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For the past three years
Janarth has seriously involved itself with the question of the education
of children of migrant sugarcane cutters.
As is well recognised now this is major group of children who drop
out of the mainstream of primary education because they migrate with their
parents during the second school term, which coincides with the
sugarcane-cutting season in Maharashtra. However,
as these migrating families mostly go back to their villages at the end of
the season, it was thought that the most effective intervention to prevent
school dropouts would be to provide alternative schools, now known as the sakharshalas,
at the destination sites. This has enabled hundreds of school
children to continue their schooling during the second term, to appear for
the annual class examination conducted by the sakharshala, obtain a
passing certificate and thus get promoted to the next higher class.
Janarth has liaised with the State Education
Department to have the class-passing certificate that they issue,
recognised by the Department. This makes
it easy for village school Heads to admit
children to the higher classes when they return to the villages at the end
of the sugarcane-cutting season, which fortuitously coincides with the
beginning of the new academic year. Having
seen for the last couple of seasons the general enthusiasm for these
schools as expressed by the parents of sakharshala children it was thought
that perhaps more intervention in the field of primary education was
needed as, not only is it the need of our society as a whole but people in
villages themselves seem ready to accept and reap the benefits of such
intervention. In order to get to know the prospective target region
(i.e. the villages that send out these hundreds of sugarcane
cutters every year) and its population, better and to aid decision making
with respect to the nature of intervention, a fairly large-scale survey,
the SENDING VILLAGES SURVEY, was carried out by Janarth during the summer
of the year 2004. Aim
of the survey From its experience
of the last three or four years of running the sakharshalas and its
field experience of the last nearly 15 years of rural development work,
besides the several household surveys it has itself conducted in its rural
project areas (which is not very different from the Sending Villages
areas) Janarth and its project leaders have gathered a fund of knowledge
and a good understanding of the way of life in these areas, their
difficulties and their solutions. However, actual facts and figures
regarding the nature and extent of the problem one is attempting to solve
and a direct feel of the specific project area can not only give a better
insight into the problem itself but also throw up possibilities of
solutions hitherto not thought of. This was the thinking behind
undertaking a survey on such a large scale. The survey had three
distinct aims to achieve. The first was to get to know the villages and
the people in the villages from which the sugarcane cutters come and to
establish a rapport with them. The second purpose was to collect relevant
demographic, economic, social, cultural and educational data about these
villages The third aim was to follow up the children who had just left the
sakharshalas and to look into and help if necessary with the admission of
children coming from sakharshalas to the next higher class in their
schools of origin. Of course, ever since they started the sakharshalas,
Janarth has every year followed up as many children as possible who had
attended their schools for the same purpose, namely to monitor and if
necessary to help with the readmission of the children into their schools
of origin. Thus, we might say that the annual follow up survey was
expanded to include the first two objectives. The survey area
The survey covered about
165 villages in 6 talukas of four
districts of western Maharashtra, which is chronically a drought prone
region of the state. It is also, relative to the rest of Maharashtra, the
more backward region with respect to education, industrialisation and,
therefore, overall affluence. The villages were selected on the basis of
the extent of migration from them. The villages with the greater number of
migrating families were selected for the survey. The geographical location
of the taluka places and the general area included in the survey is shown
in the maps following page 8. The
survey design The survey consists of four
parts: The first part of the survey
collects demographic, economic and cultural data of the village directly
from the residents as well as from local self-government officials and the
records maintained by them. The second
survey is an effort to address directly the families that migrate and
record their perceptions of their own situation especially with regard to
migration and their children’s education. The third part
surveys the same situation through the eyes of the mukadams, or labour
contractors
who employ the sugarcane cutters on behalf of the sugar factories. The last part
surveys the village schools, gathering data about all the aspects of the
school including the physical conditions and facilities available at the
schools, as well as academic factors such as the number and training of
teachers in the schools, availability of
educational materials, enrolment, and wastage at each class level in
primary school. It includes a survey of the opinions of teachers in the
schools regarding the difficulties of parents who migrate, of the
difficulties that children face and of their own difficulties as teachers
in village schools. An attempt has also been made to get to know of the
school children’s situation as they see it themselves. The
surveyors From the first batch of
sakharshala teachers that Janarth employed in September 2001 some of the
more promising teachers have been employed for longer terms to help
organise the steadily expanding sakharshala programme. These supervisors
have been the mainstay of this data collection programme. This group of surveyors consisted of 20 young men
most of them between the ages of 25 and 30 years. Most of them (17) are
graduates. One of these 17 is an M.Sc., three are M.A.’s and one is a
B.Ed. The other three have passed the Higher Secondary School Certificate. For over two months during
