Women's History Month at Span

Celebrating Women's History Month this March, I have profiled Mallika Dutt, the charismatic visionary behind Breakthrough. You can read the article on Span's website here.

I had written about Breakthrough earlier, way back in November 2005. I had just seen 'Maati', the beautiful video about an upper-class woman infected with HIV by her husband, and was totally blown away by the video's electric combination of stunning visuals, evocative lyrics and hard-hitting message. Can't find that video online, but another one worth watching is Mann Ke Manjeere (title song of the album and nominated for MTVs Best Indipop Music Video), and is here.

I remember getting some interesting comments from readers on the article, mostly from men. Probably not coincidental, since the article talked about getting men to well, be more sensitive to women by using condoms when requested to do so (and when not requested), and by being open about their previous sexual partners. Have posted some comments below:

From I. Ghosh, Chandigarh
It is true the men should keep there male chauvinisim at bay and realise there reponssibilites towards his life partner , his family and above all the society in which he lives.Like food ,shelter and education, after a certain age sex too plays an important part in a man's life.And I belive that it is the right of every human being to get the best knowledge about safe sex. At school children are taught about various deseases that spread through contaminated water and the precaution they should take. In the same way deseases relating to sex for example STD and AIDS must be a part of school syllaby after a certatin class, maybe in 11th and 12th grade.It should not be a taboo issue any more as AIDS is labelled as an epidemic with no cure yet. All we can do is act reponssibly and prevent it from spreading by first ,taking proper precaution on personal front and secondly by spreading the awareness.Since charity begins at home parents should feel free to take up the issue with their wards.Even elder siblings with proper knowledge can be a big help.Family physcian to can do his part....All we need now is to act ..

From Sanjay:
I have noticed a conspicuous evolution of themes especially related to advertisements, rather social messages built around curbing the spread of AIDS. If I recall correctly, the earlier campaigns were talking about the importance of having only one sexual partner. However now, we seemed to have accepted the reality that our initial plank was not strong and hence the promotion of condoms as a means to prevent the spread of virus.

I have also seen the commercial, if I can call it that way, asking the men to be more sensitive. But, from a target audience point of view, I wonder whether it will strike the right tone with the 'insensitive' men. I would say that it would have been better if they promoted something like with that advertisement. Also, I really doubt that if a condom can prevent the virus being spread – 100%. But of course it might be near 100%.

As your article suggests, the bigger challenge for India is to spread the awareness. I have read some years ago (should be at least 4 years) about prostitutes insisting their clients to wear condoms, and it was even reported that one prostitute even asked her clients to wear 2 condoms preferably. If awareness can reach groups like prostitutes who are considered inaccessible then why not the masses? Speaking about sex openly has been very un-Indian. However, if I have to go by the surveys done, at least in cities, doing sex is not. So in-addition to spreading the awareness among the people, one has to simultaneously concentrate on the younger generation – especially teenagers.

Sculpting in Sugar and Stone

On a recent trip through Punjab, I had the opportunity to witness the production of gur (unprocessed sugar), which I found to be fascinating. Here's how the process goes: a crusher presses raw sugar cane to squeeze out its juice. The yellowish juice is then 'piped' into a huge vat, where it is boiled until it thickens. The thickened, coagulated juice floating on top is then scooped into a boiling vat next door, where it is further thickened. By this time, the juice is a dark green and is thick and syrupy. The process is again repeated in a final vat, where the coagulated syrup turns brown and thick. The thick, caramel-like paste is then scooped onto a gigantic flat-pan, where it is cooled, and beaten with a shovel-like instrument. The cooled mass of gur is then packed like blocks of stones into squares of cloth.

It was almost like being in an Indian-village version of Willy Wonka's chocoloate factory. The gooey mess looked so good I felt like jumping into it. Seriously.



Also en route was a Jain mandir in the making. Interestingly, alot of modern-day religious sculptors - like the ones in these pictures - are hired laborers from poor states like Orissa, where the backbreaking job of stone-cutting is the only kind of work they can get. Well, on the brighter side, they are probably raking in good karma.

Saksham

Close encounters

SMITA JAIN

Thanks to awareness created by Saksham, some children in Nithari were able to escape the clutches of the Noida killers.

KNOWLEDGE TO THE RESCUE: The children with the teachers in a Saksham classroom.

NOIDA'S serial killers have exposed the extreme inequity — and lawlessness — that exists in one of the most prosperous suburbs in India. The media has covered, in minute detail, the lives of the killers and other sensationalist aspects of the gruesome murders. However, little attention has been paid to the perspectives of children who inhabit the slum, many of whom escaped, just barely, from the unyielding hands of the killers. Children who didn't directly encounter the duo had nonetheless been affected by the happenings in D-5, due to their close proximity.

