Odisha HRD

Dhanada Mishra’s READ Orissa campaign diary

October 28th, 2007

From http://groups.yahoo.com/group/agamiorissa/message/2399.

As I sit in a review meeting of our campaign in the Cuttack office surrounded by eager young faces as zonal cordinators, state office functionaries, state head of projects etc., I am bombarded with passionate arguments about the progress of our efforts in the 180 blocks of 24 districts in different remote corners of the state. As we look in to the number of volunteers mobilised, numbers of those trained, numbers of classes started, the meeting erupts with arguments and counter-arguments. Some one doesn’t believe the numbers, some one defends vociferously as for a while I sit back and let the energy drain and enjoy the passion that people bring to their work as which is perhaps only possible in my new occupation! We discuss and debate our work culture, the need to open up more, to take more people with us in the campaign, the urgency and importance of motivating that grassroots level volunteer, the need for travelling to keep in touch and support each other, the enegy, the passion, the dedication to the cause stands out above the occasional din of arguments and counter-arguments. Welcome to the Read Orissa Campaign at its peak!

As I adjust in to this new life of no office, no 9-5 office hour, no Sundays to take a break, there has been very little opportunity to reflect on this dramatic transition from that of a volunteer to a full-timer, let alone write the experience down. When I relocated suddenly back to Bhubaneswar, to re-occupy my parents’s home leaving my job at JITM, Paralakhemundi behind, my parents as well as Babita’s (my wife) parents were perplexed with a tinge of concern as to what I was up to. I was not sure how to put it to them, other than saying that I am on a sabattical and will be working on social issues full-time. This was not very convincing for most of my family and well wishers and I had to make up some story like I am still working for JITM on their Bhubaneswar campus etc.

These three months have been undoubtedly one of the most exciting time of my life so far in many different ways. Whether it was the confrontational exit from JITM after the encounter with the sarpanches enraged about the NREGA advocacy work or the engagement with the RTI activists of Orissa and setting up of the Orissa RTI Watch group or the interaction with inspiring people like Madhav Chavan and Usha Rane of Pratham and involvement in the Read Orissa campaign or the continued growth of AID Rural Technology Resource Center (ARTRC), its been a period of intense activity and great excitement about the future possibilities of these initiatives. Some of the things have gone according to my plan and some things have panned out differently, but every day has brought new challenges, new opportunities and new satisfaction of being in service of the society.

As I joined the ranks of some very special individuals as a AID Saathi, I had thought I would mainly be working in the three areas of NREGA, RTI and our Rural Technology Resource Center. While I continue to work in these three key areas, Pratham’s Read Orissa campaign in which we have integrated the entire AID Orissa team and resources has become my main pre-occupation. This has been more by default than design. Although I was and continued to be very excited about the campaign, I had visualised my role in the Read Orissa campaign to be very limited and of advisory in nature. This was because Pratham had strong support from the Orissa Primary Education Program Authority (OPEPA as the official implementing agency of Sarba Shiksha Abhiyan in Orissa). As per the understanding between Pratham and OPEPA, the Learning to Read (L2R) program of Pratham to accelerate the reading ability of primary school children would have been implemented through the school system by training school teachers, generating local specific teaching-learning material and getting them to teach the children in school. In this scheme of things Pratham’s role would have been that of providing training in the L2R method, assist in the design of teaching-learning material, monitoring etc. How ever it so happened that a change in the top leadership at OPEPA meant that the new State Project Director was not so enthusiastic about Pratham and its Read Orissa campaign. Hence we were constrained to change the strategy and go to the community independent of the government and launch the campaign. This meant that we had to work with more limited resources than that was planned and it also meant that we had to mobilise volunteers in every one of about 25000 villages in 180 blocks of 24 districts in order to train them and get them to teach the children with out remuneration. This was a much more difficult yet exciting prospect. This also meant that we had to mobilise all our contacts, friends, NGOs, organisations, PRI members, SHG groups to be part of the campaign, so that it can take the form of a people’s movement.

With the change in strategy, we launched the campaign at a state level function attended by over 60 NGOs from almost all districts of Orissa, who not only pledged their support to the campaign, but were very keen to be part of it. The importance of reading in early-primary level was underlined by experts and all acknowledged the importance of the campaign. For example, one of the main objectives of the campaign is to design, print and distribute high quality story based teaching-learning material. For many children in the remote rural villages, this will be the first and hopefully not the only occasion such material would be in their hands. As supplementary reading material, these well illustrated multi-colour story cards would stand out in sharp contrast to the low cost, low quality text book distributed free by the government. This is in itself a very exciting opportunity for all of us passionate about education at the grassroots level.

Since the launch of the campaign, over 8000 volunteers have been mobilised and trained and classes have started in many villages. The campaign also gives special focus on 5 districts namely Ganjam, Raygada, Koraput and Malkangiri and Gajapati district in South Orissa, where AID Orissa has its base. These backward, tribal districts are to be taken up for interventions beyond L2R. These additional interventions would include Reading to Learn (R2L) for older children, Spoken English, skilling training for youth etc. Each of these hold lot of promise for the future in which AID Orissa can play an important role.

The campaign in its first 2-3 months, has taken me to many parts of the state, given me the opportunity to interact with many organisations, NGOs, personalities to bring them in to our fold, face issues of inter-personal nature inevitable in a fast growing organisation and various other small and big crises. While one day news comes of one of our block coordinators being robbed, the next day the report comes from another part of the state about how a sarpanch played host to our volunteers facilitating their work with unexpected cooperation. With 180 block coordinators, 540 block volunteers, 40 district coordinators and 5 zonal coordinators and over 50 NGO partners and not to speak of 8000+ volunteers and counting, not a day pass without both pleasant and not so pleasant surprises and with it continuous learning. We are now in the process of building a formidable network of volunteers that is envy of everyone and can be a massive agent for positive change. To taste our strength we have undertaken to help the Institute of Mathematics and Application of Prof. Swadhin Pattnaik in conducting his Rural Math Talent Search Exam on November 6th. While the participation in this government supported program in past years has been limited to a few thousand class VI students, we plan to motivate at least 100 students per block where we have a presence. Similarly in the month of November we are planning a state wide story writing festival in partnership wih SAMBAD as the largest circulating Oriya daily of the state. Eventually we expect to see our campaign reflected in the Annual ASER survey underway in the state. Following the letters of support from the Revenue Divisional Commissioners of South and West zones, the latest achievement for us has been the letter of support from the State Project Director in support of the campaign pledging to take it up through the school system in near future. This has served as a great morale booster for all of us and we are looking forward with anticipation some great results working in collaboration with the system at local level.

As I travel from zonal review meeting in Paralakhemundi in the south to ASER training in Bhabanipatana in the west to community mobilisation meeting in Baripada in the North and then sit with our tireless activists in Cuttack office, I am excited at the potential of this amazing movement to change lives and future of our society. As I see our activists at the grassroots work against all odds, in all environments and march forward, everyday I pledge myself with renewed energy to this great cause.

Dhanada Mishra
Bhubaneswar
14th October 2007

(For those who do not know, Dhanada is an NIT  alumnus, a Ph.D in Civil Engineering from University of Michigan, is in his early forties, worked in Australia for a few years, and was principal of JITM after passing over many offers.)

Entry Filed under: K-12,Pratham