RURAL RESEARCH PROJECT

STUDY: CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR AND BRAND PERCEPTION

BIJOURI VILLAGE, JABALPUR DISTRICT, MADHYA PRADESH

GROUP 07

Submitted By:
ANAGH 011 | ANUPRIYA 015 |ARATHI 016 |DEEKSHA 023

Acknowledgement
The rural research opportunity at Bijouri Village, Madhya Pradesh was a great chance for
learning and professional development. Therefore, we consider ourselves lucky to take part
in this enriching opportunity. We are also grateful for having a chance to meet so many
humble and generous people who led us through this period.
Bearing in mind we are using this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude and
special thanks to our Guide Prof. Pravin Mishra who in spite of being extraordinarily
busy with his duties, took time out to hear, guide and keep us on the correct path and
allowed us to carry out project in the right direction.
We express our deepest thanks to Mr. Umesh Singhal and Mr. Sudhir Sharma for taking
part in useful decisions, giving necessary advices and guidance and arranged all facilities to
make our life easier. We choose this moment to acknowledge their contribution gratefully.
It is our radiant sentiment to place on record our best regards, deepest sense of gratitude
to Mrs. Sombati Bai, Sarpanch - Bijouri village, Mr. Dharmendra Rai and Mr. Lokesh
Rai for their careful and precious guidance which were extremely valuable for this study.
Last but not the least we would like to express our deepest appreciation and thanks to
Prof. Manisha Shelat and Prof. Shreya Biswas for providing us with this opportunity.
We perceive this opportunity as a big milestone in our career development. Hope to
continue cooperation with all of you in the future.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

Certification

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

Contents
Understanding Rural Marketing..............................................................................................................4
Rural Marketing ......................................................................................................................................4
Rural in Numbers.....................................................................................................................................5
Research Objective .................................................................................................................................5
Village Selected ......................................................................................................................................6
Research Methodology ...........................................................................................................................6
Village Profile..........................................................................................................................................6
Entry into the Village...............................................................................................................................7
Village Climate .......................................................................................................................................9
Village Topography ................................................................................................................................9
Demographic Composition ...................................................................................................................11
Village Resources..................................................................................................................................13
Village Life and People ........................................................................................................................14
Amenities...............................................................................................................................................19
Caste System..........................................................................................................................................26
Political system......................................................................................................................................27
Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.................................................................................................................28
Media Consumption...............................................................................................................................30
Brand Consumption ..............................................................................................................................33
Marketing Strategy ................................................................................................................................44
Communication Need Assessment ........................................................................................................46
Lack of Sanitation .................................................................................................................................47
Communication Strategy .......................................................................................................................50
Designs to Bring Change ......................................................................................................................52
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................52

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

Understanding Rural Market

Market in India has evolved rapidly in the past few years. Most of the brands have shifted their
focus to rural areas. The rural market has been growing exponentially and is now even bigger
than urban market. More than 800 million people in India lives in villages that constitutes to
nearly 70 percent of the overall population. Go Rural is the marketers new slogan.
Rural Marketing has now become a two-way marketing process. There is inflow of products
into rural markets for production or consumption and there is also outflow of products to urban
areas. The urban to rural flow consists of agricultural inputs, fast-moving consumer goods
(FMCG) such as soaps, detergents, cosmetics, textiles, and so on. The rural to urban flow
consists of agricultural produce such as rice, wheat, sugar, and cotton. There is also a movement
of rural products within rural areas for consumption.
Since Rural Marketing is in its nascent stage, brands need to appreciate the first mover
advantage and catch the domain and make a brand area by assuming control over the psyche
space of the rural buyer before different brands come in. In any case, the vast majority of the
organizations additionally understand that it is not a simple market and is extremely diverse.
The scene, the dialect, the socio-cultural conduct are changing and hard to understand.
Henceforth, a ton of research is being done to understand the mind of the rural purchaser.
Rural Marketing
According to the Census of India Survey the definition of rural areas in India is any place that
has a population less than 5000 with a population density of 400sqkm. Also the primary
occupation of 25 percent of male working male population is engaged in some kind of
agricultural pursuits. Traditionally the rural areas have been seen as a place where marketing
process flow has been on directional i.e. the urban sector uses the products such as rice , wheat,
crops etc. that are brought out from the rural sector. But today increasingly the rural area have
also beginning to come under two-way marketing process. This is because the rural counterpart
are today displaying a demand for cosmetics, durable and other branded products. The change
has caused more and more companies to make a beeline for the rural areas. These areas unlike
the urban population are untapped and nascent. The opening up of this avenue can be attributed
to the increasing information availability even in the lower sectors. The proliferation of mobile
phones and the movement of people to other tertiary employment have all widened the need
gap that all the companies are trying to exploit. The rural landscape of today is undergoing a
transition. Most places in India can now be looked at as either peri-urban or semi-rural.
Increasing purchase power of the rural people is causal to such shifts. Nearly 70 percent of
todays population lives in the rural. The sheer volume of consumer that is untapped makes the
need to understand the rural consumers very important. Though it is a fact that rural areas are
perceived as change averse and have low standards of living, this picture is changing very fast.
The demand pattern of the rural consumers is an opportunity to set up good and efficient
distribution channels and build brand awareness. One thing that marketers are beginning to
realise is that you cannot sell the urban products on the rural masses. There is a need to
understand the specific need of them and treat them with the same consideration as the urban
counterpart. In essence for any company to maintain a healthy growth rate in the coming years,
the need of the hour is to have a good rural go-to-market plan and all the plan must start with
a holistic understanding of their consumers
RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

Rural in Numbers
As per the information by the Census India Survey 2011, IRS survey, Reports by the Ministry
of Rural Development etc. the fast emerging face of rural market is clearly evident. This section
of the population represents an opportunity that can be tapped into.
Some of the major statistic that are an indicative is as follows:

Total Number of Individual: 83.3Mn

Percentage of Indian Population in Rural India: 68.84%
FMCG Sales: 53%
Consumer Durable Sales: 59%
Market for tractors and agriculture Inputs: Rs 45000 Crore
States with maximum Rural Population: UP, Bihar, West Bengal
State with minimum Rural Population: Sikkim, Mizoram, Goa

