Shikshalaya and How Agrini Works?

Shikshalaya is the second project of Agrini. I had written about the aanganwadi project earlier. The video accurately captures how Shikshalaya started and its current functioning. Gourav is planning to implement the aaganwadi programme in Darasi Kala too, the village where Shikshalaya is operating. However, all extension plans and new programmes are dependent upon availability of manpower.

Agrini has only Gourav as a full time staff. All others are volunteers. He supports himself through Youth Collective Fellowship. Some of the volunteers are students while others are working professionals. An enthusiastic volunteer is a village health worker who likes his job even though he is qualified for much more with a Ph.D. in Social Work.

The materials required for Agrini's projects have been collected in the villages itself. The space is usually given by the gram panchayat. The way this collection happens is interesting. For example, there is no provision by the Govt. to install electricity in aanganwadi buildings. How they came up with such an atrocious plan while approving aanganwadi buildings is beyond me, but fact remains. Now how will the computer, needed for multimedia content, work? The power line was taken from a buffalo-shed (bhains ka tabela) next door and Agrini pays for this electricity. In Shikshalaya's resource centre, the books came from a discontinued community library. The 3 computers were contributed in a piecemeal fashion where somebody gave a CPU, another a monitor and so on. 

Agrini started in 2009 and is a good example of what the youth of this country are creating. Gourav Jaiswal is originally from Seoni. While the organisation is small, it is heartening to see that somebody returned to their town to help improve it. In terms of organisation structure, it matches Bakul Foundation of Bhubaneswar, which defines itself as a movement for volunteerism. Bakul's story will be up next on this blog. 

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Learning, not just education

On one wall, there is a crow putting stones in a water-pot. On another, there's a monkey sitting on a crocodile. Where have we reached? A play-school. A Govt. play-school in rural area is called aanganwadi. We are visiting an aanganwadi at Beenjawara village in Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh.

Dust and spice

Today I reached the southernmost tip of my journey - Chennai. In the bus from Hyderabad, I could literally feel moving closer to the equator because of the heat. As my third metropolitan city, Chennai stands out as being not cosmopolitan. It could be the areas I've seen are old Chennai because the dressing style of people is quite untouched by western fashion. And plus the crowd is primarily Tamilian, with no mix of races and cultures. It is a dusty city which seems to have clung to its ways.
As being a capital city, it does have its share of chain restaurants and retail outlets. On the ride from CMBT to T Nagar, I saw KFC, Big Bazaar, More, Reliance Fresh etc. Also found a BFC: Bigboy Fried Chicken. It feels good to see that Indian brands have grown as chains. Earlier chains were confined to McD and Dominos.
Since we are talking about food, lets talk about the rava dosai I ate in the evening which came with a daal like saambhar, coconut and green chutneys. The green chutney was tangy as if it had raw mango. It is the first speciality of Tamil Nadu for me. The red garlic chutney of Mysore was also a good experience. After eating versions of Mysore Masala Dosa in BITS and outside Samhita office, the authentic version near Mysore Bus Stand was revealing. In Bangalore and Hyderabad, the south Indian food came from UpSouth and Chutneys respectively. The highlight remains the AP food at a friend's house, home-cooked by her mother.
And lastly, speaking about food, lets talk about chaat. Sadly I missed it in Karnataka. In Hyderabad, the chaat isn't good at all. I ate panipuri in 4 different parts of the city and all of them had soft puris. Of course I am talking about their lack of crispiness before being dipped. Looks like the cooks who make them don't do it well. The chaat ka pani wasn't great either : poor show right from Bikanerwala to the street vendors. Hoping to try Chennai's versions tomorrow.

Review of 'A Calendar too Crowded'

Title: A Calendar too Crowded     Author: Sagarika Chakraborty

Publisher: Niyogi Books     Price: 295

This is the first book that Sagarika has published despite writing light fiction and poetry for various online and print media. The subject of the book is women and their plight in the contemporary society. This in a way matches my work closely as I am currently touring the country visiting organizations working for women development. However, while I know the grim reality, I am meeting people who are trying to better lives and have had excellent achievements too. On the other hand, many of Sagarika’s stories are grey with no silver lining.

