“Time passes by like lightning. Before you know it you're struck down.” said Billie Joe Armstrong. Like everybody, I was eager to know where I was going spend the next two years of life in India. Which place was it going be? ORISSA , ORISSA, ODHISA (Gram Vikas) . Not like I had an option, but I knew deep down for sure that wherever I was going to go, I wanted to make the only available option my best option.
All I was told was it is going to be tough. Two key aspects here – my organization which is 30 years old and the living conditions!! Tough – how would one interpret that?? On the last day at Khandala, as Mr. Nachiket was talking about all our projects...I realized this then, I might just be some small seasonal ant who might just be lucky enough to find some sugar after a lot of struggle !! And this is how it begins...
This place WILL question your believe system, your tolerance level, your passion, your ability to accept and adapt and your commitment, knowingly or unknowingly!!!It is NOT new for Gram Vikas to have volunteers for a long duration from all over the world. The people (staff) in here are neck - deep into their own tasks. There are a lot of things going on at the same time in this place and you are expected to figure out your own forte and start contributing to that – in short a lot of opportunities to do just about anything. A one common thread that binds the entire organization together is their simplicity and very fact that all of them thoroughly enjoy what they do. This is enough to keep me going.
My first visit to the real India – Rudhapadar, Ganjam district. The assignment was to do the impact study of “ Aadamini-Kaam-Roti-Kapada-Makhan” wanted to avoid the jargon but I am nowhere close to getting convinced that I will able to make my point clearly by doing so. Getting to the point anyway, “the change in the income patterns and livelihood interventions” over the past 20 years. These interventions cover the government interventions and the interventions made by gram vikas. The only authentic way to get the information was by meeting the villagers and employees (field supervisors, project coordinators etc) mostly in the evenings. Some data could be got referring the hard copy of data. (Now, this is available only for the past ten years) No documentation was done in the early years of intervention.
Let me tell you that these villages are located in very very remote areas. That’s right!! You either reach the village by crossing minimum 3 streams, or a bus half titled will take you there. At the end of the day when I sat down to analyze. I realized that all the villagers have told me that there has been a change in their income patterns because of the interventions made by the Gram Vikas , government etc. How could I possibly make a report out of that? What were the parameters? In the next village my thinking and questioning got better, at least I thought so. I realized that nobody would tell me the hidden things which I needed for my analysis upfront.
MY questioning in the first village was something like this... (In brief):- (Cashew Planation being the major occupation here)
- How many cashew trees do you own?
- What was the income then and what is the income now?
- How do you sell it?
- Do know about the governments schemes ?
The point I am trying to make here is that I was direct (questions about income...what was I thinking?) and I could not really achieve my task properly. Keeping this in mind I made an effort to ask more than the normal routine questions.
My questioning in the second village was something like this: - (in brief) - Indirect way
- How many acres of land do you own?
- What is the price per/kg you get for the cashews you get now and previously?
- Has your health expenditure increased? (Key indicator of an impact of livelihood intervention)
I was back to the head office to make my final report, with still a few questions unanswered. I had to spend some more time talking to the old employees here to make a good analysis.
My next task was to document the “Best Practices of Rural Sanitation” for the Department of Drinking Water Sanitation of India. This required me to go through a lotttt of documents and reports so that I DON’T miss out on anything.
As all of us know that joy of giving week is just around the corner, a sudden thought stuck me when I was going through all the posts made by IVolunteer on face book. Can gram vikas do something in a small way to be part of it? Very hesitantly, I put this thought across to my program coordinator. She welcomed it. So we built upon it, and she came up with the plan to raise money from all the employees within Gram Vikas for “charity water” an NGO which works for the similar cause as gram vikas does – “water and sanitation”, with the people of Central Africa, who live in the worst possible conditions one can ever imagine. The idea was put across in the coordinators meeting today, another meeting for the head office staff will be scheduled soon to spread the idea of the joy of giving week.
Well that’s what has been keeping me on my toes all this while. My last bit ends with a little trivia; this place surely has a lot to offer apart from the routine; I found a big fat scorpion in my “new room” three days back. Now I have to make peace with that as this place will be my home for the next two years. Not to forget bears and snakes are also are regular visitors around the place I live. I can’t agree less with this now “bhagwan jab deta hai to chappar phad ke deta hai sab ke saath”..:p...Well this is just the beginning!
