were doing the rurals, we realized that most of the
shops are named ‘Dosthi’. We started wondering if there is any logic to it and hence started
reading all the shop names and realized that there is a pattern to it. The shops are names are of
three types, one would be on an adjective or quality, say ‘Dosthi’ or ‘Adarsh’, the other
category would be shops named after people, this could be saints, political figures like Shivaji or
names of a respected elder in the family. The third category of names would be modern names
written in English, like say a ‘Smile’ for a beauty parlor or the name ‘Royal’ for a mobile store.
We believe that these names make it more approachable for the people in the village.
We also analysed the sign boards that companies like Airtel,
Idea and political parties put up in the village. Idea seems to
be having a good coverage in the village and hence have
come up with a brilliant campaign that is in
Hindi and talks about the coverage of the network. While
Airtel has opted to installing pay phones inside State Transport buses. Also a study of the hoardings

48. shows that there is a huge wave of pro-Maratha faiths in the village, also there is some sense of
insecurity about Hindu Muslim relations. This can be seen in the hoardings shown below.
Another interesting thing that we noticed was that people liked to write down all the messages that
they want to communicate. Like when an object is gifted, the detail of who gifted it and when it was
gifted is written on the gift. We noticed this in the house where we stayed and also few other houses we
visited. Though the villagers say that it is written in fond remembrance of the person who gifted it, we
feel that it might be because fights related to property occur frequently in the village and having the
details of the ownership written on the property is a way of marking the item.

49. Similarly, in one of the retail stores we visited, we found interesting boards that announced that the
owner of the shop was not willing to loan money to anyone. We assume that there would have been at
some point a perennial problem of people asking for credit and fed up with it, the shopkeeper has put a
sign board out. The message in the sign board is innovative, funny and puts a harsh message in a light
manner using humour as a tool.
Finally, in all the schools we visited, we noticed lot of messages that talk of the importance of education,
promoting primary education. This we believe is a due to government’s efforts to promote primary
education in rural areas. At the same time we don’t see any effort to promote higher education.
The most interesting aspect was that we found people, youngsters, who could use mobiles and
technologies like Bluetooth with ease. They would use the latest models of the handsets, have good
knowledge of the market and would advice the older people in the village about technology. These we
believe are the major influencers in the village when it comes to promoting a technology or new
product.

50. Section six:
The House of Talekars

51. The House of Talekars: A case study
We lived in the house of Shankar Talekar. He was a farmer who had a farm in Talekar wadi, a
small village near Ghodegaon. He employed daily laborers to work on the farm and he stayed in
his pucca 2 room house in Ghodegaon near the houses of his 2 brothers. His wife and his
mother stay with him in the house.
The house was spacious with very few pieces of furniture. There was one diwan in the drawing
room where we stayed and the TV in an almirah which has a mirror and few items on display.
The door was the back entry and guests came to the house from there.
Adjacent to it was the kitchen with a gas stove and utensils of various kinds and sizes. In the
photograph you would notice a paint box which has been re-used as a bucket for storing water.

52. A small corridor opened up to the bathroom and toilet on the left and the main bedroom on
the right.
The bathroom was preceded by a wash basin. Although the bathrooms and wash basin had
water pipe connection but we were asked to use a mug and take water from already filled
buckets of water. The toilet and bathroom were separate, but there was only one mug for use.
The bathroom had a rope tied for hanging clothes. There was a tiny little place on the window
sill for keeping soap in the bathroom. For our bath we got hot water which was heated in an
iron stove over coal fire. The wash basin had a small tube of Colgate.

