RURAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION Gramya Bhavan, Aruvankadu 643 202, the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, South India
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RURAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION Gramya Bhavan, Aruvankadu 643 202, The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, South India RURAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION (RDO) TRAVERSED on THORNY PATH for THREE DECADES A DEFINITE RURAL DREAM in RDO MIND-A SUCCESS 1 NGO A BRIDGE BETWEEN GOVT and PUBLIC When we think of problems especially economic and development ones in rural India even in the modern times, the first thing which comes to everyone’s mind is, no doubt, Mahatma Gandhi who said:”India lives in Villages and the downtrodden and the rural poor are to be uplifted”. Though hundreds of thousands of towns have mushroomed all over the country after the Independence, as far as India is concerned it is still appropriate to call many of them as ‘Village Based Towns’. Because business of all sorts in towns and cities including Ooty, Coonoor, Kotagiri and Gudalur towns (of the Nilgiris district) across the country depends on the purchasing capacity of the villagers. If the gates of villages are closed for a day, the towns will, do doubt, wear almost a deserted look and the shopkeepers will down the shutters keeping their fingers crossed. As our beloved Mahatma Gandhi had dreamed, the improvements in village economy with basic facilities especially education and health have been gradually pushing up the entire country on development path thanks to sustained efforts and implementation of rural development schemes by the successive central and state governments. However, the mission for a hundred percent developments in remote hamlets from Kashmir to Kanyakumari is not yet over, given the panorama of the country at large. The ultimate success can be achieved in the long run when all the people, social organizations, nongovernmental organizations and the youth extend their whole hearted support and cooperation to the powers-that-be. Worldwide particularly in the developing countries like India, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) remain a bridge between the government and the people and are playing a greater role in uplifting the rural economy in coordination with the district administrations across the country. It is more relevant to remember the words of late dynamic Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi-“There must be complete confidence and mutual trust between the bureaucracy and the voluntary organisations”. Being a dedicated grass root level NGO, the Rural Development Organisation (RDO) has developed a good rapport with the Nilgiris district administration and achieved many a goal in rural pockets-many with the organisation’s sustained efforts coupled with the officials’ support and some with a strong fight after spending sleepless nights. RDO BORN at ARUVANKADU in 1980 Rural Development Organisation (RDO) Trust, which was born in 1980 at Coonoor on Coonoor-Mettupalayam National Highway Road, have been traversing on the thorny path to fight and serve the rural masses in the Nilgiris district for the past three decades. Though it has succeeded on education, health and livelihood fronts in hundreds of poor and remote tribal, dalit and Badaga villages in the hill district to a 2 remarkable extent in the last thirty years, it continues to serve more villages and also to work on a new project such as individual toilet in each of one lakh households in the Nilgiris district. FRIENDS HESITATED, Mr. PERUMAL UNFAZED Mr. N. K. Perumal, Founder of the RDO Trust, recalls the heart rending story on the emergence of RDO Trust:”When I landed in the educationally and economically backward Nilgiris hill district in 1970s after relinquishing the trade union activities with a clear and definite dream of Mahatma Gandhi on Rural Development in my heart, I had to walk miles and miles daily to see the very poor living condition of the tribal and dalit families as well as daily wage earners from different communities. On seeing the pathetic conditions prevailing in the remote rural pockets, I almost broke down and my mind was much perturbed. I made up my mind to do something to improve the worse conditions. I had to think of permanent solutions as the back-breaking expedition in the rural belts constantly reminded me of the untold sufferings experienced by the tribals and the downtrodden. “As I became digitigrade almost walking on my toes without touching the ground with my heels in the faraway hamlets, Grama Valarachi (Rural Development) seemed to have been nailed deep in my heart. Thus, Rural Development Organisation was born with a clear and concrete objective to develop the remote backward villages. In fact, my friends, relatives and even my better half Revathi had feared, hesitated and objected and almost discouraged me saying that ‘You will end in a fiasco’ and advised me to continue the trade union activities comfortably to lead a stress free life. “ However later, on seeing