DAILY REPORTS

Type of field work: Block

Village: Shyamnagar
Submitted by: Apoorva Balakrishnan
Submitted to: prof. Gunvant Birajdar
Roll no: T2015BASW04
Date of submission: 13/10/17
DAY-1

DATE: 16/09/17

We reached our assigned village i.e. shyamnagar at 2:30 PM and settled. The village is in a
straight line adjacent to the highway leading up to latur and further. Our village is divided
into 4 wards and shyamnagar is also known as 12 no. paati.

The village is not spread horizontally much but its vertical length is spread across a vast area.
Our work is to cover these four wards in aggregate and also on focusing on our choice of
field to study.

VISIT TO THE PACKAGED WATER DRINKING FACILITY

We also paid a visit to the suryarich packaged water drinking facility which is owned by Mr.
kiran wakure. We learned the working of the factory and all of its processes. Its step by step
functioning from the bio-contaminant free operation of water to packaging of water in bottles
and capping and sealing to final boxing of bottles. We also saw how small test tube sized
plastic made into the shape of bottles by chemical processes.

TRANSACT WALK

We decided as the first day in the village it is important to discover the whole area and cover
as much ground as we could. So we started with our ward and went on to discover the ward-1
it’s where the vadar community resides. They had a lot of problems which needs to be
addressed properly and issues that need to be resolved.

We went on for a few more miles and met eminent people out here who will help us by
providing their guidance further on the field. We also met the chief of AFARM organisation
on our way back.

FINDINGS:

o The routes of the village.

o Discovered 4 different wards of the village.
o Packaged water drinking facility and its working.
DAY-2

DATE: 17/09/17

MARATHA MUKTI SANGATHAN DIWAS

We were invited to celebrate the Maratha mukti sangathan Diwas today. Firstly we went to
the gram panchayat for the officiating ceremony and for flag hoisting. Moving on we were
then taken to the Zila Parishad primary school for their ceremony and afterwards when the
students left we were sitting with the Sarpanch, the teachers of the school and the headmaster
of the school and had a small group discussion with them about the current conditions of the
village and people.

Literacy level is very low as they stated, many people shift out or join the Navodaya
Vidyalaya which is nearby for those who can afford. Many people don’t know their caste and
many of one particular community are unaware of their caste, which creates a problem for
them for making government and legal documents, due to this reason they are unable to assert
their right on any land.

GRAM PANCHAYAT

At the gram panchayat we met two of the panchayat members Mr. Hanumant and Mr. Shivli
mahadeo who are from ward-1. They told us about the critical condition of ward-1 and ward-
2. There are hardly homes financed under gharkul yojna.

SHG AND FINANCE GROUPS

At the gram panchayat we met two women who are a part of finance group which is
sanctioned under a company providing a bit of financing for their start-ups with interest rates
of 20-22%. Which is comparatively lower than what banks are offering. These women have
their own garment shop along with sewing work, the sewing machines bought by them is
with the help of finance group.

There are 4 SHG’S and 10 finance groups in total in the village. The SHG and finance group
has helped out people a lot to become self-sufficient and earning, many has bought livestock,
opened general stores, started their own business, etc. The SHG’S hold a monthly meeting on
7th of each month.

When people are making enough money live off of it, they also have no idea of what to do
with the remaining handful of money. They have proper income but have no direction of
what to do with the excess. They don’t know where to invest, how to invest, saving it,
expanding their horizon of work.

EMPLOYMENT

There is enough of employment for everyone in the village because of the factory and
industrial setup in the village. There are many factories such as sugar factory, water bottling
factory, etc. which provide enough opportunity for all and is also the major source of income
for most of the village households.

FINDINGS:

o No. of SHG’S and presence of finance groups in the village.

o Employment provided by factories surrounding the village.
o Literacy level of the population in the village.
o Problems in the village faced by women.
DAY-3

DATE: 18/09/17

OBSERVED STORES AND ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS

Today we started early and observed the early morning routine of the villagers and their
work. We observed the types of stores operating in the periphery here. There are numerous
stores selling day to day utilities for commoners. There are mostly general stores of variety,
some sell many goods whereas some sell limited goods. Every commodity is of different
quality, sold in different quantities and differs in prices from one shop to another. There are
many stores which sell luxury goods and items, medical stores, eateries, bakery, stalls, etc.

As the sun shined brighter above us we moved on to next task on our hands for the day and
went to the middle school of the village preferred by many.

SHREE MANJRESHWAR SCHOOL

The school is situated in vilas nagar, which is situated just outside shyamnagar area
premises.it is a co-ed school of Marathi medium. Headmaster of the school is P.N. Kale. The
school has classes from 5th to 10th including, maths, science, Marathi, environment as the
subjects which are taught there. There are 12 faculty member and in total 412 students
combing both boys and girls.

They provide computer science basic knowledge and have a separate lab for it as well. They
have laboratories for physics, chemistry and biology as well.

