Presentation by….SOURODEEP BOSE ABHISHEK MANDAL

RURAL LIVING AND LEARNING

EXPERIANCE

VISIT TO

“SULKAPARA,NAGRAKATABLOCK,JALPAIGURI”

(Under guidance of PRASARI)

LOCATION

ROUTE MAP

Overview of the studied area

Alipurduar subdivision + Jalpaiguri sadar subdivision + Malbazar subdivision = Jalpaiguri

district.

Malbazar subdivision = Mal Block + Matiali Block + Nagrakata Block

Nagrakata block = Angrabhasa I + Angrabhasa II + Sulkapara + Champaguri + Looksan ( 5 Gram

Panchayets)

Information about the studied area

District- Jalpaiguri Block- Nagrakata Subdivision- Malbazar Gram Panchayet- Sulkapara Gram Panchayet Police station- Nagrakata Police station Population in Sulkapara Gram Panchayet- 27189

(Source- Panchayet office) Distribution of population by sex- 14083(MALE),

13106(FEMALE) Population of SCHEDULE TRIBE- 10772(Sulkapara

Gram Panchayet)

Work done throughout the study tour

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6

Work Done

Transect Walk

Visit to a nearby village( SukhaniBusty) for data collection purpose.

Visit to “ Sulkapara Gram Panchayet”, Block Primary Healthcentre, Nagrakata Police station.

Participatory Rural Appraisaldone at NagrakataBusty 1.

Visit to ICDS centre ( Anganwadi),Health camp, Pictures taken from the area relevant to our study.

Visit to Nagrakata Busty 1;Interacting with a SELF HELP GROUP, Awareness generation session.

Information's gathered in the study tour(About area covered under SULKAPARA GP)

₰ Tribes present- Mainly Santhal, Munda and Oraon.₰ Occupation- Paddy and Maize cultivation; Labour in tea

garden; fishing activities; labouring job in factories or industrial units.

₰ Education- Literacy level in jalpaiguri district is 73.79%(Census 2011);but in the studied area most of the people whom the students visited were not well educated; few were able to read and write properly.

₰ Sanitation Status- Open field defecation well exists, very few latrine in the houses were observed.

₰ Livestocks- Mostly cows, goats and hens present in the houses where students visited.

Contd…₪ Housing pattern- Diverse categories of houses were observed;

they were made with brick, some of the houses of the houses were kaccha (made either with straw or thatch);this makes the fact evident that heterogeneous economic status prevalent among the villagers.

₪ Religion- Mostly hindu rural folk reside there, tribes have separate religious belief.

₪ Educational institutions (In Nagrakata Block) -Nagrakata High School (Co-ed, Bengali)St. Capitanio Girls High School (Girls,Hindi)St. Mary's Boarding High School (Boys,Hindi)Chengmari Tea Estate High School (Co-ed, Hindi)Nagrakata Hindi Madhaymik Vidyalaya (Co-ed, Hindi)Sulkapara high school (Co-ed, Bengali)Sunrising english school( co-ed, english)Ekalavya School (Co-ed, Boarding school) etc

Utilization of available forest resource

Housing pattern

Picture of Latrine in few houses

Educational institutions

Important vehicles observed

Religious institutions

Roadside awareness generating pictures by PanchayAt

Transport facilities

Local shops and nearby market

Banking facility and Microfinance institution

Day 1- Transect walk

The students observeda) Settlement pattern b) Housing pattern c) Condition of roads d) Distribution of livestocke) Important institutions in the locality f) Dress code of the villagersg) Local available resource(including water

resource)i) Communication system

Day 2- Visit to SUKHANI BUSTY

CONSTRAINTS

1) Open field defecation.2) Hospital is 12 km away and no doctor

present in the nearby area.3) They don’t have access safe drinking

water and Electricity; poor condition of roads.

4) Seasonal unemployment.5) No co-operation and help from the

Panchayet for the betterment of the villagers.(According to the villagers

whom students visited)6) 6 months cultivation & fishing

activities and other 6 months in search of job(migratory jobs or in

nearby factories)

INTERVENTIONS( ADVISORY SERVICE)

a) To boil the water before drinking(especially for the infants and child) for making themselves and their

child free from diseases like cholera,dysentery etc.

b) To mobilize savings and try to make a pit toilet surrounded by thatch or bamboo stick within a year.(Since houses are very close and families have very good bonding, students

advised atleast one toilet per 3 families)

c) Since many of the villagers are seasonally unemployed, the students

advised to use the local available resources for income generation.(Eg-With sal leaf, they can make sal leaf

plates)

Key findings

• To defecate in fields and rivers became their habit because the students observed television, motor cycle in few house but no proper latrine; very few houses have toilet.

