VOICE OF PEOPLE -SITE VISIT REPORT (Nilanjan Adhya)

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.

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. Electricity has reached the

villages, but telephone hasn't. Therefore, the VOP organization doesn't

have a phone connection yet. I was told that within a couple of months

phones would be available in the village. 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.

The school itself is a makeshift structure assembled together by tying

straw mats to bamboo poles with asbestos roofing. Bulbs dimly light the

interior and a couple of tubelights hang tied to the poles. The school

is right opposite the VOP office building which houses the VOP office

bearers and some teachers of the school. The school right now has about

100 students. The split of students is as follows

Pre-Primary:31,Class One : 20,Class Two: 20,Class Three : 20,Class Four

: 6. Classes begin at 7 a.m. and end at 11 a.m. six days a week. There

is no physical separation between one class and the next. Rather, the

classes are separated by an innovative arrangement of desks and chairs

with the teacher at the center and about 20 students surrounding him on

3 sides. There is a small blackboard hanging on the wall behind the

teacher's chair. On the walls of the school are posters conveying

messages about health, education etc in Bengali.

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 most of whom live at the VOP building which is right next to

the school. There are 4 full time teachers and one part time teacher

with a non-teaching staff. I met some of the teachers present on that

day. Mr. Gautam Bhagat is one of the full time teachers of the school.

He teaches drama, recitation and general knowledge to the kids. He has

been with the school for about 4 years now and says he will continue

with the school for as long as he can, as it is the children who keep

him there. Chandra is another teacher at the school who teaches music,

geography and health. A third person, Tandra, teaches math and Bengali

to all the children. The last full time teacher is Ruma who teaches the

children English and History. There is also a part time teacher who

comes from Calcutta once a week to teach drawing to the children. The

teachers appear to be highly motivated and dedicated.

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 1999ASHA 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.

Ms Karmakar told me that the right time to build the school would have

been in October due to the Durga Puja vacations. This would have

enabled them to finish the school before the students came back,

without any interruption in their classes. However, due to the problems

with the funds this didn't materialize. Right now she feels that the

school should be able to be built in about a month's time provided all

the funds are available. The amounts to about $6000, of which $3000

have already been sent. She is hesitant on completing half of the

school and waiting for more funds for a couple of reasons. The primary

reason seems to be that the children have to be temporarily housed in

the VOP office building for their classes. This is going to be problem

as the VOP office doesn't have the required space to hold five separate

classes. She would prefer that this inevitable disruption be for as

short a time as possible. Therefore, she prefers to complete the

project at one time instead of splitting it up. Another reason is that

much of the effort towards building the school appears to be voluntary.

There are logistical difficulties associated with getting these people

over 2 periods. Besides given the government requirements requiring

every school to complete examination requirements by May every year,

she doesn't want to risk the project continuing into May.

Ms Karmakar told me that she plans to start building the school

starting the 3rd week of January. Ms Karmakar is ready to commit the

following. Should the money be received by February, she should be able

to finish the project in about a month. She wasn't able to start the

project earlier than this because of severe floods in West Bengal

towards October end which required her to provide shelter to many local

residents whose houses were washed away. Also she wasn't at VOP in

December as she was attending a women's conference in Beijing.

The future plans for the school includes adding a class every year.

Right now the current plans for the upcoming building would enable them

to house up to classes 6. She would require further permission to build

an additional floor to house more classes in subsequent years, but she

doesn't perceive this as a problem. The final goal is to have this

school provide education upto class 10.

For More Information:

Voice Of People

Nutan Diyarah, P.O. Nayabad

Via - Garia Station Road (East)

Dist, 24 Paraganas (South) Pin - 743369

West Bengal , India

Phone: (033)471-4311 (Mr. Joy Sarkar)

Fax : (033)2479163

Pager: (033)9628300143

Email: vopindia@hotmail.com