CYSD

Patiapadar is a small, remote village situated within the Kathapadagram panchayat of the Boipariguda block in Koraput district. The challenging terrain in this region renders the village virtually inaccessible for most of the year, particularly during the rainy season. Unfortunately, government schemes and policies rarely extend their reach to this village. With approximately 75 households, the nearest health facility is located 28 kilometers away, and the nearest school is 5 kilometers away from the village. This isolation not only disconnects the village from government initiatives but also deprives its residents of essential services such as healthcare and education.

The residents of this village primarily rely on small-scale and subsistence farming as their main source of income. However, even farming is restricted to a single annual harvest due to the absence of adequate irrigation facilities. Consequently, for the remainder of the year, most villagers are compelled to seek daily wage labor opportunities elsewhere.

The community and citizen leader of Patiapadar is Dharmendra, a 25-year-old farmer. He has actively engaged in identifying the numerous challenges faced by the villagers and working towards potential solutions. Dharmendra expressed his concerns, stating, “The residents of this village encounter several difficulties, ranging from an unstable income to the inability to access government schemes and policies. These circumstances have kept the people of this village in isolation. Witnessing the struggles of the villagers, I have always aspired to make a positive difference for them. My opportunity to do so arose through CYSD when I became a community leader.”

In this village, Dharmendra emphasized that community mobilization has posed a significant challenge. He explained that people in the village often lack alternative livelihood opportunities, leading them to migrate as daily wage laborers during the non-agricultural season. Dharmendra shared the common question he encounters when persuading them to stay, saying, “Whenever I try to convince them not to leave the village in search of livelihood, I always get the same question: ‘What other options do we have to earn a living?'”

Through the intervention of CYSD, Dharmendra identified individuals eligible for various pension schemes and ensured they received these benefits. During this process, he also encountered issues related to Aadhar linkage and the lack of proper documentation. Dharmendra took it upon himself to address these issues and raise awareness within the community about the importance of having the necessary documents.

However, Dharmendra’s primary focus is on addressing the central issue: preventing villagers from leaving in search of livelihood opportunities elsewhere. He expressed his goal, stating, “I aspire for our people to remain in the village, earn their livelihood here, and actively contribute to the village’s development. My aim is to assist them in creating sustainable livelihood opportunities that provide a stable income throughout the year.” Dharmendra’s determination to enhance the quality of life for his fellow villagers reflects his commitment to fostering lasting positive change within the community.

Dharmendra shared a remarkable incident from his experience, highlighting how he played a crucial role in saving the life of a 2-year-old child suffering from a heart ailment. He recounted the event, saying, “In May of this year, we became aware that a 2-year-old in our village was going through a severe heart ailment, requiring urgent medical attention. We took her to the Community Health Centre (CHC), where she was referred to the District Hospital for more advanced treatment. During this process, it came to light that the child did not have a birth certificate, making her family ineligible for government assistance.”

With very little time to spare, Dharmendra needed to act quickly. He approached the ASHA worker in his village to initiate the birth certificate application process, only to discover that the baby’s birth had not been officially registered. Dharmendra recounted, “The baby’s health was deteriorating rapidly, and time was running out. I immediately initiated the process to obtain the baby’s birth certificate. With the assistance of a legal advocate, we obtained an affidavit. This was submitted to the district collector’s office, and the process had begun. Within two weeks, the birth certificate was granted. It was then issued at the hospital, and the operation was successful. The baby is now healthy and hailing. I am incredibly grateful to have been part of a life-saving endeavor,” Dharmendra expressed.

Dharmendra’s heroic actions received substantial recognition, with extensive media coverage on TV channels and in newspapers, underscoring the importance of his life-saving endeavors.

He also emphasized the need for a well-structured plan of action to raise awareness among people about their entitlements. “My sole objective is to ensure that government policies reach the remotest villages like ours, and it is imperative that people are informed about their entitlements,” he added. Dharmendra’s dedication to bridging the gap between government policies and his commitment to empowering his community and ensuring they receive the support and benefits they are entitled to.

Imagine a group of 25 to 30 people, all in their early and mid-20s, working toward a common goal of developing their surroundings, educating people around them, identifying problems, and drawing possible solutions. This is the dream of 23-year-old Iswar Ghiuria from Gundalia Guda, a remote village in the Boipariguda Block of Koraput District, which he has made come true. With around 60 households, this village, like many remote villages, lacks proper connectivity. With barely any other livelihood options, the villagers are mostly small and marginal farmers whose annual income is solely dependent on a single crop harvest for the whole year. During the non-agricultural season, the men from the village move out in search of work as daily wage laborers to make ends meet.

