State of NREGA – 1

Bhim, Rajasthan: “Is it NREGA work going on?” Kaluram began his address in a meeting with workers at a NREGA work site in the Dungarkhera gram Panchayat of Rajsamand district, Rajasthan.

One wondered why Kaluram, who is a former sarpanch and an activist of about 21 years with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), was asking such an obvious question.

“NREGA chaal ri hai (Yes, NREGA is going on),” nodded around 40 workers, settling down to ardently listen to what the MKSS’s 9-member team had to say. The MKSS's yatra aimed at mobilising people towards a demand for an 'accountability law' has so far travelled across 12 gram panchayats to mobilise people in the demand for an accountability law to be passed in the state.

“Or is it Akaal Rahat (famine relief works)?” asked Kaluram further, tacitly bringing out the point. Murmurs broke and workers looked visibly puzzled.

Eight years since The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), now MGNREGA, was enacted in the state of Rajasthan, the lack of knowledge about the Act and its provisions reflects a reality that is much more than the workers’ mere ignorance.

Before NREGA came into force, the Rajasthan Government used to initiate relief works under a famine code to provide a means of income for farmers hit hard by drought.

But, under these works, only twenty percent of the population of the villages lying within the radius of five miles from the centre got work. And, only the names of relatives and those close to the sarpanchs, ward panchs etc featured in the muster rolls (attendance sheets issued for work).

When NREGA was enacted in 2005 after tireless struggles by the poor, it was to break this control that the wealthy and those belonging to the dominant caste in a village held on employment generated from relief works. 

Famine relief works used to also be started as per the government’s discretion, as and when it felt the need to. NREGA, on the other hand, is application-based and provides for work to start within 15 days whenever workers apply for it.

But, ground realities, portray a completely different picture. The government continues to initiate work when it wants to by controlling and manipulating all processes of work sanctions and workers’ applications.

The nexus that runs right through bureaucrats, district and block level officials, sarpanchs and mates (work site supervisors) has destroyed the powerful, legal entitlements of the Act. So when prime minister Narendra Modi said, a year ago, how NREGA was a living example of a failed scheme, his government seemed to have also meticulously worked to fail it.

Take two gram panchayats in south central Rajasthan – Nareli in Bhilwara district and Dungaji Ka Gaon in Rajsamand district.

Even nine months after the financial year began, workers of both these panchayats have got only around 30 days of the entitled 100 days’ work.

“Works under NREGA were sanctioned late this year,” said Madan Singh, a mate from Nareli. A worker from Nimbya village from the same gram panchayat said how last year too they had completed only 50 days of work.

“Because of administrative delays in sanctioning work by the gram sabha and at the district level, we were told to start filling applications of workers late this year,” said another mate from Dungaji Ka Gaon.

Many villagers openly admit how mates are all sarpanchs’ close aides. And, how shortfall in the level of education makes most poor highly dependent on mates who fill work applications on the workers’ behalf.

No receipts are given to the applicants and those whose names are left out of the muster rolls are left with no proof of a filed application to take the matter further. Section 7 of NREGA that provides for payment of unemployment allowance if work is not provided withing 15 days to an applicant, therefore, stands nullified.

Workers often keep their job cards with their mate who does not enter proper work details in them. This keeps workers at the mercy of mates and sarpanchs to get work - a right guaranteed by law.

Moreover, bondages of caste faced by villagers, restrictions that follow one’s gender and limitations that follow illiteracy mean that the Act’s strongest provisions never reach them.

Therefore, to most workers (at least in areas where NREGA is poorly implemented), there is no tangible difference between the arbitrary nature of famine relief works and guaranteed entitlements of NREGA.

The fresh fund crisis in providing NREGA work looming in the rural development ministry as communicated by it recently is a clear, grim indicator of desperate, inhuman times ahead for the rural poor in many states of the country. 

Spurred by school’s effective working, Teetri and 13 other neighbouring villages appeal for its upgradation

Teetri, Rajasthan: Egged on by sound management and teaching standards at the government upper primary school, Teetri, thirteen other neighbouring villages have now raised a demand to upgrade the school further.

