Project
Name: UMBVS, Rajasthan
Contact
Info: Mr. Ayub Khan, umbvs@satyam.net.in, (02925) 2272
Getting
there: The schools that Asha have supported
are 2-3 hours from
their regional office in Pokhran and 3-4 hours from
their headquarters in Phalodi, Rajasthan.
Previous
Asha volunteer visit: Sagar had visited the project earlier this year.
Asha’s association: Asha funded UMBVS from WAH2000 for
$17,000
FCRA
clearance: Yes
Site
visit date: February 27, 2002
Time
spent at project: 1.5 days
Report
written: March 8,
2002
Visited
by: Preeti
& Raj Chauhan
Photos
at: http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/rp_trip/lst
UMBVS (Urmul Marusthali Bunkar Vikas Samiti) was
formed about 10 years ago. Its founders
had worked with and were trained by Sanjay Ghosh* at Urmul Trust (its parent
organization). UMBVS was initially
formed to assist the weaver community of villages around Phalodi,
Rajasthan. It has succeeded very
tremendously in these efforts as it has been able train, provide work to about
160 weavers, design, and market their handicraft products. Its annual turnover from these handicrafts
now is about Rs. 40 lakhs. UMBVS is a
well-established organization with relationships with many large NGOs and
funding agencies. Further, since its
formation it has started a number of other initiatives including education,
drought-relief, and working with Dalits.
Currently it employs about 50 full-time workers and has 2 offices. Its headquarters are in Phalodi and another
large campus in Pokhran serves as a training center, dyeing center for threads
for weavers and a showroom.
A couple of years back Asha received
a proposal from UMBVS to fund the startup of about 10 schools in Mohangarh
district of Rajasthan. UMBVS had been
assisting the relocation of landless (below poverty line) people to this area
of Rajasthan. Government land provided
at a very low cost and the construction of Indira Gandhi Canal, which brings
water from Punjab to this area have attracted the landless people to this
area. With no government or private
schools around, UMBVS had requested to start 10 schools (up to 5th
grade) for the children of the area. A
year after the funding in 2001 about 10 schools in that area have been started.
*Sanjay
Ghosh was an imminent figure who made very significant contributions through
Urmul in Rajasthan and then got involved with efforts in Assam. He was killed in Assam a few years
back.
We took a Rajasthan roadways bus
from Jaiselmer in the morning and landed up at Pokhran around 11am. Pokhran looks like any other small town in
India but obviously has a “world-over” reputation due to the nuclear tests here
in May 1998. The nuclear tests were
about 8-12km from the town. During the
tests the residents then thought it was an earthquake.
We had previously contacted UMBVS but had not given
them the date and time of our arrival.
The person coordinating the 10 schools started near Mohangarh is Ayub
Khan. Unfortunately, he was at their
Phalodi office (about 1.5 hours away by jeep) and not at their Pokhran office
when we arrived. UMBVS employees at Pokhran called him and requested him to
come to Pokhran. While we waited for
him we saw the campus at Pokhran—the training center, the dyeing facility and
the showroom. This facility was
constructed from a funding agency in Japan but the funding was stopped after
the nuclear tests.
Ayub Khan arrived an hour and half later in a Jeep
and we were soon on our way to see the schools near Mohangarh. Unfortunately, the schools are very far from
Pokhran (2.5 hour drive) and we had to hurry since schools close at 4:30pm. The terrain to getting the schools is
amazing (something we hadn’t seen before)---miles of desert and sand dunes,
parched land only with patches of greenery due to the Indira Gandhi Canal. The road at places was pretty good because
it is utilized and maintained by the Defense Forces. There was little traffic on the road. We were glad we weren’t here during summer months when hot gusts
of wind and blowing sand can cause havoc.
Although it is hard to tell just by just looking around—this locale is
very close to the border and one of the 10 schools supported by Asha is only
about 10km from the Pakistan border.
About Mr. Ayub Khan—he has been with
UMBVS for about 4-5 years and has worked on various efforts. Prior to this assignment, he was assisting
the landless of the Pokhran relocate to this region of Mohangarh—he helped them
identify the actual land that was allocated to the landless by the
government. Given his knowledge of the
area and the people that have migrated, he was the obvious choice for working
on the education initiative in this area.
He has actively been involved with the drought relief efforts of
UMBVS. He belongs to a village near
Phalodi where his joint family resides.
He is married and has 2 children.
He is literate but can’t speak or read/write in English. When speaking to us in the beginning he
seemed to be quiet but as our visit progressed he opened up to us and divulged
information very readily. Currently, he
lives in their Mohangarh office and gets a monthly salary of Rs. 4,200.
