We have started this effort with all
seriousness in Madras. I am right now fully involved in this work and have
slowly withdrawn from other activities so that more time can be devoted to this
experiment. One of the important things started, as part of this effort is the
Encounters Conference. Here college students do projects with the help of a
'guide' on various social issues and present their study in the conference to be
held on Feb 5th and 6th, 2000. Other activities (some started, some starting)
can be seen in Appendix. Of course all this involves a lot of organisational
work - going to colleges and talking to students, calling up, developing a core
team to work within a college, developing the teams capacity to take initiative,
etc. We have a small team shaping up here in Madras, which is taking on all
these activities.
Getting people from cities to go to villages
has been easy - but to gt them to go regularly and on their own initiative has
been the main problem. It is so many months since Prasanna left for Germany. But
even now the Nemeli volunteers still speak of 'the days when Prasanna used to
come every week and help and how useful it was.' Everytime I hear this, I get
reinspired to work on this idea and make it a reality. Ultimately, real learning
will happen only on the field by regular sustained visits. There is no other way
one can realize how brutal malnutrition can be, except by seeing over and over
again in every household 'normal-looking 6 year olds' who are actually 10-12
years old. There is just no other way one can internalize and recognize how
prevalant Cerelac is (used in small quantities as if it is a tonic) and how bad
it is for the poor child's health. There is no other way one can see that
supplementary feeding by the 4th month is such a big problem. Learninng and
reading do help and can make one very effective - but it is complementary, not a
substitute for actual sustained field visits and work.
TNSF - 50 Block
Programme
The organisational details of the TNSF and
my introductory work with it etc, I have related earlier in the report. The
friendship (almost like a large family) and egalitarian outlook within the
organisation also I have discussed earlier. But these alone do not constitute a
movement. A strong ideological basis for change is necessary - a critical
understanding of society, its problems and how they can be addressed. To this we
now come. In a large movement, one cannot expect everyone to have the same
understanding of what we are upto. I am writing below some of the main points of
the TNSF ideology (at least for aspects I am involved with) as I see
it:
1. Today's society is an exploitative one.
This basic character of society is the fundamental reason for all the ills we
see around us. There are different kinds of exploitation and under various
different names - class, gender, caste, expertise etc. In all these various
forms - there are victims and there are oppressors. This exploitative nature of
society need not be direct or through force. Individuals participating in the
exploitation may not recognise it as such. But it exists. And this basic cause
of poverty and suffering pervades everything we see - through movies, through
culture, through values, morals, law, politics, economics, etc. If we are
serious about addressing issues of poverty and inequality, this basic point we
cannot afford to overlook, forget or sweep under the carpet.
2. When people overlook this, or want to
hide it, the 'solutions' that emerge blame the poor for their poverty, blame
their lack of capability, lack of education, or bad habits, etc. Then these
solutions appeal to the rich and 'educated' to help the poor 'develop'
themselves. Many 'participatory' theories are also based on this assumption. We
believe this is nonsense. Solutions will not come from the rich. Magic solutions
will not emerge from the poor either. As long as this exploitation continues,
there is just no solution. The only solution is stopping this exploitation and a
fair redistribution of the world's wealth and productive capacities. This, the
rich will not do. This is something only the poor and oppressed can and will do.
A few rich or 'educated' people may help them in the process, but most rich
people will oppose any such attempt to change things. Such a change will come
only when the poor and oppressed recognise this exploitative nature of society,
unite against it, organise themselves, struggle and overthrow the exploitative
systems.
3. But, the poor are not born united. If
anything, one can say they are born divided. This is because the exploitative
values of society and its deceptive tactics fool them (as they do us). They
(like the rest of us) carry with them the values of the exploiters, values that
are actually harmful to them. Therefore a casual look may seem to tell us that
women stand against women and the poor against the poor. These hegemonic values
and ideas have replaced physical force in subjecting the poor to inequality. By
constantly drilling into them (through movies, songs, books, government
machinery, schools, etc) the idea that they are weak, ignorant and incapable, a
sense of inferiority has been developed. Projecting values like competition
(instead of co-operation) and consumerism and hiding the existence of social
conflicts has further enfeebled the already oppressed. This exploitation of
people's minds we call 'cultural exploitation'.
4. The first struggle is the struggle for
people's minds - a struggle against cultural exploitation. Of the many ways in
which this happens, the control of knowledge is the most important. By drilling
in the notions "I cannot take care of my health - I need a doctor",
"I cannot learn myself - I need a teacher", "I cannot handle my
technological needs - I need an engineer", "I need a lawyer", etc
- people's ability to handle, produce and use knowledge has been eroded. By use
of both force and hegemony, certain ideas about "expertise" and its
indispensability has been drilled into our minds. By making the poor dependent
on these "experts", the experts and the rich (who run hospitals,
colleges, pharmaceutical companies, etc) who support them, exploit the poor -
without the poor even realising this. One is not saying that the knowledge is
not useful. It is. That is why the rich control it and use it to exploit. What
is needed is the decentralisation of knowledge. We need to restructure knowledge
so that ordinary people can participate in its use. So that they are users and
producers of knowledge, not just 'ignorant' consumers of it. People should be
able to handle their health problems themselves - at least most of the time.
Only in rare cases should they go to a doctor, who guides them to handle their
health. But at all times, the decision about what to do for their health is in
their own hands. The same is the need in other "knowledge-areas". Such
a restructuring will involve developing models where people do this and then a
larger ideological struggle to win acceptance (in people's minds, government
policy, education system, and 'expert-associations') for it.
5. The onslaught of globalisation and
finance capital (MNCs) which respects no national boundaries or laws, has given
a further push to these exploitative ideas and values. These imperialist forces
in alliance with the rich and the elite classes within the country, the
government and policy makers and the press, are trying to brainwash people into
believing that policies of liberalisation are good for the 'people'. The upper
middle class and the intellectuals who have benefited from this tend to believe
it because their experience agrees with it. But for the large mass of our
people, the experience has been just the opposite. These most modern capitalist
'global' forces are also aligning themselves with the 'communal', 'fascist' and
'feudal' forces within the country which are trying to hide the real conflicts
of caste, gender and the questions of land-distribution and feudal structures by
constructing and projecting non-existent religious conflicts. These arrays of
forces, which today stand against the poor, are quite formidable.
6. Developing a united front of the poor
against these forces, and fighting new cultural exploitation and breaking the
hegemony of the old ones are the two main tasks ahead. These ideas direct TNSF's
actions for:
(a) Restructuring knowledge and ideas in all
areas - health, education, gender, credit, economy, agriculture, technology,
etc.
(b) Developing local people's organisations
for sustained voluntary action.
(c) Developing the skills of these
volunteers and designing structures that ensure sustenance, ideological
development and commitment of the volunteers and regular interaction with
'people'.
(d) Mobilising public opinion (organising
protests, demonstrations through talks, writing in the newspapers, books, etc)
against specific policies - like the policy on Nuclear Weapons, or against
communalism, liberalisation, etc.
How are we going to operationalize these
ideas? The 50 block plan that a lot of people in the TNSF are working on today
is one attempt to do this.
(There are other attempts within the
organization to do this in different ways. But my work has been primarily with
this 50 block plan and so I will describe it in more detail.)
The 50 block plan has the following
goals:
* In each block (of about 30-60 villages) we
should have village level intervention programmes. The intervention can be in
health, education, credit co-operatives, libraries, rural development, village
information centers, agriculture, enterprises, etc. Basically something that can
draw people and that people perceive as being useful.
* For each area of intervention, we are
trying to build model efforts to learn what the problem is, what can be done and
how. The model of course is for a purpose - for block level replication. So it
has to satisfy a lot of constraints - it should be replicable, should need very
little external input and money, should be implemented by our block and village
volunteers, should not need 'expert' support very much (a little now and then is
ok), should be able to sustain itself with local efforts (maybe a little outside
help) after the initial funded (training/trial) period of 1-2 years. For
develping these models, we are interacting with a lot of different 'experienced'
people from all parts of the country - to learn what we can and to adapt it for
our needs.
* Some of these 50 blocks will experiment
and develop some of these 'models'. (Models means only a general idea os what to
do - it has to be adapted to local situations and needs.) Once a model is
developed in a few blocks, others will try them out and incorporate them into
their efforts. So the idea is that in time all blocks do all the programmes
(unless it is irrelevant).
* Each block after initial two years should
be able to sustain its local efforts. This is not simple to explain. The
questions of what one is sutaining, why and how - are still not very clear. But
in general the idea is to sustain a team of 4-5 full-time volunteers in each
block and a set of programmes. These programmes need not be all the things the
block might have done when it was funded - but as much as possible, with
organizational changes, change of focus etc as necesary.
* The idea is to start at least one
intervention in 50 blocks within the next two years (by 2001).
* Right now, we are starting four programmes
as a joint package in various blocks. It looks like this will be the base on which other programmes will piggy-back.
The four programmes are - health, savings, library and sahodari maiyem (women's
shelter). Though I am talking about it as if they are 4 programmes - these
cannot be differentiated like that and should be done as an integrated thing.
One can look at these more like components of an overall intervention strategy
for women's empowerment. Of course along with these will then have to come in
strategies for small enterprises, information, literacy, continuing education
and of course agitations against liquor, against violence etc as
well.
* Also, the ideological basis for the plan
should be clear - that must be emphasized through all programmes. Savings groups
therefore are not just for savings and loans - but to also mobilize women to
struggle for their rights and for gender equality. Health will not only look at
how malnutrition can be improved, but will also mobilize people to demand better
facilties and will raise questions about the current medical system and its
focus and how ill-health is a result of anti-poor policies and inequality.
* If we actually manage to do this - it will
mean a direct reach out to about 1000*60*50 = 30 lakh people on a sustained
basis with constantly newer and newer areas of intervention. A good base to make
larger claims, expand, attempt policy changes, etc. How things go from there is
anyway too premature to plan (though there are a lot of dreams).
I have been involved with some parts of the
plan - particularly the health, savings and library programmes and also to some
extent with the village information centers, computer education centers and to a
lesser degree with the agriculture and education programmes. The next section
instead of focussing on ideas, plans and ideologies, will describe the work done
in different areas.
Health, Savings and Library
Programmes:
One thing we are clear about - People who
think health for all can be achieved without social justice, equality, and
addressing poverty don't know what they are talking about. But this does not
mean nothing can be done till then. This is our starting point. Our health
programme therefore looks at helping people address their basic health needs as
far as they can. At the same time, it tries to discuss the critique of current
health systems and services and the changes needed in them. It also tries to use
this chance to mobilize and train people for local development planning (on
health).
So what exactly is this programme
?
Basically - in each village there is a
health volunteer who is trained on basic health care - preventive, promotive and
curative aspects. She maintains a register of all the people in the village (or
about 200 houses), all the children, and also all pregnant women, marriages,
births and deaths that happen in the village. She visits the children and talks
to their mothers about nutrition, diseases etc and how within her constraints
she can improve her child's health. She also talks to preganant women, newly
married couples, and also provides medical (curative) advice for simple
ailments. She also focuses on women's health issues. Apart from these services -
which don't require anyone else apart from herself and maybe to some degree the
Village Health Nurse, ICDS (nutrition mix) ayya, and a bit of local support team
- she also provides referral services (for cases she is unable to handle). Apart
from these, she helps organize camps for detecting TB, Leprosy patients in the
village and follows up their treatment strategy. She is trained to (though not
yet started work on) look into village water and sanitation requirements. She
with the help of a 10 village programme coordinator also takes classes on
women's health and women's rights to adoloscent girls (in schools primarily).
Apart from all these activities, she also
organizes a health committee in the village - a bunch of local volunteers and
particularly women whom she trains on these basic health aspects and whose help
she takes to do the work described above.
But health is not the result of just medical
or nutrition advice. Health is closely related to other feelings of well-being.
So things like income, savings, social support, literacy and equity are also
needed for health (apart from the fact that they are anyway needed). So, the
activist organizes savings groups for women to save and get emergency loans when
they need it. The savings groups meet weekly and also discuss inividual and
community problems, read books and newsletters and try to form a support center
for a number of activities. The health activist also tries to coordinate a local
library with a numbre of empowerment oriented books (and also story books).
