Referring
to a suggestion of Shah Karez regarding the involvement of Kalash community
in making decision about the allocated fund for development projects in
Kalash valley, I would like to submit a few lines about the theory of
community involvement in each and every project.
The
philosophy of community involvement in projects is very similar process as
that of establishing effective democracy in any country through public
voting. The approach towards democracy through public voting and launching a
project purely on the basis of the community opinion are same approaches.
The ground
facts have proved that both the approaches are successful only in the
society which has a good visionary understanding of development process,
well educated mind, good tolerance, trusted and mature leadership and have
interest in collective progress. We have got number of bitter experiences
adopting this philosophical approach.
The
following projects which were launched with involvement of local communities
are now poor examples to be kept in mind as failure lessons before
practicing it further:
Tar Shishi
Micro Hydel project
Micro
hydels project in Ayun.
Micro hydel
in project in Birboolak in union council Broze.
Micro hydel
in Mroyee in union council Koh.
Protective
wall granted to Sahan union council Ayun.
Village
Birir Nisar and pipe irrigation Shidi.
Irrigation
channel in village upper Kujo in union council Koh.
Story of
Bridge in village Wardap union council Drosh.
Protective
wall at Sarghooz Mastuj.
Irrigation
project in Bang.
Hundreds of
link roads washed out with hit of single harsh winter a year or so before.
All these
projects including many others failed only because of poor vision, and mis-calculation
of capacity of the community to maintain them.
We can
still practice it with little modification according to our needs keeping in
view the nature of our people. First of all selection of development workers
is a crucial step. The personal being involved must have good understanding
of the local culture and the background and evolutions occurring in the area
over decades. Then the term development should be understood. The project
management should have well elaborate understanding to differentiate between
social development, economic development, cultural development etc and their
long and short term impacts.
Before
going to the public, to involve them in brain storming, thinking,rethinking
lab-testing and paper work is primary responsibility of the authorities.
They must have consolidated ideas and could be in position to present all
the prose and cons of every idea they are going to present to the community,
keeping in view the current circumstances and history of the valley and
nature of its inhabitants.
The
community should be offered to choose among three or four different options
to select. From there the process of involvement of the community is
supposed to start. Making jushtekhan has to say nothing about economic well
being of the area, it will never improve the living slandered or nutritional
deficiencies, hygiene improvement and resource upgradation in the area.
We must
understand the basic problem of the area which could be different in
different Kalash valley’s. It is not a matter of carrying cases full of
money to the people, it is rather to offer a lot of time tested, verified
elaborated and consolidated ideas with their long and short term impacts
upon the culture economy and at the top sustaining the identity of Kalash
community.
Dr. Khalil Jughooru,
Hamilton,
Canada.