Background

Hanumangarh TLC was presented to NLM in Oct. 1996. Approving the project in principle, NLM accorded ad hoc sanction and a mobilization advance. While giving ad hoc sanction NLM also decided that Hanumangarh TLC would not have to come back for another presentation and the final sanction would be granted at DG level if the preparations were found satisfactory by an NLM appraisal. Accordingly, Hanumangarh TLC was advised to intimate NLM after the completion of preparatory activities including the Survey, for a second appraisal. It was in response to such a request that the second appraisal was made on Oct. 2-3.

Hanumangarh TLC Action Calendar envisaged a 9-month preparatory phase between Oct. 96-July 97, and a 9-month Teaching-Learning(T-L) phase between July97-March 98. The second appraisal could have been done anytime after Jan. 97, when the TLC Survey was over. But Hanumangarh, it appears, wanted to keep pace with their initial Calendar, and get close to the T-L phase, before the second appraisal. There has been about a 3-4 month lag in the TLC Action Calendar schedule. Meanwhile there has also been a change of Collector and certain other senior officials like ADM. The second appraisal visit also coincided with the launching of their T-L on Gandhi Jayanti day, Oct. 2. The Director of Literacy and Continuing Education, Govt. of Rajasthan, Jaipur, also visited the district on Oct. 2

Hanumangarh TLC has had a gestation period of nearly 3 years now -- bouts of EB through the schools and administration organised meetings, interrupted by long gaps. After the ad hoc sanction in Oct. 96, TLC Survey in Jan. 97, a re-check in May( original target projected was 3.4 lakhs. Target size after Survey is 2.56 lakhs ), Training of Resource Persons and Kalajatha Master artists, kalajatha programmes at Tehsil level and in some villages, preparation and printing of Primer I(IPCL approved) and procurement of other learning materials -- all these were done between Jan.-Sep.97. Popular TLC committees constituted earlier seem to have been made functional. A system of entrusting Tehsil and Sector level officials with TLC coordination and supervision roles appears to have been lent substance by the monthly review meetings in the last couple of months. EB, and involvement of the Panchayats and NGOs (their orientation done twice) and of the general public, especially the socially committed and influential people - these seem perceptible. The preparatory phase prior to the arrival of the new Collector might have been gradual and steady, but in the last one and half months, after the new Collector joined, there has been a heightened tempo of TLC activities, all calculated to launch the T-L on Oct. 2. This has happened, and T-L commenced simultaneously all over the district

Pre-appraisal Visit and Impressions

During our appraisal tour, 4 Tehsils were visited viz., Hanumangarh, Nohar, Badra and Rawotsar. As was evident from the newspaper coverage on Oct. 3, when we were in Hanumangarh, the launching of T-L in all the places was marked by big public functions and cultural programmes on literacy theme, attended by thousands of people, officials, Panchayat leaders, NGOs, teachers

and students and general public. In Hanumangarh and Parlika meetings that we attended, the attendance was about 3000-4000 and 5000-6000. The interest created in the public through EB, the varied forms of portrayal of the literacy theme, the expertise of the kalajatha teams, and an atmosphere of festivity were all evident in the functions. In two places, we also witnessed the classes being started.

These functions were orgasnised by the public, totally at their own expense. Public cooperation in Hanumangarh for a programme like TLC seems bountiful, partly due to the generosity of civil society and partly the way administration has endeared itself to the public. These functions also helped to ascertain and cross check from the cross sections, officials, local people, Panchayat leaders, teachers and women, etc., about the preparations undertaken in each of these places, leading to the commencement of T-L.

Our main focus of discussions with officials and cross sections was to discern the public response, of non-literates and the educated, the women, and the Panchayats. Zilla Pramukh, Pradhans, Nagar Palika Chairman, and various other people who spoke in the meetings assured NLM of public cooperation and participation and Panchayats' nodal role. We were also keen to know the level of commitment of district administration, and how the priority for TLC was reflected in their involvement in _management and monitoring of the literacy activities.

