Lakshmi Ashram, one of AVI’s partners, is based in the Himalayan
foothills in the new state of Uttaranchal. The ashram is a
residential school for disadvantaged girls and is involved in
environmental work in the surrounding area. Here, one of the
senior members of the ashram describes efforts to improve the
education programme.
An
Extract from the newsletter produced by ‘Friends of Lakshmi
Ashram’, a supporters’ group based in Denmark.
In February, members of the ashram held some
very positive discussions on how to improve the education
programme. It was agreed that some steps would be taken so as to
enliven the education and ensure that it is more rooted in the
immediate surroundings:
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The primary base for teaching will remain the daily
activities, eg. kitchen, garden, dairy.
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The ashram will seek the guidance of those
individuals who are actively involved in alternative education.
Collection of study material, and study tours to places where
experiments in alternative education are being made, will deepen
understanding amongst ashram workers.
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Each and every activity in Lakshmi Ashram has
education as its core purpose. There is a need to make this
connection more alive and emphasise imparting education through
these activities eg. nutritional values through the kitchen,
mathematics through the accounting for production of fruit, milk
and vegetables.
ä
Students will gather and collate knowledge on local
history, geography and culture, thus increasing respect for their
surroundings.
The Training in Gandhian Thought
programme will now cover a whole year, and will include attempts
to test Gandhi’s constructive ideas in the village setting and to
try to inspire villagers to adopt these ideas in practice. The
syllabus will also include modules on Panchayati Raj
(decentralised local government structures) and Gram Swarajya
(Gandhi’s vision of the decentralised village republic).
Practical aspects of the programme will include spinning and
weaving, sewing, typing.
The Training for Self-sufficiency
programme is particularly for those less educated older girls and
women, including those women who have been deserted by their
husbands, or who are widowed, or who otherwise have no means of
support. Our experience has been that such women need both
intellectual and practical training so as to increase their
personal self-confidence and to raise their self-respect. Their
training programme should run for one year, and will include two
hours of classes and study every day, as well as practical
activities. An important aspect of the training will focus on how
to live a community life, be it in the context of the ashram or
the village.
Training of Workers is designed
for those students who have completed their school studies, to
encourage both personal development and service to society and
social change. The training programme will include classes,
private study, study tours, self-evaluations, participation in
camps and seminars.
Neema Vaishnava
Some of the younger girls at the ashram were asked to write about
their holiday experiences during the long winter holiday. Here is
Neeru Bora’s story.
From 27th December to 2nd
February I set out in the early morning cold to take three litres of
milk to a shop, walking 4km each way. We sold our milk for Rs 12a
litre (20p), from which we met our household expenses. I used to go
every day with an older girl from our village. One day my companion
was wearing imitation jewellery in her ears, a thief took them to be
gold and in a lonely place some distance from the village, jumped
out on her. She told him that they were not gold, the thief looked
closely at them and let her go. I was very frightened and ran away
shouting.
At home I went with
the cattle grazing and fetched green firewood from the forest. My
uncles house is being built at present my elder sister and I
fetched bricks from the roadside and carried stones from the forest
on our heads.
I had studied in my
village school until class 3 (Neeru is now in class 6). I taught
the children there dances and songs. On 26th January (Republic Day)
I performed a dance in the school and received an exercise book and
a pencil as a prize.
At my maternal
grandmothers home I helped her and my aunt plant potatoes and
fetched water as well as looking after my little cousin.
I saw the videos of
my elder brother’s and my uncle’s weddings and also saw the video
Santoshi Ma. I enjoyed my holidays very much this time.
