January 2014 People’s Rural Volume 14 Education Movement ... 14_January 2014.pdfpowder...

PREM E-NEWS, Volume 14, January 2014 1

People’s Rural

Education Movement

E-NEWS January 2014

Volume 14

Mandiapalli Village, Berhampur, Dist-Ganjam, Pin- 760-007 Odisha, India Phone: +91-680-234-3266 Email: [email protected] Website: www.prem.org.in

President’s Message My dear friends, We wish you a happy and prosperous New Year 2014, so that this year may bring new vision, dreams and development interventions in the field of education, health, livelihood and governance in every village, gram sabha throughout our country. We had different interventions in the field of Early Childhood Education in Odisha and this experience we have taken to the National level and was able to influence the Govt. of India to bring a policy in the National level and specially this policy brings Mother Tongue based Multi Lingual Early Childhood Education in tribal ICDS centers throughout the country. PREM together with (National Advocacy Council for development of Indigenous Community) NACDIP lobbied for this purpose. We are very glad to say the Govt. Of Andhra Pradesh and Govt. of Kerala requested NACDIP to take up the model what PREM has worked out in Odisha with the support of BvLF. This 2013 brought fear, shock and trauma in the minds of the peoples of Ganjam district of Odisha, because Cyclone Phailin struck and damaged the houses, properties and vegetations of the people and it may take years to recover from this shock. PREM together with different International NGOs and AXIS Bank Foundation have taken up relief and rehabilitation program in different blocks of Ganjam, Puri and Kandhamal districts of Odisha. We hope that this year will bring more opportunities to the people of Odisha and other states so that the marginalised communities will be empowered economically, socially and politically, that the values of equality, truthfulness, justice and compassion will be practiced and that will help us to create a new India according to the vision of Gandhiji and Pundit Nehru for India. Thanking you Dr. Jacob Thundyil, President, PREM

Highlight of the Issue

Phailin - The catastrophic cyclone

On 12th October 2013 the catastrophic cyclone struck the south Odisha and the Ganjam district with torrential rains compounded by more than 275 Km/hr speedy winds.

The entry point namely the coastal areas of Ganjam was worst hit destroying thatched/tin/asbestos houses, uprooting trees and electric poles. It was aggravated by the torrential heavy rain from 22nd to 25th October caused by depression flooding the district and washing out whatever were left by the cyclone.


The disaster, as usual, affected the poor and the marginalised communities. The livelihood of the people is severely affected. The Phailin hit nearly 35 lakh people (8 lakh families) bringing about, damage of over 2.25 lakh houses and standing paddy crop in 2,03,900 hectors and non paddy crop in 65,000 hectors worth about Rs. 3,400 crore. Fishermen have suffered massive loss of nets, boats and damage of catamarans. There were over 22 lakhs trees uprooted by the Phailin. This was indeed the worst ever cyclone over the last 14 years. PREM has vast experience in rendering emergency, rehabilitation and restoration services during the catastrophes from inception. It has taken multipronged and appropriate and essential measures during floods, droughts, super cyclone and the tsunami over the last

three decades. In the current disaster as interventions it has taken immediate steps for relief as follow.

In association with AXIS Bank Foundation, PREM provided 2 packets biscuits,

one solar lamp, halogen tablets, chhatua-500 gm, bleaching powder-200 gm, vegetable seeds, one blanket and one tarpaulin to each of 3500 families of 30 villages of the worst affected Rangeilunda,Ganjam and Khallikote blocks.


The affected agriculture farmers of 28 villages of Puri district—Brahmagiri, Konark, Satpada and Krushnaprasad—were provided with financial support for rehabilitation of their livelihood.

In collaboration with Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF), PREM distributed one solar lamp, two packets of chhatua powder, 500 gm milk powder,2 packets biscuit, 200 gram sugar, 6 candles, 10 match boxes, 200 gram bleaching powder, 1 pocket mosquito coil to each of 5000 families and one solar lamp to 3100 families and one each tarpaulin to 2000 families of 40 slums of Berhampur city.

PREM in collaboration with Kinder Not Hilfe(KNH) distributed one blanket to 300 families, 10 kg rice, one kg chhatua powder and a solar light to 1500 families and provided notebook to all the school going children of the 1500 families of Daringbadi block of Kandhamal district, Gopalpur and Khallikote area of Ganjam district.