The only wholly positive example is ‘Selling a Body to Gain a Mind’. Despite the negative title, it is about breaking the vicious cycle which sucks generations of women into prostitution. It talks about how the daughter of a commercial sex worker studies away from the environment and makes something of herself. It is written in the form of two letters and again stands solitary in this kind of style. While there are other stories that have a hopeful tenor, it is the only one that makes you feel good at the end of the story.

The book is an anthology of stories. Each unit is a month of the calendar and the special days for women are introduced at the beginning of every chapter. In a few cases, the stories have corresponded to the days mentioned. But mostly, it is just a reminder that while life goes on like a chore, there are conferences and discussions being organised on that plight. An example of synchronization is the above-mentioned story. ‘Selling a Body to Gain a Mind’ is featured in the month of April in which April 4 is Anti-Child Prostitution Day in Italy.

While reading the book, the first few stories appear a little unoriginal. While the words are hers, the style of capturing the well-known subjects like gender discrimination etc. isn’t new. The first story especially felt like the general literature on the topic. However, as you progress through the book, her stories get captivating. She has addressed a variety of important issues and seems to have covered an exhaustive list of them. The chauvinistic dictates of society in ‘Behind those Whispers’ (March) and ‘The Trials of a Nice Girl’ (August) culminate well in society’s astonishment in ‘The Last Flicker’ (October).

The life of a mother is viewed with a negative lens in ‘Finding an Ideal Mother for my Unborn Child’ (January). This clashes harmoniously with ‘Of Jatakarmas and their Stana Pradidhanas’ (August) which is about the expectations from expectant mothers and how the pressures of modern lives keep these expectations unmet. As a short story is usually an intrigue on its own, I am not commenting further on any story or mentioning the topics of other stories.

The book is a good read for both men and women. While it is feminist in its outlook, it will be a study in the more struggling circumstances that women face. As I read a lot of contemporary and older literature in Hindi, the topics of these short stories are not new to me. But if you have not read that kind of fiction, this one is a sound initiator.

A little about Sagarika:

This Kolkata-born studied law at National Law University in Jodhpur. She is currently enrolled in ISB, Hyderabad. She loves Salsa and as mentioned earlier has made a foray into fiction and poetry earlier. Her research projects have been on varied topics like corporate governance, monetary economics and religion. 


This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda. Participate now to get free books!

Mother earth, ICPL & ICF

Industree is a social enterprise which consists of two entities the for-profit Industree Crafts Pvt. Ltd. (ICPL) and the non-profit Industree Crafts Foundation (ICF). ICPL has a domestic brand called “Mother Earth” which has outlets in Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. The brand sells apparels, home furnishings and organic food under the lines Earth Fashion, Earth Home and Earth Food.  
The foundation engages in skill development programmes for the artisans. ICPL sources its products from rural artisans and SHGs. ICF has incubated and mentored four SHGs. A significant fact is that this mentoring is not aimed just at getting regular suppliers for ICPL. Along with supplying to ICPL, the SHGs are encouraged to get other buyers and establish themselves as a micro-enterprise. In some instances, ICF has helped them develop customer relationships with other organisations. For example, Industree transferred all assets as an advance to two SHGs, Ashraya and Samanvaya, and encouraged them to become independent enterprises. This enabled them to achieve orders from different companies such as Thunk, Volvo and Govt. of Karnataka, as well as supply regularly to Industree. The groups have constantly repaid all their loans.
Annual Reports and financial statements for the last three years are available on their website for both ICPL and ICF. A notable fact about ICF is that it takes no donations from external organisations or ICPL. Its inflow comes from Grant-in-aid project grants and consultancy fees from the Government.
Grant-in-aid projects
The Ministry of Labour has been financing, since 1981-82, voluntary organizations by way of grant-in-aid for taking up action-oriented projects for the benefit of child labour and women labour. The women’s cell in the Ministry of Labour, thus encourages voluntary agencies and non-governmental agencies to formulate income-generating schemes and other action projects for women labour and renders financial assistance to such agencies for executing these projects. The amount of assistance given by the Ministry of Labour will be restricted to 75% of the recurring cost of the project as per the approved budget. The remaining 25% of the cost including the non-recurring cost, if any, will have to be borne by the organization concerned.
Source: Ministry of Labour