Vidyodaya starts a Centre for school drop-out adivasi children
Sustained work at the village level in the last decade has resulted in a steady rise in the enrolment of adivasi children in schools. But, children dropping out from school in higher classes has been a cause of concern. These children are unable to cope in the higher classes because of the poor standards of education in the lower classes. To address this issue, the Government has come out with a scheme to start special 'Residential Bridge Centres' in partnership with NGOs. One such centre has been started by Vidyodaya in Kanjikolli village, catering to children in over 20 adivasi hamlets in that region.
Teacher Subha (Paniya tribe) with children
The school is residential with all facilities for the children's food and accommodation. The Srimadurai area team, Vidyodaya teachers and the AMS education outreach workers have been busy organising this in the last two months. The building needed water supply, an outdoor kitchen and extra bathrooms. A cook, a warden, a night watchman and teachers have been appointed. The entire team is from the adivasi community!! The school is in a lovely place with plenty of ground around it for playing.
Another teacher, Sheela (Paniya tribe) with children
All of the children are between 6 and 14 years old; some recent drop outs, others who have been out of school for years. Classes in Tamil and Maths have started. Other subjects will be introduced gradually. 54 children have been enrolled now. They are all from the Paniya and Kaatunaicken tribes. They have two teachers, who belong to the Paniya tribe. Teachers from Vidyodaya school are taking turns to spend a day a week there to support the new school teachers and to help the pupils to settle in.
Kids outside the centre
The children are very happy and the average attendance in the school has been over 50 consistently, showing their enthusiasm to continue their studies. Teething problems in logistics of arranging food and accommodation are being attended to by weekly meetings with the help of AMS leaders and the Srimadurai team. The plan is that in two years, the children will be able to join the regular schools again and continue their studies there. Their level of education needs to be improved significantly. A massive challenge, but we are determined to do that and prove that given proper attention, adivasi children will pursue formal education with enthusiasm.
Advocacy with Government to protect adivasi rights
During the last three years, AMS has been actively establishing links with the Government at various levels. Implementation of various welfare schemes announced by the Government are monitored closely by the activists and leaders of AMS at the village level. The main focus has been to organise events close to the adivasi villages where government officials and the sangam members could interact with respect to all the welfare schemes or grievances of the community. Instead of approaching the Government offices as individuals, such mass events have helped strengthen the village sangams, besides encouraging more people to participate and demonstrate the unity of the community to the Government officials.
The issues raised in such events vary a lot, but largely are focused on asserting / protecting the rights of the adivasis. Just to give a glimpse, here are a few example of events organised in August and September 2011 by AMS at various places :
In some districts of Tamilnadu plains, false community certificates were being issued to non-adivasis as 'Kurumbas' or 'Kaatunaickens' etc. As these tribes live only in Gudalur and Pandalur taluks, AMS has been sending representations to the Government. Acting on it, sub-collectors from Dharmapuri, Tirupattur and the Director of Tribal Research Centre visited a few adivasi villages and enquired about the complaint. AMS is determined to pursue this process and put an end to this denial of rights to the actual adivasis living in this region.
AMS organised, with the help of Vidyodaya Trust's vocational placement team, an interaction with the Employment Exchange Officer. More than 50 adivasi youth participated in this event held at the AMS office at Gudalur and 40 of them registered with the Employment exchange here itself. A series of such interactions are planned regularly, so that the educated adivasi youth are exposed to new employment opportunities at the organised sector.
A special camp was organised at Chelivayal and Millikunnu villages at Gudaur to issue community certificates to adivasi families. AMS invited the RDO to the village who issued the certificates to 47 people belonging to Paniya community at the village itself.
Even though claims have been filed under the Forest Rights Act to the government more than a year go, progress in processing of these claims has been very tardy. AMS has been pushing for faster action from the Government both at the District and Sub-division level committees. As the Sub-division level committee did not have proper representation from adivasi community, AMS pushed the government to include two of its representatives to be included in the committee. Accordingly, Mr.Suresh of Chembakolli and Ms.Badichi of Kadichankolli have been inducted in the SDLC.
Apart from these, the health team has been working very closely with the district level health authorities in improving the delivery of services to all adivasi villages in a more effective manner. Similarly, the education team has been recently approached by the Government seeking a proposal to take over one of the Government Tribal Residential Schools. These are encouraging signs from the Government that it is important to actively involve the adivasi community while designing and implementing development programmes in adivasi villages.