The school also provides scholarship for students of ST, SC, and DNT caste for the
upliftment of their communities. Two students are selected from each class on merit basis and
are awarded the scholarship. There is separate scholarship for girls of 7th grade with the name
of Savitri Bai phule scholarship. There are no scholarships for the general category students.

There was also a primary school in the back portion of the main building. With a strength of
152 students from nursery to 4th with 4 teachers ass the staff. The mid-day meal is also
prepared there only.

JIJAU ENGLSIH MEDIUM SCHOOL

This school is an English medium school situated in the shyamnagar village area. The
principal is Mr. Alapure, manging the school since its inception in 2007. There are a total of 7
teachers currently teaching here to 64 students, ranging from nursery to 4th standard. It is fully
private school funded by a trust with the name Bhagbhai Bahu-uddeshya seva bhavi sanstha.
Books and uniforms are provided from the school to the students excluding the fees which is
5000/- for the nursery kids and increases by 1000/- every succeeding class. The school holds
a monthly PTA (parent –teacher meeting) where only 50% parents visit the school.

VADAR COMMUNITY 1ST WARD

The vadar community has their own society for more than 30 years now and the struggle they
are facing since then has reduced to marginal limits only. There are 90 plots allotted in ward-
1 for construction of houses there are 90 households in total in this area.

The people in this community are poor and have very little to survive on. They mainly join
the occupation of working in any of the factories as labourers or stone crushers or soya bean
harvesting. For the work they do at factory as labourers is of daily wages and they get paid
200/- per day to men and 150/- per day for women their working hours spans from morning 9
to evening 6. Some people also go for work to latur or Boregaon, some even migrated there
for occupation purposes. Most of the population has a qualification of 10th grade graduation
some even went on for higher education and college but got no job offers and as the last
resort and having no other option left they had to join their mainstream occupation as stone
crushers.

Another major problem they face is of having no space for toilet construction and even the
houses they have is constructed by themselves, investing their own money and no help from
gharkul yojna and they have no access to government schemes, they don’t have enough
paperwork and they don’t know the basic information they need to provide to retrieve those
paperwork.

Drinking water and all-purpose water comes in a span of 3-4 days in their area. There was
one hand-pump installed in 2011 before the panchayat election but it got dysfunctional after a
few days of installation. They face a scarcity of water and tanker is provided to them in gap
of 2-3 days. They have electric supply but it’s of no use, they have a metered connection but
they still connect a wire to the street lights.
There is no work provided to them from MGNREGA. Everybody who is of age and eligible
to vote, does give their votes. After the 2013 election, when wakure came into power, they
developed cemented road and provision for drinking water was initiated. They all join the
SHG’s already working in the rest of the village there are 20 women in their area who are a
part of SHG. Their language is a bit different from Marathi. Before their settlement they were
a nomadic tribe.

They are not allowed to collect fuel wood from ward-2. They use Chula instead of gas stove
for cooking food.

The young girls are married off at the age of 16 and boys at the age of 24. One of the houses
have livestock for rearing or other purposes. Only 5 houses have toilets. There is no gram
panchayat member from this ward and even if there is they shift to some other ward and no
longer pays attention to the community’s needs. They all attend gram Sabha whenever there
is one held.

FINDINGS:

o Varieties of shops in the area.

o Marathi medium school as students are unable to excel Marathi, how will they cope
with English as well.
o Provide experimental studies and practical knowledge of subjects that are needed.
o Only one English medium school up to class 4th.
o Monthly PTA meeting for English medium school.
o Various problems faced by vadar community.
 Sanitation
 Water
 Facilities
 Employment
 Government support
 Living conditions.
DAY-4

DATE: 19/09/17

GRAM PANCHAYAT

We paid a visit to the gram panchayat office for collection of basic data for our village profile
but due to unavailability of gram sevak we couldn’t retrieve the required data. So we decided
to form a new plan for the day and go ahead with it.

ASHA WORKER

We met two of the ASHA workers but one of them was busy in doing her household chores,
although she directed us towards another ASHA worker. Mrs. Urmila Panchal, Who is in
charge of the population of ward no. 2 she has been an ASHA in the village for past 4 years
and has been trained and acquainted for the help required by the villagers at their beck and
call.

She has attained an education till 12th standard. She has training once every year. Through
this work she makes 500/- per month and additional money depends on the work she gets on
her hands. She attends PHC meeting once every month in Gangapur PHC.

She takes care of vaccinations for children, has basic emergency medications, boosters, dose,
etc. there are many high BP patients, 4 TB patients, 1 leprosy patient, she holds a meeting
with adolescent girls about menstruation and hygiene. There has been no miscarriage cases
yet in the village, all the deliveries are done in the civil or private hospital in latur. She also
checks BP and sugar level of households and charges 5/- each person.

INTERVIEW WITH A TEA STALL OWNER

Maruti digambar gadge is a successful tea stall owner who is running his tea stall along with
snacks centre for nearly 10 years now. He makes tea. Black tea, coffee, and milk. He also
sells fruits. He states that he generates maximum income on weekends. He makes maximum
of 4000/- but because of buying stocks and supply his profit remains 1500/-, he also has a
part of a field in another village. Before opening the stall he did paint job.
He makes tea and snacks on gas, one cylinder goes on till 10-15 days till it gets exhausted
and he needs a new one installed. he has limited income because of other shops nearby giving
the business a tough competition.

