Even contaminated water is a luxury in tribal villages of Kandhamal

Schoolchildren forced to bring water from canal for toilet use, whereas women walk over two km in summer to fetch the precious commodityKandhamal/Rayagada, Odisha: ‘Come to learn, go to serve’ reads the front wall of Bikapanga Upper Primary School in Tumudibandha block of Kandhamal district. Only 32 children study here from class 1 to 8, yet those few are forced to ‘serve’ themselves as facilities are hard to come by.The school does not have access to safe drinking water, and the boys and girls have to fetch water from the nearest canal if they want to use the toilet. “We have not seen any improvement in facilities, though the school was established in 1977. Even a tube well is not present,” lamented Arjuna Majhi, the parent of a student.  Water scarcity is a common thread running through the tribal villages of Kandhamal. To alleviate suffering, the Odisha government had promised tap water connections under the centrally sponsored Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) to all schools and anganwadi centres by 2022. However, that promise is yet to be fulfilled.Manoj Kumar Samantaray, a Bhubaneswar-based researcher on water, sanitation and hygiene, was unsurprised by the slow pace of the JJM. “Providing safe drinking water to tribal villages through the JJM is a complex task. There are several challenges on the way, including geographical barriers, lack of infrastructure, limited awareness, cultural barriers and funding constraints. Only by understanding and addressing the specific challenges faced by each community can the scheme become successful,” he said. When asked about the infrastructure gap, Kandhamal District Education Officer Pramod Kumar Sadangi told 101Reporters that all efforts were being made to ensure water supply to schools. "Wherever required, immediate action will be taken to repair and rebuild water infrastructure. Schools have been closed from April 21 onwards to ensure the safety and health of students as day temperatures have soared to 38-41 degree Celsius," he said.Meanwhile, Arjuna, who is also the president of Bikapanga school management committee, said the problem was not restricted to water availability. “Students from class 1 to 8 are put up in the same place as only three classrooms are present in the school. Of them, two are in a dilapidated condition. Despite approaching the authorities several times, no action has been taken."A pailful of grievanceSumitra Majhi (36) has been trekking 2.5 km to fetch water for so many summers now that it is difficult to keep a count. “Water is a privilege. We women have to walk long distances even for a pail of water,” said Sumitra, a resident of Sapari in Tumudibandha block.The hilly and forested Sapari tribal hamlet is home to 165 people in 38 households, but it never had access to safe drinking water. The two tube wells in the vicinity are defunct. “Tube wells stopped working in 2019. Our repeated requests to fix them were simply ignored. The authorities should prioritise this matter as access to safe drinking water is a fundamental right,” said Swarnalata Mallick, the sarpanch of Kurtamgarh gram panchayat under which Sapari falls.(Above) Sumitra Majhi from Sapari fetches water from a nearby chuan (Photo - Rajendra Hota, 101Reporters); Another chuan in Nundraguda (Photo - Batakrushna Sahu, 101Reporters)However, Kedendi Majhi, a ward member from Sapari, blamed the sarpanch. “There is no response to our requests to repair the defunct tube wells. What shall we do?” he asks. In response, Though Mallick said the problem would be addressed at the earliest, she did not provide any information about the progress of repair work.“Every summer, we hope against hope that this struggle will not repeat. We have to struggle for every drop of water,” rued Digamandala Majhi of Gunsupa. The villagers, mostly from the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group of Kutia Kondh, are forced to walk up to a km to fetch water from a puddle.“The villagers boil the contaminated water, but there is always a health risk,” said Dibakar Sabar, an activist from Jana Jagarana Mancha.Fed up with the annual struggle, women and teenage girls in hundreds had gathered for a rally at Tumudibandha and Kotagarh block headquarters on March 22, seeking safe drinking water and better anganwadi facilities.Meanwhile, Ajit Kumar Behera, Executive Engineer, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation, Kandhamal, told 101Reporters that sarpanches have been told to identify locations where hand pumps needed repair or new tube wells should be dug. “This will help us allocate resources effectively and efficiently as two mega water projects serving more than 100 villages each are on the anvil. We are currently finalising tenders for single-village projects and soon work will begin on them,” he informed. Decoding data A recent study by Atmashakti Trust and its allies on the status of safe drinking water in 9,856 villages in 15 districts of Odisha paints a scary picture. As many as 9,37,152 households and 32,960 tube wells were included in the survey, which found that four out of every 10 houses lacked access to safe drinking water. Four out of every 10 tube wells and almost half of the hand pumps surveyed were defunct. In terms of percentage, 40.55% households had no safe drinking water access, whereas 40.93% tube wells and 48.6% hand pumps were defunct.