VOP was founded in 1986 by Swapan Basu-Mallick (who is now chairman) with the aim of promoting a"journey towards a 'Just Society'". It has now grown into a large organization with 50 whole- time employees and a 1995-1996 annual budget of Rs. 15 lakhs.
Voice of People, SPANDAN, Nuandiyarah, P.O. - Nayabad, Dist. 24-Pgs. (South), Pin- 743 369. Tel- (9133) 462-0914, 462-0686. Fax- (9133) 247-9163 Email- VOP.CAL@LFI.CIRRUSINDIA.COM Mobilink Operator # 4793654/55/56 Pager- 300143
SRA# S/505R6 OF 1985-1986 FRCA # 147120292, Sep 1996.
Headquarters at SPANDAN, near Calcutta. Involved in adjacent rural areas in West Bengal.
Ms. Maya Karmakar, Secretary General of VOP at above address.
"BODHI VIKAS"- Unfolding one's own potential. The project aims at 'giving scope to drop-out children, who are deprived of the benefit of education', and to make them ready to ' undertake vocational and tradebased training for their self- employment' and 'to respond to the child- labour issue and to help for their up-bringing in a better environment" so that they are later able to participate in 'entrepreneurial development" At presnt VOP runs and maintains "Bodhi Vikas" an experimental school started in June 1995 for children ranging from 3- 10 years of age, and meant especially for street children, child labourers and children of prostitutes. They aim to provide shelter, literacy and develop skills and awareness that will enable them to become self-reliant. They currently appear to be trainingthem till class IV stage and wish to exend this till the Class X stage" along with entrepreneurship training to enable them to choose their way'. Short term plans include education therough cultural activities such as dramas. songs and rallys; 6 such events are palnned at 2- month intervals over the coming year. Non- formal classes will also be conducted which involve " making the children expressive about their feelings" through cultural and psychological actions such as handling of various natural objects. Long- term goals (over next 5- 10 years) include not only "learning through books, pressure of tasks etc" but to teach thoruogh "psychological and physical games, dramas" etc. Classes wil be arranged during school hours and continued each year according to the potential of each child. Vocational training will be introduced after the child has attained a certain stage according to each one's aptitude. Meanwhile the children will be given a regular 'work- education' class to prepare them for "entrepreneurship development". At present the school consists of a makeshift structure on the VOP SPANDAN premises made of bamboo mat walls and flooring with a tin roof. The school has Blackboard, table(s?) chair, books, chalk, pencils. Staffed by 5 teachers and one non- teaching associate along with one honorary overall coordinator. The school is being funded through donations and the teachers at present are getting no salary but occasional pocket and/or travelling allowances. (NB- Rs. 2.15 lakhs or 11% of their 1995-1996 budget of Rs.19.3 lakhs is listed as spent on "Educational Program" in their summary financial statement; although unclear, this may possibly refer to their adult education efforts rather than Bodhi Vikas)
They are requesting funding of Rs. 105 lakhs (app. U.S.$ 3000/-) for salaries of the 7 staff members for one year (app. $1200/-) in total as well as for renovation of the school building (app $1650/-), purchase of teaching and learning materials ($300/-) and administrative costs ( app $130/-). They will contribute app $320/- of their own towards these efforts.
ESTIMATED BUDGET (in Indian Rupees):
Honorarium for 1 headmaster@ Rs 750/- p.m.for 12 mths- 9,000.00 Honorarium for 5 teachers @ Rs. 500/- p.m.x 12 mths x 5- 30,000.00 Honorarium for 1 non-teaching staff@ RS. 300/-pm x 12 mths- 3,600.00 Teaching Materials and Contingency (Slate, notebooks,maps, pencils, Books, AV aids etc) 10,000.00 Administrative cost (Postage,Stationery,Electricity,Audit)- 5,000.00 Renovation of School Building- 60,000.00 Total- Rs 1,17,600.00 Requested funding from ASHA-MIT- Rs.1,05,000.00 Own Contribution- 12,600.00.
