Award from the President of India (Bakaram Jagir)

Bakaram Jagir village won the Saakshar Bharat Award: 

Eventually, the village I was driving for 100% literacy, Bakaram Jagir, won the much coveted Saakshar Bharat award.  The award would be handed to the Sarpanch of the village by none other than the President of India, today.

Team effort and the Credit:

This is a result of team effort. The credit goes to all the stake holders, right from Sarpanch, Saakshar Bharat village coordinators Meenakshi and Jyoti, all the volunteers, youth of the village to senior officials of Saakshar Bharat. The credit could also be shared by organizations like ALEAP, Vijayam foundation, Rotary Club, Sree Society etc. who have been supporting the village in the form of donations, health camps etc. One of the pillars of strength for the village is Dr.K.V.Ramanachari, retd IAS, Advisor to Chief Minister, who adopted the village and helped the village develop in many ways.

Last minute hurdles:

On August 19 when the official observer visited the village for Inspection, he advised me to document all the facts in the form of PPT and send it to him. The next day my 6 year old son, who was already suffering with fever, had the temperature soaring to 104 F. We immediately rushed him to doctor who advised us to wait for one more day. The day following it was Sunday and he appeared to be normal. That day being the day of exam for the illiterates in the village I took a chance and visited the village.  Every two hours my wife was checking his temp and sending me messages. In the evening the temp again rose to 104.5 F and we all panicked. My wife and my father rushed him to an Hospital nearby and I started from village. 

When I reached the Hospital I found him in the emergency ward lying on the bed with pieces of wet cloth on his forehead, hands, legs, stomach, below the back and so on. Sponge bath was being given to him. Seeing me he started crying loudly :(

We waited for some time for the blood reports. It turned out to be Dengue fever and the Doctors advised for immediate admission. On hearing the word "Dengue" we dropped our plans of taking him to bigger Hospital and admitted here itself. 

The next day, Monday, Mr.Srinivas Babu of Saakshar Bharat and Jaihind, shart film maker who was working on a short film for the village, visited the Hospital to see my son. They were also worried, like me, about the ppt to be sent to the Observer. I had assured them that I would somehow start working on it. 

Luckily, on Tuesday morning, when blood test was carried out the Platelet count increased drastically to 1.7 lac which was well within the normal range. I  got him discharged by afternoon and dashed to village again. Gathered some additional info from the Sarpanch and the Sakshar Bharat personnel. Also, collected the newspaper reports related to the village. Sat through the entire night and prepared the ppt. Sent the ppt the next day. The observer requested for the snaps of his visit which I had taken and sent them too. 

The observer:

The observer appeared to be a very professional man. He just focused on the points which are required by him. He did not get carried away by the treatment given to him when he visited the village nor was he impressed with the great arrangements. He was of the opinion that if the village has the merit it would get the award.

The tension:

We were waiting with fingers crossed. But some people including Sarpanch were tensed. They were checking with me frequently. The Observer was a very professional straight forward man. He does not tell us anything. It was not appropriate to ask him also and hence just waited.
Eventually, Mr.Srinivas Babu of Saakshar Bharat called all of us and broke the news that we won it.
Dr.K.V.Ramanachari's appreciating words:

The Sarpanch and Saakshar Bharat team visited Dr.K.V.Ramanachari to share the news After congratulating all he immediately called me up, in their presence, and spoke to me for a few minutes appreciating my work. It was very nice of him to personally call me up and shower a few appreciating words. 
Request for attending the Award ceremony:
Last Saturday while I was traveling to Srisailam along with my family I received a call from the Deputy Director of Adult Education (Saakshar Bharat). He was very earnestly requesting me to accompany him and Sarpanch to Delhi for attending the Award function. He even mentioned that the District Collector also advised him to take me along to Delhi. The Sarpanch, earlier, extended the invitation to travel and attend the ceremony along with him. Though I could not travel, I was really overwhelmed and humbled by their gestures!

