Name of Project: Gram Vikas

Contact Information: Liby Johnson and Jaya, Gram Vikas, Mohuda village, berhampur, ganjam dist. ORISSA/ Ph – 0680-2261863 to 74 and 209755 to 63

Getting there:. Get to berhampur from vizag or bhubaneshwar. Mohuda is ~ 14 kms from berhampur.

Previous Asha Volunteer visit: Raj and Preeti Chauhan: http://www.ashanet.org/nycnj/events/2002/20020129-indiventure/projects/project15.htm

Associated Chapter(s): how many years/how much funding? $66673 from SV/NYC/NJ

FCRA Clearance: Yes

School visit dates: 25-28 Feb 2004

Surprise Visit?: Kind of

Visited by: Shriram Narasimhan (zshriram_un@yahoo.com)

Gram Vikas (GV) is a large NGO – they get 5 crores in funding every year and have a turnover of close to Rs 20 crores, own close to 30 vehicles, heavy machinery and a large 30 acre campus with an impressive array of buildings. Further info at http://www.gramvikas.org There are 2 main types of projects Gram Vikas runs. The ITDP – Integrated tribal development project and RHEP- rural health and environment project. GV has won a number of awards, including from the World Bank, Brown University and the Schwab Foundation.

In her words "The asha centers are all running. We thought that the pucca structures would also double up as disaster relief shelters. But in some cases, since the past 2-3 yrs, govt schools and shelters have come up. We could not have forseen this. We make sure that the kids from the NFE’s move on."

Tribals here are divided into the Hindu’s and the Bishnu-Hindu’s. Hindu tribals are the ‘originals’. They worship the elements and the forests. (An earlier GV plan to form milk cooperatives failed since they realised the tribals don’t drink milk, considering it wrong to take what is rightfully the calves). The "Bishnu-Hindu’s" are more "Hindu" than the "Hindu tribals" in that they believe in idol worship of regular hindu god’s. In any case, there are barely any tribals left. Some have turned Christian (with promises of washed off sin’s ) and rest have been Hinduised (with promises of reclaiming their lost legacy). The amusing terminology employed points to much.

** GV has a number of PO’s, and asha supported buildings are distributed across them. I went to 3 of the PO’s. viz: Kardasing, Anandpur and Koinpur. Rationale being that Kardasing has the toughest terrain, if kids are passing out from there, they should be from the plains as well, (all other things given, location places an important role in the efficacy of a school), and koinpur PO had a High school – so the kids passing out from the NFE’s would be coming here. – I would get an end to end idea. I spent most of the time at kardasing PO, ½ a day each at anandpur and koinpur PO’s.

• Kardasingh PO

I got to berhampur after a smelly 5 hrs in the passenger train with lots of locals. I met the project coordinator of the Kardasingh project and we reached his station office after a 4 hr drive by jeep. Jeevan makes close to 6000 @ month and used to work in Mumbai earlier in a paging company, he heads about 20 villages. Each project office or PO is a separate unit with its own infrastructure of a computer, halls, living quarters, and etc. GV has about 14 such offices. Kardasingh is the most difficult region of operation amongst all the PO’s due to remote locations of the schools. I met the 37 field staff and teachers (of the 16 asha built schools under this PO) who had come down there and we had a brief discussion. Most had been with GV for 3-14 yrs.

Q: What is the criteria for selction at the NFE’s ? Ans: All eligible kids and those that attend our balwadi’s. We carry out yearly surveys and have house by house data. When the kid reaches 3 yrs of age we approach the parents, and they readily accept to have their kids admitted – thanks to the trust GV has built over the years.

Q: How many total kids? Ans: 300 kids at 20 NFE’s – 16 are by asha. So approx 15 per center.

Q: Why do we need the NFE’s? What about the govt schools? Ans: The govt teachers seldom come, we have been trying to find a way to get them to come and to make the govt schools function. Whenever the sarkari teacher comes, our master take them to the school and both teachers hold joint lessons there.

Q: Timings? Ans: 9-3 daily. Govt schools should run from 10 to 4.

Q what do you teach ? Ans: the DPEP prescribed books and syllabus. They are mainly activity based and have outdoor joyful learning techniques. There are some outdoor activities as well.

Q: What can a kid do after 3 yrs with you? Ans: They can read, write, do basic math, sing songs and know about cleanliness.

