“Success is not a destination, but the road that you’re on.” The words of Marlon Wayans stand true for the people of Taulaha village. The villager realized this after constructing the village road which connects to Ramnagar Block in Pashchim Champaran District of Bihar State.

The village road was washed away during the massive floods of 2017, from then the villagers were facing problems to access the basic facilities like market, school, and hospital, etc. During the rainy season, school-going children were very vulnerable as they were forced to cross the waterlogged areas to reach their schools.

Caritas India Saksham programme selected this village due to its large number of marginalized populations. Under the programme, farmers group were formed to establish a community-based organization in the village. The programme staff of Saksham discussed the challenges about the lack of proper road in July 2018.

This has led to the development of the village-level micro plan for the village by the farmers, women and other members. “Our very first priority was to construct the village road”, says Ramayan Ram, a member of the farmer’s group.

The Gram Sabha was organized on 15th August 2018 at the village Panchayat Bhawan where Taulaha village people along with local SHG member (formed by the Saksham programme team) participated and submitted the village micro plan. The Gram Sabha Mukhiya, Asst. Mukhiya, Sarpanch, Sarpanch Sachiv, PRS, and ward members accepted the plan with high priority. The plan was read out by PRS in front of Gram Sabha core committee which was approved by the Gram Sabha.

After 9 months of waiting and regular follow up by Farmer group, the road construction completed in June 2019 before the monsoon rains.  Some of the villagers also got the opportunity to work during the construction of the road and received wages as well. People expressed their gratitude to SAKSHAM team for their support and motivation.

The work did not stop there, now the community of the Taulaha Village is in regular contact with elected Panchayat representatives for better implementation of village development plans for the overall development of the village. The community has realized its potential and now they are heading towards achieving many more milestones.