The block volunteers provide support to the
village activist, visit her regularly and train her. They also run a support
center for women victims of violence, organize quiz programmes for children, try
to form volunteer branches in different villages, organize mass programmes for
women and on particular issues. They also raise funds to support the programme.
(A computer center, tuition centers, etc may be other activities that the block
volunteer could be doing - as a means of raising support).
Of course what I have forgotten to mention
is that, the health activist is not paid even one paise. She does this work
voluntarily on a part time basis. The point is if she spends 2-3 hours every 2-3
days, but regularly, she will be able to actually make the difference we are
hoping for.
All this is a lot of work - and this is the
most ideal situation. In most cases only a few of these activities happen,
though we are trying to slowly get all the things in all the villages. But at
any rate, the question can arise that many other community health programmes do
all these or at least a part of it. So what is new here?
I won't bother to highlight the differences
between this programme and the other camp based approaches etc. The difference
is obvious even for a casual observer. There is an ideological difference
between this kind of a community based programme and usual camp-programmes. Here
the belief is that people can handle their own health. Doctor is not necessary.
The idea is to change the commonly held notions of health care. It is also a
demand to restructure the medical profession. The usual programmes on the other
hand see a mass of people with bad habits, who need charity and education. They
see a doctor as 'knowing' what to do and invite him/her to come identify the
problem and provide solutions. We see that doctors have a lot of problems, wrong
ideas and knowledge and need 'education' themselves. They particularly know very
little about the patients background and don't know how to advice cheaply and
effectively.
But there are a number of community health
programmes with local activists, who have pretty much the same philosophy.
Having come later, our programme has learnt a lot from many such programmes. But
there are differences:
1. Here the focus is on 'implementation by
village volunteers (unpaid) with training and coordination from village
volunteers'. It should not need doctors and outside help very much. Only then
can it be replicated as a mass movement. This has meant a number of practical
steps - training in stages spread out over 1.5 years, introducing each component
of the programme after the training, field training, introducing the easiest
components first (malnutrition and women's health), ensuring the preventive
focus is not lost in the curative aspects, a simple register which requires very
little work to maintain, but which can still record all the important
details.
2. The village activist's work should be
owned by the village (or at least a group in the village) - so the idea is to
link it up with panchayats, form local volunteer support teams, have village
meetings where the activist talks about her work, getting the panchayat or
villagers to sponsor camps, medicines, and even pay the activist a token amount
(of Rs.50 or so per month - which has not yet happened).
3. Linking it up with the government system.
Not doing so if a waste and also a sign of letting the government scot free of
its responsibility. Our activist is used by the PHC, VHN, ICDS ayya, to help in
their work - both regular activities and mass campaigns for immunization etc. We
ask the activist to particular help them on these things, but to be careful not
become agents of VHN and PHCs in their Family Planning target meeting
drives.
4. The ability to demonstrate effectiveness
and actual measurable changes is the key to further expansion as well as all
sorts of support from all places - panchayat, govt, etc. Finally that is also
the only thing that can sustain our and our activists motivation in continuing
this hard work. To do this, we have a measuring system (to measure improvements
child by child, woman by woman) and gear our programme to actual individual
attention and improvements.
5. The programme is individual focussed,
holistic (looking at all aspects which affect health), and based on convincing
people (by debating and discussing with them - not prescribing) about ideas
instead of providing some medicines or food. Therefore the messages conveyed
through this programme often makes sense to people (it was developed by
discussing with them in particular cases). To convey the message, a group
discussion (a small group where all can participate) on specific points often
helps. This seems to proviide more courage and conviction because a group comes
to a consensus. Follow up discussions with individuals and individual monitoring
are still essential.
My work in this programme:
I primarily worked with the Nemeli, Kandhili
blocks in Vellore district and with volunteers in Ramanathapuram district. These
are the old experimental blocks where the programme was on even before I joined
TNSF. After that the programme was initiated in 7 other blocks + a few blocks in
Kanyakumari - I have been involved with them from the start.
After my initial longer stay period in
Nemeli block, I did not stay in any one block for long. I would often go to help
with some part of the programme and then travel to another block, etc. The main
tasks I was involved with was:
(a) Review of programme -
this is a weird sort of a thing - but quite useful. It is weird because someone
from outside who is actually not doing the work himself/herself comes and
monitors and 'reviews' work being done by the village volunteers. But in some
ways it makes sense. Usually the person reviewing has thought about the
programme in detail, read about it and also visited a number of blocks where the
programme is going on - and may in many cases have done the programme a few
years before. The group doing the work in the village reports to this person
what has been going on. This person questions and tries to get a feel for the
work. If the review is honest and participative, then a lot of things that the
volunteers themselves have missed comes out in the review and other volunteers
in the group are able to see that it as important. Often the review is a way to
communicate new ideas, exchange ideas between different blocks, sort out
problems, make mid-programme corrections and emphasize aspects of the programme
that were missed out earlier. The questions asked and dicussed become the
'guiding light'(like exam questions) for the future programme. A good review
also assess the work done and makes the volunteers feel their work hass been
valued and gives them further motivation to continue. It also serves as a means
for the local volunteers to critically analyse the situation and problems, to
learn more about the programme, and also a forum to present their programme to
different people with varied perspectives. Of course reviews help only when done
by people with reasonable experience, who have feel for the ground problems and
can appreciate them sympathatically. A good review has to be balanced - should
be accurate, should praise when required and point out mistakes or lapses when
they occur.
The only way to set direction in programmes
that are conceived of by outsiders, and implemented by local village volunteers,
is a combination of training and review - this is something one will see in TNSF
work again and again. But this, though useful, is often not necessary when the
village or block volunteers initiate and implement the programme. this is
because the tools to judge the programme they already have.
In Nemeli, Kandhili and Ramnad, I conducted
a number of reviews. Whether the volunteers benefitted or not, I learnt a lot.
Also, I found that even if the volunteers did not take my suggestion, or it
failed, they did appreciate the fact that someone was taking an interest in
their programme, and trying to help. I also tried to develop certain format by
which they could do the review themselves - but it did not catch on. Maybe
because it was not as useful as an external (to block) review.
(b) Arranging funds - After
the first two years, the funds from DST supporting the Nemeli/Kandhili health
programme dried up. They were required to sustain the programme themselves. Even
earlier, I had arranged for some money from AID-India for purchase of medical
kit and for printing passbooks for savings groups. After the project (funded)
phase ended, I tried to get some donations from different volunteers - we
organized a lot of visits and many people promised to give money, and some
actually did send money regularly. I was thinking of linking up the volunteer
groups in Madras and Bangalore with Nemeli and Kandhili - so that they could
visit the blocks regularly and also help it in different financial and
non-financial ways. In addition, Rukmini had also sent me a donation for
Rs.42,000/- (approx) which helped sustain the programme for a little longer.
But finally, real sustenence will come only
when something regular can be set up. We thought of a way to raise sustained
donations in the form of monthly pledges within the block and outside. This was
tried out and many people did pledge, but the inability to organize systematic
collection made it a problem to continue this. There is also a feeling that
fund-raising should itself be meaningful. So 'selling books' and raising funds
is seen as more useful than just collecting donations. Selling 'sattu maavu',
'organizing slide shows in schools', etc are all seen as work giving money and
therefore sustainable and useful. No one has seen money actually being raised
systematically by regular monthly donations and so it is seen as improbable and
if possible as draining away a lot of volunteer time from more useful
activities. Anyway, all these factors
together prevented the idea from coming to fruit.
Since it is a matter of funds, the question
arises 'why cannot AID/Asha etc or Bangalore/Madras volunteers group' support
the programme indefinitely?
Of course the simple reason is that TNSF
does not generally accept foreign funds. The question of how sutainable is AID
funding, arises. And also the question of how many places can this actually
happen comes up. And finally the question is whether this will enable the group
to function independently or will they become dependent?
But these are less important points. There
is a more fundamental reason which is recognized by the leadership even if not
voiced so clearly. TNSF is not trying to build a paid-staff-doing-some-work kind
of organization. The idea is to create a base of really committed volunteers,
willing to make larger and larger 'sacrifices' in the struggle for social
change. The money a project brings may not be much - say Rs. 750-Rs.1000/month.
Only committed people will come to work at this salary. But the work is hard,
and after two years, there is a lot of slacking. Some volunteers lose the
committment and drive to work and often run into problems with others.
The 'programme-funds-are-ending' situation
offers a chance to restructure the entire programme. New people with interest
can be inducted in, old people who want to leave have an excuse (no money - have
to raise it yourself), new structures can be developed. Now that the volunteers
are trained and know what to do, the programme can be structured such that they
get money from their work (instead of a fixed income). The more they work,
better is the income - like an incentive, but again the amounts are so small
that these terms misconvey the real sense. Only the really motivated continue
under such conditions. And with them we can make a fresh start - with new
motivation continue the programme and thereby actually produce good results. The
others help as part-time volunteers. Such is the general sense of the argument
for local fund-raising.
More on it cannot be written - it is a
complex argument with a lot of room for counter arguments. But it is true that
self-sustenence will require the volunteers to not only work hard, but work
smart and to involve others in the programme, and to convince the people in the
block that this is a useful programme - so forces them to interact with more and
more people (at the block and district level) and draw them into the programme.
And of course the motivation and fearless independence this generates should not
be underestimated.
Whether it is possible is yet to be seen. It
has survived one year in this haphazard manner. One idea which is seriously
being tried out in these blocks is the linkage with savings group. The MALAR
model for savings groups where half the interest generated by the loans from the
savings groups goes towards supporting the expenses of running the programme is
being used in these 'health' blocks. Each full time activist (coordinating 10
villages) is expected to start a number of savings groups in addition to her
health work - she can then draw some income from the savings groups. Of course
the SSG are required for more effective programme and money comes from good
running of the group and therefore visibly from one's own work. This is an added
incentive for better running of the programme. The problem is of course that not all districts are able to pull
themselves together to organize the SSG network and give it a push. Also, in the
initial stages the money does not come in as easily. And it is never so high
that other programmes can easily ride on its back.
I had a suggestion which is being considered
and if approved will be sent to AID. If the SSG network at the ditrict level is
given an outside loan of Rs. 4-5 lakhs (at 6-10% interest), that will generate
an income of Rs.4-5 thousand a month which is good enough to run an additional
programme. This satisfies the constraints placed earlier - the salaries come
from work (because it is the interest which is generated only if the group meets
and functions well), it is sustainable and can be replicated on a large scale.
(This amount is in addition to the regular
interest on the loans from the savings of the women. This loan can be got from a
bank or from a group like AID or Asha. For AID/Asha also this will be a useful
project - self-sustaining by definition and the prinicipal is never lost, forget
misused. Others (particularly Franco and Sundar) had made this suggestion of an
AID-Bank at the AID-India conference in Chennai, Jan 1999.)
Of course all this does not mean that
outside donations are totally out. On the contrary, if a local (Indian city)
group in a college or some professionals in a company can raise money and
support one block with funds, and other means of support(cycles, material help,
regular volunteer visits, review, etc), that will really make a lot of
difference. It is a lot easier for the college group to raise the funds and it
can support the programme in a variety of ways. This is something I have been
trying, so far unsuccessfully. Even the group at IIT-Madras (or Bangalore), for
all their talk about helping Nemeli (or Kandhili) and raising funds being easy
etc - have not been able to actually do it.
To put the record straight - some of them
like Prasanna did actually go very regularly and was perceived as being useful.
Somethings we tried and learnt the hard way - particularly 'data collection' by
college students. Being so new to the programme, this idea totally failed and
produced junk! But some ideas did work - getting cycles to Nemeli and Kandhili,
helping with hardware and software support, slide projector to Kandhili, visit
by Kandhili activists to Bangalore, etc. We are trying - we are hoping that each
city-college group will ultimately support one block team and work with them on
several fronts. But this is still only a part support - local resources are a
must in any case for effectiveness and actual sustainability. Once they start
something like that, then we have to look at ways to sensitize them on issues,
to get them to read and understand the programme and how they can help much
better.
