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Learning from field Reflections on the Verbal & Non-Verbal Communications in the village
DOCUMENTED BY Nandana Chakraborty PGDPD’ 13 | Sem- 3 FACULTY Tridha Gajjar
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VADOD A Village in Anand Taluka in Anand District of Gujarat State, India. It is located 7 KM towards South from District head quarters Anand, 101 KM from State capital Gandhinagar .
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The story behind the name Recollecting the past incidents of the village, Kirtibhai Patel and Jeevan bhai patel started narrating the story behind the name of the village Vadod.�The village land was filled with almost 200 years old banyan trees around. As the banyan tree is also known as the Vad in Gujarati, the villagers named the village as Vadod- The land of Vad.� Similarly there are another incidents linked up to the existence of the village. Jeevan bhai Patel said that at a distance of 1km there was a temple of Laachmi Mata. The village Vadod was settled there at first. The present premises of Vadod were resided by the people of Mogar, a village at a distance of 3km from Vadod. The village was then crowed by the clan of Gouwa Kutumb (Barvaad catse). They were the devotees of Laachmi Mata. 6
The blessings of the Mata was such strong within the residents of the village that they could offer water in a perforated basket made up of bamboo to the goddess. There were no case of robbery and theft in that village. But the people who were found guilty of such things were made to walk towards the Mandir (Temple) with Peepal leaves in their palms. They believed that if the peepal leaves get burnt then the accused is proven guilty and hence should be punished by the villagers. Adding on to this story Patel Bhai also said that the Vadod village was named as Navli during the British Raj. This name was given by the Britishers in order to avoid confusion between Vadod and Vadodara.
Kirtibhai Patel & Jeevan bhai Patel Story telling session at Ranchor Ji Mandir Day -2 7
The pockets & castesof
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Non-verbal
Audio codes
Birlds/ animal sounds Wet soil
NATURAL CODES
Olfactory codes
Dung Neem
Visual codes
Vegetation as a code Animals health
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Azaan Audio codes
MAN -MADE CODES
Olfactory codes
Train siren
Tobacco
Animal husbandry Visual codes
Dairy Process Vegetation Personal Codes of religion Codes of Castes School
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The dairy The Staff transfering the milk into the Thar The Dairy opens two times a day. At 6-8am in the morning and from 6-9 pm in the evening. The dairy has total staff strength of 7. People from the village they come to the dairy in either of the two timings with their containers of buffalo milk. The villagers come to the counter and hand over the container to the counter staff. People selling milk then shifts to the next billing counter where they get a coupon and get the payment according to the fat percentage of the milk. The staff transfers the milk to the Pawali (huge canister). This is done to gauge the net weight of the milk. A small sample of the same milk is taken in a smaller container to measure the fat percentage in a computerized machine. 12
The milk fat measuring machine
Cattle feed
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The milk is then transferred from the Pawali to the Thar (a square shape container), which is attached to a big tank through a pipe. Total milk collected in the tank is around 25,000litres of milk. The tank container mixed milk. Another tank from the Amul cooperative comes around 11am in the morning and 9pm in the evening to collect the mixed milk from the viilage dairy. Amul takes a sample of the mixed milk measure the fat percentage mixed and gives payment to the dairy. 100% fat Rs545/liter.
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knowing the
Harman & Ambala Parmar
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Harman bhai works at Berger company’s maintenance dept. He is working as an electrician. He travels to Vidyanagar everyday. His job is not permanent, its on a contractual basis. He says that majority of the people in the village have jobs on contractual basis. There are into different kind of work. It all depends on the need for the job. They stay in a joint family with two brothers together. Harman and Ambala bhai have two lands of their own.
Agriculture is their main source of income, which is often looked by the women in the household. Ambala bhai and his wife is also active members of the panchayat. Their family also has 8 buffaloes altogether which also helps them to earn a secondary income. He says that after Amul started venturing into the village, many households have started keeping more number of buffaloes.
They families atleast earn an income on daily basis by selling milk to Amul, so this earning continues for 12months a year. Whereas farming is seasonal
Harman and Ambal Parmar Story telling session at their house Day -2 17
Animal
husbandry The full village produces around 5000 liters of buffalo milk. Out of that 2500 – 3000 liters goes to Amul. Rest are all for household consumption purpose or for direct selling purpose. Amul pays around Rs.50 per liter depending on the fat percentage.
Animal husbandry patterns • Livestock is tied up, in enclosures
• It openly grazes during the evening
• Milks twice a day, in the morning and in the evening • Livestock grazes supervised, hence no ownership identification system has been devised.