PREM in support with Rashmi Group of Companies supplied drinking water by mobile water purifier to 2250 families of 15 villages of Rangeilunda & Chhatrapur block. The community people of these two blocks got purified water from this service and it helped to check various water born diseases in the area.

PREM in support with Handicap International, UK distributed Prescribed

Assistive Device—Hearing Aid, Walking Stick, Unilateral Elbow Crutch ,Feeding Kit ,Universal Cuff ,LS Belt, Wheel Chair (Adult Size ) ,Universal Cuff, Tricycle, Humeral Cuff, LS Brace , Knee Brace, Cervical Collar , Ankle Brace, Pair of auxiliary Crutches, Unilateral Elbow Crutch, Water bed, Water bed—to the disabled persons of 70 families of Purusotampur block of Ganjam district.

With the support of Help Age India mobile health camps were organised with medicine supply covering 17 villages of 3 blocks covering around 4097 patients of 17 villages of 3 blocks for immediately treatment.

Similarly PREM in collaboration with Help Age India provided food items—rice 12 kg, dal 2kg, flat rice one kg, salt one kg, mustard oil one litre, sugar 2 kg, turmeric powder 100gms,chilli powder 100 gms, coriander powder 100 gms, bathing soap 2 nos, detergent soap 2 nos, match box 6 nos—and non food items—one solar light, one taurpalin, 2 blankets, 2 floor mats and 500 gms bleaching powder—to 1513 families of five villages of Achuli and Aladigaon villages of Purusotampur block of Ganjam district.

All the beneficiaries were very happy and obliged to receive the relief materials which helped them a lot during the critical period after the Phailin. They expressed their gratefulness to PREM for getting these benefits in their crisis period. The relief distribution system of PREM was completed in a very systematic and peaceful way. The district administration appreciated this system and adopted the same system in the government relief distribution activity. “We are very grateful to PREM for providing relief materials after Phailin. These materials helped us a lot in our crisis period.”

--Mr. Durga Prasad Layak, the leader of the Slum Development Community of ORT Colony Canal Street


Success Story

Excel in sports

” I extend my heartful thanks to PREM, for giving me such opportunity. Whatever I am to day the credit goes to PREM. I also extend my gratitude to each and every person who has contributed his/her service to build up my career” says Rutani Dalbehera’.

Rutoni Dal Behera, aged 15 years, is currently continuing her class 10th in Kendriya Vidyalaya, Golabandha, Gopalpur, with PREM’s financial the support. She is the eldest daughter of Mr. Israel Dal Behera—an Adivasi from Nuapalli Village, a small interior village of Parimal area of Gajapati District—inhabited mostly by the indigenous people. Her father is an agriculture farmer and the mother, a house wife. She is the eldest one among the 5 children.

Rutoni, started her schooling as a sponsored child of PREM at an English medium school in Berhampur. Later on, while she was in class 4th, she was admitted to Kendriya Vidyalaya, Golabandha. All through her study, from the beginning till now, she secured good percentage of marks. Besides study, she has much passion towards sports at school. From standard 5th onwards she participated in the competitions held in the school, annually on sports’ day and stood first invariably in Javelin throw, shot foot and running race. Her passion for sports

increased when she was selected for regional level sports meet organized in Bhubaneswar and there she got three medals. Moreover, she was awarded with silver medal for Javelin throw at a National level sports’ meet of Kendriya Vidyalaya, organized in Assam in October 2013. Her greater excellence in sports got her selected for School Games Federation of India (SGFI), which organized sports events at Ranchi in January 2014 at the national level. She came among the top 8 out of 47 players. This indeed has been a matter of pride for PREM, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Golabandha and her family. Rutoni’s ambition is to join Odisha Cricket Academy after her matriculation and be a cricketer to represent the state in the World cup in future. PREM congratulates Rutoni for her outstanding performance and development and wishes her all the best for the fulfillment of her dream.