(c) The Nemeli volunteers - Viji, anbu,
Koki, Alice, Parameswari and Damu were trying to start some small scale
enterprises to raise money. They began by preparing "Sattu Maavu"
(Nutrition Mix - Kanji powder). We looked at the profit margins etc and we came
up with an 'idea'. There are 30 villages. Let 3 women make this 'sattu maavu'.
Let's start 9 other similar enterprises. Let 3 women make one product. For
making one kg of each product, the commission is Rs.2.50. For selling, it is
Rs.2.50. The cost price is Rs.15, the selling is Rs.30. Th profit of Rs.10/kg
stays with the block for expenses. Leave out travel and losses and at least
Rs.5/kg will stay with the block. 10 kg of each product can besold in each
village. So a total of 10*10*30 =3000 kg. Each activist is a seller of 100 kgs
an maker of 100 kgs of stuff. She gets Rs.500/month by this. The block will get
Rs.15,000 per month at least. Such were our naive calculations.
Of course, we did not take into account cash
flow problems, problems of due collections and time management involved in that,
we also did not take into account the bad selling capacities of the activists.
Anyway, we did not even have to come to
these problems - the idea just did not take off. The volunteers tried to sell
very unsystematically and also did not collect dues. The profit calculations for
things aactually sold did work out as expected, but not much was sold, and the
effort was quite a bit!! Anyway, I had got Anbu home to get trained in soap
making, phenol making, surf making etc from my grandmother. At this time my
other grandmother died. Anbu helped with some things needed then and went with
my grandmother to learrn these things. I also gave a loan of Rs.2500 from
AID-India for purchase of raw-material and to overcome initial cash problems. 7
volunteers had already started the sattu maavu preparation by putting in Rs.100
each. This money added to the exiting Rs.700 pool. But anyway, it did not work
out very well. The idea is still worth trying, but with serious modifications.
As
Sundar had pointed out, profits in these enterprises cannot be very much. As it
is a lot of people are trying many things within the economy. To make profit,
something like this needs a special niche. Why will this work? Why haven't other
thought of this? What new resources or tehnology are we bring in to this
enterprise, that is not locally available. Almost invariably, local optimisation
has been done by the local people - there are so many of them and they have had
such a long time before us and are much more familiar with the area and are all
the time thinking about ways to earn a living. If we can still come up with new
ideas which they have not come up with - then they must be idiots. Since we
start with the belief that people are smart, this cannot be.
New technologies, hard to access resources,
etc can be good advantages - but without such advantages (or macro-economic
planning), it is difficult to get enterprises off the ground. Niche markets and
enterprises are possible - selling bags because it is a good cause, access to a
person to carry books and material to the US free, donations of computers, or
access to 30 village volunteers in different villages and a system of regular
meetings, free training that is otherwise difficult to get locally - all this
can be a niche, but something like this is needed. This point is something we
all need to learn when we deal with enterprise projects - they are very tricky.
Loan and training ARE NOT THE PROBLEMS. Ideas and discipline are. Even more,
niche market and value addition are important. Without these the enterprise will
not succeed. Even with these it may still fail.
(d) We were just starting SSGs in Nemeli.
They didn't quite know how. I had gone to Kanyakumari to write up a project for
MALAR video and to discuss about it with Kalpana. She told me about MALAR's
structure and the way it operates and we visited a few groups. I came back and
tried to train and start savings groups in Nemeli. We did proceed to some extent
with the first round meeting. After going to about 7-8 villages, we planned out
some sort of regular schedule which the volunteers could follow - to focus on
3-4 villages and get the SSG, Health committee etc started off. This did not
happen. I had also not emphasized it enough. The amount of follow up and
constantly going back again and again, the district support, the need for
passbooks, registration papers, district accounts, etc I had not quite
internalized in that short trip to MALAR. I had only learnt the 'big picture'
and the theory, not the time-scales or effort required. The groups did not take
off.
Later, Kalpana came and helped start a
number of groups. I envied her ability to actually translate ideas and
programmes into reality - to conduct long, systematic, (loud) and detailed
training programmes without missing one point that needs to be conveyed, to
tirelessly go from village to village, to drill procedures and steps into
people's heads, to argue and argue a point till the women are completely
convinced, to communicate and emphasize key aspects and to stick to a job until
it is actually done. And apart from these, the way she could relate to our
volunteers, chat with them, make friends, find out and remember all family
details and develop a closeness with them, also made me feel a bit jealous.
Unfortunately for me, today, I still envy her for all these qualities :-( And
what's worse, she came into the health programme much later than me, but quickly
read up a lot more on it from the programme books as well as a lot of other
books and material. And what she has absorbed, she remembers and uses in all her
trainings, making the training very effective and informative. This is also the
reason she has been able to introduce new aspects into the programme
effectively. The willingness and drive to learn all the details tirelessly (and
new ones as well), the confidence that the ideas will actually work and the
ability to focus until they produce results - I guess these are qualities that
make a successful and effective person. The lack of such people is the main
limiting factor in expanding the programme or starting new programmes. But,
sometimes it leaves me wondering, how can a person go on like this? Doesn't she
ever feel unsure of herself or doubtful? Surely, she must - she has always
raised questions about everything, doubted it, looked at it from different
angles - also it is part of her training as a social scientist at JNU. So doubts
she must certainly have. How does she manage to continue with the same spirit
inspite of these doubts? How come they don't cripple her action?
Even as I am writing this report, I am very
conscious of a large number of failed ideas and attempts. Tried this - failed.
Tried that - did not work out... Sometimes I wonder whether it is because I am
unable to focus on a topic for long enough to get it going. Maybe. Or possibly,
it is because I am jumping into action, without putting in sufficient thought,
or learning from others experience. I think both are true to some extent. One
task for me for the future is to learn to stick to a job for long enough, though
other tasks seem very inviting and useful.
(e) From musings and personal problems of
the heart and mind, let me get back to more reporting. Two of my friends - Tyson
(alias-Ramakrishna)and Rukmini had given me some money to give as loans to
Damu(to repay a loan for an enterprise), Anbu(for her marriage) and Ganesh(for
his studies). These kinds of personal loans do help in individual cases,
particularly for our village volunteers (for education or enterprises). Hope no
one even thinks of doing this as a regular project. If ever they are done, they
should person to person and silently. Never putting into newsletters and such.
At best, they can be recorded somewhere in the middle of long personal annual
reports which will never be read :-) I also arranged for a similar loan to the
savings team started by volunteers in Nemeli - viji, Koki, Alice,
etc.
The other activities in the area of health
that I was seriously involved in were:
(a) Typing the interim report for submitting
to the DST (the funding agency for the Vellore health programme). Presenting the
report to the DST expert committee.
(b) Meeting the health secretary, special
secretary, Directorate of public health, etc - basically government officials
for various permissions, linakges, support letters, etc. All boring tasks - but
something where I seem to be able to actually focus for long enough to get it
done!
(c) Trying to link up Nemeli and Kandhili to
Madras and Bangalore groups. Result - 'so-so' as described already. But 'hopes
are there' as the IITM saying goes. Anyway, it ended up in a lot of visits but a
relatively large number of people to Nemeli (maybe creating a lot of problems of
them in the process).
(d) Wrote up the MALAR Video proposal to AID
- and followed it up. One component of the proposal was for a fellowship of
Rs.3500 pm for Kalpana requested because she was working for a year without any
pay and TNSF was unable to pay her. Though sanctioned, this component became
void because CERD(TNSF) had started paying her in the meanwhile. The video part
of the proposal was also sanctioned, after some discussions nd questions. After
that came discussions with Sivakumar about the way to take the video, about
MALAR, etc. Kalpana and I went to Kanyakumari to meet Sivakumar on site and to
discuss the plan for the video. One thing we wanted to do was to make it a story
- not just a documentary, because people could relate to that better. The video
has been taken, and the editing done for most part - there is some music and
voice-over parts that are left. Unfortunately, the whole project was delayed
right from the start. The budget also exceeded the amount we had requested and
Sivakumar has asked me to write a proposal for the excess. On the whole, this
required some coordination and time from me, but not very much.
(e) After my visit to MALAR (and because of
the wrong confusing idea that Sundar spread around that I was good at
computers), they wanted me to develop an accounting package for the MALAR
savings groups. It was good idea. But I am quite bad at software and managed to
develop a horror of a software - also because the time I could devote to it was
very less. I tried to install a standard accounting package (of course very
proudly pirated - I don't agree with patent laws or IPR), which I had learnt
with a lot of difficulty. But they did not use it!! I am still 'developing' the
savings software. This is something which I should really complete soon - will
be useful for all our blocks which have started savings.
(f) Savings Cartoon Book - After looking at
the National Children's Science Congress cartoon book that Sandeep had made,
Franco asked me if I could cartoonize his and Kalpana's book on MALAR. This
started off a very interesting activity. Kalpana and I came back to Madras from
Kanyakumari (MALAR). We started work on the cartoon book. It was tougher than I
had initially thought. For a cartoon structure, we had to almost rewrite the
book, keeping the main points and the flow. The redesigning took a lot of time -
but it was also great fun. We started work on the book on Nov 1, 1998. Nov 5th,
Kalpana left for Nalanda AIPSN meet, came back on Nov 15, 1998. From then till
Nov 23rd we worked again on the book. After that I left for Jaipur to present
the health programme at the annual DST project review meeting. I came back on
Dec 4th, had an accident (actually two - one physical and another...) and we
both (Kalpana and I) left for Pondicherry. 7th Dec, back in Madras and working
on the cartoon book. By the end of Dec, the book was in final shape. I wrote the
ideas and sent it to Sandeep and he sent me the cartoon, which we then made into
a final draft and got 2000 copies of the book 'United We Sit' printed and they
got sold out almost immediately. (A personal twist - And while all this work was
going on, something else also started happening. I began to fall in love with
Kalpana, proposed to her on Dec 4th, 1998 and we got married on April 8th,
1999.)
(g) Expanding the programme with UNICEF
support - After we were sure of what to do through the Vellore and Ramnad
programmes, the idea was to expand it to another 10 blocks to test its
replicability. For funding for this (about 20-30 lakhs), we approached the
UNICEF. Writing and re-writing the proposal as required, changing the budget
specifications, negotiating with them again and again and following up with them
till the whole sanction came through took up quite a bit of my time. And since
UNICEF needs government permission, that also took up some time and meeting
people, etc. Once the money was sanctioned (21 lakhs per year for 2 years - 1
year MOU signed) to actually getting it on hand, and finally maintaining and
submitting accounts took up quite some time. Every 3 months, account
maintainance work lands up and bargaining for the next installment. It is not a
job I particularly like, but something I am able to do reasonably well and so
will be working on it in the coming months.
Right now, the programme is on in 7 blocks
of 60 villages each (with UNICEF funds), 3 blocks informal in Kanyakumari (non
funded - some support from these 7 blocks provided to it), 30 villages each in
Nemeli and Kandhili (old), and in about 50-60 villages in Ramnad. In all, about
700-1000 villages are being affected by the programme so far.
My role has primarily been helping with some
of the training and planning. Kalpana has been travelling to all the blocks
along with other state resource persons to provide block level training. I have
accompanied her on some of these training rounds. Accounts maintanence has been
my main work here, and some small organizational details, preparing some
register material, organizing a poster workshop, etc. We also contacted a doctor
Rakhal Gaikonde for our college programme, and he is getting involved in this
programme very seriously.
The savings movement alone (without the
health component) is happening in many other districts - since it is a
non-funded activity.
Apart from these, the programme has been
running in Bihar (120 villages) and in UP. In about 23 blocks in UP and 11
blocks in Bihar the programme is just being initiated. I am not doing anything
on these fronts - but just added this point to give an overall
perspective.
