Movie: A Narmada Diary (57 mins.)
Date: 6th October, 2009
Venue: Seminar Room, Deptt. Of Social Work, Jamia
Time: 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Subject Association, along with Pravah, held a screening of the movie – A Narmada Diary, as a part of the ‘Movies for Thoughts’ film fest at Jamia Millia Islamia University campus. The movie explores the question of development, from the perspective of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. Set in the early 1990s, when the dam was still under construction, it documents the early stages of the said project and the Narmada Bachao Andolan. It touched upon such pertinent issues as rehabilitation, traditional vs. modern irrigation techniques, transparency and disclosure, and the like.

With this in mind, the actual screening was preceded by a question for the audience – What development meant to them?? The responses ranged from sustainability, positive and need-based growth to freedom, a high HDI, and the decentralization of decision-making to the rural villages and towns. With this background, the movie commenced.

After an hour or so, the discussion began by asking the participants to revisit their parameters for development, and apply the same to the movie. While some people said that the movie could promote vested interests and bank on it’s emotional quotient, a majority felt that everybody saw development with a different perspective, and what one sees as development might not be that for another. In this context, the question of need-based growth came up, and the participants were forced to question the aims of the dam, in light of the expectations of the rural poor.

A cost-benefit analysis was also considered necessary by a few, since the benefits were to come only after 30 years, while the costs could even be borne by the displaced forever. This naturally led to the question of the stakeholders, and who was bearing the costs without reaping the benefits, and vice-versa. The issue of adequate compensation (in kind and cash), and how much is necessary for sustenance, and whether it is even measurable, was also brought up in the course of the discussion. With regard to this, the participants came up with other examples, like thermal power plants, and SEZs, where the same situation was prevalent.

Due to time constraints, the discussion could not continue further, but it proved to be a very healthy interactive space for all. The discussion did heat up at some point, but the facilitators were able to bring decorum again. It was agreed by all that there was a need for active citizenship, and understood that even having an opinion on such issues, and being confident to take a stand, is a vital part of active citizenship, and of what Pravah does.

On the 13th of September, the monthly meeting of SMILErs was held and it went on from around 10 in the morning to 6 in the evening!

Many things were discussed during the course of the day related to our targets, our accomplishments of the past month and our future goals, the details of which will come up soon.

Through the final discussion in which Abhijit, Neeru, Sudeep, Surana, Nishu, Rashmi, Neha, Sulab and Anurag were present we decided to modify our action project and slightly alter our future proceedings.

Firstly, it was mutually reached that the goals were to be modified a bit keeping the current scenario of working into consideration.

Secondly, it was decided that the film club was doing a great job in increasing visibility of Pravah in various colleges which was highlighted by the fact that we have been asked to return to all the colleges to which we’ve been. So it was decided to strengthen our relations with those college students by continuing the screenings and discussions so that they might be involved with Pravah as and when something comes up in the future. It was also decided to reach out to more colleges through similar means so as to start the process in those colleges too.

Thirdly a new project was discussed and was decided to be started asap. It was established by consensus that the Rural Internship was all about grass root level movements and engaging positively with those people to bring about some sort of change and enriching our knowledge along the process. It was felt that this aspect was previously missing from our action project and needed to be fused with our plan of action so that we don’t lose touch with our learning’s. So the plan was that we will take up a backward / underdeveloped community and develop a plan in that space. The plan broadly had 3 aspects :

1. Initially, it was about interacting with the community through various conventional and unconventional means so as to get an insight into their lives and develop a bond. This is meant to be a continuous process.

2. At the same time it was decided to revive the ACR (action research group) so as to effectively compile the information on the community, establish various trends about them and concluding something with all the data. This will be very time consuming and intensive process which will require a great amount of dedication and seriousness on our part. At the same time it will be in all probability a very fun process in which we will get to learn a lot.

3. Using all of this it was decided that we could develop and launch some sort of program if things worked out well that would benefit the target community.

Apart from this a plan to Jaipur was decided so as to witness a community project and learn from it. It will take place at the earliest

Meanwhile search of the community will also begin.

Also as usual we ppl had a lot of fun!!

Looking fwd to seeing u all.

Keep :)ing

SMILE'rs :)

SMILER’s from IIT, in collaboration with NSS took up the initiative of giving their rural internship presentation at 2LT2 in IIT. The session was being moderated by Abishek and Anurag. It started with an activity wherein, the audience was divided into pairs and one member of each pair was told to hold the index finger of other member and the latter had to free their finger. Everybody was then asked that how did they free their fingers and spontaneous came the reply from all that they forcefully pulled their finger out from the grip. But no one had requested the other member to leave their finger. So the point that was stressed here was thinking out of the box and looking at the alternate and sustainable ways to deal with things.

The audience was asked that why do they feel volunteering is important?
Following were some of the responses:-

Leadership quality enhances.
To be heard by the larger society.
To help other’s and not just looking at our own personal benefits.
Volunteering is a two-way learning process.

There was a brief discussion on the last two contradictory statements and finally the conclusion that the audience arrived upon was that volunteering is not just giving something to society without any personal benefits but the learning that unfolds and the skills/qualities that enrich the volunteer there-on help in his/her personality development.

