STUDENTS ACTION COMMITTEE
Office Address:
A-12/11,Kendriya Vihar Co-operative Housing Society Ltd.,
Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Phone no. 022-7651718 , email – studentsactioncommittee@ yahoo.com
Village Address:
Talavli Dand Katkarwadi, Lohop, near Vashivli,
Pen-Khopoli road, Taluka: Khalapur, District: Raigad,
Maharashtra.
BACKGROUND OF WORK:
The Students Action Committee (SAC) came into being when students from Tata Institute
of Social Sciences (TISS) came together to fight against the unfeasible Mumbai
– Pune Expressway project which caused the illegal forced displacement of
Katkari tribals in the Khalapur taluka of Raigad district in Maharashtra. When
they studied the entire project especially the feasibility of the project
regarding the technical, economical, environmental and social aspects they came
to the conclusion that the entire project was a fraud. Then the students
started mobilizing the affected displaced tribals and non-tribals in the area
and after prolonged struggle with the local authorities when no justice was
forthcoming finally they decided to file a Public Interest Litigation in the
Mumbai High Court. The High Court upheld the allegations of illegal displacement
and ordered the State government to rehabilitate the displaced people. The
magnitude of the project was not limited to the inhuman uprootment of few
villages but there was massive land acquisition for expressway as well as the
proposed Megacity project which was planned to fund the expressway project.
This would have seriously affected the livelihood of thousands of tribals and
non-tribals. So the students decided to challenge the entire project itself in
the high court and another PIL was filed with the help of other friendly
organisations. But we had a similar experience as many other people in the
country as the court rejected the petition stating that since it was a policy
matter it could not intervene. Inspite of this, 30 petitions were filed
along with the villagers challenging the Megacity project and the gross
irregularities in the process of land acquisition were exposed. Finally the
High Court stayed the Megacity project and the process of land acquisition.
After four and half years of prolonged struggle at grassroots level in the form
of non-violent non-co-operation with officials coming for land acquisition,
morchas, sit-ins, road-blocks as well as at the level of the court and also
political lobbying with the local representatives, the government finally had
to scrap the Megacity project in the month of September 2000 and stated the
reasons to be the stiff opposition to the project from the affected people
& its economic and social unviability. This was the second victory of the
people after the rehabilitation order from the High Court.
THE MISSION OF SAC is empowerment of poor and oppressed sections of society
through non-violent struggle for the basic rights as given by the Constitution
along with continuous constructive activities. Alternative school for providing
education actually related to life which will ensure fulfillment of basic needs
of life such as food, clothing, shelter, employment, heath facilities has been
started by the organisation. It occupies the most crucial position in the day
to day working of the organisation. The school is central to the entire work
and all the activities are linked to the school.
The methods of teaching used in the alternative school make education easier
and not a burden but a happy learning experience. The aim of the school is not
just teaching the 3 basic R’s of learning – reading, writing and arithmetic but
also creating awareness about and actually addressing all the above issues.
________________________________________________________________
SAC is working in Khalapur taluka of Raigad district of Maharashtra mainly
with the Katkari and also with the Thakar tribal community. To understand the
socio-economic condition of this tribe here it is important to give a brief
background:
THE KATKARIS: A BACKGROUND
The Katkaris are one of the 75 tribes identified as primitive tribal groups
by the Ministry of Welfare under the Central Sector Scheme. The Ministry of
Welfare is supposed to provide 100 per cent grant under the Scheme, to ensure
medical care, safe drinking water, nutrition, vocational training for women and
pre-school education for girl children, economic development programme etc.In
Maharashtra there are only three primitive tribal communities Gond , Kolam ,
and Katkari and the state and central government are bound by the Constitution
to take special care of the communities which comes under the primitive
category.
Yet, very few wadis (hamlets) have access to drinking water, or are
connected by pucca roads. Often, the tribals are unable to earn two square
meals a day. They are barely the beneficiaries of schemes like the Indira Awas
Yojana or the public distribution system. In addition they are constantly
harassed by the local authorities, especially the police who find it easy to
arrest them on grounds of suspicion of any theft that has occurred in the
region. The tribe has many incidents to relate about the many atrocities
perpetrated on them.
The Katkaris have been listed as primitive tribal groups due to very low
level of literacy, stagnant population, pre-agricultural stage of existence and
economic backwardness. Population of Katkaris are concentrated in Raigad and
Thane districts of Maharashtra (In Raigad, the population of the tribe is 1.52
lakhs out of 18 lakhs). About 90 % of Katkari children do not attend schools.
Prevalent literacy rate is 7 to 8 %. Traditionally, the Katkaris lived off the
forest for fuel, food and water. With settlement they began collective
cultivation of land known as dali or eksali land. Deforestation has led to a
reduction in the life-sustaining capacity of forests, and most of them have
become landless labourers since much of the community land has been taken over
by the government or the richer farmers. Today the Katkaris earn their living
by working as landless agricultural labourers by taking fields on lease,
fishing from the nearby river and working as construction labourers. Driven to
supplement their meagre incomes, as their sources of livelihood have become
limited, few of the tribals resort to measures like the domestic manufacture of
local liquor. The Katkari community is one of the worst affected because of
rapid urbanisation causing tremendous loss of livelihood, since this community
is mostly concentrated in the Thane and Raigad districts which are in close
proximity to Mumbai.
ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION SCHOOLS IN VILLAGES
Among the Katkari children who go to the govt. schools, the dropout rate is
very high because of various reasons related to their specific socio-economic
conditions. They are discriminated against in the schools in the name of their
tribe in a constant atmosphere of dominance of the so-called mainstream
culture. The entire schooling system itself has very fundamental flaws such as
the manner of teaching itself, the content of the syllabus as regards its
relevance to day to day life, its rat-race kind of nature, its own
misconceptions about modernity (desk-jobs given higher status than field jobs)
etc.
The main theme of the school of the organisation is that it is a place where
there is full scope for the development of potentials of the children & it
is totally different as regards the style of teaching, content of syllabus and
the general atmosphere. The aim of the school is to ensure that the basic needs
of life – employment, food, clothing, shelter, health, are fulfilled through
education. The school deals with issues of day to day life of the Katkaris like
powers & responsibilities of the Panchayat, awareness about their rights,
ensure the functioning of govt. Public Health Centres, protection of forests by
village itself, etc. Discussions actually oriented towards different activities
take place in the school especially in the night classes for adults.
The school has been going on in two villages:
Dand wadi and Esamba wadi for the past 10 months
The teachers in the alternative schools are from the same village. The people
from the village provide food for the outside teachers and place for the school
is also given by the village.
The school works in the following different levels:[present no. of students]
1) 2 – 5 years age group : Balwadi for small kids [40]
2) 5 – 14 years age group
[20]
3)
drop-outs
[15]
4) children going to govt
school
[30]
5) night school for
adults
[50]
Short term goals:
Teacher training through visits to other alternative schools and training
programmes and workshops by experienced friends.
Preparation of full-fledged syllabus of the following 7 subjects:
1) Katkari language
2) Marathi language
3) Environment:
a) Ecology & science: innovative science experiments & understanding
the relation of inter-dependence between various living beings.
b) Geography: Right from birth of the Earth to what we see of it today
4) Maths: Maths through easier methods.
5) History: Story of human evolution and different stages of human development
and civilization right from the life of primitive human beings. History of
their own community through stories told by older people.
6) Hukana: an oral subject consisting of story telling, use of humourous
colloquial phrases in the form of question – answer, general discussion.
7) Talim: Physical exercises
Long term goals
To start a school in each village where SAC works
EXPENDITURE FOR THE ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL PROJECT
A) Honorarium of the people directly involved in the work as teachers &
assisting in co-ordinating related activities.
Rs.
1)
Guruji
2000
2) Motiram
2000
3)
Devka
2000 .
4)
Baburao
2000
5)
Vishnu
2000
6)
Sangita
2000
7) Sonu
bhau
2000
8)
Mahendra
2000
9)
Janu
2000
a) Teachers from no. 1 to 6 basically take regular classes in the
morninig afternoon ,evening , and night (each of the session is
around two to four hours). There hon. include the travelling expences for month
for their visits to various govt. offices regarding various issues ,such
as panchyat, Tehsil , district place. Since all of this we
teach in the classes it is important for teacher to visits different
institutions some time so that they understand it better. So every month all of
them visits above orgs with specefic cases.
b) b). Teacher no. 7 ,8 ,9 are working on Health , alternative farming
the syllabus
making of the same is going on . There work
includes the session on above topics , field visits , workshop etc. In addition
they are co-ordinator of all the school activities such as teacher
training prog., providing stationary , co-ordinating with the visitors ,
arranging workshop for students/teachers and find the possibility of requirment
of school in other villages. Also they do work related to various institutions
like panchyat ,Tehsil , polic station , dist. Administration .
B) Office
rent
1200 To run the work of the org.the office is important .we
use it for official work such as filiing, keeping imp.documents etc.
C) Electricity
bill
300
D) Phone
bill
1000
E) Educational material
for
5000
school, charts ,books, paper
stationery
F) Expenses on visits, excursions & 1000
snacks of small children
____________________________________
Rs.26500
Other source of funding :
Till today the organisation is working on individual donors
some give per month and others give one time . In reality the funding sources
are totally inconsistant and creates problem for smooth working of the project.
Four supporters are giving per month Rs 500 /- i.e. Rs.2000 /- per month.
So the final total will
be Rs . 26500
_ Rs. 2000
________________
24500 /-
EXPECTED PROJECT BENEFITS
1) The basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, i.e. basic literacy to the
people attending various classes of the school.
2) Progress of the children in terms of better understanding of different
concepts, various skills acquired and time spent in creative activities that
will boost their confidence. The education given in the alternative schools is
oriented towards helping each student to discover his/her potentials and
provide opportunity for their growth.
3) Employment: Initially for the dropouts through the various activities the
organisation is planning to take up using the medium of the school, such as
building lakes for fishing, minor forest produce, setting up co-operatives
& starting small-scale businesses. Vocational training in different skills
like carpentry, repairing of electrical appliances and other trades will be
imparted in the school.
4) Health issues such as awareness about different diseases & basic
precautionary measures and specially problems related to women’s health. The
organisation is already engaged in health campaign to make the Public Health
Centre at nearby Lohop fully functional 24 hours a day & accountable to
local people and the negligent doctors have been suspended due to the pressure
of the organisation. The older students have started documentation of tribal
medicines found in the forest.
5) Awareness about the socio-economic condition of the tribal community
among all people attending the alternative school and their participation in
activities for improving the situation.
SAC does not have any religious or political affiliations.
SAC is not a registered organisation and so it would be very convenient if
the funds could be channelised through “Poorna” which is a registered trust.
”Poorna” is an alternative school in Bangalore, a sister organisation of SAC
and is helping us in teacher training.