Feedback from Kirankumar Vissa* on the Kondh
education project (3/24/02):
Key Qs
Abt Praja Chetana: ------------------- Ajay Kumar and his friends have been strong land rights and Dalit rights activists for several years (since 1991 or so). First, Ajay started organizing on land in one Mandal (which is an administrative unit like a "block" consisting of about 20-40 villages) of Visakhapatnam district. He was able to make substantial progress: in that Mandal, 5000 acres got redistributed to the landless through their efforts! As you can imagine, that is an amazing amount of difference in an agricultural community. (see note on land issues work - at the end of this section). Since then, he has organized groups in 7 different Mandals who are working on land issues (mostly with Dalits, and in some places with tribals). This work has now built up into the Visakhapatnam unit of APVVU (AP Vyavasaya Vruttidarula Union) - AP Union of Agricultural Labourers and Marginal Farmers, a state-wide network of which the Vizag unit is one of the most active. Through this, they also get plugged into macro issues of agricultural policy, WTO, etc. In general Ajay Kumar himself is on top of many things, and got a visibility in public affairs - the local editions of newspapers would carry any statement given by him on current issues. They have also been working with tribals in some areas since 1994, as described in the proposal. One effort that I have visited is the tribal hamlets affected by the Pedderu reservoir which is coming up. The way I see it (Ajay might correct me) Praja Chetana is an NGO registered by Ajay and his friends for running some of the activities which are not strictly in the APVVU ambit. But they see all these activities in an integral/holistic way, including the Madduvalasa reservoir issues (in Srikakulam district) where AID India is also closely involved.
Work on land issues: --------------------- To get an idea of the nature of work, we need to get into details of land rights, revenue records, etc. But in a nutshell, land is a "churning" issue at village level - it's something that can shake up the community bringing all the caste/class/exploitation issues to the fore. Very very few groups venture into this - though in a sense land inequality is the sustaining thing for most of the inequity and exploitation at the village level (along with water access and caste). Basically, landless and marginally landed farmers are entitled to be given land by the government IF it can be shown that such land exists. "Such land" is typically in 3 categories: excess land owned by biglandlords which can be acquired by govt under land ceiling laws, land that is actually on revenue records as belonging to a poor farmer but has been taken over some decades earlier by some landlord, land that belongs to the government which is not being cultivated and can be leased to a landless farmer. A subcategory for the last one, is land which has been "re-distributed" to "ineligible" people (meaning people who already have land). As you can imagine, this requires a lot of digging into revenue records, gathering information about title records and usage records (systematic work) as well as working closely with community, and getting into very deep conflict situations against entrenched interests (community mobilization). It requires people with very deep commitment to the cause of social justice and social welfare.
About the school already running: --------------------------------- I think they have been running schools in more than one Kondh village in fact. They have been running for less than a year now (to the best of my recollection) but are doing reasonably well. There have been 3 teachers: one of them is a lady, who does not live in the village but commutes every day (tough commute!) and is very good on the education aspect: she has some teacher training and is reasonably well educated and has good aptitude for teaching. The second is a man, who lives in the Kond village and does a reasonable job with running the school but more importantly has gotten involved in thecommunity and shows promise of being a good comunity organizer. The third (again I hope I am recollecting correctly!) was not so good and in fact has been relieved of his job after a few months. So that is the current status of the schools. Ajay did express some apprehension about the lady being able to continue for long bcos she has to deal with the commute and also might have other family situations to deal with.
AID volunteers' association with Ajay's group ---------------------------------------------- Very close collaboration on Madduvalasa reservoir struggle - in fact Ajay, Aravinda and Ravi are the main outside organizers and motivators of the struggle (of course with a lot of initiative now coming from the community itself). I made a day's visit with Ajay to those villages for one of the early meetings. Aravinda and Ravi originally met Ajay Kumar at the NAPM meeting at Wardha. I spent sometime with himagain visiting teh Kondh hamlet and a couple of other tribal hamlets, and the Pedderu dam site. He was also a key speaker at the AID India conference - where he shook up and energized everyone with his talk and songs. You should definitely watch the video that Rahul took, to get a feel for him as a person. Apart from his commitment to the cause, he is talented in writing and public speaking in Telugu, in composing songs, in street theater (he is trained by Gaddar, who is the most famous cultural mobilizer of people's movements in AP, whose songs have been part of the general popular culture).
The teachers will be tribals but not Kondhs (very little education exists in the Kond community right now). So, they will be able to relate with the tribal language and the tribal way of speaking Telugu, and the issues in their lives: though, as Ajay indicated, there are exploitative/discriminatory trends against Kondhs from other tribal communities. So, it will still be a task for them to find good people. But, because of their work with the tribal community, and because it will be a reasonable livelihood for the teacher, they hope to find people. Ajay said he already has some people in mind so I am hopeful they will find. But I think we should be prepared for some trial and error - in the sense that some people who start off might not last. Abt the last question we need to find out from Ajay: my guess is that some of them might have some community experience but we cannot expect that in general.
Not clear. We cannot expect much in that direction I think. My first reaction is: It will be an achievement to have the schools functioning and sustaining for 3 years - even with financial support; so it is too early to talk about financial sustainability after 3 years in such tough conditions. We should also keep in mind that schools being financially self-sufficient from the community has happened in very few cases in the best of conditions. But we should certainly ask this question to Ajay and co, and see what their thinking is. In a larger sense, beyond this school, they see this as an effort towards building community leadership among the Kondhs. That part is inherently sustainable if it is actually achieved.
They are going to follow the non-formal education curriculum, and importantly, incorporate awareness of tribal rights, the law, how to deal with officials, how to fill forms, etc. - to be able to do things which organizers like Ajay and his group are doing right now.
They have applied for one, and we need to find out whether they got it or not. But they work closely with another orgn called Laya in Vizag which has FCRA, so they might request us to send funds to Laya if they don't get FCRA of their own.
Minor Q:
as i said, one of the current teachers is a woman and one is a man, so i guess they don't have a restrictioneither way. but we should still ask to see if they have a preference; are they going to seek out a particular gender, etc.
very little infrastructure in terms of a structure. But we could suggest some teaching aids, charts, blackboards etc, which they might not have given much importance right now, but for which we might have an understanding of the role in education.
Agency" refers to scheduled tribal areas: where tribal communities have special rights, with respect to land, forests and government projects.
Close to zero is my reckoning, as suggested by my conversations with him, and his write-up. but we could ask again.
See description at the beginning of the email. My description might give you an idea that Ajay Kumar is central to the organization: which is true, but I might be overplaying his role since he is the one I have interacted with most. But the chief organizer of the Kondh schools is going to be Siva Prasad, who came along with us on our visit to the tribal hamlets. He seems to be quite committed, knowledgeable and capable. Ajay Kumar is clearly the leader but he is keen on building more leadership in the group.