May, June, July, 2004 this group of 20 young men traveled to more than 150
villages braving the heat and dust, rough terrain and drought conditions,
to track down elusive local self-government officials, meet skeptical
villagers and often incommunicative headmasters and teachers in order to
complete the fairly exhaustive survey. Their experiences make interesting
reading and a short account of them has been included in this report as an
appendix. (appendix d) This team had
earlier collected data from migrant families at their camps near sugar
factories about the numbers of children that would be admitted to the
various classes in the sakharshalas. However, this was the first time they
would travel to homes and villages and collect such extensive information
on all aspects of village life using various techniques such as village
records, group discussions, family interviews and direct observations
Hence, a three-day training session had been conducted in the month of May
to prepare them for for the task ahead. The
schedule of the survey The first step was the
training of the supervisors. During the training the surveyors
familiarized themselves with the questionnaires and schedules to be used
for the survey. Methods and modalities were worked out so as to achieve
consistency in the manner of data collection. Other logistics such as the
time schedule, the plan for allotment of an area and the villages therein
to every team, the mode of travel, were also finalised. Each team of
two supervisors on a motorcycle has obtained data from at least 15
villages, thus covering, on the whole, 165 villages including 180
schools, 1960 households, and 305 mukadams. Janarth’s own EDP department
then took over to enter all the collected data so that it could be used
for further analysis. However, it was a major task
to compile the responses obtained to the many open-ended questions
included in the questionnaires. These responses had to be classified into
a reasonable number of options so that they could be tabulated and then
entered into computers and then used for numerical analysis. Entering of data began as soon
as completed forms were submitted to Janarth’s office and kept pace with
the arrival of completed forms. Even so, the quantity of the data
collected ensured that it was the end of August by the time data entry was
completed. The
tools of the survey Three tools were used. The
first is a schedule, which helps to record data about the village as a
whole. It is titled Gavachi
Sarvasamanya Mahiti, or
General Information about the Village and includes 39 items. It has formats for entering
numerical data from which a description of the people of these villages
with respect to various demographic aspects can be obtained. These factors
include the gender ratio, literacy rates, voter registration, the
caste/community break up, and the occupations practised. It records data about the
availability of various civic facilities including the supply of water and
electricity, schools, health care, fair price ration shops, telephones,
transport, etc. Availability of livelihood,
agricultural as well as industrial and wage rates, and, related to that,
the amount of farmland and the extent of its irrigation are also recorded. Information about the civic
officials and offices, including local self-government bodies finds a
place in the schedule. Numbers of families migrating
from these villages has also been recorded as also the number of mukadams
or labour contractors active in the villages in order to find out the
extent to which migration takes place. Finally an attempt has also
been made to collect data about the political and cultural activities in
the village. Thus we see that this is a very detailed schedule capable of
yielding a comprehensive description of any village. The second tool is titled Sthalantarit
Kutumbanchi Samajik Arthik Mahiti or Social and Economic
Information about Migrant Families This tool combines the
schedule and questionnaire format for collecting both subjective and
objective information about migrant families. Fairly detailed information
about the members of the family, the economic condition of the family
including ownership of land and other assets can be recorded. The
important part of this tool is that it records first hand from the
migrating families themselves their reasons for migration, a description
of the process of migration itself and the migrant families’ own
perceptions about migration as a part of their lives. It lays emphasis on
recording their difficulties with respect to their children’s education. This tool also includes a
section, which records information about the work
of the mukadams or
the labour contractors. They live in the same villages and, therefore, are
an inseparable part of the migrating community. It helps to see the
phenomenon from a different point of view than that of the labourers so
that we obtain a balanced and objective picture of the subject of our
enquiry – the migrant community. This tool is made up of 30
items about the migrant families and 21 items for the mukadams thus
including a total of 51 items. Shaikshanik Mahiti or Educational
Information is the schedule used for recording information mainly about
the Government School in the village. It helps to record data about all
aspects of the school physical, educational and administrative. It records
subjective opinions of teachers about the facilities offered in the school
and the parents’ difficulties as well as their own problems as village
schoolteachers. Lastly there is also a section to record how children
themselves feel about their school, their teachers and schooling in
general. The main schedule has 30 items. The children’s schedule after recording their names and classes asks a
few questions about what they like or do not like about their school and
their teachers and about the school experience. Compiling
the data All schedules have been filled
in detail and a massive amount of data has been obtained. As we have seen,
the format for entering all factual data was prepared and data entry
completed in-house by Janarth’s EDP department. The total number of
items to which responses have been obtained is
120.The total number of respondents, counting villages, families and
schools as one respondent each, was 2790. This
means that the total number of responses entered was more than 77000.
