I think we are missing Dunu Roy's point by a mile.
The common folks do not know how to address such problems.
*** The fact of the matter is that they indeed DO
know, if they are given the tools and the
knowledge, as opposed to big-brother Babus and
Engineer bureaucrats who are neither conversant
nor are required to be educated about the
'people's' needs; as the examples amply
illustrate.
It really has nothing to do with rote learning.
*** No, it does not, but in a DIFFERENT way. What
the Indian schools and colleges diss out as
education, provide little benefit for those who
do not end up in the ranks of unproductive govt.
services,or the bureaucracy or the minuscule
percentage of what makes up the urban upwardly
mobile crowd, whose educational credentials are
satisfied with that degree and the certificates,
never mind what they know, or how to USE what
they know.
It takes one or a few bright (young) people to
take the lead and mobilize the masses.
*** And as can be surmised from Dunu Roy's
article , they are NOT produced by India's
dysfunctional education system.
The unfortunate part is that the majority of
those who are capable in India do not want to
lead and to >get involved with the masses.
*** And this is yet another example of the
paternalistic and patronizing line of thinking of
those 'educated' in the Indian system which holds
that the 'masses' need to be rescued by some
'properly trained' in some Indian Institute of
Leadership.
What the real need is, like Dunu Roy and a few
others who know better advocate: "-- to collect
information, to look at it analytically, and
eventually use it for bettering their own lives."
IT is about EMPOWERING people with what THEY NEED
to better manage their lives, under the
circumstances and surroundings they live in.
That does not come from Indian schools of rote learning of useless information.
At 7:04 PM -0700 6/22/07, Dilip/Dil Deka wrote:
It is not unique to India, it is a universal
problem. The common folks do not know how to
address such problems. It takes one or a few
bright (young) people to take the lead and
mobilize the masses. It really has nothing to do
with rote learning. It is about leadership. Once
good leadership is available, the masses can do
wonders.
The unfortunate part is that the majority of
those who are capable in India do not want to
lead and to get involved with the masses. Think
a little bit about that. Include your past in it.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Knowledge As Weapon
Ordinary working people have the capacity to
learn, to collect information, to look at it
analytically, and eventually use it for
bettering their own lives. This is, or should
be, the central objective of "education".
Instead, we have didactic instruction,
memorising by rote, and vomiting out useless
information for futile examinations...
Dunu Roy
It was some 30 years ago, in the mid-70s, that
we got a glimpse of what the future might hold.
We had just purchased 2 acres of land to build a
workshop on, in the district of Shahdol in
Madhya Pradesh. There had been some argument
with the neighbouring owner about where exactly
the boundary lay. So one day we dragged out the
iron chain that surveyors use, and began
measuring the land ourselves. A curious shepherd
boy must have witnessed the proceedings, because
next day a delegation of solemn farmers from the
nearby village paid us a visit. They had heard
that we were engineers, they explained, so could
we teach them how to measure land? Why, we
asked, whatever will you do with it? Well, they
explained, the patwari (the government revenue
functionary at the village) had been demarcating
their lands and they were never sure whether he
was doing it right. So we spent the next four
hours demonstrating how the chain worked and how
to calculate the area. In the process, of
course, we began to learn that the chain was
called a jareeb, the area was rakba, the khasra
number referred to the record in the revenue
department, their title was the patta, and the
patwari presided over a khatauni in which all
secrets were well documented.
A week later, the same delegation was back, but
looking less solemn and more brashly
conspiratorial. Could they borrow our jareeb? We
handed over the chain and then, not a little
puzzled ourselves, we followed them at a
discreet distance. In due course, we arrived at
the village and a curious spectacle greeted us.
On the farms of the village, the patwari was
laying out his chain, and wherever he went, the
farmers followed with their borrowed jareeb and
laid it out in exactly the same manner. At every
halt they would watch the patwari and when he
began to enter figures in his notebook, they too
would whip out a pencil and scribble on a piece
of paper. Rarely had we seen a more harassed
looking patwari! At the end of the day, the
delegation was back again, beaming from ear to
ear. Thank you for the hathiyaar (weapon), they
told us, and handed back the jareeb. Can we, we
asked them, see what you wrote? They took out
their smudged piece of paper and showed it to
us. It was covered with a series of numbers in
meaningless disorder. But, they grinned, they
had taken care not to show it to the patwari!
This theme of knowledge as weapon has come back
to us many times in the last three decades. In
the mid-80s, a small party from the Palamau
district of Bihar knocked on our door. Could we
come to their village and see what the proposed
dam on the Auranga river was going to do to
their area? We said yes, but provided they were
able to wrangle a copy of the DPR (Detailed
Project Report) of the dam. Oh, no problem, they
remarked, the irrigation department chaprasi
(peon) was from their village. So, three weeks
later, we were rambling across the farmlands of
Palamau inspecting the river and its catchment
and comparing it to what was written in the DPR.
