Hi everyone,

Earlier I had posted the message “Impressions of Lalpur” about my
visit to the Asha Center at Lalpur, (near Lucknow), UP. In this
mail, I discuss the direction we would like to see the Asha Center go
in. I have already discussed these issues with Sandeep, Arundhati &
Shanmuga to some extent. They suggested that I pass them on to the
larger team for discussion. Given the importance of Asha Centers for
the future plans of Asha, I am posting this email Ashawide. We can
move the discussion to asha-center egroup, if it becomes too big. 
Sandeep’s original articles and updates on the center, are in the
“asha-center” egroup.

Overall, I was very impressed by what the Lalpur team has
accomplished at the Asha Center in just 2 years. Because of the
two-day meeting, I got a chance to meet several of the Lalpur
volunteers – Mahesh, Paramita, Sheetal, Shalini, Neeta, and visitors
from Ballia, Kanpur, Assam & Delhi. I found them all to be extremely
nice and motivated people. It felt so good to come half way across
the world to join a group of complete strangers, but feel right at
home.

Some of you have seen an earlier version of this message, on which I
have expanded and added feedback from Sandeep, Arundhati & Shanmuga. 
I invite your comments for further discussions…


1. ACCESS TO SCHOOL FOR KIDS

The Lalpur team is interested in offering an alternative education to
the children of Lalpur. However, the school has been operating only
intermittently, as and when volunteers are available. Most recently,
while Neeta was spending 3 weeks at the center, she took up the
schooling of the village children. However, the school is not
continuous, since it depends on the availability of volunteers. The
Lalpur team recognizes this gap, so hopefully, this will be fixed
urgently.


2. CURRICULUM -- 3R’s ARE ENOUGH

“Basic reading, writing and math are enough” was a statement I heard
several times on Saturday from several Lalpur volunteers. Basically
they feel that the village kids do not need to know much beyond basic
literacy and vocational skills. I disagree with this sentiment. 
Part of the reason I appreciate the world around me the way I do is
because of my education, which went beyond the basic 3R’s. Knowing
how improbable it is for life to exist on any planet, makes me
appreciate this one and makes me aware of how fragile it is. I would
have never understood it the way I do, if I had hadn’t learnt
physics, astronomy, biology and statistics. And even though I do not
use physics now and will probably never use it professionally, I do
not consider the 6 years spent on a Ph.D. a waste of my time. All in
all, it was beneficial to me. I am not suggesting that everyone
needs to do a Ph.D., but rather that going beyond 3R’s is necessary
to help students gain a perspective on the world around us. 


3. CURRICULUM - HISTORY LESSONS 

At the meeting, it was mentioned that the history curriculum for the
Lalpur kids would include only biographies and stories about people
who were progressive thinkers. Though these might be great people to
learn about, I feel that such a narrow definition of history is not
right. Education should give students breadth of perspective, not
limit them. Otherwise, what is the difference between propaganda and
education? Isn’t the distinction that propaganda only presents one
point of view? By teaching them only about one type of people, isn’t
the Center guilty of the same? I believe that we should provide Asha
center kids with high quality education. It doesn’t mean that it has
to be standard board education, but that it should teach them about
themselves, their immediate world and the larger world. We should
not short-change these kids. If we cannot feel comfortable sending
our own kids to Asha center schools, then we should rethink our Asha
center school curriculum. Kids, regardless of their environment need
the same foundation, on top of which we can impart education
specialized to their environment. But the foundation needs to be
solid. And, selective education cannot provide a solid foundation. 


4. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT THEY WANT, AND WHAT WE OFFER

There appears to be a difference between what they want, and what we
want to offer them. They want their kids to get “factory jobs”
(something I heard from a mother of 3 boys), but we teach them
beekeeping and brick-making, etc. They want a formal school with
books for their kids, but we teach them through alternative
innovative techniques. I wonder if we can claim to know better what
is good for them, than they themselves. I don’t know. But I do
believe that true development should give people more choices, not
less. If we truly believe that our view of the world is right, don’t
we need to first get them to agree with the Asha team on what is good
for them, before trying to take them on that path? If a boy really
wants a “factory job”, why not help him prepare for one? Yes, we
should make sure that we teach him about different types of jobs, the
trade-offs and even what our recommendation is and why, but if he
still wants it, shouldn’t we help him achieve his goal? 