Popular Government Schemes:

MNREGA: Mahatma National Rural Employment Act

PMGSY: Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna
NSAP: NATIONAL SOCIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME
IWMP: Integrated Watershed Management Programme
IAY: Indira Awaas Yojana
NRLM: National Rural Livelihood Mission
Total Sanitation Campaign or the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan
SAGY: Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

Media Penetration in Rural India

TV penetration: 1764 Lakhs

Total TV Homes in Rural India: 731 Lakhs

Cable and satellite Homes in India: 652 Lakhs
Digital DTH Homes in Rural India: 321 Lakhs

Print Penetration: 11%

Internet Penetration: 6.7%

42% Internet Users prefer local language

9% Internet Users transact Online

Active Mobile User: 25 Mn

Total Budget Allocated by the central budget for Ministry of Rural Development: 79,526 crore
Research Objective
The primary aim of the research has been carried out to study village of India and identify the
need gaps which needs to be addressed through a communication strategy.
In the process, the different areas to be studied are:

Understand the rural consumer and their lifestyle.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

Find out factors that affect their decisions and behaviours.

Understand their consumption pattern of brands and media.

Village Selected
Name: Bijouri and Kohla (it is a small village within Bijouri where all the tribal belt live)
District: Jabalpur
State: Madhya Pradesh

Area (as obtained from Patwari)

Total Area: 310.323 hectares

Krishni (Agriculture Area): 209.252 hectares
Van Bhoomi (Forest Area): 101.071 hectares

Research Methodology
A seven day ethnographic research was carried out in the village of Bijouri. Exploratory
research was initially carried out to understand the rural scenario and the village level details.
Additionally, we did observational study and in-depth interviews to identify and understand
the grass root level of several issues.
Village Profile
The village Bijouri is situated in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh. It is 345 kms away from
the capital city of the state Bhopal and is 30 kms away from the nearest city Jabalpur. The
village is very well connected with road. The village has 388 families with 58 families which
have female Mukhiya and 330 families with Male Mukhiya. The overall population of the
village is 1482.
In Bijouri village population of children with age 0-6 is 46 which makes up 15.59 % of total
population of village. Average Sex Ratio of Bijouri village is 928 which is lower than
Madhya Pradesh state average of 931. Child Sex Ratio for the Bijouri as per census is 917,
lower than Madhya Pradesh average of 918.
Bijouri village has higher literacy rate compared to Madhya Pradesh. In 2011, literacy rate of
Bijouri village was 77.11 % compared to 69.32 % of Madhya Pradesh. In Bijouri Male
literacy stands at 85.27 % while female literacy rate was 68.33 %.
As per constitution of India and Panchyati Raaj Act, Bijouri village is administrated by
Sarpanch (Head of Village) who is elected representative of village.
Bijouri is surrounded by various other villages. One of them is Kohla which is a tribal
dominated village. This village is located 3-4 Kms away from Bijouri and is a part of

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

SANSAD ADARSH GRAHM YOJNA. This is the primary reason why we visited this village
is to study the yojna which is being implemented there in detail.
Entry into the Village
The first impression of the village is very good because of the quality of the road. The village
starts with a government school followed by a big commercial area which consists of hardware
shops, barber shop, retail shop along with a bank and computer centre. Going further we will
see a private doctor clinic and post that the residential area of the village starts. There is also a
handpump located opposite residences. Going ahead there is a turn which takes us inside the
village. It has a gate where again we see the residential area followed by three temples. Out of
which the Jain temple is located at the tiraha and further away there is a Ram Temple.
The wine, the cigarette and the non veg food shop is located at the periphery of the village.
There is only one big hospital called Uday Hospital.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

Village Climate
The climate of the village is like any other state of central India, which is majorly dry and hot.
During summers, it is extremely hot. The temperature goes upto 45 C. However, winters are
pretty cold. The rainfall in moderate in the region with maximum rainfall during the months of
July to August. This year the rainfall was very less.
Village Topography
Residential Cluster
There are around 12-13 streets in the village and the areas are distributed in terms of different
castes and religion.

The village is primarily distributed into 4 areas:

1. Hindus: The village is Hindu dominated and more than 80% of the region is covered
by Hindu population.
2. Jains: Along with Hindu population there is a Jain committee which resides in the
centre of the village. They have a separate Jain Mandir
3. Muslims: There is only one Muslim family in the village and they live at the
periphery of the village.
4. SC/ST/OBC: All the SC and STs live together and they have been given a separate
region which is called Kohla. The village is completely dominated by Tribal
population. This is the largest population in the village. Nearly 88% of the population
belong to this strata
RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

10

Soil
The type of soil in the village is Black Cotton Soil and the major crop grown is Peas, Rice,
Dal and Wheat, which is also called Dhaan in this region. Bijouri is in fact one of the
largest producer of peas in the country and imports peas to different parts of the country.
Central Bijouri has the highest yielding soil for Peas. As we go further towards Kohla the
productivity of the soil reduces. Other crops which are grown are Corn, and some local
vegetables. Central India is extremely rich in Black Cotton Soil. It has extremely high
moisture content and it also very rich in organic matter. For this reason it is a very rich soil
and used extensively for Wheat, Rice, Sugarcane and Peas. One drawback of the soil is that it
is very sticky and has to be ploughed before the rains.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

11

Demographic Composition
The number of Household in the village are 388. Nearly 85-90% of the families are Joint
families and around 10-15% families are
nuclear families.
The total population of the village is 1223.
The population segmentation of the village
can be done in various ways:
(The accurate data was obtained from the Sarpanch of the village)
RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

12

Based on Caste

General: 48
Schedule Tribe: 73
Schedule Caste: 44
Other Backward Classes: 223

Based on Policies

ST/SC: 36
AAY (Antyodya Ann Yojna): 12
BPL (Below Poverty Line): 148
SSP (Social Security Pension): 17

Based on Occupation

Farming: 80%
Wages: 20%

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

13

Village Resources
Nearest Town
The nearest town from Bijouri is Jabalpur. It is 30 kms away and takes approximately 1 hour
to reach. Jabalpur is the main centre and most of the people in village send their children for
education to Jabalpur. They also go to Jabalpur for major medical needs.
Transportation
There is no bus stop in the village. People travel majorly by Tata Magic. Most of the teachers
and other government employees use Tata magic and they come to Bijouri from Jabalpur. The
local people use bikes and cycle for transportation. Most of them had a 100 to 125 CC bike.