Through these 700-1000 villages, we reach
about 2-4% of the TN population (the poorest sections). We initially started
with 0.2% of the population. If this new stage works out successfully, we will
expand to about 20% of the population of TN and simultaneously to about 2% over
the rest of the country. At 20%, we will have enough strength to initiate policy
level changes and seriously bargain with the state.
(h) Savings groups structure - Since the
programme was slated to expand, we decided not to repeat old mistakes. We would
start with the savings groups first. So that by the end of the project period,
there would be enough groups to manage some degree of sustanence. The question
was about the structure - MALAR was a model before us. But it was not really
possible to replicate it without changes - especially in districts where the
leadership was weak and unable to handle money safely. So small changes in the
model which would retain the centralized structure, but will not entrust the
district with more money than necessary were worked out. Also the question of
commissions to treasurers was hotly debated. A slightly different model with the
'organizer' of 10 groups being paid was adopted. Anyway these discussions and different models worked out gave us a
very good understanding of savings groups and how they should be worked out and
the actual dynamics behind them.
(i) Village Libraries - The idea was to link
up the savings and health work along with village libraries. These village
libraries were also to act as information centers. The plan was that we would
get sponsors for the first 1500 libraries - and the women would pay Rs. 120/lib.
The first set would be a larger book set to get the programme started. The
second and after that would be entirely paid for by the women. The idea was to
primarily start it in areas where we have Credit Cooperatives and where we would
be starting the health programme. I went to Ramnad to set up the office and
registers to handle the requests and send books etc. I also went around with the
volunteers there to start some libraries, which worked out quite easily. Then I
wrote up a proposal to Asha and AID for supporting the books for the first
round. After a number of questions and answers, the proposal was sanctioned. But
at the implementation level, there was a delay. The UNICEF money got delayed and
so that programme was delayed. Also, the volunteers wanted to start with Small
savings groups and health first and start the library programme a little later.
So right now, we have delayed the library programme a bit. Some books were
purchased with the money, the rest is still there and once the programme starts
will be used for it.
These libraries are also planned as
information centers linked to the block level information centers (see the
section on village information centers below).
(j) Hisperian Proposal for translation of
the book 'Where Women Have No Doctor' - I had made a request for books on
health, education as part of non-monetary support that we would need. Rukmini
sent me a copy of this book. We found it extremely useful for our work here and
Sundar used a large part of it for his books on the health programme and also
for developing a part of the programme on women's health. Just around that time,
independently AID-BA volunteers found out that there was a translation grant for
this book by the Hisperian Foundation. After discussions with Sivakumar, and
with the AID-BA volunteers, I wrote up the proposal for this project. Some
questions later, the grant was sanctioned. We got the money from AID and
Sivakumar started working on it. A part of the book has been translated - we
under-estimated the time required for it and it is taking much longer than
expected, but progressing. Senthil Babu is also working on this project along
with Sivakumar.
(k) A change in approach - to be tested out.
One problem with our current health, savings, library programme is the lack of a
team at the village level. Though it is part of the programme as spelt out, it
is not given very much emphasis, because the block teams themselves are
developing and the support for the programme is not very strong in new areas.
But this does isolate the health activist - she is alone in her work and so
often is supportless. This makes the programme very weak and if she leaves
(marriage, or some problems), the programme in that village collapses and has to
be rebuilt. We have tried to get the village youth interested, more women
interested etc - but that is non-trivial. so much information has to be learnt
before one can start doing and the effort is so out of people's current
consciousness that this just does not happen. They do not see the programme as
being a 'service' they are doing to the village (the main motivation in
volunteerism). One thing I felt could be tried out was to focus on a few
villages and try to develop a local team of volunteers - youth and women. Let
them decide what programme to do - it may not be the standard things we usually
think up - health, education etc. Often it will things like exercise clubs,
tuition centers, karate or yoga classes, sports day, doctor-camps,
street-name-boards, street lights, etc. But let them get into such small actions
and we can help them in it. We can also get them to arrange village level
seminar kind of things where some of the issues of health or edcuation can be
discussed. Slowly, we start convincing the group about the need for a health
intervention or education intervention in the village. After the group is
convinced, they find the volunteers, and they monitor the progress of the
programme and provide support to the activists, they do the review etc (all
helped by the block team of course). But that way there is a team in the
village, there is continuity, there is recognition for the work, more support,
more visibility and therefore much more motivation for it. It is also easier to
get the panchayat to support the programme and to raise local resources to
sustain it. And finding new volunteers becomes very easy - there is a team to
find it for us. Therefore new aspects of the programme, integrating various
components, and new programmes and developing a strong cadre with motivation and
ideological clarity becomes feasible. Finally the aim of the health programme or
any other such programme is to change the existing social consciousness about
the profession/issue. This is again more possible through such an approach. For
example, debates and discussions can be more easily held. Of course, a village
is not one unit - there are divisions, vested interests, etc. A group like this
may not be universally acceptable, but at least there will be a group which will
take a stand and fight existing prejudices and inequalities. Again, some of
these ideas we are trying to incorporate into the existing health programmes.
But I am not sure how much of it can be done - a funded programme has its
time-deadlines and minimum things to achieve by set dates.
Panchayat decentralization of power alone is
enough is the argument of some with which we do not agree. Village volunteer
teams deciding action plans (not just at the block level) are definitely
something we must graduate to. There is no doubt about this. We cannot be
focussing our effort at the village level and have block level planning. Only a
village team doing village work can be sustainable in the real sense. But this
is easier said. Such decentralization has many components - decentrlization of
knowledge is one pre-requiste for effective decentralization of planning and
power. Through the block level programmes we are doing this in part - we have to
work at the next level simultaneously to make sure this can be done at the
village level. Clearly decentralization is needed, but not sufficient by itself
- there are local power struggles and locally powerful will take control. There
is a need to develop structures at the local level also which stands in
opposition to the local power interests and then use it as a base to
decentralize. Without all this, decentralization will not yield the changes
desired.
(l) Visiting places in relation to the
health programme:
Pune - We had a health training for Science
Forum Teams in a number of northern states - Maharastra, Rajasthan, Haryana,
etc. It was a 4 day workshop and Sundar conducted it. A number of other
resources came and helped. I got the chance to see the big shots in community
health - Ananth Phadke, FRCH people, someone working on Drug Policy, etc. Also
met a number of other NGOs and activists in Pune area - Joy and Suhas, Kulkarni,
BAIF, Deshpande, etc. It was my first camp and felt really good. After that I
left for Bombay to meet Ravi and Aravinda and Kaduchiwadi village visit -
discussed later.
Jaipur (with Geeta) - I went to Jaipur for A
DST presentation of the health programme. This idea of an annual all projects
review - where all the NGOs get together and hear each other's work and comment
on it - is really good. Lots of things can be learnt and real networking
happens. Anyway, the presentation went off well - I also submitted two projects
(unfortunately, both did not get approved). After the presentation, we went to
BITS Pilani. About this written later. Also went to Delhi and we had a lot of
meeting with officials and 'experts' - met the DST people and discussed some of
the projects, followed up on some funds, installments, etc. Met the DOE people.
Met Ajit Singh (a real expert on handpumps) - he gave a us lot of material for our information center.
Delhi (with Kalpana and Kanchipuram Viji) -
Kalpana and Viji presented the model health programme (for developing modules on
women's health and intergrated medical kit and for a module on violence against
women and mental illnesses) for Kanyakumari and Kanchipuram. Very unfairly, the
proposals were rejected because we wanted to 'work on developing a strong
women's movement' and because 'health cannot be done by village volunteers - it
has to be done by doctors'.
Other CERD
plans
CERD (Center for Ecology and Rural
Development) is the R&D wing of the TNSF - particularly for health, rural
development, enterprises, etc. Apart from the health interventions described
above CERD has been focussing a lot on agriculture, water and land management,
enterprises and village information services, energy - technology innovations
and adaptations to make it people centered, ecologically friendly and rural
based.
I will describe the different activities in
brief and then get into some details of the work I was involved in.
Agriculture - Land, Soil, Crop and
Water management
Agricultural intevention is basically an
integrated combination of several interventions - in soil fertility, land use
pattern, water and crop management.
The aims of our agricultural intervention
are:
(a) Lower external inputs to make farming
self-reliant.
(b) Lower input costs and Higher yields and
profits to the farmer making farming viable economically.
(d) Continously improving land, water, soil
and crops for sustainable income through agriculture.
(e) Reclaiming waste lands and improving it
- thereby increasing land under cultivation.
(f) Increasing the tree cover and also
changes in crop patterns to make agriculture ecologically friendly and
healthy.
(g) Science and Knowledge and therefore
control in the farmer's hands.
Finally, agriculture as primary production
alone will not bring in higher incomes to the poor farmer. The farmer has to get
involved in value addition activities - technologies to use existing and new
bio-mass for energy, building material, secondary production and manufacturing
sector is therefore an important goal. This value addition should be possible
locally and in a decentralized manner and with little investment costs. The
technology should take into account appropriate crop and tree choices and
sutainability issues for the local context. Such technologies can make good use
of otherwise 'useless weeds' and also fat growing, low water consuming, tough
trees.
Benefitting the poor and small farmer,
landless labourer and women through this intervention is the key issue. If all
the above happen and only the rich farmer benefits or it increases inequality,
it would be bad!
A number of inteventions in this area -
organic and natural farming methods - have been done by many groups. But beyond
these "subsidized" efforts, the ideas do not spread. The problem is
not one of technique alone. The reason I say 'subsidized', is because either the
method requires a long loss-period (what will the farmer do till then?), or it
requires a lot of investment, a lot of technical know-how and support, etc. It
is not something a simple farmer can easily learn and do. Chemical agriculture
is "external-inputs-intensive", but organic or natural farming is very
science-intensive. There are so many aspects and factors that need to be
considered - crop choice, soil condition, plant growth process, local
conditions, water availability, external inputs, etc. At each stage there are
many options and the optimum choice requires a lot of knowledge and
understanding. Structuring this knowledge in such a way that a farmer can learn
it in stages (and can improve on it by his/her experience) is certainly possible
- but has to be done. This is one requirement of a model agriculture
intervention programme.
Also in many of these 'model' efforts, there
is an initial loss - which a poor farmer cannot bear. If alternate approaches
can be developed which structure the knowledge required and also develop a
combination of techniques so that the farmer sees continuous profit from the
beginning without a long loss-period, the possibility of spreading these ideas
defintely exists. This is exactly our attempt.
Soil
Fertility:
A number of lab level and some field level
testing of various soil fertility approaches have been tried out. What happens when we use different quantities of
bio-fertilizers, if we use different quantities of chemical fertilizers,
combinations of these, which bio-fertilizers work well, in what soil, under what
rainfall and irrigation conditions, etc were studied. How does the soil
composition and fertility change with changing the input conditions ? What about
use of worms, insects etc to break up leaf and bio-mass into organic matter for
the soil ? These have been studied under test conditions. This has also led us
to intereact with different academic institutions, scientists and researchers
who have worked on such things. Then came the step of testing this on a real
farm plot - with farmers. How far are we able to convince them ? What are the
economic problems they face? Do they end up in a loss for sometime using these
new approaches? All this has led to the formation of a
farmer-experimenter-network called "Kalanjiyam". The farmers who are
willing to try out these ideas in their fields use this platform to discuss
issues affecting them and to share experiences. Though many farmers are part of
this, this network and experience is still in its formative stages.
A proposal is now on to form a soil
fertility testing center. Any farmer can come here with his/her soil to test its
composition and to get advice on various options (bio-fertilizers, organic
manure, compost, etc) to enhance its fertility. The idea is to also manufacture
and market bio-fertilizers as a viable enterprise, making alternative soil input
feasible.
Water, Crop and Land
Management
Ideas for these have been developed by
various people with whom we are working - Bernard De. Clerk of Auroville,
K.R.Datye, Joy and Suhas, etc. The problems are most pronounced in areas which
are considered "waste land" - very little water, bad soil and no trees
or plants. In such places the following ideas can be attempted:
(1) Develop some water sources by harvesting
local water - through ponds, and ground water recharge wells etc.