We were faced with a battery of questions. Look
at that river, exclaimed the villagers, do you
think it can carry as much water as to irrigate
all the lands the department is claiming it
will? And can you see the silt in it; how long
will it take for the dam to fill up? The
department says that this village will come
under submergence, and that one will not, when
we can clearly see that this village is higher
than that one! How can we challenge their views?
We took four days to instruct a batch of 20
young boys from the surrounding villages how to
measure the flow in the river, the silt load
that it carried, and the slope of the land.With
that, they said, they would be able to take on
the projects claims of projected irrigation,
the life of the dam, and the extent of
submergence. On the last evening, as we were
packing to leave the next morning, they eyed us
suspiciously. Where, they asked, pointing to the
"dumpy" (a kind of telescopic instrument that is
used to measure levels), are you taking that?
Well, we said, this is our instrument and we are
taking it back; if you want one you will have to
get it for yourselves. How much does it cost,
they queried, and where is it available? The
nearest place, we explained, would be Ranchi and
it would cost about Rs 3000. And then we retired
for the night. Only to be woken up by an
exuberant hammering on the door very early the
next morning. Here, they said, is Rs 3000
collected from donations by all the villagers,
and you can go and buy the dumpy yourself;
otherwise how will we fight a yuddh (war)
without an astra (weapon)?
That the yuddh was joined became clear to us
when, four months later, a parcel arrived with
the postman. It contained a sheaf of papers
containing the records of three months of daily
measurement. We went to work on the data and
came up with some very interesting findings
indeed. The river, for instance, carried only
half as much water in the monsoon months as the
DPR claimed it did. This water also bore a silt
load one-and-a-half times that of the figure
reported in the project proposal. 25 villages
were actually coming into the submergence zone,
demarcated by following the full reservoir
contour, as compared to the 19 acknowledged by
the project authorities. When all these were
factored into the calculations the benefits
actually came to less than the costs! This was
going to be one very unviable dam indeed, we
informed the people of Auranga. They, in turn,
took the report and propagated it all over the
area through posters and leaflets, while the
English version was duly sent off to the
governments, the media, the courts, and even the
World Bank. Today, fifteen years later, the
Auranga river remains unbound.
In the mid-90s, we had another set of visitors,
but this time from the high ranges of Kullu
district in Himachal Pradesh. Their villages and
hamlets were being threatened by the declaration
of the Great Himalayan National Park. What
exactly was this Park, they asked, and how could
they protect their families? So, two months
later, armed with the relevant documents and
reports, we pitched camp in their village. A
young bunch of grazers and farmers listened
attentively as we explained how the government
had commissioned a study in the 80s and how this
study, conducted by a pair of specialists from
the Pheasant Society in the UK and Canada, had
come to the conclusion that only by declaring
the Park as a protected area could the rare
Western Himalayan Tragopan (a ground-dwelling
bird) be saved. And then, as we presented the
details of the study, the listeners grew
restive. No, they protested, it is not possible
for the Tragopan to be disturbed by our herds
because it nests in late winter and our grazers
go up only in late spring. Even that figure of
25,000 animals is wrong, they objected, our
numbers rarely cross 12,000. And it is not us
who destroy the herbs, but the Nepali labourers
from the Terai, who are unfamiliar with alpine
ecology and are hired by the traders in the
plains.
We suggested to them then that they should do
their own study and compare their findings with
what had been reported by the foreign experts.
Very well, they responded immediately, tell us
how to do the study. So, for the next two days,
we demonstrated to them how to draw transects
and conduct animal counts, how to document the
diversity of grasses and shrubs, and how to
systematically record their observations.As soon
as the snows melted, six of them headed towards
the alpine meadows, following the same route
that the scientists had taken ten years earlier.
Two porters who had been taken along to ferry
the supplies to base camp (at heights of over
3000 metres, one does not run into the
occasional tea shop or restaurant!), became so
familiar with the routines of measurement that
they eventually became part of the study team.
Six weeks later they returned, armed with a
range of documented observations. A detailed
examination of their records showed that they
had successfully challenged every one of the
findings of the government-sponsored study. In
addition, their measurements indicated what was
the carrying capacity of the meadows, how
ruminants were in fact controlling weed
infestation, and how the herbs could be
harvested within the boundaries of conservation.
This much, then, is certain: people fight their
struggles for survival based on what knowledge
they can create. Each one of the reports and
studies cited above (and numerous others that
have not been documented in both rural and urban
areas) indicates that ordinary working people
have the capacity to learn, to collect
information, to look at it analytically, and
eventually use it for bettering their own lives.
This is, or should be, the central objective of
"education". And yet, these are simple (and yet
very complex) tasks that are not undertaken by
our educational institutions. Didactic
instruction, memorising by rote, and vomiting
out useless information for futile examinations
constitute the fundamentals of what passes for
education in our schools and colleges. Perhaps
there is a purpose to it all. Perhaps another
Macaulay is required to explain it to us in yet
another Minute. And perhaps, in some not too
distant future, a group of young labourers will
learn to document their own lives to tear this
farce to pieces.
A graduate (and post-graduate) from IIT Bombay,
Dunu Roy heads Hazard Centre in New Delhi.
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