Q What according to you is the biggest advantage of the NFE’s? Ans: They get into the habit of going to school. More, in most places they have already spent some time at our Balwadi’s. Else, they would never have gone to school. I guess they would perhaps continue until class 8, otherwise, they would simply drop out. (Jaya kind of corroborated this earlier, saying that GV realised some of their NFE passouts were coming back on their adult literacy programs and hence the extra effort to make sure they continue.). Hence, they try their best to get the kids to continue.

Q: What do you have besides the DPEP thing? Ans: (Some muted discussion) and a half hearted reply: some program once a mth like sports, dances, environment, etc.

Q: Your structure seems rigid. What if a teacher would like to improvise? Ans: Jeevan answered this one: They can do anything they wish as long as they complete the DPEP syllabus. (only 3 people knew hindi, and so they kept answering the questions after looking towards Jeevan for approval)

Q: Don’t the kids cry at the balwadi’s ? Shouldn’t it be with its mother? Ans: IN any case the parents go off to work in the mornings, leaving the kids in care of the older siblings. They are happy that there is a balwadi ‘mother’ to take care of the kids while they are gone. More, they develop the habit of coming to school. They can write the alphabets and nos from 1 to 100 by the time they join the NFE’s.

Q: Do the villagers consider the God’s, Govt and GV in the same way. ie as an external power? Ans: (Smiles) a balwadi mom answered . Yes, something like that. But we feel we have participation in GV, like it is an extension of us.

A lot of kids were on campus, they had come here for a cultural meet and the ADM – assistant divisional magistrate was to come to give away the prizes, and come he did- 7 hrs late. An impassive man who looked like he had stayed buried under a pile of govt ledgers for the better part of his life, he maintained a straight face thruought the ceremony. I found myself transformed into an unwilling assistant chief guest of sorts, and before long a mike was thrust in my face, I got away after making some politically correct statements. The only time the ADM smiled and clapped, making muted sounds of assent was when I mentioned what a pleasure and honour it had been for me to meet him. He had just come back after spending a month in the USA with his son and waxed eloquent about that country, repeatedly comparing the 2 nations on various areas – of India’s failings. He had lots of fish, and meat , rosogolla, and left. I amused myself by making faces at the kids (and got some spor! ting responses) while the boring Oriya speeches dragged on.

We moved to the NFE centers about 3 hrs walk up the partly forested and barren hill. The people under this PO speak a language called Soura (they are called the Soura adivasis) which sounds a bit like an aborginal tongue. They don’t have a script, and so use the English script to write the language! Seems a British officer on posting here learnt their language and left them with the rendition in the English script. One can see a lot of villagers reading the Bible in soura in english script. No hinduising people have reached here yet. Soura’s traditional greeting is a handshake.

Village is on plains, approachable by jeep center is 2 room pucca RCC center, the teacher was on leave. M-8 and F-8. I checked the records: 2 promoted to Class2 from class1, 1 failed | Class 2 --> Class 3: 2 passed, 2 failed, one went off to his uncles house.| Class 3 --> higher Class4: 4 are in a DPEP residential school, 1 failed. This village was extremely poor, population 72, name of tribe is Muthai. Math levels were decent and the kids are responsive. Each village also has a facilitator to take care of the kids when the teacher is absent.

Locals are from the Lanjia tribe population - 306. Village nestles on a plateau about 1000 ft from the base kardasingh camp, there is no road up here, the beginnings of a panchayat road can be seen, no electricity. Kids soon gathered as soon as we got there, center is concrete with GI sheet roof, 2 rooms, one classroom and other staying qtrs for teacher. It was late, so we sent back the kids after some songs and dances. The master here is great and very enthusiatic. A city bred person, he is on the job since he wants to live like this- cooking with firewood. Math skills are just about average, we had this kid called Daniel who did some fantastic acting like a monkey and frogs, prancing about though.

Things ever NFE center maintains: (a) population data, Male/Female, nos, age, literacy status, detailed survey every june of the no. of kids, M/F, and their schooling status.

(b)Sample data for village Tulumul: (Tulumulu NFE caters to 2 hamlets, Mandal Shahi and Gomang Shahi)

(c)Other data: Enrolment position, name, family, caste, age, sex, DOB, date of joining, grade, etc.

Ex for Jan’02: Grade1: M-2;F-4 | Grade 2: M-3;F-3 | Grade3: M-3; F-2.