(2) Develop a patch of soil with some
external inputs (biomass, manure, fertilizers) and then using these develop
hard, fast growing trees which produce a lot of bio-mass - wood, leaves, etc.
The costs for this stage can be partly
borne by things like 'vegetable garden'.
(3) Using the leaves and bio-mass generated
by these trees, improve the soil's organic content and water retaining capacity.
Then using this soil, grow more economically sensible crops/trees.
(4) Invest a part of the returns to
continuously improve the soil and the yield and also for water and land
improvements.
(5) Develop local secondary industries which
can make use of these crops and trees.
There will have to be an external input of
funds but the idea is to keep it minimal and for investment costs which can be
recovered through long term bio-mass production (trees). Also, the work is
labour intensive and so landless women's groups can be organized to take this
up. Landed farmers will not find it attractive for the effort involved. But the
women work not for wages but for a share of the trees and produce. It may begin
with 50% share for the women and 50% for the farmer (whose land is taken).
Then, new techniques are used to improve
the women's share of trees. They bargain with the farmers for additional shares
for doing the same to his share of trees. This slowly brings in more and more
share of income to the working women labourers who otherwise being landless
often get cheated of their share.
We are trying to develop various components
of these ideas in different places. In Ramnad and Pondicherry the work is on
better management of the existing tank irrgation systems and to reduce
siltation. In Kallal and Sedapatti, the work is to try out model plots where
women can develop 'waste lands' in the way described earlier. In Kallal, there
is also a study to look at the factors leading to large scale environmental
degradation. In Sedapatti, the idea is to demonstrate various enterprise models
(agriculture being one of them) and then to get bank loans and provide training
support to set up these enterprises. The idea in Sedapatti is to do this on a
very large scale - impacting all families in the block who live below poverty
line.
My work in this whole area of agriculture
has been almost zero. I wrote up proposals for water systems management project
in Ramnad (submitted to DST) and nursery and horticulture for Kallal (for AID -
not submitted due to various factors). I also went to Auroville once to see
their work, and then to Kallal to see the situation there. I met Joy and Suhas
and also Datye a few times to discuss the integrated agriculture intervention in
Sedapatti and Kallal. Just understanding the scope of activities took a long
time. I also travelled with him for a few days to look at these areas and see
what ideas for intervention were possible. That was a wonderful learning
experience. But it is too detailed to discuss here and my own understanding has
not developed well enough for me to be able to present the main highlights.
Maybe after more reading and experience in
this area, and a survey of work done by others, I will be able to present the
ideas in a concise manner. What I found most interesting was the way one could
use these techniques to bargain and argue with the farmers (making sense to them
all the time) to share the produce, buy water, etc. Also I found the structuring
of the technology in steps to make it economically viable and also to wriggle
out more and more profits for the landless women, very interesting. But the
integration of various available resources and technologies - for water
harvesting, crop choice, soil and crop improvement techniques, etc - with the
human organization is the most important lesson.
Enterprise
Interventions
CERD has been involved in training and
running model enterprises (in situ) in various areas - silk reeling, Poultry,
Palgova making, Sattu Maavu, etc. These have primarily involved some technology
intervention combined with training and running an enterprise to see if it
works. In most cases, breaking even has been possible, but not making profit.
One place where we get stuck is the ability to bear losses for 3 years. Three
years seems to be the time it requires for the enterprise to mature, for us to
learn the ropes, learn where cheaper alternatives are available, to capture the
market and consolidate good ideas. But the cash flow problems till then often
kills the enterprise. The ability to keep one's interest and stick on till then
is also an issue. Another enterprise CERD has worked on are Animal Husbandary
(in Ramnad). 1000 cows were given to 500 women in Ramnad by the district
government and the women were formed into milk co-operative. The attempt has
many failures and CERD studied the details of the enterprise - where and how it
failed. 4 small neo-literate booklets were written based on this experience.
Ganini - Computer Education
Centers
I wasn't involved in any of the above
programmes. The one enterprise programme that I was/am seriously involved in are
the computer centers (Ganini). The idea is to start block (30-100 village
clusters)level computer education centers. These centers also act as vocational
training and information service centers. The fees are reasonable and the
programme is run in an enterprise mode providing some income to 3-4 people. But
it also provides good quality computer training and other related services. The
additional advantage is that profits from this can support block health, savings
and other intervention programmes (apart from giving us free office space,
visibility, computer access, and a place to host information services). I have
been primarily involved in procuring computers from the US, asssembling them,
installing it in the centers and providing some level of software and hardware
support including organizing some training programmes in hardware (training done
by Saurabh). This has taken up quite a bit of my time, though I did not expect
it to initially. First, for a long time I was interacting with US volunteers to
send us the computers - but the customs problems poured cold water on their
enthusiasm. But at this end, the customs issues could not be sorted unless they
sent the material. I met several people - one of my old friends from IIT,
Siddique who is now the Deputy Secretary of Finance in the TN govt, the Dept of
Electronics Finance in charge, etc. But it was not easy to get things going
without concrete shipment from there. So a lie that the customs was ok and that
volunteers should start collecting and shipping became necessary and it broke
the catch 22 situation. I met Sundar (from AID-Boston) and discussedthis issue
with him and he began to work on collecting and shipping computers through
people visiting. This became a simple and useful route and so far quite a few
computers have been shipped this way. We are simulataneously working on getting
the customs clearance for large shipments. But since most of the stuff was in
parts - assembling needed some organizing. With Saurabh's help, I learnt some of
the basic things required and started purchasing parts needed to complete the
assembly and assembled the computers myself. But it is taking quite a toll on my
time - we have to work on developing some of sort of system here by which people
will contact the shipment, or person bringing the computer, register the parts,
find out more parts needed, purchase it (or ask for it through the next
shipment) and assemble the computer. The opportunities here are many. The
advantage we have here which the market does not is the large contact base both
in India and the US, and the willingness of people to donate as well as carry
computers/parts when they come to India. We should make use of these advantages
and ensure a large and regular load of computers comes in for socially useful
purposes - for schools in rural areas, for rural computer education centers, for
information centers in villages, for easy networking and communication between
villages, etc. Training and mobilizing a bunch of volunteers who can provide
this sort of support, as well as on field support and training of village
volunteers and computer education center teachers is the key work ahead in this
area. I had initially started off on this work assuming this was easy and the
IIT students will be able to help and organize this - but that seems more
difficult that I thought.
Funds is also a problem in this area - we
need money to assemble and buy the parts, monitors, etc. Even setting up the
computer centers with just local money is difficult - an investment loan for at
least a year is necessary and also a full time coordinator and technically
qualified trainer (hardware and software) is necessary to train the teachers,
provide maintanence services, etc. Maybe, if we systematise this whole effort,
we could gt funds from AID for these purposes also.
Village Information
Centers
Closely linked to the above Computer
education centers is the concept of the village information center. I was put as
the coordinator for this programme for one year starting May 1998 - April 1999.
In May 1999, I opted out of this role, but continued supporting it in a
secondary role.
The idea is bascially - restructuring
information technology such that the poor can use it. The starting point is a
philosophy of technology:
Technology per se cannot be not good. It is
technology combined with its usage and the power it confers and on whom that can
make it useful. Many new technologies favour centralization and control and are
commisioned by the rich. These technologies take away the little control that
the poor have over their lives. For example, genetically modified terminator
seeds, or chemical fertilizers, or large factories, and huge dams. These
technologies can be easily controlled by a few and therefore are. Information
technology allows a lot of decentralization - but that does not make it immune
to centralizing influence. Even today, a
lot of the IT world is controlled by a few gaints - Microsoft, Intel,IBM, etc.
Even the net gives only a semblence of decentralization. Left to itself the
market will be controlled by the already rich players and they will develop more
and more tools to control the industry. For example patent and IPR rules which
are favourable to them, buying up successful initiatives and monopolizing the
market, ability to introduce new improvements in steps to draw out more profits,
capturing new markets by making them invest in such a way that they become
slaves linked to future company policies, etc. How MNC supported forces lobby
for important policy changes and concessions in the WTO, Patent rules and IPR,
GATT, etc show how money power dictates poor countries to surrender their
independence. For example, grant or often loan giving organizations - World
Bank, IMF, USAID etc force countries to change their policies. The structural
adjustment policy for example as a precondition for investment loans. These
loan/grant conditions are not all that innocent - they are policies pushed by
large MNCs and finance capital. The loan amount itself may be only a small
fraction of the total input from the government (as in the case of the health
budget in India), but they are able to use it to bargain for large changes in
the entire structure and approach. For example, the National Telecom Policy
allows only very large companies with huge investments to set up cell phone
companies. Obviously the only source for such investment are rich MNCs - these
MNCs offer the loan/investment under conditions which force the local company to
buy costlier MNC products when equally good and lot cheaper Indian alternatives
exist. Threfore the MNC benefits twice - sale of its products and a large
investment loan and network under its control. The Telecom companies of course
have to break even and need to have the maximum usage an rich customers and
still there was a crisis which the government subsidises. Why should the poor
pay for the rich? Why should only huge investment foreign technology be allowed
by the national policy when cheaper Indian alternatives like the Wireless Local
Loop exist? Why not allow small scale telecom entrepreneurs? This calls for a
change in policy and also simulataneous focus on restructuring technology. This
is the need in all areas. In the area of Information and Communication
Technologies, there are several aspects - at the policy level, at the
connectivity and hardware level and at the software/content level. We are
interacting with people working at the first two levels - but the investment and
expertise are far too mucch for us to directly get involved in (except on a test
basis). But the software/content level is our main focus.
Today the internet has a lot of information
- but nothing really relevant for the poor. Information relevance is not
something that can be developed out of context. The web is relevant to different
peope using it today, because the information relevant to them was put in there
(by them or their representatives who worked with them) and they modified it
according to their needs. The poor farmer or a village woman is today unable to
access the net and even if she does will find it useless. The language is not
hers, the content does not talk about what she needs to know, the information is
not useful or relevant.
The market is busy with other people - it
has no time to worry about these poor people who cannot pay for these
information services. But we feel that such services can enhance quality of
life, enable newer opportunities to reach them, allow them to compete better
with the urban and richer sections. Since the market will not find this
lucrative, it is our business to make this a market - to identify useful
information sources and to develop software useful for different sections of
villagers.
What information ? Two category of
information:
(a) Programme based - for use by a field
programme. Health software to help a field level health intervention to do some
data analysis and generate reports useful to the activist. Savings software for
accounts of savings groups. Water, soil and land management software for use by
an agriculture intervention programme (as described earlier). These kinds of
information/software services have to be developed for the programme and tested
for utility - very specific and tuned to the need.
(b) Information Bank - all sorts of diverse
information required at the village level. Again developed in context, by
working with villagers and finding out the questions they have and testing it
out with them - but its utility is not as guaranteed as the earlier ones. At the
least, they can serve as multi-media education packages and course material. For
example - information on Animal husbandry, Government Schemes, Handpump, Bank
Loan schemes, Education opportunities, Employment opportunities, health
information, pest management information, bus and rail timings etc. The
information cannot be general - then it will be useless. It has to look at the
actual gaps in local level information already existing and should try to fill
it in.
Both kinds of information services have to
be continuously upgraded as they are being used - only then will they become
more and more relevant, usable and fresh. A system to note queries which cannot
be answered and to update it, is required.
The idea is to develop these information
packages (already a number of thse have been developed), and to put them on a
block level computer (which will be a computer education center as well). People
an come and access the information from the block center. Forms detailing the
questions that can be asked have been distributed in some villages and will be
done all over the block. Particular information users - school teachers,
farmers, women's groups, entrepreneurs, etc will be identified and brought to
the computer center to provide an introduction to the services offered. Some
services are free and others are payed for. As the system develops, we also
expect to keep developing more areas of information - one package developed can
be easily modified to suit other areas as well and easily replicated therefore.
Hopefully, this will generate sufficient interest for the market to enter - of
course they will do a much better job, but there mayy still be new areas and
newer sections of populations which need our help to develop information
packages. A state resource center for this purpose can be envisoned at some time
in the near future. Each information center should sustain on its own - with the
income from computer education, information sale and also from other services
like internet connectivity, email, software an DTP work, etc.
