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This year my mother & I spent several days in CMS, during which time we visited several NFE centers, went to several meetings with the villagers, went to Shibganj primary high school, the new center for dropout girls under SAC, spent 2 evenings with the boys in the ashram (orphanage), had a workshop with many NFE teachers & a meeting with all wings of CMS. I'll 1st cover what happened when chronologically & then go into the details. Apart from the meetings, almost every night, we had discussions with Amal da & with other CMS people all the time. Day 1: Sep 18, Wednesday We reached in the afternoon. The journey was smooth once we got the bus. After lunch & some rest we went to Ranigar NFE center. We met the children & the teacher. Then we were pleasantly surprised when asked to plant trees in the center premises. A bigger surprise was waiting for us: there was a huge gathering of people mainly women from the village. Couple of tables & few chairs made the stage. They had arranged for microphone etc. There were some speeches by various people affiliated with CMS. Needless to say neither my mother, nor I was spared! The children from the NFE & Tarun Tirtha sang & danced in between the speeches. It was heartening to see an elderly lady come up at the end & recite a long poem. After this gathering broke off we all went to someone's hut for refreshments. It was enjoyable meeting all the CMS people & watch them pull each others leg! The informality was very relaxing. Here some village women introduced me to another lady, who wanted to put her son in the CMS ashram. I was really taken aback since they approached me directly. I had to consult Amal da before telling her anything else. Her husband was attacked by a crocodile & he died before everybody's eyes. His body was never found. Now she stays with her brother, who in turn barely manages. [Right now her son is in the ashram, he wrote to me, along with the other boys, shortly after I returned.] Day 2: Sep 19, Thursday This day started with visiting 2 NFE centers Adibashi para & Shibganj majher para. Then we went to Shibganj Primary School. After lunch & some rest we went to see the dropout girls center under SAC. The 2 teachers, Basanti & Archana, met us during lunch. In the evening we went to the ashram for a program the boys prepared. Day 3: Sep 20, Friday Next day we went to visit 2 more NFE centers at Kalidanga & Cha(n)dkhali, the later was a new center for us. At Kalidanga we met the source of inspiration of the CMS folks - their teacher, head master of a local school, very actively involved with the community. There was a big thunder storm in the afternoon followed by some heavy showers. So the trip to the next village Harekrishnapur became very interesting. In spite of 2 people holding me from either side I slipped & fell on the muddy road few times. There was another big gathering & a lot of welcome for "Asha" mentioning how we (Asha) have made a difference in the lives of these villagers. There were many dances by the young girls including a solo. The children performed very well with no mistakes what so ever, but the adults messed up a little since they wanted to play the songs on cassette rather than singing themselves. Since the roads were in very bad shape after the rain, we decided to take another route back to CMS & walked back together. We could see children studying under oil lamps at the huts on our way. Supposedly that is a positive change. Day 4: Sep 21, Saturday Finally it was the day for workshop. From the morning the teachers from the 15 Asha supported NFE centers gathered at the hall on the top floor of the ashram. Some of the CMS stuff were also there. After the main presentations the teachers told us their stories. We also exchanged ideas for sports. My mother had taken her book of rhymes (many written by her). The teachers liked them all & made sure they had all of them down in their notes. After the workshop we all ate together - the teachers, the girls under the SAC project, the boys from the ashram, CMS stuff & the Asha folks. Once we got teased since we were no competition in eating! By that time Surya & Kumar kaku - 2 Asha Kolkata volunteers also arrived. After lunch another heavy shower followed. Then we sat down with all the CMS stuff to get a better idea of the range of their work & how they are interconnected. Before or after this meeting we went to some near by huts to see & take pictures of a smokeless oven. We also went to the next village to take picture of the tube well PPI supported. Some people from that village later came to meet me. They wanted a NFE center at their village & if possible an adult education center since they were all neo-illiterates. Then I had to go & have a "adda" with the boys in the ashram. It went on till it was quite late & all the younger ones were fast asleep! Top