Masum tribal pre-schools
Visit done by: Sam Murthy Asha/MN, Radhika Krishnaswamy Asha/Chicago
Date: 02/06/2007
Sam Murthy: , 952 294-1085
Dr. Ramesh Awasthi./Masum: , Off. 91-20-26995625 Res. 91-20-26875058, Mobile 91 99608 07276
Masum
Masum is an organization working for women's development and rights. Most of their work has been in the districts of Pune and Ahmednagar in Maharashtra . Masum receives funds from Ford Foundation and Swiss Aid of approximately Rs.100L/yr ($230k/yr). More information on the organization is in project proposal.
Masum is engaging in education of tribals because they believe it is the basis for democracy awareness and participation.
Served population
Ahmednagar district is east of Pune district in Maharashtra. In region surrounding town of Parner, there are hamlets of tribals (Bhil and Thakkar). The tribals work mostly as day laborers in brick kilns or fields. Tribals are outside the caste system (probably a contemporary euphemism for being untouchable) and are 4% of India's population. 64% of India's population is rural. Tribal hamlets are too small to fall into the basket of groups served by right to education (Sarv Shiksha Abhyan) programs.
Tribal people are routinely exploited by the local businesses since they are unable to understand simple concepts like pay rates – anecdotally, after we finished our visits we sat at a dhaba for lunch and our driver described to us that a local farmer was buying lunch for a group of tribals there for 4 days of work in exchange.
School program proposal
Masum is already running a pre-school in 3 hamlets in the Parner area. They are seeking funding for 10 hamlet pre-schools totally including the 3 already in operation. The funding is primarily for teacher's salaries and teacher training programs. The teachers are Dalit because tribals are not to be found with sufficient education to teach children.
Site visit
11:30 am: reached Shelwak hamlet school\
Teacher: Chaya Kute, 8th standard education
Students: 6 present of 24 total
School is in reasonable condition with charts, learning toys. Children learn songs and to read the alphabet charts. School runs all weekdays. Chaya herself is pregnant and has a small child that needs attention.
Low attendance is seasonal because of work hours of parents. Parents return from fields @ 7 pm this time of year and school closes at 1 pm. At other times of year, attendance is low because river runs high (no bridges) so children from hamlet across cannot attend.
Since this school opens at 8 am, children attend up to 11 am when their parents take them along to the fields.
People of this hamlet are Thakkar tribals. Some of them own land and are somewhat better off than Bhils. Daily wage is typically Rs.60 for men and Rs. 35 for women for agriculture. Wage is Rs. 40/1,000 bricks hauled in the kilns and Rs. 140/1,000 for molding 2,000 bricks.
12:45 pm: reached Bhosalmal hamlet school which also serves Pokale and Shinde hamlets.
Teacher: Ranjana, 10th std education. Impressive teaching skills. Has run this school for 10 years.
Students: 10 present of 20 total. Attendance depends on seasonal work patterns and if festivities are happening.
School hours are 10 am – 1 pm. Ranjana has good command over class and children are responsive and sing and read charts well.
40-65 students have gone on to primary school over 10 years from this school. Primary school is just a few buildings away.
Desired improvements according to Ranjana: 1. regularity of children's attendance needs to improve and only if parents are locally employed this would happen. However, the local economy necessitates parents traveling for work and Asha cannot generate an action based on Ranjana's view.
A helper is needed: to pickup and drop off kids at homes and persuade them to attend. Helper could also do crèche work by minding kids after school closes.
Kids wander around from 1-6:30 pm between school closing and parents return. Kids in this school are able to get a lunch from nearby govt primary school.
The Gurewadi school had closed by the time we reached it since it was well beyond 1 pm.
The need for a crèche/day care
Leaving children unattended for several hours must be a major reason why parents don't want to keep children in school. Providing a crèche service after school hours would help increase attendance.
Conclusion
This project is very worthwhile and serves the communities most in need of education. Masum has a long history of working in this region and is an ideal partner for helping Asha reach remote tribal societies.
Appendix 1: Getting to tribal areas
These tribal village hamlets are located north-east of Pune in parner taluka in the hilly region bordering Sangamner taluka. Road distance is about 145 kms.
The route is ..
Pune- Ahmednagar Road 70 kms via Sirur town . Thereafte (10 kms after Sirur) take a left turn to Parner via village Ralegan Siddhi; then Parner – Takli Dhokeshwar- Nandur pathar – Khadakwadi. After Khadakwadi one has to take dust roads or partially surfaced roads to different hamlets like Shelwak, Gurhewadi and Bhosalmal where MASUM pre-schools are located.