A Tale of Two DAs- Santosh and Sunil!
Combining conflict resolution and alliance building strategies to ensure the rights of Sagar, a 13-14 year old boy with no birth record, who attended school only for one day in his life!
Santosh Katakpure, has been a Development Activist in the village of Gawanipani in the project area of Apeksha Homeo Society (AHS) in Amaravati district for the past 3 months. While doing a survey of children who were out of school he reached the house of Shankarrao Khadse. He noticed his 14-year-old grandson Sagar playing outside the house and asked why he was not in school. Sagar replied he did not go to school. When Santosh asked the reason, Sagar said it was because his name was not enrolled in school. Santosh took the boy to Shankar Rao, his maternal grandfather and asked why he boy’s name was not enrolled in the local school. Shankar Rao said that the child had not been registered in the Gram Panchayat (GP) and hence was not a resident of the village. Sagar questioned how the child’s name could have been missed out when he had been born in a house of the village. Shankar Rao replied that when the boy had been born he had gone to the Panchayat but there was no one there. He had met the peon and told him that his grandson had been born and that his name should be entered in the Gram Panchayat list. The peon said he would do it but he did not. When the time came to register the boy in school he was told that his name had not been registered in GP.
Santosh went to GP office and met the Sarpanch and asked why Santosh’s name had not been registered. The Sarpanch and he checked all the names in GP and saw that Santosh’s name was missing. The Sarpanch told Santosh that he would have to go to Tehsil and submit an affidavit along with a letter from signed by the Sarpanch stating that the boy had been born in the village. Santosh also went and met the headmaster in the school. The child’s name was not in the school records. He took the letter given by the Sarpanch to the Shankar Rao’s house and told them that he would go with them to the tehsil.
In the meantime Santosh thought that it was possible that Sagar’s name had been registered in his father’s village, the neighboring Mirchapur. Mirchapur forms a small part of the larger village of Mirchapur-Junadhaman (4000 families) in which 132 families belonging to the Matang caste (categorised as Scheduled Castes) reside. Traditionally the Matang community has a special role to play during weddings- they beat the dholak. Today, their main occupation is agricultural production.
Santosh went and met the Development Activist for Mirchapur-Junadhaman, Sunil Thokale. Both of them went to Deepak Wankhade, the boy’s father and explained the situation to him. They explained the consequences of the child not having a birth certificate- the fact that he would not be recognized as a legal citizen of India. Interestingly, they also highlighted the fact that in these changing times with growing terrorism, the boy could be killed or involved in an encounter in the future and without any identification he might be branded as a terrorist by the authorities! They also counseled Deepak Wankhade and asked why he was having problems with wife (who had taken her children and gone to live in her father’s house). They told him that it would be good for the children if they lived together. They took Deepak to the Mirchapur GP of Dhamangaon Railway and spoke to the Sarpanch and again checked the list of registered names there. However Sagar’s name was missing in this Panchayat as well. Santosh then had the brainwave that they should also check the school records. Santosh and Sunil went to Junadhaman school with Sagar’s father. On the way they asked the father if he had ever put the boy in school. The father said he was not sure. After much pressure he said he recalled that Sagar had been for one day to school in Mirchapur. Santosh thought that if Sagar had been in school even for a day then the school master must have recorded his name. Sunil and Santosh went to school. They met and talked to all the teachers (about 12). No one remembered this boy’s name. They asked the teachers to check the school records. When the teachers checked they found Sagar’s name with his date of birth stated as 15 November 1997. He also had an elder brother Sameer whose date of birth showed as 19 November 1997 (a difference of only 5 days between the two- clearly a mistake). It was apparent that the boys’ father had pulled the dates out of the air and the teacher who had entered the names had not bothered to check. The 2 DAs started talking to the headmaster about how Sagar could get back into the school. At this time another teacher came and started getting angry at the two DAs for putting pressure on the school to take in Sagar. The teacher said that he had also tried to get Sagar to come to school but he could never locate the child as his parents were separated and he alternately spent time between Gawanipur (his mother’s village) and Mirchapur (his father’s village). The two DAs heard him out for an hour in silence. Then they told the headmaster and Teacher about AHS