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August 2019 - Volume 11 Issue 8 Rs 20
I N S I D E
AFSANA RASHID, Budgam, KashmirGiving dropouts a second chance at completing school 2
Anganwadis focus on overall development of children 3
Climate refugees – of vanishing villages and a displaced population 4
A sewing initiative empowers women, gives them dignity 6
The man who didn’t walk away from waste 7
A helping hand to rehabilitate the mentally ill in remote villages 8
Govt support to agriculture a boost for farmers hereVillagers in Kashmir’s Budgam District are coming to realise that leasing out their landholdings to brick kiln owners has been a mistake. It has taken a toll on both their health and that of the environment. With the help of the State Agriculture Department, they have been steadily reclaiming their property and have restarted farming operations
Middle-aged Ghulam Hassan Malik is happy that he has managed to
reclaim a portion of the land he had leased to a brick kiln owner for almost two decades. He got back about three kanals (a local unit of measurement equivalent to about 4500 square feet) about two years ago. The brick kiln owner still holds 22 kanals of his land, and this he hopes to recover shortly. “We are bound by an agreement with the brick kiln owner for the next two years. Once that is over, we will not sign any fresh agreement. We will take possession of land,” says Malik.
As far as the eye can see from Malik’s plot, the brick kilns stretch on all sides. Malik’s family is only one of many in Wattarwani Village in Central Kashmir’s Budgam District who have leased out their lands to brick kiln owners for monthly payments. Some have leased out their lands for ten-year periods, others for five. When these terms are about to expire, the agree-ments are usually renewed. A kanal of land fetches a monthly
rent of between Rs 16,000 and Rs 24,000.
With the money they earned as rent, the villagers were able to educate their children well. Malik is the father of four.
However, now, the villag-ers are wanting their land back, even though the rental earnings are much higher than what they will earn from the property oth-erwise. They are realising that if they had only cultivated their land, they would not be suffering from obesity and other health issues. They understand that the mushrooming of brick kilns poses a threat to both human health and the environment.
Malik and other villagers have reportedly reclaimed around 80 kanals (four hectares) of land from brick kiln owners. “Reclaim-ing our land was possible only after intervention by the Agricul-ture Department. They educated and motivated us to cultivate our land and save our resources. They helped us to re-cultivate the land and provided us with guidance, seeds and fertilizers,” says Malik.
Malik’s plot of is lush green with beans. On an adjacent plot,
maize and peas are being cul-tivated. Malik points to what remains of terraced cultivation, known as karewaor vudr, saying that before the brick kilns were established, karewa agriculture was practised in the area. “There used to be a karewa here before the establishment of the brick kiln. Over a period of time that karewa turned out to be a thing of past,” he rues.
In the past, a nallah (stream) nearby supplied water for irriga-tion, but now, the flow has been reduced. However, the recent rains have helped a bit, Malik reports. Feeling that mixed farming is the way to go, he has planted fruit trees on the periph-ery of his plot. The produce from his land is locally consumed, and he faces no problems with marketing.
A few kilometres away from Malik’s village lies Hard Bat-pora Village, home to Ghulam Mohammad Sofi. Middle-aged Sofi, who, along with some other villagers, regained their lands from brick kiln owners, has been cultivating vegetables on the 5-7 kanals he has got back. He grows peas, maize and other vegetables and has planted apple trees along the borders of the plot. Many farm-ers in the valley are now con-centrating on fruit cultivation and more area is being brought under orchards.
The nallah in Hard Batpora too isn’t sufficient to meet irri-gation needs. Sofi says the area lacks safe drinking water as well. “For the last one week (the first week of July), we had no electricity in our area, and consequently our drinking water supply got affected,” he says.
Manohar Lal Sharma, sub-divisional agriculture officer, Budgam, has been motivating farmers to cultivate more. “Ini-tially they were reluctant but we provided them seeds, fertilisers, etc, and they were happy with the output.” Talking of ways to
improve productivity, he says “We are asking them to use manure and other organic mate-rial (compost) that will help the soil regain fertility on long term basis. We are shifting to the agri-horti-silvi-pastoral system for sustainable development,” he added. Technological interven-tion is needed for sustainable development, he stressed.
“Agriculture is required for our sustenance. We cannot live on bricks,” says Altaf Aijaz Andrabi, director, Department of Agriculture Kashmir, adding “not only have areas under brick kilns been covered under the project, Climate Resilient Sus-tainable Agriculture in Rainfed (Kandi) Farming Areas of J&K, but the entire Budgam block is being focused on.”
Twenty-five title villages covering 1250 farm operat-ing families are targeted under the project. It was initiated in 2015 but actual implementation started in 2017-18. It is of four-year duration. After completion of the project, the farmers can follow guidelines and replicate them in other plots that they own, he adds. “Farmers have abundant land. Initially, produc-tivity will be low, but they can generate good income out of it. If utilised judiciously and con-tinuously, they can reap benefits worth lakhs, annually,” Altaf feels.
The topsoil that has been dam-aged due to the brick kilns can be made cultivable and water harvesting techniques have been adopted in the targeted areas, apart from installing bore wells and IP sets for the benefit of farmers, Andrabi says.
