Visit to: Self-Help Association for Rural Education and Employment (SHARE),
Vellore, TN

Visit by: Premnath Venugopalan, Asha-MIT

Visit Date: 16 May, 1997

Background:

SHARE's mission is "to bring in all round development to the neglected and down
trodden section of the population in the villages" through women's empowerment
and solidarity.  SHARE has training and production centers for village
handicrafts (mainly palm leaf and coir work), village handlooms and carpet
making which employ 460 women artists spread over 27 villages in Kanyambadi,
Anaicut and Vellore blocks of NAA District of Tamil Nadu.  Amanda Bickel of
Asha-MIT had visited this project in summer, 1996 in connection iwth her
Master's thesis work at MIT.  She was very impressed with the activities of this
group.  At thi stime, SHARE was planning to set up study centers in the villages
in order to supplememnt the dismal government school education system which was
also producing a lot of dropouts.  Amanda suggested to them that they could
apply for Asha funds in this connection.  Following this, SHARE sent their
project proposal for five village study centers.  The proposal had a ive-year
plan where the funds came from three sources viz., Asha, SHARE and the
community.  The fraction put in by Asha decreased to zero by the end of the
third year.  The fraction put in by SHARE decreased to zero by the end of 4
years after which the community would bear the entire burden.  The proposal was
approved for funding in Jan 97 with the funding for years 2 and 3 contingent on
performance.  The program was scheduled to start in March 97.  This visit wa
menat to be more of a visit to get an idea of the initial situation.

Reaching the project: Madras (Chennai) is the closest metropolitan city.  I took
a train from Madras to Katpadi railway station on the Madras-Coimbatore route.
This is a two-hour journey.  Katpadi and Vellore are neighbouring cities.  On
this occasion, SHARE project people picked me up from the Katpadi station.
Otherwise, SHARE is located near the Adukkamparai village or TB Sanatorium bus
stop in between Vellore and Arni.  This is 8km from Vellore Bus Stand or 17km
from Katpadi Station.  One could reach within walking distance of SHARE by town
buses lying on the routes 15, 15 N, 2 K, 11, 11 A.  here are more details on
contact information.

Mr. K. Murugesan
Project Coordinator, SHARE
33-A, Christine Mathews Memorial Complex
TB Sanatorium (PO), Vellore-632011, India

Fax - 91-416-32490

tel -   91-416-24018 (SHARE Office)
        91-416-23524 (CODES, sister project office)
        91-416-23674 (CODES, sister project office)
        91-416-70303 (Residence)

Good Times to Visit:

Call to confirm a suitable day/time.  Usually any day except Sunday is good.
Craft centers work during the day and afternoon.  Study centers work between
5.30 and 6.30 pm usually.  Be sure to check that the school holidays have not
started especially during summer vacation since at this time many of the
children are not available.

Visit Report:

I boarded Kovai Express at Madras Central at 6.15 AM so as to reach Katpadi at
8.20 am.  SHARE secretary, Ms. rani greeted me at the station.  We set out to
Vellore in SHARE's jeep that they have procured recently through a grant from
GTZ, Germany.

After a quick breakfast, we visited CODES located at Bagayyam on the outskirts
of Vellore town.  CODES is short for Community Development Center.  SHARE
originated in this form but later seperated (decentralized) for convenience and
other reasons.  CODES is essentially a training and production center for women.
They are, I think, utilizing a government program called TRYSEM for training of
rural youth for self-employment.  It was here that I first met Mr. Murugesan.
He is actually employed with CHAD (Community Health and Development) department
and CMC, vellore that was responsible for the initiation of SHARE.
Mr. Murugesan was also educated at Gandhi Gram and is behind the
leader/initiator for SHARE and CODES.  In any case, the center has a welding
unit where several young women (in their late teens) wre being trained in
welding and some other machining work.  The products made by these girls during
their training were also being sold.  I saw some top quality bureaus, office
furniture and protective fences made by these girls.  This was impressive.  On
the other side, a group of women were being trained in tailoring and related
skills.  These ladies had been selected because they were either widows or
facing othe rproblems.  When I visited the place, the ladies were busy making
cloth products for the Maternity ward at Christial Medical Colleger, Vellore
(CMC provides a market whenever possible).

After this we set out to visit SHARE office which has been set up in
Mettupalyam.  the land was purchased collectively by the women.  The buildings
(several small) including the Craft Development (CDC) were constructed with the
help of the government.  CDC is the home for the 1) SHARE office (for
administrative work, business, marketing etc.), 2) the procurement and storage
center for raw materials and products, 3) a handloom training and production
center 4) a carpet making center, 5) a discussion room with posters
etc. (probably also a sitting room for foreign guests - since 75% of their
products are exported) and 6) a newly planned women run canteen under
development another income generation scheme while also serving the women,
guests and additional local customers.  I also met the current president of
SHARE, Ms Vasuki, at the SHARE office.

