The Society has been in continuous and intimate interaction with the landless and poorer categories, especially the Dalits. As in previous years, the Society has assited them in their medical, social and legal problems. It has helped several of them in their health problems by providing treament to the most needy; it has interacted with them to resolve their internal conflicts amicably; it has provided legal aid to those denied their rights, and in at least three notable cases ensured that land got distributed to the landless. It has highlighted women's issues and generally provided such cultural and knowledge inputs as will awaken and conscientise the landless. the details of these activities have already been seperately placed before the General Body in March.

The educational activities of the Society take place just outside the residential area of the Aau village in a quiet and peaceful atmosphere in the lap of nature. The educational activiies are in two parts; a non formal primary school (classes 1 to 5); and a formal but highly innovativejunior high school (classes 6 to 8).

The primary school was started in July 1995 in response to persistent popular demand from the villagers and Pradhans of the area. Begining with class 1, each year a new class is added, and in July 1999 the school will have all 5 classes. This year we have added class 4, but we are short of staff, since we have only a Headmaster and 2 assistant teachers. The response evoked by this school has been highly gratifying, and we are happy to note that we have had no dropouts. This school is run as an innovative non-formal venture and draws students from Aau and 4 neighbouring villages. The present situation is that we have 132 students in four classes, roughly 33 students in each class, which is a manageable number. Almost all the children are first generation students, and more than half are from the Scheduled castes. Roughly every third student is a girl, their exact number being 42. All fresh admissions take place in class 1 only and always begin on 1st of July. A welcome function is held on 15th July of each year and is conducted in the main by senior children. The seniors speak to the freshly entering little ones about life in the school.

Every morning at assembly the children say universal prayers. Love for one's country is also inculcated so that it may become a permanent feature of their personalities. Special attention is paid to their cleanliness and higiene. Children are encouraged to play games and to improvise new ones, the object being to make them experience a sense of freedom in the school. Earmarking special periods for singing familiar folk songs enhances this feeling. Of course this is done in an amateurish way since we do not have and cannot afford a regular music teacher. Much of the teaching is combined with play, and even mathematical tables are taught in such a manner as to make them seem like yet another game. Children are also encouraged to interact with the enviornment by observing the trees and birds in the campus, by being motivated to plant saplings and tending them, and by observing the entire agricultural  process on the Society's land in all its different stages. In their enthusiasm the children sometimes lend a helping hand, very much like the squirrels who participate in building the bridge to Lanka for Sri Rama. In addition children were taken on an educational visit to a nearby place in Januay and their enthusiasm and joy knew no bounds. On return the children were asked to narrate what they had observed, the purpose being to help increase their powers of observation and recall.

In teaching we follow no syllabus as such. Books serve merely as one of the guides for the teacher, the other guide being the pupil himself who sets the pace of the teaching-learning process. Our endeavour is to equip the child with the language skills necessary for further education, special emphasis being  laid on facility in reading. In our view, fluency in reading is the key to the study of any subject. Great care is taken to teach also writing and the fundamentals of arithmetic; but our first priority is fluency in reading.

It is our conviction that the child learns most effectively through his own experiences. Hence the classroom is used inter alia to consolidate what the child has already experienced, and to convert that into the formal learning process. A major effort of the school is to provide to the experiences to the child that will develop his/her whole personality, i.e. joyous experiences; community experiences.

One of the features of this year's activities is the number of functions that were held during the year. Some of these functions are listed here with: Independence day, Gandhi Jayanti, Republic Day, Netaji Subhas Jayanti, Vivekanand Jayanti, Bal Diwas, Ambedkar Jayanti, Teachers Day. These functions generated a spirit of enthusiasm in the children and created a sense of unity and joy in them. We hope to make these functions a permanent feature of the school. Bal Diwas was celebrated jointly with the junior high school (Krishi Audyogik Vidyalaya), and one of the interesting consequences of this needs to be highlighted. The senior students (that is from 6th, 7th, and 8th) put up a dramatised version of Premchand's story 'Mantra'. The children of the primary school had been observing the rehearsals, and in this process they effortlessly learnt to enact the play themselves - which they formally did at their next function on 23rd January (Netaji Subhas Jayanti). 

Another feature of our primary school is that, while its non formal character is retained in every other way, the timings that we maintain are those of a full day normal school. This unique blending has emerged out of ground realities, chiefly the demand and expectation of dalit parents that their children be provided education of the best standard. That is why we also take care to appoint only trained teachers.

The primary venture has been very satisfying, and we feel encouraged to expand the school and make plans for the future. The essence of the matter is that children are very responsive to a natural enviornment that provides variety and stimulation to their eager minds. We therefore require activities that encourage spontaneity in children. 

Our future plans include the following:
setting up a swing, a slide, a see-saw, and a jungle gymnasium for the children to play in; teaching music, both folk and patriotic songs, with the help of a trained music teacher, so as to stimulate creative and artistic sensibilities; taking children out for regular educational visits, so as to encourage curiosity and stimulate the faculty of observation; building a rich and varied library; and starting a science club so that there is never an end to excitement in the school.

The fees charged from the students is just Rs. 2 (two rupees) per month per child. Hence running this non-formal venture constitutes a very heavy and continuing burden on the society, and the scope for bringing much needed improvements is dependent on assistance from outside. There is simply no way for the children of the deprived to finance decent education for themselves.