Meanwhile, Andrabi, while briefing a group of journalists here as part of three-day media workshop on climate change jointly organised by the Cen-tre for Media Studies (CMS), New Delhi, under the Indian
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A view of Ghulam Hassan Malik’s plot of land in Wattarwani in Central Kashmir’s Budgam District in the first week of July. Malik reclaimed land years after renting it out to a brick kiln owner. (Continued on page 3)
August 20192
RAKHEE ROYTALUKDAR, Jaipur
A programme gives dropouts a second chance at completing schoolSometimes in life, there is no second chance. There is no next time. For many like Maya and Muskaan, getting another go at completing their schooling was a dream which they thought would never come true. That is, until some teachers came to their doorsteps, offering them a second chance to complete their secondary education at a nearby school – completely free! This is a story about the progress of an innovative programme that has benefited dropouts, particularly women
Maya had dropped out of school in Standard 3 due to financial constraints.
She had grown up, been married for 20 years, and had had children of her own. How could she even begin to think about going back to school? But her children insisted that she take up her studies again.
“The teachers, who were han-dling the Second Chance Project made me understand that rejoin-ing school would not only help me to complete the Standard 10 Board exam, but also develop my personality and rebuild my confidence. They explained that there would be many others like me at school and that age need never be a factor in educating oneself. They told me it would empower me. And it has. I not only passed the Standard 10 Board exam in 2015 but went on to pass the Standard 12 Board too, from the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). I now want to join college and have been going to the centre to brush up my knowledge.”
Maya has been a beneficiary of the Second Chance Programme at Jaipur’s Idgah Centre. There are many others like her at this centre-cum-school. Muskaan, clad in a burqa, is revising her lessons on Home Science because she hadn’t cleared the paper in the last board exam. She will be making another attempt to pass the Standard 10 Board this October. “I want to open a beauty parlour. I want to have
the minimum qualification to run it. Teachers from the centre visited our house, and explained to my mother the advantages of clearing secondary school,” she says.
The Second Chance Pro-gramme, conceptualised and started in 2011 by Pratham, an NGO working in the field of education, mobilises students and parents. The initiative starts in April. Teachers go from door to door to identify dropouts, particularly girls, says Shalu Sharma, teacher coordinator, who runs the Jaipur Idgah Cen-tre. This year, the centre has about 50 new admissions.
Although the school is housed in a dingy three-room flat, the girls sitting there seemed oblivi-ous of the congested space, and were concentrating on their stud-ies. The Second Chance Pro-gramme was conceived after statistics revealed that close to 70 per cent of students drop out before completing Standard 10, which means that a very large proportion of children, especially girls, are ineligible to apply for jobs in any field that requires a secondary school education.
K.B. Kothari, chief of Pratham in Rajasthan, says, “Although the government has made sustained efforts to upgrade the quality of school education and infrastruc-ture, particularly at the elemen-tary level, poor socio-economic status and the students’ inability to cope with expectations of the curriculum often result in a
keeps tabs on what they do later. There are supplementary courses like Health and Safety, including Menstruation Hygiene Manage-ment and Nutrition and Child Development (KIRAN).
Teachers provide career coun-selling too, and discuss various options – beautician, bedside attendant and computer operator. The programme is also meant to enable personality development and build confidence in the girls to help them in their daily lives and studies.
Second Chance is being implemented in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha, besides Rajasthan. The expense per stu-dent is around Rs 35000-40000, says Sharma.
In Rajasthan, the programme is delivered through the rov-ing/ cluster model. Each centre usually has three trained teach-ers who visit other centres on rotation basis. The model has emerged successful, overriding the difficulties faced in mobili-sation and attendance due to location, family restrictions and other socio-economic issues.
It is encouraging to note that the pass percentage of such girls has been increasing over the years. In 2012-13, the total pass percentage in Standard 10 Board exams through NIOS was barely 41.8 per cent while in 2018-19, it
steep drop in those transitioning from elementary school. Also, the mandate of free and compul-sory education only applies up to class VIII. The availability of secondary schools is insufficient as well, which compounds the problem for children who com-plete the elementary stage, par-ticularly girls.”
As per the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2014, school enrolment in the age group of 6 to 14 years is close to 97 per cent but learning remains poor. Enrolment at the secondary level (Grades 9 and 10) stands at 73.6 per cent, falling to 49.1 per cent in Grade 11 and 12. As much as 16.1 per cent of girls in 15-16 age group are out of school according to the 2016 ASER.
Since its inception in 2011, the Second Chance Programme has impacted more than 22000 female dropouts. One of the main criteria for admission is that the prospective student should be 16 years old or more, and should have had at least a two-year gap in studies.
Second Chance centres, run-ning at 33 places in 29 districts spread across nine states, have achieved an average national pass rate of 82 per cent. In 2011, the programme reached 394 girls. By 2015, the number had increased to 4383. In 2011-12, very few cleared the exams, but four years later, 89 per cent of the students, who appeared passed their final Board exams. Many Second Chance graduates go on to do further studies and also find employment.
Geographical considerations are a big contributor to the drop-out rates. Parents are usually averse to sending their daugh-ters to school if they are located far away. So, the first task is to build new cluster centres where there are enough girls inter-ested in resuming their educa-tion. Next comes confidence and trust building among the students, families and teachers. Says Sharma: “It is difficult to mobilise and convince parents. We face many challenges while moving through the neighbour-hood, asking girls to restart their studies and complete the Stan-dard 10 Board at least.”
