Background

Darrang TLC came up for NLM-PAC consideration in Nov. 97. As the project came without a pre-appraisal by NLM, it was given a mobilisation advance of Rs. 25 lakhs and was advised to return to NLM after prelaunch preparations. Darrang TLC was visited for pre-appraisal during Dec. 22-24. In what follows, besides a brief overview of the Proposal, the impressions of the pre- appraisal visit are presented.

Darrang TLC Proposal

Darrang TLC proposes to impart functional literacy to an estimated 5.53 lakhs non-literates in the 15-35 age group. It proposes to take up the programme into phases, of one year each, overlappingly implemented with a 3 months gap. The budget estimate is Rs. 7.12 crores which includes Rs. 33.06 lakhs for PLC and Rs. 252 lakhs for lighting, and works out to Rs. 128.70 per learner cost.

The project proposal enumerates all the important functions involved in the TLC. But many of its presumptions behind the action calendar look doubtful: (i) the major preparatory activities like EB, Survey, Training, T-L material procurement and distribution being completed in 2 months; and T-L started in the 3rd month; and (ii) teaching of 3 primers being completed in 7 months, especially after a gap of 4 months in between due to monsoon. The popular character of the proposed literacy programme which the organisers, especially the DC, have in mind, or as informed in their his approach in the preliminary efforts made so far, is not reflected in the composition of the committees, found in the proposal; the roles and functions envisaged for the different committees look like rule book. This proposal must have been prepared by some people long back, and needs to be revised, reflecting the better understanding of the TLC spirit and approach that one now finds with the organisers.

Efforts towards Presaging TLC

The modest beginnings, or more properly, exploratory activities taken up so far include the formation of TLC committees, the EC and sub-committees at district and block levels. A conscious approach has been adopted to keep these committees, tentative, to be revised and enlarged based on the experience, to weed out the ornamental ones and induct those with proven sincerity. An equally deliberate decision has been taken in respect of TLC Committees at the village and Panchayat levels; these units are seen the site of implementation and these committees at the grassroots level as the real implementing forces. The catalytic factor of success in TLC, these grassroots committee formation is likely to take time and this is by design so as to get only those interested in literacy work.

An one-day orientation and workshop was organised for the village elders called the Gaon Boras where the basic approach of the campaign was explained and their suggestions were solicited on how to motivate and mobilise village people and take up the programme at the village level. The interest and participation noticed from the Gaon Boras is said to have given confidence to the organisers about grassroots interest in literacy. Under the CBCS programme, more than 600 Mothers' Self-Help Groups have been formed(the target is 1000 for the year)in which health awareness, children's education etc. are addressed. In the context of teaching these groups about the management of the savings and accounts, the need for literacy is brought in. More than anything else, the Mothers' Self-Help Groups appear to have helped to mobilise the women and this beginning would be useful for TLC.

Darrang is a DPEP district. The Village Education Committees(VECs) already formed provide the basic network, of having some people who are interested in social mobilisation for primary education. No doubt, this could be used for TLC. Of course, the money culture in DPEP may vitiate the voluntary spirit in TLC; Village Literacy Committees(VLCs) cannot have a peaceful co-existence with VECs and one may not be able to weld the two into one. But that is a second stage problem, and can wait for moment.

A meeting was held with the Tea Garden Management leaders to solicit their cooperation in TLC. This is said to have evoked assurance from them.

Impressions of Field Visits and Interactions

It was clear from the first meeting with DC and members of EC that no significant preparatory work has been taken up so far and TLC message has not broached with village people. Therefore, the purpose of visiting villages and interacting with village people was to gauge their disposition towards the proposed literacy effort. The idea behind meeting immigrant Muslims in Silbari village, was to find out if this group would be easily accessible, given the fact it is a major segment in the target group, but considered a difficult and hard-to-access group. Our interaction was to figure out how to get them motivated to participate in the literacy campaign.

The formation of Mothers' Self-Help Groups under the CBCS and the savings and vocational skills focus of activities among women has lent an image of economic improvement as the focus of administration's work. This might well have been the only entry point given the pervasive poverty. Their demand for programmes and schemes for economic improvement was understandable. But, given the fact that the Mothers' Self-Help Group effort brought them out of their hearth, their assurance of other women's participation in TLC as not being a major hurdle is encouraging.