VILLAGE EXPLORE

While exploring the village we came across a water tank in the outskirts of the village which
is responsible for water supply to the whole village. We also noticed a railway track passing
by the side of the village. Some elderly people were sitting outside some stores discussing
and talking about their day.

HISTORY WITH A GROUP OF ELDERLY

While we were exploring the village we thought why not take this as an opportunity and get
to know the history of the village.

Shyamnagar was actually to be named Ramnagar as suggested by a person from wadar

community in the mid 90’s, but because of some community related issue the panchayat after
coming into power in 2013 decided that it will create issues in future so they all settled on
naming the village as shyamnagar.

The village is also called 12 no. paati because it’s exactly 12 kms from latur city, also a
reputed man from latur owned the whole area from latur to beyond and he divided parts of
the land into many out of which one divided part is 12 no. paati.

There is also an airport not very far from this area, where there is a thick chain coming out of
tunnel which can be pulled out up to 200 foot but it cannot be dragged completely out of it
even after laborious attempts by many locals, it still lays there.

FINDINGS:

o ASHA worker maintains her records properly and her records were up to date.
o PHC for ASHA’s reporting is in gangapur.
o Struggles of a tea stall owner.
o History of the village.
o Reason behind its name and how the village came into existence.
DAY-5

DATE: 20/09/17

GRAM PANCHAYAT

We paid a visit to gram panchayat to retrieve the basic information we need for the village
profile. We prepared a list of all the information we needed and gave it to the Mr Wakure
who in turn ruffled some old paperwork which were made when the last census survey took
place and provided it to us. Since all the information was in Marathi and we were not quite
sure about the translation of the appropriate terms we asked him to decipher it for us.

Since he was engaged in his day to day work of attending the peoples’ request he asked us to
come by later as gram sevak is the one who noted it all down and he will be able to explain it
to us better than him and that he will call him for us tomorrow.

MAHILA MELAVA AT ZILA PARISHAD PRIMARY SCHOOL

At the Zila Parishad School there was a sanitation workshop held for women of the village. A
social worker working against superstition and sanitation in an organisation in latur Ms
Mullah Ruksana was there to aware the women of the village about how sanitation is
important and how they themselves can be progressive about it, inspiring them about building
toilets at home, explaining them the stigma society attaches to having a toilet inside the house
in rural areas. (andhshraddha nirmulan samittee ) (govt women development department)
works as sahkarya vahak .

This workshop went on for a while and finally she concluded telling them to bring the change
for themselves and for their family’s health, that open defecation spreads more infection,
more diseases than anything else. Prior to the speech there was also a movie premiered for
them ‘TOILET” (2017).

INTERVIEW WITH THE FINANCE GROUP MONEY RETRIEVER

The money retriever from ekvitas finance company came for collecting the money from the
members of the group. The basics of finance group is that it does not function like any SHG it
has a slightly different mechanism to function, in SHG’s we pool in money monthly and take
it out as per our need and it can be for personal reasons but for finance group you can borrow
the money for any business start-ups or for any business related reasons only and you have to
pay some amount of interest rates on a weekly basis. On one hand in SHG’s a group of
women come together and form the mutual understanding of circulating money amongst
themselves for any reason they might need it for, on the other hand a company makes finance
groups in villages where women join in because the bank is not sanctioning the loan. The
main objective of SHG is to save money for a bigger purpose but in finance groups the
objective is to make arrangements for the present and pay later as per our convenience within
a span of 27 weeks where the money borrowed can be paid in instalments. The person we
interviewed covers 30 kms of area radius from latur.

The company ekvitas has its headquarters in Chennai and the office in latur comes under
Solapur zone which is under Pune and that again is under Mumbai office. This company
provides a start-up for 20,000 -30,000/- and with an interest rate of 22% for 2 years. He
additionally states that payment is not regular in this area and he has to make many trips to
collect money from the borrowers.

PREPARED QUESTIONNAIRE

We discussed amongst ourselves and prepared a questionnaire for our meeting the next day
with the finance group meeting as they hold a weekly meeting and we needed to see the
proceedings of the meeting and also ask a few questions about the group.

FINDINGS:

o Date for village profile.

o Sanitation awareness is done in widespread view.
o Women are getting informed and instigated.
o Difference between an SHG and finance group.
o Working of the finance groups.
DAY-6

DATE: 21/09/17

FINANCE GROUP MEETING

We attended finance group meetings for two groups today. We have had a rough idea of how
a finance group works and how it differs from an SHG. Attending the meeting provided us
with a wider approach and better grounding understanding of the institution. Bharat finance
inclusion ltd, a Hyderabad based company which has its branches in Maharashtra as well. It
is a private company registered under RBI. The company allows a group of minimum 20
women and maximum of 50 women to be part of their finance group. They sanction a loan of
20,000/- to 50,000/- for a group with an interest rate of 19.75%.