For students resuming edu-cation, there is a three to four month foundation course. This is a bridge course designed to help girls who may have had several years’ gap in their schooling to regain confidence in core study habits, basic reading and writing skills and content knowledge. It also has Maths, English, Science or Home Science, Hindi and Life-skills components, besides, importantly, Menstrual Health Management.
After that, there is post-foundation course, which goes on for seven to eight months. This is designed to cover the Stan-dard 10 curriculum in a period of nine months. Subjects like Maths, English, Science/ Home Science, Languages, Computer Science, Painting and History are offered and vary from state to state, as does the medium of instruction for the Board Exams.
The lessons are simplified in terms of language and com-plexity. This is done by creating charts and other teaching mate-rials and identifying innova-tive techniques to foster better understanding and application of lessons, explains Kothari. Mock tests are conducted for around three months, to prepare students for the board exams.
Thereafter, the board exams are held through the NIOS. What is an added advantage for the students is that there is post-board tracking system which
FOCUS
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Maya (right) and Muskaan in burqa at the Idgah Centre where the classes under the Second Chance Programme are held. They have cleared their boards and are contemplating college and other options.
Girls who have rejoined school after a gap of some years. (Continued on page 6)
August 2019 3
SARITA BRARA, New Delhi
Anganwadis here focus on the overall development of childrenOutcomes at anganwadis in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara and Chittaurgarh Districts show that handholding by a voluntary organisation can make a world of difference to grassroots institutions. They can play a crucial role in improving the nutrition, health and education status of children in rural India. The Khushi Project in Rajasthan is showing the way
It took just a few minutes for children aged between three and six years to convert a
heap of pebbles into a number of squares, circles, rectangles and triangles on the floor. They may not have been perfect replicas, but the joy it sparked in them was electrifying.
The activity was taking place at the anganwadi in Gatheela Kheda, a village in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara District. This is one among 1078 child care centres being run under the Khushi Project in three blocks each, of Bhilwara and Chittaurgarh Districts. The objective, since it started in 2016, has been to strengthen the quality of health and nutrition programmes being run by grassroots institutions like anganwadis.
This one at Gatheela was headed by 50-year-old Sne-hlata Sharma, who blended easily with the children as they together enacted a poem in a sing-song manner, moving their bodies in tandem. The décor at the anganwadi may not match that of an elite play-school in a metropolitan city, but in terms of quality and involvement of both children and teacher, it was not lacking in any way. “In fact, children from some of the privately-run playschools in Bhilwara have shifted to these anganwadis because of their better functioning,” says Gya-nendra Vishwakarma, Khushi’s project coordinator.
Last year, when 100 per cent of the children — 2400 from anganwadis in Bhilwara — were mainstreamed into formal schools, it prompted the commu-nity to turn it into a festival. So, the villagers celebrated Shala Pravesh Utsav with school kits being given to all new entrants.
The curricula and activities at the anganwadis are devised towards the overall development of the children. Besides taking care of the physical and mental aspects, the endeavour is to also help them converse, by develop-ing their vocabulary, creativity, social behaviour and sensitivity towards the environment.
For each of these goals, the milestones are well-defined and detailed in an activity book pro-vided to the anganwadi workers after they are trained under the project and provided orientation from time to time. “Engaging a
child for four hours is a big chal-lenge and has to be done such that the child does not lose inter-est or get bored,” explains Vish-wakarma. Therefore, all learning takes place through storytelling, poetry, games, creative activi-ties and incentives to motivate the children.
Another challenge that Khushi coordinators confronted at the commencement of the project was fake enrolment of children in anganwadis. While children’s names existed in the attendance register, they were not coming to the anganwadi. Sometimes, they only turned up for the mid-day meal and would leave after that.
According to data collected from the angawadis, there has been improvement since the project started in both atten-dance and retention of children for the mandatory four hours. “The children now don’t say ‘madam, janwa (shall I go?)’ after having their meals, as was the case earlier. Now they want to stay on and enjoy every bit of whatever we are doing here,” says Sharma. That was also evi-dent from the active participa-tion of the children, whether it involved identifying birds and animals, reciting poems or creating things from waste material.
To involve the parents, ‘port-folio bags’ are created which are filled with what the child has made. These are showcased at the monthly meetings so that parents can see the progress of their wards. Periodic health check-ups are organised for the children and special attention given to those suffering from malnutrition through home vis-its. “We even try to celebrate birthdays of the children attend-ing anganwadis as an incentive,” says Vishwakarma.
“Our focus is on building the capacity of anganwadi workers, strengthening technical support systems, improving infrastruc-ture and creating innovative teaching and learning material from local waste and resources. So, we use pebbles, clay, card-board, waste paper, fallen tree leaves and other such things,” explains Akhilesh Dubey, proj-ect manager of Care India’s Khushi.
Dubey says for effective functioning of the anganwa-dis, the active involvement and
support of self-help groups, ICDS (Integrated Child Devel-opment Services) officials at the block level, the local com-munity as well the corporate sector is invaluable. Care India
works towards coordination amongst all the stakehold-ers. For instance, the Gatheela Kheda anganwadi was able to raise Rs 2.5 lakh in kind from the community and panchayat
functionaries as well as support in other initiatives.
(Courtesy: The Hindu BusinessLine)
(Continued from page 1)
Snehlata Sharma with children at the anganwadi in Gatheela Kheda.
