Odanadi Seva Samsthe- A
Report Children's Education
&
Activities: Another boy Srinivas is doing a Electrician
course at an Industrial Training Institute. The other children are continuing with their
studies at the high school, college and in-premises. At school, a new
program called SUPW(Socially useful Productive Work) was introduced by the
government. So the children now have to do more extra-curricular
activities. The children participated in a
drawing/painting competition organized by "MediaFest", a group of
journalists and won the first prize. The children also participated in a
zonal level competition for students and won prizes for folk dance,
Dhandiya, fancy dress, and classical songs. Ms. Kumudini, a classical dancer teaches
bharatanatyam to a group of children. This is one program that is going on
very well, and the students participating actively. The dance teacher says
that there has been a significant improvement in the personality of the
dance students since they started with the program. As part of the Childrens Day
celebrations, sport, cultural and quiz competitions in a number of
individual and group categories were conducted. The children participated
actively. Christine Hoar, a yoga teacher from Bristol,
Vermont is visiting Odanadi again and conducting yoga classes for the
children. She was here about 10 months back and taught yoga to the
children. The children had continued the practice daily, though not all
from the original group were doing it regularly. As part of the therapy of the children,
karate classes are being conducted for the children.These classes are
conducted in the morning and the children are actively
participating. The children of Odanadi were to present a
Mime show at the Mysore Kala Mandir on November 14th. But the Mime show
got pre-empted by a dance show by somebody else and apparently the
audience started leaving after the dance show. So the Odanadi team walked
out in protest without performing. The same show will be presented with
the other programs on Nov 23rd, when the Childrens Day will be celebrated
at Odanadi(The Childrens Day celebration itself was postponed to 23rd
because of the public presentation). Two volunteers from Switzerland and Austria
are teaching English to the younger children.
A 9-year old talented boy from Odanadi who
had gone to spend Dasara with his mother did not come back. Apparently the
mother and the grandmother want the boy to take care of a makeshift
roadside "Shani" temple in from of K R Hospital. The grandfather who was
looking after it had died it seems. It seems they get a decent income from
the offerings of the devotees. The boy was doing well at school. The case
is being worked on. The number of children
at Odanadi is 77 at present, with 17 boys and the remaining
girls. One of the teacher has written a educational
report available at: Educational Trip: The new Residential Home
construction: Since a number of
girls are now in their adolescent stage, and also due to the increase in
the number of rescued girls, problems do crop up now and then, one of the
main reason being that they need privacy. Hopefully the new building when
ready for occupation, will alleviate some of these problems. Awareness Program about
trafficking of children: A Legal
Sensitization program for the judiciary and the legal community and
students was conducted in Mysore. The judges, and lawyers who attended the
program were very cooperative and offered to work with the issue and
offered their cooperation. In the meeting, a high court advised that PIL
be filed by Odanadi and people working on the issue, so that the court can
direct the goverment to create a task force to conduct a detailed
investigation. In addition, Street Plays
by a theatre team comprising of children from Odanadi and local
theatre activists, were conducted in a number of villages in the above
taluks over a 10-day period. These plays depict the situation of the
trafficked children and their parents. Hundreds of people witnessed these
plays and were appreciative of the efforts of Odanadi and also agreed to
participate in the prevention of child-trafficking.
All the awareness and
sensitization programs were widely reported in all the local
newspapers.
At one of the villages
where the theatre team was performing, the team was refreshing themselves in a
river, a group of drunken men assaulted and tried to molest the
female members. They also damaged the bus. The culprits were later
apprehended and cases filed against them. I
participated in a number of above awareness programs and talked to the
people about the issue. Summer Camp:
Through a
Mime show, taught by Mr. Dwarakanath, the children understood and demonstrated the importance of
preserving forests and growing more trees, and how cutting down trees ultimately leads
to famine and drought. The children presented a magic show taught by
a Magician With a Difference. This magician conducts magic shows and through that
medium, simultaneously creates awareness of the environment and nature, issues that
affect society and well-being of children.
Two painting artists taught sketching and painting, and
through these, the techniques and nuances of color. One of them, a terracotta
artist, taught the children clay-modeling, thus helping them to learn to
use their hands to create something. Rescue
Operations: In another case, a tribal girl
from Gundlupet, who was sold for bonded labour and was missing, was traced
in a house in Kasargod. She was brought back and sent with her parents.
