Sarva Vidya site visit 21st January 2009
Sunil Laxman
Mr. Srinivasan (Kavitha’s dad) offered to pick me up on the morning of the 21st and take me to the Sarva Vidya project. I agreed, and we reached Sarva Vidya at around 10 am.
In brief: Sarva Vida is a part of Brthya, a charitable foundation started by Mr. Srinivasan and a few other people. Brthya has a few projects under it, namely a home nursing project called Shraddha, a family physician center, and the Sarva Vidya project. I will briefly mention the first two at the end of this site visit report, but for the most part will focus only on Sarva Vidya.
In brief: Sarva Vidya is a project which selects a large number of girl students (12th standard pass) from various rural parts of Tamil Nadu, and provides them with training in nursing, leading to a one or two year certificate in nursing (recognized within the state). In addition, it also selects a smaller number (of brighter students from the science stream) and enrolls them full time in degree colleges for a 3 year diploma or a 4 year BSc in nursing, and pays (or arranges payment for) the entire cost of education/boarding. Thus, these girls can go on to very good careers in nursing (either in hospitals or as home nurses). More details will come along in this visit report.
The Sarva Vidya project is currently being run in a very large room in the Sharada Vidyalaya Girls school in T-Nagar, Chennai, a very well known and old girls school run by the Ramakrishna Mission. Apparently, they way they got access to the premises is that the mother superior of the Ramakrishna mission heard about this project, liked it very much, and so talked to the principal of Sharada Vidyalaya girls school, who decided to offer the entire space for the classroom/office free of cost (including electricity charges etc). So Sarva Vidya was able to set up its classes here, and Sarva Vidya holds the theory classes for the girls (one year and two year diploma) right here.
At first, I met all the staff, and had extensive conversations with them.
Project organization: The project is being coordinated/run by Mrs. Saraswathi Vaidyanathan (principal) who is a very senior nurse and former principal of the nursing college of the Madras Medical College (with degrees in nursing and diseases from India and the UK), who is pretty much doing this as a sort of voluntary service for a fairly nominal salary (Rs.6000 as per the budget). She oversees all the course content, the teaching staff, the teaching lesions and the classes etc. The project running itself is taken care of by two other staff, Ms Yamuna Kalyani (who handles all the accounts/administration duties etc) and Ms. Thenmozhi, who is th coordinator who actually travels all around Tamil Nadu, meets different NGOs etc, identifies girl students for the project, talks to their parents etc, and gets them to join Sarva Vidya. Both of them impressed me as being very good at their jobs, and are both well qualified and trained in community development, counseling etc. In addition, there are two full time teachers who teach the students the various nursing theory courses. I think this idea of focusing on high quality nursing education is a good one, because (as Mrs. Saraswathi Vaithyanathan pointed out) there is a huge demand for trained nurses, an acute shortage of nurses, and it is a reasonably well paying job. She confidently guarantees that every single student will get employment (and this appears to be the case). Note: the staff has kept very good records/accounts of both the students as well as program expenses.
Project implementation: There are about 50 odd girls in the one and two year nursing certificate program, and a significant number more in the full diploma/degree programs. Of these 50 girls, a few are sent by the Ramakrishna mission foundation, who have various vocational training programs etc and identify talented girls from very poor/downtrodden backgrounds. The mission also provides a small amount of money for some staff costs (Rs. 7500 per month). All the other girls are found by Ms. Thenmozhi, who travels around the state, visits various villages, talks to girls and their parents (telling them about nursing as a profession, and how it serves people and also is economically very attractive), and identifies girls who join the program. The girls then join the Sarva Vidya center, where they receive the theory classes from the two teaching staff (presently Ms. Ambika and Ms. Sharmila), who are both fully trained nurses (with BSc’s in nursing). Speaking to them, both of them seemed quite good, and were using this time to gain some teaching experience before they did their masters in nursing. The girl students also then get practical training from various hospitals/nursing homes that Sarva Vidya has tied up with. The hospitals usually get these very enthusiastic nurse trainees at very low cost, and in return provide hostel accommodation (and sometimes food as well). After one year (for the one year program) or two years (the two year program), the students finish all their exams and get a certificate from the Bharat Sevak Samaj (recognized by the government). The course material etc is from the keerthana institute of medical sciences. Once the students finish these certificate courses, they are either employed as home nurses (with salaries from 3000-6000 rupees/month), or are employed by the hospitals they trained in (salaries of Rs 2500-4500 pm). The theory classes are held once a week (for each group, the first year class, the second year class, and the first year class for the 1 year program), and during other days the students get practical training in hospitals. Sarva Vidya works with some 12-13 local hospitals/nursing homes, who accept all these students as trainee nurses. However, before they start at the hospitals, the students undergo a one month orientation (the intention is to have a 3 month training/orientation). This is absolutely required since all the girls are from rural areas, have very poor English skills, and are not used to medical terms and teaching in English. However, after the orientation and during the course of the year their communication skills and confidence increase dramatically, and it seems they are able to cope well with moving to the city.
