Guest Speaker Session, Ms.Chetna Gala Sinha, Director and Founder, Manndeshi

MANNDESHI

Ms.Chetna Gala Sinha, Founder and Chairperson of Manndeshi, Mhaswad came as guest speaker to address the fellows. It was a session in which she shared about her personal life, the way Manndeshi came into existence, the challenges she faced to build it etc.

Ms.Sheela Munro, Program Manager, Manndeshi, Hubli and Ms.Rekha, CEO, Manndeshi, Mhaswad also accompanied Ms.Chetna for the session. The session began through welcome speech from Ms.Meenakshi, fellow, DFP and brief introduction about the guest speaker by Mr.Devdanam also fellow of DFP.

Ms.Chetna started her words saying its privilege to address the students group, as most of her talk and communication will be with higher officers. She is educated in the field of Economics and during student life she had Public movements. During the moment, she came across a person and accepted him as her life partner. Husband was from an agriculture family, different in caste and class, it was a challenge to she took where she saw different corners of life. It was her first exposure to agriculture and farming family.

About the organization: In 1987 Chetna along with her husband, went to Kolapur from Maswad to sell two tons of onion they grew, but the amount they got was lesser than what they had to pay for transportation. This gave her a thought to start up a Credit Co-operative Bank for farmers with the share value of Rs.10/-. During those days, it was monopolized by NABARD and the village had municipal council. This was observed till 1991-1994, during this period she found that women are better money managers and thought of starting something for women that can give financial stability. Then she started a women bank, for which she started working from the grass root level, writing proposals and thus it was started from the scratch. As per the rules it needed 5,00,000/- to start the bank, but at the end 6,00,000/- was collected with each person contributing Rs. 25/-. When approached the CGI of RBI for license, the proposal was rejected for the reason most of the women were illiterate and they can’t handle the financial aspects.

This was a setback for Ms.Chetna, and she went back crying, but the village women didn’t give it up. They all took it as a challenge and committed for study so that they are no more called as illiterate. When again proposal was made same question raised, but that time the women were so confident to challenge the officers with the skill they had to calculate the rate of interest. At last, the license was approved in August 1997. In the past ten years, the bank has 1,20,000 clients and has a share of 20 crore and with this huge amount, Manndeshi started Non Banking Finance Company. In the beginning no one came to take loan and shared a story in which husband tried to manipulate the situation and to borrow one lakh.

Meanwhile a video on Manndeshi was shown to the fellows. Later on she continued saying the bank has door step banking system in which the loan amount can be paid at door step. A pigmy collector collects the amount as per their convenience, where it can be paid daily, weekly, fortnightly or on monthly basis. The pigmy collector gets 3% of the amount collected.

In the year 2006, Business School on Wheels was started for the rural women which trains women on Computer and Tailoring. According to Ms.Chetna, women think reality where as men aspires. When asked the reason behind name Manndeshi, it says Mann-River (in maswad which is almost always dry), and in Marati it means Sand and Deshi is local.

The other activities are providing scholarship of girls, providing bicycle without interest on it. HSBC is also supporting in lending money under its Corporate Social Responsibility and also Business school of education. When asked about her vision, she said the focus is on expanding whole of Maharastra and North India specifically in Gujrath.

After Deshpande Started supporting Manndeshi, it started a new branch in Hubli, Karnataka during August 2007. Then the Program Manager, Ms.Sheela answered for the questions asked about the Hubli branch. She shared about the challenges, saying she was worried of what can be done with the bus sent from the head office for the purpose of training. Those were the days she even thought of sending it back. But after all the hard work now the situation is entirely changed and expressed the feel of joy to say, now two more buses are needed as the enrollments are taking place even long way back. The session was very much interactive, all the fellows got chance to ask questions and were addressed from the guests. Manndeshi has no funding from the Government, Ms.Chetna doesn’t not entertain as she faced the different views while tried taking those funds.

By answering the queries, the session concluded by vote of thanks form Ms.Usha, fellow, DFP followed by photo session.

Thus the session gave an insight about the social concern of enlightening and upliftment of rural women with a concept of Enterpreneurship.

