Site Visit Report of Surul Centre for Services in Rural Area (CSRA)

Project: Asha for Education

1. Organization background and information a. The motivation of the organization and why are they working in that particular area. The CSRA is a grassroots organisation and working in the principle of to help the people to help themselves, therefore it always working in the gap area where actually intervention is necessary not only quantitative but also significant qualitative achievements. CSRA also see education for the children not only a development right but also a child can get education in their own environment, language, most of all he/she can develop his / her value system and socialization from own community. The CSRA intends to ensure quality education for all children in a manner that all children should able to read, write and grow themselves with enjoying their childhood.

VISION of CSRA is "of marginalised rural people who are self governed with ever widening thought and action that move forward".

MISSION of CSRA is primarily dedicated to the integrated rural development activities among the downtrodden and underprivileged rural peoples to restore their livelihood condition in a sustainable manner.

Demographic data of illumbazar block: District : Birbhum Block Illambazar Source : Census of 2001 Household size 5.0 Number of Households 29,015 Proportion of Urban population (%) 0.0 Sex Ratio (females per 1000 males) 943 Sex Ratio (0-6 Years) 981 Sex Ratio (SC) 944 Sex Ratio (ST) 970

Male Female Total Population - Total 74,728 70,454 145,182 Population - Rural 74,728 70,454 145,182 Population - Urban 0 0 0 Population (0-6) 12,491 12,252 24,743 SC Population 17,918 16,908 34,826 Proportion of SC population (%) 24.0 24.0 24.0 ST Population 6,451 6,256 12,707 Proportion of ST population (%) 8.6 8.9 8.8 Number of literates 45,012 30,835 75,847 Literacy Rate (%) 72.3 53.0 63.0 Number of illiterates 29,716 39,619 69,335 Illiteracy Rate (%) 47.7 68.1 57.6 Total workers 40,049 12,980 53,029 Work Participation Rate (%) 53.6 18.4 36.5 Main workers 32,384 5,091 37,475 Proportion of Main Workers (%) 43.3 7.2 25.8 Marginal workers 7,665 7,889 15,554 Proportion of Marginal Workers (%) 10.3 11.2 10.7 Non workers 34,679 57,474 92,153 Proportion of Non Workers (%) 46.4 81.6 63.5 Cultivators 12,968 1,442 14,410 Proportion of cultivators 32.4 11.1 27.2 Agricultural labourers 15,701 7,722 23,423 Proportion of agricultural labourers 39.2 59.5 44.2 Workers in household 1,094 1,946 3,040 Proportion of workers in household 2.7 15.0 5.7 industries to total workers (%) Other workers 10,286 1,870 12,156 Percentage of Other 25.7 14.4 22.9 b. Organizations can be classified in two categories - those that are working in areas that have funds available and those that acquire funds for the areas they want to work on. Which area does this organization belong to?

The CSRA intervention belongs to the second category. Initially it needs fund to start education initiative and than it will show the model intervention to the Government and Local Self Government for replication and generate fund for sustainability for the initiative through linkage with Alternative innovative education scheme . c. The background and commitment of people involved in the organization? Have they given sufficient thought to their work before preparing the proposal? Will they continue to work on the issue even after Asha’s support for the project is over?

CSRA have 10 Nos. volunteer EC members who have a shared vision regarding the project among whom 4 members are actively involved in the process. Development professionals of CSRA always try to make collaboration with Government and Local self Governments to ensure future sustainability and continuity of the intervention even after withdrawn of fund.

2. Infrastructure and other facilities a. Describe Infrastructure/Facilities The CSRA has two offices one registered and another for field operation. The registered office is donated (Leased up to 2025 on stamp duty paper) by the parents of Mr. Bratin Biswas, Secretary of the Organisation and the field office is operating on monthly rent. b. What is the type of construction? (Permanent, temporary construction) Both office constructions are permanent. c. What is recent condition of construction? Good d. Comment on space utilization of construction. Registered office is operated for administrative purposes and field office is operated for meetings, capacity building sessions, etc. e. What is geographical location of area? And in this area this type of construction makes sense or not? The geographical location is totally forest area and where the CSRA has its field office in Banavilla village which is rented from a local businessman to use purposefully for development of the forest fringed tribal and non tribal villages. f. Get information about actual cost for such constructions from other sources. Not applicable g. How much of the infrastructure and other resources, like vehicles, are being used by the organization and how much of it lies underutilized? The organizational resources are utilized as much possible. We are a very small CSO and we are not having that many resources to lie under-utilized. 3. Finance a. What is total amount of funds needed per year? As per situational observation, need and discussion with key personnel of CSRA, it has been found that one of CSRA’s funding partner i.e. Child Rights And You (CRY) has withdrawn its fund due to limited fund capacity. As CSRA informed that they have already submitted proposal and budget to ASHA SV on prior commitment of CRY to provide stipend to 16 volunteers and stipend of 04 more volunteers has already been requested from ASHA SV, altogether 20 volunteers are needed to run 10 library accelerated education centres in 10 forest fringed villages. Now, in that situation the budgetary requirement of CSRA is slightly increased for two years project. Whereas, CSRA will generate the stipend of 5 volunteers and remaining 15 volunteers will get the stipend from ASHA SV support. The stipend amount was proposed INR1000/- per volunteer, which has been reduced to INR 500 for each volunteer per month. It has been also found that the amount of basic furniture and stationeries requirement for each library has also been increased due to the high price of book stags and other materials. The revised budget has been planned according the local need and discussion with the key personnel of the organisation as given below: (the older budget sent for ASHA contribution was Rs. 3,60,000.00 and present need from ASHA is Rs. 4,79,000.00= 119000.00 extra need )

Recurring Expenditure Sl Description Amount CSRA & Asha for no (INR) Local Education A. Program Support Staff: A.1 Hono. to Project Coordinator (Part Time) @ Rs. 4000 96,000.00 0 96,000.00 p.m. x 24 A.2 Stipend to Village Youth Volunteers @ Rs. 500 p.m. x 2,40,000 .00 60,000 1,80,000.00 20 x 24 Sub Total: 3,36 ,000.00 60,000 2,76,000.00

B. Programme Cost: B.1. Community Mobilization Meetings - @Rs.200/- x 30 6,000.00 1,000.00 5,000.00 meetings B.2 Training programme to Village Youth Volunteers - 12,000.00 2, 000.00 10, 000.00 @Rs.3000/- x 4nos. (20 Participants for 3 days) B.3 Capacity Building on L2R module to School Teachers 15,000.00 3, 000.00 12, 000.00 and VEC Members - @Rs. 5000/- x 3 nos. (30 participants for 3 days) Break Up: Fooding Cost: 1500, Resource Person:800, Training Materials: 1500, LCD Projector: 1200. B.4 Village level meetings on progress monitoring of 2,000.00 1, 000.00 1, 000.00 primary education with different stakeholders - @Rs. 200/- x 10 meetings B.5 Formation of Mother Teacher Associations (MTA) - 6,000.00 1,000.00 5, 000.00 @Rs.200/- x 30 meetings B.6 Children’s and Stakeholders level Convention on 30,000.00 5,000.00 25,000.00 ‘Sarva Siksha Abhiyan’ - @Rs.10, 000/- x 3 nos. Break Up: Pandal: 5000, Mike: 500, Documentation: 1000, Tiffin: 2500, Misc. 1000 Sub Total: 71,000.00 13,000.00 58,000.00

Non-Recurring Expenditure - Sl Description Amount CSRA & Asha for no (INR) Local Education A. Library Costs: A.1 Library Room – 10 nos. (15’ x 15’ size) 0 Local 0 A.2 Cost of Library Books - @Rs. 30 per book x 400 1,20,000.00 10,000.00 1,10,000.00 books x 10 libraries A.3 Library Materials (Furniture and Stationeries) 40,000.00 5, 000.00 35, 000.00 @Rs.4,000/- x 10 libraries Sub Total: 1,60 ,000.00 15 ,000.00 1,45,000.00

GRAND TOTAL: Amount (INR) CSRA & Local Asha for Education Recurring Expenditure - A Program Support Staff: 3,36,000.00 60,000.00 2,76,000.00 B Programme Cost: 71,000.00 13,000.00 58,000.00 Non-Recurring Expenditure - A Library Cost: 1,60,000.00 15,000.00 1,45,000.00 TOTAL (INR): 5,67,000.00 88,000.00 4,79,000.00 TOTAL ($) [Rs.48/- = $1] 11,812 1,833 9,979 As on dated 15.12.08 (INR) Four Lakhs Seventy Nine Thousand Only for Two (2) years Project ($) Nine Thousand Nine Hundred Seventy Nine Only for Two (2) years Project

So, CSRA’s first year grant requirement is INR 3, 20,500/- (INR Three Lakhs Twenty Thousand Five Hundred only), i.e. in $ 6677/- (US$ Six Thousand Six Hundred Seventy Seven only).