The amount of money they provide per person is not enough so many women ask their
friends to fake owning a business and ask for money on their behalf to which they will pay
back later on. They have to pay 440/- weekly when the debt collector comes and without his
knowledge they give their share of money to the people who asked and pose as they are
paying. Many women also join other groups as the money is not enough coming from one
group but every company keeps a track of their members through aadhar card.

MEETING WITH GRAM SEVAK

We had to visit gram panchayat because the data we had retrieved from the gram panchayat
for the basic village profile data was in Marathi and was not legible enough to understand, so
Mr Anant Matke the gram sevak came in as promised by Mr Wakure for translation and
clarification of the provided data and much more information that wasn’t on record but he
knew intently which he generously explained to us.

EXPLORED CLINICS IN THE VILLAGE

On the evening stroll I went around the village searching for all the clinics that are present in
the village, many people when enquired said there are 5 clinics but I found only 4. I also
found many medical stores some adjacent to the clinic and some working separately. The
medical stores sell all the necessary medicals which are required in day to day activities such
as multivitamin, headache relief, pain relief, body ache spray, asthma control pumps, etc.

FINDINGS:

o Proper functioning of the finance groups.

o How women tackle their financial situations.
o How women help each other out.
o Number of clinics in the village.
o Medical stores.
DAY-7

DATE: 22/09/17

VISIT TO WARD NO.4

We paid our first visit to the ward number 4 which is astray from the rest of the 3 wards of
the village. It is a more developed area than rest of the village. It consists of well laid main
roads connecting to other parts of the district and leading towards other villages, this side of
the village shows the actual progress the village has made since its inception and after the
addition of industries and factories in the area. This part has all the factories and industries
setup which provides employment to the maximum number of population from shyamnagar
as well as neighbouring villages.

The factories act as a major source of employment providers taking in 600-900 workers at
once and providing them proper livelihood. We observed Krishi vigyan Kendra (KVK) which
was at the extent of the ward and belonged to the khandapur village area and we also saw the
sugar factory which comes under chincholi village area. This area acts as a trisection of three
villages proving to be extremely progressive as time passes us by. The area has 50 proper
houses roughly but there are no proper road construction in the interior of the ward, along
with this there is also the problem of water in this area but many households have their own
bore well dug and those who doesn’t have their own have formed a common one to get water
from.

We observed samaj kalyan hostel which is a government provided free hostel service for the
SC/ST, MIDC quarters as it consists 10-15 houses of shyamnagar.

DAIRY

The dairy out here is a unique one, it has been working for past 5 years and has recently got
its own sop 2 weeks ago, the owner of the shop Mr Vishal panhale was previously a
middleman only supplying milk to bigger companies out station. He now exports milk to
nearby villages, to shyamnagar itself and additionally 300 litres every day to Solapur for
further packaging of milk and its processing into other milk products for bigger companies in
metro cities such as Delhi. He sells the milk to vaishnavi Devi milk Product Company in
Solapur sending 300 litres of milk on daily basis for the rate of 1/- per litre which seems less
for such high quality unadulterated milk. He also sells packets of milk for mahanand and shiv
amrut milk agency to Solapur.

His educational qualification is of Bcom and he along with dealing in dairy business, has an
private English medium school which is up and running for nearly 4 years now. He also
stated that his family has a political background.

FINDINGS

o Ward no. 4 and its conditions

o Dairy in the village and its business
o Progress of the village
DAY-8

DATE: 23/07/17

VDF COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND PHARMACY

We visited the only college in this area, the college provides education in three different
streams which are engineering, pharmacy and poly technic. We had a friendly casual chat
with the principal of pharmacy department.

He told us that the college was established in 2000 and started functioning in 2010. With the
accreditation of AICTE for engineering providing 5 streams namely, mechanical, civil,
computer science, electrical and electronics and telecommunication. The college also
provides same fields of study in poly technic course and provides education for pharmacy.

All the courses are just in bachelors and no master’s degree course is provided. The student
intake for different sections is different. For engineering 1200 students are admitted, 900
students for polytechnic and 250 students for pharmacy.

The whole college constitutes of 70% students from urban areas and the rest 30% from rural
areas and other states of the country. The entrance test is conducted through Maharashtra
government. After graduation many students from pharmacy struggle to get a proper job in
the field and so they shift to Pune, Nasik, and Mumbai other metro cities for studying and for
those who are under privileged the principal himself provides books and other study material
to them.

The college is funded through Vilas Rao deshmukh foundation and Manjra charitable trust.
The founder of VDF is Mr. Amit deshmukh. The infrastructure is designed and laid out by an
U.S architect.

Along with all the colleges the VDF also provides education for school education with an
international recognition. Goldcrest high is a simultaneously functioning school with colleges
in a different wing with a strength of 1000 students from 1st to 12th standard.
The college also does its part for environment. When there was a drought situation in
Maharashtra the college supplied water to the villages nearby latur and also did plantation
work.