Occupation
RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

14

The major occupations of the villagers is Agriculture. The upper caste people in the village
owns acres of farm where they recruit tribal people to work and pay them wages on a daily
basis. The tribal people also have their own farms which they use for their personal food and
sustenance. Their major money comes from the wages they earn. Their aspirations are low and
they expect just basic amenities to be provided to them.
As agriculture is a major occupation. Water is a big concern for farmers. Many a times small
farmers go under huge losses because of less rainfall.
Other occupations include business. So many people have opened their shop of hardware, retail
etc. They are trying to diverse they income to other sources and dont want to be dependent
just on agriculture income.
Village Life and People
The experience of staying at the village brought out the different facets of a life in the village
which were different to the life in an urban space. The predominant occupation of the area was
agriculture and that had its manifestation in varies ways. The roads along the villages had fields
have field on either side. The presence of cattle and other agrarian animal suggest that

many farmers in the areas still dont rely completely on machinery. The shops, bank and other
governmental institution like the school and healthcare centre are at the entrance of the village
followed by the residential areas. The village had a clear caste based division when it comes
where people live. The lower caste members of the village have their house separate. The upper
caste Hindus and the Jains had their house together and in proximity to temples. There is only
one household that is Muslim and they live alone on the margin of the village. The higher
section of the society had pukka houses.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

15

The people are very warm and welcoming and not as suspicious as other people in the cities.
One man Mohan who we met at the granary took us to his house around noon as it was very
hot outside. His wife and his four girls were very hospitable. They live in a small one room
house. And own little to no durable inside. There was a dearth of any products that were
branded in the house with minimal
amount of utensils. They were a little
shy in the beginning. The wife works in
the field around the area during season
but the major bread earner was Mohan.
Both their parents were farmers and it
has been 10 years of their marriage. This
brings to focus the fact that the youth in
rural India generally get married at a
much younger age than in urban. When
asked the actual age of the wife, both of
them were reserved about the issue. But
they were very happy to talk about their
children. All their children are going to
school. Both the parents were very happy
about the fact that their children were
going to get educated. It was very
refreshing that girls are given the similar
opportunities. Since the family had many
mouth to feed and so didnt have money
to buy products the small girl of the
family used the door of the house to practise her lessons. This was a very rude reminder to us
about the disparity and difficulty many children like her face in India to get Primary education.
All of these show the shifting attitude of the young people in rural areas. Another interest
observation is that the house didnt have a loo attached. This indicates that most people in the
village still follow the practise of open defecation. When we discussed this with the
Government officials they said that the fund had been sanctioned and would be implemented
soon. This is an opportunity that can be tapped well in the village to bring about development
and make it better living conditions.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

16

Houses of people of the similar caste were similar in the construct. There is a conspicuous
absence of products that are branded and excess of what is required by a person to survive. We
also visited the house of a farmer who lived in a three room house along with his entire family.

The man had been a farmer since his father introduced him to the occupation. Today he has a
small area of land that we grows his crops on and owns his own cattle. What can out the most
is the disgruntle way that the government treats the farmers. His mother pointed out that
nothing mush had changed in her life for all her life. She continues to live in the state of abject
poverty that she grew up in. The man works the whole day in the field but gets cheated in
promises that the MLA make to him. He has sent his son out to the city of Jabalpur after a lot
of struggle with the bank. This led us to understand the constraint that the rural and BPL
families fight but still hold onto aspiration for the next generation. He wants and is trying to
get his son out of the vicious cycle that his occupation has caught him in.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

17

In the absence of electricity due to

load shedding, most of the work
within and outside the house is done
manually. Our host pointed out that
this meant he had to get up very early
in the morning to go to his fields and
get back home to have his supper by
7 PM because there would be no
light in the area. The women cook
the food in chulas using firewood
as the source of heat. The firewood
is collected from the surrounding
and hung from the ceiling for use
later.
The farmer also spoke to us about the caste discrimination that is still prevalent in these parts
of the country. He has faced a lot of difficulties in his life because of this.
One of the most interesting thing we noticed was that the farmer had a mobile which he used
to elevate boredom during evening and when he was busy tilling the land. He didnt have any
other durable in his house. He viewed his phone as an instrument to entertain himself. In in in
spite of the fact that he owns a radio. He prefers to listens to songs on his phone. When asked
about recharging it he said that he managed it by going to shop where they would also fix his
mobile up with some music.
The way the people in the village dress has also is specific to the state of the country they
belong to. But it was noticed that only people of the older generation stuck to their traditional
outfit. Also this was seen with the women and girls of the community. Men and boys of the
younger generation have started wearing westernised outfits. When asked for reason why most
of the people said that comfort was one of the most important reason. But on close examination
it is evident that the caste and class are the primary reason for such variations. This is
specifically true for men.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

18

We also saw women who still wore their tradition form of ornamentation. Perhaps it will be
some time before women are allowed to change the kind of projection they are supposed to
show in the patriarchal society like India. The people from the higher cast are better off in
regards that they dont have to fend for themselves on a daily basis. We meet Mr Santosh from
the computer centre who had opened a institute to teach children computer. He had to close the
institute as he didnt find enough people to take up the course. As the village is primarily
devoted to farming most of the people are not very oriented towards usage of technology that
they do not see as instantly useful. This in our minds is the reason that people had basic mobile
phone sets but not interested in computer.
Mr Santosh then proceeded to open a SBI bank branch and is very hopeful of the way it will
grow. This is because the money in banking was very good. He is a PhD holder in Sanskrit and
had had a stint as a teacher but the money that he made from it was abysmal. He started his
business venture to make his lifestyle better and in some way help the people of Bijuri. The
upper set of individuals had television in their homes. One important observation was that more
people had direct to home than cable. But the kind of channels that were available dont have
content that are that current.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

