Progress Report.

Natpurwa Project

March. 2004.

(translated by Himanshu Shah)

 

Respected Mellididi, Harishbhai, Anuragbhai, Nilanjanbhai,

 

Respectful greetings. We hope that all of you are doing well. I received your letter outlining your complete thoughts on the budget for the project. I respect the reasoning behind it but feel that a motorcycle is absolutely essential, given the rate at which work is progressing here. I appreciate your increasing the honorarium for teachers to Rs.1000/-. It will result in teachers being more motivated to work and will help the teachers live a normal life. I received your letter quite late as a result of which the there is a delay in my responding to you. I am sorry for the same. I got the letter in mid-January. Going forward, please send me letter at my address directly so that we get the information on time and tasks can be communicated/completed on time.

 

  1. At this time, I am trying to complete many responsibilities. In addition to the Regional Education coordination, I am working on many tasks related to “Right to Information” and Coordinator. I also spend remaining time teaching in school and looking after the centers. Since I have started working on “Right to Information”, people from various villages have been visiting me, narrating their woes. I try to resolve their problems by helping do official processing from block to district level. Most of the problems do get resolved in this manner, but corrupt administration forces lot of running-around to solve the problem. But a lot of people are joining us and are progressing based on our suggestions. The community is getting united and feeling of goodwill, brotherhood & honesty is being fostered. In recent past, in Sikrori Gram Sabha, opposition was mounted due to lack of development work and vested interests trying to carry out Pradhan’s responsibilities. After 4 months of protest & struggle, on Jan 15, financial and administrative powers of Pradhan were taken away and an up-Pradhan (Deputy Pradhan) was given the powers to oversee developmental works. This has got a sense of fear instilled amongst Pradhans in the nearby areas, who worry that they will meet the same fate if they do not focus on developmental work. Poor people are happy that more & more people are getting united to fight for resolving their problems. Thanks to “Right to Information”, development work in the village is proceeding well and the community is progressing along the right path. I am very confident that after a long struggle, we will be able to transform the community into a good one.
  2. In Natpurwa, lots of “Self-help Groups” are active in the area of education for youth (men & women). Every week to a fortnight, women are explained in a group setting about health & hygiene, about how a dangerous disease like AIDS spreads through prostitution and how the only cure for AIDS is knowing about how it spreads. In addition, young men are being encouraged to take up farming as a profession. Based on my analysis, most of the prostitutes cannot get married on account of poor economic situation. If a fund can be setup so that interest from that fund would go towards helping these women get married, it would help in stopping the practice of prostitution.

There are 85 children who are getting education in Natpurwa village. All children are from Natpurwa. Mamta, Chandralekha, Neelkamal, Srinivas & Hansraj Singh work as teachers in this center. Children of Grade V need to join a government school for examinations. Grade I has 20 children who can write over Hindi & English  alphabets & numbers written on a slate. They also can speak and try to identify these alphabets & numbers.  Those children in Grade I who can write and recognize Hindi & English alphabets and numbers from 1 – 1000 are taught spelling words and reading Hindi books.  They are also taught multiplication tables upto to twelve. When a child starts reading, writing & constructing sentences, he/she is sent to Grade II.

In Grade II, children are taught to read, write and speak in Hindi & English. They are also taught math, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fraction & decimals as well as work on problems related to hour, minute, ml., gram and other units of measure as is in the curriculum right now. In addition, they are also taught about science, social studies, social science, arts and moral science.

Children progress to the next grade only after mostly completing entire course. In Grades III to V, children start understanding, speaking & writing Hindi & English fluently and are taught based on the curriculum. They are also given comprehensive education in science, social studies, art & moral science.

Along with studies, once every week, children are taken on a tour to a place where they can play. And discuss about interaction between humans & environment. They are taught about relationships humans have with plants and animals and how they help/harm us.

In addition, students are taught tasks related to agriculture and observe things like making ropes & cane sheets, sewing, embroidery, animal rearing & pottery. Where appropriate, children are taught some of these skills.

In addition to education, we make an effort to teach children about good character. Every three months, children are evaluated on presence of qualities like compassion, forgiveness, enthusiasm & self-confidence. In addition, they are evaluated for their attitudes towards parents, elders & teachers.

Work on education is progressing in eight villages viz. Natpurwa, Meerakheda, Madarpur, Lalpur, Mavai, Ghatamapur and Muraukheda. The approach to education is similar in all centers and work is progressing on a regular basis. Neelkamal coordinates these centers as well as does periodic inspections of these centers. Every month, a meeting of teachers is held to discuss problems and find a solution to them so that teaching work is not affected.

It is critical for children to have good & proper education so that they have a bright future and the community progresses in the right direction. At the same time, I believe that we shall be able to attain our objective only if we also involve ourselves in meeting with people, meetings & other programs to increase awareness amongst people.  I feel that children do not get an opportunity to develop socially & mentally with education only upto Grade V. So I would suggest that the centers gradually start teaching up to Grade XII to help with holistic development of children.

As of January 28, we have one more individual by the name of Hansraj Singh who has joined the program for social service. Our experience with him has been quite good. He is an able person who has been a teacher for last 8 years in Lucknow & Kanpur. He was selected for government job twice but failed in the interview process. Then he read about me in the newspapers and decided to work on social service in the rural areas. In addition to teaching, he knows about typing (Hindi & English) and book-keeping related tasks. He is very sincere, honest & ascetic (?) individual who tries to complete any task given to him with joy. Hence, I am planning to open a typing institute for the youth of Natpurwa village. I believe that youth of the village should know about typing, computers and book-keeping related tasks.

When you need to contact me, you can reach me at 05854-270815. This is my uncle’s number. Notify me one day in advance at this number and I shall be available at that number. I just had an accident which resulted in a lot of expenses but am ok now

 

Regards,

 

Mellididi, Harishbhai, Anuragbhai, Nilanjanbhai

                                                                                                Your younger brother

                                                                                                Neelkamal

 

Address:

Neel Kamal

Village: Barahi (Natpurwa)

PO: Sikrori

Dist: Hardoi,

UP, India