DAY-9

DATE: 24/09/17

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION

We paid a visit to the temples of the village. We went to a Ganesh temple which was closed
but the caretaker of the grounds was there for maintenance work. Mr shanker shilar. He is
the supervisor of the maintenance. He has been in the same post for past 30 years. At first his
salary was 300-350/- per month.

The temple was established a year after the sugar factory started functioning. The workers of
the factory contributed for the temple and so the temple was constructed. His salary now is
30,000/- as he looks after the factory ground’s maintenance as well.

He told us that when the sugar factory was established, there were no homes in shyamnagar,
it was a barren land and only one man ironed clothes. 50% of the current population is from
harangul, which is the neighbouring village. At present there are around 100 workers at the
sugar factory from shyamnagar.

The chairman of the factory is Dilip Rao deshmukh still visits the temple whenever he visits
the factory.
DAY-10

DATE: 25/09/17

BRICK KILN

Our visit to the brick kiln of the village was a new addition to our exposure of field work. We
visited the kiln area and had a casual conversation with the workers who are settled there.
Although we couldn’t see the furnace working and the whole process, the process was made
clear to us by the workers.

The mud is mixed with raw material and then put in a mould to set and form the shape of
brick and then is kept inside furnace to stiffen up. The raw material is collected from 20 kms
of the village area. The production goes on for 8 months from October to June and is shut
down for the 4 months during rainy season. 10 couples are permanently settled in the area
while other workers come from near and far, the workers from shyamnagar is comparatively
less, most workers come from ambajogai and ahmedpur which are villages situated a little
far.

For the production of 1000 bricks a worker gets paid 300/- for one day. There are 20 couples
and 150 workers in total. They use fuel wood and coal for the furnace and coal is brought
from Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. The cost of 1 brick is 5/- in the market, the bricks are sold to
government mostly for construction and frequently for personal construction. There are
40,000 bricks manufactured in a day. To supply these bricks there are 2 tempos, 2 trucks and
1 JCB.

Men and women get equal wages. The owner of the brick kiln Mr Sudhakar nagmode is a
generous man, he has provided electricity, shelter and a bore well for the workers settled in
the area. There is no contract basis on which the workers are employed, they can leave
whenever they want and in the rainy season if there is any loss incurred it is not compensated
by the workers. The workers get a weekly payment on every Tuesday for working 5 hours a
day. The owner has not institutioned mechanical line of production as the number of workers
decreases and many are unskilled labourers who will have a problem adjusting to and
learning the functions. Advance is also provided to workers in cases of emergency. The land
in which the brick kiln is, is an ancestral property and has been in use for the same since
1989. The rise of demand of bricks rocketed when the earthquake of 1993 hit and people
stopped using stone to build homes and instead started using bricks for house construction.

DAY-11

DATE: 26/09/17

33RD GENERAL BODY MEETING OF THE MANJRA SUGAR FACTORY

We attended the general body meeting of the Manjra sugar factory ltd. For its 33rd general
body meeting. We had the chairman of the factory Mr Dilip Rao deshmukh present there as
the chief guest for the afternoon.

There was a buffet for all and after that a full-fledged series of speeches by all the authorities
of the factory and at the last by Mr Dilip Rao Deshmukh himself.

We also got an opportunity to talk to him and discuss our work with him, though it was just
for 10 minutes but it was really great having an opportunity to talk and discuss our work with
such an eminent personality.
DAY-12

DATE: 27/09/17

VISIT TO THE CIVIL HOSPITAL, LATUR

We visited the city hospital which is the civil hospital in latur, there is no PHC neither a sub
centre in shyamnagar due to which everyone has to go to either the clinic which are in the
village or go to city hospital for check-up if the clinical doctor doesn’t seem to be fit enough
to treat and going to the hospital is recommended by them for safer proceedings.

We went there without informing them prior and so we had to take an appointment and wait
for our turn to meet with the medical super intendent Dr Shailendra Chauhan MBBS MD. He
told us that they don’t record any specifics regarding the people coming from particular
villages. Although ambulance services are provided to every nearby villages and pregnant
women are given proper attention and they attend every patient that comes in without asking
any sorts of question.
DAY-13

DATE: 28/09/17

VISIT TO CLINIC

I paid visit to one of the clinics in the village, Prithvi Hospital, which was looked over by two
doctors Dr. Ramraje Baburao Gaikwad Patil (MBBS) along with his wife Dr. Sonali Ramraje
Gaikwad Patil (BHMS). They have only the clinic and don’t work in any hospital.

They have been running their clinic for the past 14 years in shyamnagar and have only OPD
for emergencies and if they can’t look after the patient they advise them to visit civil hospital
in latur, they have their own medical store by the side of the store on contract basis with the
owner of the pharmacy. They have basic medicinal facilities such as nebulizer for asthma
patients, injections, they also provide health check-up, sugar check-up, etc.

