Creativity

Creativity is not something that one can teach in class. It is the inner strength of one’s own intellectual capability in thinking and putting things forward. It is a mental ability on how each and every individual can act upon for a success from all others. Creative thinking always gives a different edge on facing the situation in different style. The one who has that power of thinking creatively than what others thinks, gives an advantage of standing out differently in the group than anyone else. To sustain in today’s competitive world, it is very important that each and every work that is done should involve some creativity in it. Take an example of starting a business; if the business has the component of using creativity that does not exist in the world has all chances attaining success. It cannot be replicated easily by others, thus avoids competitors to grow. Building our own identity also is linked with the creative thinking that helps to handle the tough situations.

Knowledge, skills, academic qualifications etc, are all different and doesn’t have anything to do with the creativity. But only if there is a creative mind, all the above said can be a supportive factor to grow up further. Let us ask ourselves what is creativity? What creativity do I have that adds an additional point in me? I know it is not such an easy question to give answers. One will identify the capability of creativity only through doing things differently than other. The one who has the advantageous edge will get notice of others very easily. Our daily activities make us to realize the strength of creativity that can be explored. Today our country has become so rich in culture and arts is only because of those who possessed high creativity in what they do. If it is followed and exhibited everyday in what we do will, it is no doubt that we possess high standards. Using creatively in blogging is so important to capture the readers attention.

Guest Speaker Session, Mr. Jagadish Hiremath

Mr. Jagadeesh Hiremath addressed the Deshpande Fellows on 13th June about the different corners of entrepreneurship. He is basically from technical background having 14 years of work experience in Tool engineering and Manufacturing. With the experience in the implementing stage, he has worked in Human Resource Development (HRD) sector also. His worked in different parts of Karnataka and also for sometime in western and Middle East countries. He has successfully handled various projects on CAD/CAM/CAE software tools.

Mr. Jagadeesh is interested in History, explained Capitalism in his own way of taking an example of Cow and a farmer. He had a successful academic background, did Diploma in Tool and Die making from NTTF, Dharwad on a merit basis and later completed Post Diploma in Management. He said how the non-business families think conservatively about starting the Business. He too faced similar situations at home from his parents when he wanted to start a venture on his own.

Though strong criticism, he took a risk of starting a venture, but which made him to land up in a loss. Meanwhile he got an opportunity to go to abroad for a job. While he was working abroad, his strong desire of starting a venture on his own again started pulling him towards it. But he realized its not possible to live there without a job unlike in India. He is an ethical person who wanted to start a business without exploiting ecology, but very quickly he had to realize he was not a successful entrepreneur as he faced several failures in his career. In his very first business, by the time he realized he is in a loss, many of those whom he believed cheated him in the financial part. According to Mr. Jagdeesh, finance is blood for any organization.

He faced terrible experiences when he didn’t have any money with him from which he learnt that no one shares problem. A job at Saudi Arabia fetched him a salary of Rs. 4500/- per month from which he had to save and repay back the creditors for Rs. 50000/- which he incurred loss from business. The new job gave exposure to Research and Development of households and also to software technology. By the time he cleared all the debts, he had enough network to again think about starting a business. He came to north India and started a business and again landed up being in loss. This is when he realized his strengths were in Technology, designing and producing tools but not in accounts and management.

He realized how his arrogance became a hindrance to his overall development. Due to this his ideas were not given much importance, but the same were used by others and got recognition. He feels innovation is steroid for a business. Caliber, logical way of thinking, common sense, analytical thinking are some of the important aspects he gives importance in his life. Inner strength comes only through over period of time by thinking and thinking over the same aspect.

His arrogance was noticed and criticized by his colleagues and officers in his work. On absence of his manager, he was deputed for the same position where he had to get things done from others. Though he was good at execution and implementation it was not sufficient, he realized managing is also important, he failed to do so. He said honesty, sincerity and hard work are very precious to acquire in life. He believes all good things happen only because of good inner motive and ethics. For an organization to achieve success, group of members should come together to work for a common goal.

At present he is the member of TIE, social networking organization. From his own experiences, he found the thin layer that differentiates an executive, implementer, manager and an entrepreneur. For his present business, recession has also contributed for a downfall, which he strongly feels; it’s a temporary situation and will definitely come out of it. Finally he concluded saying passion is what derives one to be an achiever.

Agriculture Module

Agriculture

Introduction:
On Thursday the 12th of March, there was great excitement because it was the day the agriculture module started. Since I was unfamiliar with the field of agriculture, I was so curious to learn about agriculture. The most interesting part to me was the complexity of agriculture and the question of what would be taught to us in the classroom in between four walls. The three day module focused on sustainable agriculture using organic farming, indigenous technology, low external input sustainable agriculture methods and practices that are environment friendly.