Bakaram Jagir Village nominated for Saakshar Bharat Award

Sathyen Mitra Saakshar Bharat Award: 

Every year central government receives proposals from various villages in India for the nomination of Satyen Mitra Saakshar Bharat awards. These awards are related to literacy activities or initiatives of the village.. The nominated villages are visited by observers and they would eventually recommend their proposals to the government. The awards would then be given to the best village by the President of India on 8 September which happens to be World Literacy Day . 

Bakram Jagir nominated for Sathyen Mitra Saakshar Bharat Award:

Based on the submissions of Saakshar Bharat team Bakaram Jagir Village was nominated for this award. An official has been deputed to visit the village on 19 August. 

Preparations for the officials visit:

Saakshar Bharat team and the villagers worked hard for making the arrangements for the officials visit. The arrangements included, surprisingly, stage erection and decoration, Band-baja, DJ, cultural artists performance, Banners printing and placements across the village, Bonalu (Telangana tradition), Muggulu (Rangoli), etc. I was wondering what was happening around, though I was also involved in the arrangement of banners. The official visiting the village was basically an Associate professor and would he like it? Who cares anyway! :) 

The villagers, from all the quarters, have put in a lot of effort for decoration and arrangements.

I wanted to give a free advise to the Sakshar Bharat personnel that I be given sufficient info about the inspection details so that I could engage the official. As the official was a non-Telugu speaking person I could converse in either English or Hindi. Moreover, being an author my intervention would add weight. But, some gentleman in Saakshar Bharat, instead of using me as a tool, was ignoring me deliberately and did not even bother to explain anything. He even stopped talking to me. I myself approached him the day before and got him talking as it was not the time for displaying our egos.

Welcoming the Official:

The official arrived at around 5 pm and he was welcomed at the entrance of the village with Band baja. A group of women carried Bonalu (decorated pots etc) and a small procession was taken till Gandhi Statue. Even before he could understand what was happening, he became a part of the procession and found himself garlanding the Gandhi statue and breaking the coconut. On a lighter note, whenever a coconut is broken I feel as if my heart is also broken because the coconut water, which I love very much, is wasted. :)

Official's request:

The official could make out that there was a big plan as a big stage was set up with big sound boxes and DJ. He probably thought that the villagers were going to have a disco program and he might be forced to dance :).

He politely requested all that he should first focus on the job for which he was here. He went straight to the Saakshar Bharat office and sat on a chair behind a table. I was actually made to arrange a projector on the table and live streaming of e-learning was going on. This was to show him how the teaching goes on here, but he did not even notice it. :( 

I was introduced to the official and he asked me to sit next to him. 

The goof up:

He first asked for the two Village level Coordinators and started asking for the proofs, one by one, for the various claims made while submitting for the nomination. The document was actually submitted by a senior person and the questions were put to the two coordinators. They were showing the things which were related to the latest developments, that was relating to current and a few of previous months. Even I was also telling all the things under the sun which had happened after I started visiting the village from June on-wards. He then made it clear that the award was for 2016 which meant the information to be furnished should be related the period April 2015 to March 2016. Our heads started spinning. Nobody told us about this earlier.

What is preparation? :

There were not enough evidences of what was claimed in the document submitted and people were running helter-skelter for the same. Even when he asked to show the two daily newspapers and magazines maintained in the office, which were mentioned in the document submitted to him, people were running from pillar to post for fetching. 

This was were the preparation mattered and not the band-baja, DJ, performance by cultural artists etc. What a lesson learnt,  do the basics right!

Official's advise to me:

The official understood that the document was ill prepared and advised me to prepare a PPT and send it to him in a couple of days.

Short Film:

The official was later taken to the program venue where cultural programs were being performed and was made to grace the dais. As usual there were several people occupying the dais and there was no place for me :(. 

Initial plan was to play a short film made by a gentleman called Jaihind about the literacy program in the village. The program was to be played from my laptop. Immediately, after the discussions when the visiting official was leaving the Saakshar Bharat office for heading towards the stage, I had requested some gentleman to carry my laptop and wire it up with the projector, which was placed near the stage already. Meanwhile, I had to pack my projector (my colleague Sunanda's projector) and keep it in my car. 