Residents of Teetri village in Rajsamand district have drafted an appeal to be made to the district education officer and collector to upgrade the school from the current upper primary to the senior secondary level.

They have argued that the school in Teetri is centrally located and well-connected to about thirteen other nearby villages such as Mataji Ka Badiya, Bangla Ka Badiya, Dedhiya, Kesarpura, Kankediya etc.

“After eight standard, children, at present, have to travel over 5 km to senior secondary schools in Sameliya and Ajitgadh where there are not even enough teachers. The transport frequency is poor and it becomes very difficult for girls from all these villages to study further,” said Tej Singh, resident of Teetri.

Singh has started a signature campaign and is confident that the appeal initiated by Teetri residents would get support from all the other thirteen villages.

The school’s headmaster, Mohammad Gafur Chipa, said that the school’s 233 students presently come from ten different villages.

Located about 14 km from the block headquarter, Bhim, the school’s premises reflect the systematic and painstaking organisation by Chipa and nine other teachers.

Signposts installed to indicate directions to various school facilities, pots kept outside every classroom for drinking water, separate tank with taps set up to wash mid day meal utensils, printed workbooks handed out to students are among some of the highlights in the school’s functioning that stand out.

The school has also kept a first aid kit and installed a mirror on a wall to which are hung a nail cutter, a comb, oil and scissors for children to use when they feel necessary.

These small changes and interventions make a big difference in creating a healthy, learning environment in the school, said Chipa who is the prime force behind the school’s design and maintenance.

“When I was posted here in 2003, the school had just four classrooms. Now, the campus is complete with eight classrooms (one for each standard), store rooms, kitchen, borewell, some play equipment and separate toilets for boys and girls” said Chipa.

School courtyard

The school has a cement badminton court in the courtyard, a rainwater harvesting facility with a five-lakh-litre-capacity storage tank, a developed and a 3.17 bigha-sized playground a few metres away to play cricket, football, kho kho and kabaddi.

“Our next goal for the school is to have digital classrooms and projector facility. Let’s see how it works out,” added Chipa.

Chipa also keeps a note of phone numbers of both parents of all the students enrolled in the school. “If a student remains absent for two consecutive days, we make sure that a call of enquiry goes from to the parents”.

The village makes collectively makes a contribution of about Rs 1 lakh every year from the income generated by farming on common land owned by a ‘Users’ committee’ constituting villagers as members.

“What we like most about the school is that teachers give personal attention to students. We want the school to grow further. A lot of us older people here are illiterate but we want our children to study well,” added Singh, who is also a member of the Users’ committee.

Drum and drinking water pots kept outside every classroom

Mirror and other subsidiaries kept for use

In tough times for public education in rural Rajasthan, government school at Chitardai shows the way forward

Chitardai, Rajasthan: From numbers interspersed in scenic paintings, students try to identify hidden digits, with much intrigue. This is a first standard Maths period.

Students complete reading an English story, not from a textbook, but from placards handed out to each of them that have sentences and characters written on them. They read the placards one by one, with playfulness. This is a primary-level English period.

Names of districts and states are filled by chalk on empty maps of Rajasthan and India painted on walls. That’s an upper primary-level geography period.

These classes of playful learning are an everyday story at the government upper primary school, Chitardai village, Deogarh tehsil in Rajasthan.

At a time when the Rajasthan government mulls handing over the management of government schools to private bodies, the school sets a formidable example of how quality education prevails in government-run schools.

These methods of innovative teaching were adopted by the school’s former headmaster, Devender Singh Kachawa, post 2005, to make the best of limited resources and staff strength.

After primary students in the school are taught all the numbers from 1 to 100, their exam is conducted on an open concrete field where numbers are placed and painted randomly.

Students gather around the circle, the teacher says a number out loud and the student who gets to the number first passes the exam.

A bigger circle in the same space has numbers and alphabets painted at an every two-foot distance around which students are asked to run. The teacher asks them to stop after a few seconds and to say the number on which they stand aloud.

“In 2005-06, we had an acute shortage of teachers. There were only two teachers at the time. The circle of numbers and alphabets, that we now call Chitardai circle, evolved to teach multiple standard students at a time,” said Kachawa, who was promoted out of the school this year to a lecturer’s post in Rajsamand block.