• Tribes are predominantly present in the village(SANTAL,MUNDA, ORAON).

• From secondary source,(hotel owners, nearby factory workers) the students came to know that most of the villagers(male) irrespective of their employment status were engaged in taking alcohol, daily in the evening, together.

• Though most of the villagers have BPL card but most of them don’t avail the facilities of the BPL card.

Evidences

Day 3- Visit to SULKAPARA GRAM PANCHAYAT

• Political Party in Power –Indian National Congress

• Pradhan name- Finjnur Patoyari

• Upo pradhan name -Anandya Toppo

• P.O - Sulkapara

• P.S- Nagrakata

• Forests covered-Panjhora, Lekhnia

Hierarchy Functions Few functions are:a) Programmes monitored -

N.R.E.G.S(National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), R.G.V.Y (Rajiv Gandhi Vidyutikaran Yojna), I.A.Y(Indira Awaas Yojna)

b) Making Self help group and empowering its members, within the framework of S.G.S.Y.

c) With collaboration with CINI(Child in Need India), Sulkapara GP is working for the women and children in terms of generating awareness about maternal health and child health.

d) Participating in the developmental activities conducted by the government.

PRADHAN

UPO PRADHAN

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

SECRETARY

NIRMAN SAHAYAK

JOB ASSISTANT

SAHAYAK

G.R.S( GRAM RAJGARSAHAYAK)

S.T.P( CONSTUCTION WORK)

V.L.E (DATA ENTRY)

TAX COLLECTER

G.P KARMI

G.P.R.P( SHG PURPOSE WORK)

Visit to Sulkapara BPHC

Informations collected

a) Treatment of NCD( NON

COMMUNICABLE DIEASE) patients suffering from high blood sugar,hypertention,cancer,cardiovascular diease etc.

b) Presence of ANM( Auxiliary nurse midwife) who looks after the pregnant mother; Mainly emphasizes on Maternal and Child Health(MCH).

c) MATRIJAN(Ambulance) which is used for giving emergency service to the pregnant mother during the time of delivery ;and also post delivery.

d) There are also health centres under this BPHC for proving service against malaria, diarrhoea and creating campaign against those dieases.

HIERARCHY• BMOH

• MEDICALOFFICER

• CLARK

• BLOCK ACCOUNT MANAGER

BSI( BLOCK SANITARY INSPECTOR)

• MI(MALARIA INSPECTOR)

• PHN(PRIMARY HEALTH NURSE)

• BPHN(BLOCK HEALTH PRIMARY NURSE)

Visit to NAGRAKATA POLICE STATION PURPOSE- To know

about the criminal offences and type of social imbalances prevailing in the area.

Interaction with Officer-In charge Mr. Pankaj Thappa

Informations collected-

1) Women trafficking is the main social problem in the district; mainly women of 14-30 years (whose husbands or fathers are out of work due to closing of tea gardens) are the targeted group of the brokers; they are mainly taken to delhi,uttar Pradesh,Mumbai,Kolkata,etc.

2) Wild animals (elephant , leopard ) attack frequenty in the forest fringe village.

3) Reports of child abuse, wife battering (highly related with alcoholism),sexual violence are infrequent.

4) Illegal(not licensed) prostitution is prevalent in hotels & resorts in the nearby tourist spots.

5) Eve teasing, drug addiction, robbery are very less in that area.

6) Alcoholism prevails in large scale, but recently reports of alcohol abuse and domestic violence has reduced.

Day 4 – PRA session(at nagrakata busty-1)

TAIL METHOD PROBLEM TREE

Tail Method• ELEPHANT ATTACK

• UNAVAILABILITY OF

• SAFE DRINKING WATER

• LACK OF IRRIGATION

FLASH FLOOD

NO NEARBY HOSPITAL

LACK OF EDUCATION

PROBLEM OF ROADWAYS

& TRANSPORT

PROBLEM OF

UNEMPLOYMENT

LACK OF SANITATION

UNACCESEIBILITY OF MARKET

PROBLEM EFFECT SOLUTION

1) Poverty a)Lack of proper educationb)Food scarcityc)Deprivation from improved treatment

Mobilization of savings

2) Unemployment Unavailability of proper nutrition leading to ill-health condition.

Tenacity of completing atleast secondary examination.

3) Migration a)Loneliness felt by the family membersb)Lack of male youth in the areac)Extramarital affair.

Generation of local employment opportunity by government.

4) Dowry a) Fear of girl childb) Loss of Property

Avoiding early marriage so that the girl can get time for her Empowerment

5) Lack of Education a) Enhancement in unemploymentb) Behavioural problem

To get the opportunity of free education .

Day 5 – Visit to Anganwadi(Under ICDS)

Informations gathered

₪ 1 worker + 1 helper for less than 30 children in one centre.