(d) Exam report: Exams are held bimonthly, half yearly and yearly. All exams except the ½ and yearly exams are monitored by the staff and VEC’s. (village education committee’s). People from other GV schools monitor the ½ and yearly exams, and consequently, the kids score less.

(e) Register for livelihoods, families, members, ages, sex, grain qty@ yr, landholding, land type (rain-fed, shifting cultivation, etc), type of dwelling, wasteful expense (drinking, sweets – people spend Rs1000@yr

on sweets!). This data is fed back into the GV computers, once a yr. GV had its 25^th aniv celebrations recently, 5000 ppl attended.

# MIL = Modern Indian Language – Oriya, SS = Social Science; SC = Science, A = ABSENT. I realised some of the % are wrong, unfortunately only after getting back home. IN some cases the % seems to be an average of the marks scored!

• Tribals are slow learners, notice the wide variations in %. Most kids score in the 1-30% bracket and 40-50% bracket. Kids pay Rs 5-10 monthly as school fees, this is used for misc costs.

Jeevan tells me that they plan to have 5 acres of land for each NFE where they would grow about 300 cashew plants, which will get them about Rs30,000 @ yr. Center running costs are 1800 @ month for teacher salary and 800 @ mth for balwadi mom. So, centers would be largely self-sufficient and GV intervention would be minimal. – Tulumul already has about 1 acre or so with cashew on it. Each village has a 8 member VEC or village executive committee with M 4 and F4. They oversee all GV activities in the village in sanitation, water, education, livelihoods, NFE'’ etc. GV is big. They have a well in almost every village I visited.

Situated about a 10 min walk from the Tulumulu NFE; pop’n = 75. The govt built a school here in 1966, village still to see a Matric pass. However, it was in a bad shape and repaired recently. GV also runs a balwadi here. There were 10 Males and 8 F (only 1 kid in class3) in this NFE. Math levels were ok, so were reading and writing abilities. About 8 kids have gone on to higher levels from this NFE in the past 6 yrs. Only 1 is in class 4, since all the rest dropped out unable to pay the Rs 750@ yr reqd to be paid at the GV residential high schools, and some lost interest as well. Govt master comes 3 @ week, all 3 classes are conducted by GV master in the govt room when govt master doesn’t come. Classes are split between GV and Govt teacher on days govt teacher comes. kids are split and classes 1,2 sit in govt school and class 3 in GV building with the govt and GV teacher taking care of their bunch. Asha/GV structure is a single room Rs 3! 0,000 concrete structure with GI sheet roof and a small toilet room. All the NFE’s have some teaching and learning aids, but these are not being used effectively. Some of the kids here are not clear in basic math concepts, master is class 12 pass.

Here’s a story: Some people from the DPEP school come here and round up some older looking kids and take them back to their school 7 kms away in the plains. Kids find their names enrolled in class6. Stay there till an inspector comes and checks the class. Then are sent back. Some of the married women from this village have their names entered in the govt balwadi register in the plains. The govt has not been recruiting the regular 6000@ mth variety teachers and is replacing them with ‘para teachers’ at 1500@ mth, but ofcourse, these seldom come as well. Who’d walk 4 hrs daily to work ? Whats disturbing is that some of the kids passing out of the GV NFE’s and supposedly going to ‘govt day schools’ within walking distance are made to sit in classes (say 7) they don’t belong to – for months on end. Out here the Asha built center is serving simply as a staying room for the master, sicne classes are held at the govt building. There is also a govt concrete balw! adi room at the backside of the govt school – but staffed with the GC balwadi mom. The govt appointed mom, I guess is taking care of her own children at home.

The Gangapur govt school has been around for 40 yrs. At todays prices, govt has spent 3000 * 2 * 12 * 40 = Rs 35 lakhs including all costs, and there is no one from this village who is class 5 pass in 40 yrs. The last govt master here was very good, and lived in the village itself. Unfortunately he ran off with a girl from the village a few days ago and now theres no one. Love, in the way of education. Wherever govt schools exist, GV makes sure the kids get their free books, bags and accessories, besides the mid-day meal rations.