Non Formal Education Centers All the teachers I visited this year have wrote to me separately & send drawings & writings by their children as well. The charts distributed by Vikramshila were definitely being used at all the centers. The children clearly learnt what they were taught & it was a enjoyable experience for them. Though some were shy most were eager to show what they can draw & say & sing. Some told us stories also. Ranigar: Teacher: Usha - 50 kids - pakka room - smart kids, prompt answers - math, Bengali, rhymes, songs (one from Sukumar Roy’s “Hashchhi mora, hashchhi dakho” – my mother did). Adibashi para: Teacher: Archana - 25 kids - still under open air - some familiar faces from last year - drawing, rhymes, songs, math, Bengali, my mother did “Hashchhi mora, hashchhi dakho” - tiffin: bread, banana - this village also has a SHG of the mothers - now some kids from this area are appearing for Madhyamik: new positive development. Shibganj majher para: Teacher: Sakuntala - 25 kids - some very smart - English names are taught also, math, songs, rhymes - mostly Muslim kids, a list of kids names & their parents names was hanging on a tree - the teacher & we asked names of various things in the charts by pointing to the pictures, even if they were out of sequence the kids could answer correctly - tiffin: khichuri - still under open air, but space for a shade has been selected, shade will be made after harvesting - the teacher, my mother & I planted trees. Kalidanga: Teachers: Mabia (50 kids), Rita (25 kids) in 2 pakka rooms - 50 are smaller kids, they did matching - 25 are slightly older they did multiplication tables - they played the game my mother taught them last year - met the new teacher who’ll start from next weekday - we all planted trees - met master moshai, Amal da & his friends’ teacher - News: 40 kids have graduated to primary. This kids don’t have to sit in the entrance exams. The kids are coming out as 1st & 2nd in primary. Cha(n)dkhali: (visiting for the 1st time) teacher: Sefali - 30 kids - open air in front of a shade for graining machine, the charts hung inside - she was testing whether the kids were answering correctly by giving them wrong alternatives & seeing whether they vehemently say no to those alternatives - she made them search the correct picture from the charts, then from there she moves onto letters, I made sure that they knew all the letters & not just the 1st sounds (e.g. they could tell me which is "la" from "kala" (banana) - kids were very enthusiastic about drawing - math - list of children: 4-8 yrs, parents names, many Muslims - gathering of SHG mothers - they mentioned that they don't enough space to stay so where will they do kitchen garden & that there are more kids, need one more teacher. Harekrishnapur: 25 kids - pakka room & for a change plenty of room for the kids to sit in a circle - very young ones - picture + letters - math: addition, subtraction, multiplication, multiplication tables - songs, rhymes, story telling - prompt answers. Top Shibganj Primary: The 2 new classrooms are in good use. Thanks to more space, some children who need more attention, have been separated out so that they can be better catered to. The lady teacher we met last year takes care of these children. Class I – 20+50 children, class II – 30, class III – 50, class IV – 50. Some kids came from Adibashi para, hence some familiar faces. Met the new teacher Alauddin. He was good both in terms of knowing what to teach & class management. All other teachers were very typical, got very nervous as we came to their classes & one of them made a complete mess of what he was teaching. Thankfully Alauddin came & saved the children! I was glad to see that he had his priorities right i.e. teaching the children rather than giving us royal treatment. The children had put together a program which was good. They sang, danced (both boys & girls), said rhymes & did a drama. The only irritating part of the program were the speeches by the older teachers which were very formal & boring & long! [Asha is supporting the salary of 2 teachers including Alauddin.] Top Support A Child: The girls are superb. They get to play here. They are learning handicrafts, getting education, learning songs, rhymes, drama - very fwd & vocal young women! No shyness at all. They themselves suggested that they want to learn poultry & we discussed the feasibility of that. The 2 teachers are very good & their effect can be clearly seen on the girls. They got up to perform on their own. Some of hem literally had tug-of-war with me to take me to their homes. They had very good expressions in their drama. If possible they would prefer to stay all day at the center. They had very good relation with the teachers. They made me i.e. forced me, to tell stories & to sing!! (I found them no way less than what I heard about the Prasanna Jyothi girls.) They