Then there was Utthan...

The Utthan Programme has been regarded as an innovative venture in the ongoing push for the speedy and complete coverage of all Bihar’s children under the umbrella of Elementary education.


The programme, first piloted and supported by UNICEF in 2007, initially focussed on those among the Dalit communities who had the least indicators of development. Following the success of the pilot intervention and initial replication in selected districts, the state Government through BEPC decided to roll it out throughout Bihar. The target population was out of school children of primary school-going ages from the ‘Mahadalit’ castes. The range was soon expanded when the State Government extended the ‘Mahadalit’ nomenclature some relatively better off caste groups .

The programme has resulted in a significant increase in the enrolment numbers of Dalit children from the most depressed classes and in retention and performance statistics as well.

The programme has also faced varied challenges due to geopolitical and socio-cultural factors.

This review looks at the programme implementation at ground level, assess its strengths and opportunities and looks at its implications in the light of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the RTE Act 2009.

here's the link: this is a 40 page report....

BRIDGE TO SCHOOL

Frank Krishner

July 2009

Author: Frank Krishner

Reaching the last child

Twenty one year old Naheed Parveen has discovered a new passion. Whenever she visits her friends and neighbours, she asks about the health and progress of the small children around. ‘I keep a look out for news of new born babies, so I can motivate their parents to immunise them against polio,” she says.
While the eastern Indian state of Bihar grapples with an alarming rise in the number of poliovirus infections in the past year, unreached children continue to remain vulnerable in certain pockets.
Naheed is one of the 300 community mobilisers under an expanded SMNet programme who help build a bridge between their communities and the programme, helping to break down resistance and ensure better quality operations and reach to vulnerable children.Two years ago, Naheed’s grandfather, a Muslim cleric, had a marked apathy towards the Pulse polio programme. Today, announcements about the usefulness of the vaccine are issued from his mosque in one of Bihar’s ‘vaccination unfriendly’ blocks.
“Two years ago, vaccinators would be chased away from this neighbourhood,” says Najma Parveen, the block mobilisation coordinator who inducted Naheed into the Polio social mobilisation network. “Naheed is a bright girl and a college student. Her grandfather is a respected religious figure. Our vaccination team, who often had to face verbal abuse and sometime physical threats in the past, now reaches infants in the same problem areas, because the Maulana’s granddaughter accompanies the vaccinator.
“It wasn’t easy for a girl with my family background to step out of the house. My father gave his permission grudgingly when I pointed out that the honorarium for the job would help me pay for my college books. My grandfather finally came round to understanding that the polio vaccine did not have any side effects like making babies barren in later life. So he allowed announcements about the polio programme to be made after religious gatherings at the mosque,” Naheed says.
A local woman says firmly, “We only allowed our children to receive vaccination because the Maulana’s granddaughter personally accompanied the vaccinator, and we have her word that the vaccine is safe.”
Naheed says that motivation is an ongoing task. “I also ensure that the new born babies receive the complete immunisation package by accompanying the mothers to the PHC.” In traditional Muslim households, the women refrain from moving out of the locality on their own.
If refusals to the polio vaccine in Bihar have come down to 0.1 percent over the past three months, it is largely because of the consistent efforts of community mobilisation coordinators, Block Mobilisation Coordinators and the SMnet teams.
Community mobilisation coordinators work with the womenfolk in the family on a regular basis, assessing their needs and devising localised strategies for outreach.
Shagufta Naaz, a CMC in the Tripolia locality of Gulzarbagh block overcame the resistance of traditional Muslim families by donning the burkha (hijab). Says Shagufta, “Women in my family don’t usually wear traditional Muslim clothing, as is the case in most middle class educated families. However, I realised that to successfully ensure complete coverage in my area, I would have to penetrate families with a very traditional mindset. When I began using the burkha, I found it far easier to achieve rapport. I was not treated with suspicion. There were 19 refusals in this area four months ago. As of today, there is only one family left uncovered, but I am sure that with a little help from the local community influencers, we will be able to vaccinate the last child within the next two days.”
Shazia, a CMC from the Sher Shah Gali area, holds non-formal classes for small children in front of her house. “Some women asked me if I could teach their small kids, and I agreed. After all, as an educated young person, spending an hour helping children is time well spent. It also helps me influence the women to look after the children better,” she says. Shazia states that several women have begun to have their children vaccinated when their husbands are out of the house. “Even if the husbands resist, the women have begun to understand the importance of protecting their children from the polio virus.”
“Local influencers are an asset to the polio communication campaign,” says Naheed, “the success of a mobilisation coordinator can be measured by the number of local leaders she can network with to come out and support the vaccination campaign. We also support Anganwadi workers to update the list of newborns so that ICDS services can also reach the children.”

Author: Frank Krishner

Strengthening Values in Education

In ancient times, education considered the privilege of the priests and the ruling classes. The ability to read, writer and cipher ensured their dominance over the labouring classes and the peasants. The industrial revolution, and in particular the invention of the rotary printing press catalysed the downward dissemination of literacy.

Henry Steele Commager, said “Progress implacably requires change. Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them.” The need to spread the ‘light’ of education to the great-unwashed as a ‘fundamental right’ is not unconnected with basic capitalism and the need to expand markets and create wants.

The ‘values’ transmitted to early students were essentially ruling class values. The art of warfare, diplomacy, knowledge of epics that invariably extolled the virtues of the priests and the warriors. The ‘Public School’ in England, and the “Private School’ in America existed to prepare a privileged ruling class. The Missionary Schools which mushroomed from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries , were basically vehicles to ‘teach the natives their rightful place in society’ which basically served to grease the wheels of colonialism.

Today , we have a Constitution that declares us all equal.
But the education curricula prepared for the so-called ‘non-formal’ centres or primary schools serving communities of Musahars, Chamars, Bhuiyans, and other marginal castes and tribes, shows an absence of respect for their values and customs.
How many lessons are drawn from their own reality, their folk-lore, their customs? Yet we talk of ‘mainstreaming’ the backward communities.

In our text-books, is there a single text which lauds the work of Dashrath Manjhi? How many passages are drawn from the writings of Dalit authors? How many passages laud the dignity of labour? In our Language papers, do we ever have our children write an essay on “One day as a brick-layer” or “The contribution of scavengers to the health of our city”?

Do we praise equality, but teach inequality? Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, cleaned latrines. He broomed human excreta in an era where untouchability reigned supreme. He was upper caste and upper class. He taught equality and the dignity of labour by cleaning latrines. Gandhiji set an example in the teaching of values.

Let Parents and teachers live the values they teach. Global warming should be combined with a personal conservation of electricity. Can you teach cleanliness if you yourself throw garbage on to the street? Discipline should be taught by your own adherence to traffic rules, bank rules, standing in queues, waiting your turn.

Parents and teachers should live their values, educational values will automatically be strengthened.