BTS Site Visit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Site visit report of project Baikunthapur Tarun Sangha (BTS) The 1st round of troubleshooting: The troubles came in from Mother Nature, because a serious tide “Sha(n)rashari’r Ban” (almost like a flood) was expected to hit Kultali (the region/island where this project is) very near to the date of my visit. Also Susanta did not call back the day he was supposed to! But the next day, Sept 11, he called & came to our place on 12th to finalize the trip. The journey: It turned out that he didn’t have the best estimates of time or width of the river or even fares! On Sept 13, 2001 we, my dad & I, went to Baikunthapur. We1st took a local train from Ballygunge station to Mathurapur. Susanta got up at Subhashgram & at Mathurapur we met each other. (We could have easily taken the earlier train.) From there we took an auto from there to Raidighi. The road was ok because the politicians had recently paid a visit to this area; hence the road had been taken care off! At Raidighi we had lunch at a hotel Susanta knew. But then we had to wait as it was pouring outside. After the rain ceased we got into a motorboat. As expected it took 2.5 hours to Moipith. The boat ride was fun. Susanta & I had a lot of discussion on many things including his plans/attempts at coming to Washington DC for a workshop on leader ship building while working with NGO’s. This actually put me off quite a bit (after the very loose time-estimates). I felt that he should concentrate more on BTS. On the other hand he was just looking at it from his own personal angle. Definitely he is also thinking about his career in the long run! (More on this later.) Then from Moipith we started walking. Fortunately it hadn’t rained there after early morning & the sun was up. Otherwise the muddy road wouldn’t have been walk-able! Even then at places every step had to chosen very carefully. Contrary to the earlier site-visit report there were few pacca houses. We also passed by the govt schools. Finally we reached BTS club just 5 minutes after the school had ended! It was very frustrating & I could not help feeling that we could have made it in time only if Susanta had told us an earlier train. (More on this issue later.) Note: Nobody in BTS knew we would be coming other than of course Susanta. At Kultali: They called few of the kids who were still playing around. They did some physical exercise that day. So I asked them to show what they did. They happily repeated those exercises. They showed the earlier mud school building, which had collapsed one day just after the kids had gone due to a cyclone. Now the school is running in a ‘dawoa’. Adjacent to that is a children’s park with swings & slides. Then I asked them to write their names & what they like doing. They became pretty busy with that & I left the notebook with them. Some of them drew beautiful pictures (to be scanned this week!), One even corrected a spelling mistake someone else had made earlier! Some of the mothers & some teachers were there. So we had some discussion with them. Then after tea we went out for a brief trip of the locality. The roads were really bad. BTS people (other than Susanta) were glad to have us. During this walk they told us a lot about this area, about them, the common problems & their efforts to counter those. While coming back it was already dark. We saw the solar panel streetlights in action & a very clear sky above! 1st round observations:
But please note this is very much as a token since most parents can’t afford to pay. But it really bugged me that we got a very different picture from the earlier communications with this project.
Note: though the BTS proposal said they are going to give Rs. 800/- per month to the teachers, Susanta mentioned (in front of the teachers) that they are not going to give them that much at the beginning. They are going to start with a lower salary, which will gradually increase. Susanta is supposed to email the details of this salary scheme sometimes in Nov 2001.
Note: in the last 2 projects BTS is facing a lot of embarrassment since the govt is not very regular with teacher salaries & that’s why BTS is unable to pay the them.
a. No pacca road: in fact there is only one brick road in the whole island! All the rest a muddy ones which become really bad in monsoon. Due to this they can’t even paddle their vans but have to pull & push. This is the main reason why they can’t start work on the remaining 3 classrooms before monsoon ends. This also makes it hard for kids, specially the young ones, to come to schools, which are a little far off (few kilometers).
2. Needs very little maintenance ii. Set up cost is just one time iii. Switches on automatically at dusk or whenever the light becomes insufficient for the panels to get charged & then at dawn as soon as there is enough light the panels start charging up. iv. The lights are on till around 2 am at night
Note: some positive development might happen in near future. Govt has set up a relay tower & they are expecting phone connecting via satellite within a year.