19

Amenities
The basic amenities present in the village are:
School
There are 3 schools in the village

Primary School (Till class 5th)

Middle School (5th 8th Class)
Secondary School (9th 10th )

The primary school is located at the periphery of the Bijouri village. The teachers come from
Jabalpur and travelled by Tata Magic. There were 2 teachers in this school. The school had just

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

20

one small building and a kitchen. They used to provide lunch to students and elerly people of
the village.
The school uniform and books was provided by the government. So the government directly
transfers the money to the familys account through which they can buy uniform and books for
their child. The teacher complained that many families used this money for their personal
benefits and didnt invested it for their children welfare.
There were nearly 30 40 students studying in this school. The ratio of girls was higher than
the boys. According to the teachers the children who came were slow and not that interested in
studying. There were few students who were bright but didnt get much support from their
parents for higher studies. She mentioned a girl who was very sharp at studies but her parents
werent interested in getting her educated further. So she used to push their parents to get their
children enrolled for higher education. Many students used to drop out in between the academic
session. So the teachers used to go home to home to convince parents to send their children to
school.
According to her the parents were not worried about their children study and just wanted them
to work with them.
She also highlighted the issue of the policy which the government has passed that every student
needs to be promoted to next class till class 5th. She told us that many student didnt even know
how to count numbers or write alphabets but had to be promoted just because of the norm.
The primary school also had an Aanganwadi attached with it.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

21

The middle school and secondary school is slightly better equipped than primary school. They
have 1 building each with 3 classrooms in Middle school and 2 classes in Secondary. Both the
schools were located in the centre of the village and were located just beside each other
The number of students as the classes progressed got reduced and the male to female ratio got
highly skewed with just 2 3 girls studying in Secondary classes. Again the reason for this was
the same that the parents thought that girls dont need to study and they should help their mother
in household work.
For higher secondary education they used send their children to Jabalpur.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

22

The newly introduced Mid-Day Meal policy is implemented in the school and followed
thoroughly. The school gets a fixed amount of ration based on the number of students enrolled.
They used to buy vegetables and other food masala from their own school fund.
We witnessed the Mid-Meal and inspected the kitchen and preparation of the food. The food
was cooked on chulha and the kitchen was clean as compared to other places. They had a fixed
menu of food which was prepared on a daily basis

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

23

Students used to pray before having their meal. We shot a video of the prayer. Here is the link
for the video (https://youtu.be/6I7T-FsXTQU)
The school had separate toilet for girls. The toilet was clean and well maintained.

Bank
The bank services were available in the village but it was 5-6 kms away. The villagers werent
happy with the services provided by the bank and was upset with the behaviour of the staff
towards them. According to the villagers they were exploited and were asked to visit more than
5-6 times to get their money from the bank. Many people found that their account was closed
by the bank without giving them any notice about the same.
RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

24

When we met the staff in the bank they denied these acquisitions and said that the people in
village are stupid and are too stubborn. They said that they try to explain the policies to the
people but they are just not interested and create ruckus in the bank.
Overall the bank was decently staffed and had online services available for transaction. There
was also a 24/7 ATM.

Hospital
There is one UPSWASTHYA KENDRE in the village. It has 2 doctors. It can take care of
primary diseases but for anything major the villagers have to go to Jabalpur which is nearly 30
kms away. Medical facilities within the village is not that good and lacks basic infrastructure
and machinery. The number of doctors are also less as compared to the population in the
village. This is one area where the government really needs to focus.

Power Supply
The percentage of households with legal electrical connections is 60 -70%. The power supply
of electricity is just for 12- 12 hours a day. However, most of the houses have low watt bulbs
in their houses and do not waste energy or rather cannot afford to pay high bills. Solar panels
will be a good option to provide 24/7 electricity to villages.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

25

Water Supply
The water in the village is obtained from wells and hand pumps. They dont have direct water
supply at home.
Irrigation Facilities
There is lack of irrigation facilities in the village. The villagers are not aware of the latest
technology which they can use to improve their fields and have better overall productivity.
Agricultural Facilities
Agriculture is the primary source of their income. But still very limited people own tractor in
the village. There are hardly 3 4 tractors in the village. Others who need tractor get it on rent
from Jabalpur at Rs600/hour.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

26

NGO Presence
There is no NGO present in the village.
Temple
The village consists mostly of Hindus and Jains. There are three temples in the village. One
Ram mandir, one Hanuman mandir and a Jain Temple. The temples are all concentrated in
areas that are have upper caste Hindus living around them. The people of the village happily
celebrated Ganapati Jayanti and we saw colourful processions. During the same time the Jains
were celebrating Paryushan festival. This was very new to most people in our form city
havent seen or heard of this festival before.

Caste System
The caste system was highly prevalent in the village. The complete village was following the
caste system. Every caste has a separate residential society. So Chamars had a different area,
lohars had a different area, Sonis had a different area. Brahmins lived together in a
separate segment.
Even the work distribution till date was according the caste system. So the jeweller was from
Soni caste and when asked about what why are you selling jewellery his reply was that what
we do we are Sonis. We have been selling jewellery from ages. He personally knew each
and every one in the village and used to go home to home to sell his jewellery.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

