Saturday, January 30, 2010

Delhi - 27th Jan 2010

I’m going to tell you a story about Abid. He’s 12 years old and comes from a village called Akhtar in Bihar, India’s poorest state. Three months ago he was sold by Akhtar’s Pradhan, the village leader, to a factory owner in Delhi. The factory owner promised a golden future for Abid: teaching him a skill that would stand him in good stead for a career in the big city. The state infrastructure is so poor in Bihar that Abid has never been to school. Abid’s poverty-stricken parents had no choice but to send Abid to the factory owner receiving a mere 500 rupees (roughly 6 pounds) in return. However upon arrival in Delhi, Abid found quite a different fate from the golden gateway he’d been promised. Abid starts work at 9am everyday. He works in one of the karhanas, small factories, in the slum of Nabi Karim, applying glue to make ladies purses. He gets 1 or 2 hours rest on a day that lasts until midnight… sometimes 1… sometimes 2am. Abid is not paid but all his immediate needs, food and lodging, are taken care of within the constraints of the karhana’s walls. He’s made just one sacrifice – his freedom.

Abid is just one of Delhi’s (approximately) 50,000 illegal child labourers. With the help of middlemen, these children are taken as young as 6 years old from India’s poorest villages to be entrapped into a life of virtual slavery in small factories making shoes, bags, clothing and even metal items. As well as evidence of physical abuse there have also been cases of sexual abuse. This grave problem is not unique to Delhi but is prevalent across the country. Government raids on such illegal factories have been irregular and half-hearted.


In August 2009, Pratham set up a drop-in centre for child labourers in the karhanas of the Nabi Karim slum. This centre provides not only a place for the children to study (often for the first time) but also to play and to sleep in a warm and friendly environment. The centre is providing some hope for children like Abid who, at 7pm at night, in his one hour’s break from stitching purses, was completing his maths homework. Arshisayyed and her team of 4 other women are currently collecting data for a survey of Nabi Karim’s 15,000 karhanas to send to the Delhi Commission for the Protection of the Child, as well as to inform the unknowing Pradhan and parents of the fate that awaits their children on arrival in the glistening ‘metro city’.


But the difficulties faced at the centre are severe. At Nabi Karim, Jen and I met Arshisayyed who explained to us the challenges she faces on a daily basis. “Once I was held at gunpoint by a Dhaba (roadside restaurant) owner. He threatened to kill me because one 8 year old boy that was working for him was coming to our centre.” Starting as a volunteer Balwadi teacher in Mumbai, Arshisayyed soon became convinced her passion was working for children. She left behind her parents dreams of settling down with a family and joined Pratham full-time. Now she coordinates the programme against child labour in Delhi.


It is clear this dreadful injustice can’t be resolved overnight. But if Pratham can at least put a smile like
this one on Abid’s face in his sparse free time – then a bridge to cross this channel is already under construction.



__________________________________________________
www.pratham.org
www.pratham.org.uk
www.prathamusa.org

Delhi - 26th Jan 2010

An exhausting 22 hour train journey brought Jen, me and some larger-than-life cockroaches to Delhi, India’s third city and its bustling capital. On the 26th January, we joined the local population in the 60th Republic Day celebrations (a military parade - including camels, see photo - more like a toned-down Notting Hill carnival)!


The following day we took a rickshaw from Majnu Ka Tilla, the Tibetan refugee camp where we were staying to Sarai Pipl Thala, an urban slum on the outskirts of Delhi. Pratham has been active in Delhi since 1999. Currently present in 5 out of 12 zones, they hope to expand into 6 by the end of the year (www.delhipratham.org). While the monthly volunteer refresher course was going on in the background, Pallavi, coordinator for 3 of the 5 zones told us about the wealth of programmes running in the capital. In 660 MCD (Municipal Cooperation of Delhi) schools Pratham has set up libraries with over 200 books in Hindi, environmental sciences, social sciences and maths. The 250 schools with over 80% level of Hindi, according to the quarterly tests, also receive English books. On top of this internal assistance, Pratham also runs 36 Learning Centres which provide extra support to 3rd – 5th standard (8 to 11 year olds). At the next door centre we tiptoed around some girls conducting their end of year examination. So determined were they to finish that some didn’t even look up to see the strange white faces that had just entered their classroom!



