Proper introduction to the people of the NGO (besides me: the itinerant international outreach person): there are 3 field workers who live in the area in which the NGO’s work is conducted – Rohitash Meena, Shyam Singh, and Gopal Singh. They live in villages that are within 30 km of the field office, which is pretty much the physical area that the NGO covers. The head of the NGO lives in Jaipur (the capital of Rajasthan – about 5 million people), but spends considerable time at the field office in Jawanpura (small village – 2000 people). His name is Manu Sharma. Technically, Manu is the Secretary, but he seems to make most of the important decisions. The NGO does have a president, vice-president, etc. that form a board for guiding its activities. All of the NGO workers have families. The NGO workers are in their mid to late-thirties, while Manu is about 55 (I think). This is a small local NGO. The local nature is critical, as I have already mentioned, though we are looking to increase the size.
Some of the NGO’s previous/ONGOING work:
Cheend-Bihajar: SVS coordinated the work done in Cheend-Bihajar to harvest water during the monsoon season in order to re-charge groundwater and make life in the area more sustainable and verdant. The engineering was done by a large and famous Indian NGO called WOTR – Watershed Organization Trust, which has recently won an international award (Look up name and put it here) for its watershed work. The funding was provided by a German funding agency, Andheri Hilfe Bonn. This project involved massive involvement by the villages’ people to dig trenches, build mounds of earth, build check dams and gully plugs, and all sorts of other things. The point of all of these things was to slow down the water coming off the hillsides (the location of the NGO’s work is a very hilly area: the Arawalis), so it could be absorbed by trenches, etc. and be used to re-charge groundwater for drinking and for agriculture/animal husbandry, which is a large source of money and employment for the area. Additionally, the slowing of the water also lessens the amount of soil erosion that occurs. I literally just talked with Shyam and he told me the benefits of this work are 4-fold: 1) Employment and money for families in the village (so they don’t have to migrate – prevents slums), 2) Increased groundwater, 3) Less soil erosion, and 4) More fodder for animals. Another indirect benefit is that the NGO can set up SHGs (self-help groups – SVS’s name for microcredit groups) in the areas where the watershed work is going on, then organize these groups into a large block, which can then meet as a unit and lobby the government for changes in policy with regards to water and other issues critical to the area. In terms of the direct benefits, Rohitash previously told me that the work definitely showed results in the last year. Shyam told me that, with water becoming more scarce, the villages of the area are clamoring for this watershed work. However, the funding has dried up (painful pun intended) from the German agency, and other sources need to be found. Another thing to add to the list.
Virat Manch: I mentioned organizing people above, which is a great specialty of the NGO. SVS was instrumental in the formation of a block-level group for the advocacy of women’s rights and issues in the Viratnagar block area, the Virat Manch (manch means platform). They still help coordinate its activities. In fact, I was here one and a half years ago when the NGO organized a group of 100-200 women to go to Rajasthan’s capital, to the building where the state coordinates with municipal governments (I think; the bottom line is that it is a big place of governance for the state). It was amazing to see the women, in their bright clothes and with their head covers, sitting in what very much looked like a big place of governance, with cascading rows of chairs around a central platform from which people speak. There the woman spoke, did traditional dances, etc. The chief justice of Rajasthan’s High Court spoke about the issues being addressed there. A very inspiring occasion, and one that I think exhibits the NGO’s strength and commitment to the empowerment of rural people, especially women. I will try to post pictures of this.
Drilling: Although this is not exactly the NGO’s work, I was watching in Rohitash village the drilling of a borewell, which, if it gave water, would be used for agriculture and for drinking if it was “sweet” not “bitter” (their words). It did give water, though we are not quite sure how much it will give. It is amazing, perhaps sad, the extent to which the people in these rural areas are dependent on a few successful wells, and a few government water tankers. If these wells go dry, there could be huge problems. Additionally, when they dig a bore well – which is a big investment (two years salary) – they are basically guessing where might be a good place. Along these lines, I have talked with Meg about establishing a link between her dad’s business, Delta Epsilon, which makes loggers for finding where water is, and SVS. I hope something can come of this, as both parties would benefit. The village gets some water crucial for life itself and Delta Epsilon gets some business and a chance to really help people. Everyone wins. We just need to find the proper channel/funding agency, e.g. UNICEF, etc.
