The Reality I Didn’t Expect

I am working on a Common Facility Centre (CFC) project for rice value addition. The main aim of this project is to improve the livelihood of farmers. When I started, I thought this work would be about building something meaningful. But as I got involved, I began to see a different side of reality.

Building a factory is not just about construction. It begins with finding the right land, checking if it is suitable, registering it, and getting approvals from many departments like the panchayat, fire, water, pollution control, and electricity board.

At every step, there are procedures to follow and people to meet. It takes time, patience, and constant effort. But what affected me more was not the difficulty of the work, it was the way the system works behind the scenes.

During this process, I came across something I had only heard about before which is  informal practices that everyone seems to know, but no one really talks about.

Starting from land registration, there were indirect expectations for extra payments. Even after completing the formal steps, the process didn’t move easily. For things like land survey and document updates, there were delays and repeated follow-ups. It often felt like things would move faster only when something extra was given.

Sometimes these expectations were not even direct. They came as hints, suggestions, or small comments that were easy to understand but hard to respond to.

The same pattern continued in other stages too. While applying for electricity connection and other approvals, there were mentions of “additional expenses” beyond official fees. In cases where multiple departments were involved, a certain amount was informally indicated to keep the process moving smoothly.

I also came across words like “under the table” and “off the table.” Earlier, they were just phrases I had heard casually. But here, they started to feel real. They were not just words, they described what was happening around me.

Even simple steps like inspections felt uncertain. Work that should happen as a responsibility sometimes depended on how well things were “managed.”

All this left me with many thoughts.

It was not anger alone, but a kind of disappointment. Because the same system that is meant to support people can sometimes make things harder for them.

I kept thinking, what would happen to someone who genuinely doesn’t have extra money? How will they complete these processes?

These experiences slowly affect the trust people have in the system. And trust, once broken, is not easy to rebuild.

This journey showed me a reality that is not always visible, but is quietly experienced by many.

If something is known by everyone but still continues, is it because we have accepted it and if so, how do we begin to change it?