TOT on HIV/AIDS

Location: DCSE Guest House, Deshpande fellows of Social Entrepreneurship
Activity: Training of the Trainers

Leader: Mr.Lakshmish.S, Followers: Mr.Ajay and Mr.Shambuling

Objectives:
1. To conduct activities focusing on HIV awareness, and making the fellows knowledge on HIV.
2. To focus more and more areas for HIV awareness.

Process: Facilitating the group fellows to take up activities related to HIV. Since few already worked in the field of HIV, and conducted some activities relating to HIV, the activity was chosen to be Training of Trainers. The session started showing a telefilm focused on HIV. The film is produced by BSF, India and contains modes of transmission of HIV by constructing a small story around it.

After concluding the film, brainstorming session was done to clear their understanding. Few had some misconceptions like HIV may spread through mosquito bite. All these were clarified and by saying ‘risk’ is the main consideration for HIV testing, conducted a group activity for better understanding.

Distributed a chit containing some activities and those were distributed to all the group members and they were asked to categorize the act as high risk, low risk or no risk. After categorizing the person should give explanation why they feel so and justify their answer. The other group members could challenge the person and it went on very well. It was a thought provoking activity for the group; it gave rise to clarification in depth. The participation was so good that the session was carried for more than 2 hours.

Experiences during RTI Module

RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT 2005

Introduction: Right To Information Act, came into effect on 12th October, 2005 under the rule of UPA Government. It was a need of a common man, especially in India as the level of corruption is so high.

When we speak of Right to information, we can inspect works, Records & documents. We can get extract copies from document & also we get sample of material. Any Indian citizen can get information from any public authority under RTI Act. Information means any material in any form including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information related office.

The reason the RTI Act is a potent tool is simple — if the information requested is not provided by the officials, they need to pay Rs.250 for every day of delay from their salary. There is no other act that directly links performance of government officials to their salary.
The Act also enables to BPL families to get the information with free of cost, without paying anything extra for getting the information.

Public Authority: It is made by or under constitution or it made by law parliament, it is made by law state Legislature and order made by Government.

Later we discussed about sections Suo-Muto under Sec 4(1)(b) & specific information under Sec(6)(1) availed under the RTI Act 2005. Suo-Muto is self declaration that means, it provides detail information of the department that covers 17 points under the Act. Example Details of employees, Budget & responsibilities. The Sec(6)(1) provides any specific information that is required under any department by paying a nominal fee of Rs.10 either by PO, Cheque & DD.

Learning:
1. Though we had some information about RTI Act, it was not sufficient to speak about it nor to tell someone about it. Even if I was asked to file an RTI I had no enough knowledge to do so. But the 3 days class on the Act nourished with the proper guidance to use it as an effective tool to fight against the inefficient system and corruption that takes place in the Government Institutions. It also enables every citizen of India (not applicable to Jammu and Kashmir) to utilize the available right to function over the system to know what they deserve from the Government policies.

2. The session sensitized to know our role in RTI Act. It also gave a picture, that its responsibility of each and every citizen of the country to bring awareness about the Act to those who are unaware about it and mainly to the under privileged sections.

3. Filing Suo-Muto under Sec 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act, 2005.

4. Filing under Sec 6(1) of the RTI Act, 2005 to get any particular information of the Department.

5. Street plays to aware the people on the Act.

Experience:
1. The first day experience of filing an RTI under the Sec 4(1)(b) for getting information on Suo-Muto from the Karnataka Water Supply Board, Hubli, Dharwad was the first experience of filing an RTI. Though at the beginning no one responded properly, later there was a quick response once they came to know the purpose of visit was to file RTI. The Public Information Officer was not available, so the Executive Engineer was contacted to file the Act. There was no much response from him, he collected the application, called the attender and asked him to take the counter signature on the acknowledgement. During that time, he asked how it will help us? The reply was given such “I’m social worker, residing in Hubli so such information will help me for my further course of action”. He just showed a blank face and handed over the signed acknowledgement.

