Wednesday 27 January 2016

‘A Message’

‘Low voltage from 2 years, students can’t study; water pump’s also not working, please help….’

A recorded voice message came today morning. A person called Shiv Prasad Sahu from Village- Sumerpur, District- Surajpur and Chhattisgarh has sent this message at around 7 in the morning. The message is saying that in the village there is only one transformer for around 1000 houses. It is been 2 years, the voltage of light is very low. Because of that, students from this village can’t study properly. It also affects the water pumps of the farmers. Villagers have complained many times to the Officers of Electricity Department but no action has been taken till now. Villagers are now requesting us…

A person recorded this message in the early morning, had told about problems within 3 minutes. I know how badly they are suffering from the last 2 years because, farming is the only means of earning for these villagers which is being affected because of low voltage. Above all this they really work hard every year in farming so that, their children can go school and continue their study. But again students won’t be able to give 100% because of law voltage which is causing eye problems.

This was the stated problems a person has told in this message but it does not end here… There are many other problems connected to this.  Let me explain- From the last two years, the villagers suffering from this electricity issue. The flickering bulb forced them to search for other source of light. And the alternative was lighting kerosene lamp at home. Government provides kerosene oil in minimum prices for poor, rural people but again the system of black marketing by the dealers decides the rate. (which is obviously high). Because of low voltage they have changed daily routine and get everything done before sunset. Why, because they have no option. If the students tries to study under that low voltage bulb, after sometime they are forced to wear glasses. And unfortunately our health department’s reaches all over the country except rural places like Sumerpur. And the low voltage, enables the water pumps to work properly which again making the farmers beggars. 

At last this person has recorded a message with the expectation of getting some kind of help at present or in the future. Will it get heard by people, who knows? Will people try to help them, who knows? It was ‘a message’. It might get place in tomorrow’s newspaper, it might not. Depends on the newspaper organization whether this message satisfy their demands of news or not. It depends.... May be some NGO can go and visit the place and try to understand the situation, or may not. May be in future some writer will mention something about this because it is related to education, maybe not…

But it explains the problem; a big problem, which has to be covered and considered…




Tuesday 26 January 2016

Somebody has said-
                                        “Experience is the teacher of all things”

Somebodies quotation might not fit for everyone in this world but I have seen a guy whose experience made him to work again in a place where he was an intern just few months back. I got a chance to talk few minutes with Deepak Bagri, who works in CGNetSwara currently not as an employee but as an intern. Yes, he is doing his internship twice in the same place. What do you think? Is it interesting working again in the same place where you have worked before? In this short life, people always want to experience different things. If the answer is yes, than the previous experience was must have something which made him working here again.
So, today I interviewed Deepak Bagri (an intern of CGNetSwara).

Deepak Bagri, May I know your background first?
Yes, of course. This is Deepak Bagri from Sagar, Madhya Pradesh. Currently I am doing my Master’s in Mass Communication and Journalism from Dr. Harish Singh Gour University, Sagar.

So, how did you come to know about CGNetSwara?
Okay, as I have mentioned that I am a student, one of my department faculty Dr. Vivek Jaiswal Sir had told me about CGnetSwara and also suggested to go for an internship there. So did me.

So, how did it start? I mean your journey in CGNetSwara, how have it been?
My journey started when I entered inside CGNetSwara Office in Raipur on 10th May. At first I did not know anything about CGNetSwara just had visited it is official website cgnetswara.org .The website itself explains the foundation objective and work but the office work is totally different. Then slowly I came to know that- CGNetSwara basically works for poor, rural people in Central Gondwana. I started learning- how people record their messages through mobile and how then we work on each message, which has done by moderation team.

What type of messages used to come?
The messages usually related to basic issues like, drinking water or hand-pump problem or about road issue. People also record messages about NAREGA wages issue or about function of high schools. They mostly record when these things not working or running properly.

So, if you have any social problem you can record and send it to CGNetSwara. Is it work like this?
No, not exactly. People can sure record their problems but we also appreciate when people record songs in local language or share something about their own culture in their local dialect.

What was your work their?
Here we have different teams. I started working in moderation team, where I used to listen all the messages comes daily, then edit it properly and send it our head. Sometimes if the message is incomplete, it goes to the modenc list. Where again I used to call back the caller, try to understand the issue and make the caller understand the right process of recording the message.

I have asked many questions about your work. May I know your life in CGNetSwara?
Yes Of course. Life at CGNetSwara is more or less like family type. Here all the employees and the intern stay together inside one office cum home. We start daily work with the morning g meeting at 8:30am and it ends up with the morning breakfast. And it continues like that. Interestingly the people who work here also help in cooking and other cleaning activity. So it gives the feeling of home inside. You come to know about each other’s culture and language too. Every day is very productive which gives knowledge about tribal languages like- Gondi, Chhattisgarhi and so on.

So, can I take this as a reason of you being here again after 6 months?
Yes, sure this could be one of the reasons but apart from this, the work at CGNetSwara really inspired me a lot. It is vision to work for rural people and give them a confidence and platform to raise their voice, influenced my decision and now I am here. That experience helped me to understand what are citizen journalism, media democratization, and development communication and enlightened me with the truth current situation of our rural part of the country. So I am very grateful to CGNetSwara….
Thank You Deepak Bagri for sharing your experience with me.

Really experience sometimes teaches so many things in life…..




Monday 25 January 2016

REAL PROBLEMS IN THE REAL WORLD

I saw them…..
How they were living in the forest wearing just one cloth and pretending that weather doesn’t have control over them. How they used to cover themselves with one piece of cloth in the times of winter. How they travel miles and miles just to buy salt and sugar and how those children help their parents in farming. It was not unfamiliar yet surprising said Naresh Bunkar Sir. 

Naresh Bunkar Sir, a social activist working from the last 15 years with the tribal people in the Central India has had many good and bad experiences in his life. He had spend entire life working for tribal people like- Baiga Tribe, Gondi Tribe and so on..  
In these 21 years of life, did I ever struggle for clothes, for food, for water?????  Being a child of a middle class family, born and brought up in the city, we are facing so many problems like- We don’t have 24 hour electricity, don’t have cooler for summer days and so on…
Today, I am questioning myself if these are the real problems then what that- which Bunkar Sir has experienced was. His 15 years struggle and efforts for tribal people resulted that now more than 10 villages had been setup in the forests in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and now they are living in their ‘own land’.

There are still many problems, and has solutions too but the question here is- Are they aware of their RIGHTS??? Have they got a chance to see the REAL world or not?? Did anybody try to help them or did they ever come in front???
We have many laws and schemes for poor, needy people like- Indian Forest Act or NREGA Scheme or Right to Food, still majority are dying out of starvation in the country. They don’t have roof over them and still the rate of unemployment is high.
The scenario explains the current situation of the country. Now the question is- If people are not getting basic needs like- food, cloth and shelter then Democracy is just a word or it has a meaning with the intention to serve the people of the country??