27

All the iron related work was done by lohars. Again we can see how the profession defined in
the caste system is strictly followed by the committee. The worst was with the Shudras, they
were still doing the cleaning and sweeping jobs. They were not entitled to do any other job in
the village. There houses were made outside the village and were still considered untouchables
by elderly people in the village.
Marriages are done in the same caste and religion. Also majority of the marriages are arranged
marriages. The wedding is pre decided by the parents when the children are small and once
they come of age they are married. Average age of marriage for girl is 19 years and for boy is
22 years in Bijouri.
Political System
The local government is Panchayat. The Sarpanch is selected by local people through voting.
Currently the Sarpanch is Smt. Sombati Bai. The election is done democratically and it is a
huge affair in the village. The Sarpanch of the village is the leader of the village and therefore
the election is fought for pride and prestige and not for power.
In Bijouri the ruling candidate spent nearly 50 lakh to win the election. She donated her land
to make road for the local villagers. The Sarpanch is the focal point of contact between
government officers and village community.
The election is run on the community support and in Bijouri it is dominated by the Rai family.
The Rai family has done a lot for the village and is a very respectable family in the village.
They have been responsible for implementing many policies by government.
The Rai family is dominated only in Bijouri but also in Jamunia. It is a nearby village and Rai
familys hometown. They live in a joint family and members of the family are part sarpanch,
upsarpanch etc.
The government has introduced reservation for women for the post of Sarpanch and they are
called Sarpanchni. Therefore we see a huge chunk of women being the sarpanch. Both at Kohla
and Bijouri we had female sarpanch.
The problem we observed was they werent really aware with the day to day functioning of the
government and were usually used as a dummy. Their husbands were the real decision makers.
We also got the opportunity of attending the Grahm Panchayat. So all the people from nearby
village came to Bijouri and all the sarpanchs addressed their issues and also declared new
policies and schemes for the people. More than 500 people participated in the event.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

28

We tried to take a video interview of the Sarpanch but they were too afraid to give out the
interview and it was stopped mid-way. We then took the complete interview without any
recording instrument. The sarpanch was completely unaware of the working and all the
working was taken care by the other government officers. Here is the link of the 1 min interview
we took before they asked us to stop it ( https://youtu.be/w1OQtQHFTdc ).
The Sarpanch told us about her plans to improve the condition of people in the village. She
wanted to improve the education system. She was unhappy with the quality of government
teachers in the school and said they need to be changed. Also she pointed out that electricity is
a major issue and because there is no electricity in the village people dont tend to study or do
other work.
In the Panchayat office we also observed how the local cases were solved. So people used to
come to the panchayat office instead of police station to report their issues. Even issues of theft
and fight were reported there and the panchayat office took the responsibility to solve the issue.
Because the village is a small community and every person in the village knows each other, it
was easier to resolve issues amongst people for the panchayat.

Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

This programme was launched by Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India on the birth
anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan, on 11th October, 2014.
The aim of the yojna is to make a MP to take the responsibility of devoloping physical and
institutional infrastructure in a village and make it a model village. In this each MP choose a
village of his choice and make it a model village by 2016.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

29

We visited Kohla because it was chosen by Shri Rakesh Singh as his model village. This was
a tribal belt and we primarily went there to see the impact of this yojna. We were surprise to
see the reluctance and fear the authorities had in that village. Even the sarpanch was afraid to
speak up and they just wanted to put forward good things of the village and the plans which
are promised to be implemented.
After an offline talk with Sarpanch we realised that the Yojna has still not been implemented
and the village still lacks the basic infrastructure need of electricity, water, food and job
opportunities. The condition of people in the village was bad and people had already started to
move to different villages for employment.
With just 1.5 years to go it looks difficult that any drastic changes will come in the village. The
government launches policies year on year but they need to make sure that whether those
policies are being implemented or not.
The only thing which we got to know was about the sanitation problem which was planned to
get solved by making more than 30 toilets in the village. But all of that was on paper and
nothing substantial has been their yet.
We were able to get our hands on the official documents. Below is the snap of those documents

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

30

Media Consumption
Print
Another area that we studied while our stay at Bijuri was the media consumption of the
household. We enquired with the residence of the village about their patterns of newspaper
consumption. Not many people in the village subscribe to any daily on day to day basis from a
vendor. Most of the people buy a newspaper as and when they want according to their interest.
Nava-Bharat, Hari Bhoomi and DainikBhaskar are the three newspaper that are found around
the village. From all the households ten odd of them get the newspaper delivered to them by
8:00AM. The reading pattern of the newspaper starts with the head of the house who spends a
good 45-60 mins to go through the paper. The headlines is something that they pay great
attention to because, as they say, they want to know what is going on around them. The rest of
the family then subsequently follows suit and read it whenever they get the chance. Although
educating women is seen in a positive life, not many of the women read the newspaper on a
daily basis. When asked why they responded that they usually dont have the time out of their
household chores.
It was also found that many households also shared their copy of newspaper after they had
finished reading it. This goes to explain the low levels of subscription amoung the population.
Also it doesnt appear like a daily ritual amoung them. People who are want to read the paper
go out and buy then at tea stores. The tea stores are common spaces where people get together
and discuss the article and happening. Many get into discussions with each other to keep
themselves updated. All of this means that lesser number of people actually buy a newspaper.
From a ground level research point of view the reception of English dailies is very low and
Hindi newspapers are widely accepted.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

31

Radio
Radio is used as one of the most important sources of information in the village. We were able
to come to this conclusion as the number of households that owned a radio are higher than the
once that read newspaper daily. Most of the men in the families used the radio to get
information and facts like News. They also used the radio to entertain themselves with music.
But primarily people listened to songs on their mobile. As the major population of the village
were farmers a lot of them listen to the farmer specific programmes ran by AIR that gave tips
about how to farm inn a better way. The farmers felt that the innovations and information that
they got through these programme were very helpful. The two channel that were listen to the
most in the village were All India Radio and Vividh Bharathi. Some villagers also
acknowledged that they have listened in to sponsored programme. Amoung the women the
programs were skewed mostly towards entertainment centric shows like that on Vividh
Bharathi. The wide spreads the radio could also be due to the fact that it is a cheap equipment
and everyone can feel included. Many of the shops in the area also have radio that have popular
Hindi movie songs playing on them. Though many of the people who can afford it are moving
towards television as their mode of entertainment. As men are generally busy with their work
the majority usage of the radio during the day time is by women and by senior citizens. The
most popular language seems to be Hindi.
Television
Television is fast becoming the mode of entertainment in households that can afford it. The
increasing access of direct to home services in the rural area, like in Bijouri, has made it more
prolific in the area. But these programming that is available of these dish TVs are limited. The
kind of content that they consume are popular Hindi movies and songs but mostly of a decade
ago. The concept of community television is not present in the village and most of the audience
prefers to watch at their leisure at their homes. On an average people watch TV for 2-3 hours
a day. The men watch more of news and sports and women watch Television for the
entertainment segments. Some of the people who we spoke to told us that generally men and
RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

32

women do not sit together and watch TV though its not a norm. The children have a huge part
to play in the kind of programme that are watched. People said that when there was any special
occasion like a Cricket match the neighbours would come together to watch the match on a
single television screen. Television is central in the sense that most felt that it helped the family
bond along with the neighbourhood. Caste discrimination is a problem and most of the people
dont accept people from lower caste coming to their home for watching matches or any such
programmes.