Kachawa has a laid a strong focus on the notion of ‘learn by playing’ which is now followed by all the teachers at the school who are urged to bring new teaching ideas at regular intervals.

First standard students at the school do not learn by writing in their books. They learn the names of animals by drawing and painting them.

Stencils and other paraphernalia used to teach students

The English and Hindi alphabet orders are painted on the school wall with blank spaces in place of some alphabets which the students are asked to fill.

“In this process, students don’t realise they are learning. We believe that a person’s inherent nature is to play. Therefore, we decided to link studying with playing, drawing and craft,” added Kachawa, who is also a national-level basketball player.

In 2010, the school collaborated with United Kingdom-based organisation, People and Places, who sent volunteers to the school for a month every year to teach English to students.

“They contacted us after seeing the Chitardai circle video on youtube. Their involvement helped both teachers and students here a great deal,” said the 46-year-old former headmaster.

Kachawa used to shake hands with every student at the gate as they entered school, with a ‘How are you?’ and ‘What’s your name?’ every morning.

“These small gestures are important for children to feel welcome and encouraged,” he said.
The school has also stepped up to raise awareness on child marriages by putting up a big banner on occasions that states child marriage is a crime.

However, the school is now languishing with just four teachers over a student strength of 231 and against the sanctioned teacher strength of nine. Vacant posts include that of the headmaster, English teacher and three primary-level teachers.

Boraz Ka Kheda village sets example; pools in to develop government school

Rajsamand, Rajasthan: To a question on what sets the government upper primary school at Boraz Ka Kheda apart, its alumnus and sarpanch of Boraz panchayat, Meena Salvi, says, promptly: “It’s the facilities”.

Belying its interior location and absence of a pucca road access, the school has piped drinking water supply, a drinking water storage tank with taps and most importantly, functional toilets.

Creative paintings of Hindi and English alphabets and informative posters on health, scientific concepts and maps dot the school’s four classrooms.

Pramod Singh Charan, the school’s headmaster attributed the school’s development to the interest and involvement of the villagers.

Beginning from the construction of the school structure to the study desks or benches in classrooms to the uniforms and notebooks of students, everything in the school has come from community contribution.

On Thursday, the school held a programme to distribute books and uniforms to the newly admitted students which was also attended by the district education officer.

Parents at the programme

Located about 12 km from the district headquarter, Rajsamand, the Boraz Ka Kheda government upper primary school has 161 students – 72 (45 %) of them, girls.

“Owing to our vicinity to Rajsamand, there are many children who go to private schools from the village. We have held night meetings and challenged parents to send them to our school. We have guaranteed them with good results,” said Charan, who has been working in the school since 1992.

Taking a cue from private schools, the government upper primary school also adopted advertising techniques such as distributing pamphlets about the school’s features in the village.

“What helps us connect with people is that we have helped them with their social problems too apart from school-related ones. When they were facing hassles in opening bank accounts to get scholarships for their children under the chatravriti yojana, we facilitated this process and got account opening forms filled from our school,” said Harish Paliwal, Maths teacher at the school.

Thursday’s programme was well-attended by around 40 parents apart from state education department officials and donors, most of whom own or run marble mining and cutting factories along the highway that connects Boraz Ka Kheda to Rajsamand.

The school which was upgraded from primary to the upper primary level in 2006 was shifted to a new, nearby location with a bigger area.

After the school management approached parents and other villagers for funds to construct a school structure, four classrooms, a mid day meal kitchen and an office room were constructed.

“Some contributed with cement, some with paint while some with furniture and other subsidiaries,” said Mangilal Paliwal, a former sarpanch, under whose tenure the construction took place.

According to rough estimates, the school has got funds amounting to around 3.5 lakh from private donors.

“As per government’s rules, we got only 1.6 lakh to construct a new building which was insufficient. But by encouraging people to pitch in money for their school, we built bigger classrooms and a wider school corridor,” added Charan.

The keenness in construction design is seen in the rainwater harvesting facility constructed in the premises to deal with water shortage in the area.

