Since 25 March, India has been under a lockdown. More than a billion people are restricted to their homes, practising social distancing to guard against the spread of novel coronavirus. These also include the meter readers, people who come to our homes every month to read our electricity meters and generate bills. This allows the power distribution companies (discoms) to collect revenues and keep the power flowing.
But with the ongoing lockdown, power companies are in a fix as to how to generate bills.
Several states have directed power companies to bill consumers based on their past readings. With millions of new consumers and the onset of the summer, this strategy may fall short in meeting discoms’ revenue requirements as electricity consumption rises. It is in times like these when one looks for smarter solutions.
Luckily, we have one – the smart meter.
Smart metering consumers
Smart meter pilot in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. Image Credits: Milan Jacob, CEEW.
Unlike conventional meters, smart meters allow discoms to record electricity use continuously and generate bills remotely. In India, nearly two million homes already have smart meters on their premises. For these consumers, it would be easy for discoms to generate bills even during the lockdown.
But the reasons why power companies are turning towards smart meter technology are different.
In 2019, discoms in India incurred a loss of more than INR 28,000 crore. Inefficient bill generation, low payment rates, and electricity theft are among the reasons behind these loses.
Most of us have witnessed or heard stories about people paying the meter-readers for generating a lower than the actual bill or simply to avoid any payment. With smart meters in place, discoms hope to reduce losses due to such under-billing and underpayments. For consumers who do not pay their bills, discoms can remotely disconnect their power connections, thus forcing timely payment. As for checking the electricity theft, smart meters are fairly tamper-proof and can be used to detect unusual activity.
What’s in it for the consumers?
Smart meter pilot in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. Image Credits: Shalu Agrawal, CEEW.
Recently, researchers at the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW) conducted a pilot study with smart meters in 100 households in Mathura and Bareilly districts of Uttar Pradesh.
Data collected using smart meters shows that urban homes in these districts faced multiple power cuts, with an average outage of two hours every day. Most families also faced the problem of very high or very low supply voltages, which is bad for appliance health and safety.
The CEEW study shows that with smart meters, discoms can monitor the power outages or voltage fluctuations on a real-time basis and resolve such issues without waiting for complaints from the consumers. This can save people from the inconveniences related to power cuts.
On that note, have you ever wondered why the power cuts are mainly a summertime phenomenon? Because people use more electricity to run their air-conditioners and coolers. If on a sweltering day, the electricity demand surpasses the supply scheduled by the discoms, discoms have to undertake ‘load-shedding’ or cut the power supply in certain areas. In residential areas with limited infrastructure capacity, high loads can lead to power-tripping or transformer breakdown.
With smart meters, discoms can understand the electricity used by people at different times of the day (at every 15-minute interval). Such granular information can help discoms to forecast future demand and procure enough power to meet demand or expand infrastructure capacity where needed. This would help avoid unwarranted power cuts.
What’s more, armed with information from demand forecasting, discoms can buy cheaper power from real-time markets (like stock markets) and reduce the cost of electricity. So, smart meters may also offer some relief to the consumers from the ever-rising power tariffs.
But that’s not it. Besides a reliable and cost-effective supply, smart meters can genuinely empower the consumers, by allowing them to track and control their power consumption on a real-time basis through mobile apps.
Many people during our research complained about their electricity bills being too high. We compared the units recorded by our smart meters with the meters installed by discoms but found no significant difference. To understand the reason behind such perception, we asked people about their air-conditioners’ usage hours and compared it with our estimates from smart meter data. We found that many people under-estimated their appliance, and hence, the electricity use.
Thus, daily feedback on electricity use or hours of air-conditioner usage could help many consumers to manage their expectations as well as save energy through lower usage.
Are we all set to have smart meters in all homes?
Smart meter pilot in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. Image Credits: Milan Jacob, CEEW.
Yes, and no. Whether we can realise the benefits from smart meters would depend upon the way smart metering infrastructure is deployed, operated, and used.
CEEW’s research finds that smart meter deployment is a complex activity fraught with several challenges, such as loss of data due to network gaps and lack of consumer trust in the technology. Many consumers in states like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have reported instances of inflated bills, reflecting the teething problems associated with the implementation of complex systems. Addressing these issues through pilot projects and consumer engagement would be crucial for a smooth functioning smart metering infrastructure.
Using smart meters for advanced purposes like outage management and demand forecasting would require discoms to undertake organisational reforms and skill-building exercises across all verticals.
Finally, there is nothing like a free lunch. Smart meters cost money. Discoms are currently paying ~INR 100 per meter/month to Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), the agency implementing smart meters under a leasing model.
At this rate, discoms would have to spend ~INR 25,000/year for covering all Indian homes with smart meters. In areas where the losses due to inefficient billing and collection are high, benefits from loss reduction could cover the cost of smart meters. Elsewhere, we need to weigh their benefits against costs carefully.
During her 2020 Budget speech, the Union Finance Minister urged the states to install smart meters in all homes within three years. Given the current lockdown and various implementation issues, both the timeline and the scope need to be revised. Yet, many consumers in urban areas stand to benefit from smart meter technology through the provision of reliable power supply and better control over their electricity use and expenses.
(Written by Shalu Agrawal and Sunil Mani. Edited by Shruti Singhal)
About the authors: Shalu Agrawal and Sunil Mani are researchers at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, one of Asia’s leading independent not-for-profit policy research institutions.
We teach Biology but do we teach children to respect animals? We teach Physics and Natural Sciences but do we teach kids to protect the planet they inhabit? Isn’t it more common to hear, ‘Stay away from the dog, it will bite’ rather than, ‘It’s hot, let’s keep a bowl of water for the passing stray animals’?
Mahatma Gandhi had once said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way in which its animals are treated.”
Delhi-based animal welfare organisation ‘Stray Relief and Animal Welfare’ (STRAW), had tied up with CBSE and other State Education Boards, as part of the Compassionate Classrooms programme. It has been providing content to textbooks and teacher manuals on kindness towards animals. The idea was to boost the values of empathy and sensitivity towards animals specifically and the environment at large among children.
STRAW was founded by the husband-wife duo of Vasanthi and Dinesh Kumar, passionate about building a better world for voiceless creatures. Dinesh grew up with pets such as dogs, cats, parrots and rabbits for company. Vasanthi, on the other hand, was wary of animals in her childhood and pursued a corporate career in PR; she gave it all up to start STRAW. Today, she is a proud humane educator!
Speaking about how STRAW started, Vasanthi says, “STRAW and animal welfare are my second career. At the very beginning, the desire was to do everything, including an animal shelter, veterinary services, and education. But soon, we realised that all animal welfare problems emerge from one cause, i.e. the lack of awareness of what the voiceless animals go through in their day-to-day lives.”
In 2017, as per a report in Hindustan Times, 19,028 animal cruelty cases were recorded over five years in Mumbai without any arrests. This data was compiled by Bombay Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The cases included merciless and sadistic beating up, torturing and killing of animals such as dogs, cats, horses, bullock, cattle, fowl, birds and so on.
According to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, a measly fine of Rs 10-100 is imposed on perpetrators of various animal offences, including abandoning an animal in painful conditions or leaving it to starve, or killing/poisoning/maiming/torturing an animal with imprisonment as lenient as three months or none. Clearly, the laws weren’t stringent enough to ensure care towards animals.
Appealing to the natural sensitivities of humans, awakening their feelings and empathy for animals was the need of the hour. And that sensitivity could only be brought about if the seeds of compassion were directly sown in childhood when the mind and heart were at its purest. This realisation helped Vasanthi initiate and delve into humane education, which teaches and nurtures compassion and respect for all living beings and the environment.
In fact, Vasanthi conducted her very first humane education session in her son’s classroom in 2008. The Compassionate Classrooms project was the natural outcome.
Conducting a Humane Education session involved going from one school and classroom to another. But knocking on a door did not necessarily imply that it was going to be opened. The schools had to complete their syllabi within tight deadlines. Would they really have the time and motivation to pursue something additional like humane education?
Vasanthi recalls, “Getting permission and time from schools to conduct a humane education session comes only after plenty of effort through repeated emails, phone calls and personal visits. But once in, everybody, including the students, teachers, and the school authorities, love our programmes and workshops and request us to conduct these for other classes as well.”
This meant it would take a very long time to cover the huge population of school children in our country. Vasanthi thought, “What if the contents for these lessons could become a part of school text books in order to get a faster pan-India cover?” Thus, she approached the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which had introduced the Life Skills Programme as part of the curriculum for class IX. At the same time, the Board was working on the Teacher’s Manual on Life Skills for Classes IX and X.
After a few meetings and discussions, the CBSE authorities were satisfied with the idea of Humane Education. They gave STRAW the opportunity to contribute a chapter on Empathy, which is one of the core life skills laid down by WHO.
In the next few months, the Board decided to extend its CCE (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation) system to classes six, seven and eight. With this, the focus on the co-scholastic skills of students had become an integral part of the evaluation system. They had also decided to publish a Teacher’s Manual – Life Skills for classes six, seven and eight. STRAW was once again called in to become a part of the panel that worked on the content for these manuals.
Naturally, the chosen topic was ‘Empathy’. With this, STRAW was contributing a total of eighteen chapters, i.e. six chapters each for classes six, seven and eight.
One of the chapters for class VIII was titled ‘Choosing to Help Others’. Through this lesson, the students were taught to understand the importance of helping others, both humans and animals, and to make compassionate and responsible choices towards other beings. The methodology was to divide the class into groups, which discussed different sample situations; then, students had to write out or draw their points on a chart and present it to the class. The life skills learnt were empathy, self-awareness and interpersonal relationships.
And so began the significant chapter of STRAW, the Compassionate Classroom Programme.
Beyond CBSE, STRAW contributed content to a few textbooks published by The Department of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT), Karnataka, and State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Delhi.
To date, the organisation continues to pursue the ‘Compassionate Classroom’ journey with other state education boards as well.
‘Compassionate Kids’ and ‘Compassionate Scholars’ are the two other programmes pursued by STRAW. While the former is conducted for children in schools, community libraries and informal study centers for the under-privileged, the latter is for college students. CRPF School, Delhi World Public School, DAV School, Ryan International School, and Army Public School, The Community Library Project, Deepalaya Library, are some institutions in the National Capital Region where the programme has already been conducted. Recently, STRAW conducted a few programmes in village schools of Haryana as well.
Vasanthi recalls one of the sessions that struck a chord with her. She says, “During one of our workshops, we had taken two puppies to a classroom (class V) so that children could feel and touch them to get over the fear of dogs/animals. Students were so charmed with the puppies that I received a call from the class teacher the next day asking if one of the puppies could be adopted.”
The ‘Compassionate Scholars’ Programme for college students aims to create awareness about animal welfare issues among them. This would be done through screening of documentaries, presentations and panel discussions. These sessions are done in association with the National Service Scheme (NSS) of the respective colleges.
“We have been able to sensitise about 100-150 students per session, and have been associated with NSS-IIT Delhi for the last four years. Other colleges where we have conducted sessions include Shri Ram College of Commerce, Maitreyi College, and Jawaharlal Nehru University,” says Vasanthi.
Some of the animal welfare topics that they covered included Caring for Animals on the Campus, and First Aid with live demos for animals on the Campus, How to Avoid Dog Bites, documentary screenings about problems faced by the joy ride elephants, temple elephants followed by discussions and activities relating to adverse impacts of plastic bags on animals.
Following the sessions, a committed group of students in each college took care of animals (including dogs, cats and birds) on the campuses. Their caregiving activities included feeding, vaccinations, sterilisations and other medical attention. Also, at least 100 students who were scared of dogs at one time could get over their fear and support the group who helped with animals on the campus.
Further, about 1,000 college students pledged never to take joy rides on elephants and to talk to priests about the plight of temple elephants.
The sessions were primarily in Delhi and the NCR, including Noida and Gurugram. Vasanthi adds, “We would love to spread our wings to other regions and are working in this regard. Those who love animals and children and would like to teach can get in touch with us to carry out our sessions in their own neighborhoods.”
Meanwhile, through the Compassionate Classrooms Programme, STRAW contributes content relating to empathy for animals and people to school textbooks. Compassionate Kids and Compassionate Scholars are the two one-on-one programmes that come under the larger umbrella of the Compassionate Classrooms Program.
Vasanthi explains, “We have about 6-10 humane education volunteers/teachers who are associated with us in a virtual way, i.e. they conduct humane education programmes in schools in their own neighborhoods. We meet up once in three months to take stock of the work and discuss other related matters.”
Preeti Singh, a corporate professional as well as an active community animal caregiver has been associated with STRAW as a volunteer for more than two years. It was her concern and interest in humane and environment education that attracted her to STRAW. She has been developing and conducting humane education programmes for schools, colleges and universities and also helping out plan new initiatives and activities to increase engagement.
She recalls a special memory from a community library session where the children were indifferent towards community animals, “After three sessions, I saw a change of heart and students started sharing stories of saving animals, and felt sorry for pelting stones at them in the past. This incident still brings a smile to my face.”
However, with freelance trainer, Yogita Gupta, it was a personal loss that nudged her to join STRAW as a volunteer in June 2018. Her three doggy children had just passed away, leaving her depressed. When she heard about STRAW through Preeti, it was like a dream had come true for her. Right from meeting the principals of various schools to seeking permission to conducting the workshops, it was all a great experience. Sharing one of her most beautiful memories, she says, “I was able to take my Junior to Seventh Day Adventist school. The way the children reacted to him was beautiful.”
While the impact was beautiful and noteworthy, it was fraught with challenges. Funding was one, as these workshops were conducted for free to reach maximum children. Vasanthi points out, “Funding for animal care could be the last cause on the list for those who are willing to be charitable. When it comes to giving funds for the treatment, sterilisation, or feeding, it may be easy; but that’s not the case when it comes to teaching children to be kind to animals. Hence funds for most of our work comes from our earnings.”
STRAW is a non-profit organisation, recognised by the Animal Welfare Board of India. It also has Section 80G certification under the Income Tax Act. Most of the work is carried out through volunteers and some funding from the founders’ own earnings. STRAW has recently introduced a payment gateway as part of their website through which a small amount of donations have started trickling in.
Then, like a miracle, their work was noticed and rewarded by The Pollination Project (TPP), a US-based organisation that funds seed grants to social change projects that promote compassion. In March 2013, TPP gave them STRAW a micro-grant of USD 1,000 to support the Compassionate Classroom project. That was a big boost for the classroom initiative at the state board level in particular. And the first of the state boards that were targeted was Karnataka. The Pollination Project funding was used to support curriculum creation of humane education content, translation into the local language, and travel to meetings with state board members, with up to 10, 000 classrooms in the state getting impacted.