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Himalayas Climate Adapta-tion Programme (IHCAP) of the Swiss Agency for Develop-ment and Cooperation, and the Department of Science and Tech-nology, Government of India and the Department of Ecol-ogy, Environment and Remote Sensing, Jammu and Kashmir, says “Climate change is a major challenge for agriculture, food security and rural livelihood and poor, small, marginal and rural communities are likely to be hit hardest.” India, he says, is more vulnerable to climate change in view of its large population and the fact that over 70 per cent of the people are dependent on agriculture.
“In Jammu and Kashmir, there has been a paradigm shift in the rainfall pattern and other cli-mate parameters which includes increase/ decrease in average temperature regime, water lev-els of rivers and streams, snow-fall and drying up of springs and depletion of ground water, as result of which the produc-tion and productivity of crops has been reduced to a great
extent in the rain-fed (kandi) areas. Therefore, there is need to promote climate-resilient
development pathways by pro-viding support to agriculture,” Andrabi explains.
Government support to agriculture...
Smoke billows out of a brick kiln chimney in a village in Budgam District.
August 20194 August 2019 5
AJIT KUMAR PANDA, Kendrapada, Odisha
Climate refugees – of vanishing villages and a displaced populationStripped of their homes and their livelihood by the relentless advance of the sea, displaced villagers in Odisha struggle to reestablish their lives. Government efforts towards rehabilitation are woefully inadequate. Here is a story with some telling pictures to boot, which together speak loudly about the plight of the villagers and the need for a shift in policy to consider such people ‘climate refugees’
LIFE IN THE SUNDARBANS
Satabhaya, a group of seven villages once located in Kendrapada District of
Odisha, bordering the Bay of Bengal, has vanished. The rising waters of the Bay have engulfed the villages over the course of 40 years. Jagabandhu, who used to live in one of these villages, points far out to sea, and says “the villages once stood there…beyond the big waves you see now”.
Two villages, Govindpur and Mohanpur, were submerged in 1971, killing more than a thou-sand people. The remaining five were gradually washed away by the sea. Kanhupur was the last go, in 2011, Jagabandhu says.
The older villagers give a vivid description of how the sea engulfed the land, stripping people of life and livelihood. “Ingression of the sea into the land increased over the years, forcing the villag-ers to move farther and farther inland and, in course of time, new villages came up; but there was no escape from the advancing sea.
All the villages and the crop-lands that spread along the 12 km-long coast of Satabhaya were wiped out and, as a consequence, more than 800 families who were eking out a living from agriculture and fishing, lost their livelihood,” says 80-year-old Bhulekha Par-ida, one of the affected villagers.
Bhulekha was allotted one tenth of an acre of land by the
government at a place called Bagapatia, 12 km far from Satab-haya, and given Rs 1.5 lakh to construct a house to resettle. However, he did not get any com-pensation against the loss of his two-and-a-half acres of cropland that was once the major source of livelihood for his family.
Brahmananda Das tells a simi-lar story. He had two-and-a-half acres of land and five cows in Satabhaya. “Our croplands were being inundated regularly by sea water since the super cyclone of 1999. We were getting food for six months from the land and the rest of the year we managed through fishing in the sea and creeks. We lost everything; it is difficult to feed my family of seven with-out an assured income. I have to search for jobs all through the year in nearby towns,” says Das.
A total of 571 families of Satabhaya have been resettled in Bagapatia by the government. Different development schemes have been clubbed to achieve this. Each family has been allot-ted land and given money to con-struct a house.
A sum of Rs 10000 was allot-ted to fill the low-lying, swampy land, but, “it takes almost one and half lakh to do it; how
can a person construct a house with such a meagre amount of money?” asks Sudarshan, a vil-lager who is leading a movement demanding rehabilitation of the people of Satabhaya. “We started our movement in 2007 and tried for ten long years to get even this support from the government,” he says, dismissing the financial aid as a mere ‘drop in the ocean’.
Barahipur, one of the five new settlements which came up as the people moved inland to combat erosion, still exists, with a couple of households there. These people have not yet been allotted lands in Bagapatia. A sand dune acts as a barrier between the village and the sea. “But we have seen such dunes being devoured by the ris-ing sea water levels in the past,” say the villagers.
Manorama Behera, who has an eight-year-old son, says, “my husband is a daily wager, he goes everyday to nearby towns to work. I stay here with my child and a couple of goats. The government has not provided any homestead land to us in Bagapatia.”
Manorama earns Rs 8000 - Rs10000 a year by rearing goats. This may seem a paltry sum to most people, but to Manorama, it’s a big amount. “We have to
sell these animals if we leave this place,” she says, as there are no grazing lands in Bagapatia. Sev-eral households from Satabhaya lost their livelihood from animal keeping after shifting to the new settlement.
Sukadeba Behera has been allotted land in Bagapatia, but is still living in Barahipur. “My family had been divided into three separate households after the marriages of my sons, but the government has allotted only one portion of land to us. I have let my elder son take that, as he has two sons of marriageable age,” rues Sukadeba. According to govern-ment documents, 247 families are yet to be allotted land and other benefits.
Finding a livelihood is not easy for the families in Bagapatia. Most go back to the old villages every day to collect crabs and fish. Babaji Samal (60) of Satabhaya was a landless person who shifted to Okilapala Village much before the rehabilitation process started, and settled in a small piece gov-ernment land which is yet to be registered in his name. “I walk ten km every day to reach my old village, crossing a crocodile-in-fested creek, to collect crabs and fish,” he says, displaying a small
bag filled with small crabs. “I will sell these for Rs 20 to manage my food today.”
