THE SECOND REPORT ON RADHANAGAR

Quite sometime back I wrote about our workshop at the village named Radhanagar in “Sandeshkhali” block in the Sunderbans area of West Bengal.

Joydhak re-visited the place again this month during the course of a blanket distribution programme to some of the cyclone affected persons in the village. A report:

The village

Radhanagar has faced “Ayla”, the destructive cyclone that swept south Bengal five months back. Almost half of the local flora is gone—eaten away by corrosive saline water that cut in through the bunds and bund-like elevated roads of the village in eight places during the disaster. The salty water stayed for a month and when it was finally gone, it took its toll.

The timber merchants are now the happy souls here. Their saw mills are happily slicing away the trees that either fell during the cyclone or still stand, dead, as an after effect of the prolonged saltwater-logging.

The school

The little school compound we visited for our first workshop still stands there, the school is still operational, but its mood has changed. All the merriment is gone now. One of its main teachers is already dead. The cyclone too did not spare the school. The desolate building stands alone there, with the memory of the destructive days of the cyclone written all over its compound. All its flowers are gone now. Here are the two snaps of the past and the present of the building:

The fields

The agricultural fields have got encrusted with a saline top layer. They will not be fit for the usual paddy farming for more than one season now. The area is a single crop area with everybody dependent on land for their livelihood. Barring that one main crop,

some vegetables including water melon and chilly are grown in small quantities. These are also not possible now due to increased salinity of the fields. The only possible alternative is catching of Tiger Pron hatchlings in the saline water of the now shallow local river, Daansa, and making BIDI, a local form of tiny cheroot . Neither of them are financially rewarding.

The river

The river Daansa (remember our earlier report on Radhanagar workshop? The children defined all other rivers of the country by that name..) has lost its depth due to silting during the ‘Ayla’-inducd flood. It lies there like a dead snake, with its shallow bed promising another flood in case of a heavy downpour.

The young folk, our main objective

However, we found enough display of optimism and courage. The place is far from dead. That’s the best part of it. Though riddled with infrastructure problems, neglect and shabby local politics, the young folk there are fighting back.

We interviewed some young girls here who are pursuing academic and professional courses successfully, albeit with some assistance. We shall report about them later in this post.

The very will to live and prosper reigns strong in those innocent faces, but the exposure level is pathetically low. There are some other problems also that are impairing the healthy growth of the younger people here. Some examples:

Excerpt 1

Here is an excerpt verbatim from our field report—

When asked about their application to some State Government courses for Nursing, they replied in affirmative. Where? They remained silent to that question. They did not keep the record of where they have applied, and had simply posted their application to some post office.

While coming back I overheard two local young boys of a nearby place named ‘Nyajat’, answering to a mobile phone call to one of their friend who lives in Barasat,( a place closer to Kolkata, the state capital ) “Oh god, we even didn’t know that we were eligible for the Banking exam!! And the last date is gone.”

The starvation here is not only true in the literal sense for many, for many other slightly better off young people of Radhanagar there is another kind of starvation—that of information and exposure.

Some young people of this village have been able to scale the first wall. Despite all odds they have succeeded in assimilating formal education by the sheer force of will and determination, (and , sometimes, through a little financial assistance from some individuals). But then they are faced with the second wall now—the lack of information and exposure, the endemic disease of rural India. This second wall is tougher to climb. They need assistance.

Excerpt 2

Another problem area was brought out by Economist Sri Swapan Mondal who hails from this area and is actively involved in various activities here. Here’s the gist:

A couple of personal computers were arranged by Mr. Biswas for one school here. An arrangement was made for a teacher to commute there once a week to impart training to the youth in computer application, for free. But the school authorities neither could provide a weather-safe room for the computers, nor did they even care to pay the traveling expenses of the trainer. The machines, kept in a leaky room got soaked in rainwater and soon they became defunct.

This story elicits a problem which is rooted deeper in the psyche of the local residents.

Why did this neglect happen?

Crucifying some individual for playing a traditional villain or spoilsport in this episode would be too simplistic an explanation. The real problem is that of lack of a feeling of need. The above incident would go to show the non-appreciation of a pragmatic new concept by the dogmatic local INSTITUTION. They simply failed to understand the importance of the new concept or to foresee its effect.

Another possible explanation might be their lack of confidence on the local youth about their capability of benefiting from this different concept.

