Catalog

Face to Face: Consultations with the Poor
Through one-on-one consultations, the voices of the rural poor in Sri Lanka are being heard.

By Mariam S. Pal (mpal@adb.org)
Economist (Social Development)

I have always believed that to help the poor, one has to understand their lives and the challenges they face. Statistics tell one story, but meeting people and seeing their families, homes, and work places gives an entirely different perspective. This story of three villages in Sri Lanka's Uva Province is about poor peoples' lives, their sorrows-and their hopes and dreams. It is also a story about how ADB staff members went to these villages and spent some time learning about their lives, the poverty they face, and how ADB's activities can have real impact on them.

To understand the lives that lie behind official poverty statistics requires one-on-one consultations with people like this family from the village of Hangiliella, Sri Lanka.

A Special Fund to Support Participatory Activities

In early 2000, a special fund was created to support participatory activities in ADB programs and projects, especially those relating to poverty reduction. I applied to this fund for support to carry out a series of consultations with the poor in several of the poorest districts of Sri Lanka. I wanted to identify major issues that would not normally be identified from analyzing secondary material, such as the current statistical database or existing poverty literature. The consultations provided unique qualitative data on the situation of the poor. The Poverty Impact Monitoring Unit (PIMU), a Sri Lankan research organization specializing in poverty analysis, worked with us.

What We Did

We decided to study four districts. The first, Badulla District in Uva Province, was where we would do a pilot test to ensure we had the right approach. A six-hour drive southeast of Colombo, Badulla is one of Sri Lanka's poorest districts when measured as the access to basic social services. Poverty there is 27 percent compared with the national average of 21 percent.

While much of Badulla is flat, the part we visited is mountainous. Tea is a major crop, as are rice and vegetables. Nireka Weeratunga, a PIMU anthropologist who had done her dissertation fieldwork in Badulla, proved a wonderful guide and researcher in helping us learn and understand the dimensions of poverty in this part of Sri Lanka. Dharini Rajasingham, also an anthropologist, and Shakila Jabbar, a research assistant, accompanied us, as did Soo-Nam Oh, who is ADB's Country Economist for Sri Lanka.

How We Did It

MAPPING THE VILLAGE: One person drew all the important features of the village.

We used a participatory approach for the consultations. The first thing we did was to request one person to draw a map of the village, indicating things such as the major topographical features, houses, school, health center, water supply, road, and stores. We also asked them to tell us the locations of the poorer areas of the village and how the livelihoods of those households differed from the rest of the villagers. Next we asked the group to assist in completing a general questionnaire to collect any missing information on issues such as population, employment, agriculture, and access to infrastructure and education. Following this, we visited individual households to find out more about how people live and work-and to learn about their dreams. Toward the end of the day, we met with the village as a whole to gain a better appreciation of how the people viewed poverty and its solutions.

Can a Boulder Increase Poverty?

DEADLY ROCK: An obstacle to economic development, this boulder has also caused the serious injury of three children from Dadayampola Village.

Our first destination was the remote village of Dadayampola in Badulla District. After driving on a secondary road, we got out of our van by a school and started walking along a path. Initially manageable, the path quickly revealed dangerous sections. At one point, a large protruding boulder blocks the path. We inched our way around it, gingerly holding on to the rock itself and some shaky tree roots. To our horror we later learned that three small children have plunged into the valley below from this very spot. My body was shaking as I made my way around the boulder on the way out of the village.

Dadayampola has about 150 people in 30 households. We met with a group of villagers and then visited five houses. This may not sound arduous, but sometimes it was a half-hour walk up and down the steep hillside between houses. Farming is the main livelihood. Three of the residents are in the army, and one is working in the Middle East-meaning their families are receiving regular incomes. The village does not have electricity or running water, and only about one fourth of the people have access to pit latrines.

Getting medical attention is another issue: the nearest health center is 18 kilometers (km) away. Some villagers have died because they were too sick to make the journey to the road. Going to school is easier, with the nearest one only 2.5 km away. The journey to school can be risky during the monsoon season, and some parents keep their children at home.

Their biggest constraint, they said, is a lack of infrastructure. Every person we talked with mentioned the narrow, treacherous footpath to the secondary road. The big rock blocking the path clearly makes it difficult to bring out produce to sell at the local market.

We also asked people about their possessions that could indicate wealth, such as a television, radio, fan, or sewing machine. To our surprise, none of the households had these items-but almost all had a wall clock.

