HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH CENTRE
St. XAVIER’S NON-FORMAL EDUCATION SOCIETY
The Human Development and Research Centre (HDRC, hereafter also referred to as ‘the Centre’) grew out of the St. Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad as a response to the need for “real education”. The formal system of education catered to the elite of society and failed to address the real need of the country i.e. education to the rural, marginalised masses. As a result of this dissatisfaction three professors from the College, with varied academic backgrounds, tried to make up for its deficiencies with camps for university students covering areas which are ignored by the present system, such as, motivation, dealing with ones own feelings, group dynamics etc. It was therefore called ‘Human Development and Research Centre’. They came into contact with rural students and eventually with the rural communities through them. Contacts with the rural population brought them face to face with the realities of poverty, underdevelopment and caste inequalities and made them realise the inadequacy of such an educational approach. It was found lacking on the following counts:
Neither technology nor financial resources could be procured through this educational system. They realised that it had to be developed in action. “In other words soon we realised that true education presupposes an insertion in the mode of production” (Annual Report, 1977).
It had become clear that this was possible only through rigorous learning in the “Rural University” through immersion in the rural reality. The professors resigned from the college and became fully involved in rural work. This was the turning point, when the HDRC left behind its linkages with the formal educational system and moved on to become a full-fledged NGO working for development.
In August 1977 it was formally registered as a separate organisation under the name of ‘St. Xavier’s Non-Formal Education Society’ (SXNFES). However the old name of Behavioural Science Centre, or, HDRC as it is popularly known as, has remained.
The most crucial influences upon the thinking and direction of the Centre were the GC 32 of the Society of Jesus held in December 1974, and the writings and thinking of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire as put forward in his book The Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Penguin, 1972). Subsequently, the writings and theses of the development economist Prof. Amartya Sen and his observations on the structural nature of poverty have been equally critical to the ideological leanings of the Centre.
The history of the Centre for years to come would revolve around these three themes:
The mission statement of the Centre, developed in the early 80s stood as such:
“The Centre exists to fight injustice to man and nature through the promotion and creation of sustainable local organisations of the marginalised, which are owned and managed by them”.
The marginalised communities for the Centre included the Dalits, the Adivasis, the OBCs and women of these communities.
In the 70s, the Bhal region of Khambhat Taluka of Kheda district of Gujarat was an extremely underdeveloped area due to salinity ingress and a semi-feudal social dispensation. The caste ideology was at its oppressive peak with the moneylender – landlords belonging to the Darbar community literally ruling the entire area. The Dalit communities in the area were more or less like bonded labour to these landlords; low in self-esteem, unorganised and vulnerable to atrocities by the landlords. Very few had land and most of them survived on agricultural labour which was not available throughout the year, which made them indebted and eventually bonded labour to the landlords. It was in this context that the HDRC entered this region in1977. It chose the most numerous Vankar community among the Dalits to work with. Traditionally weavers, this community had taken to agricultural labour following the decline of traditional weaving due to the advent of the textile mills in the early 20th century.
The process of Cooperative formation was initiated in 1977 and continued intensively for a decade since. The vast tracts of saline wasteland available in the area was seen as a resource that the Dalit Cooperatives could obtain from the Government for development of plantations of halophytic plant species viz. Prosopis Juliflora (called locally as gaando baawal). The experts of the Centre developed the technology for effective plantation of these species. This would be labour intensive, thus having an impact on the wage rates in the region; and in the long run would create income-generating assets for the community in terms of wood and charcoal produced out of it.
The process started with a village called Vadgam and continued expanding to other villages like Pandad, Vainej, Gudel, Golana and Rohini.
This process had several consequences.
The organisation of the Dalit in the area did not go unnoticed by the Darbar landlords. The cheap labour was no longer at their beck and call; a new, young, defiant Dalit leadership had emerged posing a threat to their centuries’ old dominance. Above all, this community was now in a position to negotiate their rights with the Government due to their collective strength and organisation gained through the co-operatives. Anger and frustration was brewing in the landlords and it reached a flash point in Golana village on 25th January 1986 leading to a gruesome massacre of four Dalits in a cruel, fatal attack by a mob of Darbars. 22 others were also seriously injured in this atrocity. This incident was painful, shocking; but was to change the course of the Dalit movement not only in Bhal, but also in the entire state of Gujarat.