At the same time, contributing content to school textbooks despite its magnified reach was no smooth sail either. Dealing with authorities was the toughest part. “Getting appointments to finally meet them can be a Herculean task. For example, one is not sure about meeting the right person even after having travelled to another city with a definite appointment. Even phone calls and emails hardly work. It’s a similar situation with schools, which do not answer emails. They need 3-4 personal visits for a programme to firm up,” says Vasanthi.
The win-win situation is when the principal or the teacher-in-charge of the activities is a person who loves animals. In February 2020, STRAW organised an awareness and sensitisation session on the plight of stray and helpless dogs for middle school at Delhi World Public School in Greater Noida. Raina Krishnatray, the School Principal recalls, “Ms Preeti and Ms Vasanthi drove down the virtues of empathy and compassion in a child-friendly way and provoked children to think about the strays, to be kind to them, to feed them whenever possible. The children loved sharing their experiences with the stray dogs and attentively listened to the dos-and-don’ts while interacting with them.”
At the end of the day, despite the hardships and speed breakers, Vasanthi is satisfied by the positive change she’s bringing about through her programmes. Her ultimate goal is to take the ‘Compassionate Classrooms’ to all 35 states of India.
She concludes, “When I wear the hat of a humane educator and see children pledge not to burst crackers so that animals can be safe or care for at least one stray dog in their vicinity or even never to take a joyride on an elephant, my heart swells with delight that we have made a difference to a few animals. The goal is to sensitise each child in India so that they grow up to be kind and compassionate citizens. They should be able to care for the strays so that there is no need for shelter homes at all.”
If you love animals and enjoy working with children, you too can be a part of the Compassionate Classroom project from any city or state by starting Humane Education classes in a school in your neighbourhood. Simply write to contact@strawindia.org with ‘Humane Education Counsellor’ in the subject line. You can also write to the same email id if you wish to support STRAW/Compassionate Classroom project as a volunteer. Or if you wish to donate, you may click on this link.
(Written by Ipsita Sarkar and Edited by Shruti Singhal)
This is a question I am often asked. My response is constant: Theatre completes an education. Even better, theatre is a complete education in itself.
Theatre is a vehicle that enables a child to discover innate talents and express their unsaid feelings without any inhibitions.
My belief in theatre-based training began when I had my daughter go through it. It was done to help her open up and to discover hidden abilities. The results were amazing. At the tender age of five, my daughter walked the stage as the Master of Ceremony at the annual day of her school, HeadStart Educational Academy!
So strongly was I convinced that I got into it myself, resulting in the birth of ‘Theatre Dots’ in 2012 to help lots of kids be confident and happy!
Training for over ten years now, I find myself agreeing with Albert Einstein, who famously said – “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
True. Every child needs imagination to grow creatively, and theatre is a great stimulus for that. Moreover, theatre goes beyond that as well. Be it performing a simple role-play or a character in front of an audience, theatre helps kids overcome stage fright, speak up in case they are reserved or express themselves positively if they are outspoken.
To many children, theatre has been a saviour in terms of finding an audience and an outlet for unhindered expression. Additionally, since drama focuses on communication as a whole, and performance cannot be effective unless we can engage our audience, theatre helps in building fearless, articulate and brilliant orators.
As a proactive, engaging medium, theatre helps everyone – kids and even adults – express their ideas confidently. This is why corporates too are now taking to theatre-based training for various employee engagement programmes. Training in theatre doesn’t just build great communicators but also instils life skills like creativity, empathy, teamwork, cooperation, concentration, listening, and cultural conglomeration.
Having trained over a thousand kids, I recommend that every parent enrol their kids for fun drama classes and see the little ones evolve into confident and happy individuals. Most importantly, it helps one be confident.
Assam, in the late 1970s and 80s, was rife with social unrest and conflict over the issue of illegal immigrants. Mandira Baruah was all of 16 when none other than her school principal brought a marriage proposal for the girl to her family in Jorhat. She vouched for a very cultured family in Tezpur who were related to her. The boy was a civil servant and the family was progressive.
Although not of marriageable age, she said that Mandira would be encouraged to complete her education and go for higher studies. Given the uncertain times in the state, settling a young and beautiful daughter was a wise decision, she advised.
Mandira agreed, and the wedding was solemnised.
On the night of the wedding, her mother-in-law handed her two things – keys to the household and a life insurance policy.
Her husband had a heart condition, and Mandira was expected to take charge, just as her mother-in-law had done for all these years.
As she walked to her bedroom in a daze, unsure how to respond to this news, her husband looked at her sheepishly, admitting that he could not stand up to his mother and her intense desire to see him married. But Mandira was free to walk away and nullify the marriage since it really wasn’t fair to expect her to commit to a situation that was only going to go downhill.
Mandira had to make a choice. And she did.
She stayed.
Testing nerves and patience while coping with complexities
As an Executive Engineer in the Department of Water Resources of the Government of Assam, her husband was well placed. In the initial years of marriage, his medical condition was manageable. It was when he began to find it hard to walk and move, that his health began to deteriorate.
Before they could celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary, he was advised bed rest and to work from home. She devoted the next decade of her life in caring for her husband and bringing up their son.
“There was no time for blame or self-pity. I just had to cope and manage changing situations all the time,” she recalls.
She realised that finances were a constraint, and with time, cash reserves too began to dwindle.
Their family house was mortgaged and had to be sold. They shifted to a smaller place on rent. She could not pick up a job because she had to be at home, fulfilling her domestic duties and caring for her husband, infant son and a dependent mother-in-law.
Being self respecting and private, she did not reach out to her parents and family, not wanting them to live with the guilt of making a wrong decision for their only daughter. In hindsight, Mandira feels this helped her realise early in her marriage that she could only depend on herself and that she would have to step up and do whatever was required to keep her family afloat.
Her husband was on a wheelchair and needed nursing care. He had to be taken to the hospital for an ECG scan, injections, and medication, daily. Unable to afford a full-time nurse, Mandira took up a short training under the guidance of Dr Noren Dutta, a doctor in a local hospital. She doubled up to be a nurse and caregiver, apart from being the cook, cleaner, gardener, babysitter, elder caregiver and home entrepreneur. She even worked part time as a Cardiology assistant under a senior specialist.
To earn some additional income, she tried her hand at several home businesses like baking, flower arrangements, and organising birthday parties. She also learnt driving and took a loan to buy an SUV. This would make it easier for her to take her husband for his check-ups and accommodate his wheelchair.
Around this time, she made a bold decision. She decided to sign up as a cab driver for late evening and early morning rides. Once, she was hailed to drop a customer to the airport and reached his pick-up point two minutes late. He screamed at her all through the ride even though they made it to the airport on time. She later found that he was a local politician.
With each such incident and exposure to the world, Mandira got the confidence of dealing with different kinds of people, achieving small goals, and most importantly, making the stretch in her abilities.
She says, “I realised that I had to constantly challenge myself and do things I could never have dreamt of doing, so that I could achieve my goal, which was to safeguard the interests of my family with my self-respect intact.”
Working her way up from ground-zero
As a 28-year-old simple housewife, she once went to the District Collector’s office without an appointment and insisted on meeting him. When she was granted an audience, she told him of her situation and how she was supporting her sick husband, her mother-in-law, and an infant, and that she had no money to pay the rent for their home. The official accommodation which her husband was entitled to had not been given to them despite being in the queue for so many years.
She told him point blank that she was not leaving his office without a resolution to her problem.
The official was compassionate; he consulted a few officials and told her that they could give her an isolated piece of land on which she could build her home and live there till her husband’s retirement and then return it to them.
Mandira took this up as a challenge. She spent six months creating a little oasis with flower beds, a vegetable garden, and a tiny cottage that she tended to single-handedly. People began to come from nearby areas to see what she had created out of a barren piece of land in a secluded spot.
The wave of sympathy and praise that came her way made her realise that she could indeed create something of value and merit. This set her thinking about how she could help other women like her. Thus, the idea of Satsaree was born.
So when the time came for her to vacate the house after her husband’s death in 2001, she was ready to launch ‘Satsaree’. It ‘integrity and dignity’ and was a befitting name for her NGO, which was dedicated to empowering women with knowledge, skills, and resources to help improve their lives.
Registered in 2002, Satsaree grew organically, getting funding and support from a host of patrons along the way. Mandira recounts, “I just kept doing what made sense to me, responding to the needs of the women around me. I was quite oblivious of the number of women that Satsaree was reaching and was astounded when my team told me in 2010 that we had reached over 10,000 women.”
Quick at seeding and implementing ideas
When girls from nearby villages started coming to her, requesting to be hired for respectable jobs, she drew from her own experience and thought of training them in basic nursing care.
She set up ‘Mandira Solutions’ where girls were trained and employed in residences, nursing homes, old-age homes and other institutions. Set up in 2010, it trained 25-30 girls every year. The nursing school provided her with financial security while keeping her free to pursue other initiatives.
Having been a cab driver, much before Uber and Ola came into the market, she knew there was scope in ferrying people to the airport. She pressed two more cars into service, to take care of the increasing demand, pumping the money back into the NGO. Many women took to driving, shunning societal conditioning and feeling proud of successfully storming male bastions.
Two of the cab drivers hired by Mandira, Krishna Kanta Pathak and Rinku Deka, went on to start their own travel agency. Rinku recounts, “Who would have thought we would be entrepreneurs one day? By having faith in our abilities, Mandira baideo (elder sister) made us believe in ourselves, and the rest, as they say, is history.”
Mandira’s taxi service eventually transitioned into a travel agency which is presently run by her son.
From capacity building and training to awareness programmes and advocacy to providing relief, she expanded her network to reach more women by connecting with resident welfare associations, schools, universities, state government and other NGOs. Arranging funds for activities that were ongoing and not project-based was a challenge.
To date, Mandira diverts her own savings to sustain the momentum of her work which is owned by a group of past and present members. For her, it is important to keep the Satsaree flag hoisted.
As the word spread, more people joined the NGO in different capacities. Some provided expertise and services, others came in to give motivational talks and many offered to fund projects, special drives and public events. Assam State Culture and Women and Child Development departments regularly step forward to disburse funds for campaigns and other mass mobilisation activities.
Dr Pratima Devi Sharma, an office bearer with Satsaree until recently, says, “The unique thing about this NGO is the charismatic personality of Mandira Baruah and her inspiring story. She has built this single-handedly like everything else in her life. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the neglected girls and women of Assam see her as a role model and feel that if they are associated with her, they too will be able to fix all the wrongs in their life. This is a powerful and mystical force that is keeping Satsaree in fine fettle.”
In 2018, Satsaree earned the unique distinction of a world record with the highest number of women participants in the annual Bihu dance in October, a popular festival in Assam.
Mandira explains, “It was my dream to bring our rich Assamese culture to a more international platform and show the world how beautiful, musical and festive it is, and how it brings men, women and children together.”
She composed a special set of songs and began rehearsals in her courtyard with 7-10 girls. Videos were made and forwarded to different NGOs across the state. Responses poured in, expressing interest to be a part of the main event.
Mandira and her team visited villages in the Upper Assam area. Through more than 60 cultural organisations and other social networks, she mobilised girls and women who could spread the message of “women standing by one another in their hour of need” using the medium of song and dance.
On 31 March 2019, Satsaree organised the performance of 700 nasoni (female Bihu dancers) and 150 dhuliya (male Bihu dancers) and performed live in Guwahati. This world record will be mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records 2020.
A role model for women
Today, Satsaree has found employment for over 5,000 women through direct and indirect ways. It has given them the confidence to fight their own battles, to deal with exploitation, to say ‘no’ to dowry, to stand up to harassment and domestic abuse, to report cases of sexual abuse and any other violations.
Ghunasa Deka was associated with Satsaree around 2006 for a few years and availed of several of its facilities and services including the course on nursing. Today, she is head nurse at the district Public Health Centre in Sonapur, Assam. She says, “A woman-led organisation provides a strong sense of comfort to women who have no more doors left to knock on. Satsaree has always embraced women of all backgrounds and religions and has done its bit to put them back on their feet. We need many more such organisations because there are still countless women who are afraid to step out and seek help.”
51-year old Mandira Baruah is a known face and name in Assam, called upon to inaugurate functions and ceremonies. She is frequently invited on television talk shows. Her only regret is her inability to converse in English, which she hopes to overcome. The future plan of Satsaree is to make more women economically stable, and mentally and physically healthy. She is hopeful that young Assamese girls will continue to take pride in their art and culture and not let it fade away in the name of modernity.
At times, she gets overwhelmed with the attention she receives. However, one validation that came her way remains special in her heart–it was a phone call from the same politician who had given her a mouthful for delaying his airport drop by two minutes; he apologised to her for his impatience and said he held her in very high regard for everything she did. That, to Mandira, summed up everything she stood for.
Although her husband is no longer alive, she has maintained cordial relations with her mother-in-law and has no ill-feeling towards anyone.
(Written by Taru Bahl and Edited by Shruti Singhal)
With The Positive Collective, The Better India’s COVID-19 coverage is available to regional language publications for free. Write to editorial@thebetterindia.com for more details.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin
Pinki Gupta, Headmistress of Navyug School, Darbhanga House in Delhi, was used to busy working days. She would wake up at 4.30 a.m, attend to household chores, and leave her home in Dwarka at 7.30 a.m to drive for an hour to reach her school. School hours would end at 2.30 p.m, and she would spend a couple of hours wrapping up official work before taking the long drive back home.
With India in lockdown since March 23, most would think she is having it easy at home.
But this is not the case. She was quick to adapt to the changing circumstances and foresaw that reopening the school would have dire consequences on her staff and students.
This is true for all first-movers among the school leaders we have been working with. They could all hear the ‘learning-crisis’ bell ringing loud and clear.
The foremost problem that school leaders like Pinki Gupta wanted to tackle was engaging students in their homes and ensuring continuity in learning. They knew from experience that even when a child missed a week of school to attend familial functions, teachers had to put extra effort to bring them up to speed when they returned. At times, school leaders had to volunteer to help those teachers.
And now, with the lockdown lasting nearly two months and the possibility of school closures for an undefined time, the stakes are high. The improvements students made in the last few years could all slide back.
So what are school leaders like Gupta doing?
She has devised a simple 5-step plan to ensure learning and engage students at their homes.
Step 1- Getting everyone together
Gupta’s first step was to bring all her people (staff and students) on a common platform. Teachers added all students/parents in grade-wise WhatsApp groups. When a significant number of students were missing from those groups, the teachers called the parents and got their alternate WhatsApp numbers or asked them to download the application if they had a smartphone.
Gupta says she was able to ensure 85 per cent of her students in the WhatsApp groups through this exercise. The teachers were also part of the groups, according to the grades they taught.
Step 2- Making a time-table
The other characteristic was adherence to a timetable. And surprisingly, it did not differ much from the usual school timetable. There were, of course, certain adjustments.