This one’s a 1.5 hr walk from the earlier center. – I was visiting schools in the same hill range, so to speak. It was evening, so we had some soura music with flutes, drums, a small trumpet and a traditional instrument, the songs were renditions of the Gita in the soura tongue, the women sang and that was the highest pitched, weirdest tone I have ever heard – all in the darkness of the night, without any interference from electric lights. There was fascinating conversation with a 70 yr old lady about life under British and free India. This village consists of 2 hamlets about 15 min walk from each other, there is a govt school in one while the second has the GV NFE. In this case, one of the the Asha built concrete rooms (there are 2) is not used at all, the master sleeps in his room and trudges to the other hamlet to take classes in the govt building. When the govt. master comes, which is 3 @ week, the GV and Govt master take joint classes after dividing the grade! s. When I mentioned that this asha room was not being used, I was told that the GV master takes evening classes from 6-8 in the asha built room for people from that hamlet. There are some concerns about this center. I didn’t get a satisfactory reply as to how the GV master shares the load with the govt one when the latter comes only 3’ice @ week. I suspect there is some mess up here. Learning levels were noticeably lower. There were 2 abacus’s in class. I asked the GV master to demonstrate how he used them. He promptly removed all the marbles from the frames, arranged them on the floor and used them as objects to count. He obviously thought the abacus was a holder for the marbles. See more on resource center usage below. M-7, F-4. Only 50% of the enrolled kids were present both in the balwadi and the NFE. When asked, I was told the balwadi kids don’t come back after lunch, and likewise for the NFE. Last yr, 1 kid from here went to the GV res schooll while 2! walk 1 hr daily to the govt day school 5 kms away. Registered k ids are: Class 1 -–8 | Class 2 = 5 | Class 3 = 3.| Total = 16. The govt register (kept in the same room, we were in the sarkari school room) shows 27 registered. Luckily, the govt master walked in, saw me, got scared and disappeared. I went after him to the adjacent room and asked him to show the days register. He walked in, picked it up and brought it back after 10 minutes (after making the entries no doubt), and it showed 19 present for the day. I counted 11 heads in the room. He hadn’t even taken the trouble to count the no in the room we were sitting in! On comparing with the GV register, we realised that some kids in class 1 in the GV register had their names in class 3 in the govt register. When asked to be shown the kids under class 5 in the govt register, I was told they were out for lunch. I said lets go look for them at home. The govt master confessed that he’s doctored the list to give it a good cross-class distribution. Its hard to get here, I walk 1.5 hr! s daily, he says and earn 6000 @ mth with PF and benefits with Class 12 pass, I add. This chap got real jittery by this time. This happens daily, with the GV NFE also? That ½ the kids disappear from the balwadi and the NFE- because the parents call them away on chores? And we were blessed. The para-teacher who came exactly once a month for a few hrs, had chosen that very day and time, and she walked in. Not to teach, to show her army jawan husband her school. He was posted in tripura and was down for his vacations. The good lady, shy, positioned herself in a corner of the room and her brawny husband took over the conversation. We’re 10 kms away, this is a wrong job for a woman, he says. (You want the pay ofcourse).

I got the feeling that the words ‘joyful learning’ were window dressing. The materials are there in every school. Some of them are even used – picture cards made by the teachers themselves, they have put in some efforts on those. But there are some materials that are never used. At the asha built resource center (one largish room and 2 disused smaller ones) at the Kardasing PO for ex, there is a lot of material bought and neatly arranged. Some are still in their wrappers, some are broken, and it’s obvious that some weren’t used that often. There were some globes, plastic microscopes, some magnet games, some on laws of physics, etc and lots of paintings and charts made by some of the teachers themselves. I was told when the teachers come down for their monthly meetings, about 3 kids from every school come along and spend a few hrs in the center. That’s not much help, walk 4 hrs and spend 4 hrs in the center, all in the same day, once a month, 4 k! ids at a time. I suggest the material be circulated amongst the schools, say 15 days @ school and then got back for the monthly meeting and given to the other schools. The teachers also need to be trained on how best to use the materials – see the abacus story above.