2. The second experience was little tough while filing under Sec 6(1) under the RTI Act for specific information. I visited Hubli-Dharwad Munciple Corporation with an written application and a postal order of Rs.10/- to file RTI. The purpose of filing RTI was to obtain information on the a) Budget and utilization of funds and b) Development measures taken in last 2 years at Indira Glass House in the last 2 years. The information was asked as the park was not maintained upto the mark it had to be. in the beginning as I met Mr.Kulkarni to know where the PIO is available, he asked to go to another office i.e., at Zonal office-4 to lodge RTI. Then I had to speak to him with exchange of heated words, then he spoke up saying “ok, you go to General Information department and you can file it there”. This was enough to make rest of the work successful. RTI was filed at the inward section as the concerned person was not available.

3. After knowing the RTI Act and having practical experience, it was time to pass the information to others. The medium chose was through Street Play and the area chosen was Taj Nagar. A group of 7 members went to the place with an attractive story netted around the RTI Act. The play was so effective that the people gathered appreciated us and at the end they shared their experiences that they met in their life in Government offices. They were given the helpline number to contact, if they come across any such difficulties in future.

Future Plan: After knowing the act well in content and application of it, now my future plan is to scaling up by providing the information to as many as possible. To take an effort to see that each and every common man knows about this act and uses it effectively.

HIV Awareness at Devi Nagar

Leaders: Mr.Lakshmish and Ms.Gaythri, Followers: Ms.Malini and Mr.Ajay

Location: Devi Nagar, Hubli, focused for Male group

Objectives: To bring awareness about HIV/AIDS to the group members and to bring self risk perception.

Strategies:
Ø Showing Tele Film
Ø PPT
Ø Interactive discussion

Process: It was a group of 7 adults who were the beneficiaries of the activity. The group members were all working people and had little education till higher secondary and PUC. So the group members were shown a Tele film to attract their attention. During the film was shown all were very keenly watching each and every moment though there was lot of external disturbances.

After the film was completed, the facilitator threw an open ended discussion to the group members. It was so amazed, in the first session the facilitation brought up the group members sharing their risk. After providing basic information about HIV, the session focused on addressing their misconceptions. Though 5 members in the group were sexually active, they had very less knowledge about using condom. The opportunity was utilized in addressing their wrong notions along with condom demonstration.

Later, the group came up asking voluntarily to go for testing. Necessary information about the testing was provided and those are referred to ICTC, KMC hospital, Hubli. Later the group members expressed they need further sessions and took contact numbers to clarify their doubts as and when needed. They have asked to know about the female condom and using of it in the follow up session.

Needs further follow up of the activity, the group members have asked for female condom demonstration.

HIV Awareness at Boys Hostel

Leaders: Mr.Lakshmish and Mr.Veeresh, Followers: Mr.Shambuling and Mr.Mahantesh

Location: Boys Hostel, Vidya Nagar, Hubli

Date: 22/02/2009

Objective: To provide information on HIV and educate them to become responsible towards HIV.

Strategies:
1. Telecasting of informative movie clip
2. Using PPT
3. Interaction session

Process: The activity focused on providing the information on HIV to the youth students and to develop capability to take the responsibility in decreasing the number of infections, and also reduce the impact on those who are infected. The activity was conducted in a boy’s hostel by informing them one week early. Around 20 student involved in making the activity successful.

The session started with showing the short movie, contributed by BSF, casting famous Bollywood actors that contain information on HIV. This was shown to provoke them to generate some information and ideas about HIV. The movie was shown for 20 mins that followed by an interaction session through the help of an PPT.

Later the discussion went on for half hour, the group members came up with their thoughts, perceptions and the doubts they had related to HIV. The group was so enthusiastic, they all exhibited high quality participation in listening and interacting thought out the activity. The session covered modes of transmission, difference between HIV and AIDS, stages, role of a person towards HIV and brief about treatment.

Each one gave valuable feedback about the session, the overall of it said they got proper information about HIV, and they will be available for the needy.

