Conversations in the Hinterlands

By Azeez Gupta

A quick introduction – I have recently joined the Pratham Institute as part of a pursuit for happiness and meaning. The past 2 years spent working at a renowned consultancy saw me engage in stimulating work with fantastic minds – yet I could never escape the nagging feeling that I was coasting. I missed the violent single-minded passion I experienced during my most fulfilling college years, and hope that working for a cause again will help me re-discover those emotions.

Seeing as I came to Pratham as a relatively green, mostly city boy, who had grown up seeing the poor, but had never really interacted deeply with underprivileged people, I was promptly packed off to see all our programs and centers on the ground. The resulting 2 week trip through the hinterlands of Maharashtra was truly eye-opening. I met dozens of our students, learnt about their lives and heard their stories. In the process, I went from being an armchair intellectual to… well, definitely not an expert, but someone who’s starting to get a pulse of India today. The things we all pontificate about, but really know very little about. In this post, I will try to put down some of my observations, as I remember them. These are random and unstructured reflections, often mundane, and accompanied by my unsolicited comments – but may be interesting to my peers, as cossetted as I was.

• I asked students what they liked best about their time at Pratham training centers. The quickest and most enthusiastic response – “Shaving”! Shaving?! Here we are, claiming to turn your lives around, give you opportunity and all that jazz, and what you like most is shaving?! It was very endearing – and jokes apart, the shaving was part of a broader theme of following rules and regulations and living a structured life. Concepts that we elites resist resolutely, but are both important for and attractive to these young people who’ve lived their lives in relative chaos.

• The level of attention in classes and devotion to learning was extraordinary – it put me to shame, looking back at how many of my batch-mates and I went through our IIT education.

• I heard the personal stories of many students – most were from villages and had absolutely no jobs available at their homes. They spent their times roaming around the fields aimlessly, with nothing to do, and occasionally working on the farms. It bought the scarcity of opportunities home to me very starkly, especially in contrast to the vast expanse of options I have been blessed with all my life.

• The more things are different though, the more they remain the same When I asked what kids use the computer center for, after their daily studies are over, there was a lot of sniggering followed by the euphemism ‘watch videos of movie stars on the internet’. Young men are the same everywhere!

Sunita, Our Multifaceted Entrepreneur

Sunita (on the right) and her assistant at her parlour.

Sunita Petkar from Pune, began her long association with Pratham as a Balwadi teacher and went on to work as a team leader. But, Sunita’s main interest lay in the field of beauty. Pratham identified her potential and passion; and decided to support her under the Beauty Entrepreneurship Program. After taking a refresher training in Advanced Beauty, Sunita set up her first parlour in 2011.

Meena (another entrepreneur supported by Pratham) and Sunita own and oversee two beauty parlours together. Along with providing services to customers, Sunita has a keen interest in teaching. So far, she has trained 60 students in Beauty. Her revenue through only services is between INR 5000- 6000 per month.  Apart from service and training, Sunita also stocks up her parlour with little things like nail paint, earrings, anklets, etc. to sell to customers for some extra income.

PACE Student is Best Trainee of the Month at TAJ

Sunil's newfound ability to support his mother

- by Janie Lee

Sunil Jathar is 19 years old and hails from a small village called Rajur Gahpanti in the district of Jalha. When he reached the 10^th pass, he ranked 2^nd and thoroughly enjoyed school. Although Sunil was fully capable and determined to complete his education, he could not afford the exam fees of 50 rupees and subsequently had to drop out of school. He mentions that he had never held 500 rupees in his hand during his youth.

Sunil’s entire family faced financial hardships as they lived in a small shed in the village. His father and mother were laborers earning less than 2000 rupees a month to support a family of six. His older brother maintained a job as a construction worker and his younger brother and sister were both farmers. In order to contribute to his family’s wellbeing, Sunil took a job cleaning dishes for 10 rupees a day. Although Sunil got a better job as a laborer breaking stones, he still was unable to help support his family.

PACE student receives accolades for his excellent service

Romesh Surendra Kulmethe, 24 year old boy from Gadchiroli, completed his training in Housekeeping from PACE Aurangabad centre in September 2013 and was selected by Lemon Tree Hotel in Bangalore for a job. In only a month of starting work, he received excellent client service feedback and became a role model for his colleagues.

Below is the “Delight story of Romesh, Housekeeping Department, Lemon Tree Hotel Bangalore, Room no 716 Guest Ms. Gayatri” shared by his supervising housekeeper:

Ms. Gayatri Prasad (check in 02^nd Dec 13 check out 06^th Dec 13) was staying with us in room no 716 from the company Wipro (MD). While servicing her room, Romesh noticed that the guest had a soft toy on her bed side table. Romesh thought to use his towel art skill  to delight her and made different towel art each day throughout her stay. On her last day of stay, Ms. Gayatri called up Romesh and asked him to teach her one towel art. Romesh immediately took a towel and gave her a demo. Ms. Gayatri appreciated him for his art and mentioned that she has stayed in many hotels but this experience was exceptional.