Gupta decided a two-hour time slot (8.30-10.30 a.m) for teachers to assign some work to their students. The students complete the tasks in the course of the day and submit their work between 4-5 p.m.
One of the early trends that emerged in low-income households was that it was nearly impossible to slot a fixed time for teaching and learning. Every household had its challenges, and as parents were important stakeholders, a good degree of flexibility was required for them to assist their children.
Leela Devi, mother of fifth grader Abhishek, shares that she had to ask her relatives to recharge her phone with a ‘data pack’ as they were in debt of forty thousand rupees this year. Their sole bread earner, her husband, lost his job in January. She described with sadness how she dug up old notebooks and tore their empty pages to stitch them together and make a new notebook for her son.
Ram Singh, father of fifth grader Anamika, says that he had to initially borrow a mobile phone from his neighbour for Anamika’s studies. He would have to leave home in the mornings for his work as a driver and Anamika would not have access to his phone. But now, with a fixed morning schedule when Anamika is expected to use her phones, he does not have to borrow a neighbour’s device.
Step 3- Teachers giving tasks
One of the reasons to give a two-hour window for teachers was to keep them relatively free for the rest of the day. Most school leaders understand that working while managing household chores is a difficult juggle. Thus, the time allocation, along with the tasks had to be done in a way that it did not burden the teachers.
Moreover, the kind of tasks were also important. They needed to be simple enough for students to understand and work on, as well as interesting enough to engage them.
Typically, teachers sent photos of content followed by an audio message. Then, a short assignment was given with two or three questions that students needed to answer. Sometimes the tasks were complemented by video links and photographs.
Here is an example of how a teacher taught angles through WhatsApp.
Step 4- Cold-calling students to submit their work
The tasks given out to the students were short and crisp, and most enjoyed working on them. And it did not take a lot of their time. But there was one problem some school leaders faced–an overwhelming number of student responses after they finished their work–everyone wanted feedback from the teachers!
As it was difficult to evaluate every line through WhatsApp, the teachers at Pinki Gupta’s school decided to cold-call students to submit their work–telling them not to submit their work unless being asked. This helped the teachers control student responses while ensuring that they received responses from only those students who they could attend to at that time.
Step 5- Giving feedback
This is the final step to close the virtual teaching-learning cycle for the day. When a select few students submitted their work, it was time for the teachers to evaluate them. This had its own challenges but most teachers worked their way around by doodling on WhatsApp.
The feedback was probably not as detailed as it would have been in a physical evaluation, but this challenge was tackled with the help of audio messages, especially when teachers found students lacking in understanding. The teachers also sent answer keys for self-evaluation.
School leaders like Pinki Gupta put support structures to drive this 5-step daily learning process. There were also cultural nudges to keep the spirit of the school alive.
1. Weekly teacher meetings
School leaders lead weekly meetings to bring teachers together to reflect and plan. Pinki Gupta is present in all their grade-level WhatsApp groups, observing the best practices and sharing these with all the teachers. She also talks about the processes followed by other schools that she picks up from the conversations with her peers.
Based on these discussions, teachers plan their upcoming week. Gupta also takes the opportunity to appreciate their hard work and highlight the efforts of individual teachers.
2. Adapting Quickly
Who would have imagined that even music could be taught through WhatsApp! At Navyug School, the music teacher, Anish, adheres to the timetable and teaches music how he would have done in a physical classroom. He sends a new song/prayer and asks the students to sing along.
Of late, he has even started conducting morning assemblies, where he sends prayers everyday and the students sing them at the same time.
Gupta opines that Music is one of the most sought-after classes and that students look forward to it. Fifth grader Abhishek says that he records a song multiple times to get the perfect tune. He says he loves singing and looks forward to the morning assembly and Anish sir’s music class.
3. Connecting to the ‘last-mile’ students
Gupta accepts that only 85 per cent of students are included in the WhatsApp groups, which is a feat in itself. She says that the rest either do not have smartphones or could not be reached by the teachers.
Teachers call these students and assign them the tasks over the phone, ensuring some form of engagement. Even then, around five per cent of students are not reached by the teachers. Gupta is persistent in getting them into the fold through the help of other parents and social workers.
4. Hosting Events
One of the happiest things about school for a child is the multitude of cultural events and activities. Gupta did not let virtual communication obstruct such events.
She arranged a ‘fancy-dress competition’ for first and second-grade students, where they had to wear an outfit in their favourite colour and parents sent their pictures in the WhatsApp groups. Gupta also asked students to record an audio message about why that particular colour was their favourite, and list other objects that bear the same colour. A smart mix of education with fun!
5. Engaging parents
School leaders like Gupta admit that all these would have been uphill tasks without the support of parents. Gupta sends out messages to parents motivating them to support their children. She even calls them occasionally to check on them.
6. Leading from the front
While Gupta takes an active role in managing the virtual engagement strategy, she does not shy away from teaching. Being a Math teacher, she started rolling out a series of videos under the theme ‘Math-Magic’, eliciting awe among her students. Doing this makes teachers look up to her as someone leading the cause of learning from the front.
Sonia Chandna, a teacher at the school, says that she was inspired when she saw Principal Gupta making videos for students. She made some videos after that. She adds that she gets ideas from Gupta’s work which help in her teaching too.
The COVID-19 crisis has posed significant challenges to the continuity of teaching and learning. But the sooner school leaders adapt to the situation, the faster they can learn and mitigate the damages to students.
(Written by Baidurya Sen and Edited by Shruti Singhal)
With The Positive Collective, The Better India’s COVID-19 coverage is available to regional language publications for free. Write to editorial@thebetterindia.com for more details.
In my 36 years of existence, the term ‘existential crisis’ only evoked a sense of curiosity. I am grappling to make more sense of the pandemic and its eventual resolution. Yardsticks change every day; definitions, counter-measures, mortality rates, zonal demarcations, economic plight, clinical trials, possible cure, the curve and death, and more death. It is impossible to keep up with all this.
The great lockdown manifests globally, changing in shape and dictum. The freedom to be alone is replaced by coping strategies to combat isolation, food shortage, fear, violence, and the sheer will to survive.
The walls have closed in on us with time to reflect alone and delve into memories. In the past, my mechanism to combat the demands of urban life was escaping–to the mountains for solitude, adventure, love, energy, strength. Such a quest is impossible now. Our collective irresponsibility has led us to this crisis.The unabated tampering with our host is the inescapable reality we must confront. Ironically, I continue to draw inspiration from my rendezvouses with nature.
I hope to be a tourist again; in memory, I continue to be one. I have the past to fall back on; the memory of vast landscapes and meandering rivers nestled under the singular, daunting, inhospitable Himalayas.
The Approach
I was on the trail to Goecha la in 2014. A high-altitude pass, accessible by traversing the mountains in Sikkim. Before approaching the pass, one must cross the Samiti Lake. Then the climb begins. From a vantage point, a few souls can be seen approaching the lake.
The Fury Road
Jump back to the vast plains of Ladakh in October 2013. The Fury Road challenges riders across the world. Many wish to experience and conquer the cold dessert. In truth, there is no conquest here, only camaraderie.
The Break
Fast forward to a sunset in Spiti in 2017. The lesser-known cousin of Ladakh is by no means lesser. Here, on the approach to Tabo, one of the many distant villages, a break as evening dawns.
The Collective
We are in this together. The trek to the peak of Kedarkantha, Uttarakhand brought strangers from across India together as a team. They became friends, helped each other, and trekked through the snowfields to reach the top. A point where a collective is well and truly by itself, a community. January 2018.
The Comparison
Under the universe. One of the unique experiences of the Himalayas is the night sky. The Milky Way is only a term confined to textbooks nowadays, but not quite. By banks of River Baspa in Chhitkul, Himachal Pradesh. Solitary and miniscule in comparison. The year 2019.
The Beginning
A lot must happen. Organisational transition coupled with individual commitment is the path to redemption. The goal cannot be of survival alone but to rectify and build. We must learn to challenge ourselves. This is the path which can lead us back; not to the past but to a responsible future. Shimla 2016.
I wish to go back to Nature with respect. I wish to go back with more responsibility and shed prejudice. I wish to reclaim an iota of innocence.
(Written by Anirban Saha and Edited by Shruti Singhal)
Anirban Saha is a hobby photographer based out of Noida. He has been travelling to the Indian Himalayas since 2005. He doubles up as an IT professional and a father of two toddlers. He has already seen the great mountains and hopes to return to travel in a post-corona world.
The Better India regularly features domain experts who contribute articles on key developments and insights from their field of experience. Today, we feature Mrs Monica Sagar, Principal of Shiv Nadar School, Gurugram, who writes about how education has embraced technology and its plethora of opportunities and challenges.
Who would have thought at the beginning of 2020 that this would be such a re-defining year in our lives? The Covid-19 pandemic has affected all of us one way or the other. While adults started working from home, school students transitioned to the Virtual School experience, adjusting in a couple of weeks.
From a student’s perspective, this was a new, seemingly bizarre routine of staring at and interacting with thumbnails on a screen, interspersed with offline assignments and co-scholastic engagements.
This medium of education brings issues for children across physical, mental, and emotional dimensions. One needs to be aware of what they are and how to address them, to ensure the well-being of our children.
Digital work has led to physical stress in terms of incorrect postures, insomnia and eye strain. These need to be addressed continuously for children attending Virtual Schools. As an example, there is a simple 20-20-20 rule for eyestrain, which means that for every 20 minutes spent on a screen, you should try to look away for 20 seconds at something that is 20 feet away.
Battling insomnia includes simple but essential sleep hygiene measures such as not sleeping immediately after looking at a screen, sleeping for 6-8 hours every day, taking a bath at night, and listening to soothing music before retiring for the day.
From a mental well-being perspective, parents must also understand that it is not easy for a child to focus on their teacher if they hover while a virtual class is ongoing. In a virtual environment, children need their space, and parents should learn to respect it.
Also, they should be allowed to interact with their buddies telephonically or virtually. Lack of peer interaction because of physical distancing will have a long-term impact on their social skills, their personalities and can dent their confidence levels.
Emotionally as well, children are going through the effects of the pandemic and processing it like the rest of us. In addition, they have their insecurities to deal with. The future seems to be in limbo for the CBSE class of 2020, stuck amid their year-12 exams and unsure of their destination for undergraduate studies! Imagine what is going through their minds! Be sure to communicate with your children regularly, reassure them, and let them feel your support.
For a miniscule percentage of students, physical presence in the school building, and their peer circles were an escape hatch from the physically or emotionally abusive atmosphere at home. Given the lockdown, they are unable to find respite and episodes of self-harm are rising.
From a parent-teacher perspective, too, it is crucial to give each other space. The mentor-mentee relationship within a classroom doesn’t thrive if there are spectators during the exchange, who viciously judge the mentor. It pains educators to see parent groups on WhatsApp judging the quality of instruction and engagement during the last two months of virtual learning. Virtual education cannot replace face-to-face education because schools are meant to teach social interaction and collaboration and not social distancing. It is still possible to offer a modality of instruction virtually, but that is not the same thing. Parents should focus on the outcome – that the learning goes on.
In fact, things have taken an unsavoury turn with some parents refusing to pay the tuition fee. We don’t refuse to pay the electricity bills or phone bills after the usage of these services. So why question the tuition fee? Even teachers have families to care for, infrastructure to support and domestic responsibilities and challenges. They are unsung COVID-19 warriors, and hats off to them for shaping the present and the future assiduously, despite all the challenges.
The safety of our children, teachers, and staff is paramount, and only that should guide our decisions for the reopening of schools. Until then, we need to acknowledge the changed realities of our lives and ensure that children do not stop learning.
(Written by Monica Sagar with inputs from Dr Nitish Dogra. Edited by Shruti Singhal)
Plastic is an indispensable part of our lives. It ends up in landfills and water bodies, taking years to decompose, inadvertently adding to climate change. In this scenario, it is essential to raise awareness among people and introduce them to eco-friendly, biodegradable or zero-waste options.
A deep-rooted concern for the environment drove one such duo to be batons of change.
Sidhartha Blone and Shweta Pradhan, a couple in their 40s, have been working towards a zero-waste and sustainable environment for almost eight years. The drive to reconnect with their roots had them converting some land they inherited from Shweta’s maternal grandfather to a permaculture-farm-cum-education-centre. It was located in the foothills of the Neora forests in Gorubathan village, 65 kilometres from Siliguri in West Bengal.
But before starting the farm, Shweta worked in advertising. Her job had taken its toll on her, and she quit, not wanting to be a part of the rat-race of the consumer industry where the products didn’t benefit buyers. The couple began questioning their food choices—the ingredients used, the preservatives added, and the unnatural shelf life of products.
“We were appalled with the available options. Sourcing products from stores meant consuming food laced with chemicals and dealing with a whole bag of plastic packaging. Frustrated with this, we tried reaching out to local farms, but that was when reality struck,” Sidhartha points out.
Shweta explains, “There were no healthy food options. We couldn’t find farms around that produced food and recycled their waste. We realised we had knots to comb out—fix the damage done by capitalism. This also came when we were both looking to engage in fulfilling and ethical work, and be of service to the community. That’s when we decided to take up the shovel and get to work.”
Engaging in permaculture brought them a step closer to nature, quenching a profound desire to care for the planet and its resources. Adopting natural farming practices exposed them to waste and apathy caused by humans.
There has been no looking back since.
Cultivating awareness within the local community
It wasn’t easy for them to convince the Gorubathan community to go organic, refuse plastic, and go zero-waste. It was demanding as it required the locals to leave their comfort zones and give up milk in tetra paks, instant noodles, chips, low-grade rice and pulses. Since these products are affordable, and easily available, the villagers opted for them. Doing so also required less work in terms of growing food, preserving, and storing it.
The couple approached the villagers differently. Instead of educating them about the perils of plastic or chemicals, and the unhealthy junk foods they consumed, they decided to instil ‘pride of place and culture’. This involved love and care for their land, the biodiversity, the forests, rivers, and streams around Gorubathan.
People have since become curious about foraging food and medicines. More women are showing interest in learning the local botany. Youth from the immediate and larger communities are being trained to become vernacular natural architects, using locally grown materials like bamboo. Farmers are using resources and waste from their farms to make bio-fertilisers that are good for the environment. They’ve even started using cloth bags and reusing bottles for their rations.
Even though Sidhartha and Shweta think it’s an upward swim, their efforts have had small yet significant wins.
“Our villagers don’t litter anymore. They have been provided with dustbins where they segregate waste, which is further sent to Siliguri to be recycled. They have started reusing their kitchen waste to compost, which ensures healthier soil.”
The greatest impact is how single-use plastic usage has reduced. “We have encouraged parents to pack lunch for school children. This means children get locally-grown nutritious food. They eat less junk, reducing the consumption of processed food and plastic waste. It is a win-win for everyone–healthy children and a healthy planet,” adds Shweta.