The problem is not new in our Tradition dominated society where much more unquestioned reliance is put on time tested ways and means and any new thing that our forefathers did not know of is treated with suspicion and contempt.

A third possible reason for this neglect is that the machines were given free. Nobody respects a freebie. Doling makes a recipient feel like a beggar. Unless a person is in a dire existential need, he is bound to feel slighted if he is offered alms.

Whatever be the root cause, the net result was that the gift was treated as an unwarranted and unwanted piece of problem for the school authorities and got rid of through calculated neglect.

Suggestions

At the end of the interactions, the following suggestions emerged.

One of them is for our host Sri P.K. Biswas the enthusiastic septuagenarian youth from Radhanagar and

The other is rather a plea to the readers of the post:à

(A) ESTABLISHING A CAREER INFORMATION CENTRE in the village to be run by the local youngsters who have been lucky enough to get the requisite education.

Once such a center is created locally , and incumbents selected, Joydhak proposed to provide expert faculty support for the first orientation to the volunteers.

Once trained, the volunteers would collect information about VARIOUS CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN SERVICE AND SELF EMPLOYMENT SECTORS. Various periodicals, journals, brochures, scopes of vocational trainings and other curriculum would be sent from Kolkata ,once such info center is created.

Once the center becomes operational, any interested aspirant of the locality would then be provided with information required by him/her by this center. The same model can then be replicated in other local villages.

Sri Swapan Mondal informed that efforts are already afoot to identify a location for the center and once such a location is established expert faculty will be provided whose traveling costs will be recouped by charging a monthly token fee from Rs.25 to Rs.50 from the aspirants (50 cnts to one USD).

The amount to be charged will be purposedly kept meager so that financially weak aspirants can afford it. At the same time, charging of a fee is essential, as, having to pay some amount for a benefit, (however meager may be the amount,) will help to boost the self respect in the educated beneficiary and also a sense of urge to get the best out of a facility. Nobody respects a freebie.

(B) ADOPTING A GIRL STUDENT

Sri P.K Biswas, the septuagenarian youth from Radhanagar and Sri Swapan Mondal, an Economist friend with Joydhak, who is also a son of the soil of the Sunderbans, brought up this issue during the interactions.

Sri Biswas informed that some individuals from different places have already taken up the sponsorship for the education of three girls in Radhanagar. Sri Biswas acts as the co-ordinator for such efforts. He himself is assisting some needy but promising kids from this area. This is resulting into a successful experiment. Two such girls, who did not have any hope for further higher studies, have taken a course in nursing and are now pursuing graduation with this help. The third is still in school. Once this trio are thru the sponsorship is expected to continue with another set of three girls.

COULD YOU HELP????

However, three is not enough. Sri Biswas is also doing whatever possible within his own capacity, yet, more sponsorship is needed. Even a meager five hundred rupees (approx 10 USD) a month can change the life of a girl for ever in this back of the beyond land!

ON BEHALF OF THIS VILLAGE, JOYDHAK URGES FOR SUCH ASSISTANCE FROM THE MORE FORTUNATE INTERNET COMMUNITY WHOSE MEMBERS ARE READING THIS POST.

You can contact the followings:

Sri P.K Biswas at Radhanagar : 09433342558

Sri S.K Mondal at Kolkata at: 09874781962

EMAIL: swapan_ies@yahoo.co.in

A unique confidence building experiment with the future citizens

Shishu Kishore Vikaas Mela ( Child and Youth development fair)—A unique confidence building experiment with the future citizens

Posted on নভেম্বর 3, 2009 by joydhak | সম্পাদনা

This is a week-long annual camp-cum-workshop orgasnised at various rural and semi urban locations of Bengal during the Autumn.

This effort has reached its twelfth year in 2009.

School level children are the main participants and target beneficiaries of the camp. We would like to give the summary of the experience from the perspective of a child , as published in one of the camp brochures. (The original text is in Bengali):

I study in a free primary school. The school is actually a big shop that accommodates 63 of us and a stick wielding teacher. One day he called the names of a few of us and told that we shall be going for a camp. The place was Jambani, near Shantiniketan.