• The Waadi caste generally have donkeys at home. During the summers and the winters they take it to the “Bhatta” (Brick making factory), to carry mud from the pits. During the monsoon season they are left outside.
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• A joint family has around 12- 13 buffaloes. During the exchange of buffaloes or buying/ selling seasons the Dalal or the intermediary person takes a commission of around 5% of the profit margin. A buffaloe giving 5 liters of milk is generally sold at a rate of Rs 50,000.
Pointers of good health in buffalo • Horns tightly coiled in perfect concentric spiral. • Thin skin • Ratio of length of legs to the size of hooves • Prominent milk vein • Should be smaller in the front (head) and larger at the back, this shape is especially suitable for hassle free deliveries • Body height should be proportional to body length and weight. Feet shouldn’t be too long or short.
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Animal’s health
Food • Kele ka patta ( banana leaves) • Hari Ghas ( Green grass) • Bajri • Bhoosa (fooder) • Kapas • Cattle feed manufactured by Amul ( purchased from the dairy ) @Rs 60 /per kilo 20
Dung The Animal Dung isn’t used for Gobar gas treatment; instead during the summers the households deposit these dungs into their farmland as fertilizers.
The owners of the livestock (buffaloes), if find any kind of unhealthiness in their livestock then they immediately call Amul for medical assistance. The Amul cooperative sends in a veterinary assistance. The owner then goes to the dairy of the village and collects a general medicinal product for Rs.30. The village Mandli veterinary assistant comes to the village once in 6 months to provide vaccinations to the buffaloes. After the buffaloes are vaccine the doctor fixes a yellow colored tag, which contains a magnetized code. Each buffaloes is given a different code. This code is provided and tracked by Amul cooperative. There is another option too. If the owner doesn’t wish to wait for that long, they directly take the buffaloes to the village dairy for the immediate treatment without much of a delay.
Capturing the some buffalo moments
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Vinod Bhai Patel An owner 10- 13 hectares of Banana farm in vadod. inod bhai is a resident of Anand. His farm has an output of 1000 bananas every 1 Bigha. His business largely exports to Delhi and Rajasthan. He gets a supply of banana tissues like William, G-a from companys like cadila, Godrej and Sailor.
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Vegetation
Type of trees in Vadod • Neem (during the month of Chaitra the the villagers generally drink neem juice/ water to prevent themselves from certain diseases) • Babvde(used as a daatoon) • Peepal • Asso pallav • Amli • Amba Kairi • Adroosi (Villagers use this type of plant to prevent cough)
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Nowadays the farming shifted mainly to grow Banans and Wheat due to the instant cash payment they get from it. The surplus goes to the Anand for selling. The farmers take their surplus vegetables to the Sardargunj cooperative in Anand(APMC). Vegetables and fruits that are produced in Vadod are sold here, but other varieties comes from APMC Anand and Adas. The farmers use fertilizers from Gujarat Fertilizer company in Vadodara, and water for farming is used from the tube wells which is connected to the main Vav. This facility is recieved by them against a nominal charged bill. Around 10 years ago 75% of the lands were used for cultivation of Tobacco.
Visit to the Banana farm, on the way to Adas 25
The Gujarat
Aravind bhai Patel is the owner of the Guajrat Tobacco Company the Gujarat Tobacco Company. he stays in Anand and travels by his personal car everyday. He runs this company on partnership.
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The cultivation time for BIRI & CHUNA KHAINI is from August to September. The BIRI is a type of tobacco leaf which is 2feet long and has a width of about 9-12 inches.These two type of tobacco gets ready within 5-6 months. KOLKATA TOACCO is also grown here. The leaves of this type is similar to a cabbage leaf(round in shape). the plantation of this kolkata tobacco is during Oct - Nov and gets ready by March- April.
Tobacco can be cultivated anywhere where there is black soil. He says that his factory majorly concentrates on the processing of the Tobacco leaves, and does sizing. This processed tobacco is then supplied to states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra and Kolkata. The supply depends on the demand he says. His go-down capacitate around 5000 jute bags contains processed Tobacco. His factory and farms majorly has labourers from the lower castes like harijan, tarpadars and few Darbars, he pays around Rs,250 daily wages to them.
Visit to The Tobacco Factory’s godown 27
MAN -MADE VERBAL CODES
Health and Hygiene Pragya Activity based learning Signages
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HEALTH & HYGIENEDr. Paresh.M.Tewar
Dr. Paresh M. Tewar has been practicing as a doctor in vadod since 1979.There are total 6 doctors with personal clinics in Vadod.