Upgrading Facilities and Buildings in Gudalur Adivasi Hospital
The Gudalur Adivasi Hospital has been in existence for more than 20 years now. It has provided a solid backup to the community health programme. The combined effort has resulted in significant reduction in the infant mortality and near elimination of maternal mortality in the community. While the awareness to access health care has increased, new health problems have arisen. There is a need to constantly upgrade the services available in our hospital. Following discussions in 2006-07, it was decided to construct a new well-equipped building to cater to growing health needs.
We completed the first block of a new building with the financial support of many friends and small organisations and this was inaugurated in May 2009. Inpatient ward, Outpatient clilnics, Pharmacy, Laboratory, Canteen, Meeting hall and Kitchen are part of this new building. Labour Room and Operation Theatre are temporarily housed there.
For the next phase, the plans were made and a detailed project plan was submitted to Sir Ratan Tata Trust seeking their financial assistance. This proposal has been sanctioned by NRTT (Nawajbai Ratan Tata Trust) and we are happy that the long cherished dream of a well-equipped hospital for the adivasis of Gudalur is becoming a reality.
The new buildings that will be constructed in the project are :
Labour room, ante natal and post natal wards
Operation theatre, post operative care ward
Blood Bank
Accommodation for doctors, nurses and students
Road, Store etc.
Water harvesting Structure, Tank, Water treatment plant etc.
The new equipment that will be installed in the hospital are :
X-ray Machine, Ultra sound machine etc
Equipment for the operation theatre, laboratory etc
New Generator, computers / projector etc for the office etc
Solar equipment for lighting and heating
Vacuum cleaner and other convenience equipment
A Corpus Fund of Rs.1.5 Crores and some support for the functioning of the hospital will also be provided. We thank NRTT for sanctioning this project.
Another launch of Adivasi Tea in Nagapattinam
In December 2010, the SNEHA womens group launched the sales of tea in a single federation in Karaikal, Pondicherry. While that took over six months to stabilise, there were two other federations that launched tea sales in June, 2011. The AMS and Just Change team were in Nagapattinam last week to witness the launch of tea sales in yet another area of South coastal Tamil Nadu. There was a great deal of excitement as the women of the Nagapattinam federation came together to launch their own brand of tea.
There were around two hundred women crowded into a small town hall, with the president of the federation welcoming all the participants to the gathering. Many well wishers of the federation also gave short (and not so short) speeches wishing the women well in their new business venture. The benefits of the tea were highlighted including sourcing it fresh through the Adivasi Munnetra Sangam and Just Change as well as the final profit being owned by the members of the two federations. Those that gave speeches included the local MLA of the district, local traditional panchayat leaders, the regional manager of a bank as well as representatives of the federations, AMS and Just Change. Special mention was made of Mr. Gwyn Jones from the Unicorn workers cooperative who is currently visiting Gudalur.
All participants were given a piping hot cup of 'Golden Leaf' tea as well as a snack to go with it. The event came to a close with a traditional dance performance of the women of the federation, and a rush to the stalls to buy packs of 'Golden Leaf' tea. It was certainly a refreshing sip of change!
Community Status Report on educational status of adivasi children
Education of children has become an important agenda of the adivasi community during the last decade. The number of adivasi children enrolling in schools is on the increase. So is the number of children completing high school education and aspiring to go for higher studies. Even though many more challenges - perhaps more difficult - lie ahead, the change that has come about in the educational status of adivasi children in Gudalur valley during the last 15 years is a significant one. From the year 2000, AMS and Vidyodya Trust have been closely monitoring the educational situation of adivasi children in Gudalur and Pandalur taluks through an extensive village education programme.
Accordingly, a brief report has been prepared by AMS and Vidyodaya in an attempt to present some important statistics related to adivasi children studying in schools and colleges. The primary audience for this status report is the adivasi community members - leaders, volunteers and sangam members in all our adivasi hamlets. And, the main purpose of circulating this report is to communicate the current educational status and the challenges being faced by our children, and importantly, to highlight the issues that need to be addressed by the community. The Tamil version of this document was circulated to as many villages as possible, through the eight Area Centres of AMS.
Being the first part in the proposed 'Community Status Reports' series, this one focuses only on the enrollment and the number of adivasi children studying in schools. Issues like drop-out of children, quality of education received by children, their ability to clear exams or financial aspects of supporting education etc will be covered in the future reports. Click here to view / download this document.
Regular updates
about
our other
activities are available
in the newsletters of Ashwini,
Vidyodaya
and
Just
Change
.
