Nevertheless, Darewadi provides a microcosm of the difficulties facing Indian authorities and NGOs in trying to ensure that the benefits of development are equally shared. The issue of equity—particularly between landowners and the landless—is perhaps the trickiest problem facing the IGWP and other efforts like it, as they expand their activities across rural India’s drylands.

Dr. John Kerr, of the Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies at Michigan State University, led a research team that explored the impact of Indian watershed development projects run by IGWDP and other agencies in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Published in 2002, their report concluded that “by their nature, area development programs offer benefits to landowners, with landless people benefiting indirectly, either through peripheral program activities or trickle-down effects. In fact, watershed projects can actually make women and landless people worse off by restricting their access to resources that contribute to their livelihoods” (Kerr et al. 2002:xi).

The report, based on surveys conducted before Darewadi began its regeneration program, praised IGWDP projects for combating soil erosion and raising water levels, and for their participatory philosophy. “I was really impressed by the IGWDP’s approach of consensus-based decision making,” recalled Kerr. “Other programs typically require a two-thirds majority and this makes it easy to gang up on poor minorities. The IGWDP works to avoid this” (Kerr 2005). Nevertheless, his report noted that some villagers interviewed had complained of reduced access to common lands for fuel and fodder (Kerr et al. 2002:75).

For his part, Lobo acknowledges that in rural India “the poorest normally do not benefit (at least relative to the better off farmers) from watershed development programs where land holdings are greatly skewed, where social and power relationships are greatly inequitable and discriminatory, and where their concerns, interests, and involvement are ignored in project implementation.” Such circumstances, he emphasizes, do not apply to Darewadi (Lobo 2005b).

Addressing these tricky questions of equity and land distribution will require actions on both a local and national scale. Recognizing the benefits of people-led rural development, the Indian Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development established common guidelines in 2000 for village-based development that would promote equitable distribution of benefits and allow implementing organizations such as NGOs a year to build capacity among local citizens to manage projects themselves (Kerr et al. 2002:80-81).

To date, the impact of these broad guidelines has not been measured and analyzed (Lobo 2005b). Yet only if effective means can be found to implement them on the ground—tailored to the particular needs and social circumstances of each region—will the experience of Darewadi’s citizens be enjoyed on a wider scale.