Conference Call with Nandlal [Jul 2, 2008]
Attended by: Gaurav, Bharath, Ganesh, Murali, Arvind, Vinod (Austin)
Responsible for all the activities for the Rajatalab Center.
* The education centers – two permanent centers and some NFE centers
* Teacher training programs
* There are 25-30 self help groups (SHG) working on women empowerment
* Recently started Kishori centres to help adolescent girls
* Work on the proper implementation of RTI and RTF – PDS system, anganwaadi systems, mid-day-meal schemes in other schools
Also a member of the Asha Coordination group – Vijay Bhai, Vallabh, Arvind and Nandlal are members – for UP projects and are responsible for monitoring these projects
* Organized the protests against the bottling plant (Coca-Cola) at Mehdiganj. Over the last year this is what has happened-
o Protest at DM headquarters
o Action 2007 at Delhi
o Nandigram to Gorai – Rally organized by NAPM
o Water Rights Conference at Mehdiganj– 2008
* Kalamanch - the street play team made up of local youth
Q. A question regarding SHG – what is the role and what they do?
A: It has been running since 1998 in 25-30 villages. In each village 25-30 women form a team. First we talk about the condition of women in UP. Every month we have a meeting in the village. And once in a month, active volunteers come to the center for a meeting. Women don't have financial independence. Getting economic independence will give them a lot of rights. They collect personal money – 50 – 100 rupees, and then this money can be loaned to those need it. Most times people have to depend on landlords for their loans. People need to put something as collateral. The money collected from group – is provided at minimal interest
Raise awareness about Panchayat reservations for women. Often when women are elected to positions, these positions are still controlled by men. We work to provide them with training so that the women can actually work with the panchayat.
Work on social cases like dowry, and in case of arguments we try to solve them through local mediation.
Q: How much can women take as loans? Is it for personal problems or for employment?
A: We have about 1.5 – 2 lakhs rupees totally across all places. We try to assess their needs. If they borrow for work, they often borrow for Benarasi sari industry. He have loaned about Rs. 5000/- for this purpose. We get a commitment when they will return the money.
We have opened accounts with banks but we have stayed away from banks for loans. Banks don't give individual loans typically. They give Rs. 3000 to groups that help in SHG formation. Accounting is a problem and we are not sure about taking such loans
Our biggest objective is – to provide confidence through economic independence. Another problem is that as soon as the money becomes big – men step in to take control.
Q: NABARD – gives money to start SHG. They also give training
A: They don't directly give money. They give money as commission for all different activities – formation of group, giving of loans, return of loans, etc
Most of the energy is spent in just maintaining records for the same. All this work is done through the organizations. The role of the women is the same.
Often people just form groups to get these commissions and don't really care about empowerment.
Q: What work do you do with the anganwaadis?
A: There is widespread corruption. We did a survey of the anganwaadis in the area. We organized training for all the workers – 70-80 teachers came. CBDO also came.
In Benipur panchayat there were 4 anganwaadi centers which were run by members of the same family – in the premises of a primary school. We got the centers started in different hamlets.
We found other bastis – Dalit, Muslim, Musahar bastis where there were no anganwadis – and they started some centers there. People are being paid Rs 1000/- and we think that they should be paid better or they will have to resort to unfair practices to make up the difference and children will suffer. Anganwaadi teachers pay (CDPO) Rs 200/month for keeping their job (or getting that appointment) and they have to sell the children's food to make more money.
We did a survey for MDM schemes – there is a manual for the food provided. We got a survey done by children to monitor this. Class 4 – 5 children were engaged. In 10 panchayats this was done. There is also a Vigilance Committee to monitor this. We increased awareness about what needs to done under MDM – how much quantity of different ingredients that is available to schools, etc.
Q: What are you planning to do over the next year?
A: One main thing we are planning is working on NREGA. From April 2008 it has come into effect in Varanasi. The condition is not good at all in UP. Only 17% of the money got utilized. It is difficult to enforce the scheme. UP govt. is afraid that all credit will be given to Central govt. as the money comes from central government, but it is implemented by the state government. The unemployment money will be paid by State. Until now nobody has received the unemployment salary in the whole of UP.
Very few people have got job cards, those who have got job cards don't have work. Those who are given work, often are given too much which they cant do in a day. One point to keep in mind is that they have included amount of work done in a day in the equation for salaries. Out of all the jobs, 1/3 are meant for women, 3% for handicapped and the pay is supposed to be Rs.100/day. The PWD rules which exist from British times are being used in the NREGA to decide the amount of work. This is a struggle which will have to be fought at many places. I am thinking of forming a workers union.
Take the case of Bihar, workers from Bihar go all over the country for work. The NREGA scheme is very effective in Bihar and now the migration of workers has come down because of this.
We are also working with 10 panchayats to figure out what work needs to be done and we will try to get those things done under NREGA.
Coca – Cola struggle: Need to look at how to use water carefully in our personal lives and also how to safe-guard water resources.
Also we want to do the Kashi Marathon which happens sometime between Oct-Nov-Dec. We will raise awareness about education, RTI, RTF, Water issues, etc. There is a ring road around Kashi about 60-70 kms long. We were planning a run around this to raise awareness.
At the recently held Asha Conference there was a lot of discussion about quality of education. There was a time when there was no school and we needed schools. Now we feel that there is access and we ought to run our schools to provide quality rather than access. Presently mot too much difference exists between govt schools and our schools. We need to work on increasing quality of schools. We may need to provide training and get some resource people.
One more thing I would like to add - if we are having the Asha-Fellows Conference – I would like to invite the Fellows-group to consider using the Rajatalab center for it.