Growing up in such an environment, Iswar developed a strong desire to make a positive impact on his villagers from a very young age. However, his lack of proper awareness and knowledge left him constantly perplexed about where and how to begin, which issues to prioritize, and how to find solutions. Ishwar reflects on this, saying, “I always wanted to contribute to the development of this village, but I felt lost in terms of how and where to start.”

Iswar’s aspiration to improve his village caught the attention of CYSD’s community facilitators. When searching for an engaged community member, the residents of Gundalia Guda were determined that Iswar should become their community leader. Iswar admitted, “Initially, I had no idea what it meant to be a community leader or what responsibilities it entailed. However, I was thrilled to learn that this role could be my gateway to developing my village.”

Through the training he received, Iswar has gained the ability to identify problems and their underlying causes, enabling him to formulate suitable solutions. Iswar emphasized that, among the village’s various issues, youth unemployment stands out as a major concern, followed by problems related to road connectivity, illiteracy, and water scarcity. He elaborated, saying, “Unemployment is the most pressing challenge in our village at present. People lack viable income sources since we rely on a single annual crop due to water scarcity during the summer season. Consequently, during non-agricultural periods, many young men from the village have to seek employment as daily wage workers. Additionally, our village lacks proper road infrastructure; all we have is a mud road, which becomes impassable even with minor rainfall.”

With this intention in mind, Iswar initially rallied the youth in the village to join forces with him. This led to the establishment of ‘The Youth Club Foundation,’ which currently boasts 30 active members. Through this youth club, they approached the village with potential solutions to various problems. Iswar shared his vision, saying, “Starting a youth club was always a dream of mine. The youth represent the workforce with the capacity and ability to take on challenging tasks and yield promising results. That’s why, I initiated this youth club, and it has undertaken several important initiatives.”

His efforts are noteworthy – the village now has an asphalt road. Iswar explained, “I took on the responsibility of addressing the issue of proper road connectivity. With the support of all the youth club members, we submitted an application to the Panchayat Office, requesting a proper asphalt road for our village.” Their hard work paid off, as the village received approval and funding of Rs. 24 Lakhs/- for road construction. Additionally, through this intervention, they secured employment opportunities under MGNREGS. In the coming months, the village will have a well-functioning road connecting it to the block headquarters.

Iswar emphasized, “Once the road is constructed, I believe that many of the village’s problems can be resolved. Lack of proper connectivity has hindered access, especially during medical emergencies.” Iswar recounted that during the rainy season, he and other villagers had to carry patients and walk nearly 2 kilometers on muddy roads to access medical facilities. “I’m delighted that one of the village’s major issues has been addressed, and it fills me with pride to have played a vital role in bringing about this change,” he expressed.

Iswar is currently dedicated to addressing the pressing issue of unemployment in his village. His efforts are focused on mobilizing the community towards embracing sustainable livelihood opportunities at the village level. Through this youth club, Iswar took the initiative to construct a playground for the village children. He explained his motivation, saying, “I want the children to experience happiness and good health. I discussed this with the villagers, and together, we identified a small piece of land. We raised funds ourselves, cleared the land, and created a playground for the children.”

In addition to his community work, Iswar also ran for the position of Sarpanch in the 2022 GP Election, although he did not secure enough votes to win. Despite this setback, he remains resolute, stating, “I recognize that I am on the right path. While I may have encountered failure, I am confident that I will succeed one day.”

He believes that with additional support from the government and NGOs, this small, remote village has the potential to become a model village in the Boipariguda block. Iswar’s determination and commitment to his community’s development continue to drive positive change, paving the way for a brighter future.

“Poverty is a state, where a person lacks the basic capacity to participate effectively in the society. Poverty in a democracy is a denial of services and opportunities to lead a long, healthy, creative life and enjoy a decent standard of living. We see poverty as an instrument which normally facilitates too much capital to grow. There is great potential of human and social capital for the poor to grow or reserve. People with too much capital are a causality. Therefore, we are focusing on sensitising the community on the development activities undertaken through various flagship schemes and programmes; and also enabling people to understand their roles and responsibilities and expand their capacity towards building a sustainable community.

Nations around the world are challenged on how to ensure the benefits of governance and development reach the last mile.  When all things are done, what really matters is whether the person at the last mile is feeling the impact of, and getting the benefits of good governance. Democracy calls for a shift from Jamindari to Jan Bhagidari or effective partnership. The partnership is very dynamic which requires relationship building that continues for a longer time. It demands both independence and interdependence in terms of behavioural competency, functional competency, and domain competency. It requires both changes in the mindset and mindset to change. We have to develop an attitude to learning from the community, the CSOs, the government, the media-building narratives, and the academia. Let’s work together and learn from each other. Influencing the state on how to work with other actors including the CSOs; and mobilising the CSOs to work with the government is very critical. Above all, the community is always at the centre. Starting from brainstorming with the community for project formulation/designing, to participatory project implementation, monitoring & evaluation, review-cum-reflection are important for the success of the project.