She is the only lady doctor available here in the area radius of the village. Women are really
comfortable to speak to her and open up very soon with their problems, even she is very
friendly to them and makes them feel safe to speak something and to talk freely. Pregnant
ladies are happy with monthly check-up at ease. They also used to do stiches for the wounds
but they don’t anymore because of precision problem.

They operate the clinic from morning 9AM to night 9 PM.

Meeting with BDO

We had the opportunity to meet the BDO of latur district Mr Daingade, he has been
appointed here for the past 18 months, he looks over 120 villages and 110 gram panchayats.
He is the head officer to sanction any sorts of proposals that comes in for the development of
the villages. He takes care of different departments which are again headed by different
officers such as health, education, agriculture, construction, water.

Education department is headed by Gath shikshan Adhikari who takes care of the education
of students from 1st -8th standard, taluka aarogya adhikari for health, etc.
DAY-14

DATE: 29/09/17

SESSION WITH ADOLESCENT GIRLS

We conducted a session with adolescent girls at Anganwadi regarding the changes they are
going through at this phase of life and what all precautions they need to learn and take care of
for better health and maintaining hygiene.

After talking to them for a while we got to know that most of them use sanitary napkins but
some still used cloth during periods. So we told them the cons of using cloth and how a
sanitary napkin is better for use.

Using a cloth can cause infections if not washed properly or used again for a long period of
time. But sanitary napkin on the other hand is much safer and cleaner and less messy than
using clothes. You can use one at a time and dispose it off when done using it.

Even disposing off the sanitary napkins should be done properly, we taught them how to
dispose them off, and the population that used sanitary napkin disposes it off by creating a
mess which leads to further rise of infection and germs in environment. To better the
understanding for them we showcased a video in Marathi for menstrual hygiene.

As the sanitary napkins are made of either cotton or plastic which is not harmful, so it needs
to be burned off in order to not create germs and infections. So it should be first wrapped in a
piece of newspaper or any paper and then burned off in a place which is suitable i.e. not in or
nearby home but in a faraway place so the fumes do not harm our health.

The girls had some queries of their own which they were a little shy to ask at first but after
talking to them about it for a while they got comfortable and shared their problems and we
sorted there queries to the extent which we could.
DAY-15

DATE: 30/09/17

ATTENDED COMMUNITY CULTURAL PROGRAM IN THE VILLAGE

We attended the cultural meeting with our supervisor, the cultural program consisted of a
speech by Mr Wakure, a speech by our supervisor, and several other speeches by other
eminent personalities of the village. Mr Wakure discussed about the problems which the
villagers have been facing since long and how he wants to bring a change and our supervisor
spoke about how he could help the village situations become better only if they will
contribute and help in the process of change of as well. we were all felicitated and were
thanked to be the catalysts of change.

The strength of women present was remarkable and also of children, the men were present at
the usual strength. Everybody was really happy and agitated to do something and stake a
stand for the change, a positive change to surround them now, which is much needed and this
is the minute to midnight.
DAY-16

DATE: 1/10/17

ROJGAR SEVAK

We met the rojgar sevak of the village, Mr Shaukat shaikh, who is the appointed rojgar sevak
for the past 4 years, i.e. since 2013. His job is to look after the employment schemes and
implement them in the village and spread the word so that every individual can avail the
opportunity.

His priority task is the MGNREGA which has provided gharkul for 65 households till now,
57 underground drainage system, 10 toilets, and 70 irrigation wells for farmers. He gets
access to 18,000/- for a single gharkul project through MGNREGA AND 2000/- per project
when it comes to underground water drainage system.

According to him there are still 40% toilets application still in process of getting sanctioned
and for the vadar community only 10% work is done for the construction of toilets and 200
drainage system projects are still pending. He says additionally that he is also responsible for
construction of animal shelters and/or kennels for livestock. He gets a 201/- per day for
handling the responsibility of a rojgar sevak.

There are 400 job cards issued for the MGNREGA but out of those 400 only 100 show up for
work. After Diwali it gets easier for the people to get work. They have a muster roll which
needs to be signed by 6 workers and it will be sanctioned within a week. They have a budget
of 1 crore for the village.
DAY-17

DATE: 2/10/17

GRAM SABHA

This gram Sabha was no other we ever got a chance to attend. Most of times what happens is
people don’t come by to state their problems and ask for a solution by the panchayat panel
members. But here still there wasn’t enough quorum but people were eager for a solution and
would go to any extent to get an answer. The panel members were not present and those who
were present, did not co-operate and wanted to leave as soon as possible. They didn’t want to
make any sorts of arrangements neither were they interested in answering the crowd which
was present.

The gram sevak first made excuse of the quorum not being enough to conduct the gram
Sabha and then tried to leave by making excuse of him being occupied with other work and
was later then forced to sit with the available quorum and proceed with the gram Sabha.

Many personal conflicts were raised and discussed which again had no answer from the
Sarpanch or other panel members. The gram sevak noted the names, took their signatures but
didn’t write their complaints.
DAY-18

DATE: 3/10/17

CLINICS

I visited the clinics and talked to the doctors about the problems which are commonly faced
by the patients visiting them. I asked them about other health issues, if any issues are women
specific, men specific, children specific, any viruses, etc.

