FEARLESS ELECTION OFFICIAL KIRAN MUSALE HAS DARED TO WORK IN AREAS WHERE FEW WERE WILLING TO VENTURE
Prasad Chikshe
Publication: Economic Times Bangalore; Date: Mar 7, 2010; Section: Women & Society; Page: 9
Making her peace with the red terror zone
FEARLESS ELECTION OFFICIAL KIRAN MUSALE HAS DARED TO WORK IN AREAS WHERE FEW WERE WILLING TO VENTURE
Jayashree Bhosale
WHEN Naxalites opened fire on a polling party in the jungles of Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, one member of the team was running with the control unit in his hands. “Had this control unit been lost in the jungle then our ballot would have also remained in the jungle,” says Kiran Musale, the 33-year old deputy election officer of Gadchiroli district.
With 80% forest cover, the Naxal-affected tribal district of Gadchiroli is for Maharashtra what the North-East is for the rest of the country. Not a surprise then that a posting in this district is usually regarded as a ‘punishment’ by officials who leave no stone unturned to avoid it. But Kiran is one of those rare officials who stunned everyone by volunteering for a posting. “I had heard a lot about Gadchiroli and wanted to see it for myself,” is her simple explanation. Though surprising for others, it is consistent with her personality.
After her appointment in 2002 as deputy collector, those of her colleagues who had been posted to Nagpur division, which comprises the Vidarbha, an under-developed part of the state, were either in tears or trying to get their postings changed. Looking at her smiling face on receiving her transfer orders, the official handing out the transfer orders, asked, “Aren’t you worried being a woman to go to Vidarbha?” To which she replied, “When I say the whole country is mine, how can I differentiate between Vidarbha and Mumbai?”
Adversity and uphill tasks are not new to Kiran Musale, who has overcome severe odds to achieve her current social status. She comes from the Kolhati community in Maharashtra where women usually engage in performing traditional folk songs called ` Lavani’. The male members do not work but live off the earnings of the women.
Having been raised in this atmosphere, Kiran yearned for an education and her resolute mother fully supported her desire. Despite not knowing exactly who or what a collector is, she kept telling her that she had to become a collector one day. Kiran joined the state’s cadre as a deputy collector in 2002.
After completing her two-year probation period in Wardha district under the then district collector S Chokalingam who fully supported and groomed her, Kiran was posted as rehabilitation officer in Wardha district. It is one of the least wanted posts among bureaucrats due to the issues associated with rehabilitation. Her duties involved supervising the shifting and rehabilitation work of 20 villages which were going to get affected by the Lower Wardha project.
Rehabilitation is a sensitive issue associated with most development projects in the country. Many dams and other infrastructure projects have been delayed over rehabilitation related issues.
Kiran started with the basics, “I asked myself why people were reluctant to shift to the rehabilitation sites.” She found that farmers need good alternate agricultural land, if they are to continue with their farming activities. Secondly, she found that people do not shift because they usually do not get good quality houses with basic amenities. So, “I first video shot all the earlier rehabilitation sites and got documentary proof. The drinking water tanks were leaking, school buildings were of inferior quality,” she found.
Usually the homes of the villagers are built of soil and clay. “If we pay people for their homes by evaluating their homes at current rates and then expect them to build new home at future rates, then people will obviously oppose the move,” she pointed out.
Kiran told the villagers that if they paid 65% of the price then they could get agricultural land in the command area of the dam. Most of the time, villagers are not aware about this provision because the officials do not tell them about it. She thus acquired 20 hectares of farm land for the affected farmers in the command area under this scheme.
She then pooled together various schemes of different bodies like the Panchayat Samiti to give homes to people below the poverty line who were affected by the dam project. She even convinced the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) to go beyond their mandate and help in building homes.
“If the project had been delayed even by a few years due to incomplete rehabilitation work then the cost would have gone up substantially for the VIDC,” she explained. She contacted NGOs who could construct low cost homes and cement factories for supply of cement at discounted rates.
This attitude of hers, of going beyond the mandate of the job to complete her task in the best possible way has always yielded success.
“One needs to study the laws and the system. As I was reading the files in the office, I came to know that the project affected people can get wood from the forest department to build homes,” she said.
Use of police force and bulldozers to raze homes is a common scene in the rehabilitation process. This was probably one of the rare instances in India’s rehabilitation history when the eight villages that Kiran was working with, shifted completely to the new rehabilitation sites without any use of force. There were occasions when pressure was brought on her from the highest level, to lure her. But she could withstand it because, “I was never afraid as I never shirked my responsibilities. I have always tried to cram more into every minute, doing the work of 120 minutes in every 60 minutes.” Her husband, Subodh Kulkarni, who works for an NGO, has been a pillar of support for her.
The current post of deputy election officer has put to test all her management abilities. With the Naxalites boycotting the 2009 elections and threatening to cut off the fingers of those who voted, conducting the Lok Sabha and the state assembly elections was like fighting a war for her. Her team implemented many new things for the first time under ‘Operation Astha’ which was appreciated by the Election Commission and used in the recent elections in Jharkhand.
Kiran’s team with the enthusiastic support of district collector Atul Patne used the traditional institutions of the tribals like ‘Gotul’ and involved NGOs and local students to spread awareness about the democratic process. Against the backdrop of the inconveniences that the polling parties have to face, Kiran’s team, amidst all the tension, did not forget to care for the needs of the people involved in the polling exercise. The polling parties were air-dropped by helicopters at 196 places in the jungle.
“Some people cannot do without tea. Hence we gave them tea bags and sugar. Sometimes Naxalites do not allow the villagers to give food to polling parties. So we also gave them some dry food. And most importantly we gave them a medical kit consisting of 20 medicines,” she said.
The most memorable achievement of her career so far is about a woman-related incident. “An old lady got some land after the property distribution in her family but could not get it registered in her name for four years. She was a Mohammedan lady and hardly anyone takes efforts to study the nitty-gritty of Muslim personal law. I can never ever forget the expression on her face when I gave her the 7/12 extract with her name on it,” she said.