Interview with Goppur Mian. Resident, Uttar Majlishpur, Tripura
Duration: 00:21:23; Aspect Ratio: 1.778:1; Hue: 23.449; Saturation: 0.165; Lightness: 0.579; Volume: 0.164; Cuts per Minute: 0.047; Words per Minute: 66.006
Summary: The Identity project emerged as a result of our dissatisfaction at the nature of the debate that was emerging on the area of digital governance in India.
Over the past three years we have conducted numerous field visits in seven Indian states.These visits include numerous video-conversations, some short and others very long, with a diverse number of those who were involved with this entire process of participating in the emergence of a digital ecosystem of governance. These are interviews with people being enrolled into the Aadhaar programme, with district-level Panchayat and other officials, with numerous State government bureaucrats, with private enrollment representatives, representatives of various governmental services, with operators and other members of this digital workforce. Conversations are often long, spontaneous and deliberately unstructured: and the focus is mainly on a vérité style using amateur video.
Some key issues that we shortlisted for detailed inquiry were issues of migrants, both domestic and across international borders, homelessness in cities, and the financially excluded. Each of these areas was discussed in considerable detail at major public consultations held in Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore, in partnership with the CSDS, the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, and the Urban Research and Policy Programme Initiative of the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore. All videos of all presentations made at these events are also available here.
CSCS also has an extensive text archives of material on the field as a whole, available on
http://eprints.cscsarchives.org.
Clip Summary: Interview with Goppur Mian, a BPL resident of Uttar Majlishpur, who speaks about the need for multiple sources of employment to make ends meet. A farmer by profession, he also owns a cycle rickshaw and has opened a small shop in his house that is run by his wife. To further supplement his income, Goppur Mian does work under the NREGA scheme. He speaks in a non-committed manner about the Panchayat and its services. He has not tried the tele homeopathy services nor has he received any benefits from the Indira Awas Yojana scheme, having to undertake the construction of his own house with a loan from the owner of his farming land. he has a voter ID, and now has an Aadhaar number, but he has no idea what it can do for him.
Interviewer: What is your name?
Gopur Miyan: Gopur Miya
Interviewer: Since when have you been living here?
Gopur Miyan: It has been a very long time. My father and grandfather have lived their whole lives here.
Interviewer: So you've been here since childhood?
Gopur Miyan: Yes. My parents and grandparents all live here. I was born here. I haven't come here from elsewhere.
Interviewer: What do you do?
Gopur Miyan: I ride a rickshaw now. I also do odd jobs, some farming. As and when work comes.
Interviewer: You practise agriculture also?
Gopur Miyan: I rent a piece of land and work on it. I bring the fertilizer, seed and equipment. The produce is divided equally between the owner and me. After the farm season is over, I ride the rickshaw for hire in the town and market.
Interviewer: In Agartala?
Gopur Miyan: Agartala, Mohanpur, toward that direction. I go wherever I get the customer for.
Interviewer: Do you also work with NREGA?
Gopur Miyan: Yes.
Interviewer: What kind of work?
Gopur Miyan: Digging, farming, road laying, cleaning and sanitation, things like that.
Interviewer: Do you also work with bamboo?
Gopur Miyan: Bamboo work happens very little in this region. Outside areas like Tilamura, Babormura have a lot of bamboo workers. Here it is very little.
Interviewer: Do you know Mithun?
Gopur Miyan: He's an acquaintance in the panchayat. I speak to him once in a while.
Interviewer: Have you borrowed money from him?
Gopur Miyan: Yes.
Interviewer: For what? To buy something?
Gopur Miyan: To buy things, for the shop...
Interviewer: Do you run the shop?
Gopur Miyan: Yes.
Interviewer: What kind of shop?
Gopur Miyan: Grocery shop and general supplies. I work for the shop from outside. My wife manages it. I deliver the purchases to people's homes. Since both of us work, we manage our household.
Interviewer: So you do a lot of work, several jobs.
Gopur Miyan: Only if we work we can live and look after our families. If one spends without earning then even a king would become a pauper. We have to work to be able to feed ourselves and our families. It is impossible to just sit around and eat. That's why I got my wife the shop and I earn from other jobs for the family and she can save what she earns.
Interviewer: Do you also deposit and save money in the bank?
Gopur Miyan: We make very little money. How will we deposit such small amounts in the bank? Money constantly comes and goes. As I earn, I have to spend on food and household things. I have told my wife that all the needs of the family will be taken care of from the money I make. And she can save the money she makes from the shop and spend it on the shop.
Interviewer: Since when have you been riding the rickshaw?
Gopur Miyan: About 20 months. My father's unwell for about 10 months now and I’m riding the rickshaw.
Interviewer: That's why you've started riding the rickshaw?
Gopur Miyan: Yes.
Interviewer: How is he doing now?
Gopur Miyan: My mother's dead, he's still unwell.
Interviewer: He's still unwell? Is he here?
Gopur Miyan: He's gone to my brother's house for lunch.
Interviewer: The government through the panchayat gives medicines...
Gopur Miyan: Yes, they give medicines when we go there.