(Left) A defunct solar drinking water tank in Baladia village of Rayagada district (Photo - Debendra Suna, 101Reporters); A broken tubewell in Sapari (Photo - Rajendra Hota, 101Reporters) According to the government data, only 45% of rural households in Odisha have piped water access. “The government claims water sufficiency, while villagers continue to struggle,” said Rayagada-based Debendra Suna, another activist from Jana Jagarana Manch.In Baladia village of Rayagada, over 80 households make do with one tube well and solar hand pump. The tube well cannot lift water from the rocky soil, despite digging to a depth of 60 to 80 ft.  “Animals drink water from the canal, but it is our only source of water. It is unfit for consumption, but we have no choice. During rains, we get sick from drinking this muddy water,” said Satya Praska (28), a ward member from Baladia.  Things are worse in Nunduruguda, where villagers depend on chuan (puddle-like surface water source) to meet their water needs. “This is the only water source at our disposal. When one chuan dries up, we dig another near a canal or riverbed. When all sources dry up in summer, we have to walk to the neighbouring villages,” says Jayanta Urlaka (32). They store water in huge clay pots in summers, but it will last only for 10 to 15 days.“Gruelling summer will only accentuate the crisis in water-starved villages unless the government takes swift action,” warned Laxmidhar Singh, a member of the Indigenous Peoples Forum.Helpline of no helpA dedicated helpline number 1916 is run as a part of the Buxi Jagabandhu Assured Water Supply to Habitations (BASUDHA) scheme, said Hadibandhu Behera, a former chief engineer with the RWSS. “Mobile vans to repair defunct water infrastructure are also present.”  However, people are largely unaware of it. “I am hearing about this helpline for the first time. If the government had informed us, we would have definitely made use of this facility,” said Digamandal Majhi, a resident of Deredi in Kandhamal. At the same time, Santanu Patra, who works with Jeevika Suraksha Mancha, reminded that there are several remote tribal villages without mobile network coverage.  A member of the Jeevika Suraksha Mancha meeting the Block Development Officer of Kotagada block, Kandhamal (Photo - Santanu Patra, 101Reporters)The state government is primarily focusing on the BASUDHA scheme, and has constructed new water supply systems, repaired existing ones, and set up water treatment plants in different parts of the state.  Under the JJM, the government aims to provide tap water connections to every rural household by 2024. For this, the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department have proposed a budget allocation of ₹5,750 crore under the JJM, ₹4,002 crore under the BASUDHA scheme, and ₹1,000 crore under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund for the upcoming financial year.Edited by Tanya ShrivastavaCover Photo - A woman from Sapari fills water from a chuan (Photo - Rajendra Hota, 101Reporters)

Odisha tribals take fight against malnutrition to their backyards

Parbati Digal from Rajupadar village of Kotagada block prepared beds for her kitchen garden (Photo: Maldhar Naik)Tribals of 267 villages in the remote areas of Kotagada and Tumudibandha block in Odisha have developed more than 2,120 kitchen gardens in five years. This assures them a nutritious diet, raising hopes of overcoming severe malnutrition in Kandhamal.  Kandhamal, Odisha: Lima Majhi, 35, proudly surveys her 300 square feet kitchen garden at Sushabhata village in Kandhamal, Odisha. The green patch has 14 varieties of fruits and vegetables such as bitter gourd, beetroot, cucumber, pumpkin, drumstick, tomato, coriander, radish, parwal (pointed gourd), brinjal, and chilly.