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When asked about the waste management of the village, he replied spontaneously that there is a lack of hygiene in the village. Wastes are generally collected by maids and disposed off in the open road. People of the lower caste specially Harijans / Tarpadars, who do not have latrine facilities at home they go outside to release themselves. Their personal hygine level is also very low. They generally do not cut their hair, don’t keep their nails clean, don’t use soap, don’t change clothes regularly and at times don’t take bath on a regular basis. This in turns creates a lot of communicable disease in the village and thus becomes a major fator of unhygienic environment.
People come to him with seasonal diseases like typhoid and diarrhea. Diseases like chikenguniea, pox; the local doctors do not treat dengue. The patients are then asked to go to the public health center. The doctor says that education and hygiene goes hand by hand If the Wagri caste lacks the basic education then they will not maintain hygiene’s and cleanliness around them. He also says that every six months a precautionary chart of Dengue and Malaria is distributed around the village and to all the doctors’ clinic, this initiative is taken by the Public health Waste management of biomedical waste. A truck of Biomedical waste is circulated by the Govt. of Ahmedabad in the villages all over Gujarat. The trucks come to the every wednesday to collect biomedical waste from the Public health center and the local doctors clinics.
Dr. Paresh.M.Tewar talking about health and hygiene in Vadod, Day-3
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Information about doctors and other health faciltites painted on the walls of Vadod.
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Govt. SchoolPrathamik Kanya Shala & Kumar shala. till 8th standard, Gujarati medium
Private SchoolPatel. M. S. School- Gujarati medium.
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PRATHAMIK KANYA & KUMAR SHALA Govt. School
There are two schools in vadod. The Govt. School is known as the prathamik shala and is separate for boys and girls. The prathamik Kanya Shala(girls school) has 337 students. The Students of the School majorly comprises more children of the farmers and the masons.
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The govt school has provision from class 1-8th standard. From class 1 - 5th standard subject like Gujarati, Maths, Science, Environmental studies, English and Hindi are taught. Social science is introduced in class 6.The School timing is from 10:30 am to 5:00pm, the last day of every month is a half day for the teachers and the students. There are a total of 20 teachers in both the schools. They come from Anand and have a Primary teaching training certificate.
The school conducts two exams per annum, based on the exam standards of the Zila parishad. Class 1-4 have activity based learning based on the Govt initiative known as Pragya- Pravuti dwara Shiksha, where they have set milestones. There are other activities which takes place regularly in the school like: • News reading • Rally on cleanliness • Election campaign activity • Desh Bhakti • Science fair
There are other certain govt rules like even if the child doesn’t attend the school regularly they have to be passes. They cannot be detained till class 5. Every year there are freeships provided to the students of the lower castes, which consists of uniform, books and other extra fee. The school also held parent teachers meeting 6-7 times a year.
Girls of Kanya Shala carrying new benches provided by the Govt. 37
Learning through wall art
Wall paintings- Activity based learning at Prathamik Kumar and Kanya Shala 38
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PRAGYA- Activity based learning ( 1-4th standard)
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MID- DAY MEAL
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Girls of Kanya Shala all set for their mid day meal
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THE PATEL FAMILY- Navi Khidki
Nimish Bhai Patel is a resident of the Navi khidki, Patel Colony.he has four members in his family. Nimish bhai works in the Mundra por(oilrefinery). Both his children goes to the Patel.M.S. School. His wife is a homemaker. She is involved with Mahila Sanskar Kendra, where they take part in different kind of recreational and social acitivities.
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Navi Khidki Patel family, Day -3
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THE DARBARS
Amar Singh Parmar has a small cottage behind the Public health sector. People also call this place as behind Amar Singh society. These two are the landmarks to go towards Gopalpura .ha has been staying here with his family for the past 25 years. Amar Singh is a SSC pass and had left college after his mother passed away. Now he works as a painter. It’s a seasonal job has earns around rs250 daily. He enrolls himself in whichever jobs come his way. Sometimes the Patel’s hire them to work in their farms. “But no job is permanent” he says.
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He has two children who go to the Patel School of the Village. One is in 7th standard and the other is in 3rd standard. His income is not that sufficient that he can pay his children’s half yearly fees, which is rs800 for one student. The expenditure comes to around Rs 2000 per annum. Their family expense is around Rs60007000, whereas his family income when he has a job is around rs6000. His electricity bill comes around 12,000- 13,000 per annum. He doesn’t have gas facility at home so uses charcoal and wood for cooking. He buys around 20 kilos of wood for Rs 250, which lasts for around 10 days. They have huge drums in their kitchen where they store their grains. To save them from insects and fungus they use a special powder, which is readily available in any store of their village. The day when he is without any job he generally lends money from his acquaintances.