“We had to raise the height of the building’s foundation to prevent waterlogging. In the raised height, we constructed a tank that would store the rainwater collected,” added Harish.

Non-potable water from the tank, that has a capacity of about 30,000 litres, is now used in toilets and for watering plants in the premises.

Girls queuing to use the school toilet

The school undertakes tree plantation activity every year where around 40 seeds are sown by students and teachers.

While the school stands out with complete infrastructure and full teaching staff, unlike most government-run schools in rural Rajasthan, there are still many unaddressed social issues.

“Out of the 300 families living in our village, 150 are from the Bhil tribal community and many of them have not enrolled their children in school,” said Sohan Gurjar, president, school management committee.

Provision of infrastructure has also not uplifted the state of girls’ education.

“While there are good government as well as private schools here, most girls are still not sent to study after tenth standard. This has to change,” said Salvi, who herself discontinued studying after ninth standard.

Reflections - A campaign raises questions on public schooling in Rajasthan

Bhim, Rajasthan: As students from the government girls’ higher secondary school in Barar panchayat, Rajsamand district, gheraoed block primary education officer Prithvi Singh Kachawa at a protest over staff shortage on Thursday and flooded him with questions, he said: “Historically, the level of education in Rajsamand district and particularly in the Bhim block has been very low. Very few locals have attained higher educational degrees and took up teaching as a profession”.

As the protesting students listened restively, Kachawa continued: “Therefore, teachers here are posted from outside and seek transfers after a while. This is the main reason why many schools here don’t have teachers, not just yours”.

This, in a nutshell, explained what leads to the vicious circle of a life without education and the resultant exploitation and poverty of most of the population of Bhim and many other regions of rural Rajasthan that has remained deprived from moving up the education ladder and thus, forced into exploitative, menial labour for decades.

But more starkly, a mere description of the problem by Kachawa without a plan of action to address it also showed the state education department’s unwillingness to change the scenario.

The story of girls’ education in the state paints a grimmer picture if one looks at it in the backdrop of a highly patriarchal society where child marriages are still a rampant reality.

A statistical representation of this would be the abysmal female literacy rate in Rajasthan which stands at 47.76 per cent against the male literacy rate of 79.19 per cent. (Source: Census 2011)

So, when more than 1200 students of two government girls’ higher secondary schools in Bhim and Barar and a government girls’ secondary school in Dewair took to street protests on Thursday outside their schools, they were challenging years of gender injustice by the state and society. Their demand, although, was fundamental: appointment of teachers for all of their subjects.

The protests were reminiscent of a dharna held in October last year when 700 girls of the same government girls’ higher secondary school in Bhim had locked the school gates and sat on protest.

Out of that dharna was born a larger, state-wide campaign – Neenv - Shiksha Ka Sawaal Abhiyan – a collaborative initiative of Soochana Evam Rozgaar Adhikar Abhiyan (a collective of around 100 civil society organisations in Rajasthan) and Rajasthan Patrika, a daily newspaper.

The campaign, launched in April, was compelled after four new teachers who were appointed at the Bhim girls’ school after the October 2014 protest were transferred out within just a month.

The absence of 70 per cent of the sanctioned teaching staff and that of the principal in these schools for more than eight years had sparked several protests by students in the past too. But, the trigger on Thursday at all the three girls’ schools was provided by the Rajasthan government through its recent decision of picking schools to be developed as ‘adarsh schools’. Preposterously, the five schools in Bhim block that have been chosen as ‘adarsh schools’ for the year 2015-16 are all boys’ schools.

This time, the protests culminated from the efforts of the Neenv - Shiksha K Sawaal Abhiyan.

The ongoing Abhiyan aims to achieve full implementation of the Right to Education Act in the state by using the Right to Information (RTI) and Right to Hearing Acts as tools.

Nearly a thousand volunteers of local civil society organisations and interns from colleges across the country have been involved in conducting surveys of government schools and holding village level meetings to initiate a dialogue on education in the past four months. As an extension of this exercise, local residents’ committees have been formed which have filed RTI applications in schools and have stood up to monitor the functioning of village schools on a regular basis.