______________________________________________________
www.pratham.org
www.pratham.org.uk
www.prathamusa.org

Gujarat to Diu - Jan 16th 2010

After a few days off in Diu, a tiny island of limestone cliffs and rocky coves in south Gujarat, we decided to venture north to Rajasthan. Sadly, Balthasar and Patrick announced to me (15 minutes prior to departure) we were leaving just as I had proudly washed the majority of my capsule wardrobe - not exactly ideal before a 24 hour bus journey!


The advantage of taking local buses in India is there's no need to book ahead. In fact, as we discovered upon boarding our interconnecting bus in Rajkot at 1.30am, there's no word for 'full' in Hindi! Balthasar commanded, 'we HAVE to get in the bus'. So we clambered on, backpacks secured like tortoises, to find many bemused, if slightly sleepy, faces looking up at us. No seats available but 'no problem' the gangway was a fitting alternative (and in fact the most comfortable of the night). We also sampled lying in the cockpit behind the driver, and contemplated the roof but it was already taken up with hessian sacks brimming with fresh green chilies.


As the sun rose I glimpsed my first sights of Rajasthan. Cattle-drawn carts were replaced by tall camels and the lush green landscape became much more arid and stark. This is of course the state of the Great Thar Desert. Our visit is to start in the blue city of Jodhpur, where I met my companion Jen. I'll leave Jen to introduce herself...


_____________________________________________________
www.pratham.org
www.pratham.org.uk
www.prathamusa.org

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Ahmedabad - 12th Jan 2010

Explaining to the station guard at 5am that it was really necessary for me to have four accomplices to help me board the train – my translator, driver, bag carrier and general protector – was at first a challenge… But once I’d charmed him with my awful Hindi the initially moody guard lightened up! As ever a crowd formed and when they learnt I was on the way to Gujarat, the neighbouring province, they started teaching me some essential phrases. Yes, that’s right, moving just 15km North means a new language to master… or not! In Gujarat, 60% of population work in agriculture, 25% in small industry, such as textiles and stone carving, and the remaining 15% are non-contracted casual workers in heavy industry meaning great uncertainty for a large number of Gujarati
families.

No ‘4-wheeler’ to collect me this time:
I was sent the directions to the Pratham Centre near Ahmedabad by text. Instructions looked quite clear to me, apparently not. After a wild rickshaw ride with Balthasar and Patrick, who I’d met on the bus to Aurangabad, the driver proudly pulled up and announced ‘school’. Indeed it was a school, just not the one we were after! But ‘no problem’ the headmaster of the school kindly stopped his lesson and accompanied us to the Pratham Centre along a maze of winding alleyways.

The Pratham Centre, set up in 2005 is, unlike the projects I’ve seen so far, completely independent. The centre runs two daily sessions from 9-11am and 1-3pm (for children who attend the afternoon and morning government classes respectively) from ages 6 to 12 teaching Gujarati, Maths, Environmental Sciences and Health and Hygiene classes. Children are tested once every 6 months to monitor their progress. Quite unlike my village visits, when I entered the classroom the children hardly noticed me as they were so absorbed in counting straws as part of their Maths class. 11am came and the first session scurried off to their government schools.

Sitting on mats on the tiled floor, pencil sharpenings surrounding us, Gauri, the centre head, told me how she has seen the centre grow from just 10 pupils to serving over 100 today. The objectives of the centre are to give all children the chance to benefit from the same quality of tuition that they would receive in a private school. Every 6 months, Gauri and her team go out into the community of 1200 families to expand the centre’s reach. Testing children in their home shows parents what their children current level of reading, writing and comprehension is and what could be attained if the child attended Pratham’s classes on a daily basis. Foram, a 9 year old in the third standard, is an example of a star student who over the past four years has continually excelled in the government system as a result of Pratham’s tuition. As the afternoon class arrived I glanced over to the adjoining room to see Patrick and Balthasar actively attempting to teach the children ‘have you ever seen a penguin come to tea?’ Bemused but enthusiastic as ever, all the children, me included, learnt a new song that day!



______________________________________________________

www.pratham.org
www.pratham.org.uk
www.prathamusa.org

Monday, January 18, 2010

Nandurbar - 10th Jan 2010

Sunday I woke up early so decided to take a walk around the town with its beautiful collection of handmade kite stalls… but it wasn’t long before one of the Pratham workers spotted me. No time for strolling, the ‘4-wheeler’ had arrived to take us on our visits. In the car I was introduced to
Pandit who, little to his knowledge, would become my personal translator for the day. He’d learnt English as part of ‘Operation Mobilisation India’ where he worked for 3 years as a Christian missionary. I would also later learn his family had converted to Christianity after a gentleman from South Korea came to his village in 1962 and built one of 30 churches in the area.

