Message: 1 Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 23:39:35 +0530 From: Subashree Rajagopal Subject: Kuvempu Trust Progress update for 2003 Kuvempu: Progress report for 2003, Report given by D.V. Prakash, coordinator, Kuvempu Trust Prior to one year, there were 10 Vidya Kendras. Now there are 15. Five new Vidya Kendras were started 3 months back. The vidya kendras are evening tuition centers for school going children. This year, the 7th standard results were better than last year, as per the school records and marks. 95% of the children in the VKs are school going children, but a few children who are employed as laborers, in cattle herding and as domestic help, also drop in to the VKs. Approximately 3 -4 children in every VK do not go to school, but since they live in the village, they come to the center. These children are taught basic literacy and Mathematics. The school going children are helped with their school work. The VKs function from 6-8:30 pm. If the attendance register enrollees number more than 50, then 2 teachers are placed in the center. In 15 VKs, there are approximately 550 children. The class room is multi-age. Majority of the children are in classes 1-4. Number of children in classes 5, 6 and 7 decrease because of work pressures for the children. In the beginning, around 3 years back, there would typically be one or two children in the 6th std, 1-2 children in the 7th and 1-2 in the 5th. Now there are maybe 7-8 in Class 5, 5-6 children in Class 6 and around 5 children in each VK in Class 7. A few 8th std children also come in, since the teacher does not want to say no to them coming. But the responsibility of the VKs are only up to Class 7, because 8th std coaching level is slightly higher than existing teacher capacities. In the center run by Mr. Devendra, 6 children have passed Class 7, so all these 6 children are coming to the same center for tuition for Class 8 as well. From 5-6:00 pm in the evening, the children play volleyball, skipping, carom, ring tennicoid, shuttle etc. The children come to the center right after school for the play hour. The tuition starts after the play hour. Every Friday, there is a cultural program at the school, where they are taught dance, music. There is painting and drawing and arts and crafts once a week. Monthly, the VK teacher goes to the govt school to inquire about the progress of the students. There is a parents teachers meeting once a month. Besides this, field work is done in the villages. Mr. Krishnappa's field work: The teachers, as well as Mr. Krishnappa go to the villages and see what problems there are - for example, whether there are street lights, if electricity is available, getting widow pensions, getting certificates from the taluk office for the handicapped, getting govt pension for retired cultural artists, working with the SC / ST corporation to avail of govt programs. For example, getting bullock cart loans, loans for buying buffaloes, poultry, goat / sheep etc. Mr. Krishnappa then went on to list a few of the field activities he has been recently involved in. He has recently completed all the paper work for obtaining a 10K bullock cart loan, but the money has not come in yet. MLA Ashraya yojana - this is a program for giving housing - 15 ft X10ft concrete walled houses with cement slab roof and tiles - Rs. 20,000 is given in 3 installments for building this housing, the first installment given after the basement, the 2nd after the roof, etc. Mr. Krishnappa worked with officials in the taluk panchayat, zilla panchayat and got 15 houses sanctioned. For SC / ST farmers, there is a Visesha Gadaka Yojane for giving grants for land development - for example, for buying fertilizer, weeding, supports for banana trees, pesticides. This grant is available up to Rs. 10,000. Mr. Krishnappa has got this grant for 1 person. From the SC / ST corporation, Ganga Kalyana Yojane, individual loans are available. As well as from Mahila Makkala Kalyana something? - individual loans are available for women for starting small businesses like papad / pickle making, vegetable vending, etc. 2 women obtained Rs.12,000 each, out of which the bank gave Rs. 5000 as a grant and the SC / ST corp gave Rs. 7,000 as a loan. In general, the teachers help in getting caste certificates, pensions, yellow cards for below poverty line, which helps in getting lower prices for rice from the pds, help in getting land records, pattas, availing of govt fixed deposit schemes - for example, there is one for families with 2 girl children, wherein the govt deposits Rs. 500 / annum every year for 18 years for each of the children. Mr. Krishnappa has obtained this for 7 families. Then they also conducted a survey of all the devadasis in the village of Janukonda. 22 women have been identified. A letter was sent to the Women and Child welfare dept, requesting rehabilitation packages and vocational training govt programs available for the children. Mr. Lokesh' field work (in addition to teaching at the VK): Got land pattas for 8 people, covering 24 acres. Got widow pension for 2 women (Rs.100 / month). Got caste certificates for 3 people. Training Activities: Typewriting: Classes have been started. Training has been provided for 5 girls for 3 boys. Ms. Jayamma provides the training. Tailoring: Training is given by Mr. Gurumurthy and Ms. Pushpa. Ms. Pushpa has completed training 6 people in tailoring in batch 1 and 19 people in batch 2. They have 7 sewing machines. Teachers are paid Rs. 200 / month. Screen printing training is provided by Mr. Rudresh. Mr. Rudresh is overall Kuvempu - in - charge, takes care of cleaning, maintenance of all machines, takes care of all the office work. Mr. Rudresh has trained 2 batches in screen printing, with around 6-7 people in each batch. Bag making: Training is also provided in bag making. These are bags made of wire, and cloth and embroidered with thread. The samples were good, and the market value could range up to Rs. 100 / bag, depending on the size and the work. The 1st batch is done. Library work: There is a well functioning library, which houses between 500-1000 Kannada books. The library hosts a significant collection of Kannada books and is most likely to be one of the best, if not the best, in the area. The teachers are given around 15 - 20 books each once a month when they come in for the staff meeting. The teachers are also given teaching aids and games, which they also rotate and circulate among the children. Kuvempu House repairs: They have fixed 3 doors, replaced a window,and roof tiling. Bought 1 cycle for Mr. Devendra (teacher) and they need to buy 4 more cycles for the other teachers. One motor cycle has been bought to enable visiting villages which are 3-5 kms off the bus route. Previously, if you visited a VK which was 5 kms away, you had to stay overnight, if you wanted to visit 2 -3 such villages in one trip. The village folk are unable to host breakfast and lunch etc and there was also no space in the homes to accommodate staying overnight, and hence the motorbike has solved this problem and is very useful. Next activity: They are planning to start the Kalajathas (street plays) - use of the medium of music and art forms to communicate social themes like advocating literacy, campaign against liquor, etc. They have bought musical instruments: harmonium, tabla, ganjira, etc. Mr. Vrupakshappa is an expert in street play and theatre who will start training the local Kuvempu team. Training is scheduled from Dec 24th thru Jan 1st. A short planning session was conducted last month. They are planning to start the Kalajathas in March / April during the summer holidays.