Human development can only happen when people and processes from the public sector, private sector, civil society, citizenry, academia and the media come together and synergistically work to ensure it. This is now possible with the spirit of partnership, or ‘Jan Bhagidari’. The key is in our hands i.e. ‘Transformative change from Karmachari to Karmayogi”

The Social Stock Exchange – under the regulatory ambit of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for listing voluntary organizations and social enterprises have become a reality. Through the SSE framework CSOs can raise capital / funds as equity, debt or as units like a mutual fund. This appears a paradigm shift for the social sector eco-system at this time when Resource Mobilization has become a major constraint for our work.

Keeping this in mind, a dialogue of Civil Society on the Social Stock Exchange Framework was organized by CYSD on 23rd March 2023 in Bhubaneswar on the eve of its 41st Foundation Day. Dr. R Balasubramaniam, Founder of GRAAM and Chair of the SSE Advisory Board, currently Member of the Capacity Building Commission, Govt. of India who joined this dialogue assisted the Odishan CSO representatives in clarifying various aspects of the SSE framework. Moreover, a few senior officials like,  Mr. Jeevan Sonparote from Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI)  and Mr. Avik Gupta from National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) also joined the workshop and guided the delegates on how their NPOs can be registered with SSE before initiating fund raising: eligibility criteria for Social Enterprises including Disclosures, Process overview and Value Proposition.

The dialogue, in true sense, paved a new path to the CSOs towards generating resources through Social Stock Exchange platform during this critical juncture.

A basic function of higher education institutions is to use different means of producing knowledge. One such way is through research partnerships with external stakeholders such as community-based organizations. To date, partnership research has expanded remarkably across the globe as an effective approach to the co-creation of knowledge. Building mutually beneficial partnerships though is not easy, and expressions of power inequalities, such as issues related to structures and processes, roles and relationships, artefacts and discourses, partnership configurations and transformations over time, and partners’ identities and status, persist. While we have reached a stage of maturity in understanding benefits of collaboration between diverse knowledge actors from different knowledge systems with their own cultures and incentive structures, few studies have addressed the more analytical and practical questions around power relationship in community-university research partnerships.

Keeping this in mind, as a preliminary sept, a round-table on Community Based Research and Social Responsibility of Institutions of Higher Learning was organized at DRTC-CYSD, Bhubaneswar on 25th January 2023. The delegates of the round-table included the Vice Chancellors and faculty members from 15 Universities of Odisha, former Vice Chancellors, Officials from the Department of Higher Education, academia, CSO leaders, Think Tank and the Development Practitioners.

Views of the Panellists

Joining the round-table, Dr. (Mrs.) Pankaj Mittal, Secretary General, Association of Indian Universities, in her key note address highlighted the disconnect between the universities and the society; and the consequences. Higher educational institutions need to bring in social responsibility and community in their vision and development mechanisms to adopt a functional approach to community engagement. University Society Responsibility (USR) is as important as the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), she said. Regular interface between the university and the community and exchange of knowledge are very critical to strengthen engagement with the society. The students pursuing higher education need to understand the issues and challenges of the community and develop projects to address them. Therefore, the community knowledge needs to be extracted through research, analyzed, documented and integrated with the university curriculum. The opportunities available under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) can be harnessed for the purpose, added Dr. Pankaj.

Dr. Ashok Kumar Das, Vice-Chairperson, Odisha State Higher Education Council (OSHEC) underlined that the State has successfully combined inclusivity and excellence in the system of education. He emphasized that both science and social science should walk hand-in-hand to ensure inclusivity.

Dr. Rajesh Tandon, Co-chair of the UNESCO Chair on Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education; and President, PRIA put importance on the National Education Policy, 2020 which focuses on producing engaged, productive and contributing citizens. The policy also aims at fostering community engagement and social responsivity, he added. While deliberating on community engagement, he emphasized on some of the key principles such as: valuing local knowledge, mutual learning and respect, linkage with the community institutions and the CBOs. The operational guidelines for the Higher Education Institutes which include: adopting existing course for community engagement as well as offering new courses; and undertaking research in partnership with the local community were also shared with the delegates.