The junior high school (Krish Audyogik Vidyalaya) has been running for the past 17 years. It has three classes, 6, 7 & 8, with a total of 109 students, i.e. a manageable average of a little over 35 per class. This school has a staff streangth of a Head Master, 4 assistant teachers, a clerk, and 2 peons. The salaries of these staff are being paid by the state government. But no other financial assistance of any kind is being from the government or any other source. More than half of the students are from the backward castes, and roughly another third from the scheduled castes. There are also 21 girl students. The junior high school caters to Aau and 15 neighbouring villages. The school is generally recognized as being the best junior high school in the whole of Banda district. Perhaps because of this reason children come to it from even Atarra which is the tehsil headquarters - despite the fact that we discourage non villagers. The most characteristic feature of the school is its system of participatory discipline under which students are encouraged to handle most of their problems themselves. This is reflected in all public functions, and more especially on children's day which is managed and supervised entirely by the students themselves. No adult or teacher comes to the forefront. This participatory system has the effect of breaking the patterns of behaviour inherited from a feudal culture and helps create a more modern non-hierarchical pattern of behaviour. Efforts are also made to involve parents in school activities.

The students have been divided into four dals or houses, Abhimanyu dal, Eklavya dal, Nichiketa dal, and Lavkush dal. As in other years, all major extra-curricular activities like debates, elocution contests, and games are conducted in a spirit of enthusiasm and healthy competition between the respective dals. The main games being played in the school are kabaddi, khokho, volleyball, tug-of-war, athletics, etc. Other extra-curricular activities included the various functions held from time to time in the school. These included enviornment/afforestation day; Hindi day; science day; human rights day; world health day; rural culture day; women's day; children's day; teachers day; youth day. In addition there are the national festivals such as Independence day, Republic day, Gandhi jayanti day, Netaji Subhas jyanti and Ambedkar jayanti. As in previous years, women's day was celebrated on 26th February instead of 8th March for the convenience of dalit working women who go harvesting in March each year. Rural culture day is our own creation and serves to highlight the vitality of rural culture and brings together diverse rural talents in the expression of folk songs, games and tamashas. The object in holding all these functions is to liberate the minds of young village boys and girls from narrow and constrained conceptions. At a more concrete level, the purpose is twofold. First, to familiarise students with the ideas of the great religious reformars, so that a changed and modernised conception of religion enters their consciousness, and the process of reform is carried forward. Secondly, to acquiant students with the freedom struggle and inspire them with the desire to lead a life of service for the common people. Free residential facilities have also been provided so as to inculcate new samskaras of thte corporate living in the children and to give special guidance to the poorest and weakest students. This year only about 30 students availed of this faciliy, for shortage of funds comes in teh way of our providing any meals or beds to the children. They have been required to arrange these for themselves. For the poorest stydents it will be necessary to provide essential facilities, such as chatai, gadda, and razai each, so that special attention can be given to these poor students, and new habits of corporate living also inculcated in them. 

It is our beleif that every child over the age of 10 ought to have travelled by train outside his/her district. However, on account of paucity of funds, we are unable to do so. As in every other session the children were taken on an educational excursion withing the district on 26th Januray. We are porud to state that our computer awareness program, which was started last year after its inauguration by the commissioner of Jhansi, is working successfully and has evoked the enthusiasm of the children. The Governor of UP granted us four computers after a visit to our school -- three for the students in the school and one for the training centre at Allahabad where the teachers are trained in the basics of handling a computer. It is generally beleived that the computer facilities provided by us are the first of their kind for the rural children in the state. However, electric supply is highly irregular and erractic in the village and we cannot do without a generator. We also need to upgrade our computers and repair a printer for satisfactory and proper use of the computers. It our settled conviction that elementary education be a success only if it is treated as an end in itself, i.e. a complete unit on its own. It must not be regarded merely a preperation for further studies or the next stage of education. This completeness demands that elementary education get related to useful economic activity, and become a part of life, instead of being merely academic study. It is this thinking that underlies our concern for teaching agriculture and other skill-development activities. We have an agricultural farm, and the students of the junior high school are taught about the latest agricultural practices, techniques, and technologies, seeds, compost and other fertilizers, water management, etc. We also have orchards of mango, guava, and lemon; and the students are taught about their maintenance and development. This teaching is both theoretical and practical, the students being encouraged to maintain their own mini-farms on the campus in small groups. But we have to admit the fact that this teaching suffers from a serious drawback in that it is still being done without various essential agricultural implements like tractor and other accessories such as thresher, winnower, spray machine, seed drill, or stock of seeds. We are also working on the idea of teaching certain basic skills that are important in the the rural context, such as sheet metal work, tailoring, fitting, plumbing, etc. This will equip them for practical life with the knowledge and capacity to carry on some trade of their choosing. Towards this end we have started a to build a special fund for this purpose from this year. At the same time we trained a group of girls in tailoring in Allahabad at the prestigious Ruchi's Institute of Creative Arts. We have also trained one of our staff in bee-keeping and are now planning to start bee-keeping on a small scale. progress is hampered by lack of funds for hiring regular trainer for sheet metal work, etc.

In this way the Society is carrying on its activities, with limited funds, in a highly adverse enviornment with integrity, responsibility, continual innovation, and substantial success. The Society looks forward to financial assistance so that a new dimension may be imparted to its existing activities. It thereby hopes to deliver enduring benefits to the deprived sections of society of whom many talk but few really care.

Lali Uniyal
Secretary
Bhoomi Heen Sewa Samiti
6A, Panna Lal Road
Allahabad- 211

(15th July, 1998)