Site Visit report to Baikunthapur Sanjib Dutta Journey to Baikunthapur

On the 7th of January 2002 my mother and I set out for Baikunthapur to visit Patha Bhaban and to have an idea of Tarun Sangha's (TS) activity in the region. We took a train to Mathurapur, from where Susantada was supposed to lead us to Baikunthapur. It had already been decided that we would catch an early train to Mathurapur, so that we may see the classes going on by the time we reach Baikunthapur. Due to a small misunderstanding we took an earlier train but was fortunate enough to meet Susantada after the next train arrived. It was a long way from the crowded South Calcutta streets to Baikunthapur, which consisted of a forty-five minutes ride in an auto rickshaw, followed by a boat ride spanning more than two hours through the forestry of the Sunderbans. The entire area was divided into a cluster of islands, each of which harbored a number of villages. Baikunthapur and a couple of other villages were clustered in the island named Kultali. Tarun Sangha's activities are concentrated in six villages, under two gram panchayats. Susantada was telling me about some of the activities outside the school that TS had undertaken in the recent past to provide self-sustenance to the people of Baikunthapur.

As the boat pumped its way through one could catch sights of women dragging the fishing nets through waist deep water to catch prawns. After stopping and picking up passengers from the different islands, we reached the destined island. The remoteness of the place could be understood by the fact that the boats did not go any further. Baikunthapur was another one-hour walk from this place but Susantada had made arrangements for a person to pick us up in a motorbike while he was supposed to follow us in a bicycle. Needless to say that I had a feeling of discomfort as I could see the kids staring at us as we were the odd ones out in expensive clothes. While traveling on the motorbike I saw through the entire way that there were no concrete houses other than two or three school buildings. The concept of concrete roads is an even more distant concept. The moment we reached the club of Tarun Sangha, we were greeted by a warm welcome, which is something really hard to put down in words. Besides the teachers and the volunteers a lot of the children gathered around us, catching our hands as the motorbike stopped in front of the club. The classes were going on at that time, in the new building, which was funded by the Irish Embassy. After asking them to go back and continue with the classes we went inside the club and got introduced to some of the teachers and volunteers of the school.

Coincidentally classes on the use of organic farming were also going on at the same time, so we could also meet some of the teachers involved there. One thing, which struck me, and also earlier mentioned, by Anirban in his report, was the lack of shyness, which is very typical of women in the villages, in the ladies involved in the activities of TS. I went around the newly constructed school building, where the classes were going on.

There are three separate rooms for each of the classes 2 to 4. The other three classes were being held in a long corridor in front of the classrooms. Class I was at one end of the corridor and could be distinguished from the two lower kindergartens classes. These two classes were seated in the ground in the corridor without a very clear demarcation between them, which is likely to be confusion for both the children and the teachers. The school building was definitely not well planned and I felt that one more classroom could have been definitely accommodated within the space. Also the corridor was not properly shielded from the rains, which might be a big problem during the monsoon. Susantada also mentioned to me that the cost of the construction exceeded the fund donated by the Irish Embassy by a considerable amount.

The construction of the other building, funded by Asha Seattle had started at that time. The foundation was laid and the construction had reached to a height of around two feet. A round stage was also being constructed on one side for the purpose of cultural activities. Unfortunately the work was stalled at that day because of the death of a relative of one of the laborers, as I was told by Susantada. The four upper classes were provided with benches and desks while as I mentioned before the two lower classes were seated on the ground. But I noticed that the carpentry work for the remaining benches and desks were going on at that time at one side of the club. For the time being Susantada said that he will arrange for mattresses for the children who were seated on the bare dusty floor. There were two toilettes on the side of the school. I was a little doubtful as to how much they were used because one of them was locked at one point of time, but talking to the guardians later gave me the feeling that the students were very conscious about the issue of hygiene.

Lunch Time:

It was lunchtime by then after the end of the morning classes which one could have said from the delight on the faces of the kids. I felt that the provision of the lunch was an important factor for the attendance of the students in BTS Patha Bhaban, which was obvious from the poverty level of the children. I was told that lunch was started from sometime in October.

