Reflection Report

Part 1: Reflection about your experience with the community you served and
learnings

1.Who or which segment of the community were you serving? Describe their specific
demographic profile1. Please give (survey/ interview) data to support this.

Under our Give Goa Project we were serving Morlem Village which is located in Sanquelim.
Our goal was to implement various practices in that particular village to make it sustainable.
The segment of the people were mostly lower class and middle class.

The demographics of the village which was provided by the Panchayat Office is mentioned
below:

1. Total Wards -7
2. Total population -3528 (Male-1756, Female- 1772)
3. Number of people in following Age Bracket: 0-1 year – 51 ,1-5 year – 172,
5-15 year – 334
4. Number of houses= 600(300 in ward 1-4 and 300 in 5-7)
5. People in ward 1-4 are mainly labour Class having average income around 10-12k per
month and in ward 5-7, mainly service class having an average income of 40k per month
6. Number of primary schools – 5
7. Number of high School -1
8. Kaju Factory- 1
9. Out of 300 houses in ward 1-4, 200 houses do not have toilets
10. There is very less Cattle farming in the village, so they buy manure from agriculture
department
11. Sources of water- Wells and Spring (Ward 1-4) and water tanks (Ward 5-7)
12. There are total 2 rivers, 12 wells, 1 lake and 3 springs
13. Households Above poverty line (APL) are 419 and households Below poverty line
(BPL) are 427
14. Caste distribution is as follows: General-3152, Scheduled Caste-119, OBC-80, Muslim-
95
15. Average daily wage is 400 INR and they work for around 8 - 10 hours per day
16. Total 4 families are engaged in dairy farming in the village
17. People are engaged in coconut, cashew and areca nut farming

(Data collected from face to face interview with the village panchayat)

1
Age profile, gender, education, employment status, nature of employment (contractual/ seasonal/
government/ clerical), marital status, income level
2.Based on your observations and interactions, describe the physical, social and economic
environment2 of the village(s) in which the community resides?

We interacted with different segments of the village which includes:

1. The Panchayat and few villagers

2. The School children of the government school, Morlem

ECONOMIC Status of the village that we were serving:

1st house- Government servant (Police HC) earning 45000 p.m.

2nd house- Working in a factory earning 10000 p.m.

(Most labours work in the factories like Nestle, ACGL and other factories in Mapusa)

SOCIAL perception and environment analysis:

Socially they were not backward people and they were accepting the suggestions regarding
sustainability practices wholeheartedly. Our most of the interaction were with the panchayat
office members who told us about the villagers and their perception towards sustainability

Our other set of people that we interacted in the village the most were the school children of
the government school and their head mistress where the students were taught about sustainable
practices through various subjects. They were very smart students but lacked on the practical
knowledge about the sustainability.

The Morlem village belonged to the interior corner of the Sanquelim, which was not much
exposed to the city or town dimensions. The area was backward in terms of infrastructural
developments and had very few shops and houses but the people were very much like the urban
Goans. The mindset of the people was not much different from the people of other segments
of Goa.

PHYSICAL environment: The physical environment of Morlem village is filled with greenery.
The village has 2-3 springs and gets supply of water from Anjunem dam which is located
nearby. The village has good roads and the connectivity is also good. The village gets ample
amount of rainfall during the rainy season but except for kaju cultivation, no other farming
happens in the village.

3.How does the profile of this community (e.g., farmers/self-help groups) compare with
national data? Explain the similarities and differences.

2
Scarcity/ abundance of supply of natural resources, caste groupings/ religious groupings if any; what jobs
men and women in the village generally do, cleanliness of surroundings
The profile of this community is very much different from the national data. In terms of
demographics of this village, the village has more BPL people than APL people which is not
the case nationally. The village does not support any major farming or cultivation practices
which again differs nationally. The village has majority of the people following Hinduism
which is similar when considered nationally. Also the village has income groups of people that
are majorly middle class and lower middle class, making it a similarity with national data.

4.Based on your observations, what are some critical problems faced by the community?
(Please support your explanation with survey/ interview data.) What could be two major
reasons for problems?

A few of the critical reasons that the community faced:

1. Waste Segregation is done by Gram panchayat for dry waste only and there was no wet
waste management
2. There was no collection of Fallen dry leaves from the trees
3. The students of the government school in the village were not really aware about the
various sustainability practices
4. E-waste generation of Morlem Village was low

(Data collected from face to face interview with the village panchayat)

Since the village is located in the interior part of Sanquelim which itself is far from the main
town and capital of Goa, the village lacked in infrastructural development and also the villagers
were unaware about the sustainable practices. Secondly, implementation of anything that is
supposed to be done by the government used to take a longer period of time than what was
estimated.

