One fine morning in college (St Francis) we were informed that we had the option of working in the Janmabhoomi programme. The option was to make up our attendance (those of us who had less attendance). Mine was a borderline case, I had just managed enough attendance but thought to be on safe side might as well take it up by enrolling in this programme. Janmabhoomi was a State funded project in India introduced by then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Nara Chandra Babu Naidu, based on the concept of 'involving people' in governance (thats what democracy is all about eh?) to educate the less fortunate on illiteracy, hygiene and population control etc. Do visit this website http://chandrababunaidu.com/ . Our role would be to primarily collect statistics. We would also be paid Rs. 50 per day, so we were informed.
As mentioned we just took this up for our own selfish 'attendance' reason. Otherwise, we saw it as a pain to go in the hot sun to every home (rather be in a mall!) we had to collect the name of the head of the household and number of members and some basic statistics. I remember there were 10 questions in total. It was a five day affair if I am not wrong. Anyway we were all allotted an area we had to go in a group and then take up one street each in that locality and note down the statistics in a book. We started of with some middle class apartments near the airport (Begumpet, Prakash Nagar I think its called). People were surprisingly very welcoming and helpful. I was very surprised I thought people would be mad at us and react to invasion of privacy (imagine a stranger ringing the door bell on a hot afternoon and asking questions).
The real challenge anyway waswhen we moved to the semi-slum areas. It was what I can say 'heart-rending'. There were families with 5 to 7 members squeezed in one room two room houses. There was a family with with young children with oldest child disabled. The parents were working so hard to make ends meet and not having food to eat, proper drinking water and sanitation facilities. They were real people with real problems. Now that was something I was not prepared for. And they mistook me to be a government employee and started sharing all their problems with me. What could I do! I felt so helpless for the first time. I was not ready for such situations - I just froze! We were given one teacher from school/college who would come along with a group and monitor with us. I asked for her advise and she too didn't know what to do.
There were two more specific cases which left a mark. This particular family had way too many kids (11 if I am not wrong!) and that guy was in distress, unable to financially support the household. So what does one think in such a situation? (Yes, the gold question) Why so many kids if he cannot maintain them? Then he actually mentioned that he being a religious person could not adopt family planning options and will have children as long as god grants him. This sounded so ridiculous when I heard for the first time. But well how can I argue or reason with a person who is not very well educated, very religious and undergoing so much hardship. I just stood there dumbfounded. I usually do not like to comment when 'religion' is involved. And in this situation I was too scared as I was not familiar with the people and the surroundings.
At another home there were a really old couple staying with their divorced daughter. The daughter was working and was away when I got there. I happened to speak to her father. He mentioned that what she earns along with their pension is barely enough for their survival. The elderly man seemed educated and spoke to me in English. When I mentioned why I was there he was furious. He yelled at me that there is no use cos he knows no action will be taken and what is the purpose of collecting such statistics? He started of how the root cause of all the problems was Nehru's reign that began post independence and so on. As much as I respected his views I was once again so stuck in my situation.
In my opinion the whole Janmabhoomi experience and the concept itself was very good. It opened our eyes to all the different problems people were facing. Not only that - we got a snapshot of their lifestyle (when we visited their homes) and income levels and how they survive - large families in small homes with limited incomes. Especially encouraging students to do this task and enlightening them on the current realities, was a good plan. Unfortunately its should not have been restricted to collecting statistics alone. I wish a social worker from some organization would help us out from all the reports we had, so that we could find some means of helping those in need. I do not know how the statistics we collected was put to use. But I really wish the whole thing was better organized and taken more seriously. I am guilty of it too in the beginning.
Even though I collected the statistics and made note of all the problems some of the families were facing (I remember highlighting some families in real bad problems), I didnt know whom to approach with all that data. Moreover our reporting point was the office of HMWS (Hyderabad Metro Water works) there was no Janmabhoomi representative whom we could approach there. The school teachers and other lecturers monitoring the students were just like us. Just following around for our safety.