Once enrolled, ~ 80% of the kids seem to continue coming to school. But about 30% do not appear for the ½ yrly exams. Success rates at placing kids in Govt/GV res schools after the NFE seem to vary wildly from center to center. Where place cannot be found at a res school/parents don’t want to pay/cannot afford, kids are enrolled in a govt day school a few kms away. This could have mixed rates – we saw the kids being placed in the wrong grades!. Solution: a) Increase classes in NFE’s upto class5 for kids who can’t make it to the res schools. This will mean imparting fresh training for the teachers. B) Open a residential school at each PO. Enrollment would increase due to proximity of the

villages to the school. Ofcourse, it calls for a large investment and increased recurring costs. Education is not a new concept for these people. They’ve seen govt schools since the 60’s and 70’s. Only, they never worked. The concept of education is limited to literacy, and really doesn’t form a part of their life, their livelihoods and scheme of things. The odd kid who reaches matric goes off to secunderabad for a ‘job’. Till such a time as life-styles don’t change, education will only be something sort for since it is deemed to be ’good’ but there wouldn’t be any natural inclination towards it, the habit of going to school notwithstanding. C) Have weekend refresher courses for a few hrs for all kids in the village who have completed 3 yrs at the NFE and are still around doing nothing. This might prevent relapses – and these kids appearing at the adult literacy classes a few yrs down the line.

We get there after a 2 hr walk in the blistering heat on a pathway snaking intelligently through the hills. This one’s on a hill slope and is a small hamlet. This is where Abraham Lincoln studies. He says he’s in class 1, can read and write well, knows his numbers and is the best student in his class. There is no NFE , only a balwadi here, the balwadi mom teaches the few kids across grades 1 to 3. The heat is stifling, there are bees buzzing lazily about with a rather noise drone, a child cries incessantly in the room at the same pitch, a tethered goat sits nonchalantly under the tree shade, the thatched shacks only have dung to show for their occupants; a few naked dirty kids loiter around aimlessly on the dusty floor. The dense greenery around tempts pleasant thoughts, the actual conditions are to the contrary, a hot wind blows, day-dreaming is abolished. We are hot, tired and 3 hrs late for lunch. The balwadi runs from 9 am-4 pm and then from 7 pm-10 ! pm. The kids sleep here at night after classes. The single room asha building is an yr old. The NFE center ran for 4 yrs from a GV room bang opposite, where now the TBA- traditional bath attendant helps during pregnancies. Rice and dal. Energy is rejuvenated, but the stomach is still tired. In the last 3 yrs, 2 kids passed out from class3 and are now in class 6 and 7 while 3 have passed out from the balwadi to join class 1,3 in the govt school an hrs walk away (they didn’t continue in the NFE in the same room..). the 2 that are in class 6 and 7 should be in class 3 by GV standards. A repeat of kids being enrolled in wrong (higher) classes by the DPEP folks. What a mess. The kids at this NFE also have their names enrolled in the govt register and go there whenever they are called, or when books/ etc are distributed. They also get Rs 75 @ mth for attending the DPEP school. (I won’t begin to comment on how money could be siphoned off here..). Since 1998, the balwadi’s get! their monthly rations from USAID tins via CRS – Christian relief serv ices. Lot’s of tins with USA written in bold blue;courtesy Uncle Sam’s political economy of aid. Ofcourse, the tins are sold off in the local market once they are used. I found them surfacing at some other NGO!

Each PO files a Monthly Status Report. Sample data for 20 villages:

2003-2004: AVG ATTENDANCE FOR 10 MTHS OVER 20 VILLAGES:

DROP OUTS IN 2001-2002: Class1à Class2 = 38 nos; Class2à Class3 = 61 nos.

• On avg, the NFE’s stay open for 20-25 days@mth.
• Approx passing % from Class2à class 3 is ~40%; some kids drop out, some fail and repeat the same class.

E = Enrolled; A =Appeared; P = Passed; % = Passing percentage

## NOTICE the great variation in pass% from yr 2001 to 2002 and 2003. This is because papers were checked by the NFE teachers themselves (green) in the former and by GV central (red)staff in the latter.

A PO consists of a Project Officer, a PMED incharge (planning monitoring and evaluation – the PC guy), an education incharge, supervisors, gram saathi’s and volunteers. Each school gets a monthly study plan from its PO.

On average Rs. 2.20 has been collected per month per child as school fund.

• Children competition on writing, reading, drawing and oral has been organised in antibagada school going children campaign, independence day, republic day, Teachers day at cluster level.

• In 15 day school centers kitchen garden developed around 2.50 acres. During one year 650kgs of vegetables produced. In 3 centers permanent kitchen garden developed.