Awareness on Safe Delivery and HIV

As part of the fellowship curriculum, Mr.Lakshmish and Mr.Ajay visited Nagalavi, a village 18 kms away from Dharwad. During the visit, we got an opportunity to do an activity on”Awareness on safe delivery and basics of HIV”. The topic was chosen based on the interest and need of the group. The activity beneficiaries were a group of women 20 in number, all aged between 18 to 35 years and only 2 were above 50 years. The activity was led by Mr.Lakshmish with the support of Mr.Ajay.

Aim: The aim of the activity was to provide information to the group members on the impact of home based deliveries.

Objectives:
1. To make sure 100% deliveries are Hospital based.
2. All the pregnant women undergo screening for HIV, thus avoid chances of HIV transmission from mother to child.

Process: The session was more of through interaction. It was found that, around 8 years back all the deliveries were home based. The village had 2 mid-wives, who did deliveries at home. Though there is no report of any hazardous situation occurred due to home based delivery, for the precautionary measures this session was conducted focusing young and adult women those were in the reproductive age. But in recent past, since more than 50% of the cases started accessing hospital for delivery, one of the mid-wife left the place. But still rest of the deliveries was done at home so the activity focused on 100% hospital based deliveries. The session covered information on the safe hospital based delivery and basics of HIV, that was linked to the consequences of home delivery.

A woman who accessed ICTC during her pregnancy came forward to speak about her experience to the group members. Her words had a great impact on the group, later she added earlier she did not understand many things that got cleared on the day’s activity.

In the beginning though the group did not open up much, later they all came up sharing their knowledge and few of their misconceptions were addressed. At the end the group brainstormed the points they learned and the session was concluded.

PRA Activity at Bommasamudra, Hubli

Participatory Rural Appraisal PRA is a method to know the reality of villages and the clear picture of all resources and facilities available there. I attended four days of theory sessions on PRA, facilitated by Dr.Prakash Bhatt. With a practical learning on 10 February, Tuesday I reached ‘Gram Chetana’ training centre, Soorashettikoppa with my all co fellows for village study. We were told that this training centre is made by participatory efforts from villagers and this is an entrepreneur of BAIF (Bhatia Agro Industries Foundation) organization. BAIF is a leading organization in rural development field that is working since 1967 and founded by Dr. Manibhai Desai. Journey of BAIF in Karnataka started from 1980 and working is 20 Districts.

On second day we were divided into separate groups for village study. I was in the team for Bommasamudra village study. We were four members (Mr.Lakshmish, Mr.Jagadish, Ms.Meenakshi and Mr.Ajay) in our group.

I reached village after walking about 8 kames. Here one facilitator Mr. Shettappa from AME Foundation helped us in first hand interaction with villagers. We have a meeting with about 30 people where we introduced with then and told about our objective. In this meeting they told us that they all are busy from morning to evening in farming. So we decided to collect demographic information of the village and we enquired people and visited Junior High School (1 to 8th) and Aganwadi worker. Here we get the information regarding village.

Information about Village
} Its 13.5 k.m. away from Hubballi city.
} Population of around 1519.
} Main source of income is agriculture.
} It has Palya to its East, Kardikoppa to West, North-Balagali and Varur to South.
} Around 300 families stay in the village.
} 100% households connected by electricity.
} 70% are pakka and rest is kaccha houses.
} Only 30% houses have Toilet rooms facility.
} Contains 60% Kurubas, 30% lingayath, 10% - Badigas, SC/ST, Muslim and Valikar.
} 5 water tanks with 7 bore wells, out of which 2 are not working.
} Many youngsters are into driving profession.
} Rest does agriculture and works in making Cement blocks.
} PHC is situated 1 km away from Bommasamudra at Harlikatte.
} Around 98% deliveries are done in Hospitals.
} Malaria is commonly seen during rainy season.
} “Mid day meals is contributing for children’s participation and healthy development” – Head Mistress.
} TB (2-3 cases per year) and HIV (1 male & 1 female).
} Around 21 disabled are found that includes mental and physical disability, duff and dumb etc…
} The village has an Anganwadi and a school that teaches till class 8.
} School has 230 children and 7 teachers.
} Main crops: Jawar, Soya Beans, Cotton, Groundnut, Paddy, Chikku, Maize, Sunflower
} The area is surrounded by Black and Red Soil
} Agriculture, Carpentry, Petty shops, Coolie, Khanavali is the main source of income.
} Natural sources: 2 ponds, one is of Government and one is private, 120 acre of fodder.

