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Meeting Minutes - Sunday noon onwards till 6pm

Attendees : Jayashree, Shanmuga, Anita, Satish, Swati, Amit, Manasa, Bash,
Maithreyi, Shamik, Madhav, xx, VijaySureshkumar,Bulusu, Bulusu's Mother,
Supriya.

Shanmuga gave a briefing of what we discussed at the earlier meeting on
Wednesday. He also stressed the point that we have many implicit filters when
we choose our projects for funding. Most projects are located around big
cities. If site visit is not possible to a particular place, the project is
sometimes dropped. People need to be able to write proposals in English to
submit it to Asha. What about projects are local-based and there may not be
anyone literate to write a proposal. It is important to recognise these '
filters' and work towards removing the effect of these filters in our project
selection procedure.

Next he commented on WAH. The voting/ranking procedure of WAH was not
meaningful. Most of the time, its done in a short time, without proper
understanding of what the meaning of this ranking is. Is it possible to
understand 20 projects and issues in a short time and rank them? What the point
of ranking/voting between pomegrante, water, glass,table. One may rank them in
certain order, or vote for one of them, but does that carry any meaning? We do
it as an exercise to raise and disburse money. So we again get into this cycle
of 'Accumulation and Disbursement'. Money and the number of projects then
become the index of progress.

Comment on making websites for the groups we work with : Gagan mentioned that
we already have a website for the projects, lets expand on that and make more
information available. But few others pointed out that this would only project
the identity of the group from Asha's perspective. A lot of other activities
that the organisation may be doing may not be mentioned. So it is important to
have an independent website for the group, which projects the identity of the
group, as they want it to be. Our website can lead to their, but our website
'only', would give just own involvement with them and describe them from the
funding agencies perspective.

Shanmuga then moved on to mention the positive aspects of Asha in the last
decade.

--> Not lost sight of childnre with special needs( includes disablities, street
children, orphanages - chilren without community support, children who are
marginalised ). Typically sustainability in an org pushes the org towards
mainstream projects, but with Asha its not been the case.

Suggestion to further improve upon this - We should understand the issues
affecting these children better. In the census 1991, there were no stats for
handicapped children, if the govt can be forced to provide some stats, then we
can lobby further. At the same time, we should be careful not to get into the
number trap and focus on the actions to be taken. Can allocate x% of total
funds per year to special needs and go out and look for more such projects.
Certain volunteers can take up specific areas and develop/compile info
available. For eg deaf aids available, the task that Gagan took up of compiling
laws for disabled in US etc.

---> Asha Stars : Started by DP and deep @ LA, since the chapter members were
not going to be in LA for long, but they wanted to continue support for the
projects. Half budget comes from chapter, half from Asha Stars. The Asha Stars
commit to funding the project for atleast 3 (??5) years. Also, the decision to
support smaller needs of the chapter can be made by the volunteers and Asha
Stars, need not be referred to the chapter. SKI - skiiyer@y... is the
coord for Asha-Stars. New initiatives for getting Asha Stars projects all over
India. Contact SKI if you would like to be a part of it.

Sometimes, Asha-Stars name is deceiving. In some chapter, few people called and
said, I will donate 1000$, can I get the status of Asha-Star. So the concept
needs to be clearly potrayed. At Seattle, Gagan and Jayashree mentioned that we
are moving towards a variation of Asha-Stars, where each project coord is
trying to find a group of people who can support the project for atleast 3
years. These donors are not necessarily expected to be completely involved with
the project, though the project coord is supposed to keep them updated about
the projects on a regular basis.'

---> Asha Fellows : Maithreyi started this at Seattle. Ravi is one of the
Asha-Fellows and currently supported by Seattle. Siddamma's( Irula Project)
nomination is currently being presented for fellowship. This is a different way
to reach out. The fellows can be considered as seeds, water it and they can
influence larger areas. Efficient way to have influence at large scale.
Immediate effects may not be as obvious as in a project.