The question immediately arising is that a
lot of this information can be put in book form - why use a computer? Yes, this
is the immediate case for most information (not all) and will be done, but on a
longer term, computers make more sense - in terms of replicability, searching
for information, updating, communication, email and web access, building new
information, multi-media, to make it marketable, etc. We are planning to put
books produced through this information package producing exercise into village
libraries (described earlier) nd these village libraries are also places to
network the Block level information centers with the villagers.
My role in this: I am quite bad at software.
But most people get confused when I say 'PhD in Electronics and Communications'.
To them somehow electronics, communications, computers are all the same. Anyway
that confusion and the lack of other alternate well qualified people willing to
work on this programme, landed me this job! After the initial round of meetings
and discussions, I began working on the health software. With some help from
Sudhakar and Manoj (AID-MD) who developed some basic tables etc, I began to
slowly learn th database package and simultaneously build the health software. A
lot of field trials and travels to Ramnad to train the village volunteers there
to use the software and to enter the data and produce the reports, etc things
seemed to come to an end. It took almost 6 months to an year (of intermittent
work). Meanwhile, I wrked with Dhanakarthiga, Murugan and Sundar on the Animal
Husbandry package. I taught Murugan how to make html pages and Access database
and he picked it up very fast and started doing most of the work. I also worked
on developing some science education software, pest management (a small role in
that), savings software (still incomplete), etc. With Sundar's help, I made some
initial forms to test the software in Ramnad. I also met Ajit Singh to get the
data for the handpump software. Meanwhile, I had to meet several people from the
Dept of Electronics, Govt of India, which funded the project. We made several
presentations to them and they linked the programme a lot and wanted to expand
the scope of the programme all over the country. They also visited the field
site a few times and I took them around.
But slowly I began to feel that I was not
using my time properly in this programme. I was not able to put in my best, and
that was delaying the work. Also I was unable to focus on the effort for long
enough and did not like the work very much. I certainly did not like my primary
focus being this programme. Somehow, I
began to feel very distressed, and suffocated by this programme. In May 1999, I
withdrew from the programme as a coordinator. Anyway, my main work on the health
software was almost complete. I worked on that for some more time to finish it
and helped with other information packages. The GIS based land and water management packages (much more complex
software develpment) slated for the 2nd and 3rd years was anyway Raghu's work,
and so my dropping out did not cause much trouble. I still help out now and then
with some of the work in this area - but not as much as before. For example, to
discuss some of the issues, to take the DOE people for the field visit, going to
Bhopal to discuss the Ganini education centers and also information centers or
to make presentations, etc. I am also trying to read up and learn more about the
policy issues in this area. I have given talks on this at several places -
particularly on the history of IT and patent laws. I also tried to get the GIS
software free from some of our volunteers in the US, but that did not quite work
out well though we came close. We should still proceed and try to get it done.
On a personal note, this phase when I was
moving away from the VIC programme was very disturbing. It was almost the first
time I was saying a definite NO to a programme benefitting the poor. I had to
learn to say no and it wasn't easy. We also had a number of discussions focussed
around what was the most effective way one could contribute.
Energy and
Technology
The other important area of intervention is
energy. Traditional energy sources are non-renewable (including hydro power
which is falsely claimed to be renewable). Nuclear power has a lot of dangers.
Also all these are centralized power sources - it does not generate employment
by itself, it also can be controlled easily by the govt and bueraucracy.
Decentralized energy can provide more jobs, more energy to rural and remote
areas, provide energy to poorer sections and also generate more employment
opportunities and make rural decentralized enterprises viable and more
profitable.
For this, solar power is important - but
solar panels and storage etc is quite energy consuming itself and also a lot of
investment. But nature has provided us with a way of tapping this energy -
biomass. Can we use bio-mass (fast
growing, naturally growing plants and trees) to genrate energy?
Such agro based energy is already being
generated by local village enterprises - charcoal making from the naturally
growing prosopis (thorny plant) for example. But can this be made more
efficient? Can we in the process also empower the women who make this charcoal
in Ramnad district and remove them from the clutches of money lenders and
middlemen? This question needs a lot of work - technology identification,
development and training. This is one area we can work on if there are people to
help out.
One other project in this area is the Ipomea
based power generation programme. Cauvery delta has a large number of Ipomea
plants growing in the river. This blocks the river water flow. The govt is
planing to use chemical weed killers to destroy these plants. But that will also
destroy the ecology and the local people's livelihood. We have an alternate
proposal. A Ipomea based electricity generator has been developed. We feel that
300 such 1 Mega Watt units can be established in the basin. Local people can be
employed to cut the plants and feed the generators. byt the time they finish
cutting their plot, a new bunch of Ipomea plants would have grown and they can
start all over again from the start. At any given time, half the river will be
clear and the water can flow easily. Therefore this will provide continuous
employment and also continuous power suppy. These 1 MW plants will be
decentralized, and can initiate and sustain a large number of small scale
enterprises - making them viable and profitable. 300 MW is a huge power source -
1/10 of TN's power supply. And that too decentralized, renewable, giving jobs to
a large number of people ! That will be a mini revolution in itself. More money
to research such opportunities, instead of financing huge dams can then be
lobbied for.
Is this possible? Will enterprises to buy
the power open up? Is there really so much Ipomea? How fast does the plant grow?
How efficient is the power plant? Can it run well for long periods of time? What
is the maintnence cost? In short - a feasibility study needs to be done. This is
what we are upto now. We are hoping a few AID volunteers interested in
Technology development and adaptation will join this effort. Once the
feasibility is proved, we can get state finance and bank loans to start the
power plants and also kick start the local industrial base and
opportunities.
Education
My work in Education took a back seat during
this period. There were lots of things going on in the TNSF in this area,
primarily led by Ramanujam - but I was not involved with most of
it.
A few things I was involved in
were:
(1) Konthangarai School - This village
school was startedby some TSF volunteers and the villagers in Konthangarai
village in Nemeli block. They were trying to get the government to approve the
school and provide it with a regular teacher. For this, they needed a 'pucca'
building. They had raised a lot of local resources, and I arranged for some
funds from AID-India (from AID-US rounted through AID-India) to supplement it.
After the building was completed, a teacher was sanctioned. The villagers put
one more teacher and AID-India paid her salary for a year (Rs 500/month). After
the year ended, I told them that they should support the teacher themselves. But
it was a bit difficult - so the alternative was that we would provide half the
money, if they could support half. And this for another year only. They have
started raising Rs.200 -250 and are supporting a teacher with it.
(2) Thulir Illam and Science Toys and Slides
and Material - We got a lot of material - books, science experiments, etc - from
Prasad, Rukmini, Srividhya, Kaushal, etc and have been using it for the Thulir
School in Latheri and also for working with children. Some of the material is
being used by TNSF vounteers in different villages (like slides). Hema has taken
some of the material to train school teachers and Thulir Illam children. We also
conducted two trainings in Madras to start Thulir Illams (Children's Science
Clubs) in the city. More on this in later reports as and if it succeeds. We are
also planning to start some kind of a toy library where all these experiments
can be housed and borrowed by different Thulir Club activists.
(3) I also had a few discussions with Hema
to look at Physics textbooks and how to teach certain topics. Some of the ideas
developed seemed quite promising and I later used these for a classroom
discussion on the nature of science. Maybe I will write a not on this
sometime.
(4) Thulir School Proposal - I visited the
Latheri Thulir School which uses joy of learning techniques for teaching several
times. After some discussions with the volunteers and some of the district team
members, I wrote up a proposal for it and sent it to AID and Asha. A part of the
budget has been approved after a numbr of questions. Meanwhile, we alo arranged
for a few visits by volunteers to see the school. Toys for the children in this
school is also needed and with Rukmini's help, I arranged for some of these.
More about the school can be seen in the proposal.
(5) I had met the Secretary of Education a
few times for the VIC programme. He wanted us to work on something similar to
the health programme for education. I discussed this with Ramanujam, who wass
already thinking about initiating some such programmes. He wrote up a brief but
ambitious proposal to UNIVERSALIZE primary Education in non-child labour
intensive areas in 3 years. Basically it is through a combination of factors
that children drop out. By addressing all the factors, every drop out can be
stopped and children who are unable to attend regular school, can be coached for
5th std exam through evening classes. Through individual monitoring, support
centers, and small flexibility in the school timings, the programme aims to
achieve universal primary education. These ideas have been tested by Ramanujam
in a few other areas. They work except in pockets of systematic child labour
exploiting industrial area. With the proposal, Ramanujam and I met the Secretary
several times. Though he liked the idea, it did not come through. Instead, there
was another proposal on starting about 1000 Thulir Illams (children's science
clubs) in schools across the state that was approved.
(6) The National Children's Science Congress
- This annual event where children from all over the country take part in
projects and make presentations was held in Madras. Preparing the brochure for
it (with Sandeep and Ramanujam's help) and raising funds, etc took up some time.
The whole programme was very interesting and very well organized. Almost 1000
children came to Madras and we had a gala event. The entire TNSF was mobilized
for this programme and people came in from various districts to take charge and
organize. Too many things happened in too short a time and memory fades when one
has to describe it. But overall it was a wonderful experience. Each year, this
event is held in different places and we mobilize students to do projects, hold
regional conferences and then choose the best projects for the national
conference.
Policy Level
Intervention
One of the main aims of many TNSF programmes
is to ultimately change state policy so that large scale sustainable changes
happen. Two areas of policy interventions I was involved in are:
1. Burden Committee on Education - Ramanujam
was appointed on the High Level Committee of the TN state government for
reducing burden on children. He promoted the idea that burden did not just mean
the weight of books, but alo the topics taught and how they are taught -
basically a whole scale revision of the syllabus, textbooks, etc. To achieve
this a large number of people from the TNSF got involved in looking at the
stateboard textbooks and analysing problems with it and modifying it. It was a
struggle all the way through within the committee - many people on it were the
ones who had made the current syllabus and opposed changes. Public hearings were
held and many people came and presented their experiences and grievances. I was
one of them. As a result of Ramanujam and other TNSF volunteer's efforts some
changes in the textbooks were introduced. Of course the whole scle revision did
not happen. The report of the committee was submitted, but as with many such
things, not much action on it is forthcoming. But the whole exercise did raise a
lot of questions in the our minds and often that is the most important thing -
if we can change people's understanding and consiousness, we will automatically
change the situation.
2. Self Reliance in S&T Conference - The
idea of the conference was to invite scientists from various academic and public
sector institutions to talk about science and technology policy changes due to
liberalisation and how they have affected their institutions and what was the
work that was being done earlier. Though public sector institutions have been
criticised a lot for sloppiness and bueraucracy, they have nevertheless made
significant progress in addressing some of the basic S&T needs within the
country - particularly for local industries and rural applications. Scrapping
them and replacing them by MNCs and MNC funded R&D will not benefit the
poor. As it is so little R&D relevant to the poor is being done, with
liberalisation and government pulling out of such sectors even this will cease.
Why will MNCs and big companies fund research that will benefit the poor? These
issues were raised by several speakers. I found the talks by Ashok Jhunjhunwala
(IITM) on the Telecom Policy and why India cannot ape the west or depend on it
for technology very interesting. The history of western communication
technologies shows that the price of phone lines was reduced till it reached
about Rs.1000/month (or about $20 - basic). This was affordable for most people
and covered the entire population. So after this the focus of research shifted
to providing more services and not reducing cost. But in India, Rs.1000/month
phone bill is affordable only for the richest sections. That is why these
services have not reached the poorest. Community booths have helped to some
extent, but significant changes in technology is needed - particularly for cell
phones, internet, etc. Other issues in the telecom policy was also discussed
(some of these points I have written up in the VIC section). I also liked
Gopinath's (IISC) talk on alternates to the PC for India. Anyway, half a month
went off in organizing this programme - meeting people, calling them up,
inviting them, arranging for funds, etc.
