VOICE OF PEOPLE – SITE VISIT REPORT (February 2001)

 

VOP was founded in 1986 by Swapan Basu-Mallick. It is an organization active in West Bengal, Orissa and parts of Bihar. VOP aims to provide means for sustainable development of rural and indigenous people where the “lowliest and the least” could aspire for a better life- both economical and social. They achieve this through awareness and education, skill formation and training, technology transfer, capital formation, cultural revival, value orientation, health, environment and gender consciousness. The goal is to provide the means to a community through education and vocational training whereby it can achieve self-reliance.

 

ASHA-MIT is currently funding a school of theirs called “Bodhi-Vikas”. Details of the project are available at the ASHA website. The school is located in Nutan Diyarah, which is a small village in south 24 parganas about 5 k.m away from the southern end of Calcutta. The closest railway station is also about the same distance. The area is predominantly rural and sparsely populated and there is just a single road connecting the village to the railway station. Fishing seems to be the major occupation of people here. There are others who are auto-rickshaw drivers or vegetable sellers and people who work as maidservants in houses in Calcutta. It is the sons and daughters of these people who study in this school.

 

ASHA-MIT has so far contributed a sum total of $6000 in two installments to VOP. In Rupee terms this comes to Rs 2,57,177. The amount was provided to build a permanent structure to house the primary school. On my last visit to Bodhi-Vikas in January 2000 there was a makeshift structure of straw mats and bamboo poles, which housed the school. As a consequence of ASHA funding, the organization has been able to build a permanent structure in its place. The school is a single storied building with approximately 1500 square feet of floor space that house classes one to four.

 

 

Ms Maya Karmakar, who is also the VOP secretary general, manages the day-to-day functioning of the school. She is assisted by a group of teachers some of who live at the VOP building which is right next to the school. Retaining teachers has been a problem at the school over the last year. Most of the teachers I had met last time have either left or have minimized their involvement to about a day a week. The reason for this appears to be financial as VOP pays a teacher’s salary of about Rs 500/month to each teacher and often teachers leave for other lucrative offers. Even the current sets of teachers are considering this as a temporary arrangement before they get a better job in the city. Retaining teachers over a long term is a critical problem facing VOP at this time.

 

Here is a brief breakdown of the class strength at this school.

 

Junior Nursery  -- 15 Students

Senior Nursery – 18 students

Class One  ---  9 students

Class Two  --- 17 students

Class Three – 14 students

Class Four  --  11 Students

 

Total Students = 84

 

There has been an overall drop of about 16 students since I visited last year attributable to drop outs and people leaving the area.

 

The current revenue model for the school looks pretty bleak. The sources of income for the school appear to be students tuition fees and other income that VOP generates from other projects. Students are expected to pay Rs30/month towards tuition fees, but only two-thirds of the student body can afford that amount. An association of parents and VOP decide how much each student should be paying depending on the financial situation of the student. The other source of income is through sale of handicrafts and other items, which are locally produced by the parents of these students. About once or twice every week VOP offers training on many such things at the same location exclusively for parents of the students. Proceeds for the sale of such commodities go towards the school. Expenses for the school include teachers’ salaries and other miscellaneous expenses like boards, chalk, uniforms, lunch etc. While I could not obtain an official Income and expenditure statement from them, it appears from a cursory calculation that the schools financial health is not good.

 

 

 

Here is a brief description of ASHA’s involvement in the project as told to me by Ms Karmakar.

 

April 17th 1997 – Ms Karmakar sends a letter to Asha introducing VOP and requesting funds

September 5th 1997 – Devabhaktuni Srikrishna responds from Asha-MIT. Requests her to submit a proposal on the amount needed and how it intends to be spent.

September end 1997 – VOP sends proposal requesting 1.05 lakh for renovating school building and teachers salary.

October 1997 – Abhijit Sarkar visits VOP on behalf of ASHA. He requests VOP to submit their full budget.

November 11th 1997 – VOP submits budget of 7.73 lakh for school, salaries and health clinic. ASHA shows interest in funding infrastructure in the first year. The total amount ASHA sanctions is close to 2.36 lakh to be paid to VOP in 3 installments. ASHA requests VOP to provide proof of permission to build on the site.

May 5th  1998 – Sangeetha Chandrakanthan contacts VOP  and says she would be the primary ASHA contact.

(Then there is a whole period of more than a year where apparently there is no contact between ASHA and VOP)

July 10th 1999 : Srikanth Voorakaranam sends an email to Ms Maya Karmakar with a set of detailed questions about the project. Ms Karmakar responds with answers to his questions.

Aug 30th 1999: ASHA dispatches a check of $3000 to VOP. Says another $3000 will be dispatched after 5 months on receipt of photographs, accounts etc.

September 22nd 1999: Amount gets credited into VOP account.

October 8th 1999 : AMEX says due to insufficient funds the money couldn’t be collected from ASHA. Check bounces.

November 1st 1999 :ASHA deposits check into VOP account for $3000.

November 30th 1999 : AMEX confirms deposit of amount into VOP account.

January  2000 : Nilanjan Adhya from ASHA-MIT visits VOP. Approves release of remaining funds

January 2000 : ASHA releases an additional $3000 to VOP

February 2000 : Construction works begins on permanent structure for school.

April 2000 : Construction works ends.

 

 

ASHA-MIT is now awaiting detailed expense reports from VOP for the amount provided to it. The report should include what was spent and what was done and what remains to be done. I have asked them to provide a comparison between the costs cited in their original proposal to ASHA with actual expenses, supported wherever possible by appropriate receipts and explanation of discrepancies. VOP has also committed to sending ASHA photocopies of actual receipts and expenses incurred. Finally, I have requested them to send ASHA a copy of their income and expenses statement for the school for a given month so that we can evaluate their financial situation.

 

It is to be noted that in January VOP sent ASHA a proposal for new funding totaling about Rs300000 to cover teachers expenses, health expenses and a funding for food for children attending the school. My position has been to wait till we get a detailed account of the expenses incurred in our previous round of funding and evaluate the financial health (or lack of) of VOP before considering the new proposal.

 

Finally Joydeep from ASHA-MIT also visited VOP in December 2000 and he has a separate report on his visit.

 

For More Information:

Maya Karmakar

C/o Voice Of People

Nutan Diyarah, P.O. Nayabad P.S

Sonarpur,

Dist, 24 Paraganas (South) Pin – 743369

West Bengal , India

 

Phone: (033)4321155

Email:  asim_ghosh@hotmail.com (Maya Karmakar’s US contact)