“I have also planted guava, banana, and papaya trees. It not only gives us more nutrition but we also save money on vegetables," said Majhi, who belongs to the Kondh tribe.Many villagers like Majhi in Tumudibandha block were unaware of the nutritional value of fruits and green vegetables. They ate their staple of rice often without any green accompaniment. The hilly terrain of Kandhamal has a good number of drumstick trees, but the tribals did not know that its leaves and fruit can be cooked.Lima Majhi (above) grows almost 14 varieties of fruits and vegetables on her 300 square feet kitchen garden (below) in Sushabhata village in Kandhamal district of Odisha (Photo: Maldhar Naik)Majhi started planting vegetables and fruits in 2017 after volunteers of Jeebika Suraksha Mancha, a people's collective working in Kandhamal, educated the villagers about the health benefits of eating green vegetables and fruits and the importance of building a kitchen garden. The nutritional kitchen garden initiative, with the additional support of Noida-based NGO, Atmashakti Trust, is helping rural communities in 267 villages under Kotagada and Tumudibandha blocks of Kandhamal district grow vegetables at home. Until now, they have assisted over 2,120 kitchen gardens take root, each growing around 13 to 17 varieties of vegetables.Rashmita Patmajhi, 30, weighed only 45 kgs two years ago. With a poor haemoglobin count, she used to feel tired all the time. “I built a kitchen garden and also started eating fruits and vegetables. I weigh 49 kgs now and now I know the importance of a nutritious diet.” In Kandhamal, at least, this knowledge is critical.The official statistics of the Odisha government in 2018 listed about 3,500 malnutrition deaths in Kandhamal in the past five years. The district has over 53% tribal population, which is among the top communities that report higher incidences of malnutrition in the state. “Undernutrition is more prevalent among tribals in comparison to other communities. In Odisha, where 37.26 per cent of its population is deprived of nutritious food, there is a stronger need for building kitchen gardens, which will go a long way to secure nutritional status for their families," added Sameet Panda, convener of Odisha chapter of Right to Food Campaign. Supplementing support"Malnutrition is more than lack of food, and tribals are traditionally agrarian communities who grow vegetables and fruits. So, there is no visible hunger among these communities,” said Ruchi Kashyap, Executive Trustee at Atmashakti Trust. “But, they do not know what a varied diet is and what fruits and vegetables will meet their nutritional needs. So, we used a behavioural change communication approach to overcome this challenge. We helped communities know food diversity, the technique to grow a kitchen garden, and avail of government schemes such as Mo Upakari Bagicha, Millets Mission, and Iron Plus Initiative to make this effort sustainable and beneficial,” she said.The state government too has recognised and supported these kitchen gardens over the years. In 2018, Odisha Livelihoods Mission (OLM), in partnership with Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives (APPI), implemented a nutrition project called ‘Mo Upakari Bagicha' to spread the knowledge of nutritional outcomes from dietary diversity by promoting kitchen gardens in rural households across the state. Rita Majhi from Pagarpadi village has benefited from the surplus produce in her NKG (Photo: Santanu Patra)In June 2020, OLM converged with MGNREGA to scale up nutritional kitchen gardens in all 314 blocks with an additional budgetary allocation of Rs 500 crore from the Odisha government. The aim was to reach 5 lakh households in the financial year 2020-21 with a focus on Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes, Below Poverty Level (BPL) households, beneficiaries of rural housing, and small and marginal farmers. Santosh Kumar Rath, District Project Manager of OLM in Kandhamal said in an effort to reduce undernutrition among children, women of reproductive age groups and adolescent girls, "in the last financial year, we have helped over 24,000 families build kitchen gardens in Kandhamal.” And there has been some progress in this tribal hinterland which has recorded a significant improvement in malnutrition over recent years.According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) 2019-21, stunting in Kandhamal has decreased significantly from 38.4 per cent to 34.2 per cent in NFHS-4 (2015-2016); the percentage of underweight children has reduced from 43.1 per cent to 35.40 per cent, and there has been a marginal improvement in the figures on wasting disease but these figures are all still below the state average. Delinking nutrition and povertyOdisha is also rated among the top 10 states with a substantial share of the population living in poverty as per the report of NITI Aayog's National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2021. One in every two people (44.75%) in Kandhamal is below the poverty line.  "Nutritional kitchen gardens can play the role of inflation insulation for them as vegetable prices remain high all through the year," said Panda.Kitchen gardens are vital to cater to the villagers' nutritional needs by providing access to food that is harvested, prepared, and consumed by family members. Sindhimai Patmajhi, 55, from Badjal village under Jubaguda Gram Panchayat in Kotagarh block, grows papaya, drumstick, banana, lemon, radish, guava, carrot, pineapple, brinjal, beans, cucurbit, cabbage, cauliflower, and beet nutritional kitchen garden. She said her frequent visits to the hospital have reduced drastically in the past two years after eating vegetables every day.Compost being prepared for use in kitchen gardens (Photo: Maldhar Naik)“The members of Jeebika Suraksha Manch explained to us the nutritional value of each fruit and vegetable. They asked us to grow vegetables and fruits so that we readily get the required nutrition in our food,” she said.Although Patmajhi and her husband earned through Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), it was a meagre amount. With the flourishing kitchen garden, they do not have to worry about nutritious food.An increase of vegetable yield has ensured that the villagers are not only consuming healthy food but also earning by selling the surplus. “This year, we have received an additional income of around Rs 6,500 by selling surplus vegetables. This helped our family build another room in our house,” said Rita Majhi, 28, from Pagarpadi village under Guma Gram Panchayat of Tumudibandha block. The visible results of the kitchen gardens have motivated other non-beneficiary farmers and women to create these in their communities and homes.Edited by Shobha Kiran Surin

Rural Odisha discovers power of Twitter in resolving governance issues

Santanu Patra in a meeting with villagers from Rajupadar, sharing the power of digital activism.From ration distribution to infrastructural problems, Twitter warriors are taking complaints to the digital platform to expedite action from the administration, further bolstered by a state government online initiative.Odisha: “Why shouldn’t we try our luck with Twitter?” Tulsi Naik had thought, after having no access to ration supplies during the lockdown in 2020 despite innumerable appeals. Naik, who works with the Nagarik Vikash Sangathan, a people's collective in Kalahandi district of Odisha, had been trained to use Twitter.“During the lockdown, the supply of rations was stopped. Despite visiting the panchayat office several times, the issue wasn’t resolved,” says his wife Simanjali, a 21-year-old marginal farmer from a Dalit background. “The office is 20km away and I had to spend Rs200 to Rs300 to travel and lose a day’s work, when I already wasn’t earning much due to the lockdown.”Within three days of trying their luck on Twitter, ration supplies were delivered at their doorstep.Tulsi and Simanjali are not exceptions. The popularity of the social media site Twitter continues to grow beyond the urban and semi-urban elite classes, even more so since the pandemic struck. Marginalised communities, primarily in developing countries, continue to face challenges in expressing their grievances and concerns due to lack of accountable communication channels. However, since the outbreak of Covid-19, Twitter has emerged as the preferred digital platform in rural Odisha for grievance redressal.Digital deliveranceThe digital platform not only helps people resolve their problems but also save time, money, and energy, as all they need is access to smartphones. In fact, the Odisha government adopted the 5T model to ensure a tech-enabled governance reform system. The 5T guidelines — teamwork, technology, transparency, transformation and time limit — mandate the department concerned to take action on issues within 24 hours of a tweet.  According to Statista, India has the third-highest number of Twitter users, at 24.45 million. It indicates huge potential for individuals to use the platform as a grievance redressal forum and for organizations to adopt digital era advocacy. In Odisha, the state government has 40 departments, all of which are on Twitter, and it has proven to be the most convenient means to contact government officials.  How Twitter saved the dayMandila Digal, an 80-year-old from the remote village of Rajupadar in Kandhamal district’s Kotagada block, was overwhelmed when he finally received free ration at his doorstep after over a year of struggles and appeals. At the onset of the pandemic in India, Digal’s family was hit by an acute financial crisis, as most of his family members worked as daily wage labourers, and the lockdown put a stop to their income. At that time, the Odisha government had announced the distribution of 5kg rice and 1kg dal free of cost through the Public Distribution System for three months from April 2020. But his family could not benefit from this provisioning as they didn’t have an Aadhaar card, which was mandatory to avail this scheme.  