Supporters of Odanadi, in her hometown promised to arrange her to be sent
to a residential school for the tribals. I participated in this 2-day
operation. Maanavi Mahila
Sangha: Of the girls who have
completed their beautician training some are working with the experienced
ones at the beauty parlour. The Maanavi Emporium
business girls have a stall in the Mysore Dasara Exhibition, where they
sell handicraft brass items, pearl items and other handmade articles. The
stall was provided free of cost thanks to a supporter who actively
campaigned for the same using her contacts. The Maanavi Beauty
Parlour and the Manaavi Emporium have been making profits, but the Ice
Cream parlour has suffered losses. Odanadi and the Maanavi girls are
looking into to make the business profitable. As for the Maanavi Travel
Agency, they have been making some money by providing the taxi services,
and it appears that they have experienced some losses. Other Events: As part of the grant
from USAID-AED(who are supporting the awareness program), Odanadi now has
a Tata Sumo vehicle which has been of immense help in their frequent
travels. Also the office now has a photocopy and a fax machine which again
have been big help, since the people dont have to run around for these
services. As part of the same program, Odanadi now owns a video camera for
documenting all their activities, and mikes and amplifiers for presenting
the street plays. MSW
students from different colleges and university visited to learn about the
work done by Odanadi. Supporters of Odanadi continue to sponsor the
meals of the children by celebrating birthday parties of their children
and also celebrating special days with the children of Odanadi. One of the rescued girls who was working as a cook at Odanadi, got married
to a local guy staying in Mumbai. They have since settled
in Mysore and both are working, thus making their lives. A local chapter of Innerwheel Club offered to
conduct tailoring training for the girls of Maanavi and also offered to
provide a special sewing machine to make jewellery bags(Another supporter
had already provided materials for the bags and promised to provide a market for them). But the coordinator of the Maanavi Enterpreneurship program failed to follow-up and therefore the offer from the club was lost.
11/12/04 (May 2004 - November 2004)
- By Ramesh Dodamani
The following is a report of the activities and events at Odanadi from May to November
2004.
The photos related to the events mentioned below have
already
been uploaded to the project web site at:
http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=129
Nanjunda, the senior most
boy at Odanadi, who has completed his LL B(Bachelor of Law), is now
preparing for competitive exams such as IAS and KAS. He has passed
with the highest marks in his college. He is also looking after
some of administration of the Maanavi Sangha and is paid a small
remuneration for the same.
http://www.ashanet.org/projects-new/documents/129/od_edu_rpt1104.doc
The children and staff went on a educational trip to Madikeri
and Somwarpet in the month of October. They visited the Tibetian Golden
Temple,"Nisarga Dhama" a natural forest resort(the river Kaveri flows
nearby), the Dubari forest santuary, and the Nagarhole national park. At
the forest and park, they learnt about nature and the importance of
preserving it. At Somwarpet, they interacted with the children of the
Sandipany English Medium school. At the jointly conducted program, the
children of Odanadi performed plays and sang songs and exhibited their
talents. The children of the host school also did the same. A friendly
cricket match of 10 overs was played between the cricket teams of the
visitors and the hosts. The host team won. The Odanadi children made a
number of new friends at the school. Excellent food and accommodation were
provided by the school. Through out the trip, food arrangements were
sponsored and made by supporters of Odanadi. So essentially Odanadi had to
spend only for the travel costs.
The construction of the new residential home is
continuing with the latest funds
from the government. The money which was delayed by about a
year has finally come, but only a part of the actual was issued. Asha-Seattle
and Asha-Central New Jersey supported the construction with grants of 4.5 lakhs and
1.57 lakhs respectively. With the latest funds, enough construction will
be done to enable the children to move, thus bringing
to reality the dream of a new home for the children. Funds are
being sought from other chapters of Asha, AID, Vibha and other sources to complete
the building. See the Asha project web site for an update on the
building.
An
Awareness Program related to the issue of trafficking of children is being
conducted in the three districts of Mysore, Chamarajnagar and Mandya. In
these districts the taluks covered are Mysore, Hunsur,H D Kote,
Chamarajnagar,Yalandur,Malavalli and Krishnarajpet. As part of the
Program, 16 taluk level meetings and 2 district level meetings have been
conducted. Through these meetings people from all sections of the society
such as local leaders, teachers, Gram panchayat members, doctors, police,
lawyers, farmer leaders
etc were made aware of
the issue and urged to work with the community to prevent trafficking of children. Vigilant committees including the above mentioned individuals and groups have been formed in all villages and taluks where the awareness program was conducted. These Vigiland Committees, track all movement of young girls going
for work to other places and keep records of outsiders or local people who try to take the girls out of their villages with the promise of jobs.
A Summer Camp was conducted for the children of
Odanadi under the guidance of Mr. Basavalingaiah, a well know theatre
artist. The camp has been a means to develop and expose the talent and
creativity of the children. The camp was conducted for a month from April
15 to May 15. During the camp, the children practised two plays which they
presented on the valedictory days. The plays were directed by two young
artists Sampath and Selvaraj. Of the two plays enacted by the children,
the first "Nayi Tippa" was about creating awareness about the
issue of globalization and its effect on the common man, especially the rural folk.
It also highlighted the issue of the patent-craze, which is affecting the indigenous people
and their produce. The second "Agala Kiviya Arivugara" was about preserving nature and the
balance of the environment. It described the importance of the natural elements such
as clouds, mountains, earth and the forests and exemplified how destruction of
these would lead to destruction of mankind itself. Both the plays included lot
of songs giving an opportunity for those included towards singing to
learn and present their singing talents.
In a
rescue operation conducted near Mysore, three girls were rescued and a
trafficker was caught. Two other traffickers escaped. The trafficker was
arrested but later released on bail. I participated as a decoy customer in
this case.
One
more girl from Maanavi has joined car-driving classes and will
later work as part of the Maanavi travel
agency.
Loveleen Kacher, Joint Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development, Govt. of India visited Odanadi to see for herself the work done by the organization, after having heard about the organization from other sources. Looking at the Maruti van owned by the Maanavi Travel Agency she
suggested that they should go for a Qualis instead and asked Odanadi to submit a proposal.