Ladybug's field notes

How do you know Konkan? Have you checked it in the map for your next holiday? Have you visited Konkan to enjoy the beaches? Which one you like the best? Srivardhan? Are you from Konkan? I would be envious. Its a beautiful landscape. Does not matter whether you like sea-beaches or hills, you will love Konkan. I have roamed in Konkan to meet Katkaris and Thakars. I walked in different parts of Roha, Mhasla, Mangaon to visit villages with exotic names. Taraygar (house of stars) is one such example. Katkaris are a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) who till some time ago were a Primitive Tribe Group (PTG) and before that a De-notified Tribe Group and till British were here they were a Criminal Tribe. In all these changes of names on paper, their real status never changed. Thakars are even less known. It was almost always difficult to hold a meeting in the Thakar-wari (Thakar hamlet) after sundown. No prizes for the guessing why! They say it rains a lot in Konkan. Weather...

In Social Work education, we were often taught to put theory into practice. As we entered the "field" however, most of the theories seem redundant. The "field" tests all you have learned. Not only through your books but also through your life. However, when I decided to go back to reading some of the recently published books on community work this year, I found a lot of what I was doing were making perfect theories! Several Deja vu moments for me in the past one week. "Jelkhana se chhutne ki khwahish nahi..jelkhana jalane ka wada karo" (We do not wish only to get freed from these prisons but promise to burn down the prison itself) Pudna and other women continued the rest of the song with much fervor but I remained stuck on those words. "Which prison are they talking about?" I thought, "Are they now calling their marital homes, prison?" I could not wait for the rest of the song to get over. "What is this prison?" At...

More than 500 women reached Lucknow either late evening or early in the morning. They were representing exactly 80,346 women from 36 Blocks and over 660 Gram Panchayats of Uttar Pradesh. After working for more than 4 years in their respective villages and blocks, they now had enough "rehearsal of the revolution" as Sanjoy Ganguly of Janasanskriti (www.janasanskriti.org) puts it! They now wanted the new state government to share their dreams. Their dreams of a new society where the basic rights of poor women are fulfilled.  In Kismati's words, " We are quite confident of being able to tackle the issues of non-implementation of MNREGA (100 days' work) and Public Distribution Systems (PDS) till teh district level. Four years of intense engagement has at least gave us that much confidence. But, we have also learnt that many things move from Lucknow and we are here to move those otherwise unmovable wheels". In Uttar Pradesh, the average number of days achie...