NREGA: So, NREGA is the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, passed in 2005 and enacted in Rajasthan on April 1st, 2008. It is a landmark act passed to try to stanch the flow of people from the village areas to urban areas (in search of work), and, I think, to make life a little bit better for those in rural areas, who live in some pretty rough conditions without many amenities. SVS did a lot of work in preparation for the implementation of this act. They had discussions during their microcredit group meetings, talked with the local governing bodies, and in general informed people in the area about the details of the act, and what exactly the government’s responsibilities were. They told them that they need to get job cards, how to get job cards, how many job cards a family could get, what the pay rate was, who in government the villagers could go to if they had problems, and other such things. It is just this type of local organizing work that SVS specializes in, in turn giving the people the benefits and opportunities that they deserve. There are currently several visible NREGA projects in the area which I have seen, one of which is a pond to collect rainwater in order to recharge groundwater. So, slowly things are progressing for the people of this area, with the aid of the government and SVS, but mostly SVS. Indeed, the workers have told me that if there is a disaster in the area the government will often call SVS and tell them to handle it. Similarly with the implementation of NREGA.
PRESENT WORK
Youth work: So, the NGO’s work is starting in earnest with the youth. My impressions thus far are that this is going to be a very impactful and important project in the long-term. It is a radical break from the guru-student traditions that has been historically respected and followed in India, even in the universities. In this tradition the energy and abilities of the youth are largely underestimated, as they are supposed to just listen to and absorb the information from their older guru, without much questioning and independent input. This idea is very foreign to the modern critical mindset, and to the American focus on the power and strength of youth (who created Google, Facebook, Paypal, Youtube: young people, young people, young people; most of them recent graduates; who still powers them: young people, young people, young people; who does the majority of the in-the-lab/on-the-ground scientific/engineering work: young people, young people, young people; I definitely respect the power of experience and the wisdom that comes with age, but it must be balanced with an acknowledgment and harnessing of the powers of youth, i.e. new ideas, new thinking, high energy, high focus due to lack of children, etc.). So, there is much to be overcome in order to get the youth involved in the problem solving process, to get the village elders to listen to and integrate them. Hence, the importance of this project, which has the long-term goal of setting up groups in each village in the area for generating awareness and harnessing the power of youth in solving the water issues of the area (and, I imagine, other issues). These groups will help carry out awareness rallies and marches through the area, like the women’s micro-credit groups have, and in general be an active part of awareness generation. In addition, we want to look at getting some of the leaders that emerge out of these groups to go to school (I hope under the NGO’s funding) and come back to the village to work on critical issues, perhaps becoming workers for the NGO. Training in water management would obviously be good, as they could spread technical knowledge to the people and help them manage their lands. I think training in computers would be good as well, because, if computers can be spread into the village areas, then work/school can be done there remotely, without the need to leave the village. This is critical, as one of the biggest problems India faces is the flow of people from the villages to the cities, resulting in large slums filled with people in the village who are trying to scrape by and make a living. The need for local workers is critical, as knowledge of the local language and customs makes the workers more trustable to the village people and accelerates the acceptance of them and their work. The long-term prospects are indeed immense.
So, what is it that we have actually done and what is our concrete action plan for the near future. I will break this down day-by-day, because it seems that my understanding of this project and my role in it is changing daily as I talk more with the NGO workers and we come up with different ideas (and events tend to take their own path as it is).
05/26/09
We have started the youth program in two villages, Kukrela and Dantli ki Dani. These two villages have 1,000 and 400 people, respectively. We are in the early stages, so right now we are mainly trying to establish a friendship with all of the boys through discussions, and playing lots of games. The age range of the boys is 14 to 20. The goal I think is to get those boys who are just on the verge of entering adulthood and hence could be impactful in a relatively quick manner. Notice that I said boys. The head of the NGO, Manu-ji, wants to start girls’ groups as soon as possible, within the limitations of the culture in which the NGO is operating, i.e. a patriarchal culture that is suspicious of outsiders attempting to meet with and organize females in the area. Manu was thinking about trying to start the girls’ groups within a week. I don’t know how this will work, but I will update you as it goes.