Apart from the serious paucity of teaching staff, the campaign has also brought to light caste and gender discriminatory practices in government schools. Other findings have been the deplorable physical infrastructure provided by the government in schools. 

An example of this could be the Lasani Panchayat, located just 23 km from Bhim, in the adjoining Deogarh block. Seven of the eleven government schools in the panchayat do not have taps or water connections in toilets, thereby rendering them unusable.

So far, the campaign has received support from state education minister Vasudev Devnani who attended a meeting called of the Abhiyan on June 29. Four teachers who used to come to schools in a drunken state were suspended last month after the campaign brought it before Devnani at the meeting.

On Thursday afternoon too, the resilient protests by girls buckled Kachawa who issued immediate orders to appoint five additional teachers in the Bhim girls’ school and three teachers each in the Barar girls’ school and Dewair girls’ school. 

A public movement on education is much-needed to end the daily survival struggles of people in a state where ration, pension schemes and minimum wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme have dominated people’s concerns so far.

Yet, the fight is tough for the villagers of Rajasthan who come forward to take on the complex issues that plague the public education system.

                                                                                                                                        Photo by Avinash Kumar

Sea of protests by girl students makes authorities buckle

(This post was sent as a press release by the MKSS to various news forums)

Bhim, Rajasthan: Agitating against the gender bias prevalent in the public education system of Rajasthan, more than 1200 students of three government-run girls' schools held street protests on Thursday.

They were protesting against a serious paucity of teaching staff in their schools.

Separate protests were held outside the government girls' senior secondary schools in Bhim and Barar and the government girls' secondary school in Diver, all of which fall in the Rajsamand district.

The girls came at 7 am when the school opens, locked the school gates and sat on a dharna outside on the road.

They shouted slogans and gave speeches on the dismal quality of education imparted particularly in girls' schools in rural Rajasthan.

The protests were sparked after years of neglect over appointment of teachers on sanctioned posts by the state education department. All the three schools have been functioning in the absence of 70 per cent of the teaching staff.

The lack of other facilities such as science and computer labs, library and sports coaching has further worsened the already abominable quality of public education for girls.

In comparison, boys’ schools in all the three areas have been declared as ‘adarsh’ schools by the government. This means that boys’ schools will be developed as model schools with first-rate teaching and other facilities.

"लड़कों का स्कूल आदर्श बना, हमारा क्यों नहीं?," was one of the slogans that echoed across the dharna and road rallies held later during the day.

Despite protests held last October, the government girls’ higher secondary school at Bhim does not have a single grade one teacher or professor to teach the nine subjects it offers for standards 11 and 12.

As a disturbing consequence, the passing percentage at the Bhim girls’ school (2014-15 batch) stood at 53 % for standard 10 and 44 % for standard 12.

The students have no professors for political science since the past 17 years and for home science since the past 13 years. There are also no professors for history and geography.

On the other hand, the government boys’ higher secondary school at Bhim, has a strong teaching staff of seventeen while the girls’ school has a staff of just four teachers.

Last year, the government girls’ secondary school at Dewair just had one teacher for more than 300 students, from standards 1 to 10.

Scenes outside the government secondary school, Dewair                   Photos by Avinash Kumar

The passing percentage at the school of standard 10 students (2014-15) batch was a poor 50 per cent.Students of the Barar girls' school have held protests twice in 2013 and 2011 to not much avail, which angered them further on Thursday.

There was much chaos during the protest at Bhim as the police issued threats to the girls to stop the dharna or face action.

As the girls continued undeterred, the sub-divisional magistrate and the block education officer agreed to hold a meeting with the girls. A delegation of five students from each of the three schools met the officials and demanded written orders on appointments of teachers.

When the Bhim school girls had held a dharna last October, the government had appointed four new teachers on deputation who were transferred out within two months.

This time, students demanded that permanent appointments be made by the state education department.

The block primary education officer issued an order on Thursday announcing appointments of new teachers for Hindi, History, Political Science, Geography and Science/Maths at the Bhim girls' school.

The Barar and Dewair girls' schools also got three new teachers each.

Battling gender-unjust state and society, girls in rural Rajasthan struggle to study

A grade 12 section of around 55 students at the school try to read and make notes from textbooks on their own.