End of the whole program I think we donated that little amount we earned to some families. However I still regret to this day for having not been able to help the people in need. Those people actually shared all their problems with me. Only thing I could do was patiently listen to them. But kudos to Chandra Babu Naidu's Janmabhoomi program. I really hope this part of the program involving students is implemented and improved.
As mentioned we just took this up for our own selfish 'attendance' reason. Otherwise, we saw it as a pain to go in the hot sun to every home (rather be in a mall!) we had to collect the name of the head of the household and number of members and some basic statistics. I remember there were 10 questions in total. It was a five day affair if I am not wrong. Anyway we were all allotted an area we had to go in a group and then take up one street each in that locality and note down the statistics in a book. We started of with some middle class apartments near the airport (Begumpet, Prakash Nagar I think its called). People were surprisingly very welcoming and helpful. I was very surprised I thought people would be mad at us and react to invasion of privacy (imagine a stranger ringing the door bell on a hot afternoon and asking questions).
The real challenge anyway waswhen we moved to the semi-slum areas. It was what I can say 'heart-rending'. There were families with 5 to 7 members squeezed in one room two room houses. There was a family with with young children with oldest child disabled. The parents were working so hard to make ends meet and not having food to eat, proper drinking water and sanitation facilities. They were real people with real problems. Now that was something I was not prepared for. And they mistook me to be a government employee and started sharing all their problems with me. What could I do! I felt so helpless for the first time. I was not ready for such situations - I just froze! We were given one teacher from school/college who would come along with a group and monitor with us. I asked for her advise and she too didn't know what to do.
There were two more specific cases which left a mark. This particular family had way too many kids (11 if I am not wrong!) and that guy was in distress, unable to financially support the household. So what does one think in such a situation? (Yes, the gold question) Why so many kids if he cannot maintain them? Then he actually mentioned that he being a religious person could not adopt family planning options and will have children as long as god grants him. This sounded so ridiculous when I heard for the first time. But well how can I argue or reason with a person who is not very well educated, very religious and undergoing so much hardship. I just stood there dumbfounded. I usually do not like to comment when 'religion' is involved. And in this situation I was too scared as I was not familiar with the people and the surroundings.
At another home there were a really old couple staying with their divorced daughter. The daughter was working and was away when I got there. I happened to speak to her father. He mentioned that what she earns along with their pension is barely enough for their survival. The elderly man seemed educated and spoke to me in English. When I mentioned why I was there he was furious. He yelled at me that there is no use cos he knows no action will be taken and what is the purpose of collecting such statistics? He started of how the root cause of all the problems was Nehru's reign that began post independence and so on. As much as I respected his views I was once again so stuck in my situation.
In my opinion the whole Janmabhoomi experience and the concept itself was very good. It opened our eyes to all the different problems people were facing. Not only that - we got a snapshot of their lifestyle (when we visited their homes) and income levels and how they survive - large families in small homes with limited incomes. Especially encouraging students to do this task and enlightening them on the current realities, was a good plan. Unfortunately its should not have been restricted to collecting statistics alone. I wish a social worker from some organization would help us out from all the reports we had, so that we could find some means of helping those in need. I do not know how the statistics we collected was put to use. But I really wish the whole thing was better organized and taken more seriously. I am guilty of it too in the beginning.
Even though I collected the statistics and made note of all the problems some of the families were facing (I remember highlighting some families in real bad problems), I didnt know whom to approach with all that data. Moreover our reporting point was the office of HMWS (Hyderabad Metro Water works) there was no Janmabhoomi representative whom we could approach there. The school teachers and other lecturers monitoring the students were just like us. Just following around for our safety.
End of the whole program I think we donated that little amount we earned to some families. However I still regret to this day for having not been able to help the people in need. Those people actually shared all their problems with me. Only thing I could do was patiently listen to them. But kudos to Chandra Babu Naidu's Janmabhoomi program. I really hope this part of the program involving students is implemented and improved.
2 comments:
I love ur writing style which is so "matter of fact" but then maybe u use too many punctuations(periods for example)...Just a thought...
WC
Oh yes thanks for pointing out - I am so addicted to punctuations :( will make a sincere effort to get rid of it.
Post a Comment