All the staff were very open in their discussions, and I found them to be very good. After talking to the staff, I spent some time talking to the girl students (who were all there that day, sitting in class). Surprisingly, I had no trouble talking to them, and after a few minutes, they were quite happy to chat and answer questions without too much hesitation (I suspect though that fluency in Tamil is required, and I would not have been able to talk to them had I not been fluent in Tamil). I first spoke to the second year students. These students seemed quite sharp and enthusiastic, and were able to tell me quite a lot about the program, how they initially had a hard time coping, and how they were able to manage, and now they all liked it very much. There were some 5-6 of them, and 3 of them said they wanted to finish this, and then later go and do a full degree in nursing. I later spoke to the first year students as well. All of them were from rural areas, or Chennai itself, but from very modest economic backgrounds. There were students whose parents did day labor (“coolie velai”), or sold vegetables or worked as watchmen or drove rickshaws etc. I asked them how they heard of Sarva Vidya, and most of them said that there were local womens NGOs in the city (with whom Ms. Thenmozhi usually meets first) who directed them towards this program. I asked them if their parents supported this, and I was surprised but happy to hear that all their parents encouraged them strongly, and many of their parents wanted them to study further. Most of the girls in the two year program had done their 12th in the science stream, but in the one year program there were some girls in the accounts/commerce stream. But these girls said that now they had no problem in coping with medical terms, and enjoyed nursing very much (they have been in the program now for 7-8 months already). Overall, it was very good to talk to the students and get their views. From the look of things, they are all quite happy to be here, and it is definitely a fantastic opportunity for them.
Currently, all the costs of this program are largely being met by Sarva Vidya (Brthya), from the funds that Mr. Srinivasan and his friends can raise personally, along with the significant support they get from the Ramakrishna Mission (for the use of the space for te classrooms etc). There is no other real source of funding for this program.
In addition to all these students, there are a number of students (from similar economic backgrounds) who are now enrolled in full time degree/diploma courses in various colleges around Chennai. The costs for this are obviously higher, with the total tuition/college fees and hostel fees etc coming up to Rs. 70000-1lakh per year per student (for three or four years). For this, Brthya/Sarva Vidya has come up with a good way to pay for these costs. What Brthya does is pay around Rs. 10000/student per year, which is 10-20% of the fees. For the remaining amount, Mr. Srinivasan talks to banks to obtain student loans for these girls. He has been successful so far in convincing banks to lend this amount. Once the girls graduate, they will get fulltime employment as staff nurses etc (degree nurses are highly valuable), with salaries starting at ~Rs. 8000 pm, and rising rapidly. So they will have little or no trouble in repaying these loans over a few years. I also met a few of the girls currently in degree colleges, and again these were girls from extremely poor rural backgrounds. So this is indeed a huge opportunity for them. Tey too said that initially they had trouble adjusting to English medium classes and the city, but now they are doing well (all of them have passed their first or second year without arrears, and expect to graduate without too much trouble).
Overall, I was quite impressed with the Sarva Vidya program. It is a very straightforward approach, of identifying the girls, getting them to take up these certificate courses (or if they are really good, the degree programs) and this will lead to a brighter future for them. I can unhesitatingly say that if Asha-Dallas has the funds to support this project, we should, since in this case it will lead to employment and better lives for these girls.
Finally, after spending a few hours in sarva vidya, we also were able to visit the other components of Brthya, the home nursing project (Shraddha) and the family physician center. The home nursing project is also a good one, leading to employment for a lot of these girls trained as nurses. It is run quite efficiently, and the coordinator handles all requests for home nurses, visits/inspects the people asking for nurses (to ensure that all is well) and sends the nurses over. These nurses though are not only from Sarva Vidya, but are hired from various sources (though most of them are from modest economic backgrounds). Shraddha takes only a small commission in order to meet operating costs, and the nurses earn Rs. 4000-6000 per month. Shraddha also has rented a couple of apartments which serve as hostels for these girls (who together meet the rental costs). However, rents in the area are exorbitant, so there are now 30 odd girls living in a small 4 bedroom apartment, and twenty odd in another. But there is nothing that can be done about that. In addition, I also visited the family physican center and met the doctor. This is actually a very well equipped clinic, and doesn’t serve only the poor, but serves all patients for a fee. However, the doctor charges fees according to the patients ability to pay (richer patients pay regular fees of Rs. 100 or so per consultation, while poor patients are charged only Rs. 20 or Rs. 10). However, all of this is not part of the project proposal that we at Asha have received, so I will avoid adding more details about these to this visit report. It is sufficient to say that the Sarva Vidya/nurses training program component is sufficiently separate and fully independent of this project, and it is Sarva Vidya alone that has approached Asha for support.
In conclusion, Sarva Vidya currently needs between $7000-8000 per year more to meet their costs. They raise about Rs. 250000 per year from various sources (nominal fees that some students pay, to grants from the Ramakrishna mission), which is ~Rs 350000 less than what they need. This amount is being met by Mr. Srinivasan and his contacts. The project is currently very well run and staffed, and the execution is very good. All students are from very poor backgrounds, and entering the nursing profession will uplift their lives significantly. If Asha can support this project, I think it should.