Asha Trust Meeting Minutes

Asha Half Yearly Conference
Venue: Asha Samajik Vidyalaya, Bhaisanhan, Reoti, Ballia
Dates: 27^th to 29^th June 2008

Minutes

1^st Day: 27 June 2008

§ The conference started off with the registration of all the attending members.

§ Harihar Bhai collected all the completed forms.

§ The registration was followed by a welcome talk and individual introductions.

§ Vijay Bhai then provided some details about the arrangement regarding food and lodging.

Recapitulation of the Vishnupuram conference

§ Vallabh Bhai reminded us of the approval of two important decisions

o his return as a trustee of Asha

o the creation of a health emergency fund that will make Rs5,000-30,000 available for Asha members.

§ The concept of "Asha Saathi" was discussed in the Sangrur conference but had been put down in Vishnupuram. All the chapters were asked to provide their response to queries like Why Asha saathi?, its purpose etc. but none of the chapters have provided that yet.

§ The next point of discussion was about the additions of issues as indicated by some members in their registration forms or verbally. "MS3 land transfer" was raised by Mahesh Bhai. The other issues that were decided for the next day's discussion were Bihar flood situation and probable cause behind absence of senior members from conferences.

§ Vallabh Bhai then proceeded with the structure of Asha Trust. There are 8 trustees at present and Vijay Bhai is the secretary. In an effort to make this board a well represented body, it has members of both the genders and various classes of the society. The important thing to remember is that the board is just for official purposes. The general members have equal rights and will remain the most powerful body.

CHAPTER UPDATES:

Assam:
Savita ji from Assam informed that there are 11 centers running for the past 7 years, serving 1350 students. The team strength at present is 44. They had hoped that some of these would be taken up by the government but when they saw no progress, they took its responsibility. There are 400 Self Help Groups(SHG). The mid day meal has been running for the last 2 years. Among other activities, distribution of mosquito nets, with insecticides sprayed on it, was done. It was a part of the malaria awareness program. A cricket tournament was also played for 2 days. Exams were running as scheduled from 21^st till 28^th June.
On a sad note, it was informed that one of the students died after being bitten by a dog.

Vivek: Are you planning anything for the financially weak students?
Savita: We do not have any plans at present.

Bangalore:
Ram Bhai represented Bangalore and provided the following updates:

-A very experienced teacher with good reputation left Asha to join the government school.
-Around 3 lakh rupees were collected from the marathon organized
-The Bangalore chapter has decided to deny routing any fund from FCRA
-Even when Bangalore chapter does not ask for funds from Asha US, it keeps getting it.
-On this point it was agreed that Bangalore would transfer the excess funds to Ballia NFE Project.
-Bangalore is trying to reduce its paper work
-It is funding a school for the disabled in Karnataka
-The Andhra Pradesh project has been closed.

Kanpur:
The Kanpur chapter update was provided by Abhishek Ji. The following conversation is a summary of the dialogue between Abhishek Ji(A) and Vivek Ji(V):

V:How many Shivirs had been organized?
A: 8 in 6 months
V: How many of these were outside IIT, IIIT, metros?
A: 2
V:How do we measure the effectiveness of the shivirs?
A: People are feeling improvement in their personal lives.

Mahesh Ji then shared some success stories of RTI related activities. Apart from the success stories, there was also a case of RTI's misuse regarding the operations of a fish market by the local fishermen.

Kaithi:
Vallabh Ji informed that the accounting and administration for Asha India was being done from here. Other activities being performed here are RTI movement monitoring, teachers' training and an all State level survey on RTI. In response to a question, he informed that the number of RTI fellows have gone up to 30 (this was 20 last year). There was also a brief discussion on the two interns, Jonathan and Kunal and their roles.
The conference then had the privilege to listen to Dr. Brahmanand Mishra Ji and his wife who are running a school in Dhaturitola, Ballia. He talked about his own life, the JP movement, bullying by some people who thought he had some political interests and his efforts in starting a school without any external financing.

Sangrur:
There are 5 centres running now, 2 of which are funded. They have been involved in environmental awareness activities, distribution of slippers and have been performing plays and songs against politicians who distribute cigarettes etc for votes. They are planning for a computer education drive in the coming months. During the discussion among members it was suggested that they should focus on strengthening the existing centres rather than opening up new ones without proper planning and resources. It was also suggested that the Lucknow model could be tried where teachers are earning on their own while teaching at the centres for 2 hours.

Rajatalab:
The next update was from Rajatalab. There are 12 centres now, 2 of which are permanent. There are 22 teachers serving 750 students. There are 5 full time volunteers. They organised eye camps. There have also been anti coca-cola campaigns, group marriages, local area funding and NREGA awareness sessions.