PREM Family News

Participation at international level

From 6-8 November 2013, the Asia Multilingual Education Working Group (MLE WG) convened the Fourth International Conference on Language and Education - Multilingual Education for All in Asia and the Pacific: Policies, Practices and Processes at Bangkok, Thailand. The main purpose of the conference was to build national and local capacity in designing, implementing and monitoring MLE programs in the


region. There were around 300 participants from 30 different Asian countries participated in the conference.

On behalf of PREM Mr. Sudhir Digal, Program Manager, got an opportunity to attend the three days conference. There he presented his paper on “Process, Practices and Implementation of Mother Tongue based Early Childhood Education of PREM’.

The conference brought together the MLE partners to increase understanding of the importance of expanding access to effective MLE and strengthen momentum for MLE in the Asia-Pacific region. The conference facilitated the exchange of effective practices and experiences, link MLE theory to practice and foster policy dialogue. The conference served as a platform for forward-looking debate and the shaping of effective education policies and programs for the post-2015 agenda. For more information about the program— Fourth International Conference on Language

and Education - Multilingual Education for All in Asia and the Pacific: Policies, Practices and Processes —visit http://www.lc.mahidol.ac.th/mleconf2013

“I am very happy to get this opportunity to attend this conference and represent my organization at international level. As I am concentrating my work in this area, it has enhanced my understanding and conceptual clarity on Language and Education - Multilingual Education. I also express my thanks and gratitude to President, PREM for giving this opportunity to me” --Mr. Sudhir Digal, Program Manager, PREM. PREM congratulates Mr. Sudhir Digal for his experience and achievement and looks forward to benefiting from his experience in program of PREM.

Notes from the Field PREM in collaboration with BvLF provided the supplementary feeding support to anaemic mother and under nutrition children in the operational area. In this connection project have


taken an innovative step to supply chicks in the program villages. Because in this variety of chicks the egg has high protein content and it can meet the nutritional need of the families. Now 1450 chicks (per house hold one chick) are supplied to 22 villages of the project area in the month of November. The community members are very glad to receive this support. It can enhance the health status of the women and children of their community. Traditionally October and November months are regarded as the time for pre-harvest celebrations such as Durga Puja, Kumar Purnima and Diwali festivals. But the natural disaster Phailin dampened the spirit of festivity this year. To encourage the children in this critical situation, PREM facilitated to celebrate Diwali festival in 38 slums, the operational areas of PREM in Berhampur Municipal Corporation in the month of November. All the children celebrated Diwali with lighting lamps and crackers. The children of ORT Colony, Canal Street, Berhampur drawn colourful

pictures of their old houses, which was blown and collapsed in the recent Phailin attack and lighted the lamps on these pictures. In this occasion, the Secretary of PREM was present and the local Corporator Mamata Bisoyi was also present to encourage the children and people of this slum in this critical situation. The children were very happy to celebrate Diwali festival in this way through which they were able to share their happiness in their community.

PREM Program Activities In the month of December Mr. Michael Feigelson, Programme Director, BvLF from Netherland and Ms. Dharitri Pattnaik, India Representative, BvLF together Dr. Jacob Thundyil, President PREM visited Kapotadiha village of Keonjhar Juang project—where PREM is working on integrated development activities for the Juang children and their communities. At first they visited to ICDS center where mother tongue based multilingual ECE is being conducted by the project at Kapotadiha village. In the center he interacted with the children and was very happy to see the children, who are learning in a joyful atmosphere. He also participated in the community meeting, and interacted with the community people. They villagers explained about various support of the project since last one year. He also visited grain bank, kitchen garden and housing project of the project. Similarly on 6th December he visited the Child Development Centre at Khajuria Road at Berhampur there he interacted with the children, centre teachers and mother groups from four nearby PREM’s operational slums, at the child


development centre. Mother club members expressed their happiness regarding the establishment of the centre for the development of children. Mr. Michael was very happy to see the center set up as well as the activeness of children, who are learning in a joyful

atmosphere and the presentation of women group. On the same day he had a meeting with Ms. K. Madhavi, Mayor, Berhampur Maha Nagar Nigam along with President, PREM, Deputy Mayor, Berhampur and Corporators of different wards of PREM’s operational areas of Berhampur at Hotel Bhubaneswari Classic, Berhampur. There he had a short discussion with the Mayor about

existing issues of slum area, different activities implemented till now and what can be done further for their better living condition. At the end of the visit Mr. Michael expressed his happiness and appreciated the good work of PREM for the development of the Juang community of Keonjhar district and people especially children living in urban slum of Berhampur.