53. The bedroom was a private area and we were not allowed there by an unspoken and unwritten
rule. They had a few rose plants outside the house and numerous Tulsi plants.
They woke up early in the morning around 6:00 am and woke us all up as well. The bath water
was made ready in the stove. After everybody had their shower we were given poha and chai or
coffee for breakfast. They fed us in the morning even if they had a fast. Shankar Talekar went
around the village with us, introducing us to everyone as friends of Suresh his nephew from
Mumbai. He was friendly and protective about us. He would not hinder our conversation.
Suresh’s dad was busy constructing the 1st
floor of his house so did not have too much time for
us, but Shankar was always with us. Their third brother Kishore also gave us company when we
travelled to Girawali Observatory and went to Talekar Wadi for the Gram Sabha.
In the afternoon Shankar Talekar would come back home to have lunch or to just take a nap
while we had our lunch in the Vijayalakshmi Hotel.
In the evening he would sit at the retail shop near his house and chat with the shopkeeper
about their everyday affairs. At times he would go and socialize with other people in the locality
and discuss local and national happenings. And at other times they come to his house. The

54. power cuts hindered their TV timings and most of them had petromax and lanterns at their
place.
The ladies of the house are usually in their own world. Their socialization is limited and it is
mostly with other women of the family. The day ends with some time spend in front of the TV.
The family talks during meal times and in the early evenings.
They had stocked a number of blankets which came in very handy for us. The furnitures and
doors all had the name of the owner and date of purchase written on it. The electric meter
looked like one from long past era. There were liquidators and Mosquito coils to ward off the
huge number of mosquitoes.

55. When we left Shankar went with us to the bus stop. Even though language was a little barrier,
but we with our broken Marathi and he with his broken Hindi managed to communicate quite
well. He took our numbers and noted it down in his notepad and exchanged his cell phone
number for us to inform him once we reach the city safely.

56. Section seven:
Communication Problem - An Analysis

57. What is the problem?
In one sentence: Lack of good quality, skilled and qualified teachers in the school and colleges.
This problem has led to higher drop outs at all levels.3
Girls continue to study for a longer period
of time due to the modern day requirement of a literate wife in the marriage market. They are
not taught with the view that they would be working someday. Boys leave school to start work,
either in the family business or farm or go to the industrial areas and work as unskilled
labourers. Very few pursue higher education seriously, even though there are a number of
colleges.
Why is the problem?
Education is not considered to be of primary importance by the villagers. If you would look at
the hierarchy of values, education lies towards the bottom of their choices. The people who
have large enough farms believe that their sons should take care of it. People who have some
business would want their son taking it up after them. The poorer population would rather
have an extra earner in the family and send the boy to work in factories in nearby industrial
areas as unskilled wage labourers.
For those who wish to pursue higher education the subjects are difficult to grasp and requires
quality teachers, who are absent. Also the subjects being taught in the college seems very
irrelevant to learn as they have little practical use.
The teachers are also old people who have been teaching for the past 20 years and have almost
no enthusiasm to improve. The salary is also not inspiring for them to try harder.
3
Exhibit on education data

58. How many in the village have been affected by the problem?
All the children, who never complete their studies and continue doing family business or get
married after completing matriculation or at the most graduate. This would be about 800 –
1000 people and the future generations to come.
What is the attitude of the rest of the population about the problem?
They feel it is not important for the boys to complete the studies, as long as they have some
basic education, they can take over family businesses instead of wasting time in graduating. If
the student is really interested in studies, they can continue. Higher education provides a job in
the city which takes the child away from the village, and there is a sense of regret in letting the
child go away and not have them by their side when they are in their old age.
But there are a few people who are working like the advocates and the doctors and a few
retailers who want their children to have good education and keep opportunities open for
them. Some farmers also considered it important to have their children educated in some
professional course like Engineering and Medical. The system can be made stronger if the
primary and secondary level schools also have good quality teachers.
How do the affected population presently tackle the problem?
Currently the school is trying hard to recruit good teachers, which is very difficult with the low
pays they are given. While the students who really want to complete their higher education
move to other places like Manchar or Pune. Here quality of education is better and there is
more competition.
Which are media in use for feeding information in the concerned area?
There is right now no media vehicle to tackle this problem.