When we started playing the short film it was seen neatly on the white screen, but there was no sound. Because, no speakers were attached to the laptop :(. We had to place a mike on the laptop and get satisfied with whatever minimum audio we were able to hear. 

Speeches and Bouquets:

As usual, again many people spoke and the high light was the speech of a Ward Member. This Ward member announced that he wanted to fall on his legs for the sake of award :)

Later, people started giving him bouquets followed by photo shoots. The different sections of the village had a gala time giving him the bouquets. They were coming one by one and giving. There could have been a couple of dozens of bouquets given to him. 

He was requesting people that it was not enough. But, nobody paid heed to his words. This, probably, could have been the biggest felicitation of his life. Even on his marriage ceremony he would have not received so many bouquets. :)

Can the village get the award: 
What was required to be shown could not be, greatly, shown. And what was not required we showed in abundance. With the kind of preparation the Saakshar Bharat team had and the way the proceedings went I doubt if the village would even be in the reckoning. But, still we have a chance of demonstrating that the village may very well deserve the much coveted award. Let's pray for the best!

14 August program - One-upmanship spoiling the show

Struggle for One-upmanship:

Based on the advise and arrangements of Dr.K.V.Ramanachary for the last two Sundays, and one Monday before them, Cultural programs were being conducted in the village. Since this advise happened in the presence of a Sakshar Bharat official he is coordinating and organizing the program. It appears to me that this was being done by him just for the sake of One-upmanship. As I had been conducting the Sunday's programs regularly and so effectively that it was bearing good results.

14 August program - A flop show:

Yesterday, 14 August, I called the official around noon to explain why this cultural program might not work and why the turn out of the villagers would be very poor. Moreover, Sarpanch also expressed his disinterest in the programs as it was becoming a financial burden for him.  But, still program was conducted and as expected there were hardly any literates found around. It was a flop. The photo in this blog shows a small number of people sitting (on the ground) but even that number had a majority as volunteers but not learners. 

My Sunday program tradition:

The very purpose of me setting the Sunday program tradition was being defeated. Because the purpose of each Sunday's program was to:

1. Show them some motivational short films etc

2. Train them on the subject

3. Conduct competitions or generate competitive spirit

4. Encourage or motivate them either by me or Sakshar Bharat or some chief guests etc

All this in just one hour, 8 pm to 9 pm, period. Because the learners are coolies and they would return from their work around 6.30 pm. They then cook for themselves and for their families. Though they all promised me to come by 7.30, but they would start coming in from 7.45 and by 8 all the learners assemble. 

Now, with the Cultural program, the villagers lost interest as once or twice it was okay but not always. Even the previous Sunday (7 August) by the time it was 8.45 all the learners started leaving. And when the chief guest Mrs.Pamela, IAS, spoke on the dais there were only the volunteers but not the learners. I had told at that time only to Sakshar Bharat person that it wont work this way. 

Sunday's program must be of just one hour's duration which should include some entertaining stuff and focus on teaching them their subject too. 

Too many cooks spoil the dish:

My voice was falling on deaf ears. People, for the sake of One-upmanship, are spoiling the most effective Sunday's tradition and making the learner's lose their interest. For me three weeks of my precious Sundays were lost as I wanted to have some e-learning for them and also explain the question paper with the help of a projector and encourage them to take the exam. Apparently, the morale of all the volunteers and learners also went down and even the village coordinators claim that they did not focus on the literacy program for the entire last week.  
Officials fail to discharge their minimum duties in the first place: 
The people who are trying to take control just for the sake of show off must at least recognize their minimum duty. None of them till date has correct facts and figures about the progress of the literacy program. I had to apply leave and plan to work at the ground level for the real status. 
At least, if the officials are so concerned, they should strive hard to arrange salaries for their village coordinators, the main people driving the project primary on the ground, who have not been paid their salaries since last Oct. :( Even for this I had written to the Collector that from here on I would be paying their salaries, at least for the next three months, as I intend to extend the 100% literacy program for three more months.