₪ Workers are trained in Kolkata.

₪ 1 supervisor is in charge of generally 6 workers which constitute 6 centres.

₪ 377 centres in Nagrakata block

₪ Time of class- 7am to 10am

₪ Food- khichuri (3days),Rice with egg and vegetables(3days); Tiffin- Puffed rice, Biscuit etc

₪ Age of the children(getting enrolled in Anganwari)- 3 years

₪ Duration – 3 years to 5 years 11 months

₪ Teaching aids & methods- Charts, pictures, Posters and through Games, poems, songs etc.

₪ Distribution of the food is done to different centres from block office.

₪ Various store houses are there in villages for keeping the procured rice.

Visit to Health camp(Under ICDS)

When a woman becomes aware about her pregnancy she gets

herself enrolled within the ICDS framework( gets Mother and

Child Protection card) for which she becomes a beneficiary; and

hence gets free medical check-up during her prenatal and

postnatal period.

Entry card is issued against each pregnant mother.

One health camp is organized in every month in each

Anganwadi centre which is headed by ANM(Auxiliary Nurse

Midwife); Anganwadi workers and ASHA workers gives

assistance.

Work generally done includes weight check-up of the infants

and children, Blood Pressure check-up of the mother,giving

basic assistance to mothers about child care.

Informations gathered

Day 6 – Awareness Generation

Session.

Community Action Plan

Goal-1)To make the majority of the villagers establish their own toilet(Pit toilet).

2) To make the women self sufficient and self dependent.

Objective- 1) To make them understand the importance of Latrine in their house i.e to improve their Sanitation status.

2) To make the majority of women participate in income generating activities.

Area coverage- Area covered by SUKHANI BUSTY and NAGRAKATA BUSTY 1.

Time period- Within 1 year, we would like to see most of the women of the area getting empowered financially and contributing to the family for construction of Latrine in their house along with family welfare.

Plan of Action- Encouraging the existing SHG/JLG (under BANDHAN NBFC-MFI,SGSY)members of the village to join the venture of making the rural folk understand the necessity of maintaining proper health and hygiene; and to change the mindset of other women in achieving self-sufficiency other than only child rearing.

Generating awareness about sanitation by the local women belonging to informal groups with aids and materials and giving training about handicrafts and embroidery to other women for making them financially independent.

Resource required – 1) Human Resource

2) Material Resource.

Human Resource- Approximately 10 SHG/JLG groups constituting 100-120 members

Material Resource- Awareness generating materials like posters,leaflets,charts; microphone,10-12 vehicles(Rickshaw van) for quick moving of the workers.

• Selection of the SHG/JLG members – Those members who are self

employed(small scale entrepreneurs) i.e have expertise in making

handicraft items,soft toy,embroidery etc ; those who can create

homophilus communication situation.

• Execution of the plan – Alloting 50-55 SHG/JLG members in each of

the village, assigning them responsibilities of convincing the ruralites to

construct pit-toilet to remain disease-free and to safeguard the women

from losing their prestige & esteem from others while defecating in

open field; it should be done by awareness generating sessions;

Advisory services- Wash hands with soap,Use sandals while going to

toilet,flush with water after and before defecating in the toilet.

• Giving training to women by the SHG members and then employing 2-3

women under 1 self employed woman(entrepreneur),so that both the

parties would be benefited equally.

• Impact Assessment- At an interval of 3 months, a follow up or

monitoring procedure would be conducted to ascertain the magnitude of

benefit in the economic status of the women and in accordance with that

further strategy will be implemented.

COMMENT SUGGESTION

1) Elephant attack is the major problem

for the people of Nagrakata Busty 1 and

native villages.

Change in the cropping pattern i.e in

place of maize and paddy(favourite crop

of elephant), villagers can cultivate chili

and turmeric; then the rate of attack can

be controlled.

2) Open field defecation well exist in the

villages of sulkapara GP.

Active participation of voluntary

organizations and Panchayat in

generating awareness among people

about health and hygiene.

3) Migration among the youth is a

dominant problem in villages.

Creation of employment oppurtunity in

the local area and if possible then

enrolling the unemployed youth in the

Rural self employment training institutes.

Our Learnings/ Conclusion

The students had the experience of working 7 days in village for the welfare of the villagers.

Giving basic assistance or inputs in terms of advice to the villagers from our own mind which came due to our thought process gave a lot of satisfaction; and it made the students more animated towards this discipline.

Inspite of all the constraints, villagers live their life and gives a warm reception to the non-knowers with a big heart; it drove the students and made them more humane.

The students learned how to organize an awareness generation session and how to ensure people’s participation in that session.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT• Special thanks to Mr. Amitava Dutta,

assistant professor, RKMVU.

• People of nagrakata.