Travelling through no man’s land….

My knowledge about Chhattisgarh was limited to the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency in India; the Dantewada incidents; that the State was a part of Madhya Pradesh in 2000 and that it was heavily forested and produced some amazing handicraft. My recent trip to the State for the Joint Review Mission helped me get a better view of the State.

Day 1 (March 5^th) – Dhamtari

I am accompanying a two member review team, Chloe O’Gara from the Hewlett Foundation and Basanti Roy, who once held a senior post in the Education Department, Government of Maharashtra. Our first visit is to the district of Dhamtari, where Pratham is working in 3 out of the 4 blocks in the district. The district coordinator, whom we had met the previous day in Raipur (the state capital), told us that he would like to take us to a village in the forested hills where no Government school exists but Pratham volunteer runs classes.

Our first stop in Dhamtari is an Education for Education (EFE) center. Education for Education is a Pratham program started this year. The concept of EFE is that in order to strengthen Read India (volunteer classes), Pratham will offer computer classes to volunteers in exchange for their teaching in the Read India program. We spent quite a bit of time in the first EFE center, where volunteers, many of them young girls, were taking computer lessons. Almost all of them were using computers for the first time. Apart from computers, there seemed to be a lot of demand for English as well.

After this, we visit another EFE center and then go to our local office to interact with the staff and to have lunch. The roads in Dhamtari are surprisingly good. We travel through paddy fields on both sides – Chhatisgarh is renowned for rice. The scenery is interesting because it’s a blend of light forest and paddy fields, a contrast to the rice-growing regions of West Bengal and Assam, where all you see on both sides of the road are paddy fields stretching for miles and miles, with very few trees interrupting the view. The other interesting thing is that every village in Chhatisgarh has two ponds – one large, deep pond and one smaller, shallow pond. Villagers dig these ponds, which get filled in during the rainy season.

In the late afternoon, the Dhamtari District Coordinator takes us to a remote part of the block, since he wants to give us the flavor for some of the difficult, tribal areas in which Pratham works. We go through beautiful forests. For miles, there’s no human habitation to be seen but just forest on both sides of the road. It is beautiful. Again, the road is surprisingly good. After many miles of forest, we reach some villages – most of them quite small. We pass by a few reservoirs created by dams. We also pass by a lake, in which a few boats stand motionless. The scenery is stunning – forested hills, lakes and the orange glow of the setting sun appearing in and out of view through gaps in the forest treeline. We finally reach the volunteer class – one of them is a housewife, who’s teaching children in Std 3 – 5. She’s a really good teacher and the children are participating eagerly and have made good progress. Another volunteer, a young man, is teaching children in Std 1 – 2. He’s not that great a teacher. Nevertheless, both of them seem really dedicated. It is great to see good learning happening in a remote village in Chhatisgarh, one of the most backward states in India. One of the children asks us why we are leaving the village at night. He asks us to stay over and tells us that he will take us for a stroll in the jungle the next morning. It was endearing but unfortunately, we had to go. By now it was pitch dark. The forest, which seemed so lovely during the day seems ominous now. I think about the Naxals – will we encounter them? Of course, the local team keeps re-assuring us that there’s limited Naxal presence in the area we are in. In any case, we go out of the forested areas without any incident and reach Raipur by 9:30 pm, ending an eventful day.

Days 3 & 4 (March 7^th and 8^th) – Bastar

Today we leave for Bastar, which Gaurav (state head of Chhatisgarh) keeps telling us will be the most interesting part of our trip. Bastar is a heavily tribal populated area with the entire area being covered by dense forest. It is also one of the severely Naxal insurgency affected districts, although Gaurav gives us multiple assurances that we would come to no harm. Bastar is a huge district. Farasgaon, the block in which we work is towards the Northern end of Bastar. Farasgaon is a 3.5 hour journey from Raipur. From Farasgaon, an hour and a half journey takes you to Jagdalpur, the district capital, famous for Bastar Art (bronze sculptures made in some tribal villages in the area) and two big waterfalls. Beyond Bastar is Dantewada, the infamous aforementioned Naxal controlled district. Gaurav says that the southern parts of Bastar are quite dangerous due to heavy Naxal presence but that Farasgaon is safe. Apart from Bastar, Pratham works in Dantewada, Bijapur and Narayanpur – all severely Naxal affected districts. In some parts of these districts, Naxalites run parallel administrations. In such areas, the army designates a certain area as a Naxal controlled area. They impose strict restrictions on people going in and out of these areas. Of course, this causes Pratham great difficulty. If an outsider goes into the Naxalite controlled areas, he is immediately arrested when he comes out. The army surmises that the very fact that someone is able to go in and come out means he must be assisting the Naxalites. The army has laid siege to these areas. No rations, school teachers, doctors, etc. are allowed in. Apparently, the Naxalites recruit teachers and have them run classes in the Government schools in these areas. Essentially, the Naxalites administer swathes of land in many districts in Chhatisgarh.

