Sunday, July 02, 2006
The Begining
Very recently, to be precise on Jun 21, I took Leave of Absence from my active work to pursue a project in rural Himachal Pradesh, a northern state in India bordering the states of Punjab, Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir. The project is about helping the rural community in the villages of Kallar, Kotlu Bindariya, Doon and Kotlu Brahmana in the areas of education, vocational training and agriculture.
Let me first give an idea of the distances and directions. I relocated to a place called Ghumarwin which is around 45 min away from the city of Bilaspur. Bilaspur is on the way to Manali from Chandigarh. The above mentioned villages are around 30-35 min bus ride from Ghumarwin, on the way to Berthin, which is just 10-15 min bus ride from these villages.
In general, all the above mentioned places are very close to Punjab-HP border, so even though they are hilly they are just in the foothills. Therefore the climate here is pretty much like plains only. It is quite hot out here just as in plains in this season.
Initially, I stayed in a Guest House at a place, 3 km. from Berthin, called Dharoti. I used to take a bus from here to Berthin and then change the bus to go to Kallar, where the school is. This is a government school - primary (standard 1 to 5) plus middle (standard 6 to 8). The school has total of 10 rooms - two rooms are used as offices; one each for primary and middle school, one room for kitchen for mid-day meal programme, and one as store cum recreation room, rest of 6 rooms are used to accommodate 8 groups of students !!! So how does it happen? Fortunately, if you want to see it that way, standard 1 has just 5 tiny-tots, so they are generally accommodated in primary school office itself, and depending on the day, one other class from primary school is seated in the corridor. By the way, just to clarify, all the students in all the classes sit on the floor. There are 3 teachers in primary school to take care of 5 classes (isn't it amazing?) and 6 teachers in middle school.
Overall, the villages are not in very bad shape. You will find only few families below the poverty line. But, most of the families linger just above the poverty line. Villagers mostly are dependent on agriculture as their main source of food/income. They mostly grow wheat and corn, which is mostly used for home consumption and a little bit is sold to get money for other things. Most of the families will have at least one cow/buffalo which is used to provide milk etc for the household. The villages have electricity and, recently, under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, tar roads have been laid to all these villages. Roads inside village are still not tarred, but transportation is available to reach till these villages.
Let me first give an idea of the distances and directions. I relocated to a place called Ghumarwin which is around 45 min away from the city of Bilaspur. Bilaspur is on the way to Manali from Chandigarh. The above mentioned villages are around 30-35 min bus ride from Ghumarwin, on the way to Berthin, which is just 10-15 min bus ride from these villages.
In general, all the above mentioned places are very close to Punjab-HP border, so even though they are hilly they are just in the foothills. Therefore the climate here is pretty much like plains only. It is quite hot out here just as in plains in this season.
Initially, I stayed in a Guest House at a place, 3 km. from Berthin, called Dharoti. I used to take a bus from here to Berthin and then change the bus to go to Kallar, where the school is. This is a government school - primary (standard 1 to 5) plus middle (standard 6 to 8). The school has total of 10 rooms - two rooms are used as offices; one each for primary and middle school, one room for kitchen for mid-day meal programme, and one as store cum recreation room, rest of 6 rooms are used to accommodate 8 groups of students !!! So how does it happen? Fortunately, if you want to see it that way, standard 1 has just 5 tiny-tots, so they are generally accommodated in primary school office itself, and depending on the day, one other class from primary school is seated in the corridor. By the way, just to clarify, all the students in all the classes sit on the floor. There are 3 teachers in primary school to take care of 5 classes (isn't it amazing?) and 6 teachers in middle school.
Overall, the villages are not in very bad shape. You will find only few families below the poverty line. But, most of the families linger just above the poverty line. Villagers mostly are dependent on agriculture as their main source of food/income. They mostly grow wheat and corn, which is mostly used for home consumption and a little bit is sold to get money for other things. Most of the families will have at least one cow/buffalo which is used to provide milk etc for the household. The villages have electricity and, recently, under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, tar roads have been laid to all these villages. Roads inside village are still not tarred, but transportation is available to reach till these villages.
// posted by amAUzed @ 6:49 AM 
