Back to Basics

The Trendsetter: Back to Basics

Bullock carts return as prime medium of local
transport at Hadan Village of Bikaner in Rajasthan

Intro: Those who believe that traditional means of transport in  villages have no significance today may have to change their thinking. This week we take you to Hadan Village of Rajasthan where bullock carts have returned as prime means of local transport. Though the villagers have tractors and many other vehicles also, they find bullock carts as the cheapest and most convenient means of transport for local needs—even better than the traditional camel carts. After 2005, over 175 families have adopted bullock carts. What Gandhiji exphasised throughout his life is practically visible in this village. The credit for this change goes to RSS workers, writes Pramod Kumar

What would you call the people who instead of motor vehicles deliberately opted for bullock carts as prime means of local transport today? Perhaps, ignorant, illiterate…! Whatever you think, the people of Hadan Village under Kolayat Tehsil of Bikaner District in Rajasthan have more than 70 reasons to prove that they are right, and you are wrong. You may think bullock carts as a symbol of the past, but for them it is the most trusted, cheapest and convenient means of local transport in today’s circumstances, especially when the oil prices are skyrocketing. In 2005, only 40 families had bullock carts, but now 175 families have purchased—some by taking loans from banks. This not only reduced the fuel and maintenance expenses but also improved their farm outputs substantially.

Gandhiji always emphasised that the soul of the villages should not be disturbed in the name of development. He was against using machines where traditional means are still effective. But his feelings were not respected and accepted even by those who claim patent right over him. Now the people of Hadan have proved that development is very much possible without tampering the very soul of the villages. This model is now being emulated by 25 surrounding villages in the District.
The healthiest fruit of this experiment is that it saved thousands of bulls going to slaughter houses. Saving of money is secondary. “The only reason for killing the bulls today is that villagers have made them redundant. It ruined both the agriculture and the health of the farmers. By keeping bulls away from our houses and fields we have made farming a very costly affair. Our experience of nine years proves that bullock carts and bulls have solution to many of the problems faced by farmers today. As such we are not against machines. We use tractors, trucks and buses where we find it necessary, but we use only bullock carts where they are useful,” says Shri Lunaram Meghwal, incharge of the bullock carts project in Hadan, about 80 km from Bikaner District headquarters with population of about 2,600 people.
Counting the benefits of bullock carts he says, “It not only saves the fuel, it is most convenient as it requires no professional driver, lowest maintenance (bulls require less fodder than the camels), cheapest vehicle, anyone can use and above all it provides free organic manure.”
“We have listed about 70 activities, which can easily be carried out with the help of bullock carts. We thoroughly discussed them with the villagers and they realised that they can save huge amount of money and time by adopting this ‘old’ means of transport for local activities. That is why even the big farmers who own tractors now use bullock carts for various farm activities,” added Shri Meghwal.
According to Shri Nirmal Bagadia, RSS Prant Gram Vikas Pramukh, the decision to opt for bullock carts was not taken all of a sudden. It is the outcome of several years’ efforts. “Every small farmer was debt ridden, stressed, hence gradually shifting from farming as it was no more profitable. We studied the problem from different angles and finally reached the conclusion that farming cannot become profitable until we reduce the unnecessary expenses. Fact is that most of the unnecessary expenses are caused due to ignorance. The best solution was found in returning to the basics. Those who opted for it are happy today,” adds Shri Bagadia.
Before encouraging people to adopt bullock carts, certain modifications were made in the traditional model of the cart. Now it is more bull friendly than ever before. The adoption of the new carts led to many other good practices in the village. The villagers realised the need to rear cows on large scale. In 2005, only 70 families had cows, but now more than 550 out of 700 families have one or more cows. The govansh produced large quantity of organic manure, which ultimately improved the farm production and made the diet nutritious in many ways. The production and consumption of milk also increased substantially. There are families, which despite having farm land had migrated to cities or opted for other profession, but now they are earning handsome money through farms. Shri Chhaganlal Meghwal owns 25 bigha of agriculture land, but instead of working in his own field he worked as a tractor driver. Now he works throughout the year in his own field and earns handsome money.
In 2011, all these development activities were streamlined by forming the Gou Gram Swavlamban Sansthan by RSS workers. The village has more than 100 swayamsevaks. In the beginning, emphasis was on cleanliness. Then the focus shifted on seeds preservation. The villagers started collection, preservation and promotion of various traditional seeds of different varieties. A student collected 108 varieties of seeds. Not only the old seeds but also new seeds are being identified and preserved. Special efforts have been made to preserve and promote the seeds of ‘Khejari’ the tree which is believed to be a boon for deserts. These seeds are now being distributed in nearby 150 villages. The 16 times increase in ‘Bajra’ production has astonished not only the adjoining villagers but also the policymakers.

The return of bulls in village life led to the beginning of many other healthy activities also like ploughing the fields through bulls, generating power or irrigation. The villagers have now developed exclusive grazing lands for animals. The encroachment from ‘gochar’ land was removed collectively. Another major initiative was for water harvesting. The villagers revived the old ‘Bera’ system. The storage capacity of one ‘Bera’ is up to two lakh litres. Old ‘Beras’ were desalted and renovated through ‘shramdan’. The specialty of these ‘beras’ is that water stored there remains clean and potable for a longer period.
What the people of Hadan have done today is not new. It is our ignorance that we continue to ignore our time tested practices without understanding the ground realities of modernism. According to Government statistics, animals provide more power than all our power houses, whose installed capacity is 22,000 MW. Replacing them would entail a further investment of 25-40 billion dollars in electricity alone, over and above the loss of farm economy of manure and cheap fuel. The horse power of two bullocks engaged in ploughing varies from 0.29 to 1.87. There are cases on record where a good pair of bullocks can do more work than a 4-5 hp small tractor. It is estimated that only about 10 per cent of the animal energy is utilised at present.
At the time when motor transport is proving costlier due to burgeoning prices of diesel, petrol and the health of people is at stake owing to blind use of harmful pesticides and chemical fertilizers in the fields, the initiative taken by the people of Hadan kick starts a revolution, which will change the picture of entire Bharat. The bulls have been integral part of our life. But instead of using them we continue to push them to slaughter houses. Therefore, instead of wasting more time, it is time to return to the basics. n