Note: again some positive development is taking place. Govt is building some bridges & a pacca road which when finished will connect this island to Jaynagar (main land) via bus route & auto rickshaws. This again, the people there hope will be complete soon. Susanta mentioned that govt has & is doing more in the last 5 years than they did in the past 20 years.
è In addition to that sometimes even that harvest do not come home due to some natural disaster or other reasons. è Then, to supplement their earning, the people go to the forest to collect fire wood/honey etc or to the river to collect fish/prawn è Then they get attacked by tiger in the forest or crocodiles in the river & they are either killed or severely wounded/maimed for life. è This leads to a growing number of orphans (both parents lost) & semi-orphans in this area (one parent lost/handicapped by severe wounds/loss of limb)
The cultural/musical evening: In spite of my emphasis on the meeting to be held 1st followed by the musical night they decided to do it the other way. The reason on their part was that some of the performers have to return home. As mentioned earlier BTS people (other than Susanta) did not know that we were coming that day. So they were neither prepared for the meeting nor the program. But since they practice regularly (daily before the BTS activities picked up) it was easier for them to organize the music hands in a short time. From the notes I took then: “Apart from the singers, the tabla & another percussion was superb. (But now that it has started I doubt when the discussion will begin!) The climax – in a flute, harmonium, tabla & the other percussion combo! I can’t help thinking about a fundraising tour with these 4!!” The president Kamal Ranjan Das (who is also the head master at the local primary school) deserves special mention because even though he is past his middle age he has strong control of his voice & plays the flute equally well. He has never gone through any formal training in music. But now he teaches few others. As a group BTS has raised fund through this type program. 2nd round discussions: Attendees (other than me!): Managing committee: Nabakanta Mandal, Susanta Giri, Latika Das, Haradhan Sahu, Kamal Ranjan Maity (President), Horipada Jana (treasurer) Acting committee: Renupada Giri, Kartik Chandra Das, and Prashanta Giri All these discussions, especially 4-6, started in the boat & continued till we reached BTS.
i. In the morning before school ii. In the afternoon Susanta suggested the later but I suggested the 1st one because: i. In the morning there won’t be any problem of light. ii. They can go to school better prepared Where as if we go for the other option no electricity may make it hard to study late. They all agreed to my suggestion.
Comments & concerns: These are all I observed & felt. Note, many of these are from a very skeptical point of view & might not be so in reality.
About Susanta:
a. Given the situation, his leaving BTS for few months mean the communication channel with mainland & outside world being totally cutoff for that period. I don’t think BTS can or should afford that. He has every right to think about his own career but I think he should 1st try to find a substitute for himself & then think of leaving BTS for a long period of time. b. The workshop was about developing leadership while working with NGO’s. I couldn’t help feeling that anyway he has a lot of say in BTS, so why does he want to get more training in this matter. Also how effective will the training be. But we should also try to see things from his side. i. He is the only one who can at all go for this workshop. ii. BTS has to handle a lot of things at the same time. As they are trying to do so, some training in organizational skill development might be of great help. iii. After all, he is just searching the net & stumbled across this. May be he hasn’t had enough experience to realize what is far-fetched & what is more practical. Suggestions & To-dos: 1. Though Susanta is trying, we (Asha) should work more proactively with these people, in particular write to them in Bengali & make sure we grow other channels of communication. 2. Whoever visits BTS next should try to go unannounced & see the school in action. This is a must! 3. Follow up closely with them at every step. Please note: we should work hand in hand. It’s not ‘looking at them very skeptically to see if they are misusing any resources’.
1. Take a train of Lakshmikantapur line from Kolkata to Mathurapur. 2. From Mathurapur take an auto rickshaw to Raidighi. Note: The auto starts only when it gets as many passengers as it can take. So after getting down from the train, head straight for the auto stand & don’t stop for tea or any other break! Alternate route to Raidighi: take a bus from Esplanade to Raidighi. 3. Have lunch break at Raidighi. Catch a motorboat to Moipith. You get the ticket in the boat only. So no line there J 4. Get down at Moipith & ask for direction to Baikunthapur. 30-40 minute walk! Swati (sircar@math.washington.edu), Asha-Seattle 14 Oct. 2001
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