Also, in second year CSRA’s requirement is INR 1, 58,500/- (INR One Lakh Fifty Eight Thousand Five Hundred only), i.e. in $ 3302/- (US$ Three Thousand Three Hundred Two only). b. What are different sources of funding? (Different agencies/Government)

The other sources of funding is local contribution in cash and kind whatever required during program and also mobilization of local Panchayats, Government programmes to use their child education related fund to sustain this program. c. Which are the other funding agencies for the organization and for what programs? At present the organisation has four other funding agencies with different thematic areas of intervention: Sl. Funding Agency Thematic Area of Support No. 1 Child Rights and You (CRY) (Up to December Child Rights vis-à-vis Tribal Rights 2008) 2 AID-Los Angeles Chapter Organic Farming 3 CAPART, Bhubaneswar Economic Self Reliance through IGP 4 WBCSSP-DFID Youth Empowerment

d. Ensure that the organization is not receiving all the money for the same program from two different sources. The organisation seeks fund only from ASHA for Education for the said project. e. Accounts related information. i. What is the salary/honorarium that the teachers get? Each Teacher / Volunteer will get INR 500 per month after receiving of grant. ii. Does it conform to the figures in the account books? Yes the figure will be added in account books in each month after receiving of fund. f. What is the amount being spent on the children for snacks/food, clothes, etc., according to the budget and whether it conforms to the real situation? No amount has been requested for snacks, food, cloths etc in this project. g. What is their future requirement? How they are planning to fulfill that? Future requirements will be fulfilled from Panchayet and linkage with government programmes if this model proves attractive and can be replicated at other similar areas. For library furniture budget is put in ASHA proposal. h. Who is responsible for whole finance? General Secretary of CSRA 4. Information about students a. The socio-economic background of the children:

General background of the Project Village(s)

Illambazar is one of the significant CD Blocks of in with it’s own identity because of large dense forest with variety of natural resources. It has 134 villages, of which CSRA has taken only ten villages for right based intervention with the most marginalised sections of the society. The significance behind the selection of these ten villages is –

 These villages existed inside the forest periphery;  The most inhabitants are belonging to the primitive tribal groups along with schedule caste and other backward class  Less attention paid by the government can be considered as the un-reached villages;  No intervention initiated before by any other NGO or agency;  Villagers survived to meet their minimum livelihood needs; and  The range of poverty is high in these villages.

Social Divisions: Villages are typically divided between schedule tribe and schedule caste members as well as the very marginal numbers of general and other backward caste. The proportion of ST and SC varied from village to village 15% to 75%. Despite the considerable and impressive gains in social and economic status of general and OBC (reflected in better access to education, jobs, etc), there is still a close correlation between SC & ST status and poverty: a disproportionate number are landless, have enrolled in Panchayat and issued cards (issued to those below the poverty level Rs. 12000 annual income) and have few resources. Therefore, particular attention needs to be paid to SC & ST (and other poor people) in considering access to common property resources.

Economic Divisions:

The interventional villages classify landholders (approximate) into three groups as follows: Farmers Size Holding Landholders Land Bigha(s) In Percentage (%) Marginal Farmers <2 59 19.5 Small Farmers 2 – 5 26.5 30.5 Big Farmers 5 > 14.5 50

In all the villages, the divisions are fairly clear, and are generally reflected in housing, use of agricultural labor (or, hiring oneself as a laborer) and by other definite criteria. As stated, a few STs are either in the marginal farmer category, and most are landless. The interventional villages make a different classification, as follows: - 1. Landlords - use hired laborers 15% 2. Capitalist Farmers - contribute own manual labor 15% 3. Middle Peasants, use own labor and hired labor 04% 4. Poor Peasants, use mainly own labor 27% 5. Landless laborers - hire themselves out 34% 6. Service class - teachers, forest guards, etc. 04% The Economy of the Village(s):

All selected interventional villages have deeply survived to access the basic services of a wholesome drinking water supply, electricity, good road access, educational infrastructure, but some easy accessible villages have these amenities, like schools, Bank, etc. The significance of this is that the gap in service delivery mechanism of government side always high in rural areas is growing and that it is becoming more difficult for the poor to have access to resources to meet their basic needs. The growth of cash crops completely depends on the poor quality irrigation facility, which leads to mono cropping, where water level is too deep and low. This has already had serious effects on the water table, potentially posing a greater threat than the planting of eucalyptus. Again, it is obviously the bigger landowners who can manage water to invest some money from government loans to install pumps. Livestock are extremely important, especially in relation to the fodder and grazing, for much of this used to be obtained from common lands. The high cost of fodder, livestock often provides a negative return to the farmer.

Exploitative Features of the Interventional Villages:

 Less support has been provided for strengthening the livelihood base of these villages.  The range of activities including productive credit for income generating activities, development, operation and maintenance of social and support infrastructures are no existence.  No participatory networks of villages with governmental programmes, resources and services, which need to be mainstreamed.  Less attention has been drawn in enactment of pro-poor laws and policies, as well as to highlight gaps and inadequacies.  No existence of consultative networking and advocacy dialogue and interaction in between government agencies, NGOs, PRIs, CBOs, and reference groups to address the basic livelihood needs.  No such initiative has been taken for improving and adapting local traditional technologies of rainfed organic agriculture to regenerate degraded lands. Though agriculture depends on assured availability of water, the government does not provide support and technical assistance for making of village ponds, building underground rainwater collection tanks and recharging the water table.  No initiative has been taken for empowering villagers in terms of education, leadership building, legal literacy, strengthening livelihood systems and ensuring access to information.  Forest based tribal villages has no awareness and knowledge to generate the natural resource economy through traditional patterns of use. The existing forests meet a large part of the survival needs of these villages. However, the forest resource base in this area is currently under stress because of deforestation due to political polarization in forest protection committees and the availability of wild food, fuel wood and medicinal herbs is decreasing.  A major scope is available to use traditional knowledge of tribals on available medicinal plants so that Ayurvedic medicines can be prepared.  No awareness and sensitization among these rural inhabitants about their rights and entitlements in government programme for poverty alleviation.