Nandurbar DRC covers 85,000 children across 1059 villages where Pratham has implemented Marati, Maths and English classes. The first village we visited was Avthipada where, to the whole class’ entertainment, I was taught the Marati alphabet by a 5 year old boy names Sujit. In this village I also met a women’s committee who collectively pooled money in order to provide lunchtime food for the children and a before-school care for 3 to 5 year olds. In Mothe Kadvan village I met Pryanka who spoke excellent Marati having come through Pratham ‘Boli Bhasha’ programme. When she started school at 5 she only knew her tribal language ‘Mauchi’. I was extremely impressed to realize that this 10 year old knew more languages than me – Mauchi,
Marathi, Hindi and now thanks to Pratham, English! By the time we got to the third village, Nangipada, I was beginning to be weary but the children weren’t – oh no! I arrived as 5 girls were acting out a drama show, written by Pratham in order to teach the numbers 1 to 100 in
Marathi and English.

Sitting on the cool floor in Pandit’s clay-walled home eating spicey nut chutney with homemade chapatti, Pandit told me of his vision for the future. He has seen Pratham’s reach double in size over the past 3 years. In the next 3 years he told me he will go ‘door-to-door’ to spread Pratham’s message and set up projects in currently inaccessible locations. I know with the determination I’ve witnessed among Pratham employees and volunteers in only the past 3 days ‘sub kutch miliga’, ‘everything is possible’.



______________________________________________________
www.pratham.org
www.pratham.org.uk
www.prathamusa.org

Nandurbar - 9th Jan 2010

Although I’ve only moved a six hour bus journey North (three hours had there been better kept, less mountaneous roads) my surroundings have changed quite significantly. I’m in Nandurbar, a town with a population of 40,000. On arrival at the bus stop the poverty here is immediately starker than in Aurangabad. I’m greeted by goggle-eyed, barefoot children with dirty but smiling faces as they feast their eyes on their first living white-skinned being!

Again, the primary source of income in the rural areas is agriculture (coconuts, rice, sugar, etc) but in the town, by contrast, there is little work. Unlike Aurangabad, no large multinational has outsourced its production here. And there’s no hope of tourism – Nandurbar does not even feature on the map of my Lonely Planet. Instead, I am told that many people find work in construction in the neighbouring province of Gujarat, just 15km away. This again leads to problems associated with migration as children are constantly uprooted. However, the main problem facing education in the region is the variety of different tribal languages – there are a massive 179 languages spoken across this country of 1.1 billion people. In Nandurbar district, this means that many children start school at the age of 6 (first standard) not knowing either Hindi or Marathi. Evidently these children are at a serious disadvantage where the school syllabus is in Marathi thus leading to high drop-out levels. In January last year, Pratham started a programme called, ‘Boli Bhasha’ (‘own mother-tongue’) in order to teach children from different tribes Marathi language. ‘Boli Bhasha’ is a fast-learning project using activity based learning.

In Nandurbar DRC I was fortunate to coincide with the monthly State meeting of 25 Pratham employees from across the Maharastra District. It was Saturday evening but that didn’t stop anything – after a splendid sampling of the local food I retired to bed – but Vishvajit, the state head, and his team worked on until 3am. Pratham UK should take note of this phenomenal Indian work ethic!

______________________________________________________
www.pratham.org
www.pratham.org.uk
www.prathamusa.org

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Aurangabad - 8th Jan 2010

I was awoken, not by the constant hooting of cars, not by the Republic Day parade preparations, but instead by the cow outside my window! No matter how large and developed it appears no Indian city is complete without the random dotting of goats, pigs, cows and chickens in the most unexpected locations! I decided to attempt a run as the winter sun was not yet at its most powerful. The hotel manager proudly pointed me to a ‘sports area’ up the road – my eyes lit up at the prospect of being able to run without the constant fear of being knocked over by a rickshaw! As I ever my attempt at exercise proved great amusement for the locals who were playing cricket on the field. I stopped to chat to a particularly inquisitive group of girls. They were from the surrounding villages and now studying IT at the college in Aurangabad. They had high aspirations to work for one of the many multinational companies in one of India’s IT hubs, like Hyderabad or Bangalore. I was very impressed to learn that girls made up the majority of their class. After I entertained them with my limited Hindi phrases and they took photos on their phones (standard practice) I continued on my run.