Saksham, an NGO located in the slum of Nithari, has been conducting free educational classes for children of Nithari since 2002. Currently, the school caters to around 350 children in the 4-15 age group, and operates from a small premises located just a few hundred meters from D-5. Around 13 children from Saksham fortuitously escaped the clutches of the murderers, and their stories reveal an extraordinary presence of mind and courage.

Resisting strangers

Rashmi, 15, was returning to her home in Nithari with her younger brother and an older male neighbour one evening. She was holding her brother's hand as they walked, and she recalls a white car driving up beside them as they proceeded on the road. The man in the car — now identified as Satish — asked her if she wanted to come to his house, where he promised her some enticing sweets. She refused, and they continued walking. Satish then picked up speed, caught her unawares from behind, opened the passenger door, and tried to pull her in. As Rashmi tried to wriggle free from his grasp, the older boy accompanying her ran away, fearful for his life. In those moments, as she struggled for her life, she quickly let go of her brother's hand. "I knew my life was at stake. However, I thought that I should at least save my brother, because his life — as the only son in our family — is more valuable than mine," she recalls. As she let go of her brother, she bit Satish's hand as hard as she could and managed to wrest free. She then ran as fast as she could to the nearest adult, a paanwaala, and alerted him to the man in the car. Satish had, meanwhile, driven away.

Rashmi has been attending classes at Saksham for the last year, and strongly believes that what she has learned at Saksham contributed greatly to her presence of mind during those crucial moments. "The teachers at Saksham have always impressed upon us the importance of saying no to strangers, no matter what they offer," she says. "Through Saksham, I have gained a lot of confidence and am more aware of how to handle myself."

Personal safety

Priya, an eight-year old child who studies at a local school in Nithari and also attends evening classes at Saksham, was startled during class one morning when the school Principal called her to his room one day to inform her that her uncle was there to pick her up. She went to the Principal's room, only to discover that she had never seen this "uncle" before. "He said that my mother was ill, and that he had come to take me home to see her. He even knew my mother's name and my brother's name," she remembers. The Principal urged her to go, but she refused on the grounds that she didn't know who the man was. The man — now identified as Satish — urged her to come, and grabbed her hand. The Principal exhorted her to go too, but she broke free from Satish's grasp, and bolted from the room. Still shaken by the incident, Priya says that the lessons in personal safety that teachers at Saksham have constantly emphasised were with her on that fateful morning.

Vital skills

"At Saksham, above all, we try to instil confidence in the children and impart life-skills, two things which are never taught in their homes or schools. From the beginning, we have constantly impressed upon the children the danger of roaming around unattended," says Nadira Razak, the founder of Saksham. "We also discuss sensitive issues such as molestation, particularly among the girls. We discuss with them openly how they can protect themselves in the face of abnormal behaviour from men, whether the men are acquaintances or strangers." Razak, a former Railways Officer, founded Saksham with the intention of providing the children of Nithari's slums with an education that was well-grounded, compassionate and sensitive to their needs. The battle to encourage families to send their children — especially their daughters — was an uphill one at the beginning, and she recalls making daily trips from jhuggi to jhuggi urging parents to send their children to the classes. "Parents often argued that children would be better off earning money for the family or taking care of their siblings at home," she recalls. Within a short while, however, the roles were reversed as the positive change within the children became noticeable: parents were lining up in front of the school in the hopes of getting their child admitted into the school. Even today, there is a long "waiting list" for admission into the school, as the school is unable to expand to accommodate all children who would like to attend.

Passing the knowledge

Within the school and outside, the torch of knowledge continues to be passed on. Some of Razak's older students now teach the younger ones, in addition to furthering their own education. These student-teachers have decided to go to a nearby village, Morna, to teach children there. "We would like to help children gain access to education, the way Saksham has given us education," says Soni, a senior student at Saksham.

However, Saksham isn't a large, institutionally-funded institution; it is a small community effort begun by concerned citizens. Its expenses are thrown together on an ad hoc basis from month to month, and its budget is being met by donations from individuals. The school runs on a small, rented ground strewn with pencil shavings and bits of paper, and a perpetual layer of grime remains complacently stuck to its floors. Teachers of the school, though competent, hail from the area.

Enormous impact

Despite its unassuming modus operandi, Saksham has undoubtedly had an enormous impact on the community around it. "I don't think many girls would have been able to escape from the duo had it not been for what they learned at Saksham," says Pinky, a 15-year-old girl who has been attending classes at Saksham for the last five years and now teaches younger children. "I have self-confidence now, and feel that I can protect myself in the face of any danger, even though I am a girl," she adds. With lawlessness proving to be the rule rather than the exception, community efforts like Saksham are more in need today than ever before.

Email Saksham at: nadirarazak@rediffmail.com

Going to School

Span Magazine, January/February 2007

Lisa Heydlauff’s office is no ordinary workplace: an endearing pug pup bounds over to greet me as I step inside; its colorfully-painted walls are festooned with artwork. Hundreds of storybooks from around the world, as diverse in language as in design, line the bookshelves. Creatively designed posters, T-shirts and calendars can be spotted in different parts of the room.