This was the first time I traveled in a railway train. The breakfast , served during the journey in train, was frugal. From the railway station we were taken to the venue by a bus. It was a big, walled school building with lots of trees and a pond inside. Once out of the bus, we all started running inside the compound. The ground was pebbly and hurting but so what! It was a beautiful feeling to be able to run undisturbed, without having to think about any rushing vehicle. Can anyone run like that in our town? I was really missing my siblings. If they could also come!!

After the initial commotion we settled down in some of the classrooms. A large plastic had been spread on the floor. We were to sleep there. We had carried some rudimentary bedding with us for that.

After a little time and another frugal snacks we went out to explore the place. The primary section of the school is housed on the backyard of the main block. It’s mid-day meal kitchen , standing beside a well, has been made into our camp kitchen for next one week. A nice leaning tree stood there. Many of us tried our hands at climbing the tree. Some went near the pond and sat beside it. Somehow we were forming small groups of hitherto unknown persons. A big girl suddenly approached me and took me to see the cooking going on in the kitchen. Some of our moms and sisters who had accompanied us in the camp were assisting in the cooking. They were chatting among themselves. There was fun and frolic everywhere. Once again I missed my mom and sis. If only they could come!

**************

The next morning we were gathered in a large, well-lit hall. There were some senior persons sitting at the back. Two big boys were in charge of maintaining discipline. However nobody was carrying a cane or any other such disciplining instrument we are so much in the habit of seeing in the schools. Our names were noted down here. This was followed by a session of songs. We all sang and enjoyed.

After that we were divided into a number of groups and assigned different activities. Our group was put under Samit Bandyopadhyay, Kaushik da and Palan da. They would teach us how to act in a play! They were very good, only most of the things they told were difficult to understand. I started feeling sleepy and tried repeatedly to slip away from the session. The symptoms spread quickly and our teachers called for help from another elderly person. We were afraid that this person would chastise us for being inattentive. But the man called me and instead of barking at me he offered me to play the role of a necklace snatcher. Sabita would play the role of your victim and Ruksana would act as police and try to catch you.

Now this was fun. I snatched the necklace quite professionally and as soon as Ruksana came to catch me I ran outside and a chase ensued, among loud clapping from the elders. This episode took away all the boredom.

The rest of the activities that followed were sheer fun—grab your friends at the call of a number(if the number is three grab three friends and like that), two or more persons collaborate in drawing one picture and so on. We never knew when morning turned into middle of the noon. It was time for a break.

A pump was running in the backyard and water was being sprinkled through a pipe. That was our public bath. It was so great a fun to bathe like that under the open sky! The food was simple but we were very hungry and ate a lot.

By evening the entire camp was in a beautiful harmony. Many of us were willingly participating in the daily chores. If somebody did not want to participate, fine! Let him idle away. Nobody would say anything to him. No punishments would be meted out. But then, who wants to be a loner when all other are working together and having fun!!

A daily wall magazine was also planned during the camping days. We were to write and draw for it. I tried my hand at making a sketch of spiderman. It came out well. The next day I drew Mickey mouse. This time it was accompanied by a small couplet. Then Cinderella followed.

The wall magazine soon had a companion in the form of a daily collaborative poem. Somebody would write a line and others would contribute a line or two in succession. It was fun. The first line was,

“The camp’ll ask you just one thing.”

The next morning someone completed the couplet with this line-

“Together we must learn to sing.”

This was followed by other lines. After some time the meter and the rhythm were all thrown into air and a free for all poetry writing session ensued.

By the midst of the camping period our group was ready with a play, to be enacted on the last day. The work was based on a comedy by Tagore but it was enlarged considerably to accommodate all the members of the group. Different groups were creating their own plays. Once I saw a boy being asked to play the role of a dog. The boy denied. The proposal must have been a disgusting one for him! Then one of our trainers took up the role. The story was beautiful—the pet dog of a lonely boy saving him from drowning by calling out for help. With the beautiful acting of the trainer, the dog’s role became so attractive that once the demonstration was over, the boy forgot his reservations and jumped for the role.

Evenings were fun too. Listening to stories used to be a main attraction. One day it was proposed to organize lots of programs in the evening in various rooms—recitation, go as you like, dancing, ghost room, movie room and so on. Every such room was the responsibility of a group of campers. They had to plan the entire program of that room. Arranging for the logistics was the responsibility of the seniors.

We all got very busy from that afternoon with our respective charges. The fun started after Sunset. A boy called Ujan from Santipur was performing in the magic room. He is a good showman but the funniest element in the show was his father–a big tall fellow, working as a meek assistant to this puny magician. I myself was in the dance group. I love to dance.