Lack of viable job opportunities has forced about 400 youths from the affected villages to migrate
to Kerala in search of employ-ment. “What will they do here? The villages had more than 3000 acres of agricultural land that provided jobs to many. Dairy and goat keeping brought additional
income. The loss of these sources has forced our youths to go to alien lands in search of income,” lament the villagers.
Government support for people to resettle in Bagapatia, including
community infrastructure like anganwadi centres, schools, mar-ket places, water and electricity supply and crematoriums, has been provided. A multi-purpose cyclone shelter constructed by the
Odisha State Disaster Manage-ment Authority is the only work done under the disaster response programme. The people, how-ever, feel the measures aren’t suf-ficient. “These programmes do not address our livelihood issues; they do not compensate us for the loss we faced in agriculture and fishing,” they say.
Ranjan Panda, a nationally acclaimed water activist and cli-mate expert, agrees. “The gov-ernment should learn from the Satabhaya experience. It is time to come up with a policy that addresses these issues and treats people affected by sea erosion and climate change as climate refugees,” he says.
Sacred groves, the water wizardsA study from Uttarakhand finds that water from sacred groves conforms to all WHO standards of potability and is of better quality than water from surrounding areas.
PURNA JANA, others
Sacred groves are undisturbed or preserved patches of vegetation or forested areas located on the outskirts of villages, towns or plains that are conserved by communities by dedicating them to local folk deities or ancestral spirits. Locals believe that the forests belong to deities and their destruction could anger them, a belief that has functioned well as a means to protect these small patches of forests.
Sacred groves play an important role in preserving biodiversity by supporting and protecting a range of birds and animals. They also help in soil and water conservation. The forests of sacred groves are found to have a greater watershed value in terms of water yield and quality than other types of landscapes. Ponds, streams or springs found in the sacred groves serve as water sources for the area around the year even when other water sources go dry. The vegetative cover, on the other hand, helps in recharging aquifers, improving the soil stability and in preventing soil erosion. Experts estimate that the total number of sacred groves in India could be in the range of 100000 – 150000.
Around 133 sacred groves have been documented from the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. They are locally known by various names such as Deo Bhumi and Bugyal (sacred alpine meadows). The groves are dedicated to local deities such as Chandrabadni Devi, Hariyali Devi, Kotgadi Ki Kokila Mata, Pravasi Pavasu Devata, Devrada and Saimyar and are believed to be protected by them. The most commonly found trees in the groves include Turnip-root chervil, Himalayan cedar, Sanjeevani, Indian Barberry, Himalayan firethorn and Indian valerian.
The groves of Uttarakhand serve as a gene pool of diverse species of plants and animals that inhabit the forests. Various traditional practices sustained by the local communities play an important role in preserving threatened plant and animal species in the region.
Surface water in the form of springs of sacred groves is commonly used for drinking, irrigation and domestic purposes in Garhwal region of Uttarakhand. However, not much is known about the quality of the water.
A study, ‘Surface water quality in sacred groves of Garhwal Himalayan Region’ published in Current Science made a comparative assessment of surface water quality from sacred groves with that from the surrounding areas and also tried to assess the impact of the type of trees in the forest on water quality.
The water quality of surface water samples from streams in three sacred groves, Hariyali Devi, Tarkeshwar and Ravigaon of Garhwal Region, was compared to that from the surrounding areas. Water quality of oak-dominated and deodar-dominated forests was also compared as a part of the study. The study showed that the water samples of all the three sacred groves conformed to WHO standards for potable water and was of much better quality than that of water from the adjacent sites.
The type of forest and ground vegetation was found to impact the quality with water from oak-dominated forests having better quality than that from deodar-dominated forests which showed higher levels of hardness and total dissolved solids. This is because oak-dominated forests support better growth of ground vegetation than deodar forests. Lesser ground vegetation makes the soil in the deodar forests much more vulnerable to erosion.
The study provides valuable information on the role of sacred groves in maintaining high-quality water resources that serve to meet the drinking water needs of local communities in times of water scarcity. Sacred groves are, however, disappearing at a fast rate due to various reasons such as diminishing faith in traditional belief systems that maintain them, rapid urbanisation, pollution, developmental interventions such as road, railway track and dam constructions, sand mining, destruction of forests for agriculture and commercial forestry, encroachment, increasing pressures due to livestock grazing and fuel wood collection.
(Courtesy: indiawaterportal.org)
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Auli Bugyal, a meadow in Uttarakhand.
From left: Land devoured by the rising sea; the sand dune between Barahipur and the sea; vast patches of crop land became barren after inundation by sea water; Barahipur, where a few households are still living; and people returning to Bagapatia after catching crabs in Satabhaya.
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L-r: Remains of Satabhaya Village after being ravaged by the sea; Bagapatia, where the people were resettled; and the century-old Panchu Barahi Temple, the deity shifted in 2018.
Land that has been devastated and now lies deserted. Right, a tube-well in Satabhaya Village – the lone witness of sea erosion.
August 20196
PREETI MEHRA, New Delhi
A sewing initiative empowers women, gives them dignity
Anuradha’s life has changed dramatically in the last two years.