Although girls' enrolment and participation in schools is not encouraged, the men vouch that there would be no such inhibition for women's participation in literacy programme. From the men too, there was assurance of their participation.

Besimari we had the opportunity of meeting the Presidents and Secretaries of 16 Mothers' Self Help Groups formed among Tea garden labour, Muslims, Boros and non-tribal Assamese groups. Here too, the prospect of illiterate women's participation in the proposed literacy programme was the focus of our interaction. Enrollment of children in primary schools, health awareness and literacy were part of the Mothers' Groups' activities. Some of them, as they informed us, have already inquired about the adult ucation centres in their areas. Literacy was already a perceived need and there need be no apprehension either in respect of motivation or participation of non-literate women. Since economism appears to be the major appeal for their mobilisation, wouldn't voluntarism for literacy and learning and teaching be hard to come by? On this score too, the Women Groups felt there would be no problem.

The interaction with a few Tongani Tea Garden labour showed that this section, in terms of its habitation, is easily accessible. For lack of prior information to the tea garden management, just about 7-8 people could afford to stay to met us -- an area where how to tread to access tea garden labour needs to be borne in mind. The general perception is that the tea garden labourers are too tired at the end of the day and that since most of the men find refuge in liquor in the evenings, it would be difficult to motivate them to participate in the literacy programme. There have been significant cases of factories and other establishments having large number of organised labour sparing time during duty hours for literacy.

The notion that this could be tried in the tea gardens as well looks to be futile. We learnt from the labour and other staff that it would no be neither feasible to get the Tea garden management to spare time for classes during lunch period, nor appealing to the labour. But going by their assurance to the Dy. Commissioner, the tea garden managements' cooperation for TLC does seem feasible, including their educated staff being deployed as VTs in the evenings. With 28 tea gardens in Darrang and easily 35000-40000 non-literates thus covered, Darrang TLC would be made that much more easier. The discussion with the Assam Gyan Vigyan Samiti(AGVS) activists in Sipajhar indicated their strong presence in this block since 1993-94. Their literacy effort, taken up in this block since 1993 may not be a run away success. We were informed that of the identified 31000 non-literates, 22,000 are said to have completed Primer I, 14,000 did Primer II and 12,000 finished Primer III. However in PLC, started in 1995, only 2,000 are said to have completed PL-I. The rest are said to be still learning.

The degree of success achieved by the AGVS may be low. But their effort is said to have been sustained and their experience would be invaluable to safeguard against many problems of TLC planning and implementation. Giving them space and recognition in the TLC is fair.

Our Assessment

It is no secret that there has not been any significant preparatory activities save the most preliminary ones like registration of Society, formation of committees at District and Block levels. "They should have known better" NLM could say about lack of adequate prelaunch preparations. Odd it may look, after so many projects have been in operation in the State, the DC and his team do not know that some basic preparatory activities should precede the TLC sanction. They also did not know the NLM practice of a pre-appraisal team visiting for the purpose. That is the extent of SLMA-Dist. interaction in matters of TLC. Even after learning of the ad hoc sanction they were waiting for the funds before taking up any activity. Their fear of loss of face with people in the event of delay in sanction after an initial build up, and NLM argument that this need not be the case with an active leadership at State level, may both seem justified from their own standpoint. In the prevalent socio-political milieu, there would be no point in finding fault with DCs if they do not take too much risks for TLC. More pertinent is the level of commitment, enthusiasm and readiness of the DC to launch the programme immediately. What would be judicious is to go by expressions of intentions to stick out for TLC even in a milieu not very conducive for such pursuits. This visit, i.e., at the end of Dec. 97, we think, should be set down as the real beginning, to reckon their worthiness for sanction and to judge them after about 1-2 months.