Creativity and color are, in fact, catchwords for the ‘business’ that Heydlauff is engaged in: that of encouraging underprivileged Indian children to go to school through her New Delhi-based not-for-profit organization, ‘Going to School’ (GTS). 31-year old Lisa - whose parents live in Scottsdale, Arizona - moved to India in 1998 with a little money, a few contacts, and the dream to do something for the welfare of women and children. After a brief stint with a bridal magazine in New Delhi, Lisa was hired by UNICEF as a Communications Consultant to document success stories of UNICEF projects in government schools in states across India, including Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Haryana.

These travels were to change the direction of Lisa’s life. It was during these travels, meeting children who traveled through diverse geographical and cultural terrain to attend school, that Lisa conceptualized GTS, a multimedia campaign that, she says, “celebrates every child's right to go to school and participate in an inspiring education that is relevant to their lives.” Her idea was to create imaginative and inspiring media that captured the real-life stories of everyday children going to school across India. Though she admits that it was initially difficult to find seed funding for GTS, she found generous support from the Bharti Foundation (the charitable arm of Indian conglomerate Bharti Group) in 2001 for the creation of ‘Going to School in India’, a children’s book featuring 25 ways of going to school. For GTS, there has been no looking back since.

Today, ‘Going to School in India’ has found widespread success among children and education practitioners alike: 10 mini-books have been translated into Telegu, Tamil, Oriya, Kannada and Hindi, to be given to children free of cost in Government schools; 500,000 mini-books will be distributed to 45,000 primary schools in Orissa, reaching over 5 million children. In addition to the books are 9 mini-films - each of which recounts a day in the life of a child going to school somewhere in India - that are aired twice a day by the popular children’s channels POGO, Cartoon Network and National Geographic. Since its founding, Going to School has received support from a number of US-based funding agencies, including the Global Fund for Children in Washington, D.C, Global Giving, and Ashoka Innovators for the Public who have nominated her as an Ashoka Fellow.

Lisa firmly believes that inspiration is a key element in a child’s life, and GTS’ programs – which focus on telling positive stories of children who succeed in going to school despite geographical, physical or social challenges - reflect this. “I realized there was lots of media coverage about what did not work. But what about that which did work? I believe inspiration can change the world. And, as I traveled more, I felt positive stories about education could be told in a celebratory, transcendent way that showed schools could be fun, relevant to children’s lives. And that communities, organizations, and individuals could change the way children go to school, if they believe in possibilities – if they try,” she says.

GTS is currently in its second phase with ‘Girl Stars’, a project that creates icons of everyday women and girls who have, by going to school, changed their lives and the lives of people in their communities. For the project, Lisa and 6 of her Delhi-based colleagues traveled thousands of kilometers through the Hindi-speaking belt of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, interacting with people in cities, towns and villages, to find 15 women icons who could be icons for other girls, encouraging them to stay in school.

A few Girl Stars include Madhuri Kumari, a woman who defied social convention to become the leader of her village in Uttar Pradesh; and Anita Khushwaha, a 17 year old woman who became the first woman-beekeeper in Bihar. Each woman succeeded in completing her schooling despite challenging circumstances, and their stories advocate education as a platform to achieving life and career aspirations. “Girl Stars are extraordinary tales of ordinary girls,” explains Lisa. “It’s about what one million girls do, not one in a million. A Girl Star is a young girl or woman who able to do what she does because she is a part of a larger community where everyone has to work together to help things change; she had the courage to begin it, and the strength to take everyone with her.” ‘Girl Stars’ will be rolled out on TV channels and radio stations by UNICEF in 2007.

Next, Lisa and her Delhi-based team of 6 are looking forward to GTS’ latest and perhaps most ambitious project, ‘Be an Entrepreneur’ (BE!). This 50-book, 13-part movie, and 30-part radio series will tell 50 entrepreneurial stories to underprivileged children in India, to enable them to change their lives, their communities’ lives and participate in change in India as a whole. In particular, BE! aims to empower children from underprivileged backgrounds with skills that they can use to generate income and participate in positive community change -- once they have finished their education.

Indeed, although GTS communicates in colour and fun, it is being seen as a powerful force for positive change in children’s lives. And GTS only looks set to accomplish more in the years to come: Lisa hopes that BE! will potentially be a model that can be taken to scale across India, and around the world. Going global, perhaps, may be next on the cards for Lisa and Going to School. Except that Lisa, for now, has no plans of “going home”.

“Everyday I wake up feeling that what we have to do today is important. It may not be changing the way children see their lives everyday, but on a broader scale, for a moment, it is,” she says about GTS. “Inspiration comes in a second and changes the direction of your life. That is what we do, we inspire children and inspire change, as many days out of the week that we possibly can.”

Check out Going To School at www.goingtoschool.com