Married at a young age, she moved with her husband from Uttar Pradesh to Kolkata and then to Delhi. Here, they lived with her parents and siblings, trying hard to make do with a subsistence income. While her husband made furniture, her role was to complete household chores and look after their son and daughter.
“I would sit dejected by myself in my free time not sure what was the way forward, or if there was even one. But all that changed when I was invited for a neighbourhood meeting set up by voluntary organisation Paras. I came to know that I could get an Usha sewing machine, get trained in stitching and open my own tailoring school. I jumped at the idea and there has been no turning back since.”
Now 32, Anuradha runs her own Usha Silai School in Delhi’s Nand Lal basti (slum), with 10 women as students. She teaches them to cut and stitch women’s apparel, specially sari blouses, petticoats and traditional salwar-kurta suits.
By teaching others and com-pleting orders that come to her from the neighbourhood, she is able to pay back Rs 2180 every month towards the Rs 40000-loan she took from a microfinance company to build her home, a one-room set with kitchen. “Now I always have some money left over and am able to pay for extra tuition for my children who study in a government school,” she says, grateful for this interven-tion in her life.
Yasmeen’s life has got a simi-lar boost due to her grit and per-severance. A child bride at 16 years, she had no idea what was
in store for her. Life, she says, carried on unthinkingly with the tough task of bringing up four children, but the last few years have seen a turnaround and her daily routine has started to eco-nomically empower her ever since she underwent sewing training and ventured to start her own school.
The 30-year-old spells out her schedule: “I start my day at 6 am. I send the children to school, then my husband, a daily wage plumber, leaves for work. After around two hours of housework, I am at my Usha sewing machine, to take class for the women who come to learn sewing.”
When Yasmeen finished her training, she received a free sewing machine, signage for the Usha Silai School she wanted to start and a syllabus for teach-ing students. “The whole family gains from this, my mother-in-law is happy that I am gainfully employed and sometimes helps with my work.”
Yasmeen finds her personality has also undergone a change. She is no longer shy and withdrawn, teaching others has helped her open up and become confident. Each student pays her Rs 200 as a fee. Stitching charges are about Rs 150 for a salwar suit, and Rs 120 for a blouse. She earns between Rs 3000 and Rs 4000 every month.
Anuradha and Yasmeen are just two examples of women who have emerged from the margins, have fortified them-selves with skills and set up their own enterprises. They are among a community of 20350 micro entrepreneurs across the country who are running sewing schools for women, along with their own tailoring shops.
Aided by Usha Social Ser-vices, schools have come up in
slums, shanties and colonies of big cities, small and medium towns, districts and villages. With only talent for tailoring as the criteria and no educational qualifications needed, a move-ment of sorts has started that attempts to build financial secu-rity for women from margina-lised sections of society. The women, on an average, earn Rs 1800 per month, with the high-est earning going up to Rs 56000 per month.
Thes community-based initia-tive that started in March 2011 has made substantial inroads, with 405000 women completing the stitching course to date and nearly 25000 women continuing to learn the art of sewing.
“It has been an amazing jour-ney comprising teaching, train-ing, and learning. It underscores the commitment and intent of the Usha Silai School initia-tive on identifying solutions to problems and focusing on action and implementation on ground. This journey has brought to the fore the potential these women have to perform when equipped with the right training and men-toring. It has also been a learn-ing in managing multi-sectoral partnerships that include NGOs, educational institutions, the women and their families,” says Priya Somaiya, director, Usha Social Services (USS), who has brought the initiative to this level.
One thing is for certain, Usha Silai Schools are equipped to
change the course of women’s lives. When introduced in Indore several years ago to offer a new vocation to women who had vowed to leave their caste-based job of manual scavenging, they became successful enablers. Later, thanks to the drive shown by the women and organisation Jan Sahas, which initiated the sewing schools, manual scav-engers got together to start their own garment label christened Dignity.
This is just one story of cour-age and conviction. Usha Social Services is brimming with tales from tribal villages, remote locations and urban shanties of women who fought, struggled, led and forged ahead in a single mission towards a livelihood that brings with it financial secu-rity and independence. Today, they are present in 29 States and seven union territories. Usha schools are also operating in Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. There are plans to take the initia-tive to all SAARC nations. You
can even adopt a silai (stitching) school for Rs 17000.
Somaiya, who has been closely watching the changes that have taken place in the lives of these micro entrepreneurs, sums it up aptly: “…the biggest driver is the fact that it gives them a dignified means of live-lihood in their own homes. It’s so heartening to see how their earnings are used for better edu-cation, nutrition and healthcare. Even more heartening is the fact that they become the centre of change in their own communi-ties as they further empower more women by teaching them the same skill.”
(Courtesy: The Hindu BusinessLine)
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Aided by Usha Social Services, schools have come up in slums, shanties and colonies of big cities, small and medium towns, districts and villages. With only talent for tailoring as the criteria and no educational qualification needed, a movement of sorts has started that attempts to build financial security for women from marginalised sections of society. This community-based initiative that started in March 2011 has helped 405000 women complete the stitching course to date
Micro entrepreneurs across the country run sewing schools for women, along with their own tailoring units.
These women now form the centre of change in their communities.
saw a quantum jump and stands at 81.9 per cent.