Education After cyclone people became homeless and slept their children under and on the cement trucks, which is reported at Goods Shed Road Slum. Considering this in the month of November, the project initiated a child development center to give care and protection to the children in such a situation. The children intend to stay this center at night with their mothers and in the day time they dance, sing and play in the center. After reconstruction of their houses mothers are not staying now in this centre, but the children are getting early childhood education in the centre in a joyful atmosphere in the morning and evening hours. After establishment of this center, children from different situations are attending regularly the center and the project provide food and all sorts of support to the children. The children are enabled to bring out their inner potentialities by drawing different pictures and learning different things by well trained teachers.

Health

By December 2013, twenty numbers of street plays were organized in the program villages of Keonjhar project area by the local cultural troop. The objective of the program was to create awareness on Reproductive child health and early childhood education. The key messages received from the street plays were pre and post natal care, importance and benefits of institutional delivery, colostrums feeding and exclusive breast feeding, importance of routine immunization, nutrition of mother and children, home based care(0 to 3 years) and importance of mother tongue based multi lingual ECE, importance of formal education etc. All these topics were presented through songs, actions, dances, role plays. More than


1200 people attended these programs with great interest. Men, women and children were found to be very positive towards these subjects. This platform created to understand and raised awareness on importance and need of RCH & MT based Multi Lingual ECE.

Livelihood

PREM in collaboration with BvLF has planned, promoted and initiated kitchen garden. In this connection per household one each vegetable seed kit where 6 number of varieties of seeds like green leafy, drumstick, runner bean, lady finger, brinjal and Tomatoes was supplied to 2034 households for promotion of kitchen garden in the 35 Juang villages of JDA operational area of Keonjhar district. The objective of the initiative is to increase the nutrition status and to meet the food insecurity of the mother and children in the project operational area. The project staffs are visiting to individual homestead land of the operational villages for follow up the kitchen garden. The methods of cultivation on different varieties of seeds are demonstrated in the field to the beneficiaries. The supplied vegetable seeds are sown in their land and seedling raised in the seed bed. Some of the villages have no facility for promoting kitchen garden due to scarcity of water. So they are sowing in the agriculture land where water sources available. Those villages have sown the vegetable seeds in the field where earlier vegetable plants grew up well. Vegetable production already started.

PREM in collaboration with BvLF has taken initiative to establish a model village at Kapatadiha village, Banspal block of Keonjhar district, where people can avail safe drinking water, toilet facility, safe road, electricity ensuring better living condition. Under this housing project there are 49 eligible households to get benefit. As per the inquiry of Revenue Inspector 28 households have their own house land documents. For the remaining 21 beneficiaries project have taken steps and applied for immediate

settlement. Family investigation and document verification of 21 beneficiaries are done by the Additional Tahasildar of Bansapal block. He gave assurance to the beneficiaries for issuing of land documents as soon as possible.


On 8th December the Housing project Foundation stone was laid by Sri. Badrinarayan Patra Honorable Minister of Higher Education, Govt. of Odisha, MLA Telkoi, MLA Patna and Collector Keonjhar at Kapotdiha village of Banspal Block of Keonjhar District of Odisha. Around 500 local Juang people participated in the event. Presently construction work (foundation) of 32 houses have been started. In this work the involvement of the villagers are very good and they are supporting very actively.

Governance

In the months of November and December 2013, PREM organized Field level capacity building training for PRI members in three panchayats of Gosani block of Gajapati district and Rangeilunda block of Ganjam district of Odisha in collaboration with State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) and Panchayat Raj department, Govt. of Odisha.The role of PREM was to coordinate and facilitate this training program with the concerned block authorities. Most of the participants were Sarpanchas, Ward members, Samiti members and Zilla parisad members of the concerned panchayats. Resource persons for the training program were appointed by the SIRD, Bhubaneswar. The contents of the training program were palli sabha and grama sabha, structure of three tier

panchayats raj system, role of PRI members on different Govt. Schemes etc. the trainers imparted training through various methodologies such as lecture method, PowerPoint presentation, documentary films. Poster display etc. On the final day of the training one session was conducted for interaction and clarification, which was attended by BDO and GPO of the concerned block. The participants received knowledge on their

roles and responsibilities towards fulfilling their duties. The participants also received certificates for attending the training in the last day.


