Yearly Information Survey 

Please attach additional sheets wherever necessary. Thank you for your time and patience.
Organization Profile

Name of the organization: 

Mallarpur Uthnau

Date of establishment:

October 1996.

Location: 

Birbhum, West Bengal	

Description of area: 

Landscape in laterite  weathering crust. Single cropped arable lands and vast grazing lands. 

Current contact person: 

Mr. Kunal Deb

Current Address: 

9, Old Calcutta Road, Kolkata 700 123. 	 
	 	
Current Phone number: 

+91+33+25928109 & +91 9433736133 	 

Curent number of children:

 Early Childhood education Center: 	
Name of Center	Total number of student enrolled 	Boys	Girls	Average presence of student (per day)	Boys	Girls
	
Garia	34	14	20	25	11	14	
Joalbhanga	36	17	19	32	17	15	
Sarjumtola	18	8	10	15	8	7	
Agoya/Duarpahari	33	16	17	30	12	18	
Dholkata	36	15	21	34	15	19	
Jethia	38	17	21	16	6	10	
Jetkepara	30	15	15	22	9	13	
Baromasia	32	14	18	26	12	14	

Coaching Center:
Name of Center	Total number of student enrolled	Boys	Girls	Average presence of student	Boys	Girls
	
Garia	16	10	6	14	9	5	
Jamkandor	32	17	15	25	12	13	

Current Girl/Boy ratio: 

6:5 (girl/boy ratio). Attendance

Current Teacher/student ratio: 

1:28 (teacher/student ratio).

Over all school attendance percentage: 

80.06% (average).

Medium of instruction: 

Bengali and Santhali. 

Details on School curriculum (please attach additional sheets if necessary): 

There have been no major changes in our school curriculum for last one year. 

We have observed the students are comfortable with the teachers and they are regularly attending the classes. There are flexible timetables for running education centers, especially when those centers’ time schedules coincide with ICDS centers and Government primary schools’ timing during different seasons. Since, we do not want to divert students from Government schools and their nutrition programmes, the early childhood centers and coaching centers of Uthnau adjust their timings with the erratic behaviour of time schedules of local Government run primary and ICDS centers. Students of different age group, especially three to ten use to collect their food items from either ICDS centers or from primary schools, but they find no attentions from teachers as well as can’t enjoy classes; feel abandoned. The children come to Uthnau centers for joyous education, where they get friendly attentions, regular lessons from Santali speaking teachers.  The students bring both types of books with them - the Bengali books that are supplied and suggested by ICDS and primary schools and the Santali books that are provided by ‘Uthnau’. As per our observation is concerned, there has been much difference between learning and understanding Bengali language through Bengali and Santali medium primers. Moreover, the Montessori materials and interactive learning make the children enthusiast to attend our education centers. Santali medium lessons are giving more confidence and aspiration in learning for them. This curriculum has become functional most for the Santali students who had never been to the school before. However, our teachers are acclimatizing their students with Bengali languages – in reading, counting, talking and writing, which is helping them to develop perceptions about the concepts expressed in Bengali language. Notwithstanding that Santali children don’t feel comfortable to speak Bengali with any Bengali outsiders. Most of the time the Santali students, even in higher classes face a gap between understanding and expressions of subjects they adapt from lessons. It happens because of less practice in Bengali reading and conversations. Our teachers read different Bengali stories for the Santali students and make them practice conversations in Bengali language, at least twice in a week. The Santali students who come in our coaching centers feel comfortable to ask questions and receive answers in Santali language from our teachers. Our study shows that the Santal students fail in mathematics and sciences because they cannot understand the methods and related questions that are explained in complex Sanskritised Bengali language in their schoolbooks. So the students feel very comfortable to go to those teachers who know Santali language. 
Apart from aforesaid curriculum, our doctor visits every center once in a week in order to check the children’s health and he sensitize children about basic health and hygiene. As a result, the children are so aware that as soon as they find any health complain from classmate, they immediately inform their teacher with view to arranging ailment for their sick friends. 
Cleanliness is an important part of our curriculum. Cleanliness for body, home, school and village are the four essential understandings that our teachers try to percolate among their students through an informal story telling method. Environmental issues comes in this context, like garbage disposal system, conservation of water, plantation etc. 
For our coaching center we are just following formal schools’ curriculum. But at the same time we are giving information and some practical lessons on organic methods of farming and identification of medicinal plants and their uses.  Resource materials are coming from Mr. Arun Ram and Development Resource Service Center’.

  
Please describe the long-term goals of the project. Please mention any changes you may foresee: 

 In long term Uthnau wants to play a catalyst role in people’s direct participation in controlling their local resources (water, land, air, mines, forest, flora and fauna) culture, health and nutrition management with a view to developing equitable and just distribution of benefits in the region which would comprises 50 Santal populated villages. 

In our long term goal we would foresee amalgamation of Uthnau with the platform of people’s voice that may wish to reach within the greater canvas of world wide dream for ‘another world’. Therefore, Uthnau may abrogate its structural identity for handing over its leadership role. 

