Friends, Greetings.
All of you who attended our June Month's Meeting are aware of this effort and Shyam also mailed to the group. Kasyap attended from TMAD's front. Following is a detailed report from Maruti. As this is a serious issue and there is no other good cause than protecting children from entering into the heinous profession, on behalf of TMAD, I assured Maruti that we will support 5 children. ------------------------------------------- Hello All, Sunday we went to Ramyam pet with 3 other groups. We started here by 9:00 am and reached there by 11:00 am. There was a gathering of around 50 people, children of age groups 5- 17 and their parents. while travelling we 6 people: Maruti, Ravi kiran, Gopi, Sriram , fayaz and Krupal Kashyap, discussed lot of things regarding how to tackle the issues. I explained them the situation there, as i already have one experience. Saturday when i called Jagannatha Rao of HARD regarding the visit, he has given some ideas and suggestions. In our discussion he said that it will be better if we can spend some time with each child and parent. As this is a peculiar community and the mind sets of the people are different it will give more insight on the circumstances and behavioral understanding if we spend some time with individuals . Even though all are in the same vulnerable situation, each person think differently. Some people may be ready to send their girls for education, some people may not. some may be looking for English Medium. Some children may be very much interested towards education and some may not. To know each and everybody's ideas and to understand their individual interests and needs, we thought we will talk with each child separately. We then discussed about what to question and how to question. we have taken a strong decision that we should not talk or comment or condemn about their profession. we wanted to have the following information from every child and parent 1. Name and other family details ( any way available with HARD already) 2. Present studies..How they are studying. their interest in studies. 3. Parents interest in child studies. 4. Are they ready to send their children out of that place. to any other homes like VAIDEHI Ashram. 5. How much they can afford.( what is the need from our side) 6. Are they particular about English medium. and some other relevant information, questions we can ask while discussion as per the need. Having a sketch like this, we first addressed all the 50 people there, about who we are, what is the very purpose of the visit, why we called them, What way we can support them and what they have to do? Then we divided into 3 groups, Myself and Gopi Krishna, Sriram and Ravikiran and Fayaz and Kashyap, and started counseling the children and parents. Around 12:00 after noon we started taking up each child one by one. we spend around 10 to 20 minutes with each child. On an average each group discussed with 15 children in 2 and half hours time, total of 45 children. The discussions went well. We were able get the required information. we have got good response from the community. The experiences in the interaction are vast, and different as each case is a different one. But in most of the cases the children ..mostly the girl children doesn't want to stay there. of course most of the parents also. Jagannatha rao was not present in this session as he was attending Lion's club regional meeting. He assured us he will join by afternoon. by the time he came we finished all the interactions. We had lunch with them at around 3:00 pm. Then we sat with Jagannatha Rao and the children parents together for conclusion session. This is where many of our friends got emotional by the discussion. The circumstances in which the adolescent boys and girls are living, made us dejected. When Mr. Jagannatha Rao explained how a mother provokes and compels her daughter into the filthy, disastrous life , everybody got shocked and expressed utter grief about that. It is very embarrassing to know the fact that they don't practice family planning only for more girl children. These kind of facts, discussions and interactions made us abashed and emotional. Mr. Jagannatha Rao explained them about why we have come there. Before that Mr.Sriram of MANAVATHA, explained them that we have gone there to help them as much as we can.. but not just for picnic. This statement he made due to the disbelief and disconcern the community people shown on us. They said till now many people have come here and promised many things. but nothing has happened. Everybody comes here and give lectures about high standard and respectful life. Ask them to leave this profession and do other works which is practically not possible. They come and distribute some fruits and chocolates and take photographs ..then leave. So they lost hope on this so called service organizations and visitors. Jagannatha Rao explained that in spite of busy schedules and hectic work, all of us came to ramayam pet not just for visit but to do as much help as we can. He Then explained about Vaidehi Ashram and their rules and regulations. 1. They will take only 4 to 10 years gill children. 2. They will take care of the girl ( food shelter education dress) till she get settled in life. 3. They wont send the girl out of the home even on occasions. 4. Parents or relatives can come see the girls twice or thrice in an year. Few expressed worries about the VAIDEHI ASHRAM status, facilities and other doubts. Then jagannatha rao told them that we can see that before joining the children. The discussion went on..here comes the situation of 6th to 9th studying children. Vaidehi wont take care of them . Till now many them were studying in VARNI SAMATA SCHOOL of Hemalatha Lavanam. After her demise the school management is not taking care of children and the situations are worsening day by day. And some wardens are misbehaving with girl students. So many of the students are not ready go there. When Jagannatha Rao asked them to go to local school and study they said a big NO..........When he stressed why the answers made us to go faint again. They are unable to continue studies at their home due to various reasons. 1. They don't have proper guidance. 2. There are no good teachers in the schools. 3. Circumstances and environment. 4. Disturbances from customers.... ( Customers ask these boys to bring drinks and other stuff and for these boys this is very dreadful situation, forcefully they have to serve the customers) 5. Disturbance from Police.....( When police ride the place they take these adolescent boys also with the customers as they are young) 6. The most frustrating thing is that ..one boy said " Sir, when somebody in house is practicing sex in the adjacent room how can i concentrate on my studies. How can i hold my senses and put it on book.... " ...and we were speechless. 7. Customers are misbehaving with the young girl children. as many of the customers are in drunken state.. they do nonsense things like hold their hand and drag them..trying to touch..... with this young girls. And her mother who is also in drunken state cannot care for her child. We stopped there and told them that we will try to put them in appropriate schools and homes. There are 5 children studying SSC in the local private school, they wanted to continue in that and we can relocate them next year. There are 4 children, two boys and two girls, completed SSC. If we don't relocate the girls ...definitely they are the most vulnerable ones. We spoke with them separately again and given guidance on what to do next. They were the most worried ones as they know what will happen if they don't go out of that place. We convinced one girl who got 454 in SSC to join MEC group and go for CA. and the same with the other girl. One boy got 495 wanted to go for engg. we asked him to wait for a week so that we will discuss and come out with good college for him. All of them left the place with gratitude and satisfaction. We got so tired with the rigorous and hectic sessions...but the zeal to do and the emotion we had in the sessions made us to move forward. We had around one and half hour discussion with Jagannatha Rao. He shared his experiences with this dommara community and their cultures with us. Finally by 6:30 we started back with the determination to save at least some of them from this disastrous, filthy, nasty life. I have been trying to pen this..but i could not. This whole letter is not at all sufficient to explain the experiences we got, situations we faced and circumstances we saw. it just gives a glimpse of what happened in the trip. Thanks Maruti Sairam ===================== Thank you. with regards, Prasanthi.
