[Aaj-ke-naam] Seeking support for non-formal school & community centre at Kasai Ki chali, Ahmedabad.

Mon Aug 19 08:13:12 CEST 2002

Seeking support for non-formal school & community centre at Kasai Ki chali, Ahmedabad. 
The two of us - Ajay Raina and Leya Mathew  - have been in Ahmedabad for about Four months now. I am a Kashmiri Pandit and a filmmaker by profession. Leya Mathew is from Kerala and has just finished her Masters in Media & Communication.

The reason why I went to Gujarat is simple. I still cannot go back home even 12 years after the forced exodus of my community because of threats, killings, rape and torture of Kashmiri Pandits by the separatist Kashmiris. Six months after the carnage in Gujarat, though everybody says that, 'situation in Gujarat is normal', the 46 families in Gasiram ki chali still cannot go back home. I as a Kashmiri was a victim yesterday. Today it happens to be a poor Gujarati Muslim. Tomorrow it may be the turn of anybody - a poor Hindu, Christian, Dalit, Brahmin, Secularist or a pseudo-Secularist....I grow more certain day by day that we must start in Gujarat, what we did not do in Kashmir. I want to go back home too...but first lets think about Gujarat, lets bring them home to a safe and secular India.

I and Leya decided to go to Gujarat to see if there was something we could do to assuage the suffering of the people there. After groping around frustrated for about a month and a half at the larger problems of relief, rehabilitation, compensation, justice and long-term peace/reconciliation efforts, we finally decided on something definite that could be done by just two of us.something on a small scale, something that needed to be done.We decided to adopt two small localities of about 100 odd households (Kasai ki chali & Gasiram ki chali) for relief and rehabilitation.

We raised money and resources (thanks to our friends) to help them rebuild their homes, buy utensils, stoves, books and uniform for their school-going kids. Most people here, we were then told, only had one change of clothes while they were in the camp. 

We have so far received Rs 53,000 in cash donations from friends all over India. In addition to this, we have also received relief in kind (cloths/utensils/bedding items/sewing machines etc;) sent to us by friends in Delhi and Mumbai. With the money; we gave monetary assistance to a few people who needed a renewed start for their businesses. We bought 16 sewing machines and about 15 peddler carts / lorries for people to peddle their roadside ware. We spent 15,000 Rs. to manufacture 10,000 kites (with messages to the countrymen printed on them, on the occasion of India's Independence day). We managed to sell almost all of them to people and organisation all over India and are hoping to make a profit of about Rs. 35,000, which would be utilized for further relief/rehabilitation/and for employment schemes. 

In the two months we have been with the people of Kasai ki Chali, we have yet only partly managed to help them rebuild their lives, to get them back on their feet again and bring them to a safe home...in a city where they were born, which they must not stop loving. We are living with the people in Kasai ki Chali; we were with them when they were scared about the Rath Yatra, on 12 July, which eventually passed off peacefully. While we see some hope for a better tomorrow in the eyes of the people of Kasai ki Chali, the same can not be said about the people of the other Chali...

We have tried our best, but much more still needs to be done. With time, we have realised that our and their problems are more complex than they seem on surface.  We now strongly feel that only clothes, utensils, sewing machines, lorries and fans are not enough for the Muslims of Kasai Ki Chali & Gasiram ki chali. That is of course essential to get started with their lives, but it is still a long road from here, especially for the people of Gasi Ram ki Chali, living just across the wall from Kasai ki Chali.

Kasai ki chali has a concrete wall that separates them from those who had burnt their houses, which in some misplaced way can provide them with a semblance of security, but Gasiram ki chali does not have even that. In Gasiram ki chali, before the riots, the Hindus and Muslims used to live cheek by jowl. All that is to be seen here now  are rows of about 46 Muslim houses, which need to be rebuilt completely before the residents can even think of shifting back. Even after they shift back, they will have to live, every single day, next to the very same people who ran after them with "khula talwars". There is a proud temple watching over the colony. The saffron flag is flying high. The killers' and the plunderers of these homes are still walking free. They have built a little illegal pan shop to block the path which allowed the Muslims of their locality to walk in. The reason the Muslims of this locality can not now go back and rebuild their homes is this pan shop which stands in the way of their natural and fundamental right to return home. We can not bring down the pan shop or the walls of mistrust that has sprung up between the Hindus and Muslims of Gasi Ram ki Chali, what we can certainly try to do is help them demolish the walls around them on their own...in good time. We have an idea.