At evening time because most of the villagers used to come back after their work. But we had to go back Gram Chetana. So we did two personal Interviews and left the village.
Second day we started with Transect walk and during the day we used PRA Tools like: Resource Mapping, Matrix, Venn diagram, Family visits and collected the related information.

Important Learning:
Castism is not followed by villagers, they celebrate all festivals. Women and Men both use to work in farms and go to markets. Language is important for mingled up with villagers. Villagers have talent but they are not getting platform to enrich their uniqueness. Attitude and thinking towards women is Gender biased. Cattles are much costly comparison to North India. Pre-planning and some knowledge about villages should be.

Challenges:
Could not involve women for group activities with men. Gathering people as much as required for participation. Villagers’ expectations.

Leadership Activity at Glass House, Hubli

Leadership Activity at Indira Glass House

It was Feb 1st, 2009, Sunday morning when the fellow group of Ms.Savita, Mr.Lakshmish, Ms.Latha and Ms.Usha visited Indira Glass House located in the heart of the Hubbali Muncipal city, hoping even there we can find some reason where we can intervene as leaders.

We could see many elderly men, women, children and senior citizens of Hubbali starting their day with walking at Indira Glass House under beautiful sunrise, few doing yoga practice and the young kids practicing Skating.

But all those were not our focus, rather we could see very unhygienic condition like used plastics lying all around, paper plates, tumblers etc. dustbins lying around the area which seemed that people coming there never wanted to use it. The place never looked like someone was bothered about its maintenance. Though there was a huge board placed at several places of the Park, in which number of rules focusing on the cleanliness of the place, vehicles not allowed inside the premises all just look like rules that were not to be followed.

When interacted with the people around that area, they expressed their sense of withdrawn from what is happening. On probing they expressed saying “what is available in the park now, is provided after a lot of struggle, writing appeals to the concerned people.” On asking the opinion from those gathered around about bringing necessary steps to keep the place according to the rules and regulations of the place, they all together expressed the interest to fight together for the cause. They came to an opinion saying “a letter could be signed by all those who come there and the same could be forwarded to the Director of the Horticulture”. They expressed the deep sense of support for the team by saying they would join us if their support could be handy. On the same time it was decided, if there is no step taken the issue should be taken to the media.

As per the plans, the fellows visited the place on Feb 8th, 2009 and collected signature from 35 people and the same will be forwarded to the Director of Horticulture, Hubbali.

The important aspect to notice was, those who interacted with us were aware about Deshpande Foundation, though not its thorough activities a good sense of positive words were shared by them.

Date: 02/02/09, Start Time: 9:20
Topic: Public Health
By Mrs.Meenakshi,

Started with the introduction of the group members, by sharing Name, background and the activity done during the week end. It was a good activity at the beginning of the day’s process to learn about Public Health. The faculty person started the session with introduction and definition to Public Health. After providing a brief idea about PH, a small tele film was screened on Indore. The tele film consisted of the approaches that were used to provide Public Health in the area of slums which are in and around Indore.

Followed by this, the fellows were asked to answer the questions based on the approaches that were used in the area of Indore. The questions were also focused on bringing out the innovativeness in the fellow members. Duration of 30 mins was given to answer the questions given and the answer sheets were collected back for correction.

Followed by the refreshments break, the focus on module continued to go depth in understanding the context of Public health. The strategy that was used by the speaker was so good that it kept all the fellows intact with the on goings through the two way discussions. The fellows were so much encouraged that everyone showed the interest of sharing their views and ideas without any hesitation. Mr. Golden Frankly’s presence gained the group by his personal sharing.

Later, the group was divided into 4 sub groups and a similar case was given to two groups on which the groups were asked to debate with one group ‘for’ and ‘against’ related to the case they were given. It was a great experience to many of the group members as the debate was healthy with pre-guidelings and facilitation by Mrs.Meenakshi and gave a break for lunch. The two topics were one that emphasized on opinion about Public Smoking and the other on Sex Education for school children.