5. Which of these problems did you address in your project?

The problem addressed were:

1. We suggested a more frequent waste management system. According to us, the village
had the population wherein the segregation of the waste was not regularly done. So, we
gave them options of biogas in order to make the process of waste management
sustainable
2. We gave a full-fledged plan of setting up solar panels in the Morlem village keeping
the village office as our pilot project. The plan included the process of setting up the
solar panels on the roof of Panchayat office and the subsidiary details from the
government for installing it
3. The government school that we were assigned had students who were not really aware
of sustainability. So, we taught them how the process of segregation works, the colour
of different bins and what energy saving actually is and how they can be benefitted
from it hence, to save the environment. In these sessions we taught them about
sustainability practises and held various other events which included quizzes, poster
 making competition and a skit of sustainability which was held on 26th January on the
occasion of Republic Day

Part 2: reflection about your project accomplishments and learnings.

1.What were the specific goals of your project?

Our project was “Sustainable Rural Development” in village Morlem.

Below were the specific goals of our project:

 To document the current scenario of the village on various parameters like

demographics, economic parameters, electricity consumption, water sources and
consumption, waste management, natural ecosystem and other relevant parameters.
 Liaison with various Government departments to understand their role and policies for
sustainable development of the village.
 Develop a roadmap for sustainable development of the selected village with specific
annual actions and targets over the next five years.

2.Broadly, how did you go about meeting the project goals? Describe your approach in
detail.

Our project was basically divided into 2 parts. In the first phase, we started the project by
visiting the Panchayat office and collecting the basic demographic details of the village. We
interviewed few of the villagers to get an overview of their lifestyle. We figured out the areas
where we can focus on the sustainable development of the village. We narrowed down our
options to 3 which were solar panel set up, rainwater harvesting and wet waste management.
We visited various government departments such as Goa Energy Development Agency
(GEDA), Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) and Department of Water Resources
to discuss the feasibility of these options in village Morlem. We had a discussion with the
officials in GWMC and came to know that amount of wet waste that is generated by the
villagers is quite small and does not require any external management. Rather, they can
continue with dumping the waste in the composting pits. Also, we came to know that water
level in village Morlem is quite high and there is no scarcity of water as well. Hence, setting
up of rainwater harvesting system does not make much sense. Upon looking at all the
parameters, we concluded that solar panels can be set up at Panchayat Office and at
Government School Morlem. We have contacted the dealer and got the cost estimate which
we’ll represent to the concerned authorities.

In the second phase of our project, we planned to create the awareness about the importance of
sustainable development amongst the students of Government School Morlem. We planned to
make January as the “Sustainable Month” and organized various activities such as video
sessions, poster making competition and skit performance by the students of the school. We
were able to make a significant impact on the students after organizing these activities.
3.What were the significant challenges you faced in achieving the goals? Please describe
them in detail. How did you respond to these challenges?

There were some challenges that we faced in achieving the goals. One of the major challenges
faced by us was to get the appointment at the government departments. There were times when
we had to change our last-minute schedule because we were not able to contact the concerned
person. Also, there were times when we had to wait for hours to have a meeting with the
government officials. The other challenge that we faced was while organizing the sustainable
month in Government School Morlem. As we did not had any Marathi speaking member in our
group, it was little challenging to communicate with the students but we were able to cope up
with this by the help of the headmistress and teachers of the school.

4.What were the specific benefits that the community received at the end of your project?
How did this help solve the community’s problem (question 5)? Please give supportive
evidence to illustrate the benefits.

We were able to make a significant difference in the knowledge of the villagers through our
project. Though the objective of our project was to study the village and develop a roadmap
for its sustainable development, yet we explored the areas where we can make a difference in
the short run. We targeted school students, the budding minds of the village, to solve the current
issues of the community such as saving water and electricity and managing the waste in a
proper manner. In the long run, our project would provide several other benefits such as
consumption of energy through solar panels.

5. What did you do to ensure that the community continues to use these benefits in the
future?

 We took repeated sessions in the school to make sure that students become sensitive
towards the sustainable development
 We have done all the ground work for the opportunities explored by us along with the
explanation of positives and negatives associated with those opportunities.

6.Which project goals were met entirely and which ones were not met? Please give
evidence to support your claim.

Under Waste Management Proposal, we looked at various possibilities to make the Morlem
Village sustainable. We came across the option of Bio Gas implementation project through the
waste generated form the households but this goal was not met.

As far as electricity consumption plan is concerned, we were looking to make the village
sustainable by saving electricity and using sustainable means of producing electricity so that
the environment does not get affected. Therefore, we planned to present a project proposal of
Solar Panel implementation to Gram Panchayat and Government school Morlem. In this way,
we are able to meet our goal of Sustainable way of producing electricity with impacting the
environment.
Under the plan of rain water harvesting system, we explore various possibility of implementing
rain water harvesting system in Morlem Village. We saw Government school as one option for
our pilot project where we can see the pros and cons of rain harvesting system but this project
idea was also dropped.