But, of all the groups, the best was the ghost room. As soon as I entered that room, someone slapped on my head. I turned around to find only a pair of floating eyes and a set of white teeth!! Then came a procession of skeletons! That was enough for me. I shouted for help, wanting to get out of the room and immediately somebody pushed me outside. The room became the most popular among all the rooms that evening. Everybody wanted to get in. Even all the seniors! There was a long queue in front of it.

Thus our week was spent. All through the week each of the groups has created a play almost from scratch. The dialogues, the acting, the plan—- everything! That was the main goal. Side by side we have lived and worked and had fun together in a big group like a big family.

On the last day the programme started in the afternoon. There were some songs and then the plays started one after another. But then those were not simply another set of plays! They were created by us during last few days. So many memories associated with each scene. Remember that dog I mentioned earlier? In the play, the dog was killed at the end by a rude man. We cried when the scene was acted.

After all the plays were acted, we lit a lot of candles and walked around the entire place, singing all the time. There was no declaration of end of a festival, because, it was not an end; just a beginning of the next festival.

In the present time of endangered childhood in every strata or class of the society, this effort can be summarized as a venture to touch the sleeping creativity in a child and give it the confidence that it can also deliver of its own. The camps are designed to gently guide a child to learn to think of its own and to dare to come up with new ideas and try and implement them too.

The journal of the young participant above shows the gradual evolution of a mind over the week long camping period during which it is taught to shed its fear and lack of confidence, learns to look for his own capabilities and then to come out with its contribution without any hesitation.

A group of dedicated and capable individuals are behind this novel effort. They also publish a very standard booklet on the occasion of this camp.

Interested individuals may contact at this blog site for contact details of the organisers. Feel free to send in your queries in comment mode to this post.

Filed under: Alternative education, Drama camp, child camp, news, non formal education, workshop | Tagged: children. photograph, drama, news | 2 Comments »

Chandamama all back issues available

Remember the Chandamama? We all grew up with this oldest Indian Child magazine. All its back issues are now available. In Nine Indian Languages.

Give your child a slice of your own childhood. At the same time experience the taste of your own childhood once more. Try the link below:

CHANDAMAMA

Remember that colourful MISHA magazine?

This colourful Russian kids' magazine was a part of our childhood reading. What a Wonderful Magazine it was Oh!

Some good people have now taken some efforts to bring one of the  old copies of this wonderful magazine back in the net, Free! Bless their souls!  I downloaded it for my kids. Get it and share with your kids too (In addition to enjoying them yourself. It will give you back a piece of your childhood.). CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW:

Misha Magazine

A photographic report of the latest Joydhak workshop

Visit this link to see how a group of children in a remote village of rural bengal are working with determination to better their lives through education.

http://joydhak.wordpress.com/photo-feature-on-workshop-at-asannagar/

faces of the child

Joydhak took to the lenses to capture the many faces of the child--some of them privileged , some not so privileged, some pensive, some just freaking out in the characteristic carefree enthusiasm of the age, some mocking the overdressed adult world with sheer nakedness. The camera roamed from Kumartuli of Kolkata to Kanha in Madhya Pradesh, but the the children are everywhere the same--a true reflection of contemporary life. Here are some choice picks. Click the link below to see.

faces of the child photogallery

Joydhak Workshop at Asannagar, Distt Nadia, India

Recently a small team from Joydhak was invited to participate in a workshop organised by an informal education centre named PRIYABALA VIDYAVITHI at Asan nagar, Nadia.

This education centre is a unique experiment in basic education. Here’s a brief:

The Institution is running for last nine years WITHOUT ANY GOVT FUND OR SPONSORSHIP!!

It does not have any government affiliation.

It does not have any rich individual’s financial support.

A man has created this institution on his entire household property(around two Bigha of land). He lives in a small structure inside the property and the rest has been converted into the venue of this most unique experiment.

The target group is the schoolgoing children of local poor people (predominently Muslims and lower caste Hindus) who are mainly agricultural labourers.