Ambient Advertisements
The villagers already use a lot of wall painting around the public space. One of the reasons for
its popularity is the fact it is one of the cheapest form. The advantage is that most of the
paintings stay for as long as the weather allows them too. Also the fact that most of the
shopkeeper do not mind letting you paint the walls as it gives the shops a clean look.

Around the village of Bijouri the walls bear the painting of both commercial branded
communication and messages from government that are issued in public interest. But most of
the messages are in a bad condition. The newer looking once are the once done by companies
to sell their products.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

33

Brand Consumption:
Business Model
We studied the supply chain model of the village. Bijouri village was the biggest village
amongst its neighbouring villages. Therefore all the people from nearby villages used to come
to Bijouri to buy all the products of their need.
Bijouri has shops ranging from Kirana stores to Hardware store, Utensils etc.

Mumbai

Jabalpur

Bijouri
Other
Villages
Product Sourcing Model - Bijouri

So Mumbai is the main centre where products are made. All the street clothes, utensils
etc are either manufactured their or is imported from other parts of the country.
The wholesellers in Jabalpur buy these products from Mumbai and sell it to the retailers
of Bijouri. The products ranges from consumables to hardware items.
These products are then sold in bijouri to nearby villages.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

34

This is the complete cycle of product.

The margins of retailers in bijouri is very less as the wholesellers in Jabalpur doesnt
give them much discount on products. Most of the products are small ticket items
therefore the overall margin on the product is also less.
Many a times the retailers sell its product on break-even price to the consumer. Profits
are less and mostly they focus on clearing the inventory. They are not capable to enough
to hold the inventory cost.

Market in Bijouri
Every Tuesday the village has a weekly haat. As most of the interior villages doesnt have a
direct access to the market. Bijouri host as a Business center, which is open only once a week.
More than 300 visitors from around 8-10 interior villages within a radius of 25 km visit this
haat on a weekly basis to purchase or sell all types of goods ranging from daily need items like
rice, sugar, salt, spices, vegetables to toys, jewellery, clothes etc.

Bangles are extremely important and popular for Indian women. One of the interesting
observation which we did was that the shopkeeper was putting bangles on the womens hand,
they didnt wear it themselves and once they wore the new bangle the seller broke off the old
ones

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

35

There was one more interesting observation. So none of the upper class women were allowed
to come for haat. The shopping was done by male members or else the shopkeepers will go
their home to sell the products. Whereas in tribal community all the women came to shop. They
were the primary buyers and their husbands just assisted them in decision making.

In soap, people just used one soap. They didnt had a separate soap for bathing and separate
for handwash. Only few people considered that differentiation. The most popular soap was a
local brand Fresh. It was a replica of Lux and was way cheaper than that. People brought that
soap because they found it cheaper and better than brands like Lifebuoy, Dyna etc. They said
it made their skin soft and hair shinny.
In toothpaste they only bought Colgate. In fact we werent able to find any other brand other
than Colgate in the market. The brand was so dominant that people directly asked for Colgate
and not toothpaste. Bhaiya ek chota colgate dena.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

36

In hair oil segment we noticed a local player Priya. This product was a copy of parachute.
From bottle size to colour combination they imitated each and every aspect of the product.
When asked to a customer why are they buying Priya and not any other product they said
Ki iska ad aata hai na Deepika wala. They clearly got confused between Parachute and
Priya.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

37

In cooking oil segment all the oils companies were from local players. The point to notice was
all the oils were of Pure Soyabean oil. Most of the customer still prefers ghee and dalda over
oil and very few people came to the shop to buy Soyabean Oil. These consumers belonged to
the higher strata of the society and had relatives in Jabalpur city through whom they got
influenced and started using oil.

The biscuit category was completely dominated by Parle with Parle-G being the most biscuit
in the region.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

38

In talcum category Ponds was sold. The thing to notice is that the smallest pack of ponds was
available. No other size of the powder was being sold in the market. The complete family used
this powder and the powder used to last for a month. They used it to put it on their face. Mostly
people from tribal background used to buy this product because they thought that this powder
makes them look fairer.

Grains was sold in open packets. They had very limited variety of rice and dal grains. They
kept only lower cost variety as that was the preferred grain which the consumer can afford.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

39

All the clothes which were sold were non-branded. Other than shirts and tees all the clothes
were unpacked and people can touch and see the cloth and then buy it. There was no space for
trying out the clothes. So people used to buy clothes which they felt will fit them. In case it
didnt fit then they used to return the cloth to the shopkeeper next week and instead buy a
bigger size.
Married women used to buy saree and girls preferred buying jeans. The variety and number of
pieces were very limited. According to shopkeepers selling clothes was a very bad business as
they incurred huge losses. People hardly buy products and the margins were so low on these
products that werent able to make any profits. One of the shopkeeper told us that he will shut
down this business and instead sell some other products.