Samastipur:
The Samastipur chapter provided updates on their flood planning activities. It was suggested that they should use RTI for getting the support from the government.
Ram bhai from Bangalore then displayed the educational toys that were made by the students themselves. These toys will be used by the Bhainsahan school for its students.

Second Day: 28^th June 2008-08-02

The first session started with a song at 10.30 am.

Presentations:
Asha Samajik Vidyalaya, Deoria-

Ranjit presented: There are 3 NFE centres and 1 Formal education center in Deoria. There are 4 NFE and 1 Formal education centre in Kushinagar. In addition, the volunteers also work on RTI and NREGA in Kushinagar. There is also an attempt to start a women's group.

Vallabh: We have not received any report as to how much money is coming and from where it is coming.

Ranjit: We were supported by Bangalore chapter at first. Subsequently Chennai started supporting us. The project was not taken up under 2K scheme. We have a total budget of Rs 86,000 of which we have got only Rs 25,000. In July 2007-08 we got only 30% of the funds. We have not yet received any funds for the year 2008-09. Keshav must have sent you report via mail.

Vallabh: What is the need to run these centres?

Ranjit: There is a government school in Narkhatiya but the children are not taught anything in the school. The centre at Maidauli is for the children of the fishermen. The centre at Danopur is closed.

Vallabh: Does the budget cover only honorarium?

Ranjit: Yes, the budget covers only honorarium.

Decision: It was finally decided that Chennai would be once more asked whether they could support the project. If not, we should get a new proposal ready and restart the process via a new channel(IFG). Ranjit should forward all the previous reports to Asha Varanasi. If it does not happen, this project will be merged with ASV Deoria (Keshav's project). A site visit is required for the project.

Asha Chandauli: In the absence of any other member, the report was presented by Vallabh. The main activities at this chapter are RTI, NREGA, PDS and MDM.

Government Schemes: There was a discussion on NREGA, Mid-day meal, and PDS. This discussion was led by Mukesh Pradhan who is the head of village Nagepur in Varanasi. He also discussed the problems faced in UP with respect to these schemes.

Asha Chennai: Sent report through mail, but mail does not opened.

Asha Swasthya Seva: In absence of Manish, Vallabh presented the work he has done so far.

Asha Administrative work:

Vallabh: There is no need for any new chapter to open a new account. Delhi chapter has not opened its account and money is being transferred via imp-rest account.

The account opened in Mumbai will be operated as before. Till now Harshvardhan, Preeti and Suresh Maske were the signatories for the account. But as Harshvardan is rarely in Mumbai and Suresh Maske is busy, therefore, Smitha and Sunita's names have been added as new signatories with Preeti.

Vallabh informed that last year we received 18 requests for transferring funds to new projects,

AFE sends some money without consulting Asha India. In the Dec 2006 meeting at Mumbai it was decided that only if a local active chapter of Asha is willing to take responsibilities of monitoring the project, then only money would be transferred.

All projects like VARUN, JDS, Aasra etc. should try to get their own FCRA.

Grievance Cell: No member of this cell other than Vallabh attended the meeting. He provided an update that there are no pending complaints.

Open session:

Discussion on MS3.
In Sangroor meeting, option no. 3 was accepted general body. It was decided that the MS3 will obtain its own FCRA and all the assets will be transferred.

Kumar Sambhav: We have applied for FCRA.

Mahesh: It was decided in Mumbai meeting that the land I require for my project would be purchased by MS3. What is the progress on this issue? Will this sort of decision be applicable in future also or is there a method to stop such things happening in future. What is the legal process involved in assets transfer? The decision in Sangroor was taken in my absence.

Kumar Sambhav: All decisions were taken with due procedure in Asha meeting.

Vallabh: Yes, Decision was taken by voting.

Kumar Sambhav: I am ready to provide any support. I showed you a land but you rejected it. We can support you either by giving you land or by providing finances for purchasing the land.

Vallabh: We will have to talk to a lawyer or a CA regarding how the fixed assets can be transferred.

Kumar Sambhav: We should talk to the lawyer or CA as to in which form should the assets be transferred.

Mahesh: We need to refer to the rules of the Trust. Instead of a CA we need to talk to a lawyer.

but my question was , Will this not happen in future?

Vallabh: Thus far, Asha Chennai got split into two, and then there was Sonia issue in Lucknow, and then MS3. The General body has found a neat way of dealing with all these issues.

Mahesh: We should discuss as to how to prevent these disturbances happening in the future.

Kumar Sambhav: We should allow those centres where people are working sincerely to function.

