All centers functioned smoothly in July. Workers from the brick kilns, along with their families, had returned to Hiradharpur. This increased the number of children at that center. The workers had gone quite far (Assam, West Bengal, Punjab and Varanasi) for their work this year.
We went door to door in the parents places in Derhwal, Ramdaspur and Hiradharpur Musahar to encourage entering their children in the government primary school. We asked them to give special importance to education. Education is important in any kind of work, be it working as a labourer, be it getting ration card and ration supplies, be it getting benefit out of government schemes or struggling for ones rights. Educated person can easily read and understand official paperwork. On 10th July, we visited two villages, Parsini and Souna Musahar villages, to find out if people were getting the food at right rate using their ration cards. We found out that the poor villagers were not getting their ration on time. The ration supply is their only hope against hunger. The shopkeeper at Souna had entered one month's worth of ration on the illiterate villagers' cards without actually giving the ration. On being told about this, the villages got enraged and talked about complaining to the SDM against the shopkeeper. We told the villagers that had they been educated, the shopkeeper wouldn't have been able to do this. They could also benefit from other government schemes such as assistance for widows and old women, Indira Awas Yojna and reservation in government jobs. We decided to take the issue to other Musahar villages. We took the campaign to Anauni, Devkali, Saadaat Musahar villages. We also decied to do a survey of all Musahar villages in teh Saidpur and Saadaat blocks. This will be done in November.
All centers functioned smoothly in August. We organized sports and cultural evnets in all centers on August 15. We distributed sweets on the occasion. The children were entertained a lot. We also did educational talks. This year, 48 children from Hiradharpur have enrolled in the government primary school.
We were forced to dismiss five teachers for being indisciplined and participating in caste-based politics. We had told them many times, quite clearly, that the money we get is collected by the volunteers with a lot of effort. We have to repay each paise. So, we must keep good relationship with the people. We should share the lives of the people we work with. These volunteers moved away from these guidlines. During the Panchayati elections, they forged votes and shouted wrong slogans in the community, like “Hum se jo takrayega - joota chappal khayega” (whoever opposes will be beaten with shoes). They all have ties to good families. We have to work with community. If our employees do this, then we will have a hard time working with the community. We had already told them to not do anything that would soil the reputation of the Samiti in the community. We had a meeting of all teachers of the Samiti on 5 September at 10 o'clock in the SPAS center in Kaithi. Asha project coordinator Vallabh Pandey was also present in the meeting. The meeting lasted about two hours under his supervision. In the meeting, two of the main accused accepted the allegations against them. The other three were supporting these two becuase of caste. At the end it was decided to accept these three back. There crime was lesser. When told about the decision, the three refused to come back as the decision to not take the two main accused back was firm. Seeing their partisan politics, we didn't press the matter. We don't have any space for casteism and partisan politics in out group, anyways. We consider it better to work on understanding and working together on social thinking. We need one focus in our organization. Without a single focus, progress is difficult. The time comes for tough decisions. My objective is to keep going in the direction we have determined. If one can't keep going, one must yield to someone else. If we don't keep going, we will have betrayed the people who have funded us. I have no desire to add thoughtless people to our organization for only money. Considering all the above reasons, we had to remove the five people.
After this obstruction, all centers are functioning properly. Only the Math Unchauri, not being needed anymore, was transferred to Parsani Musahar Community. Our programme is mainly needed by the Musahars. Math Unchauri students are getting decent education at the primary school. It was decided earlier that the need of the children of Parsini village was greater than those of Math Unchauri. So this center was established at the Parsini Musahar Village.
A two-day workshop for the grassroot leaders on the “All round development of the village councils” was held at Lalpur on 19th and 20th September. We participated in it.
We surveyed the primary schools under the “Sarvashiksha Abhiyaan (Universal education campaign)” on September 25 and 26. During this survey, we tested the knowledge of the students and collected detailed information about the schools from the headmasters. The survey indicated that the children going to government primary schools are weak in their studies. The children in private schools were much sharper.
