Odanadi Seva Samsthe- A Report
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

Children's Education & Activities:
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.

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:
http://www.ashanet.org/projects-new/documents/129/od_edu_rpt1104.doc

Educational Trip:
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 new Residential Home construction:
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.

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:
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 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:
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.

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 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.

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:
One more girl from Maanavi has joined car-driving classes and will later work as part of the Maanavi travel agency.

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:
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.

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.