And, this is not counting the compilation and tabulation of responses
given by 180 children and ignoring the fact that each item on the
questionnaire or schedule often had a number of sub-parts. A cursory
reading of the tools reveals the detailing achieved and the complexity. But
the task has been done with great simplicity and
thoroughness, so that accessing and using the data was rendered
as easy as it could possibly have been. In all the tools the subjective
parts were in the form of open-ended questions to which no options had
been suggested as responses. As we know there were 20 individuals
collecting the data. Although suggesting no answers and recording given
answers verbatim has clearly helped in obtaining authentic responses, the
words in which the responses have been entered by the different
supervisors made it difficult to classify the responses and also left room
for some misinterpretation. This problem has been dealt with by asking the
supervisors themselves to explain their words. This revealed the
commonality in the data obtained from the different supervisors and
classification and tabulation became possible. The internal consistency of
the responses and the coherence of the picture obtained is evidence of the
authenticity of the data and has made the extra trouble worth its while. Training
of the supervisors. It
is clear from the above description that the training of the surveyors had
a significant part to play in the success of the survey. It was especially
important because all the surveyors were quite new to any project of this
nature. The schedule of the training
began with an explanation of the very purpose and importance of the
survey. This helped the surveyors to understand their own role in the
conduct of the survey and also equipped them with the ability to take
certain decisions on their own without jeopardizing the aims of the
survey, if at some time it proved necessary in the field. Methods of collecting data
were also taught. It was emphasized that establishing a rapport with the
residents and officials of the villages would be necessary before any
information would be forthcoming from them. An important instruction for
data collection was to record given responses in the words of the
respondents in order to preserve the authenticity of the data collected. A
brochure had been prepared giving information both about Janarth and its
activities and about the purpose of this survey. The surveyors actually rehearsed how they would use this
brochure to talk to village groups, in front of the camera. This helped to
build up their confidence and also to improve
their public speaking and communication skills without which it
would have been impossible to establish rapport in the villages. The surveyors then
familiarized themselves thoroughly with the tools of the survey. Time was
given for answering any questions that the surveyors might have had, to
clarify doubts and even to take any suggestions forthcoming from them. All
this was particularly necessary to ensure accuracy and uniformity in
methods of collecting data. Trainees were also shown how
to make an approximate map of each village so that they could better
understand the village and plan their surveys. They were informed about
records kept by village officials and other sources like census reports
and shown the methods to refer to and read them. The experience of Janarth
personnel was also put to use to prepare trainees for the difficulties and
problems that they could expect to face in the field and how they could
deal with them. Allotment of survey areas and
villages, formation of teams and finalizing all logistics rounded off the
training programme. Outline
of report The following pages first
present the data obtained from each of the four survey tools with some
discussion of the significant findings. This is followed by a summary
of the findings from all surveys especially those findings that are
relevant to education. A discussion of these findings
and the possible areas where intervention seems necessary and possible
completes the report.
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