It's hard being a Pratham Coordinator - Part II

This is in continutation to Pushkar's previous post, here.

In Orissa, we (Pia and I) heard of how one Block Coordinator was abducted by the Naxalites. The reason? No, it wasn't that they were against Pratham's work (they are apparently only anti-state), they were simply very impressed with the coordinator's ability to convince and mobilize the villagers. And they decided to show their appreciation by abducting him and making him work for them. The coordinator stayed with them for some 2-3 days, and could make an escape only when they were transporting him somwhere, and made a stop to eat. He ran, and ran until he was a distance away and could flag a ride to safety.

In Punjab, I was told about how one mobilizer was assured by a girl of her participation as a volunteer over the phone. He called her up to fix up some details, and finally before the commencement of the Summer Camp training he reached her house to pick her up. There, her father accosted him and accused him of eyeing his daughter. He took away the keys of his motorcycle, kept him confined in the house and along with his relatives questioned him as to why he had been calling his daughter so often, and marvelled at his gall to now come and meet his daughter in person. The girl had of course not told her parents about Pratham or her wish to be a volunteer. It took many a-call to the Block and District Coordinators (and some name dropping - "ask the District Education Officer, what Pratham is") for the father to be convinced that it wasn't all a large, spread-out lie to trap his innocent daughter, and for him to release the poor boy.
______________________________________________________
www.readindia.org
www.pratham.org.uk
www.prathamusa.org
www.pratham.org

The Naag Panchami incident and the Pratham legacy

You tend to run into adventures when you’re out there. We arrived at Bahtji village at about 6 o’ clock in the evening. The area was celebrating Naag Panchami by hanging temporary swings on trees, and with...alcohol. It was a fairly large village, and everyone’s eyes were trained on us as we entered in a car too big for those streets. Whose house were we going to, was the unsaid question on their lips. We were there to visit Manisha and Janabai Vakale, 2 of the 4 volunteers of the village. These girls were students of standard 12, and had taught the Anganwadi students in July-October 2007 and during the summer camp.

'Red India' the Pratham sign read at Bahtji

The modest house was filled to capacity by us; there were about 9 of us in about a room of 4 square metres. We were joined by the Upsarpanch of the village. Tea was served and I began to ask my questions about their experience with Pratham so far. As the girls began to speak, the Upsarpanch interrupted – “Excuje me Saar...”, and then he wouldn’t stop. The rest of the conversation was spent trying to keep him quiet.

He imagined that we were here to pay some money to the girls, without his permission or knowledge. And his drunken ego was not going to take that lying down. Here is what I caught of what he said – some intended for me in English, and to impress others – ‘I’m sorry’, ‘I’m a double MA from Baba Saheb Ambedkar University’, ‘ye mulgi’ (‘this girl’), ‘please keep quiet, I am talking’. The repeating refrain, though, was ‘excuse me sir, I’m sorry’.

Pandemonium ensued. People were arguing, shouting, mediating, and suppressing laughter. In all the confusion, the electricity went off. The village men were crowding in to the doorway, curious of us outsiders, blocking all sources of light.

After he attempted a scuffle with our state head (Vishwajit sir), someone led him away. The little interrogation we managed told us that the Panchayat wasn’t forthcoming, and Manisha and Janabai often found it difficult to convince the parents to send their children to the classes. Without the Panchayat’s support, the schools too weren’t supportive. Pratham wasn’t doing as well as it should have been doing, considering their achievements in neighbouring villages, and considering that there were 4 volunteers in the village.

Manisha and Janabai Vakale

Pratham Maharashtra puts large emphasis on creating awareness among villagers towards the cause of primary education. Vachan programmes are held regularly on a Sunday at a communal place, where the children are tested on their reading and mathematics in front of the parents. They are then taught by the volunteers. All this is in order for parent’s to see their child’s progress, whether it is in regular school or in the Pratham classes. Once the parent’s are aware of the situation, they are automatically involved. The Vachan programme brought together parents in large numbers initially, and now, even if the parents might not attend, they surely send their children.

If the Vachan programme doesn’t catch their attention immediately, the work of Pratham eventually does. Pratham makes itself known slowly and surely, everywhere I visited, by virtue of its commitment and achievement. The coordinators I spoke to at Aurangabad were full of stories of how the school principal first denied them even the verandah, later gave them a room right next to his own. Stories of how the village collected money to pay the volunteers as a thank-you, how the volunteers were invited by neighbouring villages to teach. How panchayats, parents and schools were waking up to the challenge awaiting them and extending their support to Pratham.

The Naag Panchami incident (as I like to call it) showed me how it would be if Pratham was working without this awareness and support of the village. And of course, it made me realise how important those things were.

In fact, almost everyone I met at Pratham Maharashtra realises that. Everyone at every level – right from Dr Gambhir of the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education who was working on the science material, to Vishwajit Sir, to Vijay Chauhan (the block coordinator for Bahtji) to the volunteers - held that one of the biggest achievements of the organisation (and not the most obvious one) was to create enthusiasm in the community about education.

And this environment that Pratham has created not only supports its work, but will outlast the Read India movement and will continue to bear fruit until much later. In fact, that is, I think, the Pratham legacy here.
________________________________________________
www.readindia.org
www.pratham.org.uk
www.prathamusa.org
www.pratham.org

Pratham Maharashtra and its women

Madhuri has been a volunteer for the English pilot programme in her village, Sulikhanjan near Aurangabad. Just out of school and with little familiarity with the language, the task of teaching 20 children must have been daunting. But Madhuri seems a determined girl. This isn’t the biggest adversity she has faced, and she knew she had to make something of her life, to support her family after her father’s passing away. With the help of the continuous training Pratham imparted, the handbook for instructors, and the amazing material (yes amazing, see photo below) provided by them, her job was simplified. It was set into a pattern of studying herself and then teaching what she just learnt.

An example of the English material provided by Pratham

Her students now boast of a repertoire of 350 words and 50-100 sentences. That is a big achievement when you begin from scratch, and teach for just a few days. And it is an even bigger achievement when the teacher herself begins from near scratch.

But these achievements of Madhuri are more important for the changes they have brought in her life. She has picked up the rudiments of English, and now wishes to learn further. She wishes to teach both English and Mathematics in the phase II of Read India. She has enrolled in the local college for a Bachelors degree. On the basis of her Pratham stint, she has got a job as a teacher at a local private school, the money from which is precious to her family’s subsistence. And she has discovered freedom; the mobility and respect that comes from being a teacher is new to a girl from these parts of the country. And it is treasured above everything else.

Madhuri at her home where she also runs the Pratham village library

All over the Maharashtrian countryside, Pratham is changing the lives of the women associated with it. They’re gaining skills, social mobility and greater meaning for themselves. And these women are changing Pratham too. Many of its coordinators and most of its volunteers are women. They are intelligent, outspoken and fiercely loyal. This symbiotic relationship between Pratham Maharashtra and its women is perhaps the most outstanding spin-off of this movement to educate children.

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