Anyway, coming back to Bastar - we reach Farasgaon at around 1PM. The route is lovely – we pass through lovely forests along the way. From time to time, forests give way to some farms and fields, with hills in the background. However, the forest would resume again and continue for miles. I have seen few places in India where you can go for so long without seeing human habitation. It is indeed refreshing to see. After a brief stop at the office, we go into a village where the local Pratham staff has organized a fair. We get a royal welcome and are treated to a local tribal dance, the name of which I cannot remember. A couple of men stand in the middle with a wooden hat shaped like a deer’s head, along with the deer’s antlers. Apparently, in the olden days, real deer heads were used. These men were the drummers, who keep beating the drums to a pulsating rhythm, while a group of women with hats adorned with flowers form a circle, dancing and revolving in their circle formation. It is lovely to see, especially in the setting, deep into the heart of Bastar. The dance feels authentic in a way that a similar dance in a tourist area just doesn’t. We spend quite a bit of time interacting with teachers and parents – both interactions give us considerable insight on the education related issues in the area.

In the evening, we visit 3 Read India volunteer classes. The first class is being held in a volunteer’s home. The house is a kaccha (mud) house but the floor is spotlessly clean. I have rarely seen such clean homes before. Gaurav had told me about the cleanliness of tribal households earlier – but it is really great to see. The volunteer is studying in Class 12 and again, has amazing dedication although his teaching is not of the highest quality. Part of the problem is that he is himself unable to read Hindi fluently. In tribal areas, language is often a problem because the home language is different from the language of instruction in the school. In this case, Hindi is the language of instruction in the school but Halwi, Chhatisgarhi and Gondi are the languages that the children speak at home. The review members suggest that in such cases, volunteer capacity needs to be built so that they themselves are comfortable with Hindi in order to teach children Hindi effectively. The second class we go to also has really dedicated volunteers, both of them studying in Class 12. The father is really happy that children in his house are studying and that his son is teaching and also receiving computer education.

During my time at Pratham, I have often wondered what it is that truly leads a volunteer to give 2 hours of her time everyday to teach children for free (they are being given computer education now, but in the past, they used to teach for free). The cynical answer is that deliberately or accidentally, we give volunteers false expectations that a Pratham experience certificate would help them get jobs or that they would get absorbed by the Government or that they would get absorbed by Pratham. However, I think a more optimistic and, I believe, accurate explanation is that teaching gives volunteers respect in the village. The teacher in a village is highly respected – especially in villages where most people are illiterate or have studied up to a very basic level. What truly motivates volunteers is still a mystery to me. Perhaps the creation of a sense of identity and the recognition they gain in the village is a big factor. I have been amazed at the level of dedication of the volunteers in Chhatisgarh. Most of them had weaknesses but they were all dedicated. You can tell from their interactions with children that they hold classes regularly. And it seems that the community has been giving them considerable support. It is really heartening to see. We came out of the last volunteer class – by now it is pitch dark. I gaze up to the sky and see millions of stars in a clear, unpolluted night sky. It is a lovely sight.

On the second day, we had wanted to visit a couple of schools in which volunteers were teaching during school hours. The drive is beautiful – we pass through light forests. The countryside has more fields interspersed with trees rather than it being the other way around. In the distance are rolling hills. Some of the most beautiful areas I have traveled in are Naxal affected – Puruliya, the route from Puruliya to Jamshedpur, West Midnapur. Somehow the Naxals end up choosing beautiful areas to operate out of! Along the way, we catch glimpses of village life – we see a group of men and women waist deep in a pool of water, fishing. The pool is actually dug up by the villagers and baby fish put in. Once the fish grow to a certain size, the villagers catch them. We seem mahua trees everywhere, whose flowers are used to create a liquor called mahua, commonly found in many tribal areas in Chhtisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhan. Bastar is a land of plenty – the team tells us how in peak mango season, you can see mangoes lying around everywhere on the ground around her and can buy them for very cheap rates. There is considerable money to be made too - during the tendu patta harvesting season (leaf with which beedis (Indian country cigar type cigarettes) are made), a tribal family can make 50-60,000 rupees in a couple of months, a substantial sum for rural India. I asked the team why then is there so much poverty in the areas. The answer is complex and sad. The tribals are simple people and hence there has been a lot of exploitation – often they are paid a pittance by the middlemen whom they sell their products to. There is massive corruption and exploitation – often money is deposited in banks but tribals are unaware about the use of those financial institutions, and the money is embezzled without the knowledge of the beneficiaries. Here, in this beautiful district, blessed with so many natural resources, I begin to understand some of the root causes of the Naxal insurgency.

We visit a couple of schools where the volunteer is teaching in school. Swami, the local zonal coordinator of the area points to a nearby forested hill and tells us in his disarmingly matter of fact way that there are three other schools behind the knoll. However, he tells us that with a big smile – “wo unka area hai” (“it is their area”). He says sheepishly that otherwise he would have taken us there. In such a tranquil, beautiful surrounding, it is hard to imagine that there is an armed insurgency lurking somewhere not too far away – an insurgency that has led to so much grief. But such is the complex story of India. This commences our visit and we make our way back to the state capital, Raipur and then onward to Delhi.