At the SHARE center, I engaged Mr. Murugesan, Ms Rani and Ms Vasuki in a
discussion so as to get a feel for the situation and the general
ideas/vision/leadership etc. in the area and organization.  We discussed various
aspects of the project and recent developments and observations at the village
level including panchayat elections after a long time with 33% reservation for
women.  Here are some points that may be of interest.

1.  SHARE works with people f all communities and religions.  (It was actually
also quite visible.  This area has a reasonably large number of Muslims and
Christians.  I found kids of all communities in the balwadi and women were also
from various communities at the craft centers).  While divisions exist in the
villages, SHARE members are working without too many divisions.  It appears that
women's solidarity has cemented the group together.  This was very clear from
later discussion with the ladies.

2.  In fact, it looks like old customs are crumbling.  Muslim women were as
vocal and visible as Hindu women were.  The women spoke freely against social
ills against women and the importance of education of the girl child.  In one
case, SHARE women wre quietly protesting the fact that one of their companions,
a 20 year old widow, was not being allowed to wear a Bindi.  SHARE women were
developing into clear and vocal leaders in their villages.  9 have just been
elected to the Panchayats.  Some others who stood but lost elections were none
the less throwing out the right questions at the village meetings.  All this is
quite inspiring and there have been considerable successes.

3.  It is of course not all rosy.  there are problems and resistance from other
power brokers in the area.  There is still caste based or party politics.  The
power has not yet been really devolved to the local bodies.  Wives of powerful
men took many of the seats reserved for women, the men control the local
politics from behind.

4.  About SHARE - The vision behind the organization is that of Mr. Murugesan.
His focus is on creating labor intensive employment opportunities for women.  He
also hopes to tackle social, educational and other devlopment issues by first
empowering women.  The ladies all respect Mr. Murugesan very much and are
grateful for his selfless, down to earth approach.  Ms. Vasuki and Ms Rani were
both leaders in their own right.  The ladies at the craft centers and the
children at the balwadi were respectful while freely discusisng their problems.
SHARE wome elect an executive committee including President, Secretary etc.
These women make most of the decisions.  I think the executive committee meets
every month.  Some of the administrative work and the initiating of new work,
business development etc. is done by Mr. Murugesan and his office staff.

5.  75% of the products are for export purposes.  International organizations
involved in "Fair Trade" like Oxfam, UK, Trade Craft-UK etc. are typical
customers who place orders of craft items from throughout the world and then
sell it in their countries through catalogs.  I wonder if Asha or similar
organizations can help groups like SHARE in selling products in the US either
directly or through OXFAM (which has an active Boston chapter).  If someone
shows interest, here are some relevant addresses.

Ms. Melanie Kay
Oxfam Trading
Murdock Road
Bicester, OXON, OX6 7RF
UK

Also see

International Federation of Alternate Trade (Organization Committee to Fair Trade)

http://www.ifat.org

Following this discussion we set out to visit the balwadi (Creche/Kindergarten)
in village Sabdalipuram which was started using part of a grant from a German
source.  The Balwadi was in a small hut.  There were 15 kids there (some were
away for the summer).  The balwadi has an Aaya and a teacher.  The kids were
learning quite a lot here; in fact these kids know more of certain things than
children do in ist and 2nd standard in the local government's elementary school.
The children were very responsive, enthusiastic about what they had learned and
very active.  The children also get the afternoon meal free.  If the balwadi
wasnt there, the children would definitely not be learning much.  The games
would be less educational.  One healthy meal a day is also useful.

The next stop wa the village craft center at Adakkamparai where about fifteen
women (and one "teacher" - a senior worker and actually the ex-president in this
case) were busy making palm leaf baskets.  I spoke to the women about some of
the issues relating to the work and the panchayat elections; one of the ladies
was a panchayat member.  All through the discussion the women were busy at work.
Some were also taking care of a child or two at the side.  The women were not
shy and discussed freely.  In fact, I also heard them requesting certain new
study centers and other developments from the president and secretary who had
also started weaving baskets along with the others as the discussion went on.

After lunch, I actually had a detailed visit of the crafts development center
where I spoke to the workers and the occassional teacher or quality control in
charge.