Dr. Budd Hall, Professor, School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria, Canada; and Co-chair, UNESCO Chair on Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education shared the global perspective on knowledge and social responsibility in higher education. Dr. Hall highlighted on the dominance of English language; and exclusion of community based indigenous knowledge resulting in unequal knowledge distribution across the globe. Hence, there is a need for establishing knowledge democracy. With regard to social responsibility, he reiterated on ‘Reimagining our future together – A new social contract for education’ and said, the Higher Education institutions have transformative potential to take it forward.

Feedback and Suggestions shared by the Delegates

• Building Students’ Perspective on University Community Linkage (encouraging students to be open to learn, identify Community Knowledge Resources – what they can take to the university, and prioritize critical issues in the community – how they can contribute to address the issues)
• Developing socially responsible citizens through introduction of credit courses on ‘Citizenship Building’ and inculcation of ‘Values and Ethics’
• Inclusivity and integration of the curriculum
• Structured training programmes on university community linkage for the faculty members.
• Building resilient communities and localization of SDGs through community engagement
• Focused Action Research Projects and Documentation of Promising Practices
• Collective reflection on: Why community engagement is not happening naturally and finding ways out
• Infrastructure vs. Culture – Culture is more important for strengthening our economy; hence, community engagement is indispensable.
• Need for sensitive engagement with the indigenous communities.
• Innovations: Introduction of ‘Professor of Practice’, Promotion of Indigenous Enterprisers, Indigenous Research Activities

Way Forward

• Sensitizing the young minds and the faculties through empathy-building exercises.
• Partnership with CSOs involved in strengthening community institutions/ CBOs to work on the common action agenda.
• Integrating community-based participatory research with the course curriculum.
• Capacity building for creating a critical mass of faculty-facilitators in the community processes.

Moderating the deliberation, Shri Jagadananda, former State Information Commissioner, Odisha; and Mentor & Co-Founder of CYSD, in his concluding remarks, said that higher education institutions (HEIs) have an important role to play in the socio-economic development of the country through community engagement.

Ranjan Kumar Bhoi is a young man with big dreams, born into a family of daily labourers in Cuttack of Odisha State. Ranjan’s father struggled to make ends meet for his six-member family. Despite this, Ranjan never gave up on his dreams and continued his education until graduation. Unfortunately, financial constraints forced him to discontinue further studies. But, Ranjan’s ambition never wavered, and he soon heard about a short-term training course on  ‘Retail Sales Associate’ being offered by CYSD in Bhubaneswar. He enrolled and completed the program, emerging as a confident and skilled sales executive, and got placement in Shoppers Stop with an annual salary of INR 129,600. Ranjan’s journey since receiving the training has been truly remarkable. He is now more confident, committed, and has even started saving for the future. Ranjan’s father is proud of him and grateful for the changes he has seen in his son after joining the program. Ranjan’s newfound skills and confidence have given him the motivation to grow further, and he is determined to make the most of this opportunity. ” The Retail Sales Associate Training course imparted by CYSD was truly a life-changing moment, and I will always remain grateful for creating such opportunity”, says cheerful Ranjan.

Similarly, Rabindra Prusty was just like any other young man from his small town in Khurda, Odisha. Coming from a resource poor family, with his father as the sole earning member, Rabindra’s ambition and passion to succeed in life was unmatched. Despite the odds, he managed to complete his intermediate education, making him the highest qualified in his family. When he joined the Retail Sales Associate course offered by CYSD in February 2021, little did he know that it would change his life forever. The training not only helped him groom himself and enhance his digital knowledge but also gave him the confidence to think beyond his limitations. Rabindra’s hard work and dedication paid off when he was placed through the training center at SAMSUNG Care with an annual salary of INR 84,000. His father, who was initially hesitant about his son joining the course, now proudly boasts about the life-changing impact it had on both Rabindra and the family. “My journey from being just another young man from a small town to a successful professional is a testament to the fact that with hard work, dedication and the right opportunities, one can overcome any obstacle and achieve his/her dreams”, says delightful Rabindra.

Odisha has several success stories of farmer-producer organizations doing decent business. Meet Promila Krishna, 39, Lalita Nayak, 40, Parbati Gadba, 42, Sanadei Dhuruwa, 39, and Nabita Barika, 41, of Kundra block in Odisha’s Koraput district. Except for Promila who is a matriculate, others haven’t attended school beyond the elementary level. However, while introducing themselves to a newcomer, they wouldn’t hesitate to announce their designation: director, promoter, etc, of course with a wide grin.