Child right On 14th November, on the eve of Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru’s Birth Day Children’s day was celebrated in 38 slums of Berhampur. The main purposes of celebrating this program were to develop the inner potentialities of children and to create competitiveness among the children. Children from different slums of Haridakhandi gathered at Binayak Acharya College premises. Competitions on dance, song, picture drawing was organized in this occasion and children enjoyed the day happily. A public meeting was organized, where the Corporators and President of Sramika Sangha and print media were present. The dignitaries highlighted on developing the inner potentialities of children in the community for the emerging child friendly society. The winners were awarded with prizes by the dignitaries.

Likewise children from adjacent slums of Goods Shed Road, Berhampur were gathered at Child Development Center at Khajuria Road and danced, sang songs, drew pictures and gave tribute to Chacha Nehru. Children were distributed with Biscuits, Soft drinks and candies in this occasion. This program aimed to rejuvenate the mentality of depressed children and encourage them to bring to the normal life.

Ongoing Initiatives

On 12th December, on behalf of the National Advocacy Council for Development of Indigenous People (NACDIP) Dr. Jacob Thundyil and Dr. K. Krishnan met National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Congress Vice-President, Cabinet Ministers and NCST Chairperson for the rights and empowerment of Adivasi Communities with special focus on rights of the tribal children, education, employment, reservation and issue of the human rights at New Delhi. They also met Justice Shri. D.Murugesan and Justice Shri.Satyabrata Pal, Hon’ble Members of the NHRC. Issues of reduction of reservation from 22% to 8% at the Central Schools in Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, issue of false cases against tribal youth and innocent tribal people in the jail on suspicion cases of being Maoists, forceful displacement of over 24000 tribal people in Tiger Reserve / Wild-life Sanctuaries of Sathyamanagalam, atrocities against Denotified tribes and function of non-Anganwadi centers in Tribal areas of Maharashtra were focused. On 13th December, they had meeting at Jawahar Bhawan where the civil society organizations and leaders of Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs from all over the country were present to share their suggestions / recommendations for preparing the Congress Election manifesto for the coming Parliament Election 2014.


In this meeting the team met with Shri. Rahul Gandhi- MP & Vice-President of Indian National Congress (INC), Shri. Chidambaram – Minister for Finance, Shri.Jayaram Ramesh -Minister for Rural Development, Shri. Kishore Chandra Deo- Minister for Tribal Affairs, Shri.Veerappa Moili- Minister for Backward Communities, Kumari Shelja- Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment and also met Shri.Puniya, Chairperson for National Commission for Scheduled Castes, Shri.Rameshwaran Oran, Chairperson of National Commission for Scheduled Tribes and others. During this meeting

the team used this opportunity and influenced the leaders and presented the some suggestions and recommendations to include in their Manifesto such as

• Giving strict guidelines to the state government not to dilute the spirit of PESA Act. • Ensuring allocation of adequate fund and systematic working out of the National

Early Childhood Care and Education Policy, so that over 15.5% of the Indian Population will benefit.

• Formation of monitoring committee on the performance of duty bearers of every district in implementing rules of FRA 2006 to ensure protected livelihoods, land rights for all Adivasi areas.

• Better implementation of the Bonded Labour System Abolition Act of 1976 to rescue the millions in bondage, and protect communities vulnerable to bondage

• The government to plan inclusive development and plan all ecology protection projects with participation of tribal and implement such plans without disturbing the habitat of tribal and stop all types of displacement.

• Implementation of such budget allocation for education, nutrition, health care, livelihood, housing, water & sanitation in proper way.

Quotes

• The best way to make children good is to make them happy.

---- Oscar Wilde, (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer and poet.

PREM E-NEWS Editing Team: Himani Dash and Kailash Padhi To subscribe to PREM E-News, send an email to [email protected] Visit the PREM website at www.prem.org.in People’s Rural Education Movement is a registered voluntary organization under the Societies Registration Act of India. PREM is also registered with the Credibility Alliance of NGOs in India.

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