7. Please detail the reasons why you were or you were not able to achieve the project goals.
Illustrate with examples from your experience.

 Bio Gas - Machine that is being used in generation of Bio gas has a minimum
requirement of waste that is to be inserted to generate bio gas. Waste generated in the
village is quite less in comparison to the requirement of the machine. For generating
Bio Gas, daily waste has to be collected from the households to be put in the machine.
But the wet kitchen waste is not being collected from the households and they usually
dump it outside their houses.
 Rainwater Harvesting - We met chief engineer P. Badami and he told us about the
ground water level of Goa as whole which is way above and actually there is actually
no need of rain water harvesting system to be implemented in this village as Goa
receives ample amount of rain which serves the requirement of entire village.

8.What would you do differently to ensure that more could be accomplished in the
project? Please justify your answer.

We believe that the scope of the project was very limited and it was restricted to Morlem village
only. Since Goa has similar geography all over the state, we could have applied the solutions
that we are applying for the Morlem village to other areas also which could have broadened
our horizon in terms of coverage of area. If the horizon could have been such large, then we
would have definitely applied our findings to other locations as well which could increase the
impact that wanted to create in terms of sustainability in the society as a whole.

9.What were the most difficult or satisfying parts of your project work? What did you
learn from them?

The most difficult part was to set up the meeting with the government officials and getting to
meet them in the office. Since we had to meet with a lot of government officials as a part of
various project proposals, we encountered a lot of problems like the unavailability of them at
various times. We could have made a proper timeline and should have scheduled proper
meetings with the officials to save our time and effort. Planning is key in every aspect where
we could our goals with proper setting up of plans.

10. To what extent were the community’s problems generated by government, business
or NGOs? What can each of them (business, NGOs and government) do to solve them?
Pls give specific suggestions for each.

According to the observations and findings in our project, the community’s problems are not
generated by any business, NGO or Government. We can say this statement since we had
visited Kaju Factory for checking their waste disposal system as there a lot of pollutants which
could impact the environment and human beings generated in the factory. But after visiting
the factory, we saw that there is a proper waste management system which is already in place.

We believe that it’s not any business, government or NGO which could create the problems
in the community, it’s the community itself which could create some problems for themselves
only.

11.Describe a new business idea that could address any one of the community’s problems
and also make money for the entrepreneur who addresses the problem. What makes you
think this idea will work?

As per various options that we explored as part of our project, Solar panel implementation is
one of the options that we are looking for which could address the community’s problem of
sustainability. As the electricity is supplied by the electricity department of Goa, we can
implement solar panel which addresses the problem of village and also generate money for the
dealer or entrepreneur setting up the solar panel at school and panchayat office. We believe
that this idea of solar implementation will work out as this proposal of solar implementation
has cost advantage in the future and after recovering the cost, the solar panel will help us in
generating profits and make the village sustainable in terms of electricity production.

Part 3: personal take-aways for group members about each stakeholder

1.What were the initial reactions of your team members towards the community? Please
give examples.

Initially team had different picture of village in mind as most of team members were from
north India. We started doing comparison of Morlem village with villages of north India.
They found that these people were culturally different from team as their culture was blend of
portugese and maharastrian culture. Even these villagers belonged to displaced community
(displaced due to anjunem dam). Their mindset was totally different from us, goan people.

2.Relate a critical incident that occurred while interacting with the community. How did
your team respond? What was the result? What did your team learn from this
experience?

We interacted with local to discover their source of livelihood and calculate their wages and
came to conclusion that there was huge disparity in wages. Labourer class had low income up
to 12k whereas other section that belonged to government servants had income approximately
7-8 times more. As a team we started identifying ways of targeting both segments of society
and creating awareness regarding sustainable development as both segments had different
waste generation, consumption and resources usage pattern. So we specifically tried to
prepare plan according to segments.

3.Have these initial reactions to the community changed over time? Why? Please share
examples
Morlem village is more developed in comparison to other north Indian villages this was our
prima facie view. When we dig deeper it became visible that they are in line with many
government initiatives like formation of self-help groups, swachh bharat abhiyan (as had
proper waste management plan). So, respect toward this village increased even they were
displaced from their native place but how efficiently they managed their village it was
remarkable.

4.Would you say the community supported you strongly? Give examples of their support/
lack of support.

Community supported with high hands they helped in every possible manner they can for eg.
When we visited high school to spread awareness Headmistress cooperated and treated very
nicely, village sarpanch answered all queries even panchayat office was highly cooperative
they provided verified and trusted data in our desired form, people provided all the information
which was required in our give goa project. Mention Caju Factory also

5.What could your team have done to obtain greater cooperation from them?