Suggestions - Think about how to bring positive interaction between fellows
across organisations ?what kind of fellows should be supported. Currenly 70% to
concentrate on education.
Maithreyi - We can have a conference call and discuss the pros and cons of
fellowship program and the issues that were raised at Asha-Seattle.
Vijay - What about building a team to support the efforts of the fellow
Maith - has not yet grown ot that large a scale.
Gagan - At Bhoomiheen, lalit asked if he can have an assistant, so that Lalit
can channelise his energies in better ways, the cost of the assistant was just
20$ or so/month. So sometime, these small changes in budgets can have a very
large impact.

---> Alt-ed schools - At Seattle this has been a conscious effort to support
alt-ed schools. More discussions later

---> Asha USA volunteers initiating projects in India - Motivating groups in
India, continually interacting with them. Eg - Project Pride - Started by DP,
Asha Jyotirgamaya - Ravi Verma, Anirban and friends- schools near their place.
This is different from going and contributing to an existing NGO. These people
have acted as catalyst and got the local people together to do something. This
has its own problems in the initial stages with follow-up and motivation etc.
Jayashree - One problem with such approach is - people in US commanding people
in India on what to do. Which may not be practical and feasible
Gagan - Finite energy and infinite needs , so is it more effective to say -
lets do ' this' in an area. Is that really the need of the area? If we
concentrate our energies with a group alreayd working in an area then maybe we
have better impact..
Suggestions - Need more institutional support for such initiatives. There's a
need to separate the 'idea' from way it was executed. With better institutional
support, the execution may also become better.

---> Bash mentioned SAC is a major positive effort too.
Shanmuga - Problem is that we are making it easier for the donor. It is mainly
to satisfy the donor's emotional needs. Donor may end up developing emotional
bonding, what if child then drops out of project or if the donor drops out ?
Ethical issues-n Paedophiles etc.
Swati - Proper communication channels between the donor, Asha volunteer, the
project and the children is necessary. Donor's encouraged to meet the children.
Swati and Shanmuga decided to take this argument offline, since it was not very
clear what the pros and cons were. THIS WOULD BE AN INTERESTING DISCUSSION AND
SHD BE TAKEN UP AT A LATER TIME.

Asha GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS AND RESOURCES -

Govt runs - govt schools, corporation schools, orphanages etc. Whole range that
NGOs are involved in,govt is involved. 90% of children attend govt run
institutions. 5-10% in NGO sector. Some dont even have access to these school.
So based on these numbers atleast 90% of our money should go into govet
schools and 10% to other schools. But its exactly the other way round. Are we
avoiding the kids in govt schools ?

Shamik - We think that the govt does not need money and so we only work with
NGOs which need money, since we are stuck in the A/D cycle.

Also working with the govt is more difficult. When NGOs come to us asking for
money, we ask them to fill out questionnaire, when we want to work with the
govt, we have to fill out forms etc! Melli is one person, who is interested in
taking initiatives with the govt schools. The govt has lot of resources for
children, but they get dissipated even before reaching them. We dont need to
give money to the govt, but can atleats make sure that the existing resources
are disbursed properly. Boston and madison are working with Vivekananda
foundation, which has adopted schools in karnataka and working with the schools
to improve the teaching in those schools. Many industrialists just concentrate
on the structural needs of the school when they adopt, we can play a different
role, by taking up teacher's training etc.

Gagan - Train the trainers who train the teachers. That way we can have a
bigger impact. Teacher trainers are typically employed in BEd colleges. FOLLOW
UP ON THIS IDEA

Working with the govt can be slow. Ekalavya - Prashika( Prathmik Shiksha) 5-6
years, very marginal change. Often the teachers are not motivated sicne they
have secure jobs. They only have inspection once a year. Report to the
headmaster. No evaluation. They also have other activities apart from teaching,
during census and elections special duties etc. So amny dont want to spend
extra time on teacher's training.

Gagan - One way is to start with schools, create a good working model and then
get the govt to recognise the schools.

Shanmuga - Alternatively, organisations like Suvidya, Avehi etc whos main aim
is to work with the govt. If NGOs want to use their resources, they are
welcoem, but these groups concentrate on working with govt and state govt
schools. With such projects, one thing to remember is that, once teachers are
motivated, it is important to keep the momentum going, otherwise we may loose
these motivated teachers.

Jay - Encourage other chapters to take up such proposals since we dont have the
bandwidth and have decided to freeze on new projects.

