An "educational experiment" that became an
institution that transforms farmers' lives
Omana Amma is here today to give away her kid. Over the past year, she and 99 other women acquired goats to start off a small herd. Each woman agreed that when her goat had kids, she would pass on one kid to another woman in her village. The other kids would be hers to keep or sell. Omana is giving away one of her two kids to her neighbor Mini at today's women's group meeting. Five kids will change hands at the meeting, and the cycle will begin again.
Goat rearing is just one of the ways women in this small village of Madalam-para in Thiruvananthapuram district are trying to bring their families to a better standard of living. Rina, a young mother of two, has been raising chickens for the past six months. "I got ten to begin with and I used the egg money to buy more chickens. Some of them have died, but I was making good money from them. I still have five left. I took them to the vet and they are healthy. I know I can get back to making a profit again."
The "starter" chickens and the goats, a special Malabari cross that usually has twins and triplets, came from Mitranike-tan, an NGO that has worked intensively for 48 years to make a difference in the village of Vellanad, 20 kilometers from Thiruvananthapuram.
The women's empowerment program, funded by a grant from the American Embassy, encourages a range of self-employment activities. Mitraniketan also trained 30 women in tailoring and gave them sewing machines. Prabhavati, 19, passed out of the People's College and learned dressmaking. She makes petticoats and other items for Mitraniketan's unit. Some of the women work on their own. Sheela, 23, sews clothes for women in her neighborhood. "About eight months ago they gave me a sewing machine. I stitch blouses, petticoats. I also do repairs. I make about a hundred rupees a month now."
Nearly 200 women learned to make lotion, soap and detergent. Some now work at Mitraniketan's own center. They call their soap Swadeshi and it is wrapped entirely in eco-friendly butter paper. Usha Kumari, who comes from Madalampara, says, "Four of us started a unit from our homes." Her neighbor Sulochana adds, "We've been selling door to door. Sometimes people come to our house to buy some."
Mitraniketan was started by K. Viswa-nathan, who saw a glimmer of what could be done in his own home village when he traveled abroad in the 1950s. "I found a great deal of interest. In particular, the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation was a classic example of what a cooperative organization can contribute. In the Appalachians, I saw the John C. Campbell folk high school. After seeing that, I felt I should go to the home of folk high schools, Denmark. These schools helped to develop a democratic system for the entire country. They were similar to our gurukula system." The folk high schools help preserve rural crafts, music and other folk techniques.
The "educational experiment" Viswa-nathan started when he came back to Vellanad is today a diverse but closely integrated network of programs and institutes. Mitraniketan's 70 lushly cultivated acres encompass a nursery school, a school for the hearing-impaired, an open school, libraries, a computer center, an electronics lab, a stadium, a primary health center, and training and production centers for weaving, dyeing, carpentry, pottery, metalwork, plumbing, electrical work, fruit processing, and coir fiber weaving.
Mitraniketan has put a special effort into agriculture and livestock rearing. The animal science center trains rural youth in artificial insemination and other livestock raising skills, and teachers and students run a dairy. The farm science center trains farmers in a wide range of subjects, including tissue culture, the raising of indigenous crops, intercropping and other alternative practices, farming on marginal lands, post-harvest technologies, and conservation. Through workshops and demonstrations, says P.N. Ananth, training organizer, "we reach on average 7,000 farmers a year."
In 1996, Viswanathan started a residential people's college with hundred boys and girls 18 years and older. Says principal Reghu Rama Das, "Our [conventional] system of education is not accessible to everyone, especially tribal youth. Those in remote villages have no access not only in terms of physical distance but also in terms of money, the illiteracy of parents, the lack of information about what is available."
Das describes the college's simple one-year program. "First there is a need-based general education, then vocational education, then associated activities, which are arts and crafts, manual work and so on. These are to develop reading, writing, communication, leadership, and organizational skills." The emphasis is on upgrading rural and traditional skills rather than success in examinations.
To foster rural leadership, Mitraniketan encourages alumni to form groups that will follow through on development activities in their villages. One of its most popular activities is the 20-day training program for homemakers, held at various times in the year. Here, in addition to upgrading their skills in cooking, child rearing, health care, and care of the environment, women share strategies to resolve conflicts in the home and neighborhood. Das says, "When we invite, 30, 50 people come, because it is need-based. We assess the need before we decide the topics to be taught."
Viswanathan sees the rural university concept as central to development. "Let's try to see whether we can evolve it into something simple and wholesome to be developed in other needy areas. Here we give them citizenship training and vocational training. When they go home, they are different people." He sees a very bright future for women especially. "If their freedom is ensured, they will come up very well. They will show their worth."