All I was told was it is going to be tough. Two key aspects here – my organization which is 30 years old and the living conditions!! Tough – how would one interpret that?? On the last day at Khandala, as Mr. Nachiket was talking about all our projects...I realized this then, I might just be some small seasonal ant who might just be lucky enough to find some sugar after a lot of struggle !! And this is how it begins...
This place WILL question your believe system, your tolerance level, your passion, your ability to accept and adapt and your commitment, knowingly or unknowingly!!!It is NOT new for Gram Vikas to have volunteers for a long duration from all over the world. The people (staff) in here are neck - deep into their own tasks. There are a lot of things going on at the same time in this place and you are expected to figure out your own forte and start contributing to that – in short a lot of opportunities to do just about anything. A one common thread that binds the entire organization together is their simplicity and very fact that all of them thoroughly enjoy what they do. This is enough to keep me going.
My first visit to the real India – Rudhapadar, Ganjam district. The assignment was to do the impact study of “ Aadamini-Kaam-Roti-Kapada-Makhan” wanted to avoid the jargon but I am nowhere close to getting convinced that I will able to make my point clearly by doing so. Getting to the point anyway, “the change in the income patterns and livelihood interventions” over the past 20 years. These interventions cover the government interventions and the interventions made by gram vikas. The only authentic way to get the information was by meeting the villagers and employees (field supervisors, project coordinators etc) mostly in the evenings. Some data could be got referring the hard copy of data. (Now, this is available only for the past ten years) No documentation was done in the early years of intervention.
Let me tell you that these villages are located in very very remote areas. That’s right!! You either reach the village by crossing minimum 3 streams, or a bus half titled will take you there. At the end of the day when I sat down to analyze. I realized that all the villagers have told me that there has been a change in their income patterns because of the interventions made by the Gram Vikas , government etc. How could I possibly make a report out of that? What were the parameters? In the next village my thinking and questioning got better, at least I thought so. I realized that nobody would tell me the hidden things which I needed for my analysis upfront.
MY questioning in the first village was something like this... (In brief):- (Cashew Planation being the major occupation here)
- How many cashew trees do you own?
- What was the income then and what is the income now?
- How do you sell it?
- Do know about the governments schemes ?
The point I am trying to make here is that I was direct (questions about income...what was I thinking?) and I could not really achieve my task properly. Keeping this in mind I made an effort to ask more than the normal routine questions.
My questioning in the second village was something like this: - (in brief) - Indirect way
- How many acres of land do you own?
- What is the price per/kg you get for the cashews you get now and previously?
- Has your health expenditure increased? (Key indicator of an impact of livelihood intervention)
I was back to the head office to make my final report, with still a few questions unanswered. I had to spend some more time talking to the old employees here to make a good analysis.
My next task was to document the “Best Practices of Rural Sanitation” for the Department of Drinking Water Sanitation of India. This required me to go through a lotttt of documents and reports so that I DON’T miss out on anything.
As all of us know that joy of giving week is just around the corner, a sudden thought stuck me when I was going through all the posts made by IVolunteer on face book. Can gram vikas do something in a small way to be part of it? Very hesitantly, I put this thought across to my program coordinator. She welcomed it. So we built upon it, and she came up with the plan to raise money from all the employees within Gram Vikas for “charity water” an NGO which works for the similar cause as gram vikas does – “water and sanitation”, with the people of Central Africa, who live in the worst possible conditions one can ever imagine. The idea was put across in the coordinators meeting today, another meeting for the head office staff will be scheduled soon to spread the idea of the joy of giving week.
Well that’s what has been keeping me on my toes all this while. My last bit ends with a little trivia; this place surely has a lot to offer apart from the routine; I found a big fat scorpion in my “new room” three days back. Now I have to make peace with that as this place will be my home for the next two years. Not to forget bears and snakes are also are regular visitors around the place I live. I can’t agree less with this now “bhagwan jab deta hai to chappar phad ke deta hai sab ke saath”..:p...Well this is just the beginning!
A very nice post ..It almost describes in gist the whole of ur days at ORISSA...A very gud indicator that INDIA needs to develop at alot at grass root levels though we hear from people on a basic overall view that 'INDIA is shining ' ...I am happy for ur sincere efforts for a unique cause in itself which very less people opt to go for... N more than anything the joy or mirth u get by meeting new people or analysing them , n when that becomes ur fulltime work , how adventurous,satisfying and happy it feels ??? is something i can sense from ur experience ...Keep it going ..all the best \m/ :):):):):)
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to read more of your grass roots experience :)
ReplyDeleteNice Blog
Enjoyed reading; keep writing!
ReplyDelete:)