Third world poverty: Teaching the poor to help themselves
PINNED to the walls of the meeting house in Kathapada village are a number of large sheets of paper drawn on with marker. To a random Westerner, they look like rough sketches, possibly drawn by children in school, but closer inspection reveals these drawings are a map, a wish list for the future, the most important stage of the political and social awakening of an excluded tribe in north-eastern India.
The first map shows the position of the village in relation to surrounding roads and villages, the second shows its houses, water resources and who lives where. The third map shows where villagers want it to be: With more houses for the poor, a bridge, a community farm, a community pond and title to the land their families have cultivated for generations.