After finding out about Digal’s woes, Santanu Patra, a local youth who’s been helping amplify the underprivileged voices through Twitter since 2020, visited Rajupadar. He collected all the required information, including Digal’s photos, posted them on his Twitter handle and also tagged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the then minister of food and consumer welfare Ranendra Pratap Swain and the district collector of Kandhamal. The very next day, the Gram Rojgar Sevak, Village Level Worker and the area’s Civil Supply Inspector rushed to Digal’s house to provide him with rations.“As there were restrictions imposed to contain Covid-19, digital platforms were the only way to reach out to authorities,” Patra says. “I had noticed that government offices were responding on Twitter, so I used the medium to help people. So far, I’ve tweeted close to 500 issues, of which over 30 have been resolved.”To migrant laborers’ rescueMaheshwar Sunani (42) and his wife Debaki (37) of Muribahal village, under Nuapada district’s Komna block, had migrated to Hyderabad for work. But as cases of the coronavirus were on the rise across the country, they decided to return to their native place in June 2020. Without jobs and no savings, free rations could have been their only respite, as Maheshwar was a ration card holder, but the mismatch of the names of family members on the card had rendered it invalid.Simanjali Naik, a 21-year-old marginal farmer had spent Rs200-300 on a day's travel to avail ration during the lockdown. However, the Twitter request got the administration to deliver ration to their doorstep within three days.Sunani approached his local sarpanch, gram panchayat executive officer and even the block development officer, but in vain. This was when Surendra Sunani, a local youth and member of Nuapada-based people’s collective Shramajeebee Bikash Mancha, stepped up to help. He posted the family’s plight on Twitter, tagging all relevant officials and line departments — the family received rations at their doorstep within three hours of his tweet!“I had no idea about Twitter. But now, as I see its impact, I am overwhelmed,” says Maheshwar. Recalling his initial journey as a Twitter warrior, Surendra says, “Opting for a digital mode of communication may demotivate someone new to it as there’s no surety of a response. Initially, it was difficult to convince people that tweeting was more effective than physically visiting government offices, but after a few issues were resolved, people had more faith in me.”As recently as May 28, while visiting Bhatapani village in the district’s Sinapali block, Dolamani Bhoi, a 30-year-old Twitter warrior, came to know that all five tubewells in the village were defunct. Bhoi took to Twitter to contact the concerned officials and departments, soon after which the Twitter handle of the Odisha government’s Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Supply Department responded, assuring him that the tubewells had been repaired and were running smoothly.Twitter warrior Dolamani Bhoi prompted administrative action on five difunctional tube wells.When a tweet does not get attentionGiven the volume of messages shared on the platform, there’s no guarantee of a response to all tweets, regardless of the authenticity or urgency of an issue. Where the outreach of individual tweets with a lower follower base may be limited, the need for collective digital activism comes in. “I intend to get a response from the department each time I tweet, but the rate of response is 10% to 20%,” Bhoi says. “Still, it’s much better than people meeting officials in person or filing written complaints. When no action is taken, I contact 12baje12minute, a digital platform that gives voice to rural India. It collects and raises issues for speedy redressal and has considerable reach. This online community helps highlight our local issues. Concerned authorities are more likely to pay heed to an issue when they tweet on our behalf or retweet our post.” Santanu follows the same pattern in his areas. “I seek support from local sangathans and digital groups, including 12baje12minute,” he says. Is the future digital?Given the number of authorities across different levels of the government with Twitter handles, they become accountable when tagged in a post of such kinds that demand attention. This, in turn, prompts swift action. Block Development Officer of Udala Debajani Bhuyan, in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, is hopeful about the use of Twitter to resolve local problems. “The state government is a pioneer in establishing a technology-enabled governance system. People are already benefiting due to the 5T initiative,” she says. “It’s heartening to see the youth using digital platforms to resolve their issues and also enable us to get through our problems with greater ease.”  