Village Details (Quantative and Qualitative)

General Profile Dhalla Dhalla Amkhoi Amkhoi Jambani Jambani Ushahar Ushahar Harishpur Harishpur Murgabani Murgabani Achhaipara Achhaipara Gopalnagar Gopalnagar Data Source Source Data Sahebdanga Secondary (S) Secondary Primary (P) Primary &

Number of Para (s) S 2 3 5 0 2 2 3 0 0 0 Name of Gram Panchayat P Illambazar Illambazar Bilati Illambazar Bilati Bilati Illambazar Illambazar Illambazar Illambaza r Name of Panchayat Samiti P Illambazar Illambazar Illambazar Illambazar Illambazar Illambazar Illambazar Illambazar Illambazar Illambaza r Name of GP Member S NA NA Manik Saha Menka Murdi Manik Saha NA Lakshmi Biswas NA Menka Murdi Name of PS Member S NA NA Surman Ali NA Surman Ali Surman Ali NA NA NA NA Name of ZP Member S Annapurna Mukherjee

Significant Features:

 Selected ten interventional villages are situated under Illambazar Block Panchayat Samiti;  There are Nine (9) Gram Panchayats under Illambazar Block Panchayat Samiti – Batikar, Mongoldihi, Bilati, Namsole, Dharampur, Sirsha, Joydev – Kenduli, Ghurisha and Illambazar;  Selected ten villages are under Bilati and Illambazar Gram Panchayats;  There are total 134 villages in Illambazar CD Block, out of these 11 villages are uninhabited;  This CD Block wholly consisted of rural areas and there is no Municipal Town;  All ten villages are existed inside and outside periphery of ‘Chaupahari Jangal’ (Forest Area).

Significant Features:

Demographic Profile  As per primary (Census 2001) data, total village Dhalla Dhalla Amkhoi Amkhoi Ushahar Ushahar Jambani Harishpur Harishpur Murgabani Murgabani

Achhaipara Achhaipara population in between 100 – 1100 numbers. Gopalnagar Gopalnagar Data Source Source Data Sahebdanga Secondary (S) Secondary (S) Primary (P) & (P) Primary  Where Male Population varies within 60 to 600.  Where Female Population varies within 50 to 550  SC and ST Population are in majority in all villages Population (Total) P 687 469 799 207 972 513 1036 1094 171 115 except Harishpur, where the majority of population Male (Total) P 340 241 410 108 501 255 549 554 93 62 from Muslim community. Female (Total) P 347 228 389 99 471 258 487 540 78 53  Male and female population in schedule caste varies Male (SC) S 102 62 245 0 106 0 105 52 0 0 from 50 to 250 and 40 – 240 respectively. Female (SC) S 98 57 233 0 101 0 101 48 0 0  Male and female population in schedule tribe varies Male (ST) S 115 179 125 108 251 0 133 502 93 62 from 50 to 550 and 50 to 500 respectively. Female (ST) S 109 171 121 99 243 0 129 492 78 53  Number of household varies from 15 to 170. Number of Household S 135 120 182 37 158 67 161 160 21 16  Number of household in General, Schedule Caste, Number of Household (Gen) S 42 0 27 0 28 67 78 0 0 0 Schedule Tribe and Other Backward Class varies Number of Household (SC) S 38 24 95 0 35 0 29 13 0 0 from 20 to 80; 10 to 100; 15 – 150; and 10 to 20 Number of Household (ST) S 43 96 42 37 82 0 43 147 21 16 respectively. Number of Household (OBC) S 12 0 18 0 13 0 10 0 0 0  Children under the age group 0 – 6 years, varies Children (0 – 6 Years) P 102 80 105 34 214 102 145 135 22 17 from 15 to 215 numbers. Male P 50 43 51 21 108 54 82 70 13 10  Male and Female children under the age group 0 – Female P 52 37 54 13 106 48 63 65 9 8 6 years varies from 10 to 110 and 5 to 110 numbers Number of Literate P 471 168 326 82 495 263 649 559 75 53 respectively.  Male P 262 120 207 49 280 155 404 332 41 33 Literacy rate varies from 40% to 80%.  Female P 209 48 119 33 215 108 245 227 34 20 Male and Female literacy excluding children rate Literacy (%) P 80.5 43.2 47 39.61 65.3 64 72.8 58.3 43.85 46 varies from 40% - 80% and 30% - 70% Male (%) P 80.3 60.6 57.7 45.37 71.2 77.1 86.5 68.6 44.06 53 respectively. Female (%) P 70.8 25.1 35.5 33.3 58.9 51.4 57.8 47.8 43.8 37.7

Significant features:

Occupation Profile  Total workers in the villages are varied in between 30 – Dhalla Dhalla Amkhoi Amkhoi Ushahar Ushahar Jambani Jambani Harishpur Harishpur Murgabani Murgabani

Achhaipara Achhaipara 580 numbers. Gopalnagar Gopalnagar Data Source Source Data Sahebdanga Secondary (S) Secondary (S) Primary (P) & (P) Primary  Average main workers in the villages 22.7%. Total Worker P 234 224 321 68 387 157 411 579 98 33  Average male and female main workers in the villages are Male P 195 124 222 41 270 145 300 330 68 20 36% and 9.4% respectively. Female P 39 100 99 27 117 12 111 249 30 13  Average marginal workers are 12.8% Main Worker (%) P 27.8 23.2 39.9 8 21.5 20.9 32.6 35.3 7.5 10.3  Average male and female marginal workers are 10.8% Male (%) P 54.7 44 54.1 5 37.5 41.6 51.5 48.2 9.6 14.1 and 17.6% respectively. Female (%) P 1.4 1.3 24.9 3 2.3 0.4 11.3 22 11 16.4  Average non – workers are 47.1%. Marginal Worker (%) P 6.3 24.5 0.3 0 18.3 9.7 7 17.6 24.3 20.2  Average male and female non – workers are 37.7% and Male (%) P 2.6 7.5 0 0 14.4 15.3 3.1 11.4 31.4 22.3 98.2% respectively. Female (%) P 9.8 42.5 0.5 0 22.5 4.3 11.5 24.1 23 38.1  Average cultivators are 30.9%. Non Worker (%) P 65.9 52.5 59.8 0 60.2 69.4 60.3 47.1 32.2 24.2  Average male and female cultivators are 34.2% and 20% Male (%) P 42.6 48.5 45.9 0 46.1 43.1 45.4 40.4 41 24.7 respectively. Female (%) P 88.8 56.1 74.6 0 75.2 95.3 77.2 539 36 40.3  Average agriculture labourers are 42.1%. Cultivator (%) P 50.4 34.8 13.4 10 28.7 54.8 51.7 66.1 0 0  Average male and female agriculture labourers are 35.5% Male (%) P 60 42.7 15.3 7 35.9 54.5 61.7 65.2 0 0 and 51.1% respectively. Female (%) P 2.6 25 9.1 3 12 58.3 22.5 67.5 0 0  Agriculture Labour (%) P 36.3 52.2 68.5 45 62.5 38.9 38.2 16.2 36 27.4 Average household workers are 21.1%  Male (%) P 30.3 51.6 61.3 40 53.3 40.7 26.7 14.2 18 19.2 Average male and female household workers are 9.2% Female (%) P 66.7 53 84.8 60 83.8 16.7 69.4 18.9 30 28.5 and 45.2% respectively.  Household Worker (%) P 2.6 8.5 1.9 0 1.8 0 1.2 2.4 0 2.7 Average other workers (i.e. daily labour) are 12%. Male (%) P 0.5 0 2.3 0 0.7 0 0 3.9 0 1.8  Average male and female other workers are 14.4% and Female (%) P 12.8 19 1 0 4.3 0 4.5 0.4 0 3.2 11.3% respectively. Other Worker (%) P 10.7 4.5 16.2 37 7 6.4 9.5 15.2 0 13.5 Male (%) P 9.2 5.6 21.2 48 10 4.8 11.7 16.7 0 17.6 Female (%) P 17.9 3 5.1 34 0 25 3.6 13.3 0 11.3

Significant features: Village Group(s) Profile

Dhalla Dhalla Amkhoi Amkhoi Ushahar Ushahar Jambani Jambani Harishpur Harishpur Murgabani Murgabani Achhaipara Achhaipara Gopalnagar Gopalnagar Sahebdanga Sahebdanga Data Source Source Data

Secondary (S) Secondary (S)  Primary (P) & (P) Primary Youth c lubs are existed in seven

(7) villages but most of them are unregistered and inactive except Dhalla village.  There are no mahila mandals in Youth Club S 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 these ten villages, therefore, Registered S 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 women status in terms of legal, Unregistered S 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 social and economic are not Mahila Mandal S 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 recognised. Women SHG S 0 5 1 1 4 0 3 1 0 0  In some villa ges 1 to 5 women self Gram Sabha S 0 Irregular Regular Irregular Irregular Irregular Irregular 0 Irregular 0 help groups have been formed by Forest Protection Committee S No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No their own, and the members of the Number of Member in FPC S 0 72 35 10 16 47 33 0 6 0 SHGs are not aware about the Facilities available to FPC S basic rules and regulations as well 25% share of Forest Products As per Rule as the objectives.

