Q&A Ð Nandlal Fellowship

 

Q. How did you come in touch with Asha Trust?

 

A.  I was working as a weaver in the saree business here with my family. At the same time I was also running the schools in the villages. After the nuclear tests by India, I had heard on Sandeep Pandey starting a peace march from Benaras to Rajasthan. The route of the march went through Mehdiganj and I got a chance to meet him. I told him about the work we do here and he was quite impressed that we had been working on our own, without any outside help, since 1994. Six months later some volunteers from Asha came to visit and understand how we worked. In 2000, I attended the Asha conference at Kanpur and spoke of how we worked. I spoke about getting work done being much more important than money. I slowly got more involved with Asha activities and I became a trustee member of Asha Trust in 2001. Sandeep Pandey then helped me get financial help for the running of the schools.

 

 

Q.  Which schools are you seeking recognition for - day or night schools?

 

A.  We are running two permanent schools, 10 night schools and two stitching centers for girls, which are being supported by Asha Chicago. At the Asha conference we spoke about getting schools registered and there were two options, either we register a center or we could get all centers run Asha-wide registered. It was decided that we will get all the centers registered on a national level and I think Monica Wahi (from Delhi) was supposed to work on this.

 

We are working on getting registration for both the day and night schools. Actually if we get one registered then we can get all the kids to give their class five exams through that center and then they can join the government school.

 

 

Q. How many schools is Asha Chicago supporting?

 

A.  The two permanent schools, 10 night schools and two stitching centers are being supported by Asha Chicago.

 

 

Q. How much time do volunteers spend and how are they supported for their livelihood?

 

A.  All the volunteers are under the age of 30 with 40% being students in schools/ colleges and the rest of them are weavers, laborers, farm workers, etc. There are three types of volunteers

 

 i. Full timers Ð like Mukeshm Suresh, Arvind who work full time with Lok Samiti and we try and get them some sort of financial support.

 

ii. Part timers Ð like the school teachers teaching at the night schools and the members of the kalamanch. The school teachers work 2 hours/day and receive Rs 300/month. The members of the kalamanch work 1 week/month and receive about Rs 500-700/month.

 

iii. Individuals Ð People from the village who are members of the Lok Samiti. They take part in meetings of the Lok Samiti once a month and are involved in our activities for 2-3 days in a month.

 

 

Q. How many children are in the schools run by Lok Samati?

 

A.  There must be about 600 odd children in all the centers. In the two permanent centers there are about 225 and 150 children. In the ten night schools, there are 30-50 children and in the two stitching centers there are 30-40 girls.

 

 

Q. How many children who were in the schools are now part of Lok Samati?

 

A.  Most of the children who have been through the schools support us in some form or the other. We even get support from the families and guardians of the children who are studying with us. I would believe that at least 50% of the children help us in some form. They may be doing their own work but when we launched the dharna, they came forward to support us and whenever there is an issue or problem in the village they speak up against the problem.

 

 

Q. Do the night schools have any girls?

 

A. About 50% of the student population would be girls.

 

 

Q. How many volunteers are women? What do women youth do? Name of the organization for women? Why are they different?

 

A.  The Lok Samiti consists of about 25-30 men and 25-30 women from each village who form the core group of that village. They work on issues being faced by the people. Lok Samiti in all consists of about 500 men and 500 women. Say there is a problem between husband and wife, the core group from that village will go speak to the people, their families, the pradhan and try to resolve the issue. For example if the pradhan is cheating on ration card allotments, then the core group will go and check what is happening, meet the Block Development Officer (BDO) if needed and conduct surveys to find out other people similarly affected.

 

Once a month we have a meeting with one-two members from each village. The group talks about the issues being faced by the people, the awareness campaigns needed for Right to Information, Coca-cola struggle, anti-corruption drive and also discusses the work done by other movements like the Narmada Bachao Andolan. People who are facing some problems also turn up for the meeting. We also decide on the program/ activities being planned for the next whole month.

 

Fifty percent of the teachers in the schools are women. There are two women who work full time with us. More than fifty percent of the people working with us are women. Women are more active volunteers than men. Most of the women are busy with house-hold work and some of them work at home in the saree business. 

 

Women have formed 25-30 self help groups, where they contribute Rs 25-100/month. They collect this money and use it for their personal use, maybe to buy jewellery. We train them on issues of health, reservations, women empowerment, rules of the Panchayat and the responsibilities they may have as a Panchayat member.

 

The women group is called Mahila Chetna Samiti and they meet separately at the office. The group is led by Urmila Patel and Urmila Vishwakarma. The group has the responsibility of bringing the women for the dharna. Two women and one man are sent to bring the women from the villages.

 

We may be working under two different names but essentially we are the same and all of us can be considered to be working under Lok Samiti. For example, the kalamanch is actually called the Jan Chetna Kalamanch.

 

 

Q. Can we get the scripts for the plays you put up?

 

A. Sandeep Pandey is coming to America in June and I will try and send recordings of the plays and even the scripts. Gaurav from Asha Chicago was here and he saw and recorded a couple of plays. When Madhuji was here she also took a recording of the announcement of the play, the play and then the discussion following the play.

 

 

Q. How are you documenting the surveys?

 

A.  We have maintained files for all the surveys we have done from the very beginning. We have maintained a good record of all the surveys.

 

Q. How effective is the dharna and what are you planning to do to get the government to act?

 

A. We keep been printing updates about the dharna and give them to the government. I speak to the LIO on a daily basis and tell him what is happening with the dharna. Whenever we go to Benaras, we try and contact the local authorities there and tell them about our problems. Recently a new DM was appointed, so one of us went and spoke to him telling him about our problems and out struggle. Till now there has been no response from their side. One day a representative from the Lekhpal office had come to learn about the issue. He wanted to get some proof on the stamp duty evasion and land encroachment case against Coca-cola. I showed him the court orders and he took copies of the documents with him.