Repeatedly tagging a government official or account may get irksome, but citizens have the right to demand answers, especially if their grievances have not been addressed, says Laxmidhar Singh, a tribal rights activist. This is the only way available at the moment to ensure greater transparency and accountability in governance, he adds.Nityananda Thanapati, the social worker from Bhubaneswar who handles the 12baje12minute Twitter handle, says, “Earlier, a pen was considered mightier than the sword. But now, a tweet is mightier than the pen in many aspects.” Thanapati has been spearheading a collective effort to create a Twitter warriors’ group in Odisha from village to state level. “The governance mechanism in future has to be digital. That’s what made us create an e-sangathan, wherein we plan to educate and engage people to use digital platforms like Twitter to reach out to the administration,” he says. “We are happy that more people are relying on the platform as a solution to their problems.” Edited by Rashmi Guha RayPhotos sourced by Naba Kishor Pujari

How a ‘local-to-local’ education strategy worked out for students of rural Odisha

A chatashali centre in Koraput, Odisha (Photo Credit- Naba Kishor Pujari)The ‘Mo Chatashali’ model, implemented by three well-meaning organisations, helped bridge the academic gap that had developed in the state’s villages due to lack of access to online classesOdisha: Ten-year-old Abha* got a break from her routine when the primary school of Katimaha village, under Tikabali block, was ordered shut due to the Covid-19 outbreak. A student of Class 5, Abha was initially “happy about it” because it felt like a vacation. Little did she know that this supposed holiday would be prolonged to limits she had neither expected nor wanted. Katimaha in Odisha’s Kandhamal district is 31 km from Phulbani, the district headquarters. Over 90.14% of the district population is recognised as rural, in a region that’s still struggling to raise its female literacy rate from 51.94% at present.Abha was unaware of the toll the pandemic would have on her family’s financial standing. Her textbooks remained packed in her school bag, and she became her mother’s permanent helper with household chores.Such was the state of affairs even after the Odisha government had launched online education initiatives to facilitate learning from home during the lockdown. The Shiksha Sanjog Programme, a WhatsApp-based digital learning platform, as well as radio classes and YouTube live streaming were adopted to keep children connected with their education.However, Abha was a textbook case of the rural-urban digital divide and how students were affected by it. Challenges of poor teledensity, lack of internet infrastructure in forested regions and people’s financial distress fell through the cracks when these online modes of education were designed.“I didn’t have a smartphone or television in my house to study through the government’s digital programmes,” said the 10-year-old, whose parents were supportive of her education but lacked the means. “They aren’t educated enough to help me cope with my lessons. I was on my own to handle it.”The ‘Mo Chatashali’ modelRecognising the need of the hour, Delhi-based NGO Atmashakti Trust, along with its allies Odisha Shramajeebee Mancha and Mahila Shramajeebi Mancha, Odisha, developed an alternative, more inclusive model, Mo Chatashali. Named after an Odia phrase that translates to ‘my school’ in English, Mo Chatashali offered remedial education by conducting face-to-face classes for underprivileged children who didn’t have access to online classes.Tribal students attending a class at chatashali in Bishampur village of Lakshmipur block, Koraput, Odisha (Photo Credit- Naba Kishor Pujari)Mid August in 2020, the trust and its allies ran a pilot programme, Mission 3-5-8, a campaign to provide remedial classes for 4,364 students in 17 districts.“The outcome of this campaign was encouraging, as children were found to be doing better academically after taking remedial classes,” said Ruchi Kashyap, executive trustee of Atmashakti. “That motivated us to do more, after which we launched the Mo Chatashali initiative to cater to the educational needs of these rural kids.”According to Anjan Pradhan, convener of the Odisha Shramajeebee Mancha, the Mo Chatashali programme spanned 84 blocks in 17 districts and included 1 lakh students of rural Odisha under its ambit. “It’s a grassroot initiative that emerged as a solution against school closures and made sure that children didn’t get too disconnected from their education,” he added.Also Read: In Uttar Pradesh, girls are fighting hard to keep their education boat afloatThese chatashalis are run, supported and managed entirely by the local village communities. In collaboration with the NGO, the administrative bodies of each village would allocate a space to run these centres. The model adopted a local-to-local strategy, through which they appointed a young individual from their community as a teacher, someone these children