started just a month ago. Initial planning had 3 stuff, right now it seems 2 is enough. So the excess fund will be used for food & other things. There is a plan to train these kids so that they can take care of handicapped center later on. Also in more than one villages the mothers themselves approached me so that their daughters can join this program. To me at least, this completely shattered the myth that mothers want their elder daughters home rather than at school. Both CMS & us felt the need to expand this program ASAP. CMS never anticipated there could be such high demand of this type of program. [Latest: there are 3 teachers.] Top Ashram: This year I met some of the boys in the Shibganj Primary school itself & then at the program they planned. This time I did take pictures of them both the school & during their program. They danced so well that Amal da promised them better dresses for the purpose! Then I finally sat down to chat with them on Saturday night. Now came the surprise! When we were at the center for dropout girls, some of these boys were in the vicinity picking vegetables from their huge kitchen garden & they over heard what all stories I told the girls. So I had to repeat all those stories to them as well. (Fortunately they did not make me sing.) We went on chatting for so long that finally my mother had to come & get me. None of us had dinner & all the younger boys were already asleep. [These boys write to me regularly & have started asking for help on whatever they feel like.] During their program they surprised all of us by saying there are lot of aged people in that area & if Asha can do something to help them! Top Workshop with NFE teachers: Attendees:
(Amal da & Subhash da left after sometime while Surya & Kumar kaku joined later.) This workshop was an informal follow up of the training these teachers got from Vikramshila, since my mother also got training from the latter & has been teaching for more than 7 years now. A lot of things covered are Montessori techniques. Math: introduction to number, place value, 10,20 cards, beads (substitute – seeds), card counter, +, - , fill in the blanks Letters: object ®1st sound ® letter, pocket board, color coding for consonants & vowels. Also covered - shapes, colors, who does what, writing letters, drawing, rhymes. Then we exchanged some ideas for sports – duck race, rabbit race, potato race, relay race, lighting candles. Then the teachers wanted to learn the song that I learnt from TF kids & sung for the girls. So they wrote is down & sang it with me. [In their letters some teachers have mentioned that they are teaching this song to the children.] Then they took down all the poems from my mother's’ booklet. After that it was time to just chat. From the teachers we heard the following: 1st NFE: one of the teachers moved to remote village after marriage. She started child education on her own at her house, since club premises access was denied. 1st help came from Amal da (in form of 60/-) from his salary. She also involved the mothers of the children. 1st attempt of self-earning – "thonga" (paper packets made out of newspapers). They purchased raw material from their own savings. But the proceeds of the sales were taken by the middlemen. One mother was ill with fever for one year. Her husband left her & 3 children. The teacher helped her by raising funds from adjacent villages. She studied at Basanti. The (political) party asked her to start something free of cost. She started getting paid only after 3 months. After one year she was invited to another village. The villagers were initially not hygienic – with time rectified. Parents were shy to sit on exams with children – finally learnt to sign, their vocabulary increased as well. Top Meeting with CMS stuff: Attendees:
Kitchen Garden: Started with 300 households. Now in 800, 3 workers, 500 in Goshaba block (2 workers) & 300 in Basanti block, i.e. Shibganj, Ranigar etc. (1 worker – Seema di) – work in the space beside home. Plant in 3 seasons – summer, monsoon, winter. They are given seeds & saplings. Emphasis on organic manure, compost pit at every house. Bare minimum – one papaya, one banana & one gourd plant. Also “helencha” in ponds, “bashak” & “thankuni” – herbs. Weekly meeting for workers. Problems: not enough water in ponds (one can’t let the pond dry out in order to do kitchen garden), some mothers don’t have enough space. Financial support for 3 years in the following way: 1st year – X /-, 2nd year – ½ X /-, 3rd year - ½ X /-. Sometimes the compost gets washed away in monsoon. Need to put plastic/brick barrier around the pit. In the 2nd stage everyone is supposed to by seeds from CMS. SHG’s: Each group with 10-15mothers, save 11/- per month, 10/- in the book (common pool), 1/- with the group treasurer. Monthly meetings. Each group has a secretary, who does the most work, treasurer, who keeps the accounts & a chair, who organizes the meetings. 