Science Communication
Work
The TNSF has a lot of people who work on
science communication - primarily bringing out popular books on science and
selling them. At one level, one can see all of TNSF's work as science
communication - health, savings, enterprise or education. But the particular
Science Communication work I am referring to is basically bringing out books,
science magazines for children (Thulir in Tamil and Jantar Mantar in English)
and selling them. Other activities in this area are slide show lectures, Science
melas and hall meetings on science topics.
My main job in this area was getting
subscriptions for Jantar Mantar and finding a few people to help with editing JM
and also finding people to write articles for it.
TNSF organizational Work
I got onto various committees in the TNSF
and also into the Executive Committee and samam, health, and development
subcommittee. During this phase - first couple of months of 1999 - there were so
many organizational meetings that we attended, I cannot even remember. It was a
continuous meeting to meeting phase. But I guess the process is useful to meet
people from all districts, to get to know others and also to reconstitute the
main working committees for the new phase of the organization.
Meanwhile, right from the start I was trying
to get new volunteers to join the TNSF. Most of these attempts were
unsuccessful, as i always the case in such things. But a few people did join -
Mr. C.S.Vekateswaran started helping with the TNSF office work very regularly.
Prasanna to a good extent and Asha Rani, Saurabh and Mashood to some extent also
got involved. There were a few stark failures on this count also - people who
seemed to be very promising but who later had ideological problems and quit
leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouths.
There were other odds and ends kind of work
that I was involved in - Sale of books against Nuclear weapons, talks,
discussions and protest marches, exhibitions, etc. Attending some of the Samam
meetings, talks on education, on information technology, CERD planning meetings,
etc were other activities. Each has some purpose, but all of them do not fit
into a pattern, except that they provide an opportunity to get together and plan
together. There were of course things like heping with software problems,
accounting softwares, etc.
AID-TNSF
Interaction
Since I was working with two groups,
invariably linking up would arise. I had several rounds of discussions on how
AID and TNSF can work together with Sundar, Ramanujam, Franco, TVV, Kalpana, etc
on one side and with Ravi, Kiran, Sudhakar, Murali, Prasad etc on the
other.
One set of activities was helping in
non-financial ways - computers, books, toys and science experiments, software
development, interns, volunteers, etc - all these required AID to develop
systems (or 'modules') to be able to get and send or develop these things. I
sent some general emails on these, and a lot more specific requests and ideas.
Though not a large section within AID, a significant number responded well -
many chapters took up these issues seriously and started organizing themselves
to send computers, books, science experiments, translation support, etc. Some
things like books, computers and science experiments have worked fairly well. Of
course it is not yet very systematic - but this is a new direction and will need
more time and doing.
The other linakge was volunteers - AID
volunteers coming and working with the TNSF fulltime or significantly part-time.
This I have been trying, without great success (except in the case of Prasanna).
But even if a few come and join, it will
be very very useful. So I will keep trying.
Finally, the opening up of the financial
linakges is also important - for both AID and for TNSF. Both sides need to know
about the other. This gap I hav tried to bridge. On the TNSF side, there are
many who see AID as a friendly organization, not something which is trying to
take over, or dictate the agenda. They see its current strengths and weaknesses,
and also its potential. The same with AID side - many know see that TNSF is very
much like what AID wants to do.
One thing that is still in the process is
the 50 Block Plan or the broader 100 Block Development plan. The 50 block plan
was initially conceived of for TN. But more generally it seems likely that we
would like to do this on a larger scale all over the country - starting with at
least a 100 blocks. A note on this is given in the Appendix. What the All India
People's Science Network has to decide is whether the TNSF and other State
Science Forum's can accept funds for this plan from AID and similar
organizations. I feel that the close linkages that have been built by the
exchange of information has been one of the factors leading upto
this.
Ideological and Awareness
Work
1. I wrote a pamphlet on the TNSF with its
agenda of Restructuring Knowledge.
2. Through talks on Information Technology,
and looking at Patents Rights and IPR - I was trying to build my own
understanding of the issues in globalization.
3. I also listened to a number of talks and
discussed with a lot of people in trying to understand various issues. I also
read a number of books - on education, on history, on politics, on medicine,
etc. I cannot even begin to count the number of hours spent in just this aspect
- by far I have changed most on this ground. My ideological basis and
understanding I feel is much stronger now than ever before. My understanding of
caste, class, gender, exploitation, morals, religion, culture are much better
today than ever before - and this understanding finds its way into my language,
behaviour and work. Also, I have been exposed to other people's arguments and
ideas. These last two years have made such a big difference in my understanding
of society. To some extent, the divergence of views between me and my close
friends in the US that I find today is primarily due to these changes. The ideas
of power, politics, hegemony, social consciousness, how people think, struggle,
marxist analysis techniques, etc that I have learnt are now a part of
me.
(4) I wrote a number of articles - Bill
Gates and my Little Brother, Conversations with Selvi, Need based Networking and
Niche based Growth (on NGO networking), In a hurry, But to where (On RIM),
Learning in AID/Asha/ILP etc.
(5) Understanding the kinds and categories
of programmes, their limitations and how to improve them is also useful
knowledge that I have learnt. Particularly using the health programme as a
sample field programme, I am able to see the need and importance of
measurability, scale, volunteerism, and the scientific basis for
programmes.
Goofs: There was one particular good from
which got me into a lot of trouble - this was the interview I had given in
Dinamani. I had talked about TNSF's work and also mentioned AID when the
interviewer wanted me to tell him about it. Before leaving I told him very
clearly that I have talked about two different organization and he should not
confuse them. I also told him to focus on the organization as the work was not
done by me, but by others. But the next saturday, this newspaper (Dinamani)
carries a huge piece with me on the magazine page cover - completely telecoping
AID and TNSF work - and since AID sounds so glamourous ascribes all work to AID.
This created a big misundertanding in the TNSF circles - and it was only slowly
much later that people forgot the incident. But I also understood how
journalists are conditioned to think on certain lines - their constraints of
making "news stories" and notions of what makes "news"
colors their writing. Very casually (sometimes knowingly) they mis-write
versions to make them more 'catchy'. I confirmed this through a few other
instances of interactions with journalists. They are particularly prone to focus
on individuals, instead of issues and organizaations.
Legal and Auditing
Work
I got the Auditing and Accounting done for
AID-India twice in this period. Also the IT Exemption and Tax ID were other
legal things done. The registration renewal for 1998-99 was also done and some
changes in the by-laws required for the IT dept was also done. For getting some
funds for AID-India, we tried to collect some donations. But that is not enough.
So, I sent some books to the US to sell - so that the rofit from that could come
here to be used in some of the projects we are working on. After a lot of
questions, the project is grounded and the books stuck somewhere in the
US.
On the AID-US organizational side, I have
bee trying to focus efforts on three aspects -
(1) Get AID to diversify its activities - to
get out of the fund-raising mode, to support with computers, books, software
development, etc.
(2) Ideological development of the
volunteers - to stop naive project reviews, to understand issues more deeply and
to look for appropriate groups to work with, to get a better overall picture of
issues in health, education, etc, to develop an understanding of issues in the
country - communalism, globalization, nuclear weaponization, government
policies, politics, etc.
(3) Interaction with Asha and ILP - through
joint projects, reviews and joint articles getting them to interact more often
and on more things - because fundementally they are not very different and have
a very similar volunteer base.
The other AID-US activities were meeting
volunteers coming to India and arranging village vists for them. Working on the
WHO videos (not very much so far except on email). Lots of email work both about
activities there and activities needed for TNSF. I also visited and/or met
several NGOs that volunteers wanted me to - PITON, Vijaya Didi, Sandeep Pandey,
Green India Foundation, Vanavasi Ashram Trust, BCT, NBA, Kaduchidawadi, etc.
Apart from these I have been reviewing a few projects that were received by some
of the chapters. All these meetings take up quite a bit of time.
I was involved in organizing the AID India
Conference and in printing its proceedings and also distributing its sales
(though most of it is being coordinated by Ravi and Aravinda).
To help with some of my work in Madras and
also to help Ganesan (Taramani) develop his interest in social-work, we employed
him as a full time assitant for AID-India for a couple of months. During this
time he learnt a few of the tasks and also started coming out and travelling.
After some time, I found that an office space for him was necessary and also
regular work hours became essential. Otherwise I would be travelling out and he
was generally unemployed. At this time the UNICEF programme came up and needed a
person in Madras. So I asked him to switch to that job as his focus. Developing
his skills and making him a very capable person is one agenda for the future. He
is quite committed and can work hard. Also he is interested in this kind of work
and mingles well with our volunteers from different blocks. If he develops
skills in various organizational areas, he will become
indispensable.
Other activities, travels, visits
and people met:
1. Bombay and Kaduchiwadi - Went to meet
Ravi and some of the AID Bombay volunteers. With Ravi and Aravinda, I also went
to Kaduchiwadi to check out the health status there.
2. Narmada Bachao Andolan - In Madras I have
been trying to raise the Narmada issue with people - show movies, organize
discussions, etc. We have also had a lot of email discussions, writing to
frontline, etc. After Saurabh got interested, quite a lot of awareness in IITM
began to happen (also a candle light vigil where I was not involved). I visited
the Narmada Valley along with Kalpana, Ravi and Aravinda. We had some
discussions with Medha about constructive activities - particularly health and
savings. We had Narmada presentations in Stella a few times. I also helped a bit
in organizing the hall meeting for the Sahyog Yatra, and sale of T-Shirts. On
Samyukta's request, I also organized translation of a pamphlet on Narmada into
Tamil (through C.S.Venkateswaran and Ganesan). Sripad wanted a computer and I
helped put some parts together from what the AID-US volunteers sent me and sent
it to NBA.
A few other people/organizations I met or
came in touch with at different times and in different contexts are Anita
Rampal(Ekalavya), Ananth Phadke(Medico Friend's Circle), N.Ram (Frontline),
Girish(BAIF), Kulkarni(Economist working on rural enterprise applications of
IT), Joy, Suhas and Datye(water, land and biomass productivity), Mohan
Deshpande(Adoloscent health - Pune), Vinay Kulkarni(Skin diseases), Krishna
Ananth(The Hindu), Sandeep Pandey(Asha), MAYA (Bangalore), Vijaya
Ramachandran(Jagriti), Shubamoorthy and Kalpana(Samuday), Home for the
Handicapped (along with Srinivasan Krishnan), Gandhi Gram (in Dindigul), Center
for Science for Villages(Wardha), Praful Bidwai(Jounalist),
P.Sainath(Jounalist), M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation(for VIC programme in
Pondicherry), P.Chandrasekaran (Tamil Nadu Foundation), M.S.Udayamurthy and
Parthasarathy(Makkal Sakthi Iyakkam, Prakash(TN IT Secretary), Gowrishankar(TN
Education Secretary), Allaudin(TN Health Special Secretary), Siddique(TN Deputy
Finance Secretary - an old friend from college), Anandakrishnan(Former VC of
Anna Univ), Vasanthi Devi(Formar VC of Manonmanium Sundaranar Univ), Sheela Rani
Chunkath(Former Collector of Pudukottai, Director of TN MCH programme), some
ministers, UNICE representatives, and other people. Of course, I also met a lot
of volunteers from AID and Asha. In many of these cases, our interaction has
been quite short, in some it has been longer. But either way, it is difficult to
write in detail about each person and what we did, so I will skip it. Basically,
if we need to contact some of these people for help, it might be
possible.
For AID-US, I also visited or was visited by
some people/NGOs and reviewed their projects - Katha (Gita Dharmarajan), BCT,
Green India Foundation, SRI, Vanavasi Ashram Trust (Wynad), etc. I went to BCT a
couple of times and met Dr. Parameswara Rao, Suresh, Gayatri, etc. I then helped
organize his visit to the US (where he was instrumental in starting RIM - that I
do not agree with the RIM agenda is a different thing). At one of the BCT
meetings to discuss India's problems and chalk out a plan for Rejuvanation, I
met Alka Parikh. We came back to Madras together. Alka has worked in various
NGOs and reviewed a lot of projects. She is also a fun person to interact with.