my genuine struggle and my mental-physical pains as well as hindrances in my path, many including my wife came forward to extend helping hands. So, as everybody accepts the saying-there is a woman behind the success of every man in the universe, my better half Revathi stood by me during difficult times and remained a propeller whenever I faced a set back in my mission. By God’s grace, the RDO trust got the dedicated and honest employees and workers for efficient administration and effective and fruitful field work. I salute everyone responsible for shouldering the RDO’s reputation built over thirty years. Because, the organisation did not sleep on a bed of roses for thirty long years but toiled hard treading on the rugged and thorny paths to achieve to the content of our heart”. FIRST 10 YEAR ACHIEVEMENT A FILLIP TO RDO TEAM The RDO stands tall today, with appreciations from various quarters because the achievements in the first 10 years of its 30 years existence gave a fillip to the organisation. Otherwise, the RDO might have been a name-sake organisation and the 3 people might have ridiculed it as a crippled movement. Again and again, it is the prime duty of the organisation to salute with folded hands and pat all who actively took part and won the battle to ensure justice, freedom from slavery, livelihood guarantee and economic empowerment of women in tribal and dalit villages in the first decade-1980 to 1990. In reality, the battles won in the first 10 years were crucial and an oxygen to the RDO. Strongly believed in the message that education would open the eyes of the illiterates and slaves, the RDO first opened adult education centres in 1981. About 27,000 people including 75 percent women benefited by the adult education initiatives. Around 6,500 persons including a good number of women were trained to sign their names, write and read to a tiny extent. As a result of it, a team of rural adivasi and adi dravida women were sent to the meetings attended by the well educated representatives of England, Netherland and Ireland. Though these women were unable to speak English and write, they had the capacity to think and express their thoughts in their dialects which could be translated in regional, national and global languages. Hundreds of women also were given an opportunity to take part in training camps held at Bengaluru, Chennai, Madurai, Tiruvanandapuram, New Delhi and Agra. The success of adult education programme and the subsequent activities led to a civilized life in their remote villages. They applied coconut oil to their hitherto dirty muddy hair, combed neatly, wore washed clothes and walked in a joy. One can easily differentiate the undeveloped and slavery scenes seen in the rural belts thirty years ago and the remarkable improvement thirty years later. All these materialized because of the RDO’s revolution. DINGY WOMEN and CHILDREN BECAME DINKY Having succeeded in changing the dingy mindset of the adults, who could be called as parents, into the dinky, the RDO’s next clear goal was child education. The field workers of the RDO started door to door campaign, distributed several thousand handbills, organized public meetings, enacted street dramas, sang folk songs and organized orchestras to motivate the parents to send their children to schools. The hard work did not go waste. 2116 children from tribal, scheduled caste and backward class families were enrolled. Immediately the RDO set up supplementary schools in villages to impart education to these children. The supplementary schools were not for the same sake but they aimed at imparting quality education with English speaking training, picnics, medical and sports facilities. Actually, the major Rural Education Programme was first started in 10 villages in the first phase in 1982 itself. The villages covered in the first phase were Bellada, Dikland, Kil Hosatty, Gandhipuram, Kattery Road, Sogathorai, Kethorai, Kollimalai, Semandhada and Gandhipudur. The second phase covered another 10 villages namely Selakandy, Sengathorai, Kaishola, Rajendra Nagar, Kerada Lease, Oorthidu, Ambedkar Nagar, Kannimariaman Koil Street, Neduga Kombai and Oranally. All these 20 villages were 4 inhabited by tribes, scheduled caste and backward communities. Eight Balvadis were opened under the Rural Education Programme and later, five were handed over to the government under the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Nutritious Noon Meal Scheme. The Rural Education Programme proved to be a success and spread in other educationally and economically backward villages. The credit goes to the three committees-Village Committee, Youth Committee and Women Committee-formed by the RDO. Women Committee played a pivotal role in the Rural Education Programme. The girls and boys, who had been grazing cattle and collecting dried eucalyptus tree leaves to supplement their illiterate parents’ income years ago, became educated and attained economic independence by joining the mainstream. The present scene is that they are all depending on their own legs either through the SHGs economic activities or self employment/cultivation.