59. Awareness about the problem
The population is partly aware of the problem but it is in the stage where they do not
acknowledge it as a grave problem.
Awareness about solution of problem
The villagers are completely unaware about the solution to the problem.
What is the credibility of different media used to inform about the problem
and its solution?
Newspapers are highly credible media source. Also word of mouth works very strongly in the
village as everybody knows everybody and it is easier to trust what one’s own villager says than
what an outsider says. Print and TV has good penetration and Print is preferred over TV in
terms of credibility.
How would the new communication strategy help them?
It will empower them and help them come at par with their urban peers and make them more
competitive and employable in this highly competitive and technology savvy world.
How much Financial / infra-structural supports would be required to convert
the information into action?
Infrastructure is available in the village in terms of Zila Parishad Schools and college buildings.
But financial support would be required to motivate the teachers. Also there would be a need
to develop innovative ways of teaching the students. Hence there would be finance involved in
creating the content. There are international and national organisations which donate books,
uniforms and tuition assistance for kids like CRY, Akanksha and Deoki Nandan Education Trust
(DNET) amongst many more. World Vision which has worked on health and hygiene can also be
roped in to work on this.

60. Section eight:
Communication Strategy

61. Communication Strategy
From our analysis, we conclude that the education system of Ghodegaon ails not in physical
infrastructure as much as in poor human resources. The threshold quality levels of the teachers
in schools are low and as a result, the children’s fundamentals viz. primary education is weak.
These weak fundamentals impede the learning and growth of the individuals in secondary
education and more so in the competitive higher education spheres of under-graduation and
post-graduation. Thus it is imperative to enhance the quality of schooling by having better
teachers at the primary and secondary education levels.
Ghodegaon does have colleges which churn out a few hundred graduate youths every year. In
the absence of adequate job opportunities, these youth go to Pune or Mumbai to earn their
livelihood. We propose to employ some of these bright young minds passing out of colleges to
teach at the school-level. These graduates are to be adequately trained before they can be
assimilated in the schools of Ghodegaon and nearby villages. This way Ghodegaon’s people can
honourably work in their hometown for their community’s betterment. The biggest
impediment in this approach is to change the mindset of the villagers where they currently view
education as an ancillary requirement in life – for girls it is to improve their marriage prospects
and for boys it is merely a formality. Hence we have to start off with a campaign that will
enlighten the villagers with the necessity of quality education and the infinite opportunities
thereof. Not that the villagers are currently averse to education. We need to reposition
education as a fundamental necessity of life and make quality an indispensible part of it. This
can be done by highlighting the success stories of people of Ghodegaon who went to Mumbai
and Pune pursuing quality education and were now doing well professionally.
Financial assistance can be expected from some of the corporates who pursue rural education
as their corporate social responsibility. IDEA Cellular, whose current positioning is one of an
enabler of distant education and also has a sizeable subscriber base in and around Ghodegaon
may be interested. ITC, having empowered many farmers across the country, can provide their
IT expertise in this endeavour. Times of India’s Teach India is an initiative which is doing well at

62. the city-level and can be employed at the village level too. In the pre-school sector, KidZEE can
be roped in. Thus we see that branding opportunities exist from many corporates who will gain
great mileage through PR of these activities, empowering and enabling the village of
Ghodegaon in the process.

63. Action Plan
Education scheme rarely functions in a satisfactory way especially in India. Problems can be
manifold and often have a human dimension to it. The problems are too complex and have
many layers and can’t be solved by a simple single solution. As various factors are involved with
different interests and insights, 'hard' idealistic criteria cannot be used. The conviction grows
that, to resolve these complex problems, the design of education schemes should take place as
a kind of ‘learning process’ which involves all relevant factors. For such a common learning
process to take place, mutual trust and communication between the different factors is
essential. Communication between pro-education activists and farmers, however, is often very
problematic. To find ways of enhancing a ‘learning process’, we have tried to find answers to
the following questions:
• What is the difference between our perception of education and that of the villagers?
• To what extent can educationists and villagers learn from each other through exchange
of knowledge?
• How can the exchange of knowledge be optimized and communicated in a way that can
bring about change?
• What mediums should be used to get the communication across to them and make it
relevant for them?
After analysing and answering these questions amongst ourselves and with a few people who
have come from the same village we have formulated the following implementation plan,
which involves the people of the village for themselves.
Implementation Process