Mahesh: We should also decide that those centres, which work in accordance with the basic principles of Asha, should be allowed to function.

Vallabh: We should make sure that such incidents do not happen in future.

Everyone agreed.

SECOND SESSION

There was a discussion on how to improve the teaching in Asha run centres. Various attempts like teachers training program or to adopt Eklavya teaching methodologies in Ballia has been made to improve the quality. There was also a discussion on the problems faced during teaching.

Use of RTI in Education(Vallabh):

How can we use RTI to improve the quality of education?

· We can ask for information on how much funds are being utilized in education.

· We can ask for information about the three-monthly meetings of village education committee

· We can ask information about the various training programs conducted.

The RTI fellows can ask this type of information from the education department.

Neelkamal described his experiences with RTI.

Nandlal described his and his teammates' experiences in the water struggle at Raja talaab.

Asha Disaster Fund: The idea of this fund was discussed after Tsunami keeping in view of natural disasters that occur from time to time. It took 27 days for the funds to come the first time. Deepak bhai had taken responsibility of preparing a draft. He prepared a draft and presented it in the Sangroor meeting but there is no concrete action plan for managing this fund.

Asha Emergency fund: Was discussed extensively in Guntur meeting. The idea was to set up an emergency fund for Asha Volunteers and was meant for use when they fall ill and urgently require money for treatment. There was discussion on this in Vishnupuram meeting and every chapter was requested to send their inputs to handle this fund but no further progress has been made.

Asha Saathi: There was a proposal to appoint Asha Saathis to deal with administrative work. It was proposed that few volunteers of Asha would be appointed as saathis who can deal with administrative work as well as site visits. However, there has not been any progress on this proposal. It was felt that the chapters will re-consider this proposal.

Asha Logo: Mahesh had accepted the responsibility to get Asha Letterhead made.

Updation of AFE website : It was felt that some of the project pages have not been updated since long. If AFE gives the rights of updating the Asha website to some members of Asha India, then Asha India can help in maintaining the website regularly.

The planned teleconference with AFE which was supposed to be held on the third day with AFE members could not be completed as scheduled. The Asha India members felt that at least some members from AFE should have attended the teleconference. This helps members in understanding each others' perspectives.

It was later held on 6^th of July. The minutes of that conference are attached below.

Third Day:29^th June 2008

After two days of hectic activities, the last day of the conference saw some easy paced interaction. Most of the chapters' team had already left except that of Assam and Punjab. After some prayers and song, there was a group discussion on "Female infanticide and women's identity".

Vijay bhai started off with his views. He said that the unfair use of technology is a major cause of this practice. The other reasons being the dowry system and male dominance in many parts of the country. Sheetal Ji from Punjab then added that all our religious texts have unfairly glorified the male idol. He also suspects that the high income group, particularly those with political ambitions, supports this practice. The media is also biased and does not present the true picture, he said. The other participants namely Premi Ji, Sadhna Ji, Nagendra Ji, Satyendra Ji, Pradeep Ji, Ram Ji, Lallan Ji, Ambika Ji, Anita Ji, Sandeep Ji, Savita Ji, Harihar Ji, Preeti Ji, Chanda Ji, Ritu Ji and Gudia Ji brought up issues like the Mughal tradition, domestic responsibilities of women, lack of education, lack of self-confidence among women, parents unequal treatment towards boys and girls and social pressure for early marriage. In the end, everyone agreed on the following points:

There are a lot of different reasons behind this shameful practice
Education, proper awareness and open discussions are some effective tools that can be used to eliminate this dreadful disease from the society

MAIN DECISIONS OF ASHA INDIA Conferance:

1. Those chapters who could not attend Asha India meeting should send their reports before the conference begins. The Kolkata, Pilani and Pune chapters have been absent since the last 6-7 conferences and have failed to send any report as well. If this continues, Asha India will start considering the derecognising of these chapters.

2. In this conference, no chapter has been derecognised.

3. It is necessary to have at least one representative from each chapter.

4. It has been decided to close the account of Asha Kaithi at SBI Kaithi. Instead an account in Allahabad bank will be opened in Varanasi city. This will ease the process of money transfer and account operation.

5. The fixed assets from MS3 will be transferred after due legal consultations.

6. Vivek and Vallabh have accepted the responsibility of the registration of Asha run schools with the National Open School. Sandeep bhai should talk at the Ministry level regarding books.

7. More interns should be encouraged to volunteer for Asha and spend time at the various chapters

8. RTI will be used to improve the education in primary schools.

9. Next meeting: At Puvidham from 26^th to 28^th December 2008. Asha Bangalore has accepted the responsibility of organizing this conference.

(Minutes taken by Govind and Kunal)

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