My first trip as a BSW student

The most prominent face I remember from our field trip to Deesa is the face of Raju. Raju is a twelve year old boy who lives in the slums. He attends the small school-like teaching center near his slums which is run by the NGO. He sits with children much younger to his age and sings the songs sing. What was prominent about him is his eagerness to learn. He heard us speak in English and wanted to speak in English to. He wanted to either study law like us or become a doctor. That hunger for knowledge and to achieve made Raju stand out. It made me wonder how many more Raju’s are there around India whose voice never gets heard as they are suppressed under the furore of survival.

We visited about 4 slums in our 2 day trip. Each of these slums had a school-like teaching centre set up by the NGO, which we were collaborating with. The teaching centre taught basic writing, arithmetic and reading to children. All these settlements were held by nomadic or De-notified tribes.

Our work mostly involved interacting with the children and filling our questionnaires about them. Most of the children were between the ages of 3-10. Very few (like Raju) were above this age framework. Gujrathi was mostly the medium of communication.  The children in general were very enthusiastic and were genuinely interested in what they were learning. Even the teachers from the NGO were highly enthusiastic about teaching. The overall environment was very positive and engaging.

After speaking to some children, the team could decipher the general trend of education in these areas. Firstly, any form of education was a new concept for these tribes. Their nomadic nature eluded them from education. It is only now that they have settled for more than a year in these areas. Thus only the younger generation have seen the light of education. Only now that these teaching centres have opened up do the children learn.

Secondly, nobody really had the concept of higher education in their head. The usual trend was that till the age of 11-12 the children studied and were then put to work. The idea of higher education or further studies was missing. The children were only sent to learn basic language and arithmetic which would help them survive. Nobody was thinking about anything more. This is mostly in the case of girls, as the concept of higher education seems irrelevant to the community folks. Also this trend is due to the need of helping hands. The parents usually need more helping hands as the brood grows. Thus most children study for the first ten years of their life and then go back to their parent’s professions. It made us wonder what the point of education was if it didn’t emancipate them.

The poverty in these areas was disheartening. Further, the exploitation witnessed by these people was nerve –wrenching. Many houses which were below the poverty line were conveniently given above poverty line cards. This reduced the amount of ration they could get and left them bereft of other privileges which they are entitled to. They also had to face numerous problems with attainment of a voter’s ID card. This is mainly due to their inability to provide a permanent address. But without ID cards they have no identity and they cannot access various privileges and programs they are entitled to. This was some of the grave problems we came across during our trip.

During our trip we also came across some horrifying incidents. One of them was the incidents where women from these nomadic tribes were being taken away by the ‘thakurs’. These higher caste men would come at night and take away women and left them after a one night stand. It was only when the NGO brought the police that these incidents stopped. It was quite appalling to see such incidents happening even today.

During our trip we also took a short visit to Dhanera village. The NGO workers had asked our help for solving a legal problem that they had come across in that village. The small nomadic tribe which has migrated from Rajastan was previously living in another village. They were given Voter’s ID card there by the heads of the villages. But this did not go well with the people of the village, as they realized this meant sharing of various privileges. Thus not only was the tribe brutally thrown out of the village but their voter’s ID has also been cancelled. They now live in Dhanera village but are unable to get a voter’s ID card as the authorities are insisting on a permanent address. We thus heard the problem of the people and then went to the BDO office to see the other side of the matter. We spoke to the BDO officer and asked about the current situation. The officer initially got a little aggressive and vehemently denied the possibility of the tribe getting a voter’s id as there was no permanent address. It was only when we showed him the government provision that states that nomadic tribes do not need permanent address that the officer calmed down. We left the village with the assurance that the matter will be looked into. How far that is true is yet to be seen.

Overall our trip was very thought-provoking and was a good learning experience. There are many children like Raju who belong to such tribes who never see the light of education. There are many such eager and probably talented children whose talent is never harboured.  Even today the importance of education has not been understood by these tribes. The main aim of education; emancipation has still not been attained. What we are creating today are mere English-speaking street vendors. Taking a rational perspective, the education given to these children is too low for helping them further in careers like law or medicine .Education is being provided but the whole concept of provided education has not yet been conceived on a rational manner.  As a student of BSW, this is what I and my classmates took with us.

We had gone to a small town called Deesa situated in Banaskatha district in Gujarat. We mostly worked with the children of nomadic and Denotified tribes like Devipujak, Saraniya etc. Our project dealt with child rights in the field of education.