Tribal Self-Governance and Gram Sabha The life of Santhal is not a bed of roses unlike other tribals. They live with the sweat on their brow. They also know how to enjoy themselves even in the midst of their sorrows and sufferings, wants and hunger. They still manage to be in their dreamland of song, dance and music. Eat, drink and be merry is their motto of life. After a hard day’s toil every evening the Santhals immerse themselves to the brim under the magical spell of music and dance. The entire Santhal village vibrates with the sweet melody of their songs and colourful dance of their tribe. The Santhal religion, Sarna , is based on worship of the nature. Inanimate objects are personified as Gods and Goddesses and makers of their destiny. There are benevolent Gods who are bounteous to the society. Besides there are other spirits or Bongas responsible for the cause of their diseases and disasters. Therefore they worship these deities for their blessing to have peace and prosperity. The benevolent spirits are propitiated with sacrifices to pacify their anger. They solemnize their festive occasions for the cause of these Gods and propitiate them with music, songs and drinks. They perform different kinds of dances to accompaniment of the religious love, social songs and music in accordance with the characteristics of the festive of ceremonial occasions in which they participate. Out of the seven forms of dances of the Santhals, Baha Dance is a religious dance performed only by the women folk on the occasion of Baha (Bonga) festival. The flower or spring festival solemnized in the month of Falguna. The accompanying songs and music are devotional in nature. There are invocations to Gods and Goddesses seeking their blessings for peace and prosperity in this world.

A major identity marker for the Santhal is their language, and it is in this critical aspect of their identity that is damaged most when languages other than theirs are imposed on them. The hegemony of Bengali in particular is growing, especially in tribal areas. Most Santhals speak an entirely different language or at least a different dialect of the state language. There is thus a yawning gap between the language the child speaks at home and the one she learns in school. Children find it very difficult to learn the school language not only because of the linguistic differences, but also because of the huge difference between their lived culture and the culture introduced by textbooks. Further, the way science and mathematics are taught in schools is very different from the way they learn them at home. These gaps play a very important role in school education. Having to learn a state language that is not their mother tongue creates learning problems. Unlike non-tribal children, whose mother tongue is the language of the text, tribal children have to learn all four disciplines of listening, speaking, reading and writing in an alien language and culture. This is one reason why tribal children often drop out from school. Related to the issue of language is their oral tradition. Much of their conceptualization, concept formation and communication depend on stories and songs that are intimately connected to the survival of their languages. Most teachers teaching in Santhal schools are Non- Santhal who tends to view Santhal language, culture and social practices as being inferior to theirs. Psychologically, this has a strong negative impact on children, which again contributes to their dropping out of school. One way of tackling this problem would be to change the way Santhal communities are being educated. For instance, if textbooks are to be prepared in the language of the Santhali to express their culture, worldview and concepts, it would make it easier for Santhal children to begin learning since they would be already familiar with the language and content of the textbooks. It would also mean that they would have to learn only two skills, viz., reading and writing. In time, they could gradually begin to learn the language of the state, which would put them on par with Non- Santhal students. At this point it might be pertinent to ask whether it would be at all possible to revive the various Santhal languages. While recognizing the difficulties of such an endeavour, we nevertheless feel that a concerted effort needs to be made in this direction.

Another issue that is closely related to adivasi language, culture, cosmology and identity is their knowledge systems. Mainstream knowledge systems often do not recognize or pay heed to local knowledge systems –– in this case the knowledge that Santhali have of their environment, ecology, resources and health practices. In the Indian context, when we speak of traditional knowledge systems (as opposed to ‘modern’ knowledge systems or ‘modern science’), Local knowledge, especially that of Santhal communities, hardly figures in even alternative discourses on ‘traditional’ knowledge and culture. As per the tribal self-rule and autonomy is concern; there are some areas where they are demanding political and administrative decentralisation. All these possible on a strong policy advocacy movement of restoring to the tribal people their basic rights over jal, jungle and zamin or water, forest and land. As we believe that village-level democracy is the main way of it’s growth with the 73 rd amendment to the Constitution, which mandated that resources, responsibility and decision-making be devolved to the lowest unit of the governance, the Gram Sabha or the Village Assembly. Scheduled Areas are those, which are under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of India where the tribal populations are predominant. But, in this segment, West Bengal as well as the proposed operational area are not fifth schedule area. Though these areas are inhabited with people who have resided on the basis of their own customary practices and traditional beliefs and culture.

Policy Gap – In policy context, adivasi (Santhal tribe) communities have been oppressed by the dominant communities and interests that exploit tribal lands, resources, minerals, and forests. The policies for tribals enacted by the State are leading to further marginalisation of tribals. The onslaught on their civil, political, social, economic, and cultural rights has been continuing without any halt and these patterns perpetuate extreme form of deprivation in many ways. Their customary rights over natural resources such as forests, cultural identity, traditional knowledge including intellectual property rights, cultural heritage and traditional wisdom have been continuously put at stake due to the government’s pro-poor development strategies and implementation planning. Some significant points are -

 The words ‘assimilation’ in the draft policy makes a question and the government should fulfill the Adivasi demands for autonomy or self-governance rather than assimilation.  Another area of critical importance is gender issue. Tribal women and girls suffer multiple forums of discrimination, exclusion and problems that are neglected by the policy.  The policy fails to refer rights-based approach. The normative basis of International Human Rights standards, principles and instruments and their backward linkages to national and domestic legal policy framework has been neglected. Therefore, the Government fails to implement these international obligations to protect and promote Adivasi rights.  The policy should address the concerns of Adivasi children’s survival, protection, development and participation with cultural and gender sensitivity.

Though the National Policy mandates that -  Educational and medical facilities, electricity and communication, approach roads and such other basic amenities are provided to forest villagers.  Public Distribution System (PDS) and Grain Banks are established to prevent food problems.  Advanced agriculture and animal husbandry technologies are introduced so that forest villagers raise their production, incomes and economic standards.  Tribals be given opportunities to partake in joint forest management and encouraged to form cooperatives and corporations for major forest related operations  Tribals’ rights in protection, regeneration and collection of minor forest produce (MFP) be recognised and institutional arrangements made for marketing such produce

The Bhuria Committee Report recommends a four-tier system in tribal areas. According to the report, the lowest unit of the system would be the Gram Sabha (village assembly) comprising of all adults in the village. The Gram Sabha would be the basic unit of governance, with the right to settle disputes in the village. It would plan and execute development programmes for the village. It would also manage and control the natural resources of the village. The approval of the Sabha would be required for acquiring land in the village for any purpose other than defence, railways, roads, education and health institutions.

As CSRA team discussed with the forest village peoples and concluded that –  The bureaucrat-decided administrative units and existing political structure are the main barriers in Gram Sabha System.  That cause leads to their inability to preserve their culture and tradition, exercise command over natural resources, own minor forest produce and adjudicate disputes.  They even no freedom to plan or monitor their own development activities.  Their rights are violated in acquisition of or access to land and land-based resources.

