Saturday, 23 July, a day before District Collector's planned visit, I visited the village and had a discussion with Meenakshi and Jyoti, Sakshar Bharat's village coordinators. For the first time they started keying the attendance and progress of the Adult learners in the system. Though the excel with volunteers and adult learners was ready long back, may be a over one and half months back, now a computer was found for them, thanks to Collector's planned visit. When I strictly told all that Collector would be interested to see the progress in the system, their minds started working and they found a small laptop within the Gram Panchayat, apparently lying idle for a long, long time. Till date I was being assured that the Desktop systems which were not in working condition would be repaired. Had these people arranged for this computer long back, the progress of the literacy program would be been much, much better.
I reviewed the updates in the excel and after talking to Mr.Srinivas Babu, Supervisor, Adult Education, over phone, finalized the list of adult learner's to 263. I needed this to show to Collector and also wanted the prints of the following to be handed over to each of the Ward Members by collector so that they are made accountable for the adult learners attendance and progress.
1. Progress Sheet of adult literates
2. Attendance sheets
Collector's confirmation:
On Sunday Morning at around 8.30 am I called Mr.Ranghunandan, IAS, over phone to confirm his visit to the village. He confirmed to visit the village by 7 pm, though my requested time was 7.30 pm :) Informed all the concerned about collector's visit.
Print outs for Ward Members:
Again this Sunday, I had to cancel my regular session with the volunteers as there was a small function at home. While all my siblings and their families arrived at my house, I had to leave for the village in the afternoon. Spent some time on system, before starting, and modified the excel sheets which had the adult literates attendance and progress so that the right info is printed in few pages. En route to village I stopped at an Internet center and took print outs of learners current progress sheets (8 pages) and their attendance sheets (10 pages), 11 copies of each as there were 10 Ward Members and one for Sakshar Bharat office. I spent almost one hour there.
Arrangements for Collector's visit
While I was entering the village road I saw Sarpanch, coming from the city, rushing towards village at around 4 pm. Earlier, in the Morning he mentioned to me that he was planning to give a bouquet and shawl to Collector. I told him that I was also thinking of bouquet and it was a good idea. I was happy as I need not buy it now. I did not comment on shawl part as I did not know the importance of it on this occasion.
Once I entered the Sakshar Bharat office I found a few girls practicing songs. They were of the opinion that as they were given a chance during the previous Sunday's program, this time too they would be asked to perform. But, I doubted if they would get any chance. I asked Meenakshi, Sakshar Bharat village volunteer to prepare the list of adult learners who completed their first book so that we could request Collector to hand over the second book along with a gift (steel plate). She was happy and told me that she would prepare one.
Sarpanch called me outside to discuss about the arrangements. He left the option to me whether a stage needs to be arranged, and if yes where. I had to give the Collector some presentation and it was a challenge to have a screen in the visible range from the stage. Some how set up both the stage and the projectors, though distant apart. I also learnt from him that he was planning for Harita Haram (planting trees) with the collector and MLA.
From 5 pm I observed a few cars arriving one after the other and various officials started coming in. After some time even the MLA, Mr.Kala Yadaiah arrived. I felt his arrival as a bumper offer. I met him a few days back and invited to the village. Though he mentioned that this Sunday he would visit, but I was not sure. Apparently, Sarpanch invited him for this event.
Meanwhile, Mr.Srinivas Babu spoke to me over phone and again mentioned about the learning centers arrangements for the Collector to visit. Previous Sunday also it was arranged and Mrs.Pamela was happy to see the centers. Hence, I told him to go ahead, even though I was not happy forcing people to set up, as already we have updated everybody that learning centers were only seen on week days.
Collector's arrival:
Upon Collector's arrival he was greeted by the MLA and all the other officials along with Sarpanch. I felt amongst the people surrounding him, he was looking for me. I made my way though the people and greeted him. Srapanch pulled out a Shawl and Collector was surprised. He said it would be better if this was done on the Dias. Sarpanch was in dilemma. He already raised the shawl to a height and, apparently he did not want to withdraw. The Collector gave his nod and the Sarpanch happily put a shawl on his shoulder. I was expecting a bouquet to be given to Collector, but to my surprise, I found him giving a tall plant. :)
Sarpanch also repeated this act of shawl and plant to the MLA. The same act was repeated by a few other people.
Just in time somebody told me that Harita Haram plan was cancelled as it was too dark, otherwise I would have misguided or messed up in answering Collector's question. He asked me what was the plan. Now, I could confidently tell him that we would be visiting learning centers.
Visiting Learning centers
We set out to see the learning centers. En route he was checking if I knew the MLA. I told him that I met the MLA the same day I met him, at Joint Collector's office. He also inquired about how I got involved in this project etc. We reached the first learning center, It was in front of a house. I introduced Collector to all the adult learners. The Collector immediately advised me, in a low voice, that I should always introduce MLA first. :) I introduced MLA also. There were around 8 adult learners seated in a semi circle. They were now surrounded by tens of officials and others with the noise of photo clicks and flashes. Collector and MLA started checking them. They asked them what they were reading and writing. Some people answered and some people could not.
