Mapping of the village is a major technique of P.R.A. (Participatory Rural Appraisal) and R.R.A. (Rapid Rural Assessment). It is a technique that helps a team to learn about the social structure of a community and how differences among households to land and other asset holdings and access to difference services to identify groups and social categories. It is a different form of map that demonstrates the major and minor resources and the social structure of a village. It is a different form of geographical map because the villagers using their own ideas and techniques draw it. There fore, a village map gives an almost clear vision of the different resources and social condition of a village.
Through the help of P.R.A. technique, we have been able to generate enough feedback from the villagers to construct the village map. This was our first step in P.R.A. building. Village map includes the overall picture of the Gram with its geographical data. It also identifies the location of homesteads, different streets/ paras, schools, markets, shops, ponds, mosques, rivers, crop fields etc. social map is also useful as an introduction to discussing inequalities and social problems.
3.1. Village Mapping Procedure:
To construct a village map by the participation of villagers we had used the following steps,
Planned and organized a meeting for the entire community. It was scheduled for a time when both women and men of different ages can attend and that all social groups had been invited.
A large open space was found and the ground cleared.
Participants were then asked to scratch out the outline figure of the total village.
Marked paths and other major landmarks such as Temples, graveyard, cropping lands, water sources, other important places etc.
Started recording on a separate sheet of paper as soon as the basic outline had been established.
Asked the villagers to select one or more