were familiar with. This strategy also incorporated tribal dialects such as Santali, Ho, Koya, Munda and Bonda as the medium of communication at both the chatashalis and in the textbooks provided.Children contributing rice as an honorarium for chatashali volunteers in Pipal Padar, Koraput, Odisha (Photo Credit- Naba Kishor Pujari)It was no mean feat for these organisations to cover 17 districts in 84 blocks. Initially, parents were reluctant to participate, but Atmashakti Trust, with the help of its village-level committees, reached out to local residents and explained the “correlation between school closures and the detachment their children were experiencing from education”.Atmashakti works with 21 regional sangathans, or organisations, at the district level, with a committee presence at the village level, as well. For every two to three gram panchayats, there is a janasathi, a coordinating point, for this initiative. Considering the involvement of village committees and local teachers, Mo Chatashali became a natural choice for parents over time, in the absence of access to the state’s digital education options.In September 2020, School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash was quoted as saying that of the 60 lakh students enrolled in Odisha’s government schools, online classes reached just 22 lakh of them. However, a survey titled “The Paused Classrooms” — conducted by Save the Children in collaboration with the Odisha RTE Forum — discovered that only 6 lakh students could access these digital classes.Bhagabati Naik, a resident of Kaliguda village in Koraput district, was the chosen volunteer for the chatashali there. Naik was trained through the remedial teaching modules of Ujjwala, a state government education scheme aimed at improving Odisha’s elementary education system. “We were trained on how to run a classroom, maintain an attendance register and teach,” Naik said.Volunteer orientation programme under Mo Chatashali in Athagada village, Mayurbhanj, Odisha (Photo Credit- Naba Kishor Pujari)This basic yet crucial bit of training helped volunteers like Naik run chatashalis efficiently for two hours every day, teaching students Odia, English and mathematics. They tracked students’ progress with an assessment every fortnight. The in-house training department of Atmashakti, Birsa Bahini, conducted offline and online training region wise, to improve the skills of volunteers within a stipulated timeline.Mo Chatashali is a classic example of a community-driven success story. It was “the only hope” for parents like Daitari Patel, a resident of Dumerbahal village, to bridge the academic gap the pandemic had created.“Two to three months after schools were shut down, I noticed my child’s reading and writing abilities deteriorate,” he explained. “After desperately looking for a solution, I contacted Nagarik Vikash Sangathan, the people’s collective in Kalahandi district, to help us open a chatashali in our village.”It’s parents like Patel, who emphasised the need for an alternative education medium to online classes, that made these centres a successful model statewide. In fact, the Odisha government awarded the Mo Chatashali initiative for bridging this learning gap for over 1 lakh rural students all through the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns.However, getting students to enrol was just the tip of the iceberg. The harder task was capturing the interest of the children who had been disconnected from their studies for months and grown comfortable with it. It was challenging to draw their attention back to textbooks. This was when the Atmashakti Trust advised volunteers “to use interpersonal methods of teaching, like the use of games, dance routines and poems”, to allow the kids to adapt to chatashalis.A chatashali volunteer using play-way method to teach tribal children, Odisha (Photo Credit- -Naba Kishor Pujari)Moreover, another challenge was keeping volunteers engaged for longer durations as well as financing the chatashalis. They continued to run and emerge fruitful, nevertheless.These chatashalis were a through-and-through boon for the rural children of Odisha, without which they could have been driven to the social perils of child marriages, early pregnancies and child labour after being forced to drop out of schools.Considering the results of remedial schools and the academic deficit induced by the lack of resources among marginalised, underprivileged students, the Mo Chatashali model could be relevant as an after-school education strategy, as well. Anil Pradhan, convener of the Odisha RTE Forum, emphasised that this model must be “replicated by the government” as an additional source of help to the marginalised students, who’ve remained disconnected from schools through the lockdowns.*The names of all minors quoted have been changed to protect their identity