The
third semester block placement was placed in the southern state of India called
Telangana. Telangana was a new state that came up in 2014 from Andhra Pradesh. I was placed in an Organization called Centre
for Dalit Studies for a month. Is a non-profit organization which work in a
policy level intervention to create awareness on social, political and economic
rights for Dalit communities. They emphasis on building and ensuring equal
rights and entitlement.
For
the welfare of the marginalized communities the Telangana government modified
the ACT. No.1 of 2013 to Telangana State Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe Special
Development Fund- Planning Allocation and Utilization of Financial Resources
(ACT No. 18 of 2017). Mr. Pallepalli Laxmiah (Chairman, CDS) had played a major
role in the process. CDS has given many suggestion and recommendation in the
enactment of the Act. My activity and task was to work on the government
policies that are bought under with Special Development Plan. I have visited
the communities and tried to study about these schemes on the ground level in
the Siddipet district.
In
this study I have tried to do the analysis on the basis of interactions,
observation and data from the government.
Following
there are detailed accounts of activities done with reflections.
A.
Organic
farming
I
visited in a nearby village called Konapur where organic cultivation was done. It
was organized by the Dalit Bahujan Resource Center. There are around 14
individuals from four villages Rayathpur, Naskal, Bonala, and Chalmeda desired
for the workshop. The workshop was encouraged by Mr. Kishan Mudiraj, who is an
organic farming activist for the last eight years in the village. Most of the
farmer belongs to the Schedule caste were present who got the land under the
land distribution schemes of Telangana government.
Reflection
It
shows that people are actively participating on the organic farming because
there are no irrigation facilities as well as because of water scarcity. Farmers
are shifting towards organic farming as also they the fertilizers are much higher
in cost and farmers cannot afford. It was a workshop that help me in
understanding about the uses and how to increase the agriculture cultivation
without extra investment. Most of the participant were interested in listening to
the lecture on and were ready to take training on organic farming.
B.
Visit
to SC and ST hostels and residential schools.
Student
belongs to minorities stays in the hostels in Siddipet district. The Telangana
Scheduled Caste Residential Educational Institutions Society is administering
the Residential Educational Institutions for quality education of SC girls and
boys in the State.
Reflection
While
interacting with the student’s we came across the problems they are facing and
the responsible department have been ignoring even though complaint are been made.
1.
There is only dal and rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner only on Sunday there
is non-veg in dinner. Even there are complaints regarding it to the warden, it’s
still the same there is no change in the menu.
2.
In the ST hostel the ground floor student doesn’t have any bed. The SC hostel
doesn’t have any bedding in the rooms.
3.
There is less bathroom regardless of the number of students. And there is no
daily cleaning of the bathrooms. The students take bath and wash their clothes
outside the hostel.
4.
The hostel doesn’t have any library all they have to learn in the colleges
itself.
5.
In the SC hostel there is a room for a computer lab where cooking utensils are
been kept.
6.
There is no health lab in the hostels for the primary medical purpose.
7.
As per the observation there is no cleanliness and hygiene regarding the hostel
mess or kitchen.
After
looking to the following problems in these hostels the big problems faced by
the student are due to the least facilities provided by the government. Because
when we talk about the development of a community, education plays a vital role
and hostels for the marginalized community’s plays a larger part in the
progress of it. The central and state government allocate many budget and funds
for the development of these communities. However, the implication doesn’t
reach out to the grassroots level.
If
the government doesn’t take serious note in the monitoring on the implementation
of these schemes than there is no success in reaching the objectives. As well
as the center and state government should also increase in funds in order to
reduce this kind of problems that these hostels students are facing, for which
the enrolled students in the hostels should get a proper quality based
education.
C.
Meeting
of SC Corporation with the villagers.
The
meeting was held in Rampur village with the objectives to aware the people about
the ongoing schemes and programs and how they can apply for it. It is a kind of
orientation regarding the schemes from the SC Corporation. Mostly to provide the
village with Pilot Project, related to agriculture and allied activities,
transportation, crop and vehicle loan etc. The mission was to provide financial
assistance for income generating assets to the poor Schedule Caste. To provide
finance in economic support schemes. It also looks after the overall development
of the Schedule Caste.
D. An interview with a child rights activist
A
movement was emerged from the community in 1993, which was based on the “Child
Right” and education was one of the principal motives of it. In Andhra Pradesh,
child labor was extremely visible in every village children were working on
cattle rearing, household work, landlord houses etc. There was no awareness in
the community about the fundamental rights that state every child from 6 to 14
years have right to get an education. Some of the parents who think that their
children should get an education they send their children to the school while
other children go to landlord houses to work. So, in order to break this chain,
a movement was started which include civil society organization involved in
building awareness in the community. At the state level, at first M
Venkatarangaiya Foundation was established. He was one of the freedom fighters
in the independence movement of India. He started the movement in his community
by providing a lamp to every household in the village for the children to study
at night.
LEARNINGS
After
working for a month in the Siddipet district and visiting the communities I had
developed understanding on Policy Assessment, how policy are been made and
implemented in the real ground level. The organization was a think tank based
in Telengana. The majorly in researching and providing policy recommendation to
the state government. I as an intern had a great learning in terms of working
in action based research organization. At the end of my field work days I felt
a professional growth within me. I learned to work with the organizational structure.
Apart
from this through my field visits, I get in touched with the rural areas of
Telengana. Visit made me well equipped with land based issues and conflicts in
the rural areas. The implementation of recommended policies from our organization
in amalgamation with government polices made me realized that the fight for
bringing back the social justice at macro level.
Along
with these setting tried to relate the policy making into theoretical framework.
The importance of making policies to provide a macro level change and
intervention in the society for the marginalized communities. Although from my
personal view and experience, the policy making can be a bigger loophole for
the marginalized communities because most of the policies that are made are not
implemented as required. It may be a developmental model but the real scenario can
be on the periphery of it after analyzing the data.
MACRO LEVEL UNDERSTANDING OF POLICY MAKING (THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK)
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