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Hubli/Karnataka, Lucknow/Uttar Pradesh, India
Ajay Suman Shukla grew up and completed his schooling in a rural area in Auraiya District of Uttar Pradesh. He completed M. Phil. in social work and post graduated from University of Lucknow with an MSW, where he was first exposed to the social sector and the work of Non-profit organizations. Since July 2009 Ajay is working with LEAD (LEders Accelerating Development) Program of Deshpande Foundation, Hubli, Karnataka, a program creating young Leaders. Ajay is a fellow Deshpande fellowship program on social entrepreneurship. Ajay has worked for one and a half years as Secretariat (Program) Associate with Men’s Action for Stopping Violence Against Women (MASVAW), which had a developed network working in 36 districts of Uttar Pradesh on ending gender discrimination and VAW. Ajay is keenly interested in networking, leadership, social entrepreneurship and securing people’s involvement in development action, particularly in efforts involving youth. Ajay is keenly interested in training youth and enhance their confidence and self motivation.
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Saturday, February 28, 2009

A 900 years old Dargah



In Karnataka district Dharwad, there is a village called Nagalavi. I visited this village regarding village study especially on the topic ‘Disease burden among workers in quarry work’. During the study I met with a family that is traditionally involve in a particular work. One of the family members he told me about a Dargah. This is called “Sayed Dadapeer Rehmatullah Kadri Dargah” and is about 900 years old. About 900 year back a person name Dadapeer came to this village he used to give talisman to the villagers for their cure and prosperous life. Later on this village was ruined; there was dense jungle around this Dargah. Some people used to come this Dargah for fulfilling their wishes and offerings. In 1972 Nagalavi again started to rehabilitate. Government also offered some housing planes to provide home to the new families. Now there are about 150 houses in that 38 houses hold Muslim families.
Every year in the month of March-April here ‘Urse’ is being celebrated together by Hindu and Muslim families. Many people use to come here on this occasion from Goa, Devangeeri, Bagalkote, and Sholapur. Out of them 80 percent people from Hindu family come here. This all information was given by Mr. Dadapeer and his son Inayatullah. Now they are taking care of this Dargah.

Guest Speaker Mr. Vivek Pawar

On 27th of February in my Deshpande Fellowship Program I attended an interactive session with Mr. Vivek Pawar, founder of Sankalp Semiconductors. Sankalp is one of the leading companies that design and manufacture chips and conductors for television, cell phone, digital camera, sound systems etc. Vivek formed this entreprise in 2005 in Bangalore and soon after one year it got settled up in Hubli at BVB Engineering College campus and became India’s first MNC that has its office in a college campus.
He explained his life journey from schooling to M.Tech in electronics. He was an average student and not more serious about good marks always. He did schooling from a boarding school and engineering with electronics from Pune. His more interest was on television and it’s functioning. So he got campus placement in a television company late he joined Videocon. He soon got promotion as assistant production manager and did a record production of manufacturing TVs. He increased the production from 20 TV per month to 400 per month. But did not continue his job there he left his handsome job and joined M Tech for further study, there in a campus selection he got an offer in Texas Instruments (One of the best company in chip making) and placed in United States of America. His will power always pushes him towards success. On the bases of his will power he was cured himself after reaching up to third stage of cancer.

all DFP cohort 2 fellows with Mr. Vivek Pawar
During this session he gave many learning like; ‘Focus on the particular way where you can perform better and put all energy there in centralized way’. He told about ORIA (Observeà Reflectà IntrospectàApply/Action) that how to react on a goal to achieve that.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Lead..Activity

In our surrounding there are many plants those are being planted but in the lack of looking after and watering them most of them get dried. So I planed for giving the new life to the plants and trees. So one of my senior DFP Cohort-1 fellow Mrs. Shakuntala encouraged me for this and also help me. With her help I contacted for water tank and a benevolent person who agreed to give me support for paying to water tank. Along with my Deshpande Fellowship Program Cohort - 2 co-fellows Chnadrashekhar, Chandru and Savita I reached Watering the Plants BVB College Campus near boys hostel, Vidyanagar Hubli. We all did this work and watered around 70 plants and trees. These all plants were planted into deserted land where only rainy water is accessible for the trees.For watering the plants we used two tankers of water.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Guest Speaker

On 20th February Mr. Ayyappa M.Masagi oriented us about his great work of water saving, harvesting and knowing the value of water and water resource. Masagi starts his day from 4 o’clock early morning. His vision is to make water efficient Globe. Thousands of experiments have been done for rain water harvesting by Masagi. He has been awarded for this work as an Ashoka Fellow and many other national level awards. This journey was started in 1994 by researching rain Water harvesting methods in his own farms lands. In 2005 he started WLF Water literacy Foundation to make Nation water efficient. ‘Harnessing our most precious resource (water) and bringing it to the people’ is the motto of WLF.

Earth has 25% land and 75% water, out of it only 2.53 % is fresh water. Out of 2.53% of fresh water 0.3% lakes and 30% is in ground. Main techniques those are being used for saving water are Recharge, safe, reuse and use efficiently. Related to water conservation he conducted more than 1200 programs in 8 states of the nation. Masagi believes in simple living and high thinking.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Nagalavi Village Stay

February 17 to 19 at stayed in a village Nagalavi of District Dharwad, Karnataka. Here during this period it was literally total different experience for me. Because villages in North India are differ than village in karnataka by architecture, tradition and social norms. It was tough for me to talk with villagers and get the information about them because most of villagers used kannada language in speaking. But I enjoyed my village stay.

Villagers digging stones in a mine
Kids at Anganwadi Centre

A part of Nagalavi village where all 15 families are engaged in livestock and milk production.


Ajay Praying to 'Allah'.



An outside look of Nagalavi village

Children at Primary School





Children having Mid-Day Meal









Monday, February 16, 2009

Lead..Activity



At evening on 15 February one photo exhibition was conducted on promoting plantation and sanitation. Here Latha and Ajay interacted with visitors and youth and gave them message to keep the place (Nrapatunga Betta) clean.

Lead..Activity

Fellows of Deshpande fellowship program Cohort II conducted sensitization workshop on gender at 'Samarpan School of Social Work, Sahitya Bhawan, Dharwad' on 15 February 2009.
On 15 February we (Chandru, Beerlinga, Davalsaheb and Ajay) reached Samarpan College at 9:50. All students were ready for the session so we started session at 10:15 am. First students welcomed us and then we introduced with all students.
Ajay started session with the sentence ‘what is gender’? Most of the students replied that gender defines male and women and it is sex. In proceeding this session it was asked students that whose face comes into mind and why? When we listen the word like- Home maker, Child care, manager, pilot, Prime Minister, president, driver, money earning, and soldier etc. According to designation and word they define following-
Driver- Men-> stamina, observation, intelligence, roots, alertness, skills, physically strong,
Taking care of child- women-> love and affection, nourishment, feel the needs, more responsibility, first teacher, non verbal communication
Earning- Men-> capