PRA-PALM Series

4. OTHERS:

Variations of this theme are when items are brought by outsiders into the village for discussions. These include arial photographs or ordinary photographs (taken from a vantage point and giving a good view of the terrain and features), maps and plans of the area/villages. Farmers show a great ability to interpret these documents and discuss them, sometimes even pointing out gaps (for instance, one farmer in Nepal pointed out that the area photograph shown to him must have been an old one as it had only 18 houses in it, whereas the village had 20 houses, 2 houses having being constructed recently).

MAPPING AND MODELLING

Do’s	Don’ts
1. Have a fair idea about the terrain and the featurs of the area that is going to be modelled. It is good to start by taking a walk in the village and around it, before starting to map or model.	Don’t take it for granted that the model will appear on its own. The exercise needs to be facilitated.
2. Do spend time thinking about the exercise. (HOW are you going to go about it? WHERE are you going to locate it? WHO you wish to involve? WHAT are you going to depict? WHY do you need to do the exercise? etc.)	Don’t over do the planning part - you might end up doing only planning.
3. Brief the people well about the exercise and the purpose of it.	Don’t raise expectations in the people of what this exercise will lead to in terms of personal gain for them.
4. Do make the exercise into an event which everyone - the men and women (old and young), and the outsiders - enjoy. Allow children to participate (children can also be engaged to make their own map.)	Don’t be too strict or rigid in the development of the model regarding the place, alignment, materials used, colour scheme etc.; let the villagers decide.
5. Involve the villagers in the selection of the spot. Some criteria are :- - it should be a flat place, with a good vantage view of the area being modelled. A fairly open or public place is likely to enhance the discussion and participation.
6. Have a fair sized model atleast about 5-6 sq.ft., in size so that various features can be depicted.	Don’t make the models too small.
7. Facilitate the exercise in such a way as to promote participation. Discuss the project with the villagers. Ask them to construct the models themselves -- including details such as nullas, fields, vegetation, houses, temples, etc.	Don’t interrupt the flow of work once it gets going. Let the people argue amongst themselves and come to decisions regarding size, colour, shape, location, etc.
8. Watch how things are turning out and taking shape. If at the end certain things are left out ask the villagers - ‘What about this ... or what about that" (4) .
9. As far as possible use locally available materials. - Twigs of different species to show vegetation. - Pebbles and stones (to show pavements, stone rivetments, nulla training or checkdams, degraded eroded patches, etc.) - Sticks and twine (to show electric lines, transformers, hand pumps, etc. - Match boxes for houses. - Grass to show crops.	Don’t over do the details, you may neglect the main features. Don’t use sophisticated material.
Supplement these with items such as: - Rangoli powder(5) - Toys (men, women, carts, buildings, bridge, etc.) - Coloured card (for houses). - Bits of pipe and so on.
10. Do try to make alternate models 50 years ago, 20 years hence, models showing proposed treatment plan and so on -- using the existing model as a base.	Don’t scrap the model. Keep them for as long as possible for discussions.

Annexure II

(1) Rangoli is a substance made up of chalk powder. It is traditionally used in India for festivals and for drawing patterns in front of peoples houses. In India, Rangoli is available in different colours and shades.

(2) Matrix Ranking is the subject of another paper titled, "Quantification, Scoring and Ranking" to be presented in PALM Series 4-G.

(3) Transects are described in PALM Series 4E titled, "Transects in PRA".

(4) In most cases you may not have to. In one case the children were extremely particular to have their school a respectable size. In another, an elderly woman earned the wrath of the villagers because she threw out a stone that was representing a large rock on which the villagers used to sit and chat in the evening. In yet another instance, women who were passing by while the mapping exercise was being carried out by a group of youth, remarked that the crops were shown too green. As the crops were poor that year due to drought, they wanted a lighter shade of green to be used on the field and this should be mixed with brown!

(5) Roughly about 1 kg of each colour - upto 6 colours should be adequate. White powder may be required in larger quantity (say 4-5 kgs) as it can be used to mix with other colours to prepare different shades or to create more bulk. On one occasion when we forgot to take Rangoli powders, chilli powder gave us the red colour and turmeric powder gave us yellow. Blue we obtained from Robin Blue. Mixing blue and yellow gave us green. Yellow and red gave us orange. We had 5 colours. One can try variations of this. Eg. Red can also be obtained by crushing bricks. Black from black soil or powdered charcoal, grey or white from `chunam' (lime) or ash. Once a farmer found himself running short of colours and began to mix his own evolving different colours and shades.

The quantity of coloured material can be increased greatly by using fillers such as sand, saw-dust or white chalk, with which the colours are mixed to increase the bulk. This enhances the quality of the model as the colours then become easy to apply.