Fair and Fair& Glow were again local brands which were competing against Fair & Lovely.
The surprising thing is here people knew the difference between the original product and the
fake ones. They only bought fair & lovely. They were able to differentiate the product based
on the packaging. It was a brilliant strategy which was applied by fair & lovely. They just had
this packaging based product for the rural market which completely differentiated them from
other local players.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

40

In washing powder category again the competition was between a local brand and an
established national brand. Saaf and Ghadi were the only two washing powders available
for sale. The sales of Saaf was higher than Ghadi.as per the shopkeeper. Saaf being the
local brand was cheaper for the shopkeeper as he was able to make more money on the product
so he pushed this product more as compared to Ghadi. Even the number of SKUs for Saaf
was way more than Ghadi. People really didnt care much while making this purchase
decision. For them both of them were equally good.

Milan tea was sold in the market. Again a local brand manufactured and packaged in Jabalpur.
There was no other brand of tea which was sold in the market. It was a small SKU and the price
of this pack was just Rs 5. Customers bought this brand like hot cakes. Tata tea and other big
brands were sold in big shops which was bought by people from higher strata of the society. In
most families only the males had tea. So this small pack used to be enough for a week.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

41

VIP no. 1 was a local brand who was selling these cleaning scrubs. There was only one brand
and 10 pieces available in the market and no one was interested in buying it. People washed
their utensils using their hands.
Below are some other products which were sold in market. This includes jewellery, vegetable,
slippers, spices, utensils, tobacco etc. The thing to notice here is the arrangement of green mirch
and adrak. They arrange it in Rs 2 and Rs 5 form.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

42

We then went to the barber shop to see what kind of products they use. We observed that most
of the brands which were kept outside were local brands. They used branded products only
when someone asked for it. They had kept those products in a shelf. They had a huge amount
of colouring products mostly of the brand Color Mate. They used either Dettol or Axe shaving
cream. The rates were very cheap as compared to city prices.
He told us that people usually come for shaving and haircut. Facial and head massage is usually
done on special occasions like Marriage, Diwali, Pooja etc.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

43

Our last stop was at the Alcohol and Pan Shop. The Alcohol shop had only local made
alcohol which is purchased by color Safed and Narangi. Narangi was more popular as
it had a higher alcohol content and gave a good amount of high to the consumer.
In cigarettes Bistol was the highest brand. Very few people bought cigarettes, most of them
preferred smoking Bidi.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

44

Marketing Strategy
The penetration of mobile in the country has been on an exponential growth and will have over
919 million subscribers by March 2015. This large scale acceptance of the device in rural India
could be because of its ability to provide the user with timely information about subjects as
different from intimation of job opportunity to avenues of higher education for their loved ones.
The is a rise of number of people who use mobile phone to gather information about agricultural
and other purposes along with keeping the influx of migrant population in touch with their
relatives. It also helps in the easy transfer of money in many cases. In short it is able to provide
services in the rural area that is need based and user-centric at prices that now are affordable.
Even in the village Bijouri, most of the male population had the possession of a mobile phone.
It is important to note that this is a skew against the women of the region. As discussed before
most of the farmers use their mobile for entrainment purpose equally if not more for
communicating purposes. They use it when they are out in the fields and when they sit ideal in
the homes.
One peculiar behaviours that we noticed is that most of the farmers would buy a SIM which
would give them a talk time and free internet for INR 30 for a month. If they were to get a new
recharge for internet access they would be required to spend considerably higher amount (close
to rupees 60). This means that people usually discard their SIM and get a new one instead of
getting it recharged. Behaviour of this sorts could be because they primarily switch SIMS
because they want internet access and are network agnostic.
Marketing Opportunity
A state like Madhya Pradesh has three-fourth of its population working for agricultural
pursuits. As we have elaborated on before most of the people in the village did seem to have a
mobile phone though they were basic one. They use to bridge the entertainment needs in their
life. Many of the young people we spoke to had had heard of WhatsApp. This is an opportunity
that can be tapped into.
By using the correct kind of marketing activity the network agnostic farmers have to be
converted into loyalist of the Telecom brand. The Telecom Industry can use this to their
advantage. You have to keep the principle in mind that the rural audience like any customer
wants value for money. Given below is the possible marketing mix
Product
An easy and low cost recharge option that allows internet top up in these areas. A special plan
can be created for the use of the farmers. Since listening to songs are a favourite pastime, free
download to music tailor-cut for them
Pricing
Since the income levels of the farmers is not very high the cost of the recharge has to be less
than Rs 30 which is the cost of the new SIM that they buy. The people in the village are value
conscious.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

45

Place
The place becomes very important in the case of rural distribution. This is because the rural
places are difficult to reach. All the companies that want to tap this market needs to spend
special attention for the expansion of marketing activities. The lack of such a tailored marketing
endeavour is why the companies havent made any headway into this territory.
The recharging facilities should be found at the same place the consumer today seek to recharge
his phone. In order to make the facility more noticeable as well as easy to access you can have
a travelling representative that connects moves around the area to boost sales.
Promotion
Since from our research it is found that radio is prominent in the lives of the farmer of the
region it is a good media to advertise about the new service catering them. Also wall painting
are ubiquitous in the village. They are low cost and remain intact for a couple of season. This
makes its use a viable and good option.
In addition to the above mentioned forms of promotion there should be a Rural Marketing
Vehicle that is mobile and can move from one part of the region and both endorse and generate
sales. This method would work to reach those that other media might not be able to target as
the distribution of markets in rural is not homogenous. For this approach to be successful the
sales person to be trained consistently in the ways of village life.
Process
Here we want to make the buying experience of the consumer to be as smooth as possible.
Since technology is in transition in rural areas and is relatively new, the use of the service
should be as less alienating as possible. The pack should have instruction in Hindi. Also the
shops that sell the service packs should be handed out Pictorial poster about the benefit and use
of the service/ plan. This pictorial representation will be able to create more resilience in the
minds of the customer and help the mind create a mind space.
Communication Need Assessment
During our visits to Bijouri we have tried to understand the various problems faced by the
villagers. We believe that with proper communication to the people about most of these issues
could lead to an improvement in their conditions. Few of the key issue as identified by us are
given below.
a) Prevalence of social evil of Casteism
We found that this was a crippling problem faced as a daily reality by many of the people who
live in the village. The barrier of caste are so strongly drawn that the houses of the people were
distributed according to the caste the people belong. There is also the case of one Muslim
family that lives in the peripheries of the village away from all the others. Some of the lower
caste folks that we spoke to also cited cases when there banking requirements were being
hindered due to the division on lines of caste.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