Module description:
The session began at exact official time and the facilitators were from the Agriculture Man and Ecology (AME) foundation. On the first day four resource people from the foundation came to share their views and cover the topics of the module. The facilitators were as follows:
1. Mr. Srikanth
2. Mr. Pattanshetty
3. Mr. Desai
4. Ms. Sangeetha

Mr. Srikanth took the major role in conducting the module and facilitating the whole process. In the beginning, the instructors clarified for the group the proceedings of the next three days, the modules covered, activities conducted, movies, field visits, evaluation and feedback. This gave a clear picture of what sort of learning I could get though the agriculture module. Mr. Srikanth also emphasized it would be very informal interaction and the participation should not be in the question and answer format, but everyone should contribute participation by sharing views.

Through this I felt a sort of comfort and his words were encouraging to one who was very necessary as I am an unfamiliar with agriculture. Each person was asked to share a brief introduction about them and to say where they want to work after the fellowship. His intention was to know how many wanted to take agriculture as a profession. Only two fellows showed interest working in the field of agriculture.

The first session was from Mr. Srikanth on agriculture and livelihood. It was a good session that taught me about the rural economy, globalization, forward and backward linkages, agricultural market, etc. It also focused on the current scenario, the statistical view of what is taking place in the field of agriculture in India. It was an interesting session that gave a brief idea on where and how India projects its agricultural standing at the global level.

Followed by this, two short movies of around 20 minutes each were displayed to provide a broader sense about agriculture and what is happening in and around the sector. It also included the culprits that are causing harm to the farmers and the environment. Mr. Srikanth added one point, saying it is the role of everyone to work for the eradication of misconceptions in the farmers.

Later in the day, Mr. Desai facilitated the session on evaluation of the farm field. As a reason of the session went on well, the facilitator had difficulty with his English. Apart from this, the presentation went on well and the core of the topic was presented effectively. The session helped me to learn the before and after of the green revolution, conventional agriculture, money market, etc.

Mr. Pattanshetty gave brief information about AME and its way of working and the areas of work. He said there is nothing that AME is doing new for to the farmers, it was all done in the past, but now they must remind those and increase awareness about the latest natural technologies to make the agricultural system sustainable. It helped me to know how the foundation works closely with the farmers and the natural resources. AME’s uniqueness is that it focuses on the area that is dry land.

Later in the day Mr. Srikanth facilitated a session on the latest practices in farming, as using chemical fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, overpopulation, etc, leading to climate change finally resulting in global warming in and around the world. He emphasized that Asia would be the most affected area due to the contribution of overpopulation. It taught me that it is everyone’s responsibility to act upon saving our environment from being harmed.

On the third day, Ms. Sangeetha took a session on Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA). The session focused on proper utilization, conservation and management of the natural resources that are available. The session also covered how a dry land can be used for an income-generation activity through conservation of water and soil through a modified cropping method. After this the fellows went for a field visit to learn about the activities conducted by the AME foundation.

The visit was to Kurdikere and Ramapura, which exposed fellows to Farmer Field School (FFS) and an agricultural exhibition, respectively. In the exhibition, all the natural methods were implemented in the models. In Kurdikere, we met the farmers group to learn the participatory method they adopt in FFS. Twenty members form FFS group that consists of 10 male and female each. The process of FFS meeting was explained, and I got a chance to come across practical implementation of the methods that were taught in the class that gave great insight into the agricultural practices.

On the last day, as a part of the assignment, the class was divided into four groups and was asked to debate on rural economy and industrial economy. It was a new experience and it was full of excitement and energy. The debating consisted of both quantitative and the narrative data about the topics. A fellow was chosen as arbitrator and had to make a decision on who performed well based on four criteria; preparation, content, conclusion presentation. According to the arbitrator, the team that debated in favor of the industrial economy was graded two points ahead of rural economy team.

Finally we came to the last section of the module, which was integrated farming. I learnt about managing pests by using indigenous methods and avoiding chemical farming. The session also focused on the livestock and its uses in agriculture.

After the conclusion of the module, all the fellows were asked to fill in the feedback form and were given an test to assess the effectiveness of the modules. It contained 25 questions that covered all the points that were focused on the last three days of module.

The entire module gave me the courage to say, “I can do agriculture”, because it was so effective, and though I cannot say I have become an expert in agriculture, no longer ignorant in agriculture. All these days I heard agriculture is difficult and not all do it. Now I learnt it is not the agriculture that is the tough part, but the practices that have been adopted that have made the process difficult. By adopting safe and natural methods, agriculture can be sustainable and also yield income generation activity by proper utilization, conservation and management of natural resources.