• 8 VEC members took initiative to arrange textbook, MDM and proper functioning of the schools at Kundeising, Adhei, Balmunda, Gangapur, Cherusahi, Tudumul, Tubursing and Santundi. Around 563 nos. of textbook received with free of cost keeping regular follow-up. So almost all the centres having minimum required textbook. Now we are in a position to withdraw a goan sathi from Tubursing village because Govt. school are properly functioning having good attendance both children and teachers.
• Created assets for sustainable education programme in 4 villages. 400 cashew plants were planted in 5 acres. Now in 5 villages land agreement and in 5 villages site selection has been completed. Piscicultre also developed at Santundi village.

• Parents shows interest for their children higher education. Last year admission children are till now continuing their study.

• PROBLEMS : 1. Unauthorized to issue certificate to pass out student of day schools.. 2. Practices shifting cultivation, watching cattle in whole day time.

• Koinpur PO: Visit to residential school:

This is where some of the better kids from the NFE’s land up. This is a large PO, the res school has its own building, very neat, with playground and basket ball court. With 150 M and 50 F from classes 3-7. They are just building a girls hostel, so till now the asha built 2 RCC rooms were used by the girls to stay in. There were about 10 kids from the villages I visited and we’ve read about up there. The incharge there tells me that they have just started receiving kids from the Kardasing PO and expect that no to go upin future. Also, 50% girls will be inducted once the hostel is done, kids pay 750 @ yr for yr 1 and 500 @ yr then on. Kids are clean and neatly dressed, a big change from when you see them in the NFE, thanks to the atmosphere in a well run res. School, very confident, maths is decent. I tested some of the kids who had passed out from the tulumulu, and other NFE’s I went to, these kids fared well. Kids could do geometry, fractions, e! quations and proofs, according to diff. Grades.. Last year 20 passed the govt secondary exam, 8 in 1^st Div, 11 in 2^nd Div, and 1 in 3^rd Div. All kids in the past 3 yrs have passed the govt qualifying exam. Some have bagged the NRTS (National Rural talent search scholarship), every yr about ~ 1-3 come in the top 10 in the district rankings, plenty of sports medals, cups and citations at various events. Students from GV NFE’s are selected on basis of marks scored in GV central exams while those from govt schools are adiminstered a test. The res. School is establishing a trend in this region. Where there was hardly any concept of education, parents are willingly paying good fees and sending their wards. Teachers are good, BA/BEd, sal: 3-4K @ mth. Once the girls hostel is built, they plan to start using the asha built resource center and have the collector inaugurate both.

Newly opened, project area is mostly in the plains, and approachable by a bad road. Avg attendance in the 20 villages under this one is 20 kids@ mth @ NFE. Wild variations, with some NFE’s having 00 attendance to some having 27 days @ mth. Khajurasin village: Tribe: Bheema, asha built 2 room RCC (NFE + Balwadi), kids from 3 schools were out on a picnic, we caught up with 40 of them under some trees by the side of a river bed with some telugu music blasting from a music system rigged to batteries and food being cooked across. I decided to spoil their holiday a bit anyways, and was glad I did. Some of the kids here were quick with math. Burosahi Village: asha built 4 room RCC, 1 was being used as a storage space for community grain which is loaned out during lean periods, 2 are classrooms and 1 for the teacher to stay in. There is a spanking new DPEP building right across the road. Total kids in Anandpur PO = 380, ~ 80 in class 3! , 24 continued to class 4 last year. Here’s some data I extracted:

If the chapter is interested, they could get data from GV on: a) In how many locations is there a govt building besides the asha funded one? B) in how many of (a) are the classrooms being put to use for some purpose atleast ?

Religious push: I was asked to look for this. There is none. I spoke to a broad cross section of people, in the NGO, amongst students, locals, supervisors, etc, and also tested the kids in all schools, across 3 PO’s. No influence of any religious leanings. Also, major funders for the NGO are ‘secular’ organizations. No concern on this account required.

