“So what do you do basically in the village?” asked the IAS Trainee with a high degree of skepticism about my work in rural development. I have faced such skepticism for innumerable times from corrupt government officials, self centered and well paid professional of corporate, businessmen whose profit depends on economics of exploitation and from some of my close friends. So I find myself quite comfortable answering these questions. “The village people have become quarrelsome because of our work”, I replied. The young IAS officer found it very amusing and smiled at me without taking my answer seriously. Then he moved to his next question.

But I gave him the reply by using all my logic and intelligence. It was a well thought response. If I look back at my work for last three years that is what we have done in the village- we have made the people more quarrelsome! We have told them about their share in Public Distribution System which they never got. We taught them to draft application using Right to Information to know about how much money has come to Panchayat for village development which is well guarded secret in the village. They have received a lot of other information that created a kind of restlessness among them. Now they want their share of right and benefits. So the peaceful village where the oppressed never rose their voice against the powerful is no longer peaceful, because the poor are demanding their right in democratic ways.