Bhim, Rajasthan: After spending two hours commuting from a far-off village, Jelwa, Hemlata Chauhan, 17, spends her six school hours sitting idle or chatting with friends. Apart from an hour of yoga session, there are no lectures, laboratory practicals, library reading sessions, computer classes or sports coaching in the government girls’ higher secondary school in Bhim where Chauhan and more than 642 other girls study.

The school which offers subjects such as home science, history, geography and political science in grades 11 and 12 does not have a single grade one teacher or lecturer to teach any of these subjects. 

14 of the 17 sanctioned teaching posts in the school are running vacant, including that of the principal.

The school, currently, has teachers just for grades 9 and 10 and only for subjects – English, Sanskrit and Science.

What is more shocking is that the Rajasthan government continues with its brazen neglect even after 700 students of the school held street protests and shutdown of the school last October urging authorities to increase the number of teachers.

But nine months later, as the new academic year begins, the school which has 642 students (admissions are ongoing) has just three teachers.

On Tuesday, 105 grade 12 students from the school signed a letter that read: “Do not compel us to undertake another shutdown of the school because we still do not have lecturers”.

Similarly deplorable is the case of the government girls’ higher secondary school in Barar. For 319 students, the school has just two teachers – English and Sanskrit. There is no lecturer to teach the specialised subjects of standards eleven and twelve.

Grade 10 students of the Barar girls’ school have also signed a similar letter contemplating shutdown and protests.

The letters will be sent to the district collector and director, secondary education, Bikaner.

Karishma Lakhiya, grade 12 student at the Bhim girls’ school: “Sometimes we are allowed to attend classes in the nearby boys’ school. But most times, considering the conservative society we live in, we are taunted for studying with boys”.

In what shows a misogynistic attitude of the state vis-a-vis girls’ education, the Rajasthan government has picked both the boys’ schools in Bhim and Barar to be developed into ‘adarsh schools’ under its recently-launched Adarsh Vidyalay Yojana.

“The boys’ school functions with full staff. Why should we suffer?” added Lakhiya.

The last time Bhim girls’ school students took out a protest on October 2 last year, the acting principal of the school was suspended for failing to quell protests and observe Swachhta Mission. Four more teachers were appointed as a result of the protest, but they were transferred within a month.

“We try reading on our own. But, how are we supposed to understand subjects such as home science and geography without anybody teaching us? There are no good private tuitions too here,” said Lakhiya.

Another indication of the abominable condition of both Bhim and Barar girls’ schools is that water connections in none the toilets are functional. There are also no playgrounds and play equipment in the school premises.

Meena Mehta, acting principal of the Bhim girls’ school, said: “We have written several letters to the block and district education officers and to the director of secondary education, regarding vacancy of teaching posts but there has been no favourable response”.

Another student from the Bhim girls’ school rued: “Most students from the previous batch did not pass standard 12 because of a lack of teachers. We want to study further but don’t know if we will clear standard 12 as we have not even received textbooks for all our subjects. We have already been told by our parents that we would be married off after 12th standard”.

*Status of Government Girls’ Higher secondary school, Bhim:

      -     Strength (Admissions are ongoing): 642

Standard 9: 207

Standard 10: 129

Standard 11: 117

Standard 12: 189

-         Teaching posts (Grades 11 and 12):

Vacant posts

Principal

English

Hindi

History

Political science

Home science

Geography

Biology

Physics

Chemistry

-         Teaching posts (Grades 9 and 10):

Vacant posts	Filled posts
Hindi	English
Social sciences	Science
	Sanskrit
	Maths (On maternity leave till December)

*Status of overnment Girls' Higher Secondary School, Barar 

      -     Strength (Admissions are ongoing): 284

Standard 9: 66

Standard 10: 101

Standard 11: 46

Standard 12: 71

     -         Teaching posts (Grades 11 and 12):

Vacant posts

Hindi Literature

Hindi

History

Geography

-         Teaching posts (Grades 9 and 10):

Vacant posts	Filled posts
Hindi	Sanskrit
Maths	Social sciences
Science
English