June 26 - Officials visit

My invitation:

It was June 26, the day top officials of Adult Education Department were planning to visit after accepting my invitation. My invitation was a part of my ongoing plans and strategies to motivate the villagers and make the literacy program a grand success. I requested them to come at 7.30 pm, the time I interact with villagers on every Sunday and give them prizes. The officials visiting the village were: 1. Mr. Satyanarayana Reddy, Director, State Adult Education (Sakshar Bharat) 2. Mr. Sainna, Director, State Resource Center (the department which designed the curriculum and the books) 3. Mr. Ramdas Naik, Dy. Director, State Adult Education (Sakshar Bharat)

Surprise:

I reached the village at around 11 am as usual, for my regular sessions with volunteers. The volunteers, around 20, came to attend along with Meenakshi and Jyoti of Sakshar Bharat village coordinators (VC), who oversee the literacy project at village level. Most of them came on time. But when I asked them to raise hands if they are volunteers, I saw only around 10 hands going up, to my surprise. The rest of them came to gain computer knowledge. The volunteer count was supposed to be 50. Even if we consider the reasons that some are not well, some are busy, just a couple of them went to work etc. and discount 20 people, still 30 volunteers should have been there. I decided to go to each and every volunteer's house along with the existing volunteers and check whats happening, of course only after the session.

Session:

I again had a pep talk on discipline and leadership. They all made me happy when I heard from them listing leadership qualities one by one as vision, leading from the front, positive attitude, discipline, brave, being friendly etc. They said they would add a few more qualities later. Taught them some basics of computers like Desktop, Folder, creation of Folder etc. They were very happy to create a few folders on my system. We dispersed with the promise to meet again at 3.30 pm.

Assembling again:

By the time people started assembling around 4 pm (planned time was 3.30 pm, discipline?) my colleagues Sunanda, Anand and Jyoti have arrived. I them to volunteers. Also, Adult Education department officials Mr.Srinivas Babu and Mr.Vikram Verma, Assistant Project Officer arrived to oversee the arrangements for the evening program, as their bosses were to descend on to the village. I requested Mr.Srinivas Babu to handle the arrangements along with Sarpanch so that I could focus on volunteers and the mobilization of villagers. Banners were ready and were being tied at the same time. All the Banners were displaying the photographs of villagers in learning poses.

Touring village:

I along with my colleagues and all the available volunteers went around the village. We went to each of the volunteer's house who was missing in the morning. Many people, after our visit, came along with us. Surprisingly even though they did not attend the session in the morning they were enthusiastic upon seeing us and joined us. A couple of girls were not well but were still happy to join us. My colleagues and I tried to interact with others like boys and some educated people in the village to join us, but none showed interest. It appeared many were feeling shy. One girl ran inside upon seeing us and her mother was also not happy that the girl was not coming out.

We all reached the Sakshar Bharat office. Asked them to check their attendance books if they are up to date with illiterates attendance so that chits can be prepared with only those names who have attended for full 6 days in the week. Finally requested all of them to freshen up and bring all the illiterates for the meeting, on time.

The program:

Tables covered with nice cloth and chairs were arranged for the chief guests. Big mats were laid in the front, and chairs on either sides. The time was 7.15 and none of the illiterates arrived. I told the officials earlier that the program starts at 7.30. The assistant project officer walked up to me and checked about the people. I requested Meenakshi and Jyoti to go around the village and mobilize people. A few minutes later project officer again came back to me and expressed the concern that the Directors would be arriving within 5 minutes and place was still empty. I assured him that by 7.30 people will come, but the time was 7.25 already. Again the project officer rushes to me, appearing very concerned, after just 3 minutes or so and this time announced that the Directors have already arrived and there were no trace of people. I wished the directors and they went inside for a while to see the office. They then came back and sat on the side chairs along with Sarpanch.

The time was 7.30 and people start coming. By 7.40 the place appeared full with people. Meanwhile my colleagues had set up the projector which was running basic Telugu teaching videos. The projector belonged to Sunanda.

The program started with Mr.Srinivas Babu anchoring it. He called the chief guests one by one and they occupied the chairs behind the tables. To my surprise I was also called and I also sat along with them. Mr.Ramdas Naik was the first one to speak, followed by Sarpanch. As usual Sarpanch said if 100% literacy is achieved Chief Minister would visit the village and he would shower so many funds and facilities to the village. This statement of Sarpanch irks some people in the village (politics?) Then I was asked to talk. I felt I was aggressive in my talk. I told in clear terms that out of 100 days, 50 days were already gone and we hardly covered one book and there were two more books to cover. The only option was to put more effort than what we were putting before. Also shared my opinion that if the program is successful we all would take the credit but if the program failed who was to be blamed. I told them to regroup and work together to make this program a grand success.

After me so many people spoke, but the highlight was Mr.Sainna's speech. He not only showed all how easy it was to learn, but threw a surprise by when he suddenly started singing a song. His song, with an essence of sympathizing with women, was really spell bound. This was what I was expecting from officials. Motivation!

The program concluded with the distribution of prizes. I had arranged steel tiffin boxes as prize, 21 in numbers (why 21? I myself do not know. For that matter the previous week I had organized 23 steel bowls, why 23?) Chits were picked and the winners were called to collect the prizes. Starting with the Directors all have joined in distributing the gifts. Before leaving all the chief guests appreciated my work and more importantly the Project officer happily shook my hands saying that the arrangements were very good.