Strengthening Aadhar-2: Field Visit by Sh. C P Joshi

“wapas chalte hain!” I said, after 120 minutes long wait in front of the room of Sh. C P Joshi, State Head, Congress and former Education Minister of Rajasthan. “aab aaye hain to milke hi challenge” Vijay said and we started waiting again. After 15 minutes we were allowed to go inside. As we introduced ourselves and Pratham, he immediately said, “are aap log kahan the itne dinon se”. We shared ASER 08 findings and current campaign details. He asked us to suggest a plan which state government can implement. He also added that Pratham is doing wonderful work. But we insisted that sitting in a room and saying Pratham is doing great is very different from experiencing it by visiting one or two classes.

He agreed for a 2 hour slot on 18^th February.  

While moving towards Shivdaspura, a village around 20 Kms away from Jaipur, he started conversation by saying, “aap kahte to aaj Education Minister ko bhi bula lete” and suggested us to meet him as soon as possible. He also suggested these three things:

1.  Arrange a 30 minute discussion with Hon. CM, Principal Secretary, Hon. EM and Education Secretary and propose a plan.

2.  Demonstrate activities in front of Sh. Rahul Gandhi when he will be coming Jaipur during last week of February.

3.  Invite Hon. Education Minister for a similar field visit.

When we reached school, 2 volunteers were running classes with children.

Both ladies, Smt. Anita Verma and Smt. Sumanlata Verma, were running classes in school from past one month. Sh. Joshi observed the class with lot of interest and we acquainted him with our teaching methodology and TLM.

During the interaction Sh. Joshi asked how these volunteers are working without any monetary compensation. He was very curious to know the motive of volunteers behind such an excellent work. So he interacted with both volunteers and with one volunteer’s husband. He asked interesting questions like, “ghar mein saso ji mana nahi karti kya, ki khana banana ke time school mein padhane chale jate ho?” and “aap dono ko yahan padhane se koi paisa nahi milega, to phir kyoon padhate ho?”

Both volunteers said that they want to gain experience of teaching and of course, it is a great contribution from our family to the entire village.

Due to shortage of time, he was not able to visit more villages. While returning back to Jaipur, we briefed about all Pratham programs and future plans and he assured his support, whenever required.