Interviewer: Are you taking it?
Gopur Miyan: We buy from the market. But sometimes, my wife when she goes to the panchayat, gets medicines if she or I aren't well.
Interviewer: It is easily available?
Gopur Miyan: Yes.
Interviewer: Does it work?
Gopur Miyan: Yes. If it is serious then we have to go to the doctor and get checked and he prescribes medicines. When minor things like fever or stomach upsets happen, we get the medicine and get well.
Interviewer: Have you availed the housing service of the government? IAY -Indira Awas Yojana?
Gopur Miyan: No.
Interviewer: You are BPL, no?
Gopur Miyan: Yes. I borrowed here and there and somehow managed to buy a house of my own. So I didn't apply for the programme.
Interviewer: So you don't need the programme?
Gopur Miyan: Of course there is! If they are giving something to the poor, we wouldn't refuse.
Interviewer: Why didn't you take it?
Gopur Miyan: I already had a house and didn't really want one through the programme.
Interviewer: When you're getting it for free, you don't want the facility?
Gopur Miyan: If it is for free, then I would take it. I have a son and two daughters. I have to get them married. For them I would take...
Interviewer: Have you already asked the panchayat that you wanted
Gopur Miyan: Yes.
Interviewer: and you didn't get it?
Gopur Miyan: I have applied for the BPL ration card. They’ve said they will give it soon.
Interviewer: So you're on the list?
Gopur Miyan: Yes, I’ve applied so they'll give it to me in some time.
Interviewer: Are the panchayat people good?
Gopur Miyan: Yes, our people are good. If we go with a request then they oblige us.
Interviewer: Has there been any problems?
Gopur Miyan: No.
Interviewer: Has anyone else had problems according to your knowledge?
Gopur Miyan: All my acquaintances have been obliged. My neighbour has three daughters and no sons. He asked the chairman and he said they'll give him a house. This was last season. He got his house now. There’s no problem. If we ask, they give it to us.
Interviewer: Have you enrolled for the Aadhaar card?
Gopur Miyan: Yes.
Interviewer: Where?
Gopur Miyan: in the Panchayat.
Interviewer: How did they call you?
Gopur Miyan: there are door to door promotions, PA announcements on the streets.
Interviewer: They came to your house and what did they say?
Gopur Miyan: They asked us to go to the panchayat and get this Aadhaar card. They gave us a date and we went and enrolled.
Interviewer: Will you take a loan again? Have you borrowed from Mithun again?
Gopur Miyan: Yes. That’s how I have the shop.
Interviewer: Now you're repaying it?
Gopur Miyan: It isn't time yet. When it comes then I'll return every month. I hope to do something with the money.
Interviewer: What else do you want to do apart from the shop?
Gopur Miyan: If I have a lot of money then... We're poor and we have several hopes and dreams. If someone lends me a lot of money then we can expand the shop, get more stock. There always hope of doing something or the other. I have earned/borrowed Rs15,000. But getting what we need at that time in that much money is important. We sell what we buy in the market and then buy more thing stock with the money. That's how we maintain.
Interviewer: Do you not want to move to Agartala?
Gopur Miyan: It'll cost about 20-30,000 to move to Agartala. We don’t have that much money.
Interviewer: if you had that much money then would you go?
Gopur Miyan: Yes, of course. With the little money I have there's no point in going.
Interviewer: How much do you earn in a year?
Gopur Miyan: We don't calculate in a year. We calculate daily. Sometimes it is 700-800. The most is 1200. The least is 500. Not less than that.
Interviewer: Daily?
Gopur Miyan: Yes.
(Regional language)
Gopur Miyan: Next to my house.
Interviewer: Your wife's shop?
Gopur Miyan: Yes, the one she runs.
Interviewer: What's her name?
Gopur Miyan: Saira Begum.
Interviewer: Isn't she here?
Gopur Miyan: No, she's out.
Interviewer: Is she in a panchayat meeting?
Gopur Miyan: Yes. All the villagers are there.
Interviewer: To another village?
Gopur Miyan: No, our village. It's been called and everyone's there. We all go when we're called.
Interviewer: what meeting is this?
Gopur Miyan: I don't know. I arrived in the evening just now.
Our shop has everything. A little of everything.
Regional language
Speaker: He had a cow.
Interviewer: How do you think you will benefit from Aadhaar?
Gopur Miyan: I don't know. All I know is the panchayat has told us that we should all get it done. I don't know if there's any benefit in it.
Interviewer: You have a ration card. Do you have a voters ID?
Gopur Miyan: Yes.
Interviewer: ROR?
Regional language
Gopur Miyan: I have locked it up in the house. When needed I'll get it out and give it to them.
Interviewer: Have you had a problem with Mithun's team?
Gopur Miyan: No. There has been no problem. We had all the required documents for a loan. It had stopped for two months in the middle. Then it started again. Mithun told me one day that I can borrow money again. So I went to Agartala and got the money. Then we opened the shop. It's no point borrowing for food. It is so that we can do better work with the money.
We don't have much money but I wanted to do something and open a shop. That has happened.
Interviewer: Thank you.
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