What has worked for Second Chance is that it tries to bridge the gap between basic concepts and the secondary school cur-riculum. This is done by simpli-fying the lessons and tracking assessment based on students’ performance as well as motiva-tion, building confidence and communication skills. Also, the teaching process is different from the usual – students are
grouped according to their level of knowledge and most study in groups, creating camaraderie and and engaging atmosphere. The students also get regular assignments and are assessed.
Anjubala Meghwal from Jhadol, Udaipur District, daugh-ter of a quarry worker, is a ben-eficiary of the Second Chance programme. Anju cleared her Standard 10 and 12 Boards through NIOS, and is currently in the first year of college. Over and above that, she has learnt to repair mobile phones as part
of a vocational course and has already opened a small unit. Everybody in her village knows where to go if their phones pack in.
The Second Chance Pro-gramme has given Anjubala a new lease of life. As she puts it, “Second Chance is not second for me. It is more than the first chance in my life!”
Dropouts get a second chance...(Continued from page 2)
August 2019 7
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NINGLUN HANGHAL, Manipur
The man who didn’t walk away from wasteTrash dumps moved Itombi Sadokpam of Manipur to action. Starting off as a ‘waste collector’, his motto was ‘reduce, recycle, reuse’. Initially, he did the waste collection, segregation and processing all by himself. Today, his agency employs 40 people at the recycling site, besides many others indirectly, such as marketing partners and suppliers, collectors and segregators
As a young student, Itombi Sadokpam often travelled by train. What caught his
eye during the trips, and left an indelible impression, were the huge waste dumps across vast areas in India’s cities and towns. His home town, Imphal, and other cities in Manipur, too, were staggering under the weight of waste everywhere, thanks to rapid urbanisation.
And so it was that, after com-pleting his bachelor’s in Com-puter Applications at Dehradun, Sadokpam came back home to Imphal and started a silent revo-lution — that of turning waste into usable commodities. He began his journey informally in 2000, literally picking up waste dumped in every corner of Imphal city. “I was constantly ridiculed,” he recalls.
Sadokpam started off as a ‘waste collector’, sending waste out to recycling agencies outside the state. His motto was ‘reduce, recycle, reuse’. Initially, he didn’t even have a machine and he did the waste collection, seg-regation and processing all by himself. He started off with a modest capital of a few lakhs of ripees and had four workers.
Sadokpam, now 37, learned the technical know-how along the way. He emphasises that his learning was mainly through hands-on involvement. With no technical training or formal edu-cation in waste management or recycling, he visited waste recy-cling plants to observe, study and replicate. “I participated in numerous technical exhibitions and networked with people, which helped me a lot,” he says. There is very little understand-ing and awareness about waste
recycling in Manipur, and that was why he had to do every-thing, initially, like a “one-man army”, he says.
As his work gained momentum, Sadokpam registered his firm — SJ Plastic Agency — in 2009. The agency today employs 40 people at the recycling site, besides many others indirectly, such as market-ing partners and suppliers/ collec-tors and segregators.
Sadokpam works on any plas-tic waste, including carry bags and water bottles. His firm pays Rs 5-15 for 10-15 kg of plastic waste — depending on the qual-ity, such as thickness, and condi-tion. His agency then segregates it by quality and colour after which comes the cutting and processing.
The company’s final products are flower pots, water bottles and water pipes, which are supplied across Imphal City and other towns in Manipur. According to Sadokpam, his USP (unique selling proposition) is “good quality and reasonable price”. A popular drinking water sup-plier in Manipur, brand Likla, uses recycled bottles supplied by Sadokpam’s company.
Now, Sadokpam has a plas-tic waste recycling plant on his two-hectare piece of land in Sangaiprou, Imphal. His annual turnover is about Rs 1 crore. “I have also started a new recycling plant in Bishnupur to recycle plastic waste and for manufac-turing water pipes and septic tanks,” he says.
The city of Imphal alone gener-ates about 72 tonnes of waste per day (2011 estimate). The largest chunk is organic waste, about 70 per cent, followed by plastic waste (around 11 per cent), followed by
paper waste. These wastes are mostly dumped in open spaces, access ways, riverside/ waterways and the road side.
The state government has effected legislation towards waste management — the Imphal Municipal Council (Cleanliness and Sanitation) By-Laws, 2011. In 2018, the State notified an imme-diate and complete ban on the use of plastic carry-bags of more than 50 microns in thickness.
However, Sadokpam says it is impossible to stop plastic use. “From the moment we wake up in the morning, we use plastic... for instance, we pick up the toothbrush first, right?” he asks. “So plastic is an integral part of human lives now.” Therefore, he advocates reducing the use of plastic while finding alternative ways to re-use plastic waste.
The campaign to reduce plastic must call for people to first stop generating plastic waste, before moving on to putting an end to the use of plastic. The state gov-ernment recently came up with
the idea of using plastic waste for road construction. This, says Sadokpam, is very creative and innovative for, besides the re-use of plastic waste, this would help in development of roads — which are in very bad shape in Manipur.
Plastic covers used to pack chips, eatables or tobacco, for instance, are thick and tough, and not easy to recycle. They are therefore ideal for use in road-building, he says. Currently, Sadokpam’s limited resources do not allow him to recycle such tough plastics; therefore he exports them mainly to Guwa-hati, Kolkata and Delhi.
“Recycling and reuse of such waste will go a long way towards waste management,” says Sadokpam, and stresses the role of the state. “Recycling some kinds of plastic waste requires a huge investment – that is why the state government’s involve-ment is crucial.”