OUR IDEA:

We cannot live their lives for them, but what we can do is introduce some positive and constructive energy into their lives. This, we feel will be much more effective than building any walls on the boundaries. An informal school for children is the idea we have come up with. It is actually already in its beginning stages. The classes are on. We have a volunteer teacher on our rolls. We also hope to start a similar initiative in Gasiram ki chali for the Hindu children. If both these ideas work out, then in time, we hope to integrate the two informal schools to start a permanent community centre for the Hindus and Muslims of this locality. 

There had been groups of dedicated people working with the children when they were in the camps. Though most people from the groups have gone back, they still remember the leha didi, chuppa rustam Sardar ji, siren didi, Delhi ka didi and others. The group from Bangalore has returned with SAATHI friends from Bombay to continue the work. Bindu, Altaf and Raja come everyday for 2 hours to play with the children in our chali also. They are guiding Sulekha, the teacher in our chali. The children enjoy it immensely. They sing, they shout, they play with jigsaw puzzles and they paint.and they love their teacher.

Sulekha, incidentally, came to us through a friend. She was named Sulekha, but her Muslim friends call her Zulekha and yet others call her Julie. She comes from Sardar society nearby, where the residents (both Muslim and Hindu) made sure that not a single incident of violence occurred. She used to work in a garment factory earlier. Her Hindu employer has laid her off along with all the other Muslims who used to work in the factory. She worked with the victims in Shah Alam camp for 3 months, helping out with administrative work, counseling women and children, dressing up wounds as part of the Red Cross team. 

The group from Bangalore with their SAATHI friends from Bombay will continue to come in shifts for atleast two months. We hope by then we will have two local teachers who can carry on their work. 

What we plan to do from now on is. 

1)       Continue with Relief/ Rehabilitation of Gasiram ki chali residents as soon as they are able to return home.

2)       Start a community centre for Kasai ki Chali. (which would eventually lead a similar initiative in Gasiram ki chali for the Hindu & Muslim Children) 

What we need:

1)       For Relief and Rehab:

                More Materials and Money for Relief/Rehabilitation (household stuff / kitchen utensils etc:) of Gasiram ki chali                             residents as soon as they are able to return home. A friend has already pledged 46 fans for 46                                                 households in Gasiram ki Chali.

2)       For the Community centre. (for the initial trial period of 3 months)

Logistics: 

Rent payment for a room in Kasai ki Chali.

          Salary for Sulekha (already in our employee) and for one other teacher 

          Yet to employ.

Material for informal classes for children: 

Stationary, colors, puzzles, mind games, comics in Gujarati and

Hindi, video tapes of Laurel and Hardy etc. 

Money for spending on school fees, school bags, stationary,

Textbooks

Learning (English classes) / Recreation material (for children

and Adults):

Beginner's books for English Language learners, charts, games

- ABCD blocks etc. 

Newspaper, Books (in Gujarati and Hindi), Paintings about

Communal harmony etc; 

Material for Sewing Classes for women:

Sewing machines (4 machines are already pledged for by Delhi

friends), 

Plain Cloth, Scissors, Chalk, Measuring Scale 

Establishment and Administrative costs for 3 months;                         

We are also documenting on Video.the ongoing process of our work in the two localities. So far we have utilized our own meager resources from our personal savings towards the cost of shooting the video footage and for our stay in Ahmedabad. We would hope for some monetary assistance for this project also. Please get in touch with us on our e-mail address. 

People wishing to contribute in cash can send us their Cheques and DD's in the name of:

"GUJARAT EDUCATION SOCIETY / PRASHANT"

Addressed to: 

AJAY RAINA.

C/O Raiz Sheikh,

ELITE FLATS,

OFF NARAYAN NAGAR ROAD,

NEAR JETTABHAI PARK Bus Stop

PALDI,

AHMEDABAD 380 007. 

Our Tel: No in Ahmedabad is 079 - 5329018 (PP)                                                                                                                All contributions will be exempt income tax under the relevant sections of Income Tax act.

This account will accept only contributions from within India. We will keep you posted about the progress and about the money received and spent.

Ajay Raina / Leya Mathew.

ajayraina at vsnl.com
rainaajay at hotmail.com
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