Then the question was thrown to the students that how does volunteering help us and following were the responses:-

Provides Satisfaction.
Helps in networking.
Personality development.
Communication skills are enhanced.
‘Job karke hum engineer ban sakte hain, insaan nahi’
Also one of the students said that rural people are not aware about the schemes meant for them and neither do they have an access to them. So, volunteering is about reaching to these lesser privileged people and in his words – ‘kisi ko to pehla kadam lena padega’.
People have a lot of expectations from IIT’ians- that they are educated, they are the cream and would help the masses.

Abhishek and Anurag then gave a brief introduction of Pravah and the SMILE program of it. And also shared their rural internship experiences:-

Abishek Chaudhary: who went to SECMOL, Ladakh shared that his main task there was to teach students. He also threw light on the fact that in 1990, the pass percentage was just 5-10% in the village where he had gone and how SECMOL took up the initiative of “Operation New hook” of improving upon the educational status of the village. He also said that the internship was the most cherishable period in his life.

Anurag: who had gone to Sabuj Sangha, Sunderbans for his internship shared that he chose the organisation because it works on a lot of issues and for the holistic development of people. He gave a brief introduction about the organisation, where he interned and threw light on the Cyclone AILA disaster that had struck the coastal areas of West Bengal on 25th May, 2009. He emphasised on the hostility, warmth and kindness of people and the very fact that despite being poor, they are very welcoming and gracious.
He concluded with his learnings- that he learnt to get out of his comfort zone, learnt professionalism as he had to finish the tasks assigned to him in time and to have fun to the optimal level.

Abishek Surana: who went to Satpuda foundation in Maharashtra, shared his experiences of living without electricity for 1 month and going to jungle for the first time. He also stressed on the fact that everything has to reach the bottom too and has to be sustainable like if electricity is not reaching to all, then what is the use of having it. It leads to more disparity and urban- rural divide.

Other SMILER’s also shared their experiences of their rural internships.
There were a few questions by the students:

Who made the arrangements for you to stay in the rural areas?
How was the reaction of people regarding the work you did?
Why doesn’t scheme reach to the masses?
What change did you bring there?

Response: Political motives and corruption are so deeply imbibed in our country that leads to deliberate lack of resources to the people and deliberately keeping them away from the resources. To bring about change in a month is very difficult but the very fact that we are sharing our learnings and screening movies on social issues conveys the fact that we can bring in some change somewhere. And more importantly if we change even our own selves is an achievement.


Moderators also shared about the changes in themselves:

Our problems suddenly seemed very small in front of their’s.
Have become more self aware.
Filled with optimism.
Knowledge about many issues has enhanced.

The session was concluded with the following lines and then the video, which summarised the whole process of rural internship experience:

Peel life to see the real life,

Expand your boundaries.

Keep :)ing

SMILE'rs :)

Date: 9th September 2009
Venue: Mata Sundari College for Women, Mata Sundari Lane
New Delhi- 110002

Introduction:

The movie screening at Mata Sundari College was Different in many ways. The observations that came up during the screening and facilitation has been a great leaning experience in terms of our planning and Implementation of the whole Movie Screening Process. The Movie was screened in the computer lab of the college and it was encouraging to see that not only did the students turn out in large numbers but also one could see that there was active involvement of the teachers, admistrators and the members of Matasundari Movie Screening Society. The Movie screening started with a brief introduction of Pravah and Smilers and then we screened Skin Deep – “A documentary which reflects on the eternal search for Ideal Feminity and how it permeates the self image of women.”


Issues :

The Screening of the Movie could not complete due to a power cut, however the discussion was more or less Fruitful. A number of interesting perspectives relating to following issues were discussed and elaborated

FEMINISM IDENTITY

STEREOTYPES PORTRAITS

GENDER


Discussion :

• The discussion commences with the audiences expressing their views on the movie and the issues that were evident from the narratives of the characters who hold an integral part of the movie
• Once the discussion gathered momentum a small activity was undertaken o understand the stereotypes that are generally formed especially in context of the term Beauty/Beautiful
• The activity was basically a one word association, wherein each one of us tried to define beauty in one word and a few interesting question and viewpoints emerged
• What does the term Beautiful mean?
• Beauty is not all about physical appearances it is equally relevant to the inner self
• “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” – The way we look at things often influence on what is considered as beautiful
• Then the discussion was routed towards the stereotypes- Its Origin, Impact and personal experiences.
• Our society is male dominated and a lot of stereotypes have been formed by them
• Instances were quoted by the audiences to show both the sides of the gender discrimination



Summary:

The active involvement of the audiences intensified the discussion and gathered momentum at different times, in spite of the fact that the movie screening could not be completed due to frequent Obstructions such as power cuts which did lead to unforeseen delays. However, the fact that a lot of people were actually willing to carry forward the screening at a future date was very encouraging. One of the high points of the movie screening was that a number of students approached us and asked if in the future we can organize more of such event and even create spaces for students to discover. We have learnt our lessons from the screening and a quote by Mr. Clay P. Bedford top executive of Kaiser Industries in California sums up our experience.

“You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives”

We would like to thank the Teacher's for their support in carrying out this screening and also thank the students for showing so much interest by being an active part of the discussion.

Keep :)ing

SMILE'rs

Sorry to inform all of you that the movie screening organized of the movie "Born into Brothels" at IIT on the 12th of September at 5:00 p.m. has been called off due to non availability of space on the particular day. We apologize for the same and will make sure that we inform you whenever the next screening takes place.

However the presentation of the Rural Internship by the SMILE volunteers will take place on Sunday the 13th of September and we hope to see all of you there!