The Gurgaon Experiment

Mr. Brayne was posted as Deputy Commissioner of Gurgaon district in 1920. He was moved at the uncertainty of rainfall, abject poverty, filthy dwellings, ill-health, ignorance, illiteracy of the rural people. With a view to improve the living conditions of the rural people living in Gurgaon district he ivolved a new technique of village development called the "Gurgaon Scheme." This was, in other words the practical application of the principle that the central figure, viz., the villager himself must be made to take greater interest in himself and in his village before any results can be achieved ; and the Government agencies should do more to combine and co-ordinate their activities in order to assist, help and guide him. The Gurgaon Scheme claimed to deal with the whole life and the activity of the peasant and the family and to present the complete remedy from the terrible conditions in which he lived.

Development work under Gurgaon Scheme

Institutional                                       Social-Health Association-Women's Institution

Sanitation                                          Latrine, Urinals, Drinking Water

Agricultural Development                     Model farms-improved seeds and implements-preventive measures-co-  -operative farming

Education                                          School Teacher as the centre of activity                

Co-operation                                     Co-operation in all activities

Social Reforms                                  Prohibition of child marriages-education of girls-thrift-reducing litigation, combining indebtedness.

According to Mr. Brayne, "our object in Gurgaon has been to jerk the villager out of his old groove, convince him that improvement is possible, and kill his fatalism by demonstrating that both climate, disease and pests can be successfully fought. He must be laughed out of his uneconomic and unhealthy customs, and taught better ways of living and farming. Further the secrets of our success were to deal with the whole of village life, to take the whole district as the field of operations and to deluge the areas with every form of propaganda and publicity that we could devise of adopt or afford. Uplift is a mass movement, a combined assault, and no area, no part of the life and no method of attack can be neglected."

The developmental work was taken up under Gurgaon scheme under these sub-heads:

1. Institutional work comprised in the setting up of:

a. School of rural economy to train guides for the rural uplift-The school managed a farm of 51 acres on long lease for the purpose of providing practical training to the students. The curriculum of the studies including scouting, co-operation, practical agriculture, first aid, infant welfare, public health, domestic hygiene and sanitation, stock breeding and elementary veterinary training. The students were exposed to qualify in the examination in first aid, and co-operation and special test in all the other subjects. Those who qualified in this test were appointed as village guides. The village guides were entrusted with these duties:

i. Development of co-operation

ii. Public health work, collecting list for, preparing people for vaccinators' visit

iii. Cleaning of villages by digging of manure pits, putting in of windows, ventilators etc. in the houses

iv. Agricultural demonstration and sale of improved ploughs and other implements, improved seeds, Persian wheel etc.

b. Domestic school of Economics to uplift village women. The curriculum of studies in the domestic school included reading and writing up to primary standard, in the case of illiterate women, and some instructions in sewing, knitting and making clothes, embroidery work, toy making, cooking, hygiene, sanitation, first aid and child welfare, etc.

c. Health Association to promote public health

d. Women's Institution to manage the ladies' garden in Gurgaon and also to organize games and magic lantern shows for the women and first-aid classes.

2. Rural Sanitation Work: with a view to improve living conditions in the villages by using manure pits as latrines and preserving sweepings, rubbish and dung in properly dug pits. Efforts were also initiated to fight epidemics like small-pox, plague and cholera.

3. Agricultural Development Programme: The programme was launched to exhort farmers to set up model farms, use improved seeds, adopt Gurgaon plough and other iproved implements; use preventive measures against crop pest, killing of field rats and monkeys and drawing out other harmful insects by keeping lanterns in the fields. The programme also emphasized on the consolidation of fragmented land holding on co-operative basis. The principal objective of this programme aimed at increasing yield per hectare, so that the farmer gets a fair return on his efforts.

4. Education: Under the scheme, the school teacher was mad the center of all development activities in the village. Mr. Brayne emphatically stated "The village school teacher with his school library, his night school and his scouts must be the center of uplift and culture and he must be so trained that he can solve all the simple problems of the villager, whether they are of agriculture, social or moral or relate to public health."

5. Co-operation: Co-operation was given special thrust as the cornerstone of reconstruction of rural areas. Everyone will extend whole-heartedly co-operation in the development of the village economy.

6. Social Reforms: Mr. Brayne had also realized that any process of economic development should run concurrent with speedy social reformers, social reformers were aimed at:

a. Prohibition of child marriages

b. Education of girls in the mixed schools

c. Abolition of Veil system

d. Curtailment of ceremonial expenditure

e. Introduction of marriage registers by which litigation in family disputes is very much less ended

f. Propaganda against injuries litigation

g. Combating indebtedness

The Gurgaon scheme may be described as a judicious combination of the villagers' own efforts with the activities of the nation building departments. It marked a definite departure in the technique of village improvement. The programme at Gurgaon awaken the people and the Government to the vital problem of village reconstruction.

Mr. Brayne himself realized that "Good Work, excellent work is going on all over the Punjab. You can travel all day and find nothing that offends either eyes or nose. Village after village and zail after zail have been turn into models of new life. Marvelous changes have been made and there is a feeling of life and movement in the air. Have we found the incentive the? Will this work last and spread? Alhas no ! This work is not being done by villagers determined to leave a better life but by villagers determine to please their district officers. A good enough motive in its way but not the motto we are looking for. There is no permanence about this kind of work. What if the district officer's attention is diverted elsewhere, or he want something different does, or in a different series of villages? "