5. OWNERSHIP

Though the villagers think well of the Asha team, and though they
collectively now “oversee” the Ashram accounts, I didn’t see a strong
sense of ownership on their part

a. No-one brought up any issues for discussion at the village meeting
(most were prepared by Sandeep, some by Mahesh)

b. Only two people showed up for village cleaning on Sunday morning

c. On asking one of the villagers whose home I had dinner at, one
family member said, “The Ashram has been of no benefit, and no harm
to us”. 

I know that the Asha team has been working hard at mobilizing the
community and getting their involvement. Just the fact that they
come to these meetings and participate constructively demonstrates
the team’s efforts. We have achieved transparency, but not
ownership. Is there anything that can be done to increase their sense
of ownership? As an example, let me suggest an alternative way that
could be used for the village cleaning exercise. I don’t know if it
would work, but it may be worth a try. Usually, when we assign
individual responsibility it has better effect. Instead of asking
the “yuva mandal” (youth group) to do the cleaning, could we have
asked for a single volunteer to own the cleaning for that week? 
Every week then onwards, a different youth would own the task. 
Villagers could even rate the quality of the work from week to week. 
Not only would we have a cleaner village, but we would also teach the
kids responsibility. Villagers could collect a minimal amount as
pay. If the work is done well, that kid’s family would receive the
pay. This money should not come from Ashram funds, but the villagers
themselves since the goal is to increase ownership. Just a thought…

[Addendum based on discussions with Sandeep & Shanmuga: Shanmuga
mentioned that another purpose of doing the village cleanup this way
is to remove the stigma associated with such work. Sandeep mentioned
that another purpose of this is to encourage ‘shramdaan’ (“gift of
labor”) for community activities. So paying for it would not be the
best way to go. But I still think that we need to get individuals
responsible and accountable for activities on a rotating basis,
instead of a nebulous "community"]


6. INVISIBLE GIRLS

Is there anything we can do for the girls in the village? The only
time I saw one over 5, was when she was cooking dinner. Not knowing
the situation in the village, I don’t have specific suggestions, but
only questions… [Response from Sandeep – the girls go to school and
then go straight home to help with housework or on the field, whereas
the boys go to play. My suggestion would be to get some of them
involved in “visible” activities – eg. dispensing homeopathic
medicines at the center. What about health clinics for girls? If
they are going to spend the majority of their time cooking and taking
care of younger siblings/children, why not get them together to
discuss and solve issues related to these activities.]


7. INCOME GENERATION:

All the Lalpur programs either current, or past, are related to small
cottage industry – they make products that sell elsewhere. There is
nothing wrong with the skills being taught, but I think these
particular ones make the villagers more dependent than before on
outsiders. Currently the production activities are done by village
youth at the Asha center, and the products are sold through personal
contacts of Asha volunteers in Lucknow . Think about it. Once these
products are made, only the Asha people know where to sell them. If
the Asha team were to leave tomorrow, the villagers would be unable
to engage in any of these production activities. Therefore, it is
important that 

(a) they be taught the skills needed for all the processes from
beginning to end: product design/innovation, manufacturing,
packaging, marketing, sales & distribution. The reason I was
originally excited about the beekeeping, chyavanprash programs etc,
was that I was thinking that these programs will teach the villagers
entrepreneurship and self-reliance in something other than farming. 
But these cottage industry programs seem to be currently implemented
as manufacturing programs from what I can tell. In my opinion, we
need to make extra effort in knowledge transfer about every step of
the process.

(b) they also be encouraged to do jobs that do not require a city
distribution network, eg. brick making, shopkeeping, cycle repair,
etc. 

Furthermore, only 2 or 3 skills are being taught. When I was growing
up, I learnt about and saw many many types of jobs around me – from
doctors, govt. officials, electricians, plumbers, shop owners,
sweepers, politicians – everything that a vibrant community requires
to flourish. Here kids are taught that they can either be farmers or
be involved in cottage industry. That’s it. What about everything
else? What about other possible jobs within the village: handpump
repair, bicycle repair, electrician (for biogas or power plant),
doctor, village activities coordination, etc. What about other jobs
outside the village: shopkeeping in Atraulli (a larger village near
Lalpur), private industry, etc.? 