The image of administration as clean and serious, that we heard while interacting with villagers, is a hopeful sign that TLC in Darrang will not be hit by mismanagement and malpractice, not uncommon among TLCs in Assam. Judge Darrang TLC 1-2 Months Later, Not Now Given the lack of familiarity of preparations preceding NLM sanction, Darrang TLC leadership requests a months time to prove to NLM their credentials and worthiness to be trusted with TLC sanction. While giving ad hoc mobilization advance, NLM advised the Proposal to come back revised based on prelaunch preparations. The suggestions we offered, both in respect of the Proposal as well as the POA for preparations, have been welcomed. Likely to be reflected in revising the proposal, these include: (i) the duration of each phase as 15-18 months rather than one year, given the disruption of 4 months in a years, and the unfeasibility of completing pre-T.L. preparations in 7 months as now contemplated; (ii) spelling out in greater details and clarity how the preparatory activities like EB, Training, Survey, T.L. Materials procurement and distribution, the identification and role clarity of fulltimers and making the organisational structure and its functioning effective, a credible system of monitoring and feedback with administration, fulltimers and popular TLC committees, etc. (iii) How to ensure the tempo when administration's energy is likely to be diverted during the coming Lok Sabha election? How to revive classes after a 4 months monsoon gap, especially the VT-learner dropout? How would they be able to sustain continued interest and involvement of cross sections in the literacy programme? These and similar other issues need to be addressed in greater clarity while revising the proposal and Action Calendar. (iv) In the proposal now, PLC of a duration of 3 months is appended as an integral part of TLC. The idea of taking up PLC in continuation of TLC, and TLC-PLC being seen as a continuum for the purpose of achieving a self reliant level of literacy, is welcome. But PLC is more than merely achieving self-reliance in literacy, and also includes functionality, awareness, organisation for group learning and participation in development. These tasks require programmes of structured and unstructured learning opportunities and corresponding organisational- management strategies involving longer duration, one-two years. An integrated TLC-PLC project, clearly bifurcating the tasks and strategies would be welcome. But its budgeting and phase-wise achievement targeting needs to be spelt out if the organisers are serious. (vi) The budget, in the present form at Rs. 128/- per learner, may not merit NLM's favorable consideration. (a) PLC cost needs to be excluded. (b) Kerosene and lantern cost accounts for nearly one-third of the TLC budget. In riveraine areas, given the lack of electrification, accessibility and exorbitant cost of kerosene(said to be more than Rs. 8-10 per litre), a special consideration may be unavoidable. But given that such pockets form not a huge area, and even if a special allowance has to be made for that purpose, it cannot be more than one-fourth of the present budget. (c) The kind of publicity- oriented EB could give place to more economical and more effective personal contact based EB effort. EB budget could be slashed to two-thirds of the present estimate. Fulltimer structure is absent but is vital as suggested. We suggest a revision, as below, which works out roughly to Rs. 90-95 per learner for TLC.

Existing Suggested Revision

Survey12.60

12.60

81.38

TL materials

194.91

Training*

112.48

(*VT Training 8 days x 20 x 55,300)

Adm.

13.64 (Rs.13.64 lakhs +

(Rs 11.86 lakhs for fulltimers)

25.00

Mon & Evaln.

12.60

12.60

Lighting

252.80

440.20

PLC/JSN

712.67

440.20

(Rs.440.20 lakhs for 5.53 lakhs learners works out to be @Rs.80.

With some margin for many items and contingency, the per learner

cost could be Rs. 85, not more).

Recommendation

Darrang TLC organisers were frank to admit that for lack of proper information, pre-launch preparations have not been taken up, and moreover, they were waiting for NLM funds to start the initial activities. As of now, only encouraging trends are seen in the intentions of organisers and willingness of people in villages. Some ground work alone could indicate whether these encouraging signs are actually borne out in actual experience.

The purpose of this visit has turned to be one of guiding them on what needs to be done. Now that adhoc mobilisation advance has been sanctioned, and that the organisers are planning to start activities from Jan. 1998, it would seem fair to give them 1 month before being called to NLM. They promised to start preparations immediately. Based on the suggestions of this pre- appraisal visit, shared with them at the end of the visit, if they satisfy NLM by the preparations, as per their new calendar, NLM could give formal sanction.