Leadership's Perception of TLC

In all the meetings we attended, we noticed that the organisational leadership of the public was prominent. It was the non-govt. people who spoke, and officials' role was minimal. This, we learnt, was a conscious decision. It is the community which is the stake holder and the leadership should be theirs.

Dependence on administration should be minimum; its role is basically an obtrusive and enabling one. Such a perception re- assures. This is the kind of partnership between administration and the community needed for a programme like TLC. In the discussions with the Collector, we also learnt how

the administration, especially Revenue and Development, have been pressed into service, for the purpose of logistics, monitoring and feedback. The role of administration in TLC, as perceived by the Collector and put into practice, is another re-assuring aspect of Hanumangarh TLC. It is voluntarism for the public, but that voluntarism needs to be created and invoked. And this the administration can achieve only if it sheds its alienating style and endears itself to the people. This approach by administration, as the message, to win public confidence and generate voluntarism, we learnt from the Collector and other TLC workers, is firm, loud and clear, to the rank and file of administration. And yet, in public functions, the administration remains in the background, and the leadership role is in hands of the public. This, we found, is truly in conformity with the spirit of TLC approach.

Such an approach towards administration's role in TLC, and the role of the public can only emanate from a proper understanding of what TLC stands for. It was reassuring to see the Collector imbued with an unflinching faith in the value of literacy for the well-being of the society at large, not just of the non-literates alone, and that NLM's offer of TLC as a people's movement is the historic opportunity to the administration to redeem its role in the cause of literacy.

Literacy is a catalyst for improving the social well-being and TLC's ethos as a people's movement, with voluntarism as its cornerstone, is the historic opportunity for the administration. TLC is a priority that cuts across defined work/scope jurisdiction of different departments. In TLC, they all must converge, not only departments/agencies directly under the purview of the Collector, but every other department/agency within the district. Therefore, in TLC review meetings, district level officials of all departments/agencies are called, and their block and Panchayat functionaries are assigned TLC duties of coordination and monitoring.

The block-wise training of Panchayat leaders in TLC has been a major effort, at least conceptually. Administration's in this regard has been aimed at building the Panchayat's leadership in TLC, and t he involvement of the Panchayats is unmistakable, as we saw in the meetings. Leadership in TLC from the Panchayats, it will take time. Right now, it is from among the public that we found the leadership in TLC. There is another feature, a culture that has been assiduously cultivated. That is the emphasis on candid and undistorted reporting about TLC. No falsification or exaggeration for, over/under-reporting in TLC, given its sanctity, as perceived, is gross injustice to the people as it would hide the need for remedial measures. This emphasis is unambiguous, right down the line. Besides, there are also parallel feed back systems envisaged to cross check the veracity of the TLC reports from the field.

Assuring to come across perceptions such as these from the Collector, one must also not be euphoric about it. The acid test of these true TLC precepts is its implementation in the most trying phase of the TLC, i.e., T-L phase. There must be an envious combination of the commitment to TLC ethos and professionalism in translating it in TLC management. It is there that even nerves of steel and fanatic conviction about TLC may be rocked by VT-learner dropouts, calling for astute moves to keep the literacy priority unflagging by the seasonal pre-occupations of learners and VTs. It is also there that we offered NLM's foster care to continue our association and guide them with ideas to keep up their T-L tempo. This was gratefully accepted. An idea or two, to illustrate the point.

Where They Could Have Done Better or Can Still Do Right now, it is the cotton plucking season. Learners are busy in the fields, from morning to late evening, plucking cotton. T-L started now, would find it difficult to get the VTs and learners to the centre. Although rainy season, if started in June-July, as originally planned, attendance in the centres would have been better. This is a definite problem in store, not fully comprehended now, but will definitely need specific strategies to boost enrollment and attendance within the next one-two months.

VT selection has already been made, in Jan. 97, at the time of TLC survey. It is not clear what the selection criteria was - mere availability or also educational and other considerations. Heterogeneity was unmistakable as we had occasions to ascertain through interaction with the VTs. Specific measures would need to be devised for VT development , which is both a legitimate objective of TLC and also a critical factor to sustain their morale. Their sacrifice to the society is the greatest and their development must be our prime concern, next only to the learners' progress. A Photo ID Card to the VTs, with a provision to give them priority attention in any govt./semi-govt. department to solve their personal problems could be one measure.