Over the years, the couple invested in the ethics of permaculture–Care for the Earth, Care for People/Species, and Fair Share. They make a living by conducting workshops, education programmes, permaculture design projects, and retailing organic produce and natural products. The profits are reinvested in the land, and the couple split their time between their family in Siliguri and the Gorubathan farm
Mamta Subba, a resident of Gorubathan, who was unaware of how her actions affected the immediate surroundings, shares her story. “We used to throw our garbage in our jhoras (streams), but after daju (brother) and didi (sister) talked us through the detriments of our actions, we are more conscious and vigilant. We throw our waste in the dustbins, resulting in cleaner streams. It feels good because the streams are our only water sources.”
She adds, “More importantly, we have rediscovered how to use our natural treasures—like the forests that surround us in Gorubathan. Everything we need comes from nature—food, medicine, homes, and clothes. Daju and didi have taught us to honour our resources and use them wisely without being greedy.”
Sustainable practises have reduced the need for store-bought things and shown them the path towards self-sufficiency and economic independence.
Working with the community during the pandemic
Being an agrarian community of small farmers, the pandemic has affected their livelihoods. With transport coming to a halt, markets becoming inaccessible, and a broken supply chain, there were no takers for their perishable farm produce. This was a setback for the farmers who depended on their produce for economic stability.
To help them in these tough times, the couple has been working with more than 60 families, teaching them practical skills. They are also teaching real-life skills like nurturing the soil, saving water, growing your own food, building homes, curbing expenses, to make them self-sufficient. These can be useful when farmers cannot push their perishable goods to the market. In such a scenario, there will still be enough food for the farming community to survive.
Shweta and Siddhartha have also been engaging the villagers in yoga, an important aspect of regenerative living that can be used as a healing tool for adults and children.
Shweta points out, “It’s better to teach them fishing than to serve them fish on a platter. Empowering them with skills and training will equip them to handle crises better.”
And that is why they have been conducting permaculture skills training and awareness programmes on sustainable and diverse farming methods. Community members are also being taught to make personal-care products like soaps, salves, medicines, and oils. By learning how to build environmentally-friendly homes, harvest rainwater, and reuse resources from the natural environment, they are becoming the future warriors of change.
Concluding, Shweta and Sidhartha add how a quest that started as a means of self-care ended up entwining with the ecosystem. “Irrespective of the challenges, it is important not to lose sight of the purpose—zero-waste, being sustainable while abiding by a true spirit of permaculture, and balancing out our actions with the capacity of our ecosystem.”
Picture this: The cuckoo bird sings on the mango tree as the wind spreads the sweet smell of the freshly grown fruit, jackfruits call out to their takers, and coconut water is ready to beat the heat. Not just that, tulsi (Holy Basil), giloy (Tinospora Cordifolia), ardusi (Vasaka) and aloe vera do the serious talking for cures.
Looks like the typical setup of a farm, but guess what, this is a cosy residential society in the suburbs of Aamchi Mumbai.
This is the story of Kanchan Nalanda CHS Ltd, a housing society that has around 41 big trees, including jamun (java plum), mango, Ashoka, Gulmohar, drumstick (moringa), neem, coconut and jackfruit.
“We produce around 600 coconuts, 800-900 mangoes, 30-40 kg jamun and jackfruit each year,” shares Kamal Saboo. He’s a senior resident, active in the gardening and cleanliness initiatives of the society. He adds that these are equally distributed among the residents of 86 flats.
The society recently undertook coconut plucking, providing around 5-6 coconuts to each flat.
(L) An 80-year-old participating in the plantation activities. (R) The coconuts collected for distribution
Health and well-being have taken centre stage due to COVID-19, and the residents of this Mumbai suburban society are reaping the benefits of their efforts.
However, there was a time when the society had a tiny area under cultivation and struggled to keep the trees and plants flourishing, with depleting soil health. Many believe that it was the magic of the in-house organic manure that led to the flourishing landscape.
“It all started in 2016 when we consciously decided to stop the air pollution caused by the burning of dry tree leaves collected in the society. And we commissioned a bio-compost pit in the premises, wherein dry leaves were converted into organic manure,” explains Rashmi Tak, chairperson of the society.
She adds that they were quick enough to adopt garbage segregation to the full support of the residents. “In 2017, we took up the segregation, and I am happy to share that our residents have been diligently following it.”
Suhas Vaidya, a senior member, played an instrumental role in promoting the compost pit and community gardening. Each flat is provided with two bins for wet and dry waste. Once collected, wet waste is converted into manure at the society’s bio-compost pit, which is managed by a professional agency.
Today, they have abundant organic manure and use it for community gardening within the premises.
“We took up community gardening to maintain cleanliness in the building and requested residents to bring down the plantation at their respective flats to the common garden area,” she adds.
(L) Jackfruit tree. (R) A youngster with the new addition in the garden–pudina and tomato.
The initiative also provided residents with an opportunity to engage with each other and share knowledge about various medicinal plants. They relish coconuts, mangoes, guavas, papayas, jackfruits, jamuns, bananas, lemons and lemons at their very own garden. The newest additions to the garden are pudina (mint), turmeric, pomegranate, native gooseberry and tomato.
Calcutta paan (betel leaf) is the showstopper that hides among the bushes and is a delicacy. While it is eaten for its taste and digestive benefits, a senior resident in the society pointed out its benefits in curing throat infections. “Just clean the leaf with water and chew it… your cough will vanish,” she smiles.
The society has also been popular for papaya leaves that are used as a cure for dengue fever. Ms Tak shares that the medicinal plant ardusi is very helpful in curing cough.
Interestingly, the plantation has been done by the residents with their limited knowledge, alongside a gardener. There has been no help from an agri expert on the kind of plants to grow.
“We are the modern farmers of Nalanda,” chuckles Darshan Mehrotra, a young resident of the society. He continues, “I think we are making good use of our building area with plants, trees, and flowers all around. It is a good way to make our children connect with nature in a cosmopolitan city. This is a rarity in big cities.”
(L) Morning plucking of lemons from the tree in the garden. (R) Jamun tree
During the lockdown, their daily needs for curry leaves, tulsi, flowers and lemons were met by the community garden.
They have also conducted workshops with the municipal corporation on garbage segregation and bio-composting which saw participation from other housing societies in the city. These efforts were recognised by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (P South Ward) with a certificate under the Zero-Waste Campaign in 2017.
“We aim to make the environment pollution-free with eco-friendly practices. And we are happy to share our experience and learning with other societies,” says Archana Saboo, the secretary.
The society has set an example for others. What looked like an uphill task has become a success story, bearing fruits of Swachta and Aarogya!
(Written by Shweta Bhanot and Edited by Shruti Singhal)
“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” -Arthur C Clarke, British science fiction writer
Over the last few months, the entertainment industry has come to a standstill. But Coronavirus-related restrictions have also compelled young filmmakers to shoot in closed spaces by casting their closed ones, friends, and even professional actors. They embraced the lockdown constraints as creative choices, right from writing the screenplay to shooting the film.
The release of the anthology film Home Stories, available exclusively on Netflix India’s YouTube Channel; Banana Bread, a short film by Srinivas Sunderrajan; and Love In The Time of Corona, an experimental visual essay by filmmaker Anirban Dutta, speaks volumes about this tricky new process of shooting and structuring films.
Conflicts and complexities of existence
Clocking 45 minutes, the four films in the anthology Home Stories present different genres, styles, and themes of filmmaking.
Out With It, featuring Arjun Mathur, delves into the psyche of an agoraphobe, who refuses to leave the protective confinement of his home during the pandemic, having to confront his worst fears.
Will You Be My Quarantine, featuring Saba Azad and Imaad Shah, narrates the fates of two individuals whose rendezvous for a one-night stand turns into a three-week standoff due to the lockdown.
Delivering Smiles, featuring Tanmay Dhanania, depicts the tale of a delivery executive, who records his food delivery journey to customers, in the form of Vlogs, during the problematic situation.
Web Ne Bana Di Jodi, featuring Veer Rajwant Singh and Apoorva Arora, among others, sketches the knotty onus of a couple getting married during lockdown, while trying their best to go through the ceremonies of an online wedding.
Sahirr Sethhi, the director of Out With It, is an Indian filmmaker and commercial director, screenwriter and producer based in Los Angeles and Mumbai. Graduating from the film direction program at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), he won a Student Emmy for his short-film Zoya. During the pre-production of Out With It, he was aware that he had to direct the film over video chat.
So he began by breaking the script into simple beats that would be easy to communicate and execute. He went through multiple drafts with his co-writer Kaivalya Kulkarni to develop the characters, create a structure, and layer the film with metaphors and misdirects. He put together an elaborate look-book with paintings by artists like Edward Hopper and Salman Toor and stills from various films to convey a sense of claustrophobia and isolation.
The protagonist, Arjun Mathur, got on board enthusiastically and agreed to film in his apartment, knowing well that he would be multitasking while acting.
He says, “My experience as an assistant director helped me during the shooting. The limited crew with their varied skills had to come together. Moreover, since the shooting was taking place in my home, a space I am aware of, I was taking instructions from the director, and also actively involved in the process of storytelling.”
The cinematographer, Jay Oza used his iPad to be on a continuous video chat with Sahirr. He would use the iPad’s front facing camera to mimic the main camera’s POV (point of view) so Sahirr could block the scenes. Following this, Arjun would set up the main camera and show the final frame to Sahirr. When ready for the shot, Jay manned the main camera, while the iPad would be placed in front of Arjun, so that Sahirr could direct his performance.
Tiya Tejpal, the production designer, arranged the next set. For instance, while a scene was filmed inside the bedroom, she would set up the scene where Arjun’s character was solving the puzzle.
The process involved a lot of coordination, patience, and trust. Other actors who appeared in the film, self-shot their scenes on personal devices while the director guided them over video chat.
The post-production was also done remotely. The editor, Utsav Bhagat, used a screen-share option to show the director his timeline. Neel Adhikari, the composer, discussed music ideas before filming and created a scratch track that was played on set to inspire the pacing. It was even used in the first cut.
Sound designer, Soutrik Chakrabarty, had to send exported files constantly, so that the post-production team would listen and convey their notes. Colour correction and a little bit of VFX (visual effects) were all done remotely.
The team did not let social distancing norms interrupt the collaborative dialogue between the cast and crew; if anything, the rules helped them to listen and trust each other to elevate the storytelling.
In the words of Sahirr, “While so much is happening around us, our stories go on. With Home Stories, we wanted to push the boundaries for creativity and bring four such short stories, made with love and care at home during this unimaginable time.”
A Chance Encounter
Srinivas Sunderrajan, an Indian musician and an independent filmmaker based in Mumbai, directed the short film Banana Bread remotely. He is known for The Untitled Kartik Krishnan Project (2010), Greater Elephant (2012) and the metafiction web series TXDRMY (2016).
The 12-minute film was co-written by Rasika Duggal and Mukul Chadda, who not only acted, but also shot the entire film. They shared the script with Sharanya, the head at Terribly Tiny Talkies. Sharanya then discussed it with Srinivas, who liked it, despite the challenges with ‘shooting remotely’. There was no cinematographer present during the shooting.
The team first got together through video conferencing to familiarise themselves with one another. In the next stage, the actors got familiar with the technical aspects of shooting. Then followed the sessions of delving into the script and performance, where one-on-one video sessions helped understand the characters’ stories and graphs.
The idea was to invoke the sense and feel of the 70s and 80s films of Basu Chatterjee and Hrishikesh Mukherjee while bringing out the story and chemistry between the two protagonists.
The director decided the frame and provided the actors with a PDF document. So, technically speaking, Srinivas was also the director of photography, while the actors also operated the camera. The film was shot for two days from 10 a.m-4 p.m.
Since the film was shot with natural light, it was essential for the team to find the pockets in the location that had daylight filtering in and avoid places where it was dark, since phone cameras function poorly in such settings. So, a small video recce of the house, where the film would be shot, was done to figure which locations would work best for the scenarios in the film.
After the shooting, the files were all uploaded on Google Drive, which Srinivas downloaded and edited on his home setup. The end credit sequence and poster concepts were discussed with the design team of Terribly Tiny Talkies, who executed it.
Despite overcoming the challenges, Srinivas shares that the process drained him mentally and physically than real world shooting.
A dream-like hold of memory and reality
Anirban Dutta is a self-taught filmmaker. His debut feature film Jahnabi – Personification of a woman as many Rivers was premiered in various international film festivals and received critical acclaim. Love In The Time of Corona is a visually poetic depiction of our current predicament.
Sudeep Sen, the writer of the titular poem, approached Anirban and they discussed a film adaptation. Anirban read the poem multiple times and tried to find metaphorical references. He also spent time scripting the sound design. His idea was that the images and the sound must represent a bold dialogue, somewhat unsaid and unspoken, but thoroughly embedded in the skin of the film.
Besides taking some new shots, he used some old footage, shots which he could not use in his previous films, but felt relevant to the character of the film.
The young director is a one-man crew, who shot, edited and layered the sound design.
Alternate exhibition process
Under the present situation, making films and releasing them online or on Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms seems to be a viable option. The release of Shoojit Sircar’s Gulabo Sitabo on Amazon Prime last month, is an example of this new phenomenon gaining popularity in the industry. Unlike Amazon Prime, OTT platform Disney+Hotstar is geared to premiere seven Bollywood movies, which were originally slated for theatrical releases–Dil Bechara, Laxmmi Bomb, Bhuj: The Pride of India, Sadak 2, The Big Bull, Khuda Haafiz and Lootcase.
So, can we consider such options as the future of film distribution?
“Until it is safe to enjoy a collective movie-going experience in theatres again, digital distribution will help make content accessible to viewers in the comfort of their homes,” says Sahil.
Srinivas opines, “I feel the pandemic is a boon to smaller filmmakers because this opens up a door of OTT platforms for distribution, though I would wait to see how the OTT market shapes up as the lockdown is being relaxed. But the notion of OTT being the future of film distribution is stronger now than it was before.”
But Anirban believes, “Given the worldwide health and economic crisis, responsible films should be distributed and promoted with due diligence and credibility. Distributors should find unique, ingenious, non-partial platforms to showcase good cinema. This is needed more than anything else now. As mere creators of art, we can only hope for better days ahead and support each other in this journey.”
(Written by Dipankar Sarkar and Edited by Shruti Singhal)
With lockdown restrictions easing in most parts of the world, and our country, wearing a mask has become mandatory. It is almost the next indispensable fashion accessory.
