DDS founder as whistleblower returns to ask for accounts

Civil Society News, New Delhi

FOR the longest time, the Deccan Development Society (DDS) has been known for its efforts to empower Dalit women in rural Andhra Pradesh. It has promoted organic farming with the saving of traditional seeds and the cultivation of millets, sorghum in particular, in rain-deficit areas.

P.V. Satheesh, who led DDS till his passing two years ago, came to be called the Millet Man of India. Other recognitions were bestowed on DDS as well. It was copiously funded and succeeded in having its own radio and television outreach.

Recent developments, however, are not flattering. More than 1,000 village women, who were part of the DDS model of rural uplift, have signed a petition asking for accounts of money collected from them over the years. There are other complaints as well. Demonstrations have been held.

Most embarrassing perhaps for DDS has been one of the founders, K.S. Gopal, taking up cudgels on behalf of the women and asking the DDS management to open up its books for scrutiny.

Gopal had moved on from DDS to do other things. He had laid the foundation for DDS way back in 1979 before the organization formally came into being in the early 1980s.

With DDS choosing to remain silent, it is difficult to make a fair evaluation of the charges. But Gopal has been persistent with his enquiries and says the people running DDS must be more transparent and provide answers to specific questions he is raising on behalf of the village women.

 

Q: You have been raising issues of malfeasance in the functioning of the Deccan Development Society (DDS). What prompted you to do this?

The women of Zaheerabad block in Medak district who have been the beneficiaries of DDS projects approached me. They had several complaints about DDS’ functioning. I am a founder-member of DDS. It was after 30 years, in March 2023, that I went to the Pastapur office of DDS to attend the funeral of P.V. Satheesh, a co-founder who had been running the organization. The poor women who were part of the DDS projects approached me, saying, “Sir, they have orphaned us!” I was moved.

A month after Satheesh’s funeral, I went back and met the women’s groups and multiple issues came to light. Getting the documents has taken a year.

 

Q: What exactly are the complaints against DDS?

First of all, the women want accounts for money that was collected from them over the years. The women of the backward and arid Zaheerabad taluk were organized into village sanghams or collectives. It was something I started in 1979 and it continued after DDS was formed in 1985.

The women would make a pool of their micro savings from which they could then borrow. They used to be given a passbook with a record of deposits and withdrawals. But somewhere down the line DDS stopped giving the women an account of their money.

By my calculation, the principal plus interest money (on savings) lying with DDS amounts to not less than `3 crore to `4 crore. And it should be given back to the 1,500 women from whom it was collected. It came out of their very meagre savings.

Last year, 1,000 women signed a petition given to the District Collector, saying that they fear their money will be lost forever because they get the sense that DDS is on the verge of being wound up.

 

Q: So, it is essentially about the micro-savings of the women.

 There has also been sale of community land. DDS has sold 103 acres in the past decade. Interestingly, six acres in Krishnapur village were sold for a song to a physician treating Satheesh.

Land was acquired using donor money for the purpose of creating balwadis or creches. The land was jointly in the name of the DDS and two representatives of the village sangham. But balwadi lands have been sold without the knowledge or consent of the women.

Despite multiple representations and visits to the DDS office by the women for the past 15 years, DDS refuses to show the accounts or return their money. As founder and member of its general body (meetings have not been held for 30 years), I wrote to and talked with the DDS managing committee for six months. They refused to provide the villagers with financial data or address their grievances.

The women are illiterate and have no documents or records. Everything is in DDS custody. They refuse to show or share it. It took me one year to gather information and documents from multiple agencies. Even now the information is not complete as DDS alone has it. Whatever I am saying is based on evidence and documents that are authenticated and lying with me. An inquiry will bring out a true and complete picture.

The sanghams received revolving funds from state agencies and donors and kept them in the local banks with operations being overseen and signed by two representatives of the sanghams and one DDS nominee. For one revolving fund for which there is documentary proof, DDS raised over `12 crore between 1998 and 2004. This was DDS’ much-acclaimed sorghum (jowar) alternative public distribution system. It is for this that DDS has received awards such as Millet Man of India for Satheesh and Millet Sisters Network. Donor oversight ended in 2005. And in 2006 DDS transferred `62,68,600 of village revolving funds into fixed deposits without the knowledge of the sanghams.

The villagers found that suddenly all their money had vanished. It took me one year to find the data and get the documents. In 20 years, compound interest on the principal should now exceed `5 crore.

 

Q: What do you think has gone wrong at DDS?

I left DDS in 1990. My last visit to the project area was in 1993. Until 2000 things seemed well at DDS. But in 1996-97, three key founders and in all six members quit DDS, unhappy but not wanting to wreck things. DDS never held a general body meeting (this information is from the Registrar of Societies) nor submitted obligatory data to the Registrar for 30 years. DDS went into the complete control of Satheesh.

DDS built a big profile and attracted huge resources. It was a media savvy organization with its own radio and TV (infrastructure). It was a heady mix of Dalit women, traditional seeds, crop biodiversity and food sovereignty. It drew important people to its managing committee which was, of course, nominated.

I met a DDS board member on a train some 15 years ago and she told me that she was forced to quit for questioning how DDS money was being spent on the healthcare of its secretary. With its success, the ecosystem in DDS became lacking as the organization has no countervailing power. A field investigation report by the Human Rights Forum in December 2023 on what the women have to say was buried.