I am happy to be here and to be able to share some thoughts about the role of NG0s in Community Development. A short re-cap of the relationship between NG0s and literacy might be helpful.

Just over two decades ago, when the National Adult Education Programme was being formulated, many of us were motivated to participate because of the almost revolutionary potential of NAEP, which had clearly been inspired and imbued by the vision of people like Paolo Freire, J.P.Naik, and others. The radical potential of education and literacy seemed like a much needed beacon to a whole generation of activists. Listening to Chitra Naik yesterday brought alive much of that spirit which led so many of us into exploring how development education could lead us to social transformation.

Inevitably, NAEP seemed to loose some of its magic - but we are a land where new Avatars appear magically at certain moments! Just when we were beginning to see a growing cynicism about whether the philosophy of conscientisation could ever be rescued from the clutches of a tired and unimaginative bureaucracy, the re-invigorated movement for Total Literacy conceptualised by a new group of visionaries generated yet another wave of creative possibilities. Our rallying cries were 'environment building', involving the people, education for all, and addressing the eternal dilemma of mass and scale at a macro level.

My own work in education with poor and marginalised communities in urban India firmly straddled both these initiatives. Many of us activists from the NGO sector, seeking for ways in which to adapt our micro experiences at a macro level, saw in the Campaign approach a perfect vehicle to integrate several of the issues with which we continued to work - namely poverty, communalism, gender and so on. And the equally exciting slogans of building partnerships across hitherto inimical sectors at all levels, that' emanated from Jomtien and the initiative on Education for All , led many of us into developing connections with national, regional and global groups with similar visions and missions. The Asia Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE) , is one among seven regional bodies affiliated to the International Council for Adult Education which I am currently heading as its elected President. Interestingly Malcolm Adisheshiah, and Julius Nyerere were among the founding fathers , and Paolo Freire , a lifetime honorary President of the International Council, which from its very inception has given special priority to the question of Literacy and the Right to Learn, amongst a range of other concerns in what we broadly term Adult Education and Learning.

Hope and Despair - the constant Swing of the Pendulum

During these two decades, I have journeyed far and wide - have experienced moments of great exhilaration during the Total Literacy Campaign at its peak - even in the difficult conditions of running the first urban TLC in one part of this urban metropolis of Delhi. But along with a large number of colleagues who are here today, for the most part we have seen many of our hopes and dreams remain unrealised - once again caught in the web of a cynically apathetic official machinery which has , with a few notable exceptions, been singularly unresponsive to ail the exciting ideas and dreams of a transformative learning process which education and literacy programmes could potentially have delivered. My journey has also taken me from a life spent in urban areas into rural India, and this has increasingly confirmed what one of our long time activists said to me recently that the only thing that really counts are what happens at the very basic levels of community organisation - namely the village reality.

The fact that I have been privileged to live and work at that local village level for some four years now, has been the greatest teacher and the most profoundly humbling experience. I often wish that we had really done what Gandhiji advocated after we won Independence - namely to dismantle both Congress and the enormous official machinery and send every educated citizen to work to transform the reality of that last man and woman about whom we are still talking fifty years later. As we in India are caught up once again in the enormous exercise of a costly election process, it is ' certainly an appropriate moment for serious reflection - both as to why poverty and illiteracy persist despite all the collective wisdom, wealth and technology of which we are so proud, and whether at all education has the potential to bring about fundamental change in the conditions of human existence?

Establishing a Context - The Community, the Non-Governmental Element

The stated theme for this meeting is a Focus on Diversity while examining the role of Innovation and Professionalisation in Adult Literacy. Since it was not possible to get a sense of the actual listing of workshops and panels till yesterday, it was difficult to get a sense of the thrust and expected outcomes from the perspective of the organisers. The effort to accommodate diversity - of which there is plenty - often dilutes the sharpness of focus since we never have the time to go into depth on any issue. But then this is the price we pay at such gatherings.

Despite these built in constraints, I would like to believe that we are gathered here for these four days in order to reflect on the status of education and literacy in this region; to listen to accounts of what is working, where and why; to attempt some analysis of the causes and solutions thus far applied; and hopefully to leave with a more critical understanding of the problem and of our collective capacity to find solutions.

Although my work has provided me exposure at international and regional levels, I am deliberately confining myself to reflections about what I know best, which is the Indian situation, and which is certainly a perfect example of one of the most complex national profiles. The statistics on Literacy, out of school children, infant and child mortality, malnutrition and hunger, are all too well documented to need repetition

Defining "Community"

While I am happy that this -particular panel has chosen to focus on the all important question of Women, Children and Families - given the vulnerability of women and the girl child in particular, for the purpose of this discussion, I would use the term community to describe that group of people who are the ones most vulnerable and on the fringes of development - and who would naturally form the community of learners.

Who is an NGO?

As for the term NGO - as we are all aware, this covers an enormous range of organisations and ideologies - often subsuming very conventional welfare or charity oriented bodies at one end, to radical groups whose agenda is nothing short of social transformation. Therefore it is vital to my mind that any discussion about the role of NG0s in Literacy and Education in the context of Community Development must address some fundamental conceptual and philosophical issues. As I have said at the beginning, many of us came into the education and field because we were inspired by the transformatory potential of literacy as outlined by people like Freire and Naik. We believed with Freire that Education was never Neutral, and that it had a political purpose - either overt or covert. Dr Chitra Naik's masterly presentation yesterday pointed this out without any ambiguity.

Why Illiteracy?

Given the increasing tendency to transfer the onus of social development on to the non-governmental sectors, and if we are seriously looking to the NG0s to act as catalysts for social transformation, a key issue would be to agree upon some basic causes for the persistence of illiteracy before attempting to outline the possible role of community interventions.