Planning to spend an entire week in village - Examination week

As I was not getting for the right facts and figures for quite some time I was left with no choice but to spend a week in the village and take stock of the situation myself. 

We have tens of people who talk big on stage but hardly there is one who gets down to the ground level and checks the progress to make an analysis for corrective measures. 

Hence I decided to take leave for a week before the August 21 exam and check it myself. I started even before that, that is 13 August (Saturday), and went around a few centers and spoke to each and every adult learner and noted the details like if they are regular attendees at the centers, at what stage are they in learning etc. 

All this exercise is to have a clear picture of the learning status of each and every learner so that we could plan for future course of action, as I am sure the result of the exam is not likely to be 100% positive.
My presence will also help me to personally encourage each and every of the Adult Learner to take the test without fail, even if they fail :)

7 August and the Negative Energy flying everywhere

Goal Scorers:

In a football game some players work very hard in taking the ball up to the opposition's net (goal post), where a gentleman from their own team stands waiting for the ball. The moment the ball reaches him he just pushes the ball into the net and takes away all the credit for the goal scored.

I draw this analogy of Goal Scorer with 100% literacy project at Bakaram village. My invitation to Collector to visit the village was only to encourage the adult learners and also to make the ward members accountable. But, with the Collector and MLA's visit some people, even those who were unaware of the existence of this project in the first place, felt that the 100% literacy project's victory was just stone's throw away and have become Goal Scorers.

I was shocked to see some Club person, who I never saw till date, not only shared the dais, sitting next to Collector and MLA, but also claimed that the 100% literacy program was his baby. The biggest joke was that, after the Collector had left, he walked up to me and warned me with dire consequences if I continued working for this project :D

Surprisingly, even the officials of Sakshar Bharat appeared to have suddenly changed their stance. Apparently they were unhappy because the Collector did not praise Sakshar Bharat during his speech. An official with whom I shared all my plans before implementing them for the program decided to take control of everything. Right from meeting Dr.K.V.Ramanachari to using the short film maker as per his wish rather than for the plan for which I got him hired etc, he wanted to sit in the driver's seat and sideline me. But, the way he was taking potshots at me, frequently, were really funny. One of them was his jibe which said, 'just because a man was coming daily and playing with a baby the world was thinking that the man was the father of the baby"  :)

The literacy program of course was their baby and my intention was not to take credit from anybody. I would like to make them (villagers) smart people with good wisdom so that they would be able to think and act. The essence of my fiction was also same. I want villagers:
1. To be able to read newspapers and become learned citizens

2. To be able to make differentiation between right and wrong

3. To be able to make right decisions and choose right leaders (political etc)

Anyways his visit to Dr.Ramanachary's office for the first time (clandestinely??) was auspicious as on that same day some cultural artists arrived in Dr.Ramanachary's office and Dr.Ramanachary ordered them to visit the village and help in motivating the villagers by way of performances.

Cultural Program on August 1 - Monday:

My regular Sunday program was cancelled because of the "Bonalu" festival. But on Monday the cultural program was conducted by the artists. Meenakshi, the village coordinator told me that the program went on very well and she had tough time in organizing for the program. The coordination with the cultural artists was done by the Sakshar Bharat official. He might have been on cloud nine that in my absence a program was conducted and it was a huge hit :)

My visit to Village on August 3 - Wednesday:

I, on the other hand, was chasing Meenakshi and Jyoti to get the documents, given by Collector to the Ward Members, so that those could be sent to Collector. I could not see any positive response, as Meenakshi's phone was not working and response with Jyoti was not satisfactory. So, I visited the village on 3 August to meet them and tell them the importance of Ward Members involvement. My objective was to use these 10 Ward Members for monitoring their respective wards. This way we would have 10 more people working on the ground along with Meenakshi and Jyoti (plus Chandra Shekar and Jagan, if they were really helping). My visit was futile as they did not collect the documents. They promised, as usual, to collect soon, by Saturday and hand it over on the same day when I visit. I was at least happy because I was able to show the village with the help of Jyoti, to my father, my sister and her family who came to the village along with me. They actually came to a nearby Eng college the same day.