After breaking for lunch break, later the group of two members was made and were given 2 scenario of the NGOs on which the fellows were asked to discuss the problems existed in the case and also it led path to think innovative idea on addressing the problems that were presented in the case given. All the fellows took part in expressing the ideas that they had towards the problem.

The next activity was done forming sub groups consisting of 3 members in each group and asked to write a project proposal to the funders (Ajay, Malini and Chandrashekar) to get grants for the activity what were the fellows would like to start up with. It was rather a good session to learn the criteria to receive funds from a funding organization. It helped understanding the approach required in receiving grants for the social development activities. This concluded the day’s activity.

As per my observation, I would like to share that all the group members showed high participation in the group activities and sharing their valuable ideas during the session. The credit goes to Ms. Meenakshi that she adopted the method of teaching where all could open up with their views towards the topic. The session was concluded at 5:45pm.

Leadership Activity at Unkal Lake, Unkal, Hubballi

Activity performed at Unkal Kere, Unkal, Hubballi, Karnataka.

The activity was conducted on 25th of Jan 2009 at 06:00 am by Ms.Gayatri, Mr.Veeresh, Mr.Shambuling, Mr.Lakshmish.

The aim of the activity was make the people take responsibility of social properties and to conserve them for next generations.

The objectives of the activity were
1. To bring in awareness about cleanliness, conserving the natural resources and proper utilization of the facilities provided by Government.
2. To bring in the notice to the Government about the mismanagement by the authorities.
3. Educate the society about health and hygiene through various activities like drama, skit, role plays etc

Reason for choosing particular activity:
During the previous visit to Unkal lake by the fellows, came across about the unhealthy condition inside the park over there, cows and buffalo lying inside the park making the surrounding area stingy by dung all around. Gutka packs and waster paper lying throughout the park. Waste water from the companies surrounding the park enters inside and has made the part of park stagnant with drainage water. Waste thrown all over the park made it very untidy and created an unpleasant environment for those who come there for better healthy condition. This brought in the idea of advocacy in the mind of group members.

Activity: The group members led by Ms.Gayathri and Mr.Veeresh joined by Mr.Shambuling and Mr.Lakshmish as followers started cleaning the park by picking up the garbage lying all around the greenery area of the park. All the four members pecked the waste and collected it in one corner of the park. It was not an easy task as the waste was just spread over the park in each and every corner. Picking glass pieces of the cool drinks bottle and gutka packing cover was really a challenging job for the group.



The people who came for walking and jogging were slowly attracted by our activities. They started coming to us to interact what was happening and started sharing their views. They appreciated the work performed by the group and shared the actual problem that was happening there by the ignorance of the people visiting the park.

Two people responded by sharing the failure of Government’s intervention in keeping the area clean and performing the developmental activities for the funds they receive. One of the elderly person said, people coming on the week end does throw all the garbage around the park. He also added saying “It makes us feel difficult to come for walk especially on Sundays and Mondays, the place looks so dirty and waste spread all over leaving food waste scattered all over. People should be thought about waste management in public places, do they litter like this at their house?” He also added a statement aiming at the failure of work by Government focusing on not placing the dustbins in and around the park.

Seeing the cleaning and advocacy work by the group, many people around the area were motivated to take part in the activity. Many young and elderly people also joined hands in the activity. Children took it as a joy and were happy to do it as fun. By elders response was quite good and suggested the group to bring in the change that were necessary to keep the surrounding clean and tidy forever and to do it by the fellowship program gets over. They assured the group that they would contribute their help in needed.

The beside photo shows the entry of waste water entering into the park, that is put out by the companies situated around the park.

Members helped the goup in cleaning the park

Future Plans:
1. Pressurizing Corporation to Place sufficient dustbins inside the park through the intervention of corporation.
2. Educating the people about the importance of maintaining cleanliness in and around the park, by communicating innovatively through effective dramas, skits and role plays associating with local groups
3. Follow up for next couple of months to see that the objective and carried out by the ownership of society.