Having gained experience from its direct rural level interventions the Centre’s efforts were simultaneously directed at conceptualising its learnings and disseminating them to other actors in the development field viz. individuals, fresh graduates, CBOs and NGOs. These took the form of:
Normally when we talk about society, we only consider men. This was the case at the Centre too. During the period from the Centre’s beginning to 1987, women were not involved in any of the development works undertaken by the Centre; its various organisations comprised of only male members and only men attended the meetings in the ‘vas’. Patriarchal society is an unjust social structure and if the Centre aimed at changing this discriminatory social structure, it would have to cultivate an understanding that society is made up not only of men, but men and women both. Thus, the Centre began its work among women after 1987 with the aim of eliminating the prevalent gender bias. From experience, the Centre observed that the women are the most oppressed lot. A Vankar woman was doubly oppressed because of her caste and gender. The Centre’s efforts to form women’s organisations were begun quite late, it was felt.
The incident of the ‘Golana massacre’ has been mentioned before. The irony of the incident was that the Bhangis who are part of the Dalit community were themselves made the tools; in fact the entire incident was sparked off by a quarrel between the Vankars and the Bhangis. The Vankars of the entire Bhal area instead of being cowed down were determined to be more united in the fight for justice. The Dalits from other parts of Gujarat extended their sympathy by visiting Golana. The process of working unitedly for development gained momentum. The number of Dalits other than Vankars and Bhangis in this area is negligible. The Centre began its work with the Bhangis 2½ years after the Golana incident which led the Centre to work in this direction. In other villages too, the Vankars and Bhangis were made to quarrel among themselves, used as tools and thus exploited. The Centre’s efforts from 1989 have been to strengthen the Dalits and aim at their overall development. As we already know the discriminations of high and low exist even among the Dalits, thanks to the varna system. The Centre’s work with the Bhangis was started precisely with the aim of bringing about a unity among the Dalits, and also to empower one of the most deprived and marginalised communities. A lot of ground has been gained in this direction and though it would not be fair to say that the task has been completed, it cannot be denied that work done is creditable.
It is a fact that the varna system has given rise to an unjust social structure in which different castes are considered either high or low according to the varna ideology. The Dalits (untouchables) are most victimised socially i.e. oppressed. Some other castes who are not exploited socially are economically oppressed e.g. (Koli Patels, Vaghris, etc.) and there is not much difference in the economic condition of these castes and the Dalits. But the Dalits and other backward classes have been divided due to the varna-system. Thus, the poor have not been able to rise above these differences and unite to combat the economic exploitation that they have to face. It was in these circumstances that the Centre started its work of uniting the Dalits and other backward classes and enable them to fight against all kinds of oppression in 1988 in Bhal of Dhandhuka.
The Centre has been working in the rural areas from the beginning. Whenever any economic activity is undertaken in Bhal of Cambay or Dhandhuka it is usually conventional activities like agriculture, forestry, fisheries, etc. The Centre had not thought till recently of undertaking unconventional economic activities which did not depend on land and water resources, which were new for the people and the Centre as well and in which a lot of risk factor was involved. It was in November 1993 that the Centre undertook the entrepreneurship programme with the aim of making the people economically independent through unconventional economic activities effected by shortage of land and water resources, increase in people’s education and rise in unemployment.
By the early 1990s, the Center’s intervention in the Cambay taluka had neared around 15 years. The organisations in the area were by then more or less self-managed and autonomous. It was time for us to explore new areas and address needs. We initiated work with the Adivasis of the Danta taluka of Banaskantha district in 1994 with the intention of addressing the marginalisation of the Adivasis and their consequent exclusion from the development process.
Our experience of Bhal and Dhandhuka had taught us that without strengthening the economic base fo an oppressed community it is nearly impossible to break the bonds of dependence on the exploiter (non-tribal upper caste). To create a new set of relationships that are sustainable the community requires to have some bargaining power. The strategy adopted in Danta was similar to the one adopted earlier, i.e. through the promotion of an area level organisation of men and women which would take up the cause of the Adivasis and work in the community’s interest vis a vis other dominant non-tribal communities.
An added dimension to this approach was the tapping of government funds and resources meant for the people but which somehow never managed to reach the people.
Till 1995 the Centre’s activities did not include children as a target group. There was a growing realisation that in view of our long term goal for the community (that of building sustainable organisational power of the people and creating options for the new generation belonging to scheduled castes and tribe communities, who are among the most oppressed sections of Indian society) we could not afford to ignore the children. And in the ultimate analysis our fight was against the discriminatory structures – of caste, gender, ethnicity and such like. In that context, an educational intervention with the children of these communities made sense.