Cancelling my visit to village on August 6 - Saturday:

Saturday around 3 pm I get a phone call from Jyoti that ward members felt that I should come only on Sunday as Dr.Ramanachary's father expired and was being cremated. I did not understand the logic here...

I then requested her to talk to all the volunteers and let me know the time convenient for them to have a session for the next day. She promised to let me know by 10 am the next day.

My visit to village on August 7 - Sunday:

I did not get any phone call and I myself called up Jyoti at around 10.20 am as I was growing restless. Jyoti told me that I should come at 3 pm as many people would be busy in some puja on that particular day (some snake puja). I invited Mrs.Pamela, IAS, Asst. Collector to visit the village in the evening and check the progress from the Ward members and she happily agreed.

When I reached nobody was there and at around 4 pm a few volunteers, 5 in number, led by Meenakshi arrived. Waited for sometime and there was hardly any improvement in strength. My dependency on village coordinators for gathering the Volunteers and also updating of progress in the computer was failing continuously. So, the best solution was to give those responsibilities to the Volunteers. Identified sets of volunteers for these jobs and they cheerfully agreed to help.

Later the Mandal coordinator arrived, as usual for nothing. At around 5 pm Sakshar Bharat official also arrived and within a minute his favorite ward member also reached the Sakshar Bharat office. The ward member arrival immediately after the Sakshar Bharat official's arrival was anyway a regular practice. They started discussing about Sarpanch (why???) and also about various other ward members. As expected the ward member only spoke about all the negative things about Sarpanch. My head was aching with their gibberish and I went out for a few minutes.

When I came back I was really pissed off when the mandal coordinator, with a sad face, expressed that ward members were not working. I started blasting mandal coordinator and indirectly everybody. I asked if he was working in spite of his Deputy Director instructing him to visit the village on daily basis. I once again told everybody that if the project failed each of us must hold ourselves responsible. I also vented my anger by saying that the project was heading towards failure but upon seeing Meenakshi coming in I controlled myself as I did not want to discourage her.

I wanted to see some adult learners who were not cooperating, but could not as Meenakshi was busy organizing the evening program herself.  Sarpanch was not well and the other concerned person who was supposed to help was not available. Jyoti was also not present.

The cultural artists, 6 people, arrived. Apparently they all came by bus. With banner and drums we went around the village inviting all for the evening program and also announcing the chief guest's name.

Oath by youth association members:

Once we were back to Sakshar Bharat office the Sakshar Bharat official called all the male youth inside the office and after our encouraging words Meenakshi made them take the oath to work for the 100% literacy program. Later, the Sakshar Bharat official was giving unsolicited advise (why???) to the youth to put their demands in front of the visiting Asst. Collector.

Mrs.Pamela's arrival and my cancelled plans:

At around 7.45 pm or so Mrs Pamela, IAS, arrived. With the Sakshar Bharat official overseeing the arrangements along with Meenakshi I had the luxury of just relaxing and watching the proceedings. This was, sadly, the first Sunday on which I did not share anything to the learners from my laptop. My plans were to show a motivational short film, education material and also explain the test pattern with some sample test paper. But villagers were accustomed to 7.30 to 9 pm schedule and hence it was not a good idea to make them sit beyond 9 pm after the cultural programs.

Ward members drama:

The program started and people started trickling in. Sarpanch also turned up along with a couple of lady ward members. But other ward members were conspicuously absent. Mrs.Pamela, IAS, was to meet each of the Ward members and check the progress sheets which were given to them by the Collector. Surprisingly none turned up. Later we were informed that they were all at a ward member's house and deliberately did not come to attend the program as they were unhappy with Sarpanch. I really felt pity for Sarpanch. Poor chap was investing so much for the literacy program which was never a part of his responsibility. Still ward members were pointing fingers at him that too for the things he was not guilty of.