When asked about the facilities that they are entitle to from the govt. To that he says that the streetlights you see here are off half of the times. They have complained but of no use. There is no Latrine made by the panchayat, so they have to go outside to release themselves. But somehow they have managed to build a bathing area by the jugaad method. The structure of their house is very simple. They have a common kitchen and living room. At night they bring out the khatiyas and sleep outside. Inside their kitchen we got see some many beautiful vessels of steel and brass and stacked up in a line and in hierarchy according to the sizes. Amar Singh’s wife says that these are received from my wedding as a dowry. Along with that we also get a lot of jewelries and other gifts.
Amar Singhs parmar’s wife Anandi ben, Day -4
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THE DARBARS- Rohit Niwas
Rohit Niwas is a society built by the state govt. The residents belong to the Solanki, a subdivision of Darbar. There are total number of 15 houses here. We met Chanchal ben while she was returning home from work. She works in the Anganvari of the local school in the village. She has a family of 3 members. Her husband works in the Amul Diary.
Chanchal Ben at Rohit Niwas , Day -3
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Chanchal ben’s collection of calendars
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THE TARPADARS & HARIJANS
The Tarpadars are scheduled castes.They live in 3 pockets inVadod.The small community stays next to the harijans, outside the village. The houses are located on a raised ground to avoid flooding of houses by the open gut- ters.Their houses are made of bricks which aremud covered.They work in Patel farms and have goats for milk which gets used up in the family. the children, despite the facili- ties provided, don’t go to school. The Tarpadar women wear sarees with pallu falling at the abdomen.They keep their heads covered.The food is cooked on mud choolhas.
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The Trapadars and Harijans , Day -3
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A view of the Tarpadar’s kitchen, Day -3
Here, the cemented upper shelves in the rooms seen at the darbar community houses take the form of a series of wooden shelves with utensils decorated all over the wall facing the door. these look like medals displayed with pride.The cooking area is tiled.Alcoves have been made in the walls for storage purposes.
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The lifestyle of Tarpadars, Day -3
The bathing area 53
CHRISTIAN COMMUNITYSudhir Bhai Parmar
Walking through the lanes of Vadod, we wanted to visit the Christian community now. We stopped at a small shop and asked the shopkeeper the way to the Christian area. The shopkeeper introduced us to the owner of the adjacent tailoring shop. “Meet Sudhir bhai Parmar” he said. He is a Christian.he invited us to his place for a cup of tea, so we didn’t mind and went along.
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On our way to his place we learnt that there are a total number of 70 houses in their community. At the entrance there is a small foundation of mother Mary and Jesus Christ. On enquiring, we came to know that the Christian community had all together contributed in making the foundation. Like many of the other houses in Vadod, Sudhir Bhais houses structure was a different. Entering from the door we came to the kitchen and then the living room. Sudhir Bhai has been running his tailoring shop for the last 20 yrs. His wife iron’s clothes presses clothes and earn a nominal income.
A visit to the christian colony, interacting with Sudhir bhai and Sapna ben, Day-3
They have two sons. Both of them had done their higher secondary education from Vadod and for higher education have been going to Anand. Sudhir Bhai said that in their community they a church, where the father comes only one in a month. There are total numbers of six tailors n Valod village and he is one of them. Most of the people from their Christian community are enrolled into Govt jobs. His wife Mrs. Sapna. S. Parmar. In her free time she visits the Niradhar Mata Mandal (A Mahilia Samiti) every wednesday. This group only consists of christian women and is engaged into different kind of activities kind of activities like making different kinds of craft works etc. 55
Our
The course helped us understand the social, cultural and physical environment in which design has to operate, so that the design has a meaning/ relevance to people. It helped us observe the micro and macro leevls in which the research has to be conducted in the field. It also threw light on the Indian environment in which the design has to function and broadened our perception of the environment in terms of interrelationships and interdependence of its physical components operating at all levels.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to thank Dr. Tridha Gajjar for facilitating this project. We also immensely appreciate the help and support of Mahendra Bhai and Dinesh Bhai for being very fun companions during the travel and research. I would also like to acknowledge the guidance of Swasthi Singh and Immanuel Suresh. Our on-site guides, Naresh Bhai and Sajan Bhai for helping us to familiarize with the village communities. I thank all the communities and residents of vadod for their extreme cooperation and patience, and also the management of WALMI for the hospitable stay. Lastly I would like to thank all my classmates for helping each others at the critical moments of the stay and the research, and NID for this opportunity.
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