Facing the challenges posed by the pandemic and turning the crisis into an opportunity, individuals and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across India are stepping in to make reusable cloth masks. Inspired by the PM’s speech to make India self-sufficient, many are creating job opportunities for hundreds of artisans, tailors, weavers, within their communities. They’re also using the opportunity to support home-grown fabrics interlaced with traditional prints and embroidery.
Some are designing masks inspired by fictional characters to encourage children, while a few designs promote regional art. The artworks span almost every state of India — from Rajasthan’s Phad paintings to Kalamkari from Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal’s Kantha print to Tamil Nadu’s Toga embroidery. Some designers are fusing traditional, contemporary, and western designs.
Here’s a look at how individuals across India beat the lockdown odds and created employment opportunities for local communities by going ‘Vocal for Local’.
1. Indian Yards, Coonoor, Tamil Nadu
Coonoor-based Indian Yards is run by Suhas Ramegowda and Sunita Suhas. In 2017, they gave up their urban lifestyle in Bengaluru and moved to the Nilgiris for a better quality of life. They bought a piece of land, spent time farming, and worked in the fields alongside tribes.
“During this time, we realised that women in the community wanted to do much more with their lives. Mostly, they were homemakers with an interest in sewing, who didn’t have the platform to convert their skills into a livelihood opportunity. That is when we started Indian Yards, a platform through which they could express themselves,” says Suhas.
Through their livelihood programme AGAI, meaning ‘flourish’ in Tamil, they worked with 50 women from the rural and tribal communities, who became fine crafters of fabric.
When the lockdown was imposed, the husband-wife duo was caught unawares. With the ‘will do’ attitude of their team, they got going. They were approached by a Nilgiris-based NGO, Keystone, to make cotton face masks for the local police force and sanitation workers. Supplying these to the government meant they had permission to move around, making it easy for their supply chain, but also allowing them to train their women.
“We grabbed this opportunity and came up with sustainable and functional mask designs. We went from door-to-door, training our community every time we came up with a new design. We delivered different materials to their doorsteps, some of which were hand-woven and naturally-dyed cotton fabrics from Karnataka, and picked up finished masks from them.”
With regional and inter-border collaborations, Indian Yards incorporated the Toda embroidery art form — native to the Nilgiris. While the women of the Toda tribe did the embroidery — geometric shapes are woven using a red and a black thread over a white background, the duo designed and used the embroidery to make masks. A Nilgiris-based firm, Last Forest, sold over 700 of these Toda masks.
If there’s something the pandemic has taught Suhas and Sunita, it’s the simplistic outlook of their artisans. “There have been numerous instances when we visited our team, and their husbands stepped into the kitchen to make tea for us. Knowing that in India, male dominance is still the culture, it is heartening to see this change in their households.”
Environmentally conscious, Indian Yards has sold more than 40,000 masks since the lockdown. Their masks range from ₹15-95, while the Toda masks are priced at ₹225. Since the Toda women do only the embroidery, and different organisations make a wide range of products using the embroidery, the women get 75 per cent of the revenues generated through the sales of their embroidered designs.
Jaipur-based Rajat Rungta and Harshi Agrawal, co-founders of Kaarii Designs, an SME, have a different story.
“As Indians, we value foreign products more than homemade or indigenous ones. Even if the Indian products are sold by a foreign company, we are willing to pay the extra premium,” points Harshi.
This was when the duo decided to launch products and accessories for kids and adults in 2019, aiming to provide the highest quality standards, with an amalgamation of trendy designs, and a sense of sustainability.
“When the lockdown was eased, we saw this opportunity to sew masks to support our workers and generate employment. We’ve been experimenting with cotton and reusable masks,” points the 29-year-old artist.
Using their family-run textile unit, they were able to provide for their team of 50, who directly or indirectly helped stitch the masks. “Times are tough, but we are making sure we don’t lay off our workers but support them financially to cover their daily expenses,” adds Rajat.
Harshi, a doodle-artist, has used doodles in her masks to make them especially attractive for children. Kaarii’s mask motifs have zentangle flowers, animals, and characters, apart from regional prints. The highlight designs are those inspired by the fiction series, Harry Potter.
“The idea behind deviating from our regular production — home linen, quilts, bedsheets, baby tents, etc. was to generate revenues so that every member of our professional family had food at the end of the day.”
With their masks ranging from ₹13-80, KAARII has sold more than one lakh pieces since the lockdown.
Fashion Artist Shimona Mehta was working in Bengaluru before the lockdown. She made it back to her small town in Bhadravathi just in time and decided to put her learnings from her student days at Pearl Academy in Jaipur to use. She also had experience at a renowned Fashion design house, Anna Sui, in New York.
“I started by conceptualising contemporary and western designs, and patterns on different fabrics to make timeless pieces. What started as a fun learning project eventually gained so much attention. That’s when I realised the dire shortage of masks, and how people were looking for comfortable, chic, and breathable masks,” says the 25-year-old designer.
With the perfect opportunity, Shimona boarded local tailors and sewists. She was confident that she could fuse western designs with traditional ideas to make masks using locally available materials.
“With masks being so much in demand, we experiment on new styles once a week. Since my masks use ruffles, which require precision, I also trained my team to stitch fine-tailored and finished masks.”
Celebrating the craftsmanship of the local artisans, Shimon points out, “This ‘vocal for local’ initiative is not only about providing tailors with a livelihood but also upscaling their existing skills. This also empowers them.”
Providing artisans with an opportunity and a platform to learn new skills has a psychological impact on them. “I’ve seen a sense of joy and happiness in them when they see the masks they stitched sell across India. Having always stitched traditional clothes like petticoats and blouses, it’s an awe-inspiring moment for them to express their creativity through masks and western wear.”
44-year-old Shobha Prasanna Kumar, who works with Shimona, is left surprised every time the team works together. She is unable to believe her eyes on the completion of a mask and asks herself, “Did I make this?”
Since the inception of her project, Shimona has sold more than 300 masks and range from ₹70-600. Ask her what’s in the pipeline, and the young designer expounds, “I hope to start a fashion clothing line experimenting with some extraordinary styles. This will allow me to stay connected with the artisans and keep them employed.”
Nishi Srivastava, the founder of The Craftsutra, started the platform three years ago to promote Indian art and craft, although she has been involved in reviving dying art forms for almost a decade. In 2013, when she was backpacking in Kutch, Gujarat, she saw how the Lippan kaam, an art form indigenous to the region, was dying. Families weren’t keen on passing the skills to their children. Nishi decided to revive it and held more than 50 workshops.
Through her initiative ‘Masks of India’, Nishi encourages artisans from different Indian states to use regional art and crafts on hand-crafted masks. The idea was to promote Indian art and provide a sustainable livelihood for artists, artisans, and designers. “Masks are not only about making a style statement but also about keeping the needs of our community of artisans.”
She continues, “During this pandemic, masks have become a necessity. Unlike the surgical disposable masks that can harm the environment, masks under the initiative are eco-friendly, light, reusable, and biodegradable,” says the 30-year-old.
With a network of artisans making masks, Nishi gives an account of the art clusters she works with. “Artisans from Bhopal and Madhya Pradesh are using the Gond art form, while Lucknow’s Chikankari embroidery is mostly reserved for Indian wear; we have encouraged our weavers to up their creative styles and use them in masks instead.”
Nishi’s network also includes award-winning artist Kalyan Joshi from Bhilwara in Rajasthan. His famous Phad paintings are inspiring wedding masks.
“Artisans from the Khatri community in Gujarat’s Kutch are using the ajrakh block prints and ikat prints. Telangana’s Cheriyal paintings, most commonly seen on scrolls, are also being hand-painted on masks. Rural artisans from Assam are making masks using Eri silk, that’s known for its cooling properties in the summers and warmth in the winters.”
So far, West Bengal’s Kantha embroidery and Andhra Pradesh’s Kalamkari prints have been an instant hit on the platform. Since it’s barely been two weeks that Nishi started the initiative, she concludes, “The artisans are hopeful about their work as these masks not only represent the culture of unity in diversity but are also in line with the PM’s message of the ‘Make in India’ initiative.”
Masks on the platform range from ₹90-1,000. Check out their website or look them up on Instagram.
The pandemic might have made wearing masks mandatory but they also threaten the environment, leading to ocean pollution. We can be responsible and make smart choices by using eco-friendly, reusable masks that serve many purposes. Not only will they help in protecting ourselves and safeguarding others, but also in empowering artisans.
(Written by Ridhi Agrawal and Edited by Shruti Singhal)
Hot, extended summers are typical in many parts of India. In the hottest parts of the country, one can find interesting and funny expressions for the summer heat — ‘summer, more-summer and most-summer’!
The difficulty to access safe, potable water is no laughing matter, however. It is so severe that it impacts the communities’ health, takes time away from other priorities, such as family time and education, and is a detriment to the overall quality of life.
No one knows this better than Myathari Padma in Pulkal village, in Medak district of Telangana. She was all too familiar with this challenge until a safe kiosk was set up in her village.
This proved to be a blessing during COVID-19, as the station limits outside exposure while providing safe water for drinking, cooking, and personal hygiene such as handwashing.
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Myathari is vociferous in her appreciation. She says, “The quality is very good and affordable at Rs 5 for 20 Liters . Our drinking water problem has been resolved to a great extent. Even during the COVID-19 lockdown, there was no effect on water availability.”
Twenty states in India are served by these purification plants, which bring affordable and safe water to the doorsteps of villagers. Several organisations under the collective umbrella of the Small Water Enterprise Alliance, [SWEA] are striving to keep water flowing in nearly 90 per cent of the country’s geography, knowing how important this is in the fight against the spread of the novel coronavirus.
P Laxmi, in Fasalwadi, 24 kilometers from Pulkal, also regularly consumes water from the station. Even during “normal” times, quick and easy access to drinking water was a luxury for her family until the station was set up.
“Our village gets the piped water at home but we are used to getting our treated drinking water from the neighbouring village for drinking and cooking. It cost us Rs 15 or Rs 20 per can. We also had to wait for the delivery man whose delivery was unpredictable. So it is good to have a plant for us in our village that gives affordable water at much less price of Rs 5/20 litres.”
Role of technology to enable social distancing and cashless transactions
Access to affordable, clean water from the village safe kiosk has made a big difference in Myathari Padma’s livelihood.
For Safe Water Network, one of the Alliance members, the onset of COVID-19 meant rapid adaptation. How to keep the stations running amidst the lockdown? How to ensure the support services, so that the individual entrepreneurs can keep operations going?
Srinivas, who runs the station in Pulkal village, is proud of his social enterprise. Through social entrepreneurs, Safe Water Network sets up treatment plants equipped with remote monitoring systems for improving public health. The entrepreneur is trained in operations and maintenance, bookkeeping etc and the community buys their daily drinking water through 24×7 automatic ATMs, using their smart RFID cards.
He says, “I’ve been the plant operator since day one,” adding, “The drinking water problem in the village has been addressed. I need back-end logistics support like chemicals for cleaning and new RFID cards, but the team has continued to provide these, even during these tough times. I now earn Rs 6,000-7,000 per month.”
During setup, the Safe Water Network stations are fitted with remote-monitoring systems. About 15 parameters related to the enterprise (such as consumption, volume, and quality) can be monitored remotely with a smartphone.
Following the lockdown, organisations have begun to strengthen their strategies, using technologies such as cashless digital payments, touchless transactions, remote monitoring systems for increased visibility of operations, handwashing stations at ATM sites, and community education on individual and collective safety, as prescribed by the government.
Physical distancing procedures have been implemented at all stations for customers waiting in line. Personal contact between station operators and customers has been eliminated, thanks to these measures.
Focus on awareness-building and behaviour change
With kiosks operating in the community, the responsibility of water collection has now shifted to the men of the household, with nearly 92% of water collection activities taken up by men on their bicycles or two-wheelers.
The communities where kiosks are set up are aware of the hazards of contaminated drinking water. For years, they have been witnessing the impact on their lives through water-borne diseases such as fluorosis, arsenicosis, blue baby syndrome, diarrhea, jaundice, and typhoid.
There were other collateral impacts, such as the loss of livelihoods due to sick days, time spent by women on caring for the sick, girls missing school, and the general drudgery of collection.
Research has shown that the women and girls in the community bear the disproportionate brunt when safe water access is lacking. Interestingly, once kiosks begin operations, the “burden” of retrieving water transfers to the men of the household, with nearly 92 per cent of water collection activities taken up by men on their bicycles or two-wheelers.
With the threat of the pandemic, the need for safe water and hygienic practices have compounded. Posters in various languages promoting safety measures such as handwashing, social distancing, and personal protection, have been disseminated by the government. With support from Safe Water Network’s corporate partner, Honeywell, foot pedals for handwashing will be installed at many stations. Currently. communities are using basic handwash with soap and water from bucket.
Transferring the lessons to water-stressed cities
(L) Station operator Srinivas in Pulkal village is pleased about continued services and access to logistical support during COVID-19. (R) Social distancing measures at water stations.
As was witnessed by Chennai and Shimla in recent years, urban India is severely water-stressed. It is a major public health imperative and an economic one as well.
According to Government of India’s ejalshakti portal, 756 Urban Local Bodies have been identified as water-stressed. The SWE Alliance has embarked on replicating its success in other parts of India and applying them in urban India.
Pilots in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune, and others are already showing promise, implementing kiosks near busy metro stations and other arterial junctions. They provide affordable water to the ‘Consumer on the Go’. This prevents the scourge of plastic waste and helps to save money. These kiosks provide safe quality water at the fraction of the cost of bottled water.
Small enterprise implementers have banded together to transform the urban water landscape in cities and are currently present in over 50 cities. “As more people move into the urban areas of the country, there is an urgent need to look at how cities are preparing to meet the safe drinking water needs of their growing populations,” says H Subramaniam of Earth Water Limited.
The Small Water Enterprise Alliance will engage city municipalities, urban planners, civic organisations, youth groups, local corporates, and others to take a more in-depth look at the challenges facing a city, and develop a roadmap to tackle those challenges.
“We have been able to transfer our technical as well as community engagement experience to help the urban context,” said Divya Yachamaneni of Naandi Community Waters.
The goal is to transform the drinking water scenario with pilots in 25 cities, learn from these experiences, and take the approach to dozens of other cities across the country.
In the immediate future, the Alliance is actively raising public awareness and involvement. An extensive outreach will be kicked off once the lockdowns are lifted. While there are too many fragmented approaches, this Alliance is a convergence of knowledge, resources, and ideas, and a collective approach to bargaining with policymakers.
Back in Telangana, in the village of Fasalwadi, Nani Goud makes his routine trip to the kiosk. He says, “Earlier, I had to rely on water can supply from a tempo from Sangareddy town to get my drinking water. It was more than double the cost of the kiosk in my village. I am no longer worried about the delivery delay or cancellation! I worry about my fellow villagers’ health without 24×7 clean water provided by the kiosk.”