Together, for the last five years, they have been successfully leading Mauli Ma Producer Company Limited (MMPCL) in Kundra. Promila is the chairperson of this enterprise of 522, all-women, shareholders drawn from 36 non-descript villages under eight gram panchayats. “We all can sign our names,” claims Lalita, a director.MMPCL is not alone. Four other such ventures, registered under the Companies Act 2013, operate in Boipariguda, Dasmantpur, Laxmipur, and Bandhugaon blocks of Koraput. A few more are in the process of registration. Approximately, eighty-five percent shareholders (members) of these women-led companies are from Bhumia, Paraja, Banjara, Kondh, Gadaba and Durua tribes. All of them are small or marginal farmers.

“There’s enormous interest among the tribal women to start their own venture,” said Ramesh Chandra Swain, senior program manager of CYSD, working in Koraput district for over three decades. Narrating the story of these farmer producer organisations (FPOs), he recalls that earlier, the barter system was in vogue in these areas. Women farmers encountered difficulties in selling their surplus produce and were victims of distress sell. “In 2015, we discussed the idea with them. It took some time, but once convinced, they haven’t looked back.”

The entrepreneurs also acknowledge the CYSD’s constant back-end support. As is the norm, each company goes through the annual audit process and files IT return. Their structure and operational pattern is similar. However, the only male member in each company is the CEO. An educated youth, preferably from a shareholder family, is appointed as CEO at a token monthly salary. He maintains records, prepares the balance-sheet and does the running around on his bike. Mansai Santa, 27, a Kondh graduate is the CEO at MMPCL. The board of directors (BoD) meets on a fixed date, every month. Its responsibilities include, developing business plans, decision-making, investment, input-linkage, convergence (government departments), trader negotiation, audit as well as statutory requirement compliance. Last year, the turnover of MMPCL, Jagarana Farmers Producer Company (Laxmipur) and Boipariguda based Sabujima Producer Company Ltd stood at Rs. 23 lakh, Rs. 17.50 lakh and Rs. 27 lakh, respectively.

However, Dangarrani Farmer’s Producer Company Ltd (Dasmantpur) and Banaprabha Farmer Producer Company (Bandhugaon), both in early days and learning the trade, reported a turnover of less than Rs. 3 lakh. It’s not bad going, though. Forget, luxuries, they lack access to even proper healthcare or education. Till a few years ago, most of these pockets were in the news for Naxal activities.

Each company consists of producer groups at the village level. These groups collect from the shareholders, millet, maize, scented rice, seasonal vegetables and locally available forest goods, tamarind, etc. Though one is free to sell individually, they prefer the bulk trading route which assures better price and rules out chances of exploitation. The companies collect a small amount from the farmers as service charge for product handling (collection, transportation), quality control (measuring moisture parameter) and marketing (finalizing traders and price negotiation). Each company boasts of assets – a desktop computer, weighing machine and moisture meters.

The other source of income is in the form of interest on loans availed to shareholders, mostly for seasonal crops. The amount, a few thousand rupees, is decided on the basis of land size. The borrower can avail loan, either, or both, in cash and kind (seeds, fertilizers). At the time of sale, the capital with interest is deducted and the borrower collects the rest. It’s a win-win equation for both parties.

In 2020, MMPCL, which according to Ramesh has “well-adapted and streamlined lending procedure”, fetched a loan of Rs. 6 lakh. Kamala Bhumia, a promoter, had invested the borrowed amount (Rs. 23,000) on maize farming. Her return: Rs. 70,000. By Kamala’s own admission, she reaped a neat profit of Rs 35,000, that too in six months. Kamala’s fellow friends, Sukmani and Surya Bhumia tell similar stories. While the former took Rs 10,000 and earned Rs 58,000, Surya Bhumia spent the amount (Rs 12,000) on maize cultivation. She sold 15 quintals, at Rs 2,300 a quintal.“A smile on the farmer’s face gives us immense satisfaction,” states Promila. “Our aim is to involve more and more women and grow together,” she adds. Though, MMPCL had begun with 200 shareholders with an initial one-time capital of Rs 200 each, its membership fee has remained unchanged. Promila says they are planning to enhance the shareholder strength to 1,000 by April 2023. Their other target is to own an office building. Though, they claim to have been assured of support by the local MLA, a suitable site is not yet finalized. Every month, they pay a rent of Rs 2,500 for their three-room office at Kundra. However, the immediate task before them is to hold the annual General Body meeting, already cancelled for two years due to Covid-19.

