History, Culture and ethnicity vs today’s life pattern and needs..

Muradgarhi is a village in which Rajputs are staying. The history says that the Rajputs are fearless, courageous and adventurous. They fought many battles of wars and they do not accept defeat. They are the warriors that stamp is forever with them. At the same time, Rajputs are very generous and kind hearted, very supportive, very protective for their own community. They generally secluded their women, which was the practice in the past, but one can see this to some extent in the present time too. With changing time, many are becoming liberal and many have very strong inhibitions.

Muradgarhi is a village in which Rajputs are staying. This falls under Jewar, the Yamuna Express Highway, a road cuts in between and the Industries are coming up in a big way.

When I visited first time, I entered the village, I saw a signboard with “Rajputana”. It was the first visit and it was to the school. I met the Principal with my colleague. He was courageous, confident and very optimistically managing the government primary school. The big ground though but with minimum infrastructure. In the room of the Principal, I saw a small library and curiously I asked, who donated the books, he said, ”These are my books”. A school without library does not mean anything to him, the reason he brought books from his home.  We met the teachers who come from the nearest villages and some from Noida. It is tough to travel but the enthusiasm was at peak to teach children and bring them at par with other children in the nearby schools. The Principal called his nephew, who took us to the village, where we wanted to meet with the women of the village and then the youth. We had general discussions with the women and wanted to know their aspirations. Every woman said that they have dreams to fulfil and they would like to do something for themselves and their families. This made me believe that aspirations are always there, but what lacks is the opportunity. We shared with them our purpose of visit that we have come to provide access to various resources for learning, if the community as a whole join hands with us. The commitment was made and they wanted assurance from us that we will visit them again with resources so that they get the opportunity to realize their own dreams of self-empowerment and so something in their life.

We interacted with youth, who were having high hopes that the industry is coming, they will get the employability, but further interactions made them realize that they have to work on their skills, personality and learning to make them fit for the jobs.

This is not the story of one geography as mentioned. But, wherever the Industry is coming, youth are not prepared to get the employability, resulting in demotivation, in and out migration and many other related issues. The need is to bring the opportunities at their doorsteps. While young boys can go in the city to learn, but deprivation is for children, young girls and women. While interacting with young girls, they are bright, good in studies but lack resources to excel in their lives.

Within three months after our visit, we launched a Community Library and Resource Centre on 20^th April 2022. The first step was to take a safe space in the village. We set up with all requisite infrastructure of books, computers, early learning centre, sewing machines, and the most important aspect was selecting the team as Resource Persons from the village itself, creating employability for the women and they willingly allowed their women to serve their own community with variety of services from the Centre.

Seeing the change in the mindset and realising the importance of their own self-growth with dignified and respectful learning, almost 300 children improved their reading and writing skills, learnt the English language, which they consider is important in the present time. More than 60 children come to the Early Learning Centre as there are no pre-schools and I am not sure about Anganwadi. More than 60 women learnt the apparel making skills and more than 100 boys and girls learnt the basic and advance computer skills. The youth attended the sessions on personality development and interview skills as they envision their future in that area where the new airport is also coming in the future.

The community still needs education on safe drinking water and the efforts are being made to provide education as the supply of the safe drinking water from the government has to be made available. The government has started their own initiatives for the holistic development of the area and the people, at the same time, it was too exciting for us to be with them, understand their needs and aspirations and touching their lives for positive thinking, specially, the strong youth community, who needs to be encouraged to use their energies for positive self-growth and the growth of their families. They are the important part of the demographic transition, whose earning with professional growth is going to contribute in the GDP of the country as a whole.

The potential is there, of course, multi-stakeholder’s partnerships are required to strengthen the community as READ India believes in community strength and keeps Community First. There is so much to be done in the villages like this. Though we have served almost 500 villages which is a very small number as compared to 6,40,000 villages in India. The mission is strong and will reach to more and more in the coming times.

Women can change the world if given the right platform : Mahila Saksham Samman

It’s almost 16 years travelling rural libraries and meeting with communities sharing their joy and sorrows with me. I am so humbled to give them the space to share freely as providing an opportunity to share their stories is a great healing for them.

Recently I was in Bhanwargarh, Kelwara and Shahbad in Baran, the aspirational district of Rajasthan. Met with many girls and married women. Listened to them, understood their aspirations and the challenges too. Laughed with them and also clicked selfies too because they capture these moments for the re-joying time and again as these memories are stored with them.

Met Gunjan, daughter of Meena Prajapat(https://youtu.be/xT0iKMsJfqE ), whom I know from a decade, went to meet them many a times and witness the sea change in their lives. Meena showed me her newly constructed house with excitement on one hand to manifest her own economic growth but she is a leader for hundreds of girls and women with whom she spends her time, motivate them and make them learn a skill and enabling them to be independent, stand on their own feet and do not look back. Life teaches us a lot, ups and downs, but constant and consistent efforts made by these women with the magic of strong peer learning is transforming their lives. They stand by the side of their children, they support their husbands brothers elders and are there during tough times.

On 10th March, many such women and girls were invited in Delhi at the occasion of making them realise their sky rock potential and wisdom they developed in the past five years or so and become the shining stars of not only their parents, but their own communities and setting samples for the upcoming generations. They collectively celebrated the Mahila Saksham Samman under the big banner of International Women’s Day. I do not want to focus on numbers though more than a million women and girls across rural India are part of this mission which READ India has brought at their door steps, but the change witnessed the power in them with positive spirits values and protection of their own culture.

This social change witnessed by them made them economically empowered as they learnt to positively convince their parents that they are no less than boys, they save money to support their families and above all continue their higher education. Padega India Badega India. Saksham Mahila can change the Samaj we live in, what they need is mutual respect and self-dignity. Let join hands to take this mission ahead and make our Nation proud!

