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As
mentioned in the introduction the supervisors who collected the data for
this survey are teachers from the first year of the sakharshala project.
The supervisors’ duty during the period the sakharshalas are not in
session is to help prepare for and organise the sakharshalas programme. They
had earlier, as a part of these duties, conducted a survey of the families
of sugarcane cutters at their camps near the sugar factories, with the
limited objective of collecting the numbers of children that could be
expected to come to the sakharshalas at every factory site. Also, while
setting up and teaching at the schools, they had become familiar with
families of the labourers and established some rapport with them in their
efforts to get the parents to admit their children to the sakharshalas and
to make the children come regularly thereafter. They had come into contact
with officials of the education department and of the sugar factories.
They had also learnt to make their own lodging and boarding arrangements
although admittedly they often got the support of the sugar factories
themselves. For most of the teachers this was their first job and the
first time they were staying away from their homes and families and
fending for themselves in terms of housekeeping. This was a good
preparation for the present survey. This
time, however, they had to depend even more on their own resources as well
as resourcefulness. The survey was not confined to any one village. Each
team of two supervisors had to cover 15 villages. Many of these tiny
villages were far away from the taluka and district places and offered
little in the way of lodging and boarding facilities. At the height of
summer most villages were also in the grip of water shortages. And there
were no sugar factory officials or their resources to take help from. When
the teams arrived in a village they had to start from looking for a place
to live, a place to get their food from and also to seek a source of
water. These were not necessarily the same. If these necessities were not
available in the first village they went to, they just had to leave in
search of another more hospitable one. It was particularly difficult for a
team if this happened in the late evening when they were already tired
after travelling in the hot afternoon sun. This is when their earlier
acquaintances with mukadams, with parents of children they had taught in a
sakharshala or perhaps the presence of a relative came in use, both to
find these necessities as well as to negotiate the best rates. A number of
them have mentioned the severe scarcity of water which compelled them to
buy water for all their needs at steep prices of two to two and a half
rupees for a single can. In fact, one team has mentioned the name of just
one of the 15 villages allotted to them which did not experience water
scarcity. Food was also expensive and some teams had to cook for
themselves to avoid spending exorbitantly on ready meals if at all they
could find an eating place. Some
have mentioned how difficult it was to find and travel in the sun to
different villages every day. Some villages could be reached only by very
difficult roads, some did not have any roads leading to them at all and
the trek across difficult terrain to these villages was an ordeal. In one
village the families were so scattered in its hilly location that the
supervisors got tired just walking from one house to another. Once there
were two villages of the same name, another team had the families of one
village listed under the name of another and precious time and effort were
spent in sorting out the ensuing confusion at such times. Many a village
was deserted during the day as the residents were out for work all day and
the supervisors had to go back late in the evening to meet them. One team
reports a death in the village just before their arrival. They were
sensitive enough to change their plan and to go back later to complete the
survey. A riot and a fight amongst the villagers have also been reported
as reasons that compelled the supervisors to withdraw from a village as
they thought that the people would be too distracted to pay any attention
to them and they would not get authentic data.
Although
they had undergone training in filling in the forms some teams had
problems when they actually began to collect data. The meeting called by
the survey co-ordinators a few days after the survey began, helped to
solve these problems and to clarify many of the doubts that had arisen
after going to the field. It has been reported by a number of the
supervisors as a very useful one indeed. Another
source of difficulties faced by the supervisors were the interviewees
themselves. Although many were curious and their curiosity led them to
take an interest in talking to the supervisors, this was not always the
case. Some thought that the supervisors had come from the education
department or that they were collecting data for the disbursement of some
subsidy or to make ration cards for the families. But on finding out that
they were not to get any immediate benefits they lost interest and left.
Some had answered such surveys before and had not seen anything coming of
them. So, it required much effort to get them to bear with the supervisors
and give the required information. It helped if the village sarpanch or
schoolteacher or talathi or a friendly mukadam could appreciate the need
for the survey and took enough interest to explain to the village
gathering the purpose of the survey. It was especially helpful if some of
them had seen the sakharshalas and had sent their children to them. Most
children who had been to the sakharshalas, and their parents, had very
positive things to say about the sakharshalas. Many of the children were
also doing very well at the village schools and this made the parents very
happy. It also put the other villagers also into a positive frame of mind.
Even so, just giving all the information sought by the supervisors was a
tedious task for the villagers and many tired of the process. Some,
however, were suspicious of the supervisors’ motive and would give wrong
information. For example a family reported having no irrigated land even
though the head of the household was actually sitting in front of the lift
pump while speaking to the supervisor. Another reported owning no
irrigated land even when his daughter had just been seen selling
vegetables in the village. However, it can be seen that the supervisors
had learned to collect information informally, too, and could often spot
such mis-reporting and crosscheck the truth of the information given. Collecting
information from village officials, whether elected ones or government
officials, was even more difficult. Their ability to not be present at
places they are expected to be at is legendary and, therefore, causes no
surprise. Deputees would not give information on behalf of the officials.
Many a time officials were helpful in their attitude but did not have
properly maintained records. One sarpanch was reluctant to give
information, as he would have had to disturb an interesting card game he
was playing. Such
were the numerous difficulties faced by these surveyors. They felt them
even more strongly because it was their first experience. But, the support
and guidance of the survey co-ordinators is reported as having been
invaluable. When they spoke of their difficulties, the co-ordinators have
suggested to them that it is because there are difficulties that they have
been sent to the villages to find a way out of them. This seems to have
focused the attention of the supervisors on the villages and the
conditions of the people living in them. They speak of the entire outing
as a learning experience and an opportunity to get to know of the real
plight of the villagers. One supervisor has wondered how the people live
all their lives in their conditions which, even as a passing phase, were
so difficult for them. Thus, they have learned to appreciate the worth of
their own education and relative well being. They also look upon their job
as an opportunity to do something for people less fortunate than
themselves and therefore it makes the exercise worth their while apart
from the monetary remuneration they get for it. All
in all, as the supervisors themselves say, their role as soldiers in this
war against ignorance and poverty is something that makes them proud.
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