Given the number of shareholders, a large field with enough shade is chosen as the venue for the annual meeting. Depending on the duration of deliberations, arrangements are made for tea, snacks or lunch. However, after the brainstorming event, they unwind, at least, for an hour. “We enjoy our Dhemsa dance,” Lalita and others say in unison, excitedly. With economic empowerment, a perceptible change is visible in the outlook of these women. They are serious about the education of their children. Promila intends to send her teenaged son and daughter for engineering and nursing courses respectively in Bhubaneswar. “Both education and exposure are essential in life,” she thinks. Others echo her sentiment. What surprises more is the awareness level of these illiterate women. Besides, protection of local forests, they are trying to make the villages liquor free. In some villages, they mentioned, liquor consumption has reduced, drastically.  A resident of Raniguda recalls that during the Covid-19 period the FPOs played a massive role. From creating awareness, making provision of cooked food for the economically vulnerable groups to distribution of government’s pandemic assistance (rice and money), the women did everything. Apart, they also assisted in the identification of households for support of agricultural intervention and distribution of dry ration kits, seed kits and inputs meant for families depending on non-timber forest produce like tamarind. With markets closed due to lockdowns, the FPOs collected farm produce from villagers and sold at Jeypore and other large towns in the district.

“We are happy that we could do our bit in those tough times,” mentions Subhadra Bhumia, Raniguda’s former Sarpanch and also a promoter. According to former State Information Commissioner and CYSD’s Co-founder, Shri Jagadananda, in remote tribal pockets, illiteracy among the tribal girls and women is still a major challenge; there are other constraints too. For them, to try, set up and run an enterprise is not at all an easy job. As he puts, “When such enterprises thrive against extreme adverse situations, the joy is limitless.”

It was a calm Sunday morning in Mendukuli village, one of the southernmost remote areas – once a Maoist-dominated district, Malkangiri, in the state of Odisha. Cutting through the calmness of the morning, chants of 20-odd highly enthusiastic children were reverberating in the village community learning centre. They were learning backwards counting through a song while around 40 others were busy doing their class-appropriate studies. It was the picture of a learning centre set up by the villagers. Mendukuli under Dalapatiguda gram panchayat in Mathili block is one of the few tribal-dominated villages, where residents took it upon themselves to compensate for the learning loss of their children incurred during the school closure due to the Covid-induced lockdown.

 A coordinated approach

 “We are not alone. School teachers, members of the School Management Committee (SMC), parents and civil society members constantly support us in this endeavour,” said Jhunubala Maharana (19), a village girl. She was appointed by the community people as Gaon Mitra to teach the children in the learning centre, along with another local resource person (LRP).

 “Out of 200 families in our village, hardly 3-4 families had smartphones when the pandemic broke out. Almost all the children were disengaged from their studies as the school closed for around two years,” said Nrusingha Pujari, SMC president of Mendukuli UGME School.

“When the schools reopened in February 2022, children were unwilling to go back to attend classes,” Purnima Majhi, the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) of Mendukuli village, shared. Most of the children including girls were engaged in farming activities and working as coolies or daily wagers to support their family income. Others, especially girls, were occupied with household chores and the boys were wasting time roaming around, Purnima added. “Amid such a situation, encouraged by Debjeet Beura, the representative of CYSD working with the Mathili block administration for educational upliftment of tribal communities, we set up the learning centre in June, 2022,” pointed out Nrusingha.

 Villagers take the charge

 While two LRPs teach the students regularly at the learning centre, other villagers also contribute according to their ability, added Nrusingha. “Whenever I get time, I teach Odia and English alphabets and numbers to the children,” added Nrusingha, who had studied up to Class-8.

“The highest educational qualification of most of the villagers is Class-VIII. However, we leave no stone unturned to impart our children whatever knowledge we have,” said Sangita Pujari, Dalpatiguda Panchayat Samiti member. “We want to make sure that our wards read and write properly so that they can grasp further learning at schools,” she mentioned.

From anguish to aptitude

Jitu Khara (11) was studying in Class 4 when the pandemic broke out. He was promoted to Class 6 when the school reopened. “As I went to school, I found myself to have forgotten almost everything – addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and even numbers and alphabets. It was so disheartening,” said Jitu. “Here in this centre, I am re-learning the forgotten lessons and also studying new chapters – LCM, HCF, fractions and many more,” added Jitu with twinkling eyes.

The learning centre in Patraput, a neighbouring village in the same block, is a panacea for Samari Nayak, mother of three – studying in Class 3, 5 and 6. “Here the centre functions in the evening. After school gets over, children come home, freshen up and get back to studies at the centre that operates in Patraput Upper Primary School,” pointed out Samari.

