On Road: Stories by Olivia Toye (1)

Olivia Toye has recently graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from OxfordUniversity. Before embarking on her career she is volunteering with Pratham. Here’s an ongoing day by day account of her experience in India as she discovers more about the work we do.

DAY 1 – 7TH JAN

To set the scene, I’m in Maharastra, India’s second most populousstate. Within the state lies Mumbai, India’s booming financial capital. But that’s not to say the state as a whole is rich – far fromit. Aurangabad, from where I start my journey, is a bustling city ofnearly a million people. Like numerous Indian metropolises, Aurangabad’s traditional industries such as the manufacture of Paithani silk saris are dying out in favour of consumer-led demand for beer and electricals from companies like Kingfisher and Videocon. There is also a large military base on the outskirts of the city and (fromwhat I saw) an underdeveloped tourist market at the World Heritage site of the Ellora caves, which date from 600AD just 30km away. In contrast a step outside the city to the villages is like going back a century in time. The sole source of income is agriculture, including cotton, sugar, wheat and mangoes, using traditional farming methods like ox-drawn carts.

The minute I’d put my bags down on the hotel bed there was a knock atthe door – Sachin, the head of Aurangabad’s District Resource Centre(DRC) had arrived. No time for a rest – we were going straight to see the projects in action. After nearly throttling myself with the scarf from my Salwar kameez on Sachin’s motorbike, we arrived at the centre. There I spoke to two IT teachers who explained to me about the different programmes running. The Aurangabad District covers a staggering 100,000 children across 1,200 villages. As well as running its own classes, Pratham collaborates with the government schools to provide materials and teacher training.

Enough chatting, we were off on Sachin’s bike again, dodging cattle, goats and buses, to see the classes taking place. As we arrived in the first village, Takli, we saw the preparations for the 26th January(Republic Day) in the playground. One thing I found all Pratham volunteers had in common was their absolute dedication to teaching alongside hard and time-consuming professions. I met one of the 1,200Pratham volunteers giving a reading lesson, as part of the 'Read to Learn' programme run by Pratham for 6 to 14 year olds. He was aPyschology student from a nearby village who liked doing social work. We then moved on to the second village, Dhamangaon Tanda. Here the Pratham volunteer was a farmer. These children were certainly energetic! After doing a counting game I was told they were going to show me an ‘English poem’… this turned out to be a very lively rendition of the Hokey Cokey!!

By Olivia Toye - UK