Significant Features: Existing Child Development Institutions  ICDS centres are situated in eight villages, have no permanent Dhalla Dhalla Amkhoi Amkhoi Ushahar Ushahar Jambani Jambani Harishpur Harishpur Murgabani Murgabani

Achhaipara Achhaipara infrastructure, irregularity AWW, etc are the common. Gopalnagar Gopalnagar Sahebdanga Sahebdanga Data Source Source Data Secondary (S) Secondary (S) Primary (P) & (P) Primary  Few villages have recently formed Sishu Siksha Kendras but a large ICDS Centre S 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 numbers of children are still out of coverage. Sishu Siksha Kendra S 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0  Only four villages have primary schools with recently started mid day Primary School with Mid Meal S 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 meal system to reduce the drop out rate but irregularity and poor Madhyamik School S 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 quality meal make the children less interested. Higher Secondary School S 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  Within 4 – 7 kilometers of these villages, there is no Madhyamik School.  Within 10 – 12 kilometers of these villages, there is no Higher Secondary School.

About Child Education Dhalla Dhalla Amkhoi Amkhoi Jambani Jambani Ushahar Ushahar Harishpur Harishpur Murgabani Achhaipara Achhaipara Gopalnagar Gopalnagar Sahebdanga Sahebdanga Data SourceData Secondary (S) Secondary (S) Primary (P) & (P) Primary

School Attendance Rate (40 - 60% & 60 - 80%) S 60 40 - 60 40 - 60 40 40 - 60 40 - 60 40 - 60 40 -60 40 40 Chronic irregularity among school going children S 35 50 20 40 35 40 32 40 65 70 What they do? No Work (%) S 60 70 30 70 55 20 45 35 30 22 Household Work (%) S 35 30 60 30 40 60 55 55 65 70 Child Labour (%) S 5 0 10 0 5 20 0 10 5 8 School Drop Out [Rate & Class] S 35; III & IV 30; IV & V 33; IV & V 40; IV & V 40; IV 40; IV & V 35; III&IV 30; IV &V 50; III to V 70; III to V Existence of VEC S NF NF NF No No NF NF NF No No Sanitation and water facility in school S No No No No No No No No No No

Significant Features:

 The school attendance rates among the children in pre-primary and primary stages are varied in between 40 % to 60% respectively. The main causes behind this attendance rate are –  The schools are existed in different locations of the forest periphery and average distances from the villages are 2kms. to 3 kms. and the means of communication is walking, the children under the age group 6 – 10 years unable to cover the distance in regular basis.  Lack of parental sensitization and high rate of illiteracy among parents on the importance of education, a chronic irregularity observed among the school going children, and the average rate is 42.7%.  Low educational interest among the school going children tends to enjoy playing or staying at home, and the average rate is 43.7%.  School going children are mostly forced to do household work and the average rate is 50%.  Some children are engaged in the tea stalls, brick fields, agriculture fields, collection of sal leafs, etc to earn for their families, and the average rate is 6.3%.

 The drop out rate among the school going children in primary schools varies in between 30% to 40%.  Significantly, there are no sanitation and drinking water facilities in primary schools of these villages.

Land & Basic Amenities Dhalla Dhalla Amkhoi Amkhoi Ushahar Ushahar Jambani Harishpur Harishpur Murgabani Murgabani Achhaipara Achhaipara Gopalnagar Gopalnagar Data Source Source Data Sahebdanga Secondary (S) Secondary (S) Primary (P) & (P) Primary

Area (in hectare) P 227.3 245.6 163.9 137.86 218.63 96.66 312.42 313.34 84.24 38.17 Government Canal (in hectare) P 0 0 53 0 170.7 74.9 0 87 0 0 Area not available for cultivation (in Hectare) P 104.82 106.36 80.14 80.35 29.23 11.68 109.42 99.27 28.14 11.2 Total irrigated land (in hectare) S 90 135.9 114.9 77.1 189.4 84.9 200 88.62 51.7 NA Cultivable Land (In Hectare) P 101 75 113 45 125 137 135 128 32 26 Legal Land (with Patta in Hectare) S 82 60 72 31 87 97 93 91 21 14 Number of Sharecroppers S 16 6 20 20 10 10 7 11 0 2 Voter Card (% of Household) S 62 60 63 65 60 65 61 68 48 48 Ration Card (% of Household) S 67 60 68 55 62 60 58 63 55 55 BPL (No. of Household) S 21 30 35 51 28 20 22 21 14 15 Health Card (% of Household) S 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Housing Pattern (Kuchha) S 127 120 176 37 121 77 155 126 26 26 Housing Pattern (Pucca) S 7 0 6 0 4 7 6 2 0 0 Approach paved road P No No Yes No No No No Yes No No Approach foot road P No No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Approach mud road P Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No /1 Bolpur /14 Bolpur/24 Bolpur/ 18 Bolpur/19 Bolpur/ 15 Bolpur/18 Bolpur/18 Bolpur/08 Bolpur/17 Nearest town with distance (in K.M.) P 7 Imported Commodities P Garments, Daily goods, Sugar, Salt, etc Manufactured Commodities P Rice, Sal leaf plate, etc Exported Commodities P Paddy, Potato, Rice, etc Communication (<10 km) P Bus, By Cycle Drinking water P Tube well Drinking water (Summer) P Pond (Common), Tube well (1 / 2 Functioning covering entire village) Adult Literacy lass / Centre P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 al se the s is 17 s is es. when local land owned by another he he publication and notification rules to purchase land at toland the offered price by purchase pay the market price” before approving before approving price” market the pay ds ds in favor of a scheduled bank; (5) gift or a period of less than seven years; (2) sale orsale seven years; (2) of periodless than a n. n. Any transfer by a landowner who belongs the main is transportation system by on depended villagers bound to use pond water for their surviv cept rainy season, these canals are almost dry. almost canals are these season, cept rainy Bolpur and the average distance from these these village from distance theaverage and Bolpur and deep. Except rainy season they are unable u to unable they are season rainy Except and deep. ate soil, and it varies in between 10 to 110 10 hectar 110 to in between varies and it soil, ate he forest periphery. periphery. he forest h h ST members do not have preemptory purchase rights and and would improve the law in two respects. First, t ersons. Second, ersons. it would giveSecond, ST members the right restricting their ability to transfer they land ow n n to whetherdetermine any ST is member “willing to simple simple mortgage or mortgage by deposit of title dee o with a person who Tribe foris a member Scheduled ept ept foot man ormaking roads mud roads, other than hildren. hildren. 7%. proportion proportion of the village population, in summer the ages. ages. opalnagar have the Government Canal facility but ex but Canal facility have the Government opalnagar these villages, because the water table is too low too is table the water because these villages, cultivable, because of it’s low fertility and lacer low fertility it’s of because cultivable, government health facilities for the villagers. thevillagers. for facilities health government 6 Hectares, where all the villages resided inside t inside resided allthe villages where Hectares, 6 0 to 330 hectares as per the inhabitation size. theinhabitation per as hectares 330 to 0 km away from the villages. Where a nearest town town is nearest a Where the villages. from away km the locality a preemptory right to purchase such l ly, the giveslaw the Revenue Officer the discretio protect protect the interests of Tribe Scheduled members by ure that ST members learn of such sales to non-ST p le le or exchange to any Scheduled Tribe member. Thoug arket price. price. arket urpose; urpose; (3) simple mortgage to the government; (4) ing: (1) complete usufructuary mortgage entered int ing: usufructuary (1) complete Average irrigated land is 103.2 hectares is hectares 103.2 land irrigated Average vill in the concern are 10.2% sharecroppers Average Total forest land of the operational area is 1737.8 is area the operational of forest Totalland Average Kuchha houses are 99.1%. Kuchha houses Average 0.9%. are houses Pucca Average There are no such health cards issued for accessing issued for cards such health noare There A major portion of lands are declared as the non – the non as declared lands are portion of majorA Total areas of the villages are varied in between 3 between varied in are the villages ofareas Total Average voter card holding households are 60%. 60%. are households holding voter card Average 60.3%. are households holding card ration Average 25. are households line below poverty under Average – cycle as well as 4 bus, to 3 at least which needs Most Most of have the villages no permanent exc approach Some villages like Achhaipara, Harishpur, Dhalla, G Dhalla, Harishpur, Achhaipara, like Some villages kms. kms. Safe water isdrinking one of the major problems of tubewells, tubewells, which are very small numbers as per the and which leads serious health problems among the the c among problems serious health and which leads gift to the government for a public or charitable p As per the West Bengal Reform Land objective is to accompanying such a preemptory accompanying right would help ens the belowm is price that even person when a non-ST Features:Significant Tribeto is a Scheduled void, for except the follow bequest to a to a Scheduled Tribe member; or (6) sa ST is member soldbeing to a non-ST Current member. a sale to a non-ST person. Giving all ST members in              