We visited 5 schools during that
day. Most of the schools are either
government buildings (e.g. buildings that were used as offices when the Indira
Gandhi canal was being constructed) or buildings given by the community. The first school we visited the class was
still in operation. There were about 30-35 students studying in that class and
4 older children were studying in a separate room. The children of varying ages were studying the same
material. Some of the children recited
songs and “dohas” they had learnt in their classes. A few of them read from the Hindi book. We visited 2 other schools but since it was close to 4:30pm—the
children were playing games outside the classroom. Both these schools didn’t have a permanent structure but only a
thatched roof. One of these schools had
only 29 of the 45 enrolled-students attending school that particular day. A classroom has a blackboard, an “almari”, a
water “matka” and an aluminum trunk.
The children are provided with books, pencils and schools bags. The 10 schools have an average of 40-45
students each.
We also visited 2 schools after 5pm
just to see if the school building actually existed. Fortunately, we got to meet with the teacher of one of these
schools who was not older than 19 years of age. He was very enthusiastic about teaching and the fact that
everyone in the village recognized him as “masterji”. It seemed that youth find teaching is a better alternative than
farming. The last school we visited was
around 6pm, which catered to a cattle-herding Muslim community. Although the school was empty when we
arrived many of the children and the adults of the community gathered around
our jeep.
After visiting the schools, later in
the evening we visited their office in Mohangarh. This office is rented for Rs. 500 per month. This was one of the nicer buildings in the
village with a couple of rooms and a courtyard. There was also a motorcycle at the office. Ayub Khan coordinates the activities of the
10 schools from here and lives there as well.
There we also met with the 2nd coordinator, Magga Ram who is
the local sarpanch’s brother. He is
supposed to be doing the same thing as Ayub Khan and gets about Rs. 4,200 per
month. His experience level seemed
below that of Ayub Khan’s but we didn’t spend enough time with him to really
understand his role and contribution.
We came back to Pokhran campus
around 10pm and stayed overnight there. One of the dye workers cooked us a nice
dinner of dal and roti which we enjoyed with the others in their kitchen. Next
morning we went to see their Phalodi office and meet other members of the
organization. Unfortunately, there was
a death in the family of one of the senior members of the organization and we
didn’t get to meet the Chief Executive of the organization, Ramchandra
Barupal. However, we sat briefly at
their monthly meeting of the organization.
They were discussing the details of the meeting of dalits they were
organizing the following week in Pokhran (as an aside it was interesting to find
out that even with Dalits there is discrimination amongst them and that some
prefer not to sit with others, etc.).
We thought it was a good idea to spend time with the accountant of
UMBVS. He has a nice office with a
couple of computers and an assistant.
They seem to have reasonable method of tracking all the expenses for
each different initiative and for each funding organization. However, the surprise of our visit came when
both Ayub and the accountant mentioned that they were expecting Asha to send
another $17,000 for their next year’s school budget. We informed them that as far as we knew, the money they had
received in year 2000 from Asha was one-time in nature and that they would have
to make a separate request. Then we sat
with them and went over the budget line-by-line for next year (this is given
below).
Ø
Due
to the sparse settlement, the schools are generally pretty far (average of
about 4-5km) from the homes of the children.
Ø
There
are no government schools around.
Ø
Teachers
are VIII standard pass and they were selected locally by UMBVS.
Ø
UMBVS
has also formed committees of villagers who are involved with the functioning
of the schools. In one village, the
villagers constructed the school building as pro-bono work.
Ø
Initially,
UMBVS’ plan was to operate these schools for about 3 years and then convert the
schools to government schools. This was
possible under earlier government schemes. Few of the schools are already
operating in vacant government buildings.
However, with a change in government at state-level in Rajasthan the
Congress-I government has introduced “the Rajiv Gandhi Paathshala” scheme. Under this scheme hundreds of primary
schools have been opened in Rajasthan.
However, this scheme has also mandated that teacher of government have
at least at B Ed. (Bachelor’s in Education) or STC (2-year teacher
training). This implies that teachers
in school run by UMBVS would need to have this minimum training. All the
current trained local teachers would be unemployed if the schools were
converted to government schools.
Ø
Ayub
and others claimed that even if there was a government school, qualified
teachers from outside wouldn’t come to Mohangarh area to teach as the salary
offered is minimal and the commute costs are high. This mandate would prevent
them from converting the schools to government schools.
Ø
Currently,
there is no long-term strategy in place for funding and running these
schools. We had suggested to Ayub that
UMBVS could initiate dialogue with block/district officials about converting
the schools with the current structure (i.e. keeping the current teachers) as a
special case. In the mean time UMBVS should also contact larger organizations
for more permanent funding for the next few years.