(Written by Poonam Sewak and Venky Raghavendra. Edited by Shruti Singhal)
Poonam Sewak and Venky Raghavendra are with Safe Water Network. They work with communities and like-minded organisations around the country in enabling better access to safe water to underserved populations.
While many of us have resorted to Zoom and Skype to maintain continuity in our work, the pandemic has turned out to be a curse for the poor and the marginalised. Ragpickers, especially, hardly received any support or compassion, even though they recycle almost 20 percent of the country’s urban solid waste and keep cities clean.
In this trying time, the Noida-based Atmashakti Trust, offered a ray of hope. The non-profit works towards the rights and entitlements of the marginalised communities in Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, and led the path on disaster response to ensure last-mile services in a society where inequality is pervasive.
Founded in 1995, Atmashakti Trust has been working in Odisha and Uttar Pradesh to create awareness in constitutional rights and entitlements amongst the most marginalised rural communities with an emphasis on Tribals and Dalits. It facilitates the formation of local-level Sangathans, who take up a range of issues such as Education, Health, Water and Sanitation, Natural farming, Training and capacity building.
(L) Ruchi Kashyap. (R) Team Atmashakti
The complete lockdown for containing the spread of the coronavirus left lakhs of industrial, domestic and daily wagers everywhere in the country without work, money, and even access to food.
“Those of us in Noida and Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh and Gurgaon, Haryana, stepped up to draw from our limited resources to save affected families around us from starvation. We called it ‘MissionRahat’, and aimed to support them with dry rations and cooked food to tide over the worst phase of the lockdown and the side-effects of the pandemic,” says Ruchi Kashyap, Executive Trustee of the organisation.
Due to the announcement of lockdown at short notice, another sector, the ragpickers, had minimal scope to save food and other basic needs.
“Our society has not yet prepared to give ragpickers the space they deserve. Therefore, we decided to work for these communities to bring back their identity for which they suffer every day,” adds Kashyap.
“The lockdown wrecked our lives. We were stuck in our sheds without work and access to food as we could not move out of our houses,” says Khusbu, a ragpicker from Bhapura slum of Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Ten years ago, Khusbu and her husband left Darbhanga in Bihar to Ghaziabad in UP for work and a better life. But fortune did not smile on them. Instability and unavailability of their preferred jobs pushed them towards ragpicking.
“I could not believe it when I received a bag of dry rations from the volunteers of the organisation. It was more than I had expected. We had knocked several doors for help but were unsuccessful. Because of the timely help rendered by Atmashakti, we no longer fear for hunger,” informs Khusbu.
Kohinoor Bibi, 45, is another ragpicker from the Seemapuri slum in North-east Delhi. She lives with her husband and six children.
She says, “We were not able to step out from our sheds as policemen were threatening to beat us if we were found outside. My family of eight was in dire need of help, but why would anyone look at us? What identity did we have in society? We had thought that no help would be offered to us.”
But in their hour of crisis, help came to them.
She continues, “Atmashakti provided that crucial help. They gave us six weeks of rations, which reduced our burden. Ragpicking is the only job that gives us money to run our families. We earn on a daily basis and our income is dependent on the number of rags we collect every day. The lockdown cost us heavily.”
Atmashakti Trust distributed dry rations to over 3,000 ragpicker families that included 20 kg of Rice/Flour, 2 kg of Dal, 1 litre of edible oil, and one packet of salt.
“The plight of the ragpickers is at the crux of the snags, unlike other informal workers. As we began our COVID-19 relief response, we realised that they were the most vulnerable communities. However, it was not an easy task. We got in touch with the District administration of Ghaziabad to support more than 2,000 ragpicker families in Uttar Pradesh,” says Ruchi Kashyap, Executive Trustee of Atmashakti Trust.
Battling life and death
A waste segregated site in Bhopura slum in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Often considered as the primary foot-soldiers in collecting, sorting, and managing the large chunk of garbage generated in cities like Delhi, Noida, and Ghaziabad, everybody turned a deaf ear to their misery.
“The earnings of ragpickers depends on how much waste they collect each day. They do not have a choice to earn a daily fixed wage. That puts them in a vulnerable position as they cannot save money and food for the future. At the same time, factories and manufacturing companies were closed due to the lockdown, which was the only source of their daily earnings. So, their future was uncertain,” states Kashyap.
Kiran Devi, 54, lives in a jhuggi near Bhapura slum in Ghaziabad. Like others, lockdown also had the worst-ever effect on her family. With her husband mostly unwell, she had to shoulder the family’s responsibility.
“Though we have been staying here for the last ten years, we are consistently being denied an Aadhaar card or a Ration Card here. Not having these documents is depriving us of access to government benefits. Where will we go? But thanks to Atmashakti, we survived,” says Kiran.
Though ragpickers are estimated to be between 1.5 million to 4 million in the country, their contribution to our economic activity is worth about ₹3200 crores. And yet, they continue to struggle for their identity and survival. We leave no reason to offer them the poorest position in our societies.
“Their crisis cannot be solved unless there is a consistent effort to give back their lost identity. We all have to do our part to change their public perception. Atmashakti’s humanitarian response has planted seeds of hope for many,” says Balicharan, a social worker, He was coordinating the organisation’s response programme in Noida and other parts of Uttar Pradesh during the lockdown.
He elaborates the COVID-19 response strategy:
1. Using the public distribution network: In Loni, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, most areas were under the contaminated zones. Using the Public Distribution Channel, they reached 8,000 distressed families in 36 wards, who were non-ration cardholders and deprived of essential rations.
2.Coordinated mechanism with NGOs/Solidarity groups: Solidarity networks in Delhi/NCR helped administer relief work by identifying genuine needs and avoiding duplication.
3.Coordination with the local administration: They collaborated with the local administration to extend the reach of intervention.
Discrimination at its worst
(L) Kavita Devi, cooking for her family, with the dry rations she received from Atmashakti Trust. (R) Khusbu
Ragpickers live in temporary sheds in the slum areas of Delhi, Noida, and Ghaziabad. Their work is considered menial, and they are often treated as untouchables by the so-called privileged classes.
Gopal Verma, a volunteer at Atmashakti, sheds light on how discrimination towards ragpickers has created a new narrative.
He says, “It is understood that we all should adhere to isolation and physical distancing, but ragpickers are being abandoned in the name of these practices. Despite their services, they are at the receiving end of hate and dismissal. How can we think of an equal society when the so-called upper layer of the society does not extend the helping hand to the deprived?”
More than 600 ragpicker families in the Sihani slum in Ghaziabad went without help during the lockdown, he adds.
While other informal workers are being helped by youth clubs, NGOs, and charitable organisations, nobody came forward for ragpickers. Various research findings also revealed that ragpickers hail from the poorest and other marginalised communities, which exposes them to the betrayal and ubiquitous social alienation.
No law to favour them
In the absence of a policy for rag pickers in our country, they remain out of the formal employment sector. They toil to keep our cities clean, and yet, have been conveniently forgotten by our policymakers.
“We don’t have an identity in society. As a fallout, our children are denied enrollment in the Anganwadis. Can we not even expect this from the government?” asks 45-year-old Kavita Devi. She resides in Ghazipur while her two children are in Bihar for education.
“As there is no law that favours their concerns, these ‘invisible Indians’ continue to struggle for their survival. We tried to make sure that all ragpickers in these regions receive rations till the lockdown subsides, and they can resume work,” says Neha. She was overseeing the procurement of the relief materials vital for the timely distribution of rations.
The easing of lockdown has a mixed effect. Although many ragpickers have returned to work, waste recycling factories have resumed operations in very few places, causing ragpickers to work at reduced rates. Moreover, middlemen dealers, who purchase the recyclables, have not resumed work in full numbers.
“The ordeals of the ragpickers are acute and multifarious. We are happy that our team could proactively engage with volunteers and solidarity groups to reach them. It is time to bring back their dignity in the society,” concludes Kashyap.
(Written by Nabachannel Kishor and Edited by Shruti Singhal)
There is a small hamlet called Bhavarpur in Bilkhar village in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district. In recent years, the residents of this village have migrated to cities for work. Water shortage and continuous drought has made agriculture nearly impossible for the small and marginal farmers. They preferred opting for wage labour through migration.
But due to the lockdown to curtail the spread of the coronavirus, the migrants lost their jobs in the cities. They were compelled to return to their village.
But even in the village, their survival was in jeopardy.
Many of them approached the village Pradhan to seek jobs under the MNREGA scheme. Despite continued efforts on their part, there was no clarity about when they could get work.
The only alternative left for them was to rebuild their lives by farming. A major stumbling block was the lack of water resources. In the face of all uncertainties, during a casual meeting, a few of them realised that the river Gharar would flow from their land during the monsoons and had lost its course. This would cause general flooding during the monsoon and a shortage of water during the summer.
The water of the Gharar river heads from the hills of Panna and flows through Ajaygarh, Kartal, Banda in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. It was once considered to be among the perennial rivers of the region. It used to flow through 40 villages, with farmers heavily relying on it for irrigation.
In the course of the construction of check dams, the encroachment of the land surrounding the river, and other negligence due to human error over many years, the river receded to a wastewater drain.
The villagers of Bhavarpur couldn’t get work under MNREGA, and the lost river was a pressing issue. Nearly 60 men and women came together and started working towards the revival of the Gharar by Shramdaan (volunteering labour) on June 10.
After four days of tough work, water started appearing. The sight of the water boosted their energy and motivation further. By June 18, a 2-km stretch of the river was cleared.
After that, the work was taken over by the government under MNREGA and the workers were remunerated. With this, the remaining 3-km course of the river was cleared by the end of June.
Paving the way to the river will save the village from getting flooded during the monsoon, say the determined volunteers. More of them join the work with each passing day as the mission has created a heroic wave in the region.
Jairam, a migrant labourer from Bhavarpur, says, “We are trying to save our village from flooding during the monsoon. This stream will also be useful for irrigation in the summer.”
The villagers have also been accommodative to the shramdaanis. Those without land have been offered some portions so that they could use it to farm during these difficult times.
Meera, a resident of Bhavarpur, migrated to the village along with her family many years ago. She shares, “I am happy that recognising our efforts, others from the village have offered their land to us for a year. With land and water now available, we will be able to cultivate crops.”
The volunteers and villagers have been camping in Bhavarpur village. The campsite looks festive, with the shramdaanis relishing the food served by nearby villagers. Men, women and children sing and dance to celebrate their efforts in the sense of camaraderie. They seem empowered, forgetting all the worries and uncertainties regarding survival.
(Written by Aarti Narayan and Edited by Shruti Singhal)
Ever since I was a child, I saw my parents exhibit two inspiring qualities – care and perseverance. While caring shows who we are, being perseverant shows how much we care.
For the past 30 years, my parents have been running Rosy Child School, a primary school in Darbhanga, a remote town on the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar. The school catered to children from nursery to Class 10 and was established to address the lack of good educational institutions in town. Emphasis has therefore been given to extra-curricular activities along with academics.
Despite COVID-19, the urban school system is still functional due to access to technology. Students in rural areas, with a greater need for education, are now lagging due to the lack of technical knowledge and infrastructure. With focused efforts, we can bridge this gap.
By providing access to primary, middle and high-school education for thousands of children, the school has played an arterial role in nation-building. It has produced engineers, chartered accountants, doctors, members of Indian Air Force, public sector employees, actors, flight attendants and business professionals.
The impact of COVID-19 on the school system
When the pandemic struck, it brought turbulent times. The Indian school system was juggling between the Coronavirus threat, Government directives regarding schools, and the methods of continuing education for children. Concern for children’s safety and security in the light of the pandemic prompted schools to adopt various measures. Institutions remain closed until further notice, and the big question is how to keep education going.
There seemed to be an expanding gap between urban and rural education. While urban schools and children are better equipped with technology and getting ahead in their learning, rural areas, where the need for education is higher, are now lagging, due to the lack of technical knowledge and skills.
For instance, in my parents’ school, all communication from the school was handed to students in the form of hard copies. Even report cards were handed physically; the school fee was never collected electronically; the school records were being maintained in a very structured way, but all on paper. In a nutshell, it was the old-school way of schooling.
From Old School to Online School
In a school where technology usage is extremely limited, and any form of online communication was non-existent, there was a sudden and urgent need to turn virtual! While this seems challenging, even in technologically-advanced schools, we needed to bridge the gap between the classroom and online learning.
Locked in my Mumbai home, 1,200 miles away and passionate for technology, this was my golden opportunity to play a part in helping the children of my hometown. I give my parents enormous credit for being willing to allow the adoption of technology in the school. I was both excited and anxious when I started my due diligence of various technology tools and laid down protocols to eventually implement the online learning platform, an extremely rewarding experience.
While going online, several aspects of the school system needed to be considered.
Converting Challenges to Opportunities
1. PEOPLE a) Technology Training
Problem: There was limited or no understanding of technology among several students, teachers, and parents.
Solution: For onboarding – I wrote e-circulars with step-by-step instructions and screenshots as guidelines for online classes. Tech support was also provided through phone calls to explain the tools and processes.
For seamless implementation and smooth experience for all participants, in all video calls for the first month, the non-academic part was handled by me. Teachers and students entered the online class as participants and focused only on the subject rather than worrying about technical interruptions, taking attendance, monitoring each student for compliance etc.
Having another individual to manage the non-academic part on every call was an important success factor. Once we had a month of stability where students and teachers were comfortable with the system, I identified the three most tech-savvy teachers as champions and took an online training session for them to hand over online administration.
From the second month, the champion teachers handled all classes themselves, with very less dependency on me.
b) Younger Students
Problem: Lack of good command of the English Language. Complicated instructions on technology usage given in English would be tough to understand.
Solution: Voice messages were recorded in English and Hindi for all complicated communications to enable better understanding.
Problem: 99 per cent of the students did not have a laptop and were attending classes through smartphones. Therefore, prolonged staring at a small phone screen would have long-term health issues, especially for younger students.
Solution: Teaching was done in the form of short videos, instead of hours of real-time classes. Videos created by teachers were sent every morning on the class WhatsApp groups. This enabled students to watch and attend classes at their own pace.
c) Extracurricular Skills
Music classes and art competitions conducted online.
Problem: Since the school focuses on extracurricular activities, it was essential to keep that going for an online classroom experience.
Solution: We initiated and had online classes for music, art etc. Regular online competitions on creative writing, art, photography, debate etc. have also kept enthusiasm, creativity and interest in online learning alive.
2. PROCESS a) Record Keeping:
Problem: Difficulty in connecting to all students. We found that contact details of several parents were not updated. Moreover, since the school did not contact parents on phones, their numbers were not updated since the initial admission of the student.