Sachin arrived to collect me from my hotel at 10am as planned. Again we took his bike out into the villages 40km from Aurangabad. In the first village, Sonkheda, I was warmly greeted by the 200 children at the school with flowers, berries, a coconut and the most gorgeous smiles. In this school 190 of the children are going through Pratham ‘Read to Learn’ programme and 10 take the ‘Learn to Read’ programme. There is a test to divide children up between the two classes, the former being for the more advanced pupils and where Pratham hopes that all children will advance to. Each level of the programme lasts for 3 months at a time and the children are tested once a month to monitor their progress. In Sonkheda I met Sriram Wakale, the village elder, who in extremely impressive English told me how these children are the building blocs of India and Pratham is the cement between these blocs. In the second village, Sarai, I spoke with the headteacher who had concerns about the attendance of children to school, particularly in migrant families (see Pia’s blog). She assured me however that attendance ratings are improving following a government campaign to ensure all children between 5 – 10 years old are going to school daily.

Waving ‘Namaste’ to the adorable smiles, we went on to see the second of the ten day teacher training days at a nearby centre. There I was welcomed with the honest enquiry from one gentleman, ‘are you instructing us Madame’? To mine, and Sachin’s, astonishment, the head of the training college decided my visit would be a fantastic opportunity for me to, not just participate, but to instruct the English, and to my horror, the science classes! In the first three English classes we discussed differences in educational systems, politics, culture, food, clothing, and India as a growing power. In the science class I managed to hand over my responsibility to Pratham’s volunteer Dr Gabhir, who led the class on separation of liquids. In each class I received a glorious welcome ceremony and word of thanks, as if the queen was visiting. Later, over chai, I was told by Sachin that ‘the guest is God’ in India. How lucky I am to be a guest here!








______________________________________________________
www.readindia.org
www.pratham.org.uk
www.prathamusa.org
www.pratham.org

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Aurangabad - 7th Jan 2010

Olivia Toye has recently graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University. Before embarking on her careershe is volunteering withPratham. She'll be giving regular updates asshe discovers more aboutthe work we do.

To set the scene, I’m in Maharastra, India’s second most populous state. Within the state lies Mumbai, India’s booming financial capital. But that’s not to say the state as a whole is rich – far from it. Aurangabad, from where I start my journey, is a bustling city of nearly a million people. Like numerous Indian metropolises, Aurangabad’s traditional industries such as the manufacture ofPaithani silk saris are dying out in favour of consumer-led demand for beer and electricals from companies like Kingfisher and Videocom. There is also a large military base on the outskirts of the city and (from what I saw) an underdeveloped tourist market at the World Heritage site of the Ellora caves which date from 600AD just 30km away. In contrast a step outside the city to the villages is like going back a century in time. The sole source of income is agriculture, including cotton, sugar, wheat and mangoes, using traditional farming methods like ox-drawn carts.

The minute I’d put my bags down on the hotel bed there was a knock at the door –Sachin, the head of Aurangabad’s District Resource Centre (DRC) had arrived. No time for a rest – we were going straight to see the projects in action. After nearly throttling myself with the scarf from my Salwar kameez on Sachin’s motorbike we arrived at the centre. There I spoke to two IT teachers who explained to me about the different programmes running. The Aurangabad District covers a staggering 100,000 children across 1,200 villages. As well as running its own classes, Pratham collaborates with the government schools to provide materials and teacher training.

Enough chatting, we were off on Sachin’s bike again, dodging cattle, goats and buses, to see the classes takingplace. As we arrived in thefirst village, Takli, we saw the preparations for the 26th January (Republic Day) in the playground. One thing I found all Pratham volunteers had in common was their absolute dedication to teaching alongside hard and time-consuming professions. I met one of the 1,200 Pratham volunteers giving a reading lesson, as part of the 'Read toLearn' programme run by Pratham for 6 to 14 year olds. He was a Pyschology student from a nearby village who liked doing social work. We then moved on to the second village, Dhamangaon Tanda. Here the Pratham volunteer was a farmer. These children were certainly energetic! After doing a counting game I was told they were going to show me an ‘English poem’… this turned out to be a very lively rendition of the Hokey Cokey!!

_____________________________________________________
www.readindia.org
www.pratham.org.uk
www.prathamusa.org
www.pratham.org