Does a Road Mean Less Poverty?

The next day we ventured about an hour's drive from Banadarawella to Hangiliella Village. We again walked on a path, but this was only a 15-minute uphill climb. Some of the people drew us a map and then, after finding out answers to some general questions, we broke up into two groups of three and went to talk with people.

Hangiliella has 425 people living in 92 households, all of which share only two water taps. There is no electricity, and only a fourth have pit latrines. Most of the villagers are farmers, although five work on nearby tea plantations and three have government jobs as a clerk, policeman, and teacher. Twenty-four of the residents are living elsewhere: 17 are in the army, 1 is in the Middle East, and 6 are working in garment factories.

We were amazed at the difference in the quality of life that we observed in the houses where some family members have left to live and work elsewhere. Their houses were bigger, cleaner, and equipped with amenities including furniture, a television, dishes, and cooking utensils-thanks to the money sent home by absent husbands, wives, sons, and daughters.

Because Hangiliella is close to the road, access to outside facilities is easier. The village has its own school that goes up to grade 8. A high school is located 6.5 km away, as is a health center. Despite these factors, more than 80 percent of the villagers identified themselves as being poor during our group session. They said that the biggest problem was the lack of access to good jobs, and that their children had no choice but to leave. They also expressed their frustration over the entire village only having two water taps, and that both the Government and donors had built water systems that had broken down. In fact, the lack of water was seen as a cause of poverty. Villagers asked us for more help from their Government and nongovernment organizations.

Plantation Life

A century ago, the British introduced tea plantations to Sri Lanka, bringing Tamil-speaking laborers to work on the "tea estates." When the Government nationalized the plantation sector 25 years ago, many estates were leased back to the private sector. But some estates stayed in private hands, such as the Lower Wiharagala Estate, which we visited. Pared down to only 120 hectares (ha) from its original size of 280 ha, this estate is home to 250 people-all of them Tamils.

Although the estate is very close to the road, this does not guarantee adequate access to social services. The nearest health center is 13 km away, as is the high school. The primary school is about 3 km away in the next village, even though Lower Wiharagala has more people living in it. Half of the households have access to electricity. Those that do not cannot afford the connection charge. Two thirds of the people have latrines, and two water taps serve the entire village.

At the village meeting in their temple, we were told that the biggest problems were a lack of access to water and to income and good jobs. The plantation only provided most families with three days' work per week-at the most. Some earn extra money by growing vegetables and selling them at the market. Others have gone to work in local factories. However, because many do not have the identity card needed to travel freely outside the estate, they are constrained in their ability to seek better employment opportunities.

What ADB Can Learn

It's one thing to go and visit villages and try to learn about poverty. But for this information to be useful to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), we also had to think through the operational implications of the visits. To generalize from such a short experience is difficult, but four issues struck me.

• First, it is difficult to emphasize enough the importance of access to basic infrastructure, social services, and employment. Access to a road, school, and health care facilities can make the difference between poverty and grinding poverty, or between life and death in the case of the seriously ill.
• Second, in the group discussions of poverty, the people always directly mentioned the responsibility of Government, funding agencies, and nongovernment organizations for improving their lives-but never themselves.
• Third, in the two villages we visited, crop damage from wild animals, especially elephants, was cited as an important reason for people's poverty .
• Last, there was a stark contrast between households where a family member is working abroad or in the army. The regular income not only brings families out of poverty, but it also gives them access to better housing and items such as a battery-operated television set or a radio.

A Final Word

When I returned to Manila from my mission, I explained to one of my colleagues what I had been doing. "Ridiculous!" he said, and then proceeded to complain about how anthropologists were taking over poverty analysis at ADB and that anybody can go and talk to villagers. Well, I don't see too many anthropologists around ADB-I'm an economist myself-but I do agree with him that anybody can go and talk to villagers. What is harder is to know what to ask, what to observe, and what the findings actually indicate about the village, the people, and poverty. It takes time, and it is hard work.

There is so much to learn and to be gained from coming face to face with the poor, consulting with them and-most importantly-learning from them about the lives that lie behind the statistics.

RELATED DOCUMENTS

Tharuka: On Being Poor  [The story of one impoverished man in Sri Lanka] ADB's Country Operations in Sri Lanka ADB's Field Office in Sri Lanka A Fact Sheet: Sri Lanka and ADB Women in Sri Lanka [A study of the status of women in Sri Lanka]

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