64. Content Creation
We plan to start an innovative teaching module for graduates who are resident of Ghodegaon.
They would be given training to teach students of primary and secondary schools at no extra
cost. The teaching would primarily be in English as that is an area which is lagging the most as
of now. Involving the youth brings in more enthusiasm in the teaching process and keeping it
free of cost makes it affordable for all who are interested in having an alternate career
opportunity by staying at home. The module will have a small entrance test to gauge the
intelligence and aptitude of the student in becoming a teacher. This would in turn make it more
focussed and make the selected students feel it is a course they have earned for themselves
rather than take it as just another course.
For content creation we could look at NGOs like Teach India initiatives or Kidzee to provide us
with their training models. We could also see if that is a possibility with World Vision which
right now is recognized for its good work in the village.
Partnership with NGOs or Corporates
The training module would require funds and a dedicated teaching staff. We would require
funds for the program. So the need to involve private players is important. Government and the
Panchayat have funds allocated for this but it gets lost before reaching the desired TG. The
good part about Ghodegaon is that its infrastructure in terms of school buildings is available. So
there would not be a requirement for creating these basic infrastructures. Also, as the
Swachhata Abhiyan was conducted and supported by the NGO and the villagers, the people
have show an inclination in accepting change if they can be convinced it is good for them.
IDEA Cellular and ITC Group are 2 corporates who might be interested in taking up this project
and make Ghodegaon a model village for other villages to follow.
Taking the Panchayat into Confidence
The Panchayat has it’s headquarter in Ghodegaon. Thus, any activity in the village would
require their permission as well as cooperation. We could convince them by making them
understand the short term and long term benefits of the program. In the short term, their
village would get the limelight of becoming more advanced than the other villages, which in

65. turn would create goodwill for them and their party. In the long term, the more skilled and
better intellectual people would be an asset to the country. The model village Ghodegaon,
created under the aegis of the present Panchayat would prove beneficial for them.
We could probably use the opinion leaders like the advocate and the principal of the schools to
talk about it with them.
Promotion and Communication
The mediums to be used for our communication would be various.
Print could be used in creating pre-launch promotion where articles are given by informing
people about the program and how it will help them in editorial space. Activations at schools,
colleges and Gram Sabha would reach the people at important social and secular touch points,
making it more relevant to the people. We also plan to get people from the city who were born
and brought up here and made it big in their profession after a lot of struggle to talk to the
villagers and make them feel the importance. This would also make the people coming to their
villages feel that they have been able to give back something to their village and make their
parents and family living in the village proud. Thus, we would be able to touch an emotional
chord with the villagers. Word of Mouth buzz can be generated by the opinion leaders and the
panchayat members. It would also help in reaching the women in the village better. News in
Alpha Marathi, Zee Marathi and/ or ETV Marathi can show the launch of the scheme and could
also report how it would benefit the villagers. It is an extraordinary experience for anyone if

66. their village or town is the focus of good discussion on television. This could channelize their
energy in making the scheme successful.
Long Term Proposition
The flip side of the program is that results won’t show early. Thus it requires long term
sustainability. The program is a trickle down process. As the youth starts teaching the school
students, the general pool of intelligence increases and as these students get into college they
need to have a good teaching faculty as well as relevant courses. If the students perform well at
the school level then this program can be extended to the college level and modules could be
created especially for teaching in colleges. The schools need constant funds to pay the teachers
enough to make them stay in the village and have a comfortable life. Hence the salary of a
teacher needs to be revised to incentivise the youth to take up the profession in the village
rather than travel to cities and do daily wage work. The teachers created from this module can
then go to nearby villages and teach at different Zila Parishad schools in and around
Ghodegaon, thus improving the level of education in the Taluka.