Dedication Reloaded (Volunteers' Experiences from Dungarpur)

Strengthening Aadhar-1

“Wo roz 12 baje aata hai”, teacher said when I asked about the volunteer which Kishan (block coordinator) has mobilized. As soon as I finished saying, "he is not here today, as it is already 2 minutes past 12" and turned back, I saw a young boy standing behind me. “Ravi” he replied when I asked his name and added he will start his class now. 

After a brief discussion of 10 minutes with school teacher, we entered in classroom. There were around 20 children in the classroom. He started first activity after all the children were comfortably sitting in circular formation. With utmost sincerity, he started calling children one-by-one at the center of circle and then each child searched for the card of a particular letter. And children just loved this activity which is clear from their very cheerful and bright faces.

When I asked about his education qualification, he told me that he was not able to complete 10th due to intense fever during the examinations. I thought, “Do teachers have any problem about a student like Ravi coming and doing joyful learning activities with children?” But even before asking teacher said while entering in the room, “Ravi bahut ache se activities karwata hai aur ye akshar cards to bahut hi ache hain, 1-2nd ke bachhon ke liye to aise hi cards chayeye”. We stayed there for 10 more minutes.

‘Let’s go and visit Ravi’s home and meet his parents’, I think everyone had the same feeling that time because we just started walking towards village. “dekhiye, Pratham ka sticker” Sunil, district coordinator, said with lot of excitement.

It was pasted on the wall of Ravi’s home. We met his father and he asked, “Ravi school mein kaisa padha raha hai, teacher us se kush hai na?” and we all said, “of course, bahut achha padha raha hai”. He told us that Ravi was very sick during examinations because of pressure of 10th exams. But now after starting this class, he is again thinking of his education.

We also met father of another volunteer who was not able to go school due to illness. His father was feeling sorry for that and promised that as soon as he will recover, will join Ravi. 

While moving to another village I was thinking, “aur log kahte hain ki aaj kal koi bina paise ke kaam nahi karta”

Village Name: Bawdi

Block : Phagi

District: Jaipur

Volunteerism-2

When we reached Banswara, it was already 5:30 PM and was about to get dark. Through out the day I was getting more and more eager to visit few villages or at least one village to see whether those young ones were able to take the lead role of changing their village or not.

After discussing with Sunil Purbia, DC, Udaipur & Banswara districts and Abdul Kadir Jelani, BC, Banswara block, we decide to visit a village called ‘Surpur’, around 12 kms away from district headquarter. It was already dark outside, but we started on two bikes. After few minutes we were there in the village. Abdul told us that he trained 103 students of Std. 9 and 11 around 10 days back. He also added that since then he hasn’t visited this village again. 

We entered one street randomly and after asking few people, we reached one house from where a student studies in Std. 11. His name was Jeetu. He acknowledged that Abdul trained him and many other students on teaching 1-100 number recognition and counting to Std. 1 & 2 level children. He said he is teaching 2 of his young relatives in his house only. 

We asked him about his friends and their involvement in any such activity. He immediately recalled and asked us to come with him. From there we moved to around 10 different houses. Out of which 6 students assured us that they are running classes regularly, some with 5-7 children and some with 2 children. 4 remaining also assured that they will start it again, immediately after their half yearly exams. We talked to children and they happily said that they love playing those joyful learning games.

And then the whole group came with us to say goodbye. Their energy and enthusiasm created a lot of hope in all of us that perhaps finally we have a model to mobilize not only 1 or 2 volunteers per village but 10 or 20 volunteers in each village which will work in groups to ensure that every child can read, write and do basic arithmetic! 

Volunteerism

Indian youth is confused. They need direction, of what to do in life, of how to plan for future and of how to implement their own plan. And in all this firefighting they hardly think about community, society and nation as a whole. They are not connected with the ground realities and if connected, can not analyze them in line of national policies. 

Volunteerism provides opportunity to not only get connected and acquainted with ground realities but also to be a part of changing society. Small achievements as a volunteer boost positivism and create understanding of societal issues. Thus the direction of understanding self, people and nation sets in. This understanding sparks ideas to build a purposeful life.  

Students in secondary schools need this opportunity of volunteerism. Since, bringing government on board to establish such chapters is a hard nut to crack; we should start with private schools. The proposal is to get into a MoU with each private school at GP village. The MoU ensures that students of Std. 8th, 9th and 11th will participate in 4 cycles of campaigns in a year. Each cycle will be of 15 days. School will get pedagogical support for primary classes and consultancy for effective management of school . Thus we will have a pool of volunteers, every year, at GP level village.