Learnings
From the Agriculture module, the following are my learnings:

1. Application of technology, like drip irrigation, sprinklers, bore wells, vermin compost, bunds, planting of trees on the bunds, etc.
2. Ill effects on human beings because of using insecticides and pesticides. It leads to acute respiratory infections, skin problems and many more, problems which may lead to death.
3. Mono cropping, dual cropping, Multi cropping, inter cropping, forestry agriculture, horticultural farming and introduction of poultry and piggery as profit-making ventures.

Key points:
1. Mono cropping: one yield in a year.
2. Dual cropping: yield of two crops in a year.
3. Multi cropping: getting two or more crop yields in a year.
4. Vermin compost: a mixture of cattle waste, quality soil and organic worms. It is kept until the mixture becomes rich in its quality after the worms act upon the soil and dung of the animals.
5. Horticulture farming: the growing of plants that yield fruits and nuts that lead to seasonal income and gives income for long years (3-4 years).
6. Forestry agriculture: growing of tall trees in a particular area on the field that help to prevent soil eradication, helps in cloud forming and in later years can lead to profit when cut down and sold.
7. Acute respiratory infections: severe infection in the lungs and that causes difficulty in breathing and, if not treated properly, may even lead to death.
8. Poultry: rearing of chicken for meat and eggs purpose.
9. Piggery: rearing of pigs for the purpose of meat.
10. Insecticides and pesticides: chemicals that are used to kill the insects and pests that may harm the crops.

Leadership Activity on Hepatitis-B in Nrupatunga Betta

Date: 15/04/09
Leaders: Lakshmish, Followers: Mr. Devdanam and Ms. Poonam

Objective/ Goal:
· To aware the people on Hepatitis-B virus.

Location/ Community involved: General population, those came to Nrupatunga Hill for morning exercise.

Activity & Description:
Conducted an activity with the help of Mr. Devdanam and Ms. Poonam in Nrupatunga hill. The activity focused on the one of the deadly viral infection Hepatitis-B. In the activity more focus was given to the youth. The reason is youth were found more in number and they can be the vehicle to circulate the message quite fast.

Around 12 youths and nine adults were covered during the activity. At first collected information if they had information about the infection. If they had, the rest of the nourishing was given. It was found most of the people we met heard the word Hepatitis-B, but didn’t know its consequence and mode of transmission.

All the necessary information was given those are required to have the awareness to keep away from the information. Spoke more about the prevention part that is through vaccination.

Strategies:
· One to one interaction.
· Thought provoking through simple questions.

Challenges:
· Time constrain, many did not give sufficient time.
· Didn’t get sufficient sample.

Lessons learnt & Output:
· To involve more and more people.
· Use some pictures to communicate effectively.

Leadership activity on Hepatitis-B for Home guards

Date: 12/04/09

Leader: Lakshmish, Followers: Savitha and Chandru.L

Objective/ Goal:

• Sensitize the group on the ill effects of Hepatitis-B.
• To make the group get vaccinated.

Location/ Community involved: Home guards, Hubli

Activity & Description:
With the help of Ms. Savitha and Mr. Chandru, conducted an activity for the home guards of Hubli. The activity focused on the awareness on Hepatitis-B, a deadly viral infection. Around 80 home guards were present. Explained the modes of transmission, symptoms, consequences and the ways of prevention.


More emphasis was given on vaccination and many people voluntarily came up asking about the vaccination, like where it is available, about the cost, effectiveness of vaccination etc. Few members in the group shared the stories of cases they came across, the extent of suffering, one case was all about a lady, tested Hepatitis-B positive during pregnancy and the struggle for delivery, etc.

Strategies:
· Group interaction.
· Lecture method using board.

Challenges:
· Convincing the group to the session as it was Sunday and all were eager to go back.

Lessons learnt & Output:
· Awareness was lacking in the group and need more and more focus in the area.

Any Comments:
· To conduct more health related activities.
· Conduct activity on ill effects of tobacco.

Street Play on International Women's Day

Date: 08/03/2009
Leader: Mr.Lakshmish
Followers: Mr.Lingaraj and Ms.Gaythri
Location/ Community involved: General population near primary school, Sutagatti, Dharwad.
Activity & Description: Street Play on “INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY”

Process: On International women’s day, for creating awareness in society about women status, COHORT-II fellows performed 21 activities throughout Hubli-Dharvad Dist. A story narrated around the harassment of women at different places like at home, outside on the roads and in the office situations were taken as examples. The conclusion was given by communicating such situations should be stopped further, and treated equally to all.

Objective/Goal: To aware the community about the situation for most of the women in the society and to have equal opportunity to all.

Strategies: Through skit, folk songs and meeting people personally.

Challenges: To gather people, especially women.