6 months after the group starts, they can take loan. Amount of loan = 3 times the amount saved by the person. In some exceptional cases 4 times. Loan is taken for various purposes. They have to repay in 4 months. 1.5% interest/month – this gets divided among the group members. They discuss about nutrition & health. No loan without proper signature (thumb imprint not allowed). It used to take 200/- to make each toilet with govt subsidy for Below Poverty Line (BPL) people, now the cost is 250/- per toilet. Smokeless oven is 70/- per oven. Most of the material is found there & the ovens are made. Many issues of the villages come to the village committee for resolution. Village committee comprises of 28 SHG’s. they want to do some cottage industry. Can start with repairing their children’s clothes. There was a govt project for handloom which brought 270000/- for 3 years. Right now: more than 250 SHG’s, the number is growing, 6 organized village committee, 8 un-organized. Crèche: 5 crèches, mothers go to work in the field or to the river. These mothers are in SHG’s. children up to 5 years age come to the crèches. 25 children/center. They are provided with tiffin. They stay there 6am –11am/12noon. After crèche the children are admitted to the govt primary schools. The caretakers in the crèches take the trouble themselves. NFE centers: 33 right now, 4 new, the number is steadily increasing. Health: Started in 1997. One doctor checks outdoor patients twice a week, another checks outdoor patients & perform surgeries & stays 1.5 days every week. Lacks good instruments. Medicine is free. The running cost of hospital comes from the fees. 5 year funding from a Austrian org has run out. There are 7 beds, more patients, no labor room, need one. It would help if they had a 2nd floor. Its possible to extend a floor. If they had multiple instruments then they could have done multiple surgeries on the same day. Now even if the OT is ready if one diarrhea patient comes they can’t do anything. There are 5 nurses. The shifts are 8am – 5pm & 5pm – 8 am. Shift changes every 7 days. One day off each month. Yearly eye operation camp. Smokeless Oven: Only with the SHG’s. So far given to 400mothers, there was a training camp where they were taught how to make the oven. The ovens are now made based on that. They all have thatched roofs, so have to be very careful so that there is no damage to the hut & have to make sure that the smoke comes out. There is a huge demand for this. CMS can’t supply due to financial constraint. 400-500mothers are waiting. Tarun Tirtha: Started in 1979, 30 clubs in 30 villages, 25-40 children starting from class VII-VIII comes there every Sunday 2pm – 6pm, some places also on Sat after school. Mental & physical training. Extra curricular activities, SHG mothers go & encourage them. Only 4 have rooms, rest happen under trees. They have a museum. Older children go & teach younger ones in the villages once in a while. They also get tiffin. Also some training thrice a year. There are 4 zones/committees per district. Each zone covers 8-10 clubs. The district office located very near CMS premises. Animal Husbandry: 600mothers in 6 villages cover under this. Each mother is given 8 hens (40/-), 2 goats/sheep (400/- to 600/-), medical assistance is provided. There are 12 workers for that. This is a 2-year project. Every month, they are given antidotes against various diseases & provided artificial insemination for cows. Awareness has grown on things like what to do if the animals fall sick. Most are successful, in some cases the animals have died. Rest of the mothers also want to do this. Earlier CMS had to go to give medicine, now they come when needed. Swarna Jayanti: Indian govt project from 1999 with the idea that the BPL people will save as a group with govt help. CMS joined this in 2000. 63 SHG’s have been connected with nationalized banks directly. They start with Basic Orientation Program (BOP). Under go grading after 6 months. Then get a revolving fund of 10000/- & 15000/- as loan against it. After 6 more months comes the 2nd grading followed by 50000/- in loan. There is a lot of red tape & party politics in the whole process. Agriculture Farm: CMS has 6-bigha land, where they grow vegetables. The boys from the home (ashram) help, also some fish are cultivated in the pond during part of the year. Some chemical fertilizers are required, but mostly organic manure is used. It’ll help if there is one more person to help & also some mechanized irrigation. The pond water gets somewhat saline after monsoon. Water has to brought from a canal. Top Other meetings & gatherings: The 1st 2 are from notes taken during the speeches in Ranigar & Harekrishnapur. Ranigar: Kapal Kundala (secretary of SHG): 22 SHG in Ranigar & Dhasbhanga gram committee -mothers from 10 villages involved, i.e. 