There was no Goan in our team so during visits when team interacted with people
communication gap was visible. From our experience it was evident that they were more
comfortable in sharing their feeling and problems in native language and personal touch was
visible if someone interacted with them in Marathi and Konkani language. So, if we had one
Goan in our team we could have performed better.

6. What were the initial reactions of your team members towards the client? Please give
examples from your experiences.

The project “Sustainable Rural Development” was started first time in the college and the
client for this was our faculty Mrs. Arpita Amarnani. In the initial phases we were unclear
about the objectives of the project and the group was not receptive about the project but
gradually after talking to our client and understanding the deliverables we got some direction
in the way to work. We were told to see all the feasible aspects for the Morlem village in the
ways it could have been sustainable. The client from the day of the inception of the project
was very helpful and approachable for any issue that arose.

7. Relate a critical incident that occurred while interacting with the client. How did the
team respond? What was the result? What did you all learn from this experience?

Initially when we were told about this project we as a team were skeptical of how to carry
this project forward. The client informed us to look into the ways in which the project could
have been feasible. She gave us a few examples of how various villages have adopted various
schemes and also case studies that talked about their sustainability. This helped us to broaden
our horizon and look various sustainable steps that could be employed in the village. The
result about this was that we probe various steps by meeting the government liasons who told
us the feasibility of various steps.

8. Have the initial reactions to the client changed over time? Why? Please share examples
Since the inception of the project, we were having a good communication with our client. She
use to provide us with all the information and the help that was needed time and again and also
helped us with different perspectives wherever we found it difficult to move further. Hence the
initial reaction that we as a group have formed that the client is helpful and approachable at
any time stayed till the last.

9. Overall, would you say the client supported you in the project? Give examples of their
support/ lack of support. What organizational/ personal factors could explain their
support/non- support?

The client was very supportive to our group because this project is initiated for the first time.
Because we were unable to understand the objectives, our client had taken the responsibility
of making us understand how the things can work this way onwards. She extended every kind
of help she could have provided. Even our faculty mentor along with our client guided us
wherever it was required so that we can reach a substantial place which could be incorporated
in the 5-year roadmap which is to be given to our client and the panchayat. Our client also
helped us meeting various government institutions with whom we could discuss the various
aspects of the sustainability in the village.

10. What could you have done to obtain greater cooperation from them?

Since we have received all the necessary help from our client’s side that we should have
received, hence, this is the most the client would have helped us with.

11. What were the initial reactions of your team members towards each other? Please
give examples from your experiences.

Initially team members did not know each other. We had some friction during report
submission and presentation because each member had different views and opinions on the
given project. After a certain time, we got to know each other’s strengths like few are good
in writing, speaking and others are good in making presentations. Hence, we used each other
strength to accomplish our goals and we were able to complete our tasks in efficient and
stipulated time.

12. Relate a critical incident that occurred in the team. How did members respond? What
did you all learn from this experience?

One Incident happened during report submission, as the due date to submit the report was
already there and also review meeting was also approaching at that time. We able to submit the
report in the last minute. Team members were busy in their personal work like academics’ club
activities and competitions and could not able to contribute their time for report submission
and presentations. As a result, nobody was ready to spend few minutes to sit, discuss and
complete the task. A night before the submission few members sat and completed the report.
From this experience we learned that everybody should take out some time to complete the
tasks and each member’s presence is very important for sharing ideas and this will lead to more
structured report and beautiful presentation.
13. Have the initial reactions to each other changed over time? Why? Please share
examples

14. Overall, would you say the team supported each other through the entire project?
Give examples of support/ lack of support

As mentioned above, during the start of the project, team members were not on the same page,
there was lack of communication among us and team was not at all supporting each other to
complete the tasks. As a result, personal equations got worse and few team members did not
participate at all. Few times it happened that appointment with government officials was
confirmed in the day before Give Goa Day as there was no proper information what would be
the purpose of the Thursday visit. This was mainly due to lack of communication, ego clashes
and lack of taking initiative or ownership of tasks. But with passage of time, team members
developed a lot interest in creating sustainable in the Morlem village. Team members started
supporting each other, helping others to complete the tasks and also taking initiative to plan
and prepare the agenda for Give Goa Days.

15. What could have been done by the team to obtain greater cooperation from all
members?

As mentioned above, during first few weeks of this project, there was lot of friction between
each other, ego problems and personal bias was developed too. There was no cooperation at all
among us and it was hindering our project’s progress. These problems and hurdles could have
been avoided if from start only we could sit or arrange a meeting where we could have
discussed our strengths, exchange ideas related to sustainability. From the start only there
should have been ice breaking session amongst us. Each one should have discussed their
priorities and other tasks where we were involved such that team members would have idea
about the abilities of each member.