Gagan - Good thing about Asha is having several people working on similar
issues. When we start having too many issues, our effectivness may be reduced.
So we should take up issues that we want to focus on and rest, others can take
it up. Especially with projects, it gets overwhelming, when we dont know the
issues behind all the project our chapter supports

Swati and maith - we are trying to reduce the burden on the project coord by
making a team of people coordinating a project. And its okay if each us know
very well about our projects and a few others, and have some idea of the other
projects. Not necessary to know about each project in complete detail.

DISCUSSION ON ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION
** There was a lot of discussion/debate/arguments/questions on this topic, I am
just summarising the points that came out of the discussion.

Asha supports about 15-20 innovative schools. Seattle chapter supports about 7
of these, has a better understanding of why we need to support them, make a
conscious effort to support such projects and dollow up. We as a chapter should
also work with other chapters on the importance of this and get more funding
for such projects.

A few distinguishing points of alt-ed schools
-> Teacher student ratio high normally 1:20 or so ( which means expensive
education - about 3-4 times more expensive than regular schools)
-> Sensitive to language used to teach ( specific point - regarding teaching
methodology)
-> Such schools question the conventional education system and identify and
try to alleviate the shortcomings
-> Make it more relevant to the child's life.
-> Each alternate school has its own philosphy. A person who started the
philosophy. Once scaled to a large number of schools, the philosophy of the
leader disappears and the schools sometimes are not good. Eg - Montessori
schools.
-> Alt ed could be following state syllabus ( like Vikaasana), but using
different methodologies.

List of alt-ed schools supported - Anugriha, Digantar, Sumavanam, Avehi,
Sutrdar, Vidyabavan, Muskaan etc.
Schools for disabled children - Are they alternate ed schools ?
Jay - It is because there is not standard way of teaching, since no particular
method may work for the child. Is child specific.
Others - Maybe, but then the reason why it is child centered is because of the
need for it to be child centered to even observe some progress in the child. So
its a different category, but some teaching methods adopted can be considered
as alternate teaching methodolgies. They may not have an alternative education
philosophy.
What about schools for drug abused children, street children etc - can we
classify them as alternative ed schools ?

-> Regular schools - Does not work for 90% of the children ( who are poor),
works only for 5-10% of the children in middle and upper middle class. Even
high quality regular schools do not deal with the problems a child may have.
Doctor's son gets better education, while the farmer's son ends up being a
farmer, since the kind of schools they attend are very different. Schooling
itself perpetuates class inequalities. Once in a while we find a farmer's son
who has become a doctor or engg and we hold that person in awe and say that
see, this system can work for them also provided they work hard and want to
become something.
-> What is learnt in regular schools only makes sense and is relevant if one
goes to college and does not stop at 5th or 8th grade. The resources needed to
send 20% of all children attending regular schools to higher education/colleges
would be enormous. Presently only 2 percent of all kids going to school go to
college.
-> Alt ed schools keep in mind that there are not enough resources for everyone
to go to college and so other skills and aspects of education are also given
importance.The skills acquired in alt-ed schools will be relevant to children
even if they do not get into colleges.
->The goal is to keep the existing methods which work for some, and also
enhance it to encompass other methods which will work for others.
-> Alt ed - Allows critical thinking, improves imagination. Encourages
questioning and group learning and peer learning. In regular schools the
content, relation between teacher and child, teaching methodology, the
classroom arrangement all discourage the child from question and critical
thinking.
-> Will alt-ed work for 98% and still keep the benefits of the conventional
system for the 2%? - Yes it would. Need to be given a chance.
->In places where its not possible to have alt-ed schools, the methodologies
etc should be used in state and govt schools. And resource centers like
Sutradar, Suvidya, Auroville etc can make a difference.
-> Is the quality of an alt-ed school comparable to an expensive conventional
school - Yes. In fact sometimes better.
->Children are not left scott free in alt-ed. Children do learn new and
difficult concepts, but in a more enjoyable way, more challenging and
interesting way.
-> Teacher trained in conventional schools realise it is not good and sometimes
move over to alt-ed. But just because alt-ed is different does not necessarily
mean it is good. Teachers frm alt-ed grasp concepts better than teachers in
NGOs/govt schools, and are more independent and motivated and innovate new
teaching techniques etc. Are also involved in curriculum formation.
-> Curriculum is tried to be made locally relevant. and created also locally
sometimes. ike Timbaktoo Collective - is different from other alt-ed schools,
since run by the community itself. The curriculum, methods etc are decided by
the community.
-> What are the tests that would make an alt-ed person different from a regular
school person ? What should be evaluation techniques? How are alt-ed schools
tested on a yearly basis. How is the progress evaluated? - This is very
specific to the school/philosphy. typically since teacher student ratio is
high, highly based on the observations by the teacher, and not based on just
one final exams. Continuous evaluation. In Digantar for eg. teachers need to
maintain a progress sheet for everyday,
Chitra Akka from Vikasana will be here June end and we can have another alt-ed
session with her then.