So, we have been going into these villages daily (even Saturday and Sunday!) from about 5-7pm. We started by giving them the puzzle that I put in my second blog post (the one with connecting the 9 dots), and playing a village game involving knocking over a pile of stones using a ball. It was highly amusing, as Manu, as stately white-bearded man of 55 years age, was running away from a boy who was trying to throw the ball at him (as part of the game) and he ended up getting hit in the head and falling over! As you can imagine the youth got a kick out of this. They also thought it was funny when I played another village game with them. This game is kind of like “Duck, Duck, Goose”, except for with a more thrilling twist suited to 14-20 year old males. In this game every one sits in a circle while one person goes around with a wound-up cloth – kind of like a rope, but much lighter – and eventually drops it behind one person. The people sitting can’t look behind but can feel with their hands if they think the rope has been dropped behind them. If the person behind whom the rope was dropped realizes that it was dropped behind him before the other person has come back around the circle, then he picks up the rope and attempts to catch the rope-dropper and whack him with it. On the other hand, if the sitting person does not realize it and the rope-dropper gets back around to him, then the rope-dropper can pick up the rope and give the sitting person a good wallop, until the sitting person runs around the circle and gets back to his spot. Since the rope/cloth is light, no one gets hurt (unless he gets hit in the eye; this happens rarely), so it is more about the shock that the sitting person experiences once they realize they are being hit. The eyes widen rapidly, and they quickly jump up and run around the circle, to much laughter. If the youth enjoyed giving the old man a go, you can imagine that they really enjoyed giving the angrez - the whitey - a good go. It was all in good fun, but they definitely dropped the rope behind me about half the time (there was 20 other people, so this was definitely not a random probability thing), which left me quite gassed. It was wholly enjoyable, though I wasn’t sneaky enough to drop the rope behind someone without them knowing; mostly I just ran like heck and took a few licks, all to raucous laughing and cheers. I came out dirty as could be from semi-diving back into my seat on the dirt field in order to avoid another wallop, but it was fun and got the youth excited. I definitely think their interest in our group has grown as a result of this, so that is a good thing.
So, we don’t just spend all the time playing, but we also talk to them about relevant issues. One discussion we had was on the importance of education. We started by asking them the simple question, “Why study?” At first the boys were quiet, but they became more animated as the discussion progressed. The discussion ended up with the idea that getting an educated allows one to do “service”, in the broadest possible sense, i.e. government work, NGO work, work in a technology company, etc. Upcoming discussions will almost certainly include the topics of: the importance of youth in society and in building society, water issues in the area and what can be done about them, how computers work and what they are used for, and many more. The main point is to start engaging their minds in solving the problems of society. As youth, they are almost certainly more savvy with technology and will be able to more efficiently use it as a tool for problem-solving and addressing their villages’ problems, e.g. after learning how to use a computer, they should be able to use it to research solutions for the problem of water shortage. Through games, discussions, and treating them as equals –which they are unaccustomed to with elders, I think – we are and will be engaging them. For the computer work we have several games and flash movies on water, the water cycle, ground water, etc. Through these games and the necessity to their lives we will hook them on the water issue. I will let you know how all of this goes.
05/27/09
We attempted to play cricket yesterday, and not too many people showed up. I think it is because the cricket playing grounds are far from the heart of the village and the boys did not want to walk that far. The NGO boss is concerned that there is a lack of interest. Either way, it is not a big deal, as we are considering this a learning process, both for the youth groups and for us. We will try to figure out what works in this new vein of work and how we can most successfully implement this idea of harnessing the youth for problem solving, especially with regards to water. SVS wants to start two new youth groups next month and more each month, so we will learn as we go and I’m sure will have it down pretty well after some time. We also introduced the laptop yesterday, which the kids seemed interested in. I showed them a few games, but that was about it. Perhaps today some kids will get to give a few games a try on it. We will see. We will experiment with different things and see how everyone responds. Slowly we will start to tweak the activities towards higher level thinking and problem-solving, but we are still in the beginning phase. First friendship, then more thought. As I know, I’ll let you know.
05/29/09
We have just spent a few days playing volleyball and discussing with the kids about the meaning of the group and the importance of education. We also introduced the computer and played a few games on it.
In the village that I have been in, Kukrela, I would say that the last few days have been a spectacular success. We have had an excellent turnout (20 or more 14-20 years olds in a village of 1000), the boys have been very engaged in learning and playing volleyball, and have also participated, to an extent, in our discussion about education. I first taught the youth “bump, set, spike” and then we started to practice. I was a little disgruntled that they seem to ignore my advice and were just hitting the ball with the fists (either single our doubled-up), with the result being the ball going everywhere. However, as we started to play formal games they developed a hybrid style with fists, but they weren’t closed all the way so that the boys could hit the ball with their palms (there was still some raw fist hits though). Interestingly enough, when things got tight at the end they also started setting properly, perhaps seeing the necessity of control when things are close. At any rate, it was a lot of fun and I think the youth are getting use to the idea of the group, which is good.
We keep pushing this discussion on education, asking why education is important, why all of the top students come from the cities, etc. As far as I can tell we haven’t gotten too much out of the group members on this front, but it will probably take some time for them to get comfortable and open up. At least they are thinking about it for now.