Solution: We had the staff call every number in the school records and confirm them. We got WhatsApp groups created for each class and crowd sourced the contact details of those missing from the records. Everything was then stored digitally on Microsoft Excel.
b) Assignments
Problem: To manage assignments online. Assignment/homework and evaluation of the same is an integral part of education. Not only is it essential for academic revision but is also a parameter to evaluate the student’s progress in a subject.
Solution for senior classes: I formalised the process via email. School email addresses were created for each class, accessed by the respective teachers, where students could submit their homework.
Solution for junior classes: I formalised the process via WhatsApp. Assignments were sent with the subject video lesson every morning on the class Whatsapp group. Students submitted their assignments and got the checked sheets back on the group the same day.
c.) Evaluation
Unit Test online form, digitally computed and stored results.
Problem: Unit tests are a regular feature in schools, and we needed to have one after a month of classes.
Solution: I decided on Google Forms for unit tests since they simplified the process. Results were automatically computed and displayed back to the students immediately upon submission. Our technical setup also allowed cameras to be enabled with the video conferencing app while students took their tests. This was an almost perfect simulation of a real-world evaluation despite distributed technical products.
Problem: Lack of technical knowledge among teachers to understand online evaluations.
Solution: I converted all tests created by teachers into Google Forms for a seamless first-time experience. It was monotonous work, but with the lack of a technical workforce, it had to be done single-handedly. For the second round, I trained our identified champion teachers to create tests forms and handle the evaluation process independently.
Problem: Lack of technical knowledge, especially among younger children, to understand digital evaluation.
Solution: For senior classes, I gave a training session with a sample test form for students to get an understanding of the new way of assessment.
For junior classes, at the assigned time, test questions were sent on the class WhatsApp group. Students wrote their answers on a sheet of paper, took pictures and sent them to the group at the time of submission.
For the next round of tests, even junior classes will use Google Forms. Their familiarity with technology makes us confident in teaching them newer tools.
d) Feedback
Principal & students virtual feedback meeting
Problem: Student/teacher feedback has always been an integral part of this school culture. The principal’s office has always been open for student/teacher walk-ins for any problems/feedback discussion.
Solution: We started regular video meetings on weekends of students with the Principal. This helped understand any issues they might be facing about the online learning infrastructure, the pace of a particular class etc. Private phone number of the Principal was also shared, and students were encouraged to call anytime with any concerns.
This was a new way of teaching for teachers as well. So, we had regular one-on-one calls with them, to understand their problems and formalise the best way of doing things. There was initial nervousness but the excitement of learning new technologies and helping their students stay connected with education in the pandemic, far exceeded the fear of the unknown.
3. INFRASTRUCTURE a) Network Infrastructure
Problem: There is very limited bandwidth in small towns. Most students and teachers do not have WIFI and are dependent on mobile data.
Solution: I did a week-long due diligence of all stable video conferencing and communication solutions. I installed and evaluated Cisco WebEx, Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, and Zoom to come up with the best match. The main criteria for our situation were low bandwidth and a small learning curve. We adhered to the best practices for video conferencing implementation, such as proper checks of participants before being allowed on the meeting, and IDs and passwords being frequently changed to enable security.
It is working seamlessly for us even with the usage of mobile data. Occasionally, people do experience patchy network from some service providers.
The table below gives an understanding of the technical evaluation.
b) Tech Support
Problem: Point of contact for technical support is essential for seamless adoption of new technology.
Solution: The biggest limitation was the absence of technical personnel. I knew it was time for me to leverage my technical background to deal with a wide range of technical challenges and handle a large number of phone calls. While I had to provide support during the first two months, I could bring our staff up to speed to share the load from the third month onward.
A teacher says, “I did not think that online education would happen for us and that too so quickly and easily. Our school believed in the old school way of learning and had kept technology away from education. I was explained technology in a very simple and easy way so I am able to understand and manage the classes now. To explain and talk about it on a phone was a challenge in the beginning, but I am getting used to it. I like the mute feature where all students can be made to keep quiet by a button click, I wish I could do it in my regular class too. We are happy that children are not left behind and are connected with education. We are also receiving appreciation from students and parents.”
c) Access to Devices
Problem: Most households had a single handheld device but multiple students. Therefore, it was a challenge to have all students attend classes at the same time.
Solution: I created the school time table such that one class had an online class at any given time. We moved important subjects to online live classes, while the more subjective ones were taught through videos made by teachers and shared online.
So, while younger students until class 5 received their study material in the form of videos made by their teachers on WhatsApp groups, the older ones attended live video classes. This made it easier for each group to access their different subjects and classes, and for us to manage the overall timetable.
Problem: Affordability limitations of Students – No smart device in many households
Awaiting a Solution: Approximately 10 per cent of students are not connected due to lack of smartphones. This is a problem we are working on fixing. We are considering a scholarship programme through which sponsors can donate smartphones to students and help onboard them with online education.
Problem: As the COVID-19 lockdown is easing, it is getting difficult for many working parents to leave their only mobile phone at home for their children and not take it to their workplace.
Awaiting a Solution: Around 15 per cent of students who were connected are missing out on classes since lockdown has eased. We are working on fixing it the same way through the scholarship programme.
Onward to a new way of learning
Virtual class in progress
The outcome of all the work is a seamless online learning system with the simplest, lightest, and most effective platforms. While the current set up has been working well, I plan to establish a unified platform to serve our online schooling needs.
With the experience gained over the past few months, both students and teachers are now better equipped at handling technology. We are also in the process of new technology adoption and are ready to enjoy some learning curve.
The enthusiasm of students and teachers during this time was overwhelming and inspiring.
A student shares, “I was very excited when online classes started as we would learn and get to use new technologies and continue our studies during lockdown. We had problems sometimes because we shared the phone with our parents. I miss going to school and meeting my friends, and playing in the games period. I want to go back to school soon.”
Thirty years ago, my parents started the school with the motto “Come to Learn. Go to Serve”. I’m optimistic that these efforts will help over a thousand children who can come to learn virtually today and go to serve humanity tomorrow. I am honoured to play a part in their journey.
Cover image for representation only.
(Written by Payal Bahadur and Edited by Shruti Singhal)
A wild elephant from the jungle and astronauts from outer space come alive alongside teachers in an online class as the kindergarten students of a modest school in Kerala’s Malappuram jump in thrill and excitement. They don’t miss a single online session, otherwise considered mundane and tiresome for such young children, thanks to the insight of the school’s innovative social sciences teacher.
Shyam Vengalloor, the social science teacher at AEM AUP School at Moorkanad near Valanchery in Malappuram, has become a celebrity in the state for introducing augmented reality (AR) to online classes, the first-ever in any school in Kerala.
Increasingly considered among the most modern technologies to impart school education but least prevalent in institutions across the country, AR superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view.
The video of online classes with teachers using images of an elephant, a tiger, an astronaut and the solar system appearing beside them as they explain these concepts to the children went viral on social media a few days ago.
While schools in the country still shut, Vengalloor thought about ways to make online classes more engaging.
“I thought if augmented reality could be introduced to online classes, children would get to see and feel what they were being taught. I was told that it could be expensive and would need extensive resources, but I could do it just with my laptop and mobile phone with augmented reality apps and Gif (graphics interchange format) images. It took me one month to put everything together. I also convinced other teachers regarding its ease of use,” says 25-year-old Vengalloor.
He’s an aircraft maintenance engineer from Thiruvananthapuram who worked with Air India in Mumbai. After completing a Diploma in Education (D.Ed), he joined the AEM AUP School.
“I took the decision to return from Mumbai as I was always interested in teaching. Also, Mumbai is an expensive city to live in,” says Vengalloor.
He integrated AR in online classes by superimposing graphics, audio, and sensory elements. “I usually see that students don’t find online classes interesting after the initial sessions. We needed to experiment with innovative methods to retain the attention of children, particularly the younger ones, who have shorter attention spans,” says the young teacher, who also enjoys travelling.
Now, almost 40 schools from across Kerala, and even those from Singapore and Sharjah are seeking his help in making their online classes innovative and exciting. He will be addressing a webinar for teachers on July 29. Kerala’s education minister C Raveendranath met Vengalloor recently and lauded his efforts.
Shreya, a class 7 student at the school, was thrilled to share her experience. “Our teachers stand right under the solar system with the planets revolving around the sun just under the roof of our classroom. They show and explain to us different planets by touching them. It is so much fun to see an elephant or a tiger next to our teacher,” she says.
Happy with the response of her students, Preetha, who teaches Hindi to students of classes 6 and 7 at AEM AUP School, says that she has never seen children so excited before. The classes are accessed by around 1,000 students through the school’s YouTube channel and the PTA WhatsApp group. Several schools have also subscribed to the channel.
Before the pandemic, the school had introduced a robot-shaped mannequin in the classroom with Amazon’s Alexa voice-based AI (Artificial Intelligence).
They also have intriguing plans. “We are planning virtual tours from Kanyakumari to Kashmir for our students so that they get to know and see these places in real-time. A green screen will be used to show them videos and images of different cities. Once ready, the videos of the tours will be uploaded on the school’s YouTube channel and will be accessible to all,” concludes Vengalloor.
(Written by Rahul Nandan and Edited by Shruti Singhal)
Did you know that India’s Public Distribution System feeds 10 per cent of the world’s population?
The government of India runs 5,37,000 Fair Price Shops. This is the largest food distribution network in the world, spread across 3.3 million sq km serving 80.74 Crore people.
How does this vast and complex system work?
The National Food Security Act (NFSA) came into effect on 5 July 2013. It marked a paradigm shift to food security from welfare to a rights-based approach by legally entitling a large portion of the population to receive subsidised grains.
According to the Act, 75 per cent of rural and 50 per cent of the urban population (overall two-thirds of the total population at the national level) is to be covered by Public Distribution System under two categories:
AAY (Antyodaya Anna Yojana) – These are the poorest of the low-income families, entitled to 35 kg of food grains per household.
PHH (Priority Households) – States/UTs determine the families eligible for PHH Ration Cards, who are entitled to 5 kg of food grains per person per month at subsidised prices.
The state-wise coverage of population is determined by the Planning Commission (now NITI Aayog) based on the 2011-12 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey of NSSO. This survey is used to identify the percentage of the population below the poverty line. State targets are set, taking into account the portion of their populations below the poverty line. The actual coverage refers to the number of ration card holders. This is where we stand on target vs actual coverage:
Some of the large states short on their coverage are :
Gujarat (-11.7%)
Uttar Pradesh (-10.5%)
Bihar (-9.1%)
Madhya Pradesh (-6.5%)
Some lag remains, but we are making progress in the right direction — the number of beneficiaries increased from 56 Crore in 2017 to above 80 Crore in 2020, with eight crore new ration cards issued.
In the same period, the automation of Fair Price Shops increased significantly with over 90 per cent of them equipped with ePoS (Electronic Point of Sale system). Around 93 per cent of the grain distribution is through this system, and the dominant mode of authentication is Aadhaar at 70 per cent.
With better efficiency, transparency and accountability brought in the system by automation, the quantity of food grains distributed per card per month has gone up significantly. In contrast, there has been some rationalisation on the number of beneficiaries per card. Earlier issues of duplicate and bogus cards, obsolete information of card-holders (deceased/newly-born) have been solved to a large extent through the Aadhaar-based authentication.
How did this distribution network perform during the COVID-19 lockdown?
In March ‘20, the Government of India announced additional free food supplies for two-thirds of the population as part of its effort to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown. The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) was to support families from April-June using the existing network of Fair Price Shops with the additional provision of 5 kg food-grain plus 1 kg pulses per month.
The latest government data shows that 91 per cent of the quantity allotted by the Centre was procured and lifted by the states, and transported via a record number of railways rakes and trucks. Of the procured quantity, 84 per cent has already reached the intended beneficiaries via the fair price shops.
Most large states managed to distribute over 60 per cent of the allocated food grains, with some exceptions — Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu — lagging. With the scheme being extended to November ’20 as per the recent announcement, there will be time for these states to catch up and fill the distribution gap.
Infrastructure matters.
Having an extensive network of Fair Price Shops (there’s a shop per 6 sq km in India) and the digital infrastructure by way of ePos and Aadhaar-based authentication, food grains reached every corner of the country within weeks and were distributed. In the absence of a robust and responsive infrastructure, no quick relief measures could have been implemented.
Even during a long and uncertain COVID-19 lockdown, this infrastructure was silently working to transport the grain to each of those 5.3 lakh shops from Kupwara to Kanyakumari and Kutch to Mon.
In addition to the infrastructure, we have enough stocks in the godowns and enough crops in the fields to provide food security.
What needs immediate attention now is:
Ration card portability: ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme will enable ration card holders to receive their entitlements from any FPS across the country, irrespective of the state that issued the card. Hardware that’s already put in places such as ePoS, and software updates and digital infrastructure such as Aadhaar authentication are working together to make this possible by March 2021.
Balanced nutrition: Mere rice and wheat cannot provide enough nutrition — we have a large-scale malnutrition problem that needs to be addressed urgently and holistically. PDS has a role to play by procuring and distributing a wider variety of indigenous and nutritious grains. For instance, Karnataka state has decided to buy and distribute ragi — a welcome step.
Coverage as planned: Inclusion of all intended beneficiaries is critical and needs to be expedited to ensure that no needy family is left out.
Operational issues: Infrastructure in the form of ePoS, electricity and internet needed for their working, and reliable ways of authenticating the beneficiaries need to be made robust and fail-proof.
Empowering FPS owners: The supply chain and transactions are getting automated, leading to better monitoring and efficiency. But last-mile delivery is still in the hands of the Fair Price Shop Owner. Each shop today has about 460 cards associated with it, about 300 of which transact each month.The shop owners make meagre incomes given the wafer-thin margins that the government allows. Some states have experimented with organising retail sales of other products through FPS (like the Annapurna Bhandar Yojana in Rajasthan, now discontinued), but it hasn’t become a robust widespread system.
54 per cent of the shops are owned by individuals, five per cent by Self Help Groups, 15 per cent by co-operative societies and the remaining by Panchayat and others. What kind of training and ongoing support do these shop owners receive? Who is helping them run their businesses better and prosper? Many of the issues highlighted by the media and others — lacking motivation, under-distributing, replacing stocks with inferior goods, and treating customers poorly — can be addressed to some extent by a well-structured training and development programme.
If we fix these issues, we provide lifelong benefits of better daily nutrition to 10 per cent of the world’s population. It’s a problem worth solving!
(Written by Vrunda Bansode and Veda Kulkarni. Edited by Shruti Singhal)
Vrunda Bansode and Veda Kulkarni lead the India Data Insights initiative at Sattva Consulting – a leading social sector research and advisory firm. IDI publishes data-driven analysis on India’s socio-economic issues and policies, to help the organisations working in the social sector make better decisions. Their in-depth analysis on PDS can be accessed here.