In a very short time, we became good friends. Whenever I got to Bangalore, I try
to meet her. She has been involved in environmental issues and organizing people
for quite sometime and has worked in Sewa. We had a lot of lively discussions.
The total time we would ahve spent together is not much - but sometimes this is
enough to strike a long and deep friendship. Anyway for me, meeting Alka was the
most productive part of the BCT visit.
I also went to BITS-Pilani several times and
met the volunteers when they came to India. The group there (particularly
Smitha, Poornima, Sridhar and Mahesh) is really good and committed -
unfortunately it is so far away and so I have been unable to put in the time
required. But again these volunteers remain in my mind all the time, although my
actual interaction with them has been short.
After one round visit to one of the villages
near Madurai, I got hold of a few silk sarees woven by the villagers. I was
trying to sell them through teachers networks in Madras. But I could not
organize this well - though there was interest, people wanted more choices and
also flexibility of payment in installments. Maybe if someone can focus on this,
it may work out as a good option. This is also a good volunteer task for some
middle class women-teacher-volunteers.
I have already written about the Dinamani
goof up - but as a result of that a lot of people contacted me and met me. At
one stage, I was flooded with Tamil letters I could not read and was meeting
people from morning to evening. With one of the people, Pagutharivu, I went to
Law College to meet students there. Even now, some people call me. This is a
good lesson in how 'individual-heros' are created and become 'popular'. The
media is willing to only project such 'heros' making 'sacrifices' and changing
society and people buy that line easily. It is far more difficult to get
journalists to write about issues, problems, ordinary people's struggles which
actually make real changes. By praising 'hero-individuals', the focus shifts
from the systemic questions and a false image of 'heros will change things' is
projected. Anyway, after the Dinamani
goof, I had an AIR interview (where I was much more careful) and also another
interview by a student, Sunalini, which confirmed my Dinamani fears further. I
also gave an interview for AID-Cincinatti Newsletter.
I also was part of UNICEF's TN State
Committee on Adoloscents. I took Shanthi, one of our volunteers from Kandhili,
to the first meeting. She totally floored everyone - that is what real field
experience does to a person. Anyway, we could not attend most of the later
meetings - we became busy with the other programmes. Anyway, such broad meetings
are not very useful - each NGO wants to do what they feel like and the funding
agency tries to push its ideas. On the surface things seem smooth, but really
there is not committment to any of the ideas. Funding agencies feel that field
NGO are very narrow and the field NGO feel that funding agencies are talking
through their hat.
Other activitites - I gave a couple of talks
at K.V.IIT (my old school), went to various colleges to talk and mobilize
volunteers, arranged for fixed deposits for MALAR to get a bank loan (which the
bank has still not released), sent requests for various items on AID-News (slide
projectors, CDs, etc), attended Kanyakumari All India Samata camp for initiating
the savings programme all over the country, and participated in the Millinium
Dialouge meetings initiated by M.P.Parameswaran (and in TN mainly organized and
coordinated by Vasanthi Devi.
Personal
(1) The first few months - my main personal
problem was convincing my parents about this work. They have still not accepted
it fully, but they no longer ask me to change jobs. They see this as some sort
of permanant activity. But they are also able to appreciate that I am happy
doing this - from the stage when they felt I would get depressed and defeated,
they are much more comfortable and are able to take a long range view of things.
Of course, they don't still see it as a proper 'job'. But this whole period was
one of understanding people very well. My parents being conditioned by their
'values', their notions of 'security', 'social realities', 'needs', etc found it
very difficult to accept my ideas. I could see their problem - but not accept
their ideas. to the degree possible, I did, but ultimately there are fundemental
differences in how we view life. These differences are not unbridgable - but
that will take time and effort. Changes in values are so difficult to accept -
but this is what we want to do in the larger social case. and that will be tough
too. And the older generation will never completely accept these new ideas. The
new generation has to grow with these ideas - that is the cultural change
required.
I have one piece of advice for other people
with similar situations like me who want to take up full time social activism.
Make up your mind first. However kind and friendly your parents are, your views
differ. There will be many different arguments which will be put before you - of
duty, of security, of morals, etc - some hypothetical, some real and many
imagined. the ability of parents to come up with a variety of creative arguments
in this situation is really amazing. But if you are convinced, face these
arguments logically and in a detached way. If you take them too personally, it
can lead you to trouble and particularly to reverse your decision. Of course
unless you are fully convinced, it makes no sense to take this work up
full-time. Always best to volunteer part-time and slowly increase your time till
finally you are convinced that you really want to do this
full-time.
(2) My grandmother passed away in this
period.
(3) I fell in love with Kalpana, proposed
and we got married on April 8th, 1999. Kalpana also works with the TNSF and I
have already described some of the things she has been doing. She worked with
MALAR (Kanyakumari) for about a year and a half. Now, she is the state
coordinator of the Arogya Iyakkam Health Programme that the TNSF is doing and
also is the key person going to various districts and initiating savings groups
there. She is a social scientist by qualification and did her MA in history from
JNU. I have benefitted immensely by long discussions with her on various social
issues. It is really unfortunate that natural scientists are exposed to so
little social science and that little we come across in history and 'civics'
textbooks is so uncritical. Good social science introduces us to so many
different ways of seeing social realities and also gives us a better perspective
of our own 'natural science' work. Though she is very good at writing, Kalpana
does so little of it. Instead I discuss with her and end up writing the main
points of our discussion as articles - many of my later articles are actually
Kalpana's in this sense!!
(4) Friends - Four friends got married in
this period - Anbazhagi, Damodaran, Sandeep Rao, Poonkodai and
Meera.
(5) One of our friends and volunteers
Amaithi had an accident - a lot of people donated for his operation. I take this
opportunity to thank them all. A part of that money is also being used for
another emergency operation of another volunteer Krishnan from Virudunagar. The
complete accounts for the money received and spent will be done and sent to all
the donors.
Conclusion
Why did I write this long report? Most
probably no one is going to read it fully (or partly?). But the idea of a report
is to help self-analyse one's actions - to see whether one is useful or not. I
guess the idea behind sending the report to you is similar. For you to judge
whether I was useful or not, and to suggest where I can make improvements. Of
course, whether I take your advice will depend on whether I feel it is
applicable in my situation - but still it would be good to read and understand
your points.
But what are these judgements of
"usefulness" you will be making? How do I make such judgements? Do we
really need these judgements and what do they actually mean?
When I was in the USA and involved with AID
there, this question would often come up. Are we useful ? And in particular, am
I useful ? I would look at the work of many different NGOs and feel that at
least something is happening and even if not the best, it was still better than
nothing. But the question of my own usefulness, I would always skirt by thinking
that this is all preparation for work in India and there I would be
useful.
But, my hope that somehow in India this
question will not arise was wrong. Our usefulness in India is less obvious than
it seems from far. Most of our volunteers in the USA or in cities may feel that
I am quite useful. Why ? Why do not they have this doubt ?
In the last one year, I think I have
understood this issue a bit better. "Usefulness" is a psychological
notion. Often we do not ask for what is the person useful for and to whom. When
I write an article or send a report about certain conditions that I see here, I
am 'useful' to you - as a communicator, a reporter - so you see me as useful.
But am I useful in the field ? One cannot say. Also, I may be reporting the work
of someone else - but because I communicate it to you, the usefulness of the
work gets transferred to me.
There is also another way this works - we
see others doing things we ourselves are not doing. Especially, if what they are
doing is defined (culturally and socially) as "good" and
"sacrificing", we see their contribution as useful. This is especially
so if they in addition also "inspire" us.
But none of the above ways of looking at
usefulness or deciding someone is "useful" has anything to do with
actual field problems. They have more to do with our own notion of
"usefulness" than with any real sense of utility in addressing the
problems. Rationally therefore, the ability to "inspire" or
"sacrifice" are good tools which can make one useful (for example to
organize people), but does not naturally make a person useful for just
possessing these abilities.
Apart from these cultural forces which
define usefulness, there is also a strong objective need to define
"useful" work. As individuals in an organization, as organizations in
society, we have the need to define our own area of work (implicitly or
explicitly). The utility of our work is defined only within the larger context.
We define the larger context to be useful and then look at our contribution
within it. For example, a volunteer 'sees' that AID/TNSF is useful and looks at
how he/she is useful to AID/TNSF. Activities like monthly mailing, collecting pledges, making posters,
sending emails etc. get their meaning from "being useful to AID which in
turn is useful to the poor". How does the volunteer know he/she is useful ?
Because AID tells him/her.
AID itself gets its usefulness by defining
"the work of good NGOs" as useful. So AID looks at ways in which it
can contribute to NGOs and then feels itself useful. How does AID know it is
useful to NGOs ? Because they tell it.
Since most NGOs ask for money, AID sees its usefulness there.
This chain of utility is a fundamental
organizing tool in society - without it no structure can be built. If we
look around, we can see this at work
everywhere - in governments, banks, roads, factories, families,
etc.
But there are two problems in the way this
chain sometimes works.
1. Almost anything defined as useful is
enough - one doesn't need to see if the object defined as useful, really is
useful for our ultimate aims. (What are these aims?) The object thus defined
will also determine our actions. There is therefore a strong vested interest in
defining those objects as useful which help us do what we are doing or feel we
are capable of doing.
If for example, AID feels it can raise
funds, there is a drive to search for 'useful objects' which can use this money
- NGOs asking for money therefore fit the bill.
We have to ask the question "Is my
'useful' object really useful and to whom?" Even worse - sometimes our
useful object may be very harmful to the actual poor as is the case with many
development projects. We should at least
ensure this is not the case.
2. The index to measure usefulness is often
what the object "using us" says - (eg - what AID tells its volunteers,
or what NGOs tell AID). These 'statements' may not be really true.
Therefore we get to the question - Are our
'predefined useful objects' (NGOs) really useful? I have a lot of doubts about
that. Why do we feel that they are useful? To AID they are useful certainly -
but are they useful to the poor? I don't know the answer. Maybe they are making
'sacrifices' - even this is not clear. But so what if they are doing a 'good'
and 'sacrificing' job. Is this job really what will address the problems? The
same question can be asked of me - Am I useful? To whom and for what? Other
things seem to change and move - but this fundemental question remains. And on
this note, I end this long report.
Appendix
List of material I was
involved in writing
(You can send me an
email and request for any of the notes below)
1. My Accounts Statement (to be prepared and
attached - including money received from individuals for Amaithi's operation,
Rukmini's donations, etc)
2. AID-India Accounts Statement for
1998-1999 and 1997-1998
3. Need Based Networking and Niche Based
Growth - paper on NGO networking
4. Students for Social Change - Notes on
this programme
5. Bill Gates and my Little
Brother
6. Conversations with Selvi
7. In a hurry, but to where - A note on the
Rejuvanate India Movement
8. The Learning Process in AID/Asha/ILP -
Project Review Points
9. 'Where Women have no Doctor' Translation
Proposal
10. Thulir School Proposal
11. MALAR Video Proposal
12. '1500 Libraries in Tamilnadu'
Proposal
13. TNSF Overall Intervention in 100 Blocks
- Budget and Plan
14. Restructuring Knowledge - A pamphlet on
TNSF
15. AGNI Proposal - did not work on it after
that.
16. My Old Fellowship Reports + Other
Reports that I had sent
17. Arogya Iyakkam Proposal(s)
18. Kallal Nursery and Ramnad Water Systems
Management Proposals
19. Note on Modules in AID
20. Reports on the Health
Programme
21. Reports of VIC Programme
22. Development Debate
23. Note on Physics (to write
up)
24. Talk on Information Technology (to write
up)
25. Sanitation Mart Proposal
26. Orissa Proposal (to write)
27. TNSF Health Web Site - Ready, soon to be
uploaded.
28. Three Women's Studies
Projects
29. Orissa BGVS Reconstruction Proposal (to
be written up)
These are hardcopy material. The first one
can be purchased.
1. United We Sit - Cartoon Book on Savings
Groups
2. NCSC Cartoon Brochure