The boys also seemed to enjoy the laptop. We played a few simple flash games, including “Let it Flow”. To clarify, most of the group members have worked very little on a computer, if at all, so its functioning is completely new to them. As such, things such as dexterity with the mouse are not developed. This made it a bit slow in going for them, but they were completely into connecting the pipes for “Let it Flow”. In fact, we had to break away from the group at the end of the meeting because many people were wanting to play but we only had one computer. This is supposed to remain a part of the program, learning about computers, so I’ll be interested to see how it progresses.
Finally, we had a very good discussion today about how to set up this new youth group-water program. First of all let me admit that I fell asleep half way through it. This has nothing to do with the content, but mainly with the fact that my brain tends to get a little tired after too much Hindi. As far as I know the vision, mission, and objective were discussed and defined. We also discussed simple mechanics and implementation strategy, i.e. how to change the workers’ schedules to accommodate this new evening work, how to enter new villages versus old villages (that is, villages where SVS is already doing work), etc. The vision statement is “To increase the youth’s conceptual understanding/thinking through the participatory process and to link-up the youth in the area, for the sake of natural resources and education.” So, that seems good to me. I’ll have to get the transcript of the rest as I fell asleep after this part. We also had a meeting yesterday in which we laid out the schedule for the program. We are going to take on two new field workers and the schedule will be as follows:
Old NGO workers
Old work: microcredit groups (SHGs), watershed program (1st 20 days of month)
New work: youth group water project (last 10 days of month)
New NGO workers
Training and youth group water project (all month)
So, the way it is going to work is that during the last ten days of each month (including this month, May 2009) the old NGO workers will start new youth group(s) in 1 or 2 new villages. The new NGO workers will then take over the group for the next thirty days, before turning the group over to the youth to run. The NGO will put in 40 days to launch each group and make sure that regularity and punctuality in the meetings is established, then meet with the groups once per month to monitor the group’s progress and to take feedback from the group. This feedback can be used for larger organizational strategies as this program progresses, i.e. lobbying the state government with respect to water issues. The old NGO workers will work on the NGO’s other work during the first twenty days of each month. See the coming concept note for details.
As Manu has said, it seems that through our discussion, this idea is becoming a real program. I am in the process of writing a short concept note that will be extended into a project proposal in due time. I will attempt to post this soon.
New thoughts and ideas: so, two big ideas have come up since I last wrote. One is that I will probably make a website on the NGO, so that their work can be seen by people, businesses, governments, etc. who might be interested in their work, in coming to help, in linking together, etc. The other is that the NGO chief has just linked the ban of plastic bags by the state government with the idea of trying to start up the making of bags from used, more environmentally friendly materials, e.g. newspapers. His enthusiasm seemed to grow when I mentioned that I had received just such a bag when I bought a wall hanging at Tilonia during my last stay in India. It was made from newspaper and had cloth handles. A very slick bag indeed; and it is a possible huge employment and monetary opportunity for the people in the village area, who could start up a cottage industry using basic materials that are readily available (newspaper, cloth, glue). I think these small, home-grown solutions are critical to development, as well as large-scale things like new energy sources, etc. People need to be able to get by and earn money in order to move up the ladder and gain more opportunities for themselves and their children (e.g. educational). These small, piecemeal solutions are critical in providing a method for improvement of one’s situation, while bigger solutions are being worked on elsewhere and EVENTUALLY will make a difference. These small solutions make a difference now and allow the future opportunity to be capitalized on. Additionally, small solutions spread over large populations equals big solutions and gains.
This is one reason why I really like working for/with SVS: I feel that all of the NGO workers are trying to think of solutions for the local problems, whether it is finding different sources for employment for the people, or providing sources for financing small-scale growth and business, or finding solutions for water shortage, or finding ways to improve livelihood, they are always trying different things to see what works for the area. I think I will be able to find funding for 3 more workers, which would double the NGO’s working capacity for its various projects. This is actually not much money either, as each field worker’s salary is only roughly $1000. The bang for the buck is potentially huge. In addition to this I want to find funding for them to do some work with the youth on computers and water, with a long-term goal of attracting tech and water savvy workers to work for the NGO/in the area and improve the standard of living and opportunities in the area (recall that the literacy rate is 12.5% and 54% for women and men, respectively, last time I checked). I will do what I can in this process, from typing proposals for them; to making a website where people can see SVS’s history of doing capacity-building, life-enriching activities in the region through photos, the people of the area’s words and activities, etc; to working with kids through games and computers; looking for linkages with businesses, charities, organizations in the US and abroad; and so forth. Mainly I will just try to learn about their work and do my best to relay the information. I know it is not my main work in the years to come (that would be physics), but it will remain a big part of my life and what I care about. For now, I am just inspired and grateful to have the opportunity to work here.
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