Jayapadma (Project Manager): residential school "We would like asha to consider supporting the GV residential schools. although GV has long time secure funding from large donor’s for our other programs, we run the residential schools from our own sources of income". S: I feel this would be a good idea, the residential schools are run very well and play an important role. Only hitch would be the large funding involved and the fact that this would be a recurring cost. Chapter also might have reservations working year on year with a large group like GV

1. RHEP. Joe suggested the following: "I would like asha to rethink the way it looks at education. We have come to realise that health is a very important component. For ex we found that most of the problems women have in terms of infections, diseases, and reproductive problems is because they wash themselves in dirty ponds and don’t get enough time and privacy in these. A private place grants them the privacy away from prying eye’s and leads to remarkable improvements in their health". GV has been building toilets, piped water systems and concrete houses with equal support from the Govt and the people. Each pays approx 30% of the cost. I was shown 2 such villages. One was a model village where 50% of the people had moved away from the old site to a new one which was very clean, concrete roads, and houses, toilets and piped water from an overhead tank. This one got a number of awards most recently from the World Bank, the Habitat Award. Joe suggested that the! y would provide a web interface where asha-volunteers could choose to make a one time contribution towards the toilet system (with free labour and other material from the household) of Rs 6000/-. The volunteer would be given a web-code wherein he/she can see and monitor the progress of the household and the village in terms of health and other parameters, data on which would be refreshed bimonthly. If the donor feels dissatisfied with the way the money has been utilised/ the progress, he has an option of claiming a full refund from GV, which GV will promptly oblige. The rational behind the RHEP scheme is that good housing, access to water and toilets gives the people a sense of ownership and dignity, which would translate into a changed outlook at education as well, leading to people more readily sending and supporting their wards to school.

2. Interns: This one targets NRI’s / other Indians wishing to spend some time in India working on socially relevant projects. A variety of skills are needed, and Joe was looking at a time frame of 6 months to 2 yrs for the intern to spend at GV . The Intern would be provided free accommodation and is expected to pay for the food. Where required, GV is ready to foot the bill for the food as well. All other logistics would be taken care of by GV. In Joe’s words "We have the foot soldiers, we need a few generals as well. " I personally feel that this would be a highly rewarding experience for the concerned persons. Asha can help by channeling people in transition / breaks to G.V.

1. Should be kept in mind that Kordasing PO has the most remote projects and in the hills. NFE’s in the plains are bound to turn in better figures for most parameters (ex: Anandpur, Koinpur).
2. Judging by the sample schools and locations visited, it seems that in most cases the asha supported buildings are being put to some use atleast. Where govt schools are absent, the room is fully utilised. Where Govt schools are present, GV and Govt schools are taking joint lessons, maybe using both the govt room and the GV room. In some cases, where 2 rooms have been constructed (one for the classroom and one for the master to stay in), one of the rooms seems to be used by the community to store grain and/or other purposes. (I saw one case like this). In some cases where 2 rooms have been constructed one of the rooms seems to be not used at all. Also, the Govt has been busy putting up new schools under the DPEP, a recent development only. It is hoped that the underutilized rooms will be used in some way in the future.
3. Retention: Once enrolled, ~ 80% of the kids seem to continue in the NFE, with marked absences during the ½ yrly and final exams. (Papers for these are checked by staff from GV Central office)
4. Continuation : About 50% of the kids passing out from class 3 every yr seem to be enrolled in a Govt residential or one of the ~4 GV residential schools. These one’s are lucky, the standards in the residential schools (GV) are very good, and chances are 90% of those enrolled in the res. Schools complete class 7 atleast. I cannot comment on the status of the Govt res schools, i was told they are understaffed. The remaining 50% find their way to various Govt day schools. For kids living in the plains, these might be more easily approachable (say an hrs walk) than for kids in the hills. We have seen that they might be sitting in the wrong classes, the teacher might be absent frequently and when present might not be teaching well. Its might be too much of an effort to warrant a kid going to these govt. day schools, in any case there is firewood to collect and other livelihood chores to be done at home. I can’t see in what way GV can do anything here (short of interfer! ing in the govt schools). Way out would be to open more res schools (for classes 4-7) at each PO. This would be close to the villages, ofcourse this means a substantial investment and recurring cost. After class 7, kids can continue at the only GV Residential high school that is around. I don’t know whether the govt has any Residential high schools.
5. The presence of the balwadi’s, NFE’s, secondary and higher secondary residential schools seems to be completing an age 3 to age 18 schooling cycle. What is needed is increased capacity / greater number of the secondary and higher secondary schools to accommodate deserving kids who would like to continue but who cannot do so now due to lack of place. Overall, an education habit has definitely been formed, where there was none earlier.
6. GV has a large and well entrenched presence in its working areas. I guess it’s only a matter of time before they declare independence from Orissa and form a ‘GV-Pradesh’.