Significant Features:  Small Business Significantly, there was no specific income generation Dhalla Dhalla Jambani Jambani Amkhoi Ushahar programmes had been taken for the poorer sections of Harishpur Harishpur Secondary Primary & Murgabani Murgabani Achhaipara Gopalnagar Sahebdanga Data Source these villages in last one decade. Government initiated IGP (any) S None  Presently, some small scale business activities are Small Scale Business (Trade) S Sal leaf plate, Fish net making, observed as s al leaf plate, fish net preparation, bamboo Small Scale Business (Market) S Bolpur Town & Illambazar Rural Market basket making, etc and most of the time due to non – Households with domestic animals S 122 120 170 32 133 71 95 132 21 20 availability proper market except Bolpur town and Illambazar rural market, they don’t get actual market price.  On average 91.6% households have the domestic an imals as a means of their survival.

Health Amenities Amkhoi Amkhoi D halla J ambani U shahar H arishpur Murgabani A chhaipara G opalnagar L akshmipur D ata Source S ahebdanga Secondary (S) Primary &(P) Allopathic (distance in km from village) P 10 km> 5 - 10 km 10 km> 10 km> 10 km> 5 - 10 km 5 - 10 km 5 - 10 km 10 km> 10 km> Maternity and child welfare centre (“) P 10 km> 10 km> 5 km> 5 km> 10 km> 10 km> 10 km> 5 - 10 km 10 km> 10 km> Primary Health Centre (“) P 5 -10 km 10 km> 10 km> 10 km> 5 -10 km 5 - 10 km 10 km> 10 km> 10 km> 10 km> Registered private medical practioner P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Primary health sub centre (“) P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Community health worker P 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Significant features:  These villages mostly sufferer in accessing health amenities and facilities, in fact within 5 – 10 km or even 10 km above there is no medicine shop except Illambazar rural market.  Maternity and child welfare centre and Block PHC are not easy accessible to the villagers because it needs to cover at least 10 km and above distance. Where in emergency or serious case, most of times patients family unable to meet the transportation expenses of private ambulance, or even sometimes patient died. At night, van-rickshaw is the main transportation mode to carry the patients to hospital. , Most of the cases these villagers prefer to admit their patients in Bolpur Sub Divisional Hospital rather than Illambazar Block PHC.  There are no such registered private as well as qualified medical practioner available in these villages to solve immediate health problems. But a large number of quacks and ojhas are available to meet the health needs of the villagers bearing high expenses.  Only four villages have the government appointed health workers.

About Child Health D ha l la Am kh o i J a m b a ni U s h a ha r H ar is hp u r Mu r g a ba n i Achhaipara Gopalnagar Sahebdanga Lakshmipur Data Source Secondary (S) Primary (P) &

Malnutrition Children (Boys) S NA NA NA 10 12 10 13 12 6 4 Malnutrition Children (Girls) S NA NA NA 7 8 12 11 12 3 6 Number of IMR (Last One Year) S NA NA NA 4 NA NA NA NA 2 1 S Malnutrition, Lack of food, Causes of IMR NA NA NA Malnutrition NA NA NA NA lack of food Malnutrition Communicable diseases S Tuberculosis & Malaria (No intervention conducted in HIV/AIDS sector, most of the people don't know about this disease) Government health camps S No health camps conducted in five years except the pulse polio immunization Govt’s medicine distribution in PHC S The availability of medicine in PHC / Sub PHC is insufficient as per the requirement Birth registration (%) S 24 30 26 23 22 24 10 15 12 10

Significant Features:

 In few days’ interactions and observations some children are identified who are mainly suffering from malnutrition, these numbers can be increased in further baseline data collection.  Very small number of IMR recorded during that visit, the three main causes behind that IMR are malnutrition & diarrhoea, lack of availability of nutritious food and availability of health facilities.  Generally tuberculosis and malaria are the two communicable diseases are recorded in villages, where malaria rate is higher than tuberculosis. Awareness level on STD/HIV/AIDS is zero among these villagers.  In any circumstances, the block PHC and sub PHCs don’t have the enough capacity to provide medicines and other technological support to the poorer sections and which leads to heavy monetary burden to meet their health problems.  Average birth registration rate is 19.6%.

Predominant Issues (Regional)

On the above discussions, the main regional issues are the following –

 Inadequate literacy  Violation of Livelihood Rights;  Mono-Cropping;  Average Low Rainfall;  Infertile Agriculture Land;  Land Reform;  Political Polarization;  Right to Information.

Predominant Issues (Operational Area)

On the basis of above issues and previous shown quantities and qualitative data of the operational area, the predominant issues are –  Pro – poor policies of the state in relation to education, health and employment generation.  Poverty in Socio – Economic Matrix  Tribal Autonomy towards Self-Rule Practice.  Discriminated Land Reform Policy of the State.  Major Gaps in National Tribal Policy in relation to Forest and its Governance.  Coordination Gap in between Peoples and Panchayat.  Lack of quality at Implementation of village education system b. The girl boy ratio: The girls and boys ratio is 26:74 c. Teacher student ratio: Teacher student ratio is 1:18 d. Do the children continue their education after graduating from the school of the organization or drop out? If they drop out, how many of them do that and for what reasons? The library accelerated education will address the quality education issue for all children to all categories i.e. who are school going but unable improve themselves, children who are dropped out, left out and still not enrolled in schools as well as child labourers who were forcefully withdrawn from education due to poverty. The children will improve their education by enriching their skills and knowledge with a goal to continue and re-enter into schools with Strong base of understanding and motivation. Almost 18% of total targeted children are dropped out category and they will be educated in a manner to mainstream themselves into primary schools and further. e. Does the organization give a thought to what will happen to the children after they leave its school? The organisation is not creating permanent schools for the children, whether library will be the permanent asset for them in future. These library accelerated education centres are fully designed to support existing Government Education System in a manner to counter root problems of education faced by the children to enhance their reading, writing and basic arithmetic skills to get motivation to continue their education after primary and above. Target children parallel attend other formal education centres. This project addresses quality gap issues and encourages attending schools in a n enjoining way. f. What is the distance of other schools (Govt. or private) from the school of the organization and how do they run? Why do the children prefer the school run by the organization?

Distance of formal schools / ICDS is on an average 0 to 1 KM’s range. School timing differs from area to area. Most of the schools run in the morning. ICDS runs all in the morning.