On 30th September a public hearing was held at the Varanasi Paraadkar Bhawan on issues of the Musahar, Kunjad, Nat and Bunkar people under the Right to Food. People suffering from hunger, coming from various villages, placed their issues at the hearing. It was decided to record all the issues and present them to the government. So that government assistance could be made available to the hungry people. In this hearing, Tufani and Somaru from Hiradharpur Musahar Village described their problems in front of the panel. Action Aid (Lucknow), Gijo from Asian Human Rights Commission and Justice Malhotra, a retired judge from the Allahabad High Court also participated in the panel. Somaru has been ill for two months. His wife, not having had much to eat, has been bed-ridden for the last seven months. They have two small children. Tufani Musahar is a brick-kiln worker. Hiw wife, in absence of medicines, died after prolonged illness. He has three daughters, one of marriagable age. But Tufani doesn't have money for the marriage. Whatever he gets from wages goes into food. He had been unemployed for five months.
On Gandhi Jayanti, 2nd October, we joined the demonstration in front of the District Headquarters for the demands of the Musahar, Nat and Kanjad.
On 7th October, Jeevan Daan Mahotsav was celebrated in the Hiradharpur Musahar Basti. We organized childrens sport competitions. The Musahar people produced traditional songs, music and plays on the occasion. Janardan Banwasi, a person from the community, made a statues of Mother Sevari, Ram and Laxman and amazaed everyone. The sculptor works at the brick-kiln. He has not learnt sculpting from anyone. This programme lasted for two days. In this our friends from the Prerna Kala Manch from Varanasi performed the plays “Tamaasaa (Farce)”, “Bhagwan ki den (gift of God)”, “Raajaa nahin sevak chaahiye (Need servant, not king)” and popular songs. Tamaasaa portrayed corruption, “Bhagwaan ki Den” population explosion and “Raajaa Nahin Sevak Chaahiye” the work of village heads in present times. We got contributions of Rs 1500 from the people. Special point of the programme was the enthusiastic participation of the boys and girls.
18 October - Meeting on Right to education, food and information in Parsini Musahar Basti
25 October - Meeting on Right to education, food and information in Souna Musahar Basti
30 October - Meeting of the teachers.
4 November - Women's meeting in Hiradharpur Musahar Basti
13,14 November - Participate in the public hearing on right to food in Gorakhpur. Somaru Banwasi, facing starvation, will place his story there.
14 November - Children's programme in Parsini Musahar Basti.
15 December - Debate on the work on 2004, 2005 and discussions on 2006 programme.
25 November - Jeevan Sudhaar Samiti to be held in Kaithi. 6 children from each village will participate.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Name of Center | Time | Number of | Teacher | | | | Children | | |--------------------+-----------------+-----------+---------------------| | | 7:30-10:00am | 45 | Amarjit Vanvasi | | Hiradharpur | | | Ramanand Vanvasi | | |-----------------+-----------+---------------------| | | 4:00-6:00pm | 30 | Amarjit Vanvasi | |--------------------+-----------------+-----------+---------------------| | | 7:30 - 10:00 am | 30 | Ramcharan Ram | | Ramdaspur |-----------------+-----------+---------------------| | | 4:00-6:00 pm | 25 | Ramanand Vanvasi | |--------------------+-----------------+-----------+---------------------| | Uchauri | 4:00 - 6:00 pm | 35 | Ramcharan Ram | |--------------------+-----------------+-----------+---------------------| | Dedhval-Dharkar | 4:00 - 6:00 pm | 25 | Chandrasekhar Ram | |--------------------+-----------------+-----------+---------------------| | Parsini | 4:00 - 6:00 pm | 35 | Bechu Vanvasi | |--------------------+-----------------+-----------+---------------------| | Hiradharpur Sewing | 11:00 am - 1:00 | 8 girls | Sushila Devi | | | pm | | | |--------------------+-----------------+-----------+---------------------| | Saadat Sewing | 12:00 noon to | 10 girls | Meera Devi | | | 2:00 pm | | | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Sushila Devi, the sewing trainer at the Hiradharpur Sewing Center, is carrying on her job very well. The girls of the village have a lot of problems, such as taking food for their fathers to their workplace. That is usually about 4 to 5 kms away. They also have to cook for everyone. Sushila Devi informs the girls about education and sanitation apart from sewing. The women of this class do not give attention to sanitation.
Meeraa Devi, the trainer at the Saadaat Sewing Center, is doing her job well. 20 girls finished the 6 months course. Second batch of 10 girls has started in October.
Kiran Kushwaha
Vishwesh Kumar
(Translated Satya Mishra)