Sensitizing Women on Financial Facilities that are available at Manndeshi

Date: 02/03/09

Leaders: Lakshmish, Follower: Ajay

Location/ Community involved: Women group at Ramnagara, Hubli

Activity & Description:
Two women group of totally 50 members gathered for the conclusion of training program. The training program was held by Manndeshi, an organization working for women development, provides training on tailoring and computer education. After the training, if anyone interested to become self employed have the provision of taking loan upto Rs.5000/-.

According to Manndeshi’s rules and regulation of providing loan, one person should take responsibility of collecting the money from the other debtors on a commission basis. But in the group no one was willing to take the responsibility. As I was there as a volunteer of Manndeshi, I facilitated the group by clearing the roles and responsibilities of the collector. After explaining the role, a woman who stays in the same area from the past 10 years came front to take the responsibility.

Objective/ Goal: To expand the services further for the women group

Strategies:

1. Showing how useful the loan will be, by showing what the current group accessed loan are doing.

2. Telling their stories, the challenges and how they established.

Sensitizing Women on Work Opportunities

Leader: Mr.Lakshmish.S, Followers: Mr.Veeresh and Ms.Gayatri

Location/ Community involved: Women Group, Devi Nagar, Hubli

Activity & Description: The activity focused on providing information to the women group, gathered at Devi Nagar, Hubli. The reason for choosing that particular area was most of the women there go for earning doing several sort of works such as household and construction work. Around 20 women and 5 youth girls were gathered.

The session began by asking what they feel about the work they do. Many of them expressed saying “there is no other way than doing coolie for filling the stomach, only then we can lead life”. But the overall opinion was they were forced to do because of their situation. Taking this as opportunity, we gave them information about what sort of livelihood can support them for their income of the family. Gave information about the training provided by “Mann Deshi” on basics of Computer and Tailoring. Also gave information on the availability of loan system under Micro Finance and facilities of Marketing. The mode of repaying the loan along with the terms and conditions were explained.

Few women interacted asking questions like, “we have sewing machine with us, what can we do next”. All such queries were addressed and distributed pamphlets of Mann Deshi, which has all the information regarding the training on the wheels (Bus). The names of all the members were collected along with the contact numbers if they had for further follow up. One woman by name Shobha (name changed) took the responsibility of gathering the group and intending when to come.This way the group was sensitized on the opportunities to work for their livelihood.

Objective/ Goal:
1. Sensitizing on the work opportunity for the women group.

2. Providing awareness on the available facilities for women.

Strategies:
1. Asking what they need and provide what they are looking for.
2. Distribution of pamphlets.Displaying of the prepared materials done by beneficiaries.

Challenges: Making the group understanding about the pre-requisites of loan, terms and conditions.

Lessons learnt & Output:
1. Dealing with the Micro Finance as it was my first experience working with it in large.

2. Few have come up asking for the training and one lady asked the job opportunity elsewhere as she is in the thought of changing the job.

Future Plan: Needs further follow up for formation of the group.

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.

Deshpande Fellowship Programme : Orientation Program

Deshpande Fellowship Programme, Cohort – II
The orientation for the fellowship program started on 20th Jan 2009 for the Cohort-II batch. The day started with energizers by Ms.Taryn, those helped the fellows to know more about each other. After the activities concluded, bags and face books were issued to each fellow.

This was followed by a session by Mr.Naveen Jha, Director, DCSE that oriented the fellows more about the content of the program. It gave a brief idea on the modules that will be covered during the 6 months of the fellowship program. The topics seemed to be very interesting and the fellows were so amazed to know about the topics. The session also focused on the activities that were to be performed by the fellows during the fellowship program. The Director also briefed about the Stipend and how to avail the incentives by performing the various tasks. The session gave the fellows a brief idea about the activities and the thought about the commitment required for successful performance. Later Mr. Chinna Babu, Manager, DCSE briefed the fellows about the Policies and Procedure of the fellowship program, code of conduct etc. This was followed by preparing the Charts by each fellow that provides information about them. by this I had to leave the day’s activity for some personal reasons and was on leave even on the next day (i.e., on 21st Jan 2009).

The fellow could join the 3rd day orientation for the discussion on the visit to ‘Akshaya Patra’ facilitated by the Director, DCSE. Though the fellow could not visit Akshaya Patra, the discussion and debriefing was so effective that helped the fellow to imagine the picture of the activities and the management carried over there. Later the day progressed with the visit to Agastya an organization, dealing in promoting the Practical knowledge for the children about Science. The visit gave an enormous knowledge about the practical application of the theoretical knowledge in the field of science utilizing simple models. It helped the fellows to understand the importance of practical application and how it helps the children at their young age helps them to understand the application of theory into practice. Later the Director, DCSE briefed the visit for the fellows that helped to understand the activity in the entrepreneurial concept.

By this the orientation was concluded and led to the start for the program activities.