Most of the library structures have been prepared by the community itself by their own effort and contribution. The library based education centres run from 1 PM to 5 PM depending on the seasons. Each centre runs by two trained volunteers. The children prefer these education centres due to its environment which is suitable for learning with enjoyment by reading story books, do arithmetic by games, play different games for value added learning, etc. g. If it is a Non-Formal Education (NFE) center being run by the organization how many of the children attending this program of the organization go to other formal schools in the area? (This question should be asked to the children and not the teachers or the volunteers of the organization.)

There are two categories of students to be covered: one batch is school going and they need quality improvement. The second group is non- enrolled and drop –out student group who need non-formal education support to link with formal system. The school going students need formal tuition support for quality development. No such approved complete standard NFE syllabus is being followed at schools till now. The children of the villages are showing keen interest and they love to attend in library education centre because they are enjoying the time not only for education but also scope to play different games which build and increase their interest on education process. Almost all children are come to the centre and like sphere good time with different colorful books and learning phases. h. What are the other activities they do besides their time school? CSRA has a unique concept and practical experience of child participation in mode of children groups formation (locally known as Kishore – Kishori Bahini) and involvement towards their village development mainly in awareness creation on environment cleanliness, campaign on under five immunization with ICDS worker, conduct survey at home to understand public distribution system, etc. Beside that these children will be involved in different environment and general subject related quiz, drawing and different games with equipments. i. What is motivation for attending this particular institute? The motivation of the children are clear and simple i.e. to access quality education, improve their inherent potentialities and do some social development work for their own village. The play way approach is liked by them. j. Are there any special complication/challenges student has to go through to attend this institute? Yes, the children who are attending these education centres have reading, writing and other relevant education related problems mainly skill and knowledge to build interest on education. k. Do they really enjoy attending this school? Yes, children are really enjoyed to attend these education centres not only to get education but also to spend enjoyable moment with different co-curricular activities. l. What do they do after completion (Graduating!)? As said earlier that this library based education centres are supplementary arrangements for the children having education related problems, after restoring their problems they will be mainstreamed with full comfort to government school with good skills and interest for further education with solid base. m. What is drop out rate in students? At present drop out rate is almost 35% among them most are girl students (as per sample survey conducted informally). i. What are reasons for drop out?  The reasons for drop out as founded are –  Low interest on education among parents as present education system has less meaning to their occupation context.  Distance and timing of school  Food insecurity forced to a child domestic or agriculture labour  Carrying siblings most of the time  Unable to bear the cost of education materials.  Lack of capacity to purchase cloths.  Low attention and lack of importance of parents on child education  Panchayat and Govt. are not paying proper attention to restore this situation. ii. Did the organization take effort to convince them not to drop out if yes how and how much success they are having? CSRA is not only convincing the children to restore from drop out condition to mainstream of education but also discuss the matter to concern teachers and village education committee members. Last five years the organisation covered 234 drop out children whereas at least 178 children mainstreamed and they are continuing their education. n. How much student has to travel to attend school? 50 - 60% students. o. If there is potential crowd of children unattended what is obstructing factor? And how it can be overcome, and how can Asha help in that. The key obstructing factors:  Discriminating gender factors as per Quality  Family work taken by children  Education not viewed as primary concern  Vocation linkage with education system at higher stage is absent  Awareness, Model centres establishment and policy level advocacy the scenario can be changed. p. Do they try to enroll more students? Yes: How? No: Why? Yes, the organisation wants to enroll more students in the education centres, because it only pay more attention on those identified children having specific education related problems. Maximum student strength per centre is 60 nos . 5. Information about teachers and the organization’s project coordinator. Till now 10 teachers have been appointed from Feb. 09 with qualification from class VIII to XII. Each school 1 teacher is posted. Project coordinator is NGO General Secretary himself who is an MSW. a. Are the grass roots volunteers local or from outside ? The total 10 volunteers involved along with a project Coordinator/Advisor in this project are local and mostly belongs to their own village. b. Do the main volunteers perform only administrative duties or actually spend time at the grassroots? No, the volunteers not only concentrate on education but also do subsequent social development activities as specified to them time to time. c. How many total Teachers/Volunteers are involved in project (Total: 20 Full Time:20 Part Time: 0 ) till date appointed 1 coordinator and 10 teachers / volunteers. d. What is average age? (Most of them are young ranging X-Y year, Z people are in there 50’s etc) The age ranges of all of the volunteers are 18 to 30 years. e. What is Education level? From class VIII standard passed to XII standard. f. What is their background? (They have been working as a teacher for a long time, house wife, volunteering for the first time etc.) They are already village volunteers and engaged with organisation in different social development activities. Therefore, the have prior experience to conduct education session for the children for 1.5 yrs experience. g. How long they have been with organization/Project? Last 1.5 to 2 years they are involved with the organisation, and also they will engage themselves in future to involve same work. h. In case of volunteers, are they financially involved with project? Yes, they will get INR 500 each month per person as honorarium. i. Where do they live, and how much they travel for this? They belong to the same village therefore no question of travel is raised. j. How much they are paid, is it par level with other institute around area? INR 500 per month. k. Are they satisfied with their salaries? Yes, at this moment they are satisfied about this amount. l. How many new teacher/volunteer have joined in past one year? Only four new volunteers have joined CRSA in past one year. m. Does the organization train the teachers, if yes how do they provide the training? Yes the volunteers will be trained with the help of CSRA, Swanirvar and Mandra Lions Club. The training will be non-residential in nature and at least five days extensively. 6. Community and their involvement: a. Socio-political environment of community. The organisation is working with mix communities where Santhal tribes are 70%. The whole villages are forest fringed and very minimum minor forest produces. That means the forest not able to support these villages for livelihood. Whereas, most of the villagers daily labourers or engaged as agriculture labourers. Inspite of having lands most of the households unable to use it due to shortage of water except rainy season. The food insecurity is acute due to poor performance of NREGS and other schemes. Different political parties existed but they paid more attention on votes rather than basic livelihood needs of the people. So, the socio-political environment is not conducive for these forest villages due to caste and class discrimination and high illiteracy. b. Relationship between local people and the organization in organization's area of work. Last five years the organisation is working with these forest tribal communities to restore their livelihood rights by their collective action. At least 30% changes in livelihood situation in five villages are visible due to significant intervention of the organisation. The organisation works with public need and opinion and therefore, the relationship with community groups are sound and suitable to carry forward development intervention. c. The extent of involvement of local people in organization's work. The extent of involvement of local people is good in organization’s work because the community participation and contribution is one key strategies of this organisation. d. Opinion of the people in that area about the organization. The people are satisfied about the organizational intervention because they like its policy to help the people to help themselves. Because the organisation always tries to build the capacity of these rural poor by providing necessary need based information, sensitization and other strategies support to fight against counter forces to claim their entitlements. e. Is this an appropriate choice for the people around the area? Yes At least two three organisations short time worked in this area with different development commitments but they unable to show any root of development to these people to make them self governed but the organisation win credential in this segment by implementation of need based projects and the people have full faith on this local organisation and build an ownership on the activities of the organisation. f. What else does the group do other than education? The organisation involved in multi dimensional development activities i.e. propagation of diversified agriculture and horticulture, promotion of organic farming practices, youth empowerment, women social and economic self reliance, etc. g. Accountability of the organization to the community.  Quality and quantity of outcome  Direct hand holding  Attitudinal change of community  Forum formation and local fund generation. h. Does the process involve or plan to involve the community? Before village selection some more villages were conducted village meeting and problem identification were done where education were prioritized and according to priority level villages were selected. Accordingly community also expressed their need. i. Does the community participate in setting the priorities? The organisation use participatory rural appraisal method in each community to provide scope to the community to participate and set priorities according to their immediate need. Therefore preference ranking, venn diagram, sample survey and focus group discussions are applied accordingly. j. Is there local leadership development, oversight and responsibility? The key strength of the organisation is its community youth counterpart. Being a youth based organisation, it always believes on strength of youth and their capability of social change if they are properly guided. Therefore, the organisation always form youth advocacy group known as YAD in each village, who are working with this organisation as the mentors of village development. Other points: k. Can the project be instrumental to socio-economic change of community? If yes, than how? All development projects somehow support social and economic development of the target community. This project is not an exceptional one because it preparing first generation learner with quality education in a view they will be capable to make their future brighter than second and third generation as well as give viable contribution in social and economic development of their families and social as a whole. Above all reading and writing ability makes a community winner. l. How the project is making difference at present in community? How it will make difference in future? The organisation is addressing the root problems of child education, if this project is able to give proper education inputs to the target children than it can be easily understandable that these children build their education base more solid and able to continue their education with confidence in future. m. Are there any statistics regarding project? Yes : The available statistics is that the project will cover almost 600 children in 10 villages, whereas the organisation started identifying those children who have needed more attention in quality context. Socio – economic information is given above. II. At the project site:

Project Visited: Name of the Organisation: Surul Centre for Services in Rural Area (CSRA ) Contact details (contact person, address, phone/fax no. E-mail): Bratin Biswas, Secretary, Surul Centre for Services in Rural Area, ‘Sangeet’, Vill. Surul, P.O. , Pin. 731236, Dist. Birbhum, West Bengal (India). Phone No. 03463 – 320185 / (0) 9434348113; Fax No. 03463 – 264039, E-mail. [email protected]

Legal Status of CSRA:  Societies Registration Act, 1961(No. S/98513 dated 12 th May 2000) at West Bengal  Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976 (No. 146930041 dated 22 nd September 06  Income Tax Act 1961, Exemption under Section 12A & 80G  PAN is ABAFS7195K

Project Name: Scaling up of village community library based accelerated reading programme in ten tribal villages of Illumbazar block of Birbhum District, WB.

Project Objectives:

 Impart reading skills / enhance reading ability of every child between 4-14 year old of ten tribal village in Illambazar Block of Birbhum;  Ensure that over a 2 year period at the end of which designating these villages as a Reading Villages;  Involve Village community volunteers for implementation of the programme;  Explore the new curriculum module for child education for their better capacity enhancement in reading, writing and basic arithmetic practices.

Area of coverage and target population:

The project will cover ten tribal villages of ‘Choupahari’ Forest Area and introduce Village Community Library Based Accelerated Reading Programme. Five (5) Tribal Villages each from Two (2) Gram Panchayats named ‘Illambazar’ and ‘Bilati’ will be covered in this project. Primary target population of the project will be the children of 4 to 14 years of those tribal villages, where as secondary target population will be youth club, village education committee, school teachers, CBOs, Gram Panchayat

Project Visited By: Sandip Kumar Pal, PGRD, Project coordinator MLC Mob: +919474510544, [email protected] , [email protected] Benimadhab Singha Roy, Accountants Head, MLC Mob: +919434877533 Kamrul Huda, Project Coordinator, School In Bag Project(ASHA), MLC Mob: +919933406473

Visit dates: 11 th to 13th February, 09.

Visit Schedule: 11.02.09 2 nd half meeting with field staff team in presence of Secretary of CSRA, primary discussion on project, visit plan setting. 12.02.09 morning interview with secretary at CSRA head office and collect secondary information from office, Account books. 2 nd half school visit (4 nos).

Major Findings: (we have visited 4 schools at Phulbagan, Dhalla, Murgabuni, Laxmipur villages) From the secondary information at field office CSRA we did get the following status of the schools: S.N. School/ No. of How many Female SC ST Prime Family Occupation Vill. Name Students are Students Attending Agriculture Daily Entrepreneur formal Labour Educational institution 1 Itadanga 23 18 09 0 23 23 0 2 Achaipara 20 20 08 0 20 10 10 0 3 Dhalla 29 21 11 15 12 14 15 0 Found Dhalla 48 48 18 at visit 4 Phulbagan 29 26 07 0 29 29 0 Found Phulbagan 16 16 08 at visit 5 Sahebpara 27 20 12 0 27 05 22 0 6 Murgabuni 33 26 10 0 33 16 17 0 Found Murgabuni 32 30 10 at visit 7 Laxmipur 22 22 09 0 22 13 09 0 Found Laxmipur 30 30 12 at visit 8 Khayerdanga 18 18 06 0 18 06 12 0 9 Gopalnagar 23 23 08 0 23 11 12 0 10 Banavilla 36 36 11 0 36 19 17 0 260 230 91 15 243 70 166 0

 Villages selected are approachable and communicable. Community is mainly ST / SC.  Most of the children covered are enrolled at Primary school/ SSK/ ICDS (A formal institution)  Age group of children covered is in a range from 2.5 to 9 Yrs where as the target age group is between the ages of 4-14.  All the villages are having a formal education centre run by Gov. of WB.  From the above table it is clearly seen that at any of the schools there is no student strength of appointing 2 nos teachers at each school. Even the visit shows that non-school going student strength is very minimum (one of the school it is found 2 nos and other 3 schools is 0). So the non- formal theme ends here. After that we had a discussion with the Secretary, CSRA. He told at the initial level non-school going students are tuff to capture at school. The number will increase gradually. So the same non-formal theme may be initiated and after a quarter another review may be conducted to work out the viability of running NFE classes.  CSRA schools do not follow any complete NFE course curriculum of standardized type and are suggested to do so in case of few nos of non-school going/ drop out students if the non- school going student size is found viable.  Majority of students who are going to formal educational centres need quality development. They need to continue classes on the same course curriculum followed at formal sector.  Two separate classes should run separately by different teachers and for that two teachers are asked for. But student teacher ratio for school going section will be much higher than a standard class size (1:35) at some schools; however it should be confirmed after a quarter.  During our visit at villages community reported that schools were started just before two days and it runs from 2 pm to 5 pm @ 6 days in a week. School time is suitable for the students.  No chairs and tables were available at school so far.  Till the visit date one teacher for each school were appointed.  Some Almirah /book selves were seen to be transported for village library during our visit  Place for library room is found good and safe. In two schools out of four visited it is now at community infrastructure. No library has created so far.  Overall project development speed needs to be faster.

1. Visiting the organization office a. Project vs. Organization: Find out how and where the project fits in the scheme of things of the organization The mission of CSRA is to develop downtrodden community where this project also serves the same purpose. b. Define deliverables or metrics i. Encourage project to define deliverables against which a project can be evaluated after funding. Deliverables are library books, library furniture, different skill building trainings, MTA formation etc. they have already started supplying library furniture.

Appendix : 1: Photographs:

Meeting at field office Class at Phulbagan Children learning th rough game

School at Laxmipur Community at Phulbagan Community feed back

School at Murgabuni

2. Project Time Line: 1st Year (Quarters) 2nd Year (Quarters) A. Project Year I II III IV I II III IV Community Mobilization Meetings X X X Setting Up Community Owned Libraries with Book materials X Further Book Collection and Fund Rising X X X X X X X X Preliminary Assessment of the Children i.e. Reading, Writing and basic X Arithmetic ability Selection of Village youth volunteers X Training of Village youth volunteers X X X X Capacity Building on L2R module to School Teachers and ICDS workers X X X L2R classes for the children X X X X X X X X Village level meetings on progress monitoring of primary education with different X X X X stakeholders Quarterly Test of the Children X X X X X X X X Formation of Mother Teacher Associations (MTA) X Capacity Building of MTAs X X X Children’s and Stakeholders level Convention on the Success of ‘Sarva Siksha X X X Abhiyan’ in light of educational rights Final Term Test of the children X X Final project monitoring Next mon th

Documents sent through email by The Secretary (Bratin) after visit though our visit could not find the same at field. Attached billow:

In Separate MS Word file