All her children are now efficient so far as their alphanumeric abilities are concerned, she mentioned. The parents, villagers, teachers, civil society and the school committee members have pledged to bring the children back to schools post Covid, pointed out Chakradhar Mahalik, a teacher of Patraput Upper Primary School. “We never shy away from visiting the students’ houses and enquire about the reason if we find him/her absent in school,” he added.

 A model for educational transformation

When the world endured a huge learning loss in schools, the community-managed centres in several villages in Mathili, one of the most backward blocks in Odisha, are effectively making up for the loss, pointed out block education officer Sashibhushan Mishra. By inculcating learning habits among children, these centres help in a great way in enhancing the school attendance and checking the dropout rates, added Sashibhushan.

With a short-term programme, however, it is difficult for the children to recover the two years of learning loss, underlined Lalit Khara, a community resource person belonging to Upargadiali village under Udulibeda panchayat. “The children in my learning centre at Udulibeda have improved a lot. Still, they need guidance,” he added, mentioning that the programme might be closed in the next couple of months. All the stakeholders need to come forward to continue the centres on a long-term basis until the students achieve grade-appropriate learning aptitude, Lalit pointed out.

A number of initiatives, including Odisha government sponsored Learning Recovery Programme and Central Government-sponsored Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, which aim at compensating the learning loss and improving the standard of education, need to involve communities and integrate community driven social audit system, pointed out Basanta Nayak, a policy and budget analyst and Programme Director, CYSD which works in inaccessible pockets of Malkangiri district to improve the educational standards of children under a project titled ‘Samadhan’. This community-managed learning centre model with involvement of all the other stakeholders has a lot of potential, he added. However, it is at a nascent stage. It should be strengthened with more trained manpower, learning material and proper infrastructure. A properly developed model can be replicated both in rural and urban areas for the advantage of students belonging to unprivileged sections of the society, he mentioned further.

According to Ananta Kishore Swain, an educationist, in backward areas like Malkangiri, where people cannot even afford to send their wards to schools, providing them paid tuition is almost impossible. Such a community-led education initiative

Labanga Mohanta, a community leader, has worked for 22 years solving problems related to gender issues, encouraging girls’ education, and empowering women in the Thakurmunda block of Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district

In rural Odisha, a phone call at 9 pm mostly means it is an emergency. So, when Labanga Mohanta, a social worker, received a call during that time, one evening, she was alarmed. On the other end of the line was Jhunu, a resident of a neighbouring village, who was sobbing as she told her that her drunk husband had mercilessly beaten her up and she had decided to end her life by drinking poison that night.

It took Labanga an hour of counselling Jhunu out of her suicidal thoughts. “I told her to think about her children before taking such a step,” recounts Labanga. The next day, at 7 am, Labanga rushed to the tribal village where Jhunu lived to ensure that she was alright.

This is a typical day in the life of Labanga, a community leader from Nishaposhi village in Thakurmunda block, whose number is on the speed dial of  the mobile phones of several women in the nearby villages. The 49-year-old has been actively working towards resolving gender issues, encouraging girls’ education, creating awareness on women’s empowerment and health and making women financially independent in her area for the past 22 years.

A Women’s Day event that changed her life

In 1998, at the age of 23, when girls of her age were getting married or bearing children, Labanga, originally from Keonjhar district, had rebelled against marriage, asking her father why he can’t spend the money meant for her wedding on her education instead. She said the turning point in her life came the day she chose to attend a Women’s Day programme at a neighbouring village instead of joining her family on a pilgrimage to a famous temple.

“Women from Self Help Groups (SHG) from different gram panchayats had come to the event and every group had a leader who spoke for them. But when it came to our Gram Panchayat, there was nobody to speak. So, I stepped up,” she recalls. Between that moment and now, Labanga has resolved numerous cases of domestic harassment, stopped child marriages and coaxed several women in and around her village into being self-reliant.

Introduced into the field by CYSD, which worked for promotion of SHGs and microfinance programme, Labanga, who was initially assigned the responsibility of three villages, now looks after 15 to 16 of them – not just in her capacity as a Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) warrior, but as a community leader who understands the plight of tribal women and has the intellectual wherewithal to solve them.

A harmless ‘threat’ goes a long way

Most of the crimes or injustices against women stem from the mentality of the husband or the in-laws that women are inferior, says Labanga. For instance, Jhunu’s husband beat her black and blue because he felt she had no right to argue with him when he comes home drunk. It takes a bit of counselling and also passive threatening to resolve such issues from the husband’s end. “Sometimes, abusive husbands don’t listen to local community leaders and question our authority in their affairs. It is then that we pretend to call our higher-ups at the government’s One-Stop Centre in Baripada, telling them that they must escalate the case and report it to the police. And, we ensure the husband is within earshot of the conversation. The plan always works and the husband comes around,” she says.