The rationale behind the activity was to foster a counter ideology and socialisation for the Dalit and Adivasi children, and, to prepare them for the formal schooling system for which most of the children would not be prepared since they would be first generation learners.
It was in 1995 that we initiated the activity with Dalit children belonging mainly to the Valmiki community in the Bhal area whereas in the Danta area we work with Adivasi children – all between the ages of 4 and 12. The first step in this direction began with holding vacation camps for school going children of these communities, lasting 10 – 15 days. But the effects of such a short-term input were temporary and short-lived. It was obvious that measures of a more permanent nature were called for.
It was in 1997 that we set up the Bal Vikas Kendras (BVKs – Child Development Centres). It was our first planned intervention with children, through the BVKs set up at the village level. The BVKs are village –level classrooms, one in each of the programme villages, with a teacher in charge of each BVK. The Dalit/Adivasi children of the village come here for a couple of hours each morning, where they are made to undertake various activities aimed at developing and sharpening the psycho-motor skills of the children. The activities include: singing songs, acting/reciting stories, making toys/pictures out of clay, leaves or other waste articles and such like.
The evolution of the thinking within the Centre led to a slight shift in the strategy and approach. The post-liberalisation economic order in India throws up several challenges for the NGO sector and drastically alters the contours of the development debate. In a situation where the State is gradually reneging on and withdrawing from its welfare orientation the role of NGOs needs to be freshly interpreted and critiqued. The State seems only too eager to let the NGOs dabble in everything it finds economically unviable (read not profitable) or too uncomfortable to take up. Overtly this may appear to be a vindication of the role of the NGOs from the government. Yet this needs to be analysed minutely and questioned / confronted wherever necessary. The marginalised and oppressed sections of society are increasingly being left to the vagaries of the market forces, leaving them more vulnerable, weakened and tragically abandoned.
Learning from our experiences and building upon them the Centre decided, in 1999, to increase the scale of operations and to make an effort to reach out to larger sections of the communities through an intensive focus on drawing upon and developing the leadership potential within the communities. At the same time it altered the strategy to include a rights-based advocacy approach to foster people’s movements. Its mission statement underwent a change. It now stands as:
“The Behavioural Science Centre is a secular, non-denominational, voluntary organisation which exists to empower marginalised communities, particularly dalits, tribals, OBCs, minorities and women of these communities to bring about social change, by conceiving and conducting programmes of an educational nature, facilitating people’s movements and creating sustainable livelihood options”.
Our extensive presence and contact in Banaskantha (Danta taluka) had provided us with first hand and in-depth knowledge and experience about the area and the issues plaguing the people here. The major and most crucial issue of the people here is that of systematic deprivation of their human rights because of their caste status. This is a gross violation of the constitutional rights guaranteed to them. The initial presence having been established in the Danta taluka, in 1999, we decided to expand our scope of the interventions to 5 more districts of Banaskantha viz. Palanpur, Vadgam, Vav, Tharad and Dhanera. The Dalits of these areas are victims of gross violations of their human rights on an almost daily basis, be it in access to land, water, education, health, livelihood options, participation in governance and such others. In light of the prevailing situation, it is amply clear that mere organising and developmental interventions would not address the real issues adequately; mobilising people on a mass scale to demand their rights was the need of the hour. Mass movement coupled with advocacy measures highlighting the human rights violations was the strategy adopted to suit the demands of the emerging situation.
A working definition of social movement, for the Centre, would thus be something as: “a social movement is a purposive and collective attempt by Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, minorities and women of these groups, together or separately, to change social and political structures, functioning within an elementary organisational framework, to attain goals of social justice and human rights, and working within the framework of democratic mechanisms of the Indian Constitution ”.
It is amply clear that the situation of Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, minorities, and women is such that we can realise the impact at a district level to affect a larger number of people. In order for that to happen we have to broaden the scope of our intervention geographically also and hence a district level focus has been thought of. Further our experience also indicates that in the given situation individual efforts of Dalits Adivasis, OBCs, minorities, women have not borne much fruit; collective efforts on the other hand have resulted in an increased bargaining power of these communities vis a vis the elites and the powerful blocks. Moreover, it is our firm belief that in the present situation the marginalized groups must come together on a common platform of their collective marginalisation; fighting it separately is futile, and plays into the hands of a divisive political agenda.
HDRC has, over the last few years, also intervened in disaster situations – both natural and human-made. The earthquake of January 2001 saw HDRC undertake rescue and relief operations in a substantial manner. Subsequently, it also undertook rehabilitation of the earthquake affected families by constructing permanent and semi-permanent shelters. Having seen the caste and gender based discrimination entrenched in Kutch, the Centre made a decision to make the area a focus of its long-term intervention for equity and social justice.