The basic assumptions for the experiment are:

1. Assumptions regarding the shortcomings in the existing institutional structures in the local socio-economic background:
(A) the existing state sponsored institutional education system does not provide all-round education.
(B) The education system a well as the local socio-economic fabric fails to curb the high drop out rates.
(C) Standard of academic education by local state sponsored institutions is very poor.
(D) The social institutions including schools and families are not capable of providing education to the children of the poorer segment of the society in the areas of hygene, morality, good behaviour, fine arts like drawing/recitation, music or social consciousness.
2. Assumptions regarding the ways and means:
(A) Every child, given a chance, can excel irrespective of his/her level of affluence or location in the social/economic ladder.
(B) A school’s responsibility is not limited to finishing an academic syllebus and conducting and exam. In addition to that, it is its duty to ensure allround development of the mind and body of the student.
(C) That development needs more dedication and comparatively less money.A parent does not require to be paying through his nose for procuring this opportunity for his child.

The Experiment is conducted in the following manner:

The institution enrolls students studying at various local schools from class five onwards.

The students attend the institution at their non-school hours, especially in the afternoons.

Special sessions are held during weekends and vacation days.

They are given coaching on various academic subjects and side by side classes are organised on subjects ranging from basic hygene & cleanliness to development of kitchen gardens to music to drawing.

Evaluation meetings and parental counseling sessions take place with guardians at fixed periodic intervals.

Teachers come from various professions and basically give free service. Some of the ex-students give voluntary services as teachers for a nominal fee.

What we observed:

The students are lively, well behaved , well informed and highly independent minded. During the workshop they staged a small play (their own creation) protesting against the thrashings that some of them receive from their teachers in the institution for not attending to their home tasks properly. The targeted teacher (who happens to be a headmaster in a local school and gives voluntary service in this Institution) sat through the play patiently and then called for an instant referendum on whether the students envisage any situation where they would support a beating up of a student by a teacher.

The children responded with a list of three situations where they would recommend a little beating of a student by a teacher (viz. bunking a class , being unmindful to a lesson during a class and leaving one’s own class to peep into a different classroom). However, they categorically denounced the practice of beating for not doing homeworks. In other words they were sending a message that there should not be any homework , that is, the school should take full responsibility of education within the teaching hours only.

Interestingly, the institution has been successful in curbing the dropout rate to 1% among the students under its care whereas the general dropout rate in the area is above 50% as reported by them.

Findings and suggestions of the workshop

1. The usual story telling sessions (where the students were encouraged to tell stories they knew) revealed acceptance of polygamy as a normal fact of life. The stories they told mostly involved multiple wives and domestic violence in the form of fairy tales. When asked to identify unacceptable factors in such stories , while they successfully pointed out the mentions of different magics and charms (e.g. use of magic flowers to induce pregnancy in an otherwise barren woman) as well as uncalled for violences (e.g. a king killing his wives by pushing them into a well) in such tales, none indicated towards unacceptability of polygamy. (A young girl when asked as to why she did not point this out as an unacceptable fact in the story, innocently said, “But it is so common!”)

The issue was pointed out to the faculty who in response commented that it is proving to be difficult to imbibe the unacceptability of polygamy in the psyche of the students. The area needs further thrust.

2. To increase the involvement of students in the entire process and develop a sense of ownership among the students, our team held a meeting with some teachers and the senior students of the school and after deliberations, the house decided to start a process of mentorship wherein every senior student would take charge of two or three junior students and would look after their allround developments within and beyond school, under the guidance of the teachers. the mentors (senior students ) would hold a monthly meeting with the teachers and submit progress reports of their charges and the best mentor of the year would be given a prize. Immediately after the meeting such charges were distributed and the process has started rolling. The results will now be monitored periodically.

Problem areas:

The main problem being faced is the non-availibility of funds. Recently a situation arose when the institution was on the verge of closing its doors. The poor parents then came together and provided them with whatever little money they could provide. Currently, that meagre source and some scanty donations from a few people are the only source of funds.

When asked why they donot try making and selling of local handicrafts, they brought out beautifully designed ‘Kantha’s (colourful stitched rugs made from used Sarees) and some elegant looking woodcrafts. They know how to make them but donot know how to market them. If these things could be properly marketed they could generate some badly needed fund for the experiment.

Could anybody help them ? Help could be given in the form of small monetary assistance (however small it is it always counts) or by providing some marketing options for their handicrafts.

The address is :
Priyabala Vidyavithi
(Near Asannagar Post Office,
P.O. Asan nagar,
Bhimpur,
District Nadia,
West Bengal