and Child Rights for Change and how their goal was that not a single child should be out of school. The teacher asked how they had found Sagar. Santosh recounted his whole story. Santosh and Sunil spent 4 days in the school having discussions with the school staff. While the headmaster said he would find a solution, the teachers disagreed and said that the child was 14 years and therefore it would be impossible to put him in the First Grade. They refused to put Sagar in the First Grade. The 2 DAs then asked the teachers to submit in writing that they would not admit the child in school. At this the headmaster intervened and asked for the school records. Santosh pointed out the difference in the birth dates between the two brothers and asked if it were not possible that Sagar was 13 instead of 14 years old. The two DAs asked the headmaster to rectify the date. The HM said he could not change the date. Santosh and Sunil argued that the child’s future was at stake and what would be done. Without a birth certificate the child would be without any rights for the rest of his life. Sunil and Santosh suggested that the date be changed to 1998. The headmaster changed the date. The headmaster also gave a stamped letter stating the child’s date of birth. Sunil and Santosh took this to the GP and met the peon there (Sarpanch was missing). The peon took out the register and added the name of the child in the Village register in the Panchayat on the basis of which a Birth Certificate could be registered to Sagar. The 2 DAs met the headmaster who said that he himself would go to Sagar’s house and bring him to school. The headmaster said that if Sagar was made to sit in Grade One it would be a real problem because he looked big. He said that after Diwali the school teachers would prepare Sagar for Grade 4 and he would give the exam in March 2010. The 2 DAs said that they would regularly meet Sagar’s father to check whether or not the boy was going regularly to school. In the meantime the father and mother reconciled and the family started living together although it was not certain how long this would last given that Deepak often beat his wife. The two DAs also met the Police Patil and told him the whole story and said that he should look into this matter.
This story highlights multiple issues:
- The ease with which children, who are born at home instead of a hospital, are missed out of registration in the Panchayat/school records. There is lack of any accountability on the Panchayat for ensuring the birth registration of each child in its purview. At the same time there is lack of awareness at community level of the importance of birth certificates
- The effect of a broken home on children’s ability to attend school and the easy acceptance/silence of the society at large to this situation (first of domestic violence within a home and second of children not attending school)
- The apathy of school authorities to find flexible means to allow a child who has missed out on formal schooling in his/her early years to rejoin school
- The lack of formal facilities (e.g. bridge schools) for children who may have become 13-14 years and not had any schooling – the school authorities as well as villagers are flummoxed as to how to deal with such cases
This story also highlights the key learnings:
- Conflict resolution would be required at various levels i.e. parents, school and Panchayat authorities for children to get back to school. DAs would require support from other DAs and the NGOs in this process. (This point also resonates with the work done by MV Foundation)
- The type of specific support DAs would require is: awareness of policies and the law to equip them in their conflict resolution process( e.g. when Santosh asked the Head Master to give in writing that he would not admit Sagar, the headmaster buckled down and started exploring solutions to the problem) as well as soft skills on how to have negotiations with different parties
- The DAs would need to build alliances with key persons in the village e.g. Police Patils, Sarpanches, parents etc. to ensure that children who have gone back to school remain in school. Also where children are not attending school due to domestic crises (in this case a high incidence of domestic violence) the role of the community and Police Patils is crucial to ensuring that children’s rights are protected
- Children, like Santosh, who are particularly vulnerable and would only receive basic education, would need to be identified and linked to the life skills and vocational training programmes planned under Child Rights for Change once they are in the 15-18 years age bracket. Further, the good work done in entering Santosh’s name in the Panchayat records would need to be taken till the end by ensuring that a birth certificate is also issues to him finally.
Many thanks to Santosh and Sunil (DAs) who patiently gave a verbatim account of their story to Divya Mukand (Learning and Impact Manager at SC). This would also not have been possible without Ramesh Ghuge, the CP- PO at AHS who highlighted this story and facilitated the two DAs to give a proper and full account of the same.