How much longer is funding required?

6 years.

Current expenditure details:  

See following annexure for detail about the audit report and utilization certificate for April 2005 – March 2006. 

Current total income of your project and details of funds from other sources: 

See following annexure of audited reports for detail.             

                      
Percentage of funds being sponsored by asha – Seattle chapter: 

60.08%

Description of current school facilities (building, equipment etc):

•	Currently we are running 8 pre-school education centers in eight villages. Each has their separate temporary shed, except Dholkata center. 

•	For two coaching centers in two separate villages we have our own sheds. 

•	At present each school has a small black board, duster and they procure 1 box of white and 1 box of coloured chalk per month on average. Each school has six sets of Montessori teaching aids, some pedagogic materials like maps, charts etc. and twelve sets of drawing materials.

•	Each student in early childhood education centers has Santali primers (1st and 2nd part).  

•	Each center maintains attendance register and health register for every student.  

What are the perceived improvements seen for the last year?

•	Teachers are more proactive than before and giving full time in teaching. The process of work division according to the orientation of workers has been going on since July 2005 onward. Because of the expansion of our activities under different projects from last six month during April ’05 to March’ 06 period, we had to gone through some mid-term corrections with respect to work division. Workers, who are good in teaching, have got responsibility to run two centers in two different time schedules.  Baburjee, Ramsurat, Sadi, Sona and Mohon were selected initially for good teachers category. This selection and categorization have made a major change in quality of teaching.
•	In order to develop knowledge and respect about each other’s works, which may result in a good teamwork, every teacher is interchanging their centers and duties among themselves after a certain period of time. This process has also developed an internal reciprocally evaluated monitoring mechanism.  
•	Staff and volunteer are able to take decision and organize programmes as per priority, like:  
1.	Organizing gender orientation trainings for tribal women, girls, community leaders, volunteers and panchayet members of ten villages that address medico-legal information for tribal women, such as, sexual health, reproductive health issues, STDs, HIV/AIDS and sexual harassment of women and girl children in work place.
2.	Running two medico-legal service centers cum resource centers in two blocks, where members of women’s groups are bringing cases of violence against women, occupational hazards, social and professional injustice and our field workers are collecting relevant information about legal rights, basic health and hygiene, STDs etc. for further dissemination. They are arranging visits of two Kolkata based and one local lawyers in every week.
3.	Identifying the cases of inattentions in health services, nutrition programmes, food security programmes and to put complains, deputations, mass petitions against such negligence like deficiency of public distribution systems, absence of health workers in tribal villages, refusal to give free medicines or treatment, absenteeism of doctors and nurses in health centers etc. This includes legal actions in order to regularize and ensure free health services for poor. 
4.	Organizing exchange programme of traditional knowledge about medical practices and herbal plants among the members of women groups aiming to develop a sense of community belongingness on natural resources.  
5.	Conducting training programmes on herbal treatment and one training on general awareness about health and hygiene.
•	Health monitoring in every center is improving the general health status of the children, which has reduced the casual and inattentive attitude of the parents for their children’s food habit, health and hygiene. 

What are the problems you have faced last year?

Uthnau’s development programmes have reached at cross road. Its main emphasis was livelihood issues, but through education and health programmes we wanted to get an access into the much sensitive issues like livelihood and rights for tribal people in the region. Therefore, education programmes, mainly, were the means and not the end for Uthnau goal. We have already shifted our area of activities more towards livelihood and rights issues. In accordance with those issues we have started new projects.  Notwithstanding that, for supplementing livelihood and rights based programmes, we feel importance of education programmes. However, we understand, at the same time, the immediate need of change in our existing mode of operation, especially, the early childhood centers. Engagements of our trained and motivated organizers into the early childhood centers are eating up much time and energy and they are unable to give required time for community organization and other related livelihood issued. Impending threat of displacement and dispossession for the local tribal community for coal mining and thermal power plants demands reallocate our attention and focus of our organization. In this context, we could recruit new staff for teaching in our early childhood centers and would have released our organizer staff/workers in order to carry out their activities for livelihood and right-based issues. But, we do not desire to expand our liabilities by increasing the number of salaried staff, because, we are already in the process of abrogating our organizational structure by putting back an open ended mass organization or civil body in the region. Therefore, unless we are not transferring the regular part time pre-primary teaching from our organizers to local volunteers, it would be difficult to arrange a whole time work schedule for community organization along with livelihood programmes. In the course of discussions, we finally have decided to split our staff’s orientations and skills into two whole time sections of activities. One would be education and the other would be community organization. The staff, who are much oriented in education programmes get involved into full time teaching and its allied works. They will come under asha for education’s project. And the rest will be engaged into other right based projects of different foundations. During this mid-term correction two centers ( Jethia and Sarjumtola) faced irregularity in terms of continuity and attention.   

Anything you would like to say to us: 

Sorry for our late response in sending report. Please approve our proposed budget for 2006-2007. We have already sent the detail budget. We will send you soon our audited report for the financial period of April 2005-March 2006 along with utilization certificate for asha expenditure.