We proceeded to the second learning center. I expected this center to be a saving face as the previous one was not up to the mark. There were around 12 adult learner's seated in a circle. Here the MLA and Collector pierced the circle and sat along with them and started inquiring. A few people were able to write and read properly and a few were not able to write or read.
I really felt embarrassed. The same people were happily writing and reading in front of Mrs.Pamela, IAS, just a week ago and now they were too afraid to write or read anything. Possible reason could be the fear of Collector and MLA and the tens of people surrounding them with the continuous photo clicks and flashes. Both the Collector and MLA chatted with them for a few minutes and also inquired like why were they studying, what are the advantages of studying, are their husbands allowing etc. Collector also checked "Muggulu" with alphabets in front of a house.
Later I checked with Collector, if he would like to visit the next center and he said we should proceed to the venue straight. Explained him on the way how it was going on and the next plan was to meet the Ward Members in the gram Panchayat's office. Once we reached Gram Panchayat, Sarpanch asked me not to plan that as it would lead to unnecessary discussions. Collector then mentioned that it might not work that way and said, 'lets talk at the venue only with all'. Do I have an option :D.
The Speeches
Mr.Srinivas Babu, as usual, wielded the mike and started inviting the chief guests, starting with the MLA, followed by Collector, Sarpanch, Dy.Director of Adult Education and many other officials. Probably the last invitation was for me and my colleague from IBM, Sunanda, and we run the programs on every Sunday :)
After Dy.Director's small speech I was invited to talk. I held the sheets which I wss planning to be given to ward members by the collector. I turned to Collector and told him that the volunteers are very young village girls and they were gems. Also, appreciated the adult learners. Reminded the villagers that the time is very less and we all needed to work more harder and so on. I mentioned about working smartly and forgot to explain about the smartness plan.
After a couple of more speeches MLA Mr.Yadaiah spoke. He spoke about the adult education and also about the achievements of his party and his leader and so on as expected.
The Collector spoke very well and appreciated the volunteers and the adult learners. He encouraged the villagers not to stop learning and should develop the capability to read newspapers and learn more about the happenings in the society and so on. He pointed out that the volunteers were mainly girls and the boys also need to come forward. With the assurance of providing all the support he concluded his speech.
Communication woes:
While speeches were on I went to the Sakshar Bharat village volunteer for the list of adult learners who were to be given gifts, I was surprised by her answer. She told me that she (or they) decided not to give. I asked her when was decision taken and why was it not informed to me. I just asked her to get the gifts and provide me the list. This was actually a big problem in the village. We were not going hand in hand. We talk something and later plan something else without intimation. There was a big communication problem. And I was really worried about the communication problem.
My second speech
Immediately after Collector's speech I requested Mr.Srinivas Babu to give me the mike once again. Dy Director commented, in lighter vein, saying I was not satisfied with my earlier speech and I wanted to talk more. Mr.Srinivas Babu also commented saying I will not be satisfied even if I stay in the village the whole night :)
I referred a point from Collector's speech, boys not in volunteers list, and told all that I have been requesting youth associations to come to the Sunday programs so that we could ask them to help us in driving the 100% literacy program. I have told all that the volunteers alone are not enough and the entire village has to work together. Whatever problems and hurdles we have we could solve and proceed. If people were working from morning to night, we could still find a solution. If all do their work efficiently we would definitely achieve our objective. In this regard I told them that we will also need to work smartly. The Sakshar Bharat village volunteers would use a Computer for tracking the progress from now on-wards. For the Ward Members, I told a few were running around just like that and from now on they would carry the List of Adult learners sheets which would have the list of volunteers and adult learners with progress and attendance updating options. I requested Mr.Srinivas Babu to call each Ward Member one by one over mike. I then requested the Collector to distribute the adult learners information sheets to Ward Members which he did happily. One of the primary objectives of inviting the Collector was met by this. The objective was to make each Ward Member accountable for the progress of the adult learners in their respective wards. And this, according to me, was very crucial for the success of the literacy program.
Then I requested Collector to hand over the second book to all those adults who had completed learning the first book and also requested MLA to give away gifts (steel plates) to these adults. While Mr.Srinivas Babu read out names the adults came on to the Dias and collected the book from Collector and the gift from MLA.
I concluded my speech by saying that with such big people visiting our village the pressure was more on us to perform. And drawing an analogy with diamond told them that with pressure diamonds are created.
Leaders
When the program concluded I requested the collector for a snap with all the volunteers and he obliged. After the snap when I asked the volunteers, 'who are you?' they all shouted, 'volunteers'. Again when I asked 'who are you?' they all shouted, 'Leaders!!'
Hope, the collector left the village satisfied.
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