[Note from Sandeep – they are already acting on one of the
suggestions. They are going to set up shop in Atraulli to sell
Center products. I still think that there is a missing piece – which
is training in business skills. Normally shops are inherited from
one generation to next and shopkeepers learn tricks of the trade from
their parents. In this case, they need to learn it from the center
team. Instead of just setting up the shop, they need to be taught
the basic skills of running a SUCCESSFUL business.]

So, overall, my suggestion on income generation would be to:

1. Create jobs in the village. [My original idea of sanitation
worker was not practical, but there must be other things that
villagers need. More on this topic in the next section.]

2. Start training someone in homeopathy, in an apprentice-like
situation (“learn by watching and doing”). 

3. It would be great if one of these new village jobs would be held
by a girl. Especially, the homeopathy…

4. Create a small module for adults on business skills, using
examples from their life – how to run a successful shop, how to label
and package products for improved sales? A very simple thing to do
is compare the labelling/packaging of honey from Lalpur and Kanpur. 
One I’d buy only because I know Sandeep, the other I wouldn’t mind
picking “off-the-shelf” of any store. 

5. Train and hire a villager as the school teacher. Is there anyone
qualified? [Sandeep says he has two possible candidates in mind. 
The plan is get have this person take over the production activities
for income and to teach for free. – more on this philosophy of
teacher pay in next section] 


8. SELF-SUSTAINING ECONOMY:

In general, any healthy economy needs to have the ability to create
employment for ALL its members. Otherwise, it becomes unsustainable.
What do I mean by employment? It includes self-employment and
working for others. Currently the two major options that most people
think about are either farming or govt jobs. I think there should be
a strong emphasis on the “self-employment” side. Small businesses
drive economic growth [eg. The last decade in the US was strongly
driven by all kinds of small businesses, even though 95% of them
failed]. In my opinion, the goal of the Asha center should be to
help create a socially responsible, economically viable community. 
To me that is the definition of “self-sustainability”. To that end,
we need to seriously think about the kind of economic activity the
villagers can get involved. 

Let’s say the village today has 100 families that are surviving on
agriculture, and they each have 2 sons, each of whom will start their
own family. When they get older, only one of these sons can go into
farming. What is the other son supposed to do for income for his
family? If we encourage entrepreneurship, maybe he can engage in
different types of economic activity. 

Today the only thing we are teaching them is production, not
entrepreneurship. Secondly, we are restricting them to a production
economy. Why not a service-based economy? Instead of everyone
collecting their own unsafe drinking water, why can’t one person be
taught how to purify water and that person supply water for the whole
set of neighbouring villages for an affordable charge? Instead of
requiring that the teacher produce honey etc., why can’t we recognize
the economic value of teaching and pay the teacher? 

I think our goal should be to create a SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE,
ECONOMICALLY VIABLE COMMUNITY. I think we can do it, but it will
require us to be open to completely new ways of thinking and doing
things. Usually we don’t think of economic principles and social
work in one sentence. But they go hand-in-hand. A just society
without economic viability is as undesirable as a economically
flourishing society based on exploitation. 


9. POWER PLANT

Sandeep mentioned a plan for a wood burning power plant. The plan
was to cut wood from a tree plantation in a sustainable manner. The
challenge is that there is no land for planting these trees. Also it
would take a long time for the trees to grow. My question was why
not go for a solar plant? [Response from Arundhati – solar plants
are way too expensive and still quite impractical. A better
alternative is to demand proper power connection from the govt.,
something it is supposed to provide anyway. This will require some
effort, and might take a while.]


10. LALPUR KIDS ASKING FOR STUFF

I was approached several times by kids asking for stuff such as,
pens, cups, etc. Do these kids go to their neighbours and ask for
stuff? If not, why do they behave this way with Ashram visitors? 
Maybe these were isolated minor incidents, but I wonder if we are
sending the wrong message... 



I know that the Lalpur team has worked hard to accomplish all that I
saw there. In the spirit of open discussion, I wanted to raise these
questions that stood out in my mind... 

Thanks,
Richa