ASER 2012 in Punjab
by Chandrika Rathore
It was not until we arrived at a village in Moga
district of Punjab to witness our first ever ASER survey did we realize that to
read/hear about ASER and to actually witness the ASER survey are two very
different things. A one day survey showed us what we did not realize fully, in
many conversations.
We started our journey at 8 am from Jhalandar to Moga with 2 state coordinators, on the 14th October, 2012. The survey was just for that one day and so the idea was to cover a couple of villages and in them as many households as we could. We met with the district coordinator at Moga and went straight to Manuke village, our first stop.
There we met the first group of volunteers, five
girls who were ready with a neatly drawn map of the village. It was divided
into 4 parts. They took us to the center and explained how that was required so
as to find the way to the first household and sure enough within a couple of
minutes of methodically referring the map we reached the first house. On our
way from the center to the first house, the volunteers kept a check on grocery
stores, markets, hospitals, post offices, community buildings etc and made entries
accordingly.
On entering the house they introduced
themselves and the reason why we were there. They repeated this in all the 3
houses that we went to. In each house they would take down information about
the family and at times one of them would just go around the house, casually
rechecking what they were documenting. Children were then tested with the
testing tool that the volunteers knew very well.
It was good to see how attention was given to
every small detail, a common practice we saw in the subsequent villages as
well. They were patient with the children and tried not to rush them. Children
who did not fare very well were never discouraged. You realize the importance
of these smaller things when you are actually there in front of the child. In
my opinion it wasn’t just a mechanical procedure which it had seemed tome
earlier, but also an emotional one. It felt really good on seeing a child read
well and sad when one couldn’t. I remember almost feeling nervous as though I
were being tested.
After
visiting four houses there we went on to the next village, Botter.
By the time we got there the volunteers had
started the survey and already eased into the process unlike the first group
that we saw from the beginning. They were also a group of five with one boy and
four girls and were on their 7th household when we joined them. We
covered 4 houses in Botter before we went on to the third and last village,
Dala.
Dala was comparatively smaller and here we were
joined by a fresh group of girls who took us to 3 households. Their complaint was
that they were not coming across too many houses with children within the
testing age group which was something we had noticed in the previous two
villages as well. Off the 11 houses that we visited, only 5 households had children
within the testing age group.
With that as a minor glitch we came to an end
of our day’s survey, which all in all was a great experience! Visiting separate
villages and groups of volunteers gave us a fair idea of the entire process.
Another thing we understood well was the role of the training sessions before
the survey. Barring the initial half an hour when we just started, the
volunteers seemed to be very well aware of what to do and in moments of
confusion or doubt made decisions effectively and impressively.
What also requires’ a mention is the people
there who seemed to be very open and willing to have the survey conducted. We
did not come across a single house where anyone hesitated from letting us in.
If anything they seemed eager to participate. Either it was the ability of the
volunteers to convince them or it was their open mindedness or maybe a
combination of both. Whatever it was, clearly puts Punjab on a list of
progressive states, is something I can say, even with this limited but
extremely satisfying experience! 
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