I remember, Dr Y Suresh Reddy, Director of Shriram Foundation introduced me to Mr. R S Dalal, IPS, former Director General-Police, Haryana. I invited him on the inauguration of the READ Library in Chainnsa, Hathin Block, Palwal, Haryana. He was so convinced by the READ Model that he discussed with his family to dedicate the 100 years old Haveli of Mehndipur village, the ancestral property for holistic development of the community in Mehndipur and surrounding villages.
I remember, 7 years ago, the inauguration was a gala programme, army band, family members, especially his elder brother, retired Army Colonel, police officials, corporate senior officials, READ India Advisory Board members and above all hundreds of community members.For local community, it was a welcome opportunity. Though many affluent families stay in the village and their children go to English medium schools in Bahadurgarh, but many more are in the village, who cannot afford the expensive education and study in the government school nearby, especially girls who go to the nearby government school. The Principal, school teachers and other school staff, local sarpanch and senior citizens always join any event in the READ Library. Though the programme started with books, Early Learning Center, Computer Education, but during the passage of time, audio studio, livelihood programme of women was initiated. While children enjoy the training of sharing stories through their own voice, the elders sung the glory of village and their own lives through audio studio, one of the major attractions for all.

The production unit was started in 2015 with the collective efforts of READ India and enhanced with the network of Mr. R S Dalal to get the cloth, sewing machines and orders for production unit of sewing and stitching. Women came forward with their traditional skills of crochet, knitting and many more. It is still a happening space because every month the retired senior citizens come to get their pension from the CSC within the READ Library. The staff continued their higher education, girls started learning advance computer courses, children started reading story books, women started earning money by enhancing their skills, school teachers came to learn computers, youth prepared for competitive examinations in the library. What else is needed in the village!Mr. R S Dalal, being a passionate personality, involved the local community to clean and green the village and shared the concept with the family members staying abroad to donate to READ India for this work through READ Global.

He also arranged a football coach for girls to learn and bring them at the State level competition and practice for national level participation.

The story is endless, the collective efforts are still going on. Here I do not want to mention the numbers but deep impact which has been witnessed is much emphasized.

While Mr. Dalal dedicated his ancestral haveli, he also encouraged the others from the same profession, to dedicate his Haveli in Tandaheri village, just five kilometers away from Mehndipur. Mrs Urvashi Singh, Lecturer by profession in the Government College, Gurgaon, dedicates her time to visit the READ Library in her Haveli and has keen interest to give back to the women and children of her village for holistic development.

READ India is blessed to have these kind of partnerships and networks to join hands for holistic development and to define the ownership of the READ Model.

Mid-nineties I visited Santiniketan with my family and my fond memories of visiting the craft mela revived when I visited on 19th February 2022 again to have a meeting with Surul Swastha Samiti, established in 1934 on the values inculcated from the mission initiated by the Nobel Laureate, Rabindra Nath Tagore, “Rural Reconstruction Programme”.

The meeting was basically to join hands for having a Community Library and Resource Centre along with the Health Centre. The READ Model encourages the partners to provide free space wherever possible and Sural Swastha Samiti, provided the first floor of the building, next to the cultural heritage, Rajbari, just adjacent to this Centre.

On Shubho Nobo Borsho (Bengali New Year), 15th April 2022, the READ Centre, with books, computers, early learning material, was inaugurated. The reflections of community commitment, community participation, art and culture, traditional cultural performances by local community, local exhibition, enthusiasm, kantha embroidery as a proud art display and on the above authentic food were some of the highlights of the programme. I was so fascinated by the beauty and the dressing of the girls, women and boys who performed on the wonderful Bengali songs written and composed by Rabindra Nath Tagore. India’s true culture and heritage one can see in rural India, we can still name it as “India’s real dharohar (India’s richness). Here money is not an upfront issue, but respect, dignity, dialogue and Visva Bharati University Professors and Teachers when talked about the Rabindra Nath Tagore and is followed religiously was a great learning.

While staying in the guest house PALASH, talking to the care taker, Shyamal, who very proudly said that he knows the English very well, is well-versed in handling day to day needs of IT tools and can efficiently do work on MS Office, I was fascinated by his commitment to take care of the guests 24×7 with his humble personality. I had a chat with the cook, who is the mother of Shyamal, a simple lady, dedicated to cook food for the guests and a helper, Sangita, who is 12th pass, taking tuition at home for children and also assisting her Aunt when the guests come at PALASH for taking care of them to the best possible extent.

They both shared with me that their sister is an expert in embroidery and make beautiful embroidery pieces, if I can give a chance to meet with her. On 16th morning, I called her at the guest house and she showed me her work. I was amazed to see the neatness, the quality assurance and the wonderful designs. Further interaction with her revealed that this heritage craft of Kantha every girl has to learn from the childhood, what is required is designing, colour combination, the cloth on which they do embroidery and the need to enhance their skills to match with the expectations of the buyers. She also showed me the samples of Gujarat embroidery. She mentioned that the small shift in the stitch can help them learn the art of another State. This made me realise the Unity in Diversity still exists which may be invisible in the forefront, but the India’s strong culture cannot ignore. It’s a natural instinct which we all have but are losing our simplicity to express, show and practice in our day to day life.

READ Centre was launched with deep happiness as the Mission set 100 years back, still works very well, people may leave this world but the values never die. This we have to understand and do a bit of goodness every day so that they become part of our rich culture, take the shape of values and we all should leave some legacy for remembrance and the journey should continue for years to come! This could only be possible if Education is our back bone, cultural values are in our hearts, discourses are meaningful, and the dialogue should be “What we can do for others, not, what they have done for us”!