150 members - they each save 10/- per month, some also saves with help from bank - difficulties include: lack of place for meeting or training program. Some suitable place will really help. There is also strong attempt to make them pro-school. Benefits of saving: can take loan to buy ducks, hens, goats, seeds for agriculture, fishery (in ponds). (She appeared to be very happy with the SAC program). In class I there are 20 children, in class IV less than 10, why? Where did they go? The SAC program is running with them Hospital: availability doctor is uncertain. To do simple blood test, x ray people have to go to Canning, how will they go? They don't have enough money for these trips. It’d help a lot if CMS hospital gets blood testing & x ray facility Bimal Naskar (parent & on behalf of SHG): We are indebted to CMS & hope this grows at every corner of Sundarban, then the people of saline water & sweet earth can stand up on their feet. Mentality to save - small savings lead to big ones It is the responsibility of every SHG member to build up SHG in the next village, where there are none. SHG members have to take this responsibility so that those families economic situation can improves Need place & facilities for ECG, blood test etc. Amol da CMS started with education. Earlier people here had to fight with crocodiles & tigers, now the fight continues with snakes. Lack of medicine still there. 1st & foremost responsibility of mothers - proper upbringing of their children 1st step - making sure that they go to school timely 2nd step - making each family an ideal family - symptoms of ideal family (small family size, having kitchen garden, living peacefully with all family members) Men have done a lot of harm to women, hence we are doing SHG’s to lessen the wrong doing. No need to be a woman for that. Its not that money comes before development. Vegetables from kitchen garden, breast milk for children, for that nutrition foremothers, how smokeless oven helps in that. (70/- per oven, someone gave 20000/-) There was no water in a school for 350 children. It takes 55-60k/- for one tube well. Need 500/- to buy goats, monthly 10/- = yearly 120/-, so we still have go a long way & the path is not easy. There is no magic that can solve all our problems. We have to work hard to solve them. Harekrishnapur: Dilip Das (chair, Netaji Tarun Tirtha) mentioned the beginning of Tarun Tirtha & SHG’s. 2 yrs back there was no enough space to sit, no roof in the govt primary school with 2 teachers for 250 students. Even now does not have toilet. 2 teachers from community with no salary. Sunita Roy (secretary, SHG, treasurer, Matangini SHG): The children get tiffin in NFE, once a week mothers make the khichuri for tiffin. Earlier we did not know the concept of saving. After coming in touch with CMS, we have managed to save 300/- in 3 yrs. Earlier we used to spend all that came in. After 5/6 yrs kids did not get enrolled in schools. Women have to work with the men towards a happy family. Kapal Kundala Naskar (secretary, Ranigar village committee): I head 27 SHG’s in 2 groups of 17 & 10. They meet regularly. It is not possible to bring everybody together at one place, since the work has spread to a huge area. The kids can’t get admission to schools before 6 yrs. So earlier they used to learn nothing at home & not be accustomed with the school environment. So when they used to go to school there was a tendency to flee. We need education center for adults, specially for the mothers. Radha Roy (treasurer, Dhasbhanga village, Indira SHG) described the scheme for saving. She also mentioned there are 11mothers in the Indira SHG. Sandhya di (secretary, CMS) mentioned the plus points of SHG’s. Shibganj Mallik para: (new NFE request) There are 70-80 children, so need 2 teachers. PPI supported a tube well there. They planted trees & pledged to protect the plants themselves. The men have started their own SHG where they try to save 22/- per month, double the standard amount for other SHG’s - very poor village. A group of men came for the NFE, they also want to adult education since they have forgotten how to read & write. This was taken care off easily since there are older children in the villages who can teach these men, who are ok with the idea that they have to learn from their own children. Also they have to talk to these children to figure out the details as to when, where & how often they can meet & how much time the children can spare. Surya pointed out that this would help the children to speak publicly, a skill often lacking in many. Regarding NFE, I told them they have to decide on the location of the center, CMS will try to find a teacher & we will try to arrange for funding. Top Discussions: The following came up in the many informal discussions with various CMS members during our visit.
Impression
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