Speeches:

Time was almost 9.30 and there were just a hand full of adult literates still seated. I had told the Sakshar Bharat official earlier also that we need to stick to 7.30 to 8.45 or 9 pm schedule, otherwise they would definitely leave. Anyways, we all spoke, thanks to volunteers and also a few youth association people. During my turn I reminded learners (where were they??) of examination date and requested them to work hard. Also requested youth to check with Meenakshi and team and find out the names of the people who were not cooperating and try to bring them to the learning centers. My speech was followed by Sarpanch and a few youth association representatives.

When we requested Mrs.Pamela to talk on stage earlier, she hesitated again the way she did last time. The culprit being her little knowledge in Telugu. Sakshar Bharat official jotted down a few lines on a piece of paper and she planned to read it. But on stage she first spoke in English and Hindi which I translated. She appreciated all including the cultural activists. Later the atmosphere became the festival of photos. With people thronging to have photos with Madam, she had to oblige with all. When some youth association members came to her with some association related demands she told them that if they work rigorously and make the literacy program a success, she would definitely accept/take their demands.

Dinner plans:

Initially when I told Mrs. Pamela that she Sarpanch planned for Dinner for her she requested me not to plan  as she needed to leave early. But when Sarpanch himself requested she had to give in. She left for Dream Valley in her car along with Sarpanch. Before leaving for Dinner, the Sakshar Bharat official told me that there were 6 cultural program artists and requested me to accommodate three and he would take care of the other three. I agreed for the help. When I was going towards my car the youth association members came to me rushing and requested me to bring Mrs.Pamela again on August 15. I told them if they bring all the 263 learners to learning centers in the coming week I would definitely talk to her about their request.

Inhuman touch:

By the time we had dinner and came out of the Restaurant of Dream Valley it was 11 pm. I was to drop three cultural program artists at Mehdipatnam and the Sakshar Bharat official was to take care of the other three. But, he just told them to arrange on their own and left the place shocking all of us including the Sarpanch. Just a couple of days back the same Sakshar Bharat official was calling a high profile person, with whom lot of continued help was expected, a poor man as he lost his 90 year old father and it was his duty to attend the funeral. Now, he felt these cultural people were rich as he no more needs them. Food for thought :)

All were worried about the 6 cultural troop members fitting into my car. There were a couple of people elderly, one above 60 years old. Sakshar Bharat official's subordinate at least thought for them (really??) and told them that as he was going to drop Sarpanch in the village, he would ride triple on his vehicle and drop one person outside the Dream valley road, which is half way between the main road and the village. He also advised me to drop one person at the same place so that while coming back from the village, after dropping the Sarpanch, he would pick both of them and drop at the highway road/bus stand. He left with Sarpach and another guy from the cultural troop.

I was not happy with the plan, though was better in the circumstances, and decided to carry all the 6 people in my car. With 5 people, 4 in the backseat and one in front, I started from Dream valley to the road connecting the village with the main road. Once I reached the place where another guy was standing, one boy from my car was getting down. I told him not to get down and requested the other guy on the road also to get into the car. He somehow squeezed into the back seat, 5 in all. He then told me that subordinate had advised him to stand there itself and wait for some two wheelers passing by to ask for lift. This one really shocked all of us. It was completely dark. At 11.30 pm people might be returning to village but not travel outside from village. Moreover in the darkness nobody would stop to help out of suspicion. It was a jungle kind of place. When a snake could be found, in the heart of the village that too with hundreds of people around during 100% literacy program launch, which almost bit a lady and she had to be rushed to a hospital, what was the guarantee that this dark and bushy place could be safe.

I felt that if Sakshar Bharat official left these people in the dark, then his subordinate put their life in danger.

This episode involving two educated people once again proved that education without humanity could be dangerous. I thought I should tell Meenakshi that while imparting basic education to the illiterates she should also start teaching humanity to literates.:)