‘Victims often can’t identify, report crimes’

In many cases, victims don’t know that domestic violence or sexual abuse is a crime, says Labanga. Those who know either are afraid to seek help or don’t have access to a mechanism through which they can ask for help.

“Community leaders like Labanga are the first responders to the violence and try to resolve the issue with the help of the village ecosystem. They are also the ones who sensitise the victim on the nature of the crime and report the issue to the One-Stop Centre in case it goes out of their control,” says Uppali Mohanty, programme manager at CYSD, under which Labanga worked as an SGBV warrior.

Labanga says, women who are belittled as “infertile” by the village or those who are tortured by in-laws for not giving birth to a son, often don’t know that they are not at fault.

Covid intervention

Labanga says the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to labourers returning home and schools shut down, also caused a rise in cases of domestic violence, child marriages and teenage elopement. “We stopped at least four cases of child marriages in my village during the pandemic. As schools shut down, parents of teenage girls aged below 18 wanted to marry them off. Some said they didn’t have the money to sponsor their daughter’s education anymore, some didn’t have faith their girls will pass the Class 10 exam and some said they were getting good alliances and didn’t want to miss out on a ‘suitable candidate’,” says Labanga, who is also part of the Child Protection Committee of her village. Labanga recounts one such success story when along with the SHG of her village, she stopped a child marriage in the Khandabandha village of her block.

“The girl was barely 17 and when we tried to reason with the parents they resisted. We had to warn them that all of them will be put behind bars if they go ahead with the wedding,” says Labanga. The marriage was eventually stopped after the police, based on an anonymous tip-off, intervened.

According to data generated by CYSD, 21.3 per cent of women in the age group of 20-24 years in Odisha were married before 18 years of age. The percentage of women from this age group, who are married before the legal age of 18 in the Mayurbhanj district, is as high as 35 per cent.

Domestic violence

Labanga says, domestic violence is a major issue in these villages, and most of them happen due to drinking, loss of income or over past enmity. “Drinking is a serious problem seen in the Munda community in our area. We encounter cases of husbands beating up their wives and also that of drunk elderly couples throwing their daughters-in-law out of the house in her husband’s absence. In one such case, the couple threatened to kill the daughter-in-law when she tried to enter the house,” she says.

According to National Family Health Survey 2015-16, at least 37 per cent of women from Scheduled Castes and in the age group pf 15-49 years were subjected to some kind of physical or sexual violence committed by their husbands. The percentage of abused women in Scheduled Tribe communities was 40 per cent, while that in OBC was 33 per cent.

Challenges galore

In most cases, the resolution doesn’t happen in a day as Labanga and her team spend at least four-five days to get hold of the ‘accused’ itself. “Sounds funny now, but at times, the husband would be so sloshed from drinking that we would have to shake him out of his intoxication before counselling him. Some escape the house before we reach, while others take indefinite loo breaks,” she chuckles.

“Some men are aggressive. They would ask us to get lost, saying it is a husband-wife matter. But I stand my ground and calmly reply that ‘I am here on the complaint of the wife’. In such situations, treating hostility with aggression is not a good idea,” she says. The interventions come at a price too. Labanga has often been threatened or abused by families, in which she had prevented a child marriage from taking place or she had helped a woman take a stand against her husband or in-laws.

A resilient breed

If you ask Labanga, what motivates her to fight for women’s rights, she says it comes from within and has nothing to do with her background or gender. “I was always good in studies, and the girls in my class hate me for it. As a child, I had resolved that I will be different from them and not bow down to the pressures of patriarchy,” she affirms. A graduate, Labanga is the first person in her village to have passed the matriculation exam in her maiden attempt.

Labanga’s work also involves counselling women to form SHG groups that would make them financially independent. She has mobilised several women of her block to become ASHA and Anganwadi workers, community leaders and SHG members. Pratima Das, president of an SHG group of a nearby village, who was initiated into the field by Labanga describes her as a “resilient woman”, who is singularly committed to her job.

“In fact, it was Labanga Didi who stopped me from marrying off my minor daughter last year. She sat down with our family and described why an early marriage will be dangerous for the health of my girl. Thanks to her, now my daughter is pursuing her education,” Pratima points out. The mother of a 22-year-old, who is doing her B.Ed. in Andhra Pradesh, Labanga says that she has taught her daughter to be self-reliant and brave. For her, financial independence is very important for women. “You can only raise your voice against atrocities or argue with your husband and in-laws when you have the money to fend for yourself. Having your own income also makes you equal to men and earns prestige in society,” she says.