They said that the patients generally come with the problem of common cold, cough,
unbearable body pain, etc. and for women specific they said that the women come in for
anaemia mostly.

The clinics have all the basic facilities which can be provided for urgent needs and first aid
such as basic medication, nebulizers for asthma patients, and if needed further attention they
call for an ambulance and shift to the civil hospital.

PRA

We also conducted a PRA activity in vadar community to get an up close and personal look
at their conditions and what do they need, what improvements do they long for, what all
problems they face every day.

By conducting this PRA activity we really got to know a more explicit scenario of their
current conditions. Many women participated on their own and spoke out without any sort of
hesitation and stated their problems. The Venn diagram showcased many facets of the
problem which are faced by this particular community and also by other villagers in some
pockets.
DAY-19

DATE: 4/10/17

ANGANWADI

There are three Anganwadi in this village. We visited only one of those but later found out
that all of them were closed due to strike by the Anganwadi workers for the increment in the
salary they get.

We met one of the helpers Mrs Vidya kundlik Baedeker of Anganwadi no. 2 she gave us
information about the Anganwadi she works in and also of the other Angan wadis in the
village. She told us that in each Anganwadi there are approximately 30-35 students. The
ASHA worker comes in for providing vaccination. They provide mid-day meals, and they
serve khichdi, poha, laapsi, kheer, etc. for the kids. These food items come from SHG’s.

There are no toilets in any of the angan wadis. The kids go around nearby places if they want
to. All the angan wadis work with the ICDS scheme. There is also weighing machine to
weight kids monthly. They conduct a monthly meet for adolescent girls with the presence of
ASHA worker.

Her responsibility as a helper is to clean up after the kids, clean the Anganwadi daily and take
care of kids. She gets a salary of 2500/- per month. They have a monthly meeting in gangapur
as well. They provide different more nutritious food for kids with malnutrition. There are no
kids with any sort of disability in any of the angan wadis. The teacher Mrs Shaikh salima gets
a salary of 5000/- per month. She is from harangul.

PDS

The PDS shop is owned by Mr Subhas suryavanshi. He has the shop in his family for the past
27 years. Further information collection through him is as follows:
 S.no. Types of cards No. of card holders
1. Antyodaya 8
2. APL 50
3. BPL 50
4. Shetkari 25
5. Annasuraksha 350

The criteria of the PDS consists, that no people from APL category will be able to avail
anything from PDS. For BPL families each member get 2 kg of rice, 3kg wheat. Rice at the
rate of 3Rs/ kg and wheat for 2Rs/kg and no sugar for them.

For Antyodaya one family receives 14 kg rice, 21 kg wheat and 1 kg sugar no matter how
many members are there in the family.

The village of shyamnagar receives a total of 40 quintals of rice and 60 quintals of wheat
along with 10 kg of sugar.
DAY-20

DATE: 5/10/17

INDUSTRIES

We visited two factories in the area of shyamnagar village.

1. Octagon foods

This factory extracts oil from soya beans and has 10-11 workers from shyamnagar who are
temporary workers and are not at any of the authority position and get a wage of 400/-day by
working for 8 hours.

Many workers who are permanent and at authoritative position are from latur, ambajogai, etc.
nearby places. The factory doesn’t appoint any female workers as they had a little incident in
the other nearby factory with the safety issues and they didn’t want to get into safety issues so
they decided to not offer jobs to female workers.

The oil is used and exported to nearby areas only. They currently are not in need of extensive
workforce so they have less people working right now.

2. Sangameshwar steel factory

This factory is used for production of steel and exporting it to other parts of the state. The
factory has only 10 labours, all called out from Delhi for precision and there experience in
this work. There are no workers from shyamnagar or nearby villages.

The person we had a chat with is Mr Mohammed saddam who is the supervisor as well as the
brother of the owner. The factory is actually rented for industrial purposes by the actual
owner Mr Appa venkatesh.
DAY-21

DATE: 6/10/17

DISCUSSION WITH VILLAGERS REGARDING HEALTH ISSUES

I had a brief and prolonged discussion with the villagers at random about the health
conditions they face in the village in their daily lives. The participants were inclusive of all
men, women, aged and senile and children.

Women mainly face a lot of trouble with hygiene and sanitation as most of them don’t have a
toilet built in their homes and they have to go out for open defaecation at darker hours but
they face a lot of problem regarding safety, although they go out at times when no one can
see them but there is always a fear of kidnapping and in some extreme cases rape. Other than
this they are also scared of animals crawling about in the night time such as snakes,
scorpions, wild animals which are a threat to life, they also face problem in the time of
menstruation.

The women really need a toilet built inside their houses for safety and proper sanitation
needs.