According to me the following are some critical premises:

• That Poverty and Social Inequity are the fundamental causes for the nature of continuing problems facing us. Mass Illiteracy is just one expression of the above. NG0s who undertake literacy work with ' out addressing and agreeing on the root causes will constantly find themselves failing to make any real impact.
  
• That Adult Illiteracy and the failure to achieve Universal Primary Education for All are closely linked and the responsibility for this situation fifty years after Independence, lies squarely in the lack of political, bureaucratic and citizen will and commitment. We have failed to prioritise a genuine social development agenda, with adequate financial and human resources, especially for those segments who have for centuries survived on the periphery of survival. This must be recognised, and strategies for addressing this be evolved in an integrated manner rather than the present tendency to compartmentalisation.
  
• That the deeprooted patriarchal and feudal mindsets of our people - educated or not - continues to keep women in positions of subordination despite Constitutional assurances, Womens Reservation Bills, and signing the Beijing Agenda for Action Gender Justice must be brought to centre stage in any strategy which aims to ' bring every girl into school and every woman to be empowered within her home and in the public spaces.
  
• That the failure to invest in teachers, and especially to develop a cadre of developmentally minded teachers has perpetuated the caste, communal and other prejudices which are at the core of the mainstream society in India, and which in turn prevent or delay equitable all round development.
  
• That the lack of complementary support systems and programmes such as - such as Integrated Resource Centres, Post Literacy Programmes, an effective Library movement, and above all. basic economic development and employment opportunities in rural India - has failed to create that all important environment for learning and reading. Even those who have been to school lapse back into illiteracy
  
• That all the innovations in information technology are accessed by the privileged sections of society, and the poor, the illiterate , the women are by and large denied the excitement of using technology, except in very rare exceptions.
  
• That there is need for many more thinking and concerned citizens to exercise leadership at the local levels, to stop being silent spectators any longer, to act on what they believe to be right. The Panchayati and other institutions of local self government need far more attention and inputs to empower communities to be able to make the necessary investments in Human Resource Development - largely absent today.
  
• That we need to constitute Education Watch functions for the next decade - to place. Education - be it with children or adults - squarely within a Human Rights framework. This way Community Development can be understood as transformatory, in which small and large groups can be organised into a series of Human Rights Communities in which all the promises of Global Conferences from Rio to Hamburg can be put on the agenda from local to national levels.
  

The Hamburg Declaration of 1997

The recently concluded Conference on Adult Education held in Hamburg - the last one this century - marked a key shift by placing Adult Education and Learning squarely within the ambit of a philosophy of Life Long Learning and Education as a Human Right The first two paragraphs of the Hamburg Declaration bear quoting here:

94 We the participants in the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education, re-affirm that only human centred development and a participatory society based on the full respect of human rights will lead to sustainable and equitable development. The informed and effective participation of men and women in every sphere of life is needed if humanity is to survive and to meet the challenges of the future.

Adult education thus becomes more than a right; it is a key to the twenty-first century. It is both consequence of active citizenship and a condition for full participation in society. It is a powerful concept for fostering ecologically sustainable development, for promoting democracy, justice, gender equity, and scientific, social and economic development, and for building a world in which violent conflict is replaced by dialogue and a culture of peace based on justice. Adult learning can shape identity and give meaning to life. Leaming throughout life implies a rethinking of content to reflect such factors as age, gender equality, disability, language, culture and economic disparities"

This could provide as clear a blueprint for action as any NGO could ask for. But before concluding it is important to point out two crucial aspects of NGO involvement.

1 . We NG0s need to practice what we preach - namely to be able to live the principle of co-operation and partnership in action. All too often one NGO will not talk to another - and as with much else we destroy possibilities of collective action almost before we start.

2. Mapping NGO presence - at present we simply do not have enough data or information as to the actual spread and outreach of the NGO presence across the country. Unless we do an all India mapping exercise we might build up unrealistic expectations as to what NG0s can actually achieve in social development.

3. There is need to tap the potential of a large number of concerned individuals who are part of, or who live in close proximity to, communities across India. They have as much potential capacity to catalyse community development and learning as do more organised groups.

4. Finally, it is critical to bring in NGO activists from across many other sectors than just Literacy and Adult Education. In fact we need to work to make Education and Learning a part of the agenda of all NG0s - regardless of whether their specific area is women, or environment or Peace and Human Rights.

In Conclusion -Who Needs Education?

I have chosen to confine my presentation to those issues which I believe are crucial if decentralised and effective participation of civil society is to be realised. I argue strongly that true empowerment and transformation can be achieved only when the smallest units are systematically provided inputs - both material and intellectual. Dr Ambedkar had pointed this out at the time of the drafting of the Constitution of India - that village India needed the kind of inputs, stimulus and exposure to a broader world view which it had been denied systematically for centuries. It is a tragedy of our times that no one was listening. Perhaps this is where we could concentrate our energies and efforts to develop small, powerful and potentially transformative networks at local levels right across this country and the sub-continent - most of whom share similar conditions of existence.

At the same time let us also remember that it is not only those who have been denied access to learning opportunities and are therefore termed illiterate who need education. In fact, the hard truth is that it is us the so-called educated and literate - the politician, the bureaucrat, the donor, the UN Agency, the uncaring citizen - who needs reeducating most of all. Communities large and small -should be enabled to critically question and call to account the politician and official alike.without fear of reprisal as exists today.

That should form the most vital part of our agenda for the future - may we have the strength and the vision to walk that journey together!