Another is the priority attention assured to the VTs to have access to govt. officials concerned with TLC from village to District level, including the Collector. A third could be the provision to use the VT force as the socially esteemed watchdog of administration's functioning at the grassroots level, in respect of welfare and development schemes. The watchdog role could be teethless unless VTs are also empowered to directly report at the block level Sakshratha meetings, not only problems of TLC logistics but also about administration, and there is commitment to sort out the problems at that level, and the more difficult ones at the Collector level. This would, under the agies of TLC, alert and tone up performance of administration, improve its credibility in the eyes of the public as also the VTs' image and self-perception.

A fourth one, aimed at keeping up the tempo of T-L phase is a system of regular contact with the different segments participating in the TLC. Monthly/bi-monthly learners, VTs, MTs, Panchayat leaders conventions at Block/Tehsil/District levels lends a sense of solidarity and militates against a feeling of struggling alone, forlorn; it is also an invaluable opportunity for face to face contact and dialogue. The signals to civil society, of esteem and value attached to literacy and literacy workers by administration would be unmistakable. Literacy would no longer be on the margin of civil society's conscience. It would become a point of social discourse. We also suggested a system of monthly communication from the Collector to the VTs, of post cards, written by and addressed to, the Collector, reached to the VTs like the T-L materials, but replied by the VTs, using the back side of the post card, to relay feedback about their village, centres, T-L progress and other problems. Besides the regular organisational channel for monitoring, this system of direct communication provides parallel and more reliable feedback, besides breathing in tremendous confidence and morale to the VTs.

Selection of full timers : There are at present, besides a Chief Coordinator, 3 full timers at the district headquarters and two each at the 7 Tehsil levels. All of them were selected prior to the present Collector's tense, and they are all teachers on secondment basis. For a small district like Hanumangarh, a band of about 20 full time TLC workers - activists - can work wonders, especially in a milieu of total commitment of the Collector and administration. Save in the matter of district HQ TLC team, one did not get a feeling of a solid activist force being actively at work in the Tehsil levels, considering that we visited four Tehsils. Full timers are the backbone of TLC, their selection needs utmost care, as they are role models for the other TLC workers. Social commitment is no monopoly of teachers alone; sometimes, a retired, not tired but energetic BDO or ADM, could be more effective than teachers. Thus, there need be no thumb rule of teachers alone being full timers. As a policy, it can backfire; starve the already under-staffed schools or act as a refuge for surplus and rejects. This matter may need scrutiny, if not for the team already in place, at least for the new ones to be inducted.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Given an ad hoc sanction in Oct. 96, Hanumangarh TLC, with an 18-month TLC schedule appears to have taken its Action Calendar as effective from Oct. 96. There is a 3-4 months lag in the commencement of T-L phase. Considering that it received only an ad hoc sanction, the course adopted by Hanumangarh TLC, of progressing on its original schedule is appreciable. What is more positive about Hanumangarh TLC is the fresh impetus and headstart after the new DC took over about a month and a half before. There has been a heightened pitch of completing pre-T-L activities with a deadline set to commence T-L on Oct. 2. This has been accomplished without any compromise to the preparations.

What we found most noteworthy is the TLC leadership's conviction and commitment, especially the Collector, to the TLC ethos, the enabling role of administration, the involvement of the Panchayats and the general public in the forefront of TLC leadership, and a pledge to be ruthlessly vigorous in monitoring and candid in feedback. Admitted, conviction alone is no insurance to tackle problems endemic in the T-L phase. But the commitment made now to NLM to strengthen professionalism in TLC management is assuring. Rigorous in monitoring, truthfulness in feedback and willingness to introduce mid-course course corrections should assure NLM. Hanumangarh TLC is far ahead of the preparatory stage and T-L has already started. And there are enough portends of a TLC, upholding its true spirit and ethos. We commend Hanumangarh TLC for NLM sanction and expeditious release of regular grants, now urgently needed for printing of II Primer, training, etc.