William Shakespeare’s famous quote goes, “When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions.” This old adage summarises the year 2020 in light of the successive miseries inflicted upon humankind.
But even amidst this gloom, there are inspiring stories.
One such is about three remote villages in the Namsai district of Arunachal Pradesh. It is populated by around 5,200 Chakma tribals.
Despite its distinct identity, this tribe has been a victim of partition. The Bengal Boundary Commission headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe awarded their homeland, the Chittagong Hill Tracts, (CHT) to East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh, in defiance of the Two-Nation Theory.
Religious persecution and construction of the Kaptai Dam, left them stateless and homeless. The Indian government took cognizance of this mistake and welcomed the 35,000 Chakma Buddhists under a Definite Plan of Relief and Rehabilitation. They were settled in the North Eastern Frontier Agency (NEFA), in present Arunachal Pradesh. Today, the Chakma tribals live in three districts–Papumpare, Changlang, and Namsai (previously under the Lohit district) of Arunachal Pradesh.
A majority of the Chakmas depend on agriculture and horticulture. They grow paddy, mustard seeds, buckwheat, seasonal vegetables; others sell these agricultural products and run small local shops.
Unfortunately, even after five decades of historical blunder, the Chakmas are still deprived of citizenship and political rights such as voting, and excluded from Panchayati Raj, government employment. Further, distance from the mainland isolates these villages. Moreover, the Bereng River becomes a ‘River of Sorrow’ in the monsoon season, separating the three villages from the district.
Before 2004, there was a bridge over the river, connecting Gunanagar- the nearest township about seven kilometres from these Chakma villages. When the decades-old hanging bridge was washed away in 2004 due to floods, the villages fell into darkness. There were many accidents and countless losses.
Owing to this formidable impediment, myriads of tragic stories are under-reported every year–of patients’ health deteriorating due to unavailability of medicines, and consequently succumbing to the diseases because they could not be admitted to a hospital. Even in medical exigencies, patients are compelled to languish at their confined homes.
Further, students can’t attend their classes and finally drop out of schools. Hundreds of students are coerced into leaving their studies halfway every year, a stumbling block to the improvement of the poor literacy-rate among the community.
But the villagers have no choice but to cross the river because it is the only convenient and time-saving route to Gunanagar. And they depend on the township for essential commodities, healthcare, markets, higher educational institutions, public offices and connectivity to the rest of the country.
For a long time, they expected the government to build a bridge over the river to mitigate their sufferings, but their patience was tested for too long without yielding any results. Finally, in their desperation, they decided to undertake the construction of a bridge on their own dime.
They formed a Construction Committee for a detailed plan of action–from the procurement of raw materials to implementation. It was led by the Chakma Youth Welfare Association (CYWA). Its president Babulal Chakma says, “My heart is content after completing this bridge.”
The Chakma community also received a donation of Rs 51,000 from the neighbouring Khampti brethren; The Khamptis and Chakmas are the only two communities in the state that have written scripts of their language.
The Construction Committee started working relentlessly in early March 2020, but restrictions due to the COVID-19 lockdown slowed the process. With reduced workers and social distancing measures, a 154-ft-long wooden bridge was constructed by the end of May.
Their total expenditure stood at Rs 4.85 lakh. The villagers contributed as per their financial capacities and succeeded in regaining their lifeline without any support from the government.
With this accomplishment, the villagers are now able to sell their agricultural products without going to the market. The businessmen from neighbouring districts can easily transport agricultural products and goods from the villages to the market places.
History is proof that physical boundaries like rivers and mountains have been used for demarcation of an area. This can impact people’s feelings and emotions with neither side trusting the other. Overcoming the physical barriers by building a bridge enables free movement that eventually strengthens the bonds among the communities living in the same geographical area.
(Written by Sonjit Chakma and Edited by Shruti Singhal)
I love Squash and have been playing for many years. For those who may not know, Squash is a racket and ball game played inside four walls. Two players usually play a game. The idea is to bounce the ball off a wall, in such a manner that the other player cannot strike it as it returns. If they miss, you get the point. If they hit the ball, they do the same thing – bounce it off a wall towards you.
(Feature Image (Representative):Karim Darwish plays Saurav Ghosal at the quarterfinals of the CIMB KL Open Championship 2011 on March 18, 2011, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.)
The game is believed to have originated in Harrows School For Boys, London, sometime in the 1830s. A similar game of rackets, played with a stiff ball, was already in existence at the time. But the boys realised it was more fun to use a punctured rubber ball, which erratically bounced when it was whacked into a wall at high speed with a racket. The ball ‘squashed’ on impact – making it more unpredictable.
This game has been growing in popularity around the world, and currently some 20 million ‘jubes’ officially play the game around the world. And I am one of them. Indeed, I love it so much, that at the age of 37, much to the utter confusion of my family, I started learning the sport from one of the best promoters of the game in India – Vijay Kumar Goel.
For over 20 years, he has contributed to the sport in the country. His efforts have not only helped bring out the best squash talent in India, but his initiatives have also given direction to many talented young people who come from rural backgrounds. And it all began in a sugar mill!
Here’s how it all began.
Dhampur Sugar Mills was set in 1933 by and has operated ever since. It is one of the leading sugar producers of the nation. A chemical engineer, Vijay Kumar Goel has been a Promoter Director of the Dhampur Sugar Mills since the 1960s and is an above-average Squash player himself.
However, the game didn’t dominate the mill until the 1990s, when his son Gautam began playing Squash in a court within the mill’s compound. Eager to help his son develop in the game, Vijay Kumar hired Shyam Lal as a coach. Shyam Lal had been in the Armed forces and was one of the top three national-level Squash players in India at the time.
This simple coaching, begun by a fond father for a son, would go far. As the years progressed, Goel would grow from being a leader in the sugar industry and attentive father to one of the biggest promoters of the sport, and thus ‘Dhampur Sugar Mills’ has become among the best Squash academies in the country.
(Years later, Lal also supported the Hamdard Education Society in Delhi to develop sporting talent there as well.)
Goel’s help comes in many forms for young talent. He supports the various academies in Dhampur, of course. But that aside he also provides needy players accommodation in Delhi should they go there to play tournaments. Along with that, he arranges for the dietary and other requirements, pays the participation costs for crucial matches and provides financial assistance to exceptional players.
During my conversation with him for The Better India, he credited young squash players for his support, with whom he appeared to maintain a close mentorship role. Their simplicity, dedication, and commitment to the game galvanised him, he said.
He also stressed how he endeavoured to keep freedom, equality and respect at the core of all interactions, irrespective of age, gender, religion or position. This attitude seemed to reflect in the squash players he has supported as well. They might come from small towns, or be from any background. But they were all equally ferocious on a Squash court.
Here’s a sample list of some of the academy’s graduates:
Kush Kumar: Won Gold in the Asian Youth Games, Bronze in the World Juniors, Gold in the South Asian Games; won the National Championship (Junior) 9 times.
Ravi Dixit: Won Gold in the Asian Junior Championship, Gold in the Malaysian Junior Open and Gold in the South Asian Games.
Parmeet Singh: Won Silver in the Asian Junior Team Championship; Bronze in the Qatar Team Championship; Won the National Championship (Professional) 6 times.
Ranjit Singh: Won Gold and Bronze in various Asian Junior Team Championships.
Abdur Rahmaan: Highest National Ranking (Men’s) – 9; Winner of All India Inter-University Men’s Championship as part of the Delhi University.
Amjad Ali Khan: Highest National Ranking (Men’s) – 6; Gold Medal, National Inter-State Team Championship; Multiple Times Winner of the Uttar Pradesh State Championship.
Sajid Hussain: Represented India in the Qatar Team Games; Represented Delhi State at Nationals and won Gold. Won Haryana State Championship; 2 times medalist at All India Inter-University Games.
Diwaker Singh: Highest India Ranking (Juniors) – 2. He has represented India twice – during matches in Britain and Tamil Nadu.
Khushboo Naseem: Highest India Ranking (Girls) – 2, Asia Ranking (Under 11) – 5; Currently ranked 9th in the Girls Under 15 category.
Indeed, Amjad Khan even returned to the academy as a coach and is considered instrumental in continuing the academy’s tradition of bringing out the best talent at national and international levels.
At the Dhampur academy, Goel was also impressed by player Amjad Khan, who also became a coach at this new academy in Delhi. All this was instrumental in bringing out talent and preparing players to compete at the national and international levels.
Many of those who don’t play professionally now have gone on to set up their academies – that have trained current and upcoming champions.
In sum, Goel’s attention has helped Squash develop an entire eco-system in India over the decades, a rarity for a sport that is not Cricket, Football or Hockey. And it is incredible to think, it all began in a sugar mill!
(Story By: Akhil Kishore. Edited by Vinayak Hegde)
In 1993, after the Chicago Bulls won their third consecutive NBA title, Michael Jordan announced his retirement. It would be the first of his three retirements. After a couple of years playing baseball in the minor league for the Chicago Sox, Jordan decided to return to basketball. The documentary ‘The Last Dance’ on Netflix describes plans to announce his comeback. Drafts were written and re-written and Jordan wasn’t satisfied with any of them. Finally, he took him upon himself to tell the world about his return to basketball. He said it with two words:
Nearly three decades later, MS Dhoni announced his retirement using 16 words. “Thanks – Thanks a lot for ur love and support throughout. From 19:29 hrs consider me as Retired.” More than two words but short nonetheless. Just the day before, images of Dhoni landing in Chennai for the IPL preparatory camp were everywhere. It was the first glimpse people of him in months.
There are a few ways to retire:
a) Retiring when you’re on the top of your game
b) Fading away from memory
c) Being forced to retire
d) MS Dhoni’s way to retire
Dhoni has been out of the public eye since India’s heart-breaking semi-final loss to New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup. In early 2020, he was dropped from the BCCI’s list of contracted players. But the man himself was silent. Everyone speculated that the IPL would be his launchpad for his return to international cricket. Then a pandemic brought the world to its knees.
MS Dhoni’s ascent to the stratosphere has been recounted countless times. A lad from Ranchi who moonlighted as a ticket collector and then went onto become one of the most successful captains in the history of Indian cricket. In his 5th ODI, he smashed 148 against Sri Lanka. It can be said that in a single swoop, he cut short the wicket-keeping dreams of Dinesh Karthik, Deep Dasgupta and Parthiv Patel. His 183 against Pakistan a year later sealed the deal. Dhoni was the Adam Gilchrist like figure India had been looking for all along.
Then 2007 happened. India suffered an ignominious first-round exit in the 50 over World Cup and mobs in the guise of fans took out their life’s frustrations on the players. Dhoni’s house in Ranchi, which was still under construction was attacked by mobs. A tired Rahul Dravid announced he was quitting captaincy and Dhoni was appointed captain for the limited-overs formats.
The BCCI, which didn’t even want to send a squad to the inaugural T20 World Cup, finally relented. Those two weeks in September would go on to redefine cricket as we know it. India won the first T20 World Cup and cricket changed forever. Dhoni was now the toast of the town. A few months back, he had to stay back in Delhi until they found a safe passage for him home. Now, he couldn’t go home because everyone wanted a piece of him.
In their book ‘The Power of Moments’, the Heath Brothers write about a phenomenon called ‘The Reminiscence Bump’. According to this theory, some of the most memorable moments in our lives happen during the ages of 15-30. This is only an estimation and doesn’t apply to everyone. The reason is simple – most of our firsts happen during this time period. Leaving home. First job. Falling in love. Getting married. Having children. “Novelty changes our perception of time,” they say.
It’s true. While everyone remembers him finishing off with a six to give India its first World Cup win, here are some Dhoni ‘reminiscence bumps’:
a) Dhoni smashing 148 against Pakistan and 183 against Sri Lanka
b) Dhoni handing the ball to an untried Joginder Sharma in the final over of the 2007 T20 World Cup
c) Dhoni leading India to victory against Australia in the CB series in 2008
d) Dhoni rushing to the stumps to run out Mustafizur Rahman in the 2016 T20 World Cup
e) Dhoni exalting after India won the 2013 Champions Trophy
f) Dhoni walking into bat for CSK and the crowd losing it
g) Dhoni stealing another single
i) Dhoni falling short of the finish line in the 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand
Just as our most memorable moments occur relatively early in life, Dhoni’s greatest highs came in the first six years of his captaincy. He led India to wins in T20 and 50 over World Cups in 2007 and 2011 respectively. India reached No.1 in the Test rankings in 2009. In 2013, he led India to victory in the Champions Trophy. He was captain when India lost the T20 final to Sri Lanka in 2014 and the Champions Trophy finals to Pakistan in 2017. In 2015, India lost to Australia in the 50 over World Cup semi-finals after being unbeaten throughout the tournament. In 2016, they were hot favourites to win the T20 World Cup at home but lost to West Indies in the semi-finals.
For the longest time, one of the preconditions for greatness was being a test great. While Dhoni played 90 tests, it wasn’t his preferred format. It is a known fact that then BCCI head honcho N Srinivasan stepped in to stop him from being axed as captain after disastrous overseas tours against England and Australia in 2011-12. In many ways, 2011 was 2007 for Dhoni all over again. In 2007, an incredible low was followed by an exalting high. In 2011, an incredible high was followed by forgettable lows. While he didn’t let in on why he quit test cricket, the multiple overseas losses must have bogged him down.
It can be said that after Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni is the most popular cricketer that India has produced. How else can someone from Ranchi find a second home in Chennai? And after Kapil Dev, he was the next person from small-town India who gave an entire generation the license to dream.
So that’s how one of India’s greats pulls down the curtains. With an Instagram post in the midst of a pandemic. This means he is in a bio-secure bubble somewhere, away from the media hounds and die-hard fans. Even a glittering ceremony, if it ever should be conducted, is some time away. So all we will have to live with are the memories.
In Michael Jordan’s eulogy to the late great Kobe Bryant, he said: “When someone dies, a part of you dies.” Something similar happens when a sporting hero retires – a part of you goes with them. It’s an inexplicable feeling. In some strange way, your life and their deeds on the field are intertwined.
I keep thinking – why is it that when some players retire, it hits us hard? I think it’s because we trust them with our dreams. We hinge our happiness, peace of mind and a good night’s sleep on how they play on the field. It’s a huge responsibility and our dreams and wishes don’t always come to fruition. That’s life.
But we wake up the next day and put our dreams in their hands again. That’s why we watched as long as Dhoni was at the crease. That’s why the rising run rate didn’t matter. As long as Dhoni was there, there was reason to keep dreaming.
Dhoni will go down in history as a great captain, fantastic finisher and astute keeper.
But more importantly, he was the keeper of dreams.
Author: Pawan Ram | Edited by Vinayak Hegde
Pawan is a writer, blogger, podcaster, and masala dosa aficionado based in Bengaluru. Article originally published in Pages of Sport