In the evening, I visited the newly opened study center at village Mothakal
using Asha Funds.  SHARE has decided to start 10 centers.  The first 5 were
started two months before with the help of volunteer teachers.  This was decided
and inaugerated even vefore Asha funds were committed for the next five centers.
Circulars were sent out to villagers so as to get a feel for the response (which
was very good) and also stating the requirements from the villagers.  The
villagers were asked to provide for the room where the classes would be held.
(So the rent payment is not required).  The other conditions (requests) are that
the parents actively participate by at least attending one meeting a month with
the school teacher.  Anybody can come to the study center irrespective
irrespective of whether they are SHARE members or not but preference will be
given for the classes 1-5 and for the weaker children.  After Asha's grant was
received, five more study centers were started.  These five centers relate dto
Asha funds were inaugerated only in early May 1997.  These centers are located
in the following villages - Kilpallipattu, Mothakkal, Mottupalyam, Salamanathan
and Kammasamuthiram.  They plan to stop at this stage and see how these centers
perform before starting new ones.  The children have been provided with some
additional material - a hanging black board, chalk, a english-tamil dictionary.
The teachers have typically passed 12th grade.  A coordinator (supervisor)
supervises all the study centers.  The current supervisor is Mr. Dhananjaya who
has a B.A> (history) degree and is from the village itself.  I found
Mr. Dhananjaya enthusiastic but both him and the teachers were new to the effort
and teaching kids.  But this is only the beginning.  I think they are likely to
learn quick.

Now back to the village center near Mothakkal.  The school starts at roughly
5.15-5.30 pm.  The children are still getting used to the idea of the study
center though there is a lot of interest among the children.  I arrived a little
early.  The children were yet to arrive at the school.  On this day, fewer
children were expected due to summer vacations.  Roughly 50 children had signed
up.  the village elementary school (during the day) was being used as the center
in the evening after securing permission from the school headmaster.  The school
was a completely bare building with no furniture, no cupboards, no charts or
displays.  There was just a room partitioned into three sections with a
blackboard for each section.  The children sit on the floor.  As I entered the
empty classroom, one of the senior students (Uma Devi, 5th standard) of the
study center enthusiastically jumped across to her house and brought along a
broom to clean up the place.  She and her friends brought a chair from a
neighbouring house for the teacher.  Soon about 15-20 children slowly came in
one by one with their notebooks.  The children greeted the teacher and us as
they had been taught to do.  The children quite spontaneously surrounded the
teacher with the homework that was assigned to each of them the previous
evening.  This was quite refreshing to see (especially in the light of how many
of us might have whined at homework in our childhood).  For my benefit, the
teacher told us a little about how class was held and also had a short question
and answer session.  I spoke to the children for a while- telling a short story
while combining some Tamil and math excercises in between.  (This is just a way
to talk to the children and get a feel for the situation without boring them to
sleep).  Many kids were definitely far behind in their education.  For example,
the kids at the Balwadi were able to recite all the alphabets from A-Z in
english but not some children in the 1st or 2nd standard in the elementary
school.  Supposedly some of the children could not even write their names in
Tamil till a few days ago.  The teacher is giving different homework to
different students after judging their level.  The study centers clearly can be
a success and produce good results.  I have again requested SHARE to maintain
some kind of student profile so as to evaluate the child's development and the
performance of the study centers.  I have also given them our new proposal form
and asked them to emphasize specific goals and evaluation of progress in their
reports.  Amanda had already written a very clear letter to them earlier stating
Asha's needs.  Before leaving I also briefly visited another study center on my
way (I think at Mottupalyam) but could not spend much time there.

Recommendations:

I think this is a really worthwhile project with a carefully planned strategy.
The study centers are capable of adding quite a lot of value to the children's
lives.  The study centers are intentioned to also quietly peomote other
developmental and women's empowerment activities of SHARE by targeting the
children and eliciting the participation of the villagers in improving their own
lives.  To what extent they will succeed will be apparent only after a year or
so.  I suggest that we watch their progress carefully and if they are successful
then we help them out with (probably in that order of importance)

a) improving facilities at current schools, centers, balwadis
b) more balwadis
c) more study centers

One issue that had come up at one of the Asha meetings was whether we should
support study centers where schools already exist.  From this experience, I
think we should support study centers too wherever the schools are inadequate
and where the study centers involve the participation of the parents as well.  I
liked SHARE's philosophy of people's participation and minimizing donations
(donations/grants are OK to start with but not for sustaining it)

Publicity Material: 

1) The report and the photographs taken by me.  

2) Amanda has requested SHARE to send news items, cuttings, reports etc. usable
for publicity

3) This is a project that we might want to use for video publicity at a later
date.  It can be powerful.  I shall not be able to do it right now but maybe at
a later date.


(Typed in by Aparna, July 21, 1997)