One year from start of funding.
$ 6473 in the next year. We proposed that we will send them a third of the amount in January 98 and monitor how they use it and based on their progress release the rest of the amount later in the year.
non- formal and voctional education for one year.
The group seems well organized. They seem especially keen to build a relationship with ASHA- MIT and mention in their covering letter that an MIT scholar, Ms. Anuradha Joshi of the Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, as already visited some of their units and may be willing to offer us her impressions of their organization. One bit of information that we need is statistics on how many children are in the school, age groups etc. The group has an annual budget of Rs. 17-19 lakhs, of which 13 lakhs (72%) is obtained from foreign grants, 1.2 lakhs (7%) from the Govt, and rest trough local contributions. Their largest expenses are the Income Raising program (25% of budget), Coordination (salaries etc- 14%) and their educational program (12%). The area in which the school is located is quite poor. 73% of the local population fall 'on' or below the poverty line, and are rickshawpullers, small-shop owners, marginal farmers, fishery workers etc (23%) or from lowest-earning groups ( vendors, servants, labourers, hut-makers, etc) There are many child labourers and school drop-outs. The VOP group conducts activites on many levels, with the general aim of promoting the 'journey towards a just society' by providing 'voice to the voiceless, development from below, leadership from below". their activities include mother and child care, team building through non- formal adult education, skill development and income generation, rural technology transfer etc. in areas such as Hooghly, Jalpaiguri, Singbhum and Midnapur. It participated in the Int'l Beijing Women's conference and is engaged in campaigns against domestic violence, dowry deaths and witch-burning which occur is these districts. Their activities seem more focussed towards adult literacy and in fact they paln to use the Bodhi Vikas school for evening classes for the parents, building reprsentative decision-making bodies etc. They strss that they have no religious/political affiliation. Dec 7, 1997-- Projects meeting It turns out that based on Sri's letter which mentioned that Asha funds projects only up to $ 3000, the group decided to submit a tailor made proposal (rather the funding part of it) to Asha. However after Abhijit visited them, he insisted that they submit their full budget and we decide what part of it we would fund. Based on this Abhijit, Arunava and myself came up with the proposal of funding them for fixed costs, namely, renovating their existing school building from a thatched hut to a pucca building. This is going to mean a commitment of $ 6473 in the next year. We proposed that we will send them a third of the amount in January 98 and monitor how they use it and based on their progress release the rest of the amount later in the year. It is expected that they will be able to complete laying of the foundation and the ceiling before June (when the monsoon begins in West Bengal and all construction has to be stopped). It was also felt that for this precise reason we should expedite the sending of the first installment. The details will be posted on asha-core soon.
Several issues were raised with regards to this. The important ones were:
1. We need to make sure that VOP is comfortable with this arrangement. Not only should the time frame be agreeable to them but also the amount we decide to send in the first installment be acceptable as sufficient to complete the needful. 2. We seem to have only $ 5400 in funds currently. Which means to complete this project we will need to seek the help of other Asha chapters. 3. Someone has to take responsibility for seeing the completion of at least the first phase of the project. Abhijit has agreed to do all of these tasks. The final vote= Approve- 11, Abstain- 3, Reject- 0.
Maya Karmakar sent the VOP annual report to ASHA-MIT after she learned about us through the Singhbhum Gramin Unnayan Mahila Samity which is listed as an organization pending approval (being researched).
May, 1997- Letter and Annual Report recieved from Maya Karmakar Sri wrote back requesting a proposal. Proposal sent along with covering letter to Sri from Maya Karmakar with covering letter from Ms. Karmakar dated 21.7.97, Ref. No. VOP-ASHA-MIT/97/430. Discussed at projects meeting Dec 7, 1997. Approved.
Approved on Dec 7, 1997
Nishi, 9/30/97.