With men and aged population, they feel that there is no such a big concern with health, as
there are clinics in the village with certified doctors who are at constant beck and call.
According to them, there are no major life threatening difficulties they face. Although those
who work in the factories nearby have their own concerns for not getting a quick help
because of PHC being very far away because going to the civil is cheaper than private but it
still take a lot of money to get some medical attention.
DAY-22

DATE: 7/10/17

PHC

The PHC to which the ASHA workers report back to is situated 10-11 kms away from
shyamnagar in a village named Gangapur. It takes a lot of time and money to travel out to the
PHC. We have to first go to Sivaji chowk in latur by tempo and then again take an auto at the
rate of 200 to gangapur. Now this gets really tiring and expensive, in this much money any
one from this village can go and get a check-up done in the civil hospital.

The PHC is thus in good condition, there are 3 on call doctors in PHC who also work in civil
hospital in latur. There is an ambulance. 6 nurses, a ward for pregnant women, a ward for ill
and accident met patients, and a clinic for storing all the serums, injections, and medicines as
it requires a cold place to store the medicines.

The head nurses has a separate cabin where she provides the service of vaccination to new-
borns.

WOMEN LABOURERS DISCUSSION

I had a discussion with the women in the village who go out to the factories and mills for job.
They had their own safety and security concerns along with health, as they work in a factory
they are afraid of smoke causing them any sort of breathing troubles later in life such as
wheezing, asthma, etc. which are tough to get rid of.

The women also have a major concern with the alcohol consumption of their husbands as
they get really tired with all the work and when they talk it results in a fight. But this
continuous consumption can cause them cancer, cirrhosis, or even sudden death at some point
of time in life and that too not so later looking at the rate of consumption. They really want
the alcohol stores to shut down but it works with the permission of gram panchayat and
another portion of the income made by the stores go to gram panchayat.
DAY-23

DATE: 8/10/17

MET MASW GIRL

We met a girl, Ms Sonali suryavanshi, from this very village who is also studying social
work from a college in ambajogai which is like 6-7 kms from latur. She is pursuing masters
currently and further plans on working in an NGO. We had a nice friendly chat with her
regarding our work and also got to know about all the work she had done so far as a student
of social work.

Surprisingly she hasn’t done any work here in her own village yet and didn’t seem to have
any plans for it too. But she sure had a lot of suggestions for us to work on, which we had
already done.

She told us many dynamics which we were aware of but we didn’t say anything out of
respect for her. We even discussed our previous work experience in our previously done field
works.

She wanted a broader scope on how to work with an NGO, which she hasn’t done before and
we all have had experiences of working with an NGO, so we helped her out.
DAY-24

DATE: 9/10/17

GRAM SABHA

The gram Sabha which was held on the 2nd of October didn’t go as planned and so the
Sarpanch decided to arrange another gram Sabha. As we planned earlier for performing our
skit we prepared again and went for the gram Sabha only to find out that there is even lesser
people present with no one being interested in doing anything and it looked like as if it was
forced onto them. We waited for some time hoping that people would turn up anytime soon,
but sadly it never happened.

ACTIVITY AT THE MANJRESHWAR SCHOOL

We conducted a group activity inclusive of all the students in the primary school for
explaining to them, the proper ways to wash one’s own hands and at what all times.

We taught them all the basic movements on how to properly wash hands, always using soap,
the proper motions, not leaving out nails and the back of the hand. They should always wash
hands before and after having any meal, after going to toilet, after playing as they play in
mud and sand mostly and also after petting their pets or any stray dogs.

The kids were very co-operative and learned quickly.

DAY-25

DATE: 10/10/17

VIDEOS AND ACTIVITY ON HEALTH AND WASTE MANAGEMENT

We conducted a group learning activity on hand wash and cleanliness for the kids of primary
classes in Manjreshwar School. We conducted a series of activities like card games in which
we matched one part of the body with its cleanliness and maintenance practice and kids have
to go to their other classmates and pair with them this way they learn better with fun and
games and as kids register incidents more clearly and for a long time.

We also showcased a video on waste management in which the kids learnt to keep not only
their homes clean and tidy but also their surroundings so that there is hygiene everywhere
around us. It all starts with one and that’s how we propagate one by one.

So we told them to install dustbins at their homes and taught them to differentiate between
dry waste and wet waste, biodegradable and non-biodegradable.
DAY-26

DATE: 11/10/17

VISITED ANGANWADI

We visited a functioning anganwadi today, we couldn’t previously because of the strike by

the workers and the helpers for a raise in their salary. The angan wadis are in good conditions
and have proper facilities as well with the exception of toilets. The kids have to go to the
fields.

Two of the angan wadis are in Zila Parishad School and one is in ward no.2. The angan wadis
have a water filter for safe drinking water, hand wash for hygiene and a weighing machine to
weight the kids once monthly. They also have a unique way of teaching, they have a pen
which on touching the book at one corner where it can be read, reads out the page out loud in
4 different languages, Hindi, Marathi, English and Gujrati. This way the kids learn fast and
it’s entertaining too. The kids learn while playing.

The workers and the helpers take very good care of the kids but the only problem that persists
is of the toilet, even though there are toilets in Zila Parishad, it’s in very bad condition and
cannot be used if used the kids will fall sick.