Proposal for a vision for Asha
---------------------------------
There would be about 500-1000 good alt-ed schools in India. Another 1000
getting better.
->Asha should identify these projects and help them become effective and
efficient. Most of the times, these projects have restricted benefits even in
the areas they operate since they are not able to expand - lack of money. For
eg - Only one child per family etc. This creates problems. Parents dont send
girl child to these schools since they want to give their sons better
opportunities. Increase the benefits of this projects by reaching out to local
state-run or govt-run schools.
-> Form a network among the schools,resource centers and Asha Fellows with Asha
as facilitator. This needs to be well thought out, since we want people from
these alt-ed schools to perceive some benefit out of such a network. Most of
these schools are typically a part of smaller local networks.
-> Orgnaising a confernce where such schools can present their philosophy and
way of teaching can be a starting point, but we shd not stress too much on the
individual philosophy, but be able to identify areas where people can work
together inspite of differences in their philosophy.
-> 50% of alt-ed schools typically want to expand and disseminate what they
have learnt. So they also try and work with govt. Young groups will be more
willing to think about this network and spend time on this effort.
->running these 1000 schools which can be an experiment ground for testing new
alt-ed methods will need 10million $ a year. What is learnt frm here can be
shared equally among the network and can be further disemminated by the network.
-> Start resource centers - One resource center every state ( 15 years time )
Initially we can start off with finding good alt-ed schools and supporting them.

People's Struggles -
Started of with analogy of fire - A building on fire. What would u do ? Save
the people, put out the fire. Where will you direct your resources ? Equally.
Cant say one is important than the other. Most of the time, NGOs and Asha are
in rescuing people mode. Dousing the fire is more difficult, but also very
important. Crude analogy is that people's movements or struggles are like
addressing the problems. People's movement arise when people get together and
address the issues affecting them. NGOs dont work in such a mode. People's
struggles arise when there is an external agency trying to impinge upon their
comfort zone. A struggle is always against something external, the
state/corporation.

Gagan - The govt is not external, it can be internalised, if people are
empowered and take control of the local decisions.

Social Change - Can there be a ideal state that we all want to go towards ? No.
If there was, then once we reach there, then we won't have any more change.
Social change happens slowly and in small increments, once a state is reached,
there is always some dissatisfaction and more change happens. Social change is
the delta between current state to the stage we want to reach. Smaller the
change, more people can identify with it and support the change. Eg - Equality
between men and women - Ideal state would be exactly equal, but need to
recognise the practical hindrances and then identify a feasible state towards
which everyone can work towards.

Categories of people's movements -
--> Nonviolent manner of working( Gandian -
( This does not mean passive non violence, but active non-violence and militant
actions included))
-> NBA - Narmada Bachao Andolan
-> Ekta Parishad - Focus on land redistribution. Land taken by feudals, since
govt gave pattas, the feuds took the land under the name of various family
members or their labourers. This was a way to circumvent the Land Ceiling Act
Bhoodan movement started by Vinoba. Asks the feudal lords is they wud accept
him as their child, yes, then will u
distribute your land in equal to all your children, then give me my share of
land and donated it. Bhoodan became Bhooadhikar, where people did dharnas to
take away land. Govt included the parishad in deciding who should get land. 7
NGOs which channel to money to train Ekta Parishad members from the community,
this way EP is insulated from the govt.
-> NAPM
-> TBS
-> Chattisgarh Mukti Morcha
-> National Fishworkers forum
-> Bhopal groups against union carbide
--> Science movements ( believe in rational thought as basis of all action)
-> AIPSN
-> BGVS
Generated lot of local volunteers and did mass science/education campaigns.
Now they are working on health and concetrating on health for all
One thing to remember with science movements is that - sometimes social change
is not completely rational. The existing social structures affect the way
social change pans out. So with science movements, one cannot just totally
ignore the social inequalities aspect of it. Eg in AP, anti-liqour movement was
catalysed by the literacy movement, finally the NGOs involved in the literacy
movement had to take a stance.