(Courtesy: The Hindu BusinessLine)
Waste collected and processed in the factory emerges as the final product. Right: Itombi Sadokpam.
Sadokpam’s company makes flower pots, water bottles and water pipes from waste, and supplies them across Imphal and to other towns in Manipur.
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8 Registered with The Registrar of Newspapers for India under TNENG/2009/27557
BHARAT DOGRA, Hazaribagh, Jharkhand
A helping hand to rehabilitate the mentally ill in remote villagesMental health is a little understood, poorly treated and badly managed menace in the interior villages of India. Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra, a voluntary health organisation, has been making sustained efforts with the help of local organisations to improve awareness and make proper treatment accessible in remote areas of Bihar and Jharkhand
While studies show that serious mental health problems exist
in remote villages, very little effort has been made to take mental health services to such areas. However, Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra (NBJK), a leading voluntary health organisation, and several sister organisations are trying to bridge the gap in many interior villages of Jharkhand and Bihar. Their efforts are being supported by the Ranchi Institute of Neuro-Psychiatry and Allied Sciences (RINPAS).
In the interior areas, poverty and ignorance prompt many families to approach witch doc-tors and quacks in or near their villages rather than make efforts to get proper medical treatment. The stigma attached to visiting a mental hospital is also a demoti-vating factor.
The Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra and the other voluntary agencies organise mental health camps at various places, making mental health services accessible. With such help becoming logisti-cally easier to get, more people started coming for treatment. Awareness of the extent of the problem also increased, result-ing in more attention being paid to the matter during state-level policy making efforts.
The importance of commu-nity-based rehabilitation is stressed at these camps and, as a result, caregivers are now see-ing significant improvement in the condition of their wards. The programmes have also proved to be a good example of how activ-ists and members of various small organisations can cooper-ate with a bigger and more expe-rienced organisation (NBJK) to take a badly needed programme to a much wider area.
Several patients have made remarkable progress following treatment at the mental health camps.
US is a trader living in Par-• tapi Village (Barachatti Block of Gaya District). He was looked up to because of his success in business, and his happy family. However, when he suddenly developed mental health problems, both his trade and family were threatened. His three adoles-cent sons felt traumatised. A monthly mental health camp
organised close to his vil-lage proved a blessing. He was able to access treatment regularly. US is now living a normal life.KB lives in Hilsa (Nalanda • District). He had fallen prey to substance abuse, and treat-ment from quacks did not help. He had to be kept chained at home while his wife and children struggled to eke out a living. He was identified as having mental health issues during a survey conducted by NBJK with the support of the Basic Needs organi-sation. KB was treated in a mental health camp organised in Biharsharif. His condition gradually improved and he has now started contributing to the family income.MK of Jarmundi Block (San-• thal Pargana) had tendencies of self-harm and violence. A stage was reached when she left her home and started liv-ing under a tree. Her super-stition-ridden family did not take her for treatment. Even after she was identi-fied through a mental health programme conducted by Lok Kalyan Seva Kendra, it was only with great dif-ficulty that the family could be convinced to bring her in for treatment. But today, she is near normal, and has resumed her pastoral work.RS was identified during • a mental health survey in Kahudeeg Village (Gaya District). His family was keeping him in chains due to his unpredictable ways. After
treatment for about three years, he is now near normal, though still on medication.TR had to close down his • shop due to debt. His mental equilibrium was shattered. Because of deteriorating con-ditions of home, his wife also fell ill, but struggled bravely to take TR to a mental health camp organised by NBJK. After treatment, TR began to get better. NBJK also gave the family a sum of Rs 10000 to help them re-start life.
Newly-married U of Kodarma • was a valued member of her marital home till she sud-denly developed mental health problems. Her parents were asked to take her back to her maternal home. Her old father could not manage to get treatment for her, and she was simply kept locked up in a room. When social workers attached to NBJK heard about U, they managed to convince her father to take her to the Biharsharif mental health camp. U recovered significantly in six months. The organisation made avail-able Rs 8000 to her as liveli-hood support. It also invited her husband and in-laws for discussions. They agreed to take her back and U subse-quently even found a job.
Medical treatment alone isn’t enough to get these patients back into the mainstream. Sus-tained counselling, not only for the patient but also for family members, with repeated visits by social workers to convince families to seek qualified medi-cal help for patients rather than rely on quacks, and to motivate them to keep attending camps so that patients can be evalu-
ated and treatment continued, is crucial.
As such, social workers and activists attached to the NBJK mental health programme played a major role in the recovery and rehabilitation of the mentally challenged. The caregivers of the patients also played a significant part in getting them back into the mainstream. In some cases, it was the spouse of the patient, in other instances, the children.
A heartwarming and encour-aging aspect of the entire effort is that several patients who recov-ered are trying to help secure and continue treatment for others who are similarly affected. For example, US, the trader from Partapi Village, is keen to help other mental health patients. And P, who was in a hopeless situa-tion at one time, but benefitted from the programme, is helping with the treatment of five other patients.
Though the decade-long proj-ect has ended, NBJK continues to organise camps for people suffering from mental illness and epilepsy. Efforts to link rehabili-tation to strong self-help groups in these villages have also led to their sustainability.
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Care-givers and patients at Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra attending a mental health camp.
Rehabilitation is possible with treatment.