46

b) Problems with Sanitation

Sanitation is another issue that is plaguing the village. Though all the required governmental
communication can be found in the village, the state of most of the public urinals are pathetic.
The Maryaada Abhyaan has been implemented by the Madhya Pradesh government to stop
the practise of open defecation in the villages. Nevertheless most of the people in the
community that we spoke to hadnt had any idea about the proposal of such a scheme even
though most of the information was available as wall painting. The condition is a little better
when it comes to schools were the concept is being talked about whether or not the children
speak to their parents amount this is not clear. All the houses of people of lower caste and strata
didnt have any toilets in or around them. This is a major concern as open defecation endangers
the life of the entire community as it facilitates the spread of diseases. It also need to be stopped
to preserve the dignity of women and prioritize their health at home and at school.

c) Dropouts from school

As per the information given to us by the primary and secondary well teachers in Bijouri the
number of students who join the school at a younger age is fairly high. Most of the households
send their children even girls to the school. But as the classes progress more and more students
dropout and the gender ratio skews towards the male. The problem is the lack of interest by the
students according to teachers. The student dont seem to be interest in making any progress.
Even when the teachers approach the parent they too are not very keen. One important reason
for this to happen is that the children and their guardians do not know what to do with the
education they get. The lack of direction makes the children under appreciate the value of the
education.
Lack of Sanitation
According to us the most important issue that plagues the village is that of open defecation and
lack of toilets. This becomes very important for bring about gender equality as it is mostly the
women who have to face the indignity of not having a toilet at home.
Even in public places where toilet are provided it is the women who find it difficulty. As seen
from the pictures below the mens latrine has a commode but it is conspicuously missing from
the females side. The fact that the toilets are not clean and littered with waste suggest that
nobody really uses the loos.
RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

47

This sums up the problem faced by the government in trying to implement any scheme. It is
not enough to that the government builds the infrastructure it also becomes important that the
villages understand and become aware of the problems that they can face. The government
wants to provide quality sanitary facilities to all the population but unless the behavioural
change is not brought about by effective communication the target of Nirmal Bharat Yojna
cannot be realised. This endeavour will also protect the children form diseases that are now
prolific due open defecation. It order to bring about change in the mind-set of the villagers it is
important that the women and children are given agency.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

48

Communication Strategy
To break this habit you must first understand the behaviour and the reason why they are
reluctant to bring about any kind of change even when incentivised. One of the major reason
is the fact that the concept of latrine in or around the house to them is very alien. The
government officials we spoke to pointed out that the villages didnt see the toilets near their
home to be sanitary. Also the fact that they were so used to defecating in the open the close
confines of a toilet was something new to them. This coupled with the general lack of
awareness about the benefits of having a latrine at home are the major causes that we were able
to gather from our visit to the village.
Even though the children were being told about it in the schools and the schools putting up
communication near the toilets, the children were not aware as they should be. We think this
could be because it wasnt entertaining enough to catch their attention

To tackle the issue we sought to reach out to the women and the children as they can be
effective harbingers of change. The change is not brought about by normal information
dissemination but through communication that targets behavioural and social change.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

49

The diagram shows the step by step implementation plan to involve the villagers and to get
them to continue to use toilets. The awareness building will be done for the children and
women of the community.

OBJECTIVE
Reach the village

METHOD
Women
1. Wall painting
x
2. Mails to opinion
leader of the area
x
Generate Interest
1. Puppetry
2. Drama with
message
x
1. Talking at
Create Awareness
Aanganwadis
x
2. Going door to
door and educating
women
x
3. Use of radio
shows
4. Stalls on days of
important festival
5. Drama and
Nukad natak

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

Men
x

x
x

In public spaces

As radio is
preferred in the
village

x
x
x

6. Creative pictorial
sessions

7. Get health
officail to visit and
do checkup

Children
x

x
x

In schools

x
x

Comment

Addressing issue
of women safety
To get them to
understand the
concept with ease
This will ensure
that a credible face
is given to the
campaign and
people will listen
in.
50

The table defines the different kind of activities that we will carry on during the campaign in
all the 4 stages. The activities have been divided into

Reaching the village

Generating interest
Creating Awareness

The third activity is the most important and needs the facilitators to create awareness that
addresses all the concept that stop the people from toilet.
The last step of the process is the one that needs you to sustain the behaviour change through
continuing engagement with the people do that they are aware of the ways to maintain their
sanitary facility

Designs to Bring Change

One of the additional steps mentioned talks about using the designs that will get people to use
toilets more often. This borrows principle from a discipline called behavioural architecture.
This stream of thought believe that most of our behaviour is control by our non-conscious mind.
Any true change in the behaviour has to come when an individuals non-conscious mind reacts
to a stimulus. One way of doing this is by using designs changes in the structure of the toilet
as an example. Some of the ways behavioural architecture can be used as a form on non-verbal
communication are:
1) Putting mirrors and stands in the toilet, so that the household can personalize and so get over
their feeling of alienation. Providing them with paints so that the doors can be painted
2) Make sure that the toilet have open slits so that the enough sunlight trickles in. Wider slits
near the roof will make them feel less claustrophobic. In some way mimic the fields they are
used to
3) Use posters which are repeated three times on a wall at regular interval as it increases the
stickiness. This is called the power of 3 principle.
Conclusion
Our immersion into the rural area of Bijouri Village, Madhya Pradesh opened up a fresh
perspective to life. The life and people in rural India have a flare of their own and the research
that we conducted help us understand the distribution and marketing difficulties that our
country faces. The needs, wants and issues of our rural counterpart will now be easier for us to
picturise and will help us make decision that are far less ignorant. On the most fundamental
level we now realise the development issues that this single and every other village faces. We
hope to make changes that would trickle down to the many smiling faces that greeted us during
our journey.

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI

51