The food that is provided is nutritious and unaffordable for most of the families who sent their kids to the school. The food item provided that day was bread and a boiled egg. There were no bowls or containers and the food was just distributed to everybody by hand. The children in the crche, which was funded by the Central Social Welfare Board, also received the daily lunch and Susantada told me that he tries to manage it from the funding for the school so that these children do not feel neglected otherwise. Also he said that he would try to provide a proper lunch with rice and vegetables once a week if possible. The uniforms for the children were not ready at the time when I visited but Susantada showed me two school bags, which he had brought as specimen samples to select from.

Joyful Learning

The period of joyful learning followed lunch. Initially the children started with general physical exercises led by one of the teachers. After the physical training part the children dispersed into several groups depending on their interests such as cricket, volleyball, yoga and drawing. One of the kids performed yogasana really well. I was shown some of their drawings they have done on greeting cards, which were quite nice. The way the joyful learning was conducted was quite good because the children were not forced to do anything particular, rather they could choose themselves what they would prefer to do.

Speaking with the parents

While the joyful learning was going on, Susantada took me to one of the classrooms to speak to the parents of the children studying in the school. There were around fifty-to-sixty guardians who had come for the meeting. All of them said that they were very pleased with the proceedings of the school. Since many of them were below the literacy level it was not possible for them to judge really well about the standard of the education. There was a point raised about the setting up of a tutorial centre where the students can have some help outside the school. Though Susantada already have plans for setting up a learning centre, I am not sure whether this is a good idea. Somehow I feel that the students should not go to a tutor for learning something outside the school. Rather they may set up some extra hours in the school itself when the teachers can help the students with their problems. Susantada was saying that a learning center would serve these students as well as the students from the other government schools where the students do not have enough guidance from the students. The guardians told me that all of the students who have passed from BTS Path Bhavan have done well in the government schools. About ten guardians raised their hands when asked whether anybody close to them have joined higher education after passing from the school.

But the majority of the parents were of the view that they will not be able to continue the education of their children just because of poverty. In fact even the students who attend the school have to give a helping hand in the labor-intensive work that their parents are subjected to. Many of them complained about the roads due to the fact that the students are half covered in mud when they come for the school during the monsoon. This is an issue where it may not be possible for Asha to help at this point. They even requested if Asha can fund some money and can provide them with more solar lights. Due to the exorbitant cost of kerosene in comparison with their wages it is difficult for the children to study at night. Another point raised was the scarcity of water during the summer due to which the children have to resort to really unhygienic water both for drinking and other general uses. One of the problems was the lack of any deep tube wells in the area. When I asked them how many deep tube wells would suffice just for the Baikunthapur area, they said two would be a decent number. This might be something worth looking into. If something like this helps in the education of these kids in the wider sense it's definitely something, which we should try to do. One of the ladies also mentioned that their children now are becoming more aware of the sanitation issue and they are objecting to the use of open toilets. Needless to say that the parents were too pleased with the kind of tiffin being provided as the children otherwise never had such nutritious food at home. Overall the mood was that the parents were too satisfied with the school but too concerned that due to their poverty level they will not be able to continue for long with the studies

After speaking to the parents I went to meet the students for the final time in each of the classrooms before they leave. All of them performed some recitations or songs. The remarkable thing was that they were not shy and all of them were just too pleased to come in front of everybody and say something the recitations were both in English and Bengali. Some of the classes also sang songs like "We shall Overcome" in chorus. I looked into some of the textbooks and felt that they were fine.

Some of the things that I forgot to check out were:

* The fees that the students are paying. Susantada gave me an amount but I should just have asked the guardians as to whether they are comfortable about that, thought the guardians by themselves did not mention. It might be a good idea to look into that the nest time.

* Also Susantada told me that all the teachers are receiving the same amount of Rs. 800 now. I did not ask the teachers themselves. I thought that some of them received 600 and some received 800 earlier.

There are a number of problems, which may bar the students from continuing further in education, as I understood after talking to the guardians. Most of them do not have to do anything with the functioning of the school but rather the general poverty level of the families. The cultural atmosphere in Tarun Sangha is quite nice. There was an evening session of music where I met the President of the club. A number of teachers and volunteers participated in singing. I also went for a walk around to have a look at some of the kitchen gardening that they have practiced individually in their houses.

Overall I felt that the progress was satisfactory. In the evening Susantada mentioned about the extra amount of money which he had been requesting. Considering the problems that are being associated with construction at such a remote place, it seemed to me that was reasonable.