The devastating tragedy that Gujarat witnessed in March 2002, the Gujarat Carnage, saw the Centre again undertaking relief activities as part of the larger collective – the Citizens’ Initiative. Ever since, it has been providing legal and other assistance to the riot-affected families of certain areas in Ahmedabad.
The empowerment strategies in HDRC have been enriched over time. From a Vankar community based approach where the counter ideology creation was limited to the assertion and confidence building of a single community (Heredero, 1979; 1989), we have moved towards a broad definition and recognition of a Dalit identity. This identity rejects the Brahminical order completely and challenges all Dalit communities to assume this political identity by shedding all symbols and practices of the Brahminical order. This identity is not a male identity but one that recognises the equality and paramount importance of the leadership of women in the political process.
Our earlier empowerment strategy (approximately 1977-84) emphasised critical awareness raising in a Freirian sense using non-formal adult learning strategies. Critical reflection on experience and perception of reality in a community group was highly significant, thereby recognising the commonality of experience. This process was at the same time cathartic and establishing mutual support to culminate in a community action plan , ultimately to result in an ability to bargain from a position of strength and dignity (ibid). The subsequent phase of developmental action (1985-97) was also equally strong on the empowerment dimension in terms of development of organisational capabilities in governance, management and institutional linkages. We have ample illustrations in the history of HDRC that bears out this strategy; the village-wise awareness camps, the process of cooperative development, training in techno-managerial aspects of the cooperatives and the Federation, the search for new developmental projects like fisheries, sericulture, paddy processing, garments manufacture etc. The process of critical recognition of the impact of caste ideology and organised action were necessary pre-requisites for any developmental action, but once launched the developmental action itself was designed in an empowering way through its educational nature. Empowerment would be consolidated in the form of a strong people’s organisation.
More recently the empowerment strategy has been enriched by HDRC’s recognition of the significance of the role of the state in development, the realisation and exercising of constitutional and democratic rights and people’s movements to achieve the same. The same applies to the attainment of entitlements in the form of basic human amenities, health, education, social security and welfare. The process of attaining these directly demands political participation in the various arms and agencies of the state in a collective and organised fashion. That in itself is an empowering process, and once attained, constitutes significant prerequisites for further development. This process is now familiar to us as seen in the various interventions taking place in Banaskantha through the Banaskantha Dalit Sangathan and the Adivasi Sarvangi Vikas Sangh (as illustrated in the sections on Banaskantha and Danta later in the report). It also educates us and the people regarding the way in which the political power structure replicates the discriminatory social system as revealed by the relatively low financial allocations for the oppressed communities and that too mainly in the welfare sector with only cosmetic allocations for asset building or access to means of production. This makes it obvious that these communities need a movement – struggle approach.
Our experience in Golana is today forming the basis of the struggle of the Dalit community against atrocities, for the right to life with dignity. It is becoming increasingly clear that constitutional and democratic rights and even franchise would have to be fought for, and calls for a movement approach. We are discovering through our experience in Banaskantha that struggle is a most potent way of empowering, as Ambedkar and many other leaders of political struggles have observed. The long-term process of struggle can be seen as progressional, interlinked and mutually reinforcing stages of empowerment and concomitant developmental gains.
Learning from our experiences and building upon them the Centre decided, in 1999, to increase the scale of operations and to make an effort to reach out to larger sections of the communities through an intensive focus on drawing upon and developing the leadership potential within the communities. At the same time it altered the strategy to include a rights-based advocacy approach to foster people’s movements.
Name of the Organisation Area of operation Membership Activities of the organisation Status
Mobilisation of govt. schemes;
1. Animal Health Project Village level cooperatives
2. Social forestry programme (Wasteland development)
3. Community Health Programme Village level Mahila mandals
4. Sericulture Village level cooperatives
5. Brackish water acquaculture & hatchery unit — as above —
6. Fertilizer loan Area level Federation of Cooperatives
7. Land redemption — as above —
8. Paddy processing unit — as above —
9. Savings & Credit Area level Savings & Credit Cooperative Society
10. Garment manufacturing unit Company
11. Seed Bank Area level organisation
12. Watershed development Area level organisation
Activity Year
1. Training programmes 1977 onwards
2. FPSM (English) 1982 – 1996
3. FPSM (Gujarati) 1991 onwards
4. PPDM Initiated in 1998
5. FPD Initiated in 2001