-> Dalit Struggles - Mainly influenced by economic inequalities
--> Adivasi Struggles - Were pushed further into the forest. Now with the idea
of development, national reserves etc are being pushed out of the forests also.
Adivasis have also become cheap labour and have in some cases replaced dalits.
So they are not the most oppressed groups. Two types of adivasis nowadays :
those who have come out of the forests and have integrated into the soceity,
and the other still continuing to live in the natural state ( and who question
the notion of development). aDevelopment of adivasis is a very complicated
issue - the education system is alienating them from their culture. On the
other hand, if we provide edn based on their culture, how long will it survive,
since the forests land etc which form a part of their culture are fast
vanishing. Health also similar issues. They have their own medicinal system in
place, but at the same time, they also have lots of superstitions. So how to
integrate the conventional system with the adivasi system. Dalits are already
in the system. Reservations are based on western systems, may not work for
Indian conditions. Similarly concept of national parks is based on deep ecology
( leave huge lands/forests untouched and preserved ), which is a western
concept. Not many people live in forests in the west. But in India, the
adivasis live in these forests and sos deep ecology is questionable.Many Indian
environmentalists question this.
--> Religious movements - Swadyaya, vivekananda - religious, but also have
strong social change aspect.
--> Naxalites, peasant movements for land redistribution, frustrated youth
taking to violence, due to lack of leadership.The Bengal govt used the naxalite
movement to come to power. Naxalbari uprising in 1960s. Oppressed people just
took over the land by violent means and this spread around.
Remember that we are racing against this violent option. Naturally human beings
are violent. People get frustrated as we push them beyond the edge more and
more. and with easy access to arms, they can trun violent very easily without
proper leadership.
--> Organic and natural farming - In the US this is a new concept, in India,
this has meant going back to natural old ways of farming.
--> Migrant labourers/unorganised labourers - Unions
--> Alt ed system - How can this be catagorised as a people's movement ?
--> Urban based enviromental groups. - anti plastic etc.
--> Slum protection board. Bombay has two boards - slum welfare board and slum
eviction board. Activated based on convenience and need. Slum groups and NGOs
working in slums are very different. No long term planning, since dont know
when slum will disappear. So groups are nopt very clear abvout their vision.
Are doing something very superficial and addressing the root problems. Lot of
mafia influence also. Most slums contribute a lot to the local economies also.
Cities in India are different from cities in US. A high rise will have a slum
nearby it.
--> Alt tech and crafts - PPST
--> Fighting corruption - Fifth Pillar, Loksatta

DISCUSSION ON WHAT CAN WE DO
--> People's movements are sometimes called anti-national,regressive etc, since
there is not much awareness on the issues these movements raise. So, raising
awareness, organising debates can be one activity
--> Urban based problems can be addressed
--> Asha should atleast pick up the educational debate - govt vs alt ed etc
--> Bringing up issues like dams mining etc with donors may be difficult since
the US follows this kind of development and does not see any problem with it,
and does not stand to loose anything. But it may be easier to start with issues
like organic farming etc and connect it to the larger context of issues on
globalisation.
--> Women and globalisation can be another issue that can be picked up.
--> Do a film and debate on communalism
--> Lobby with the world bank and at the companies share holder meetings.
--> Anything else I forgot/missed ??
Asha-Seattle should organise some event where we reach out to the donors and
mention about these issues.

BOOKS MENTIONED DURING THE DISCUSSION
History of land in India - Fissured Land by Ramachandra Guha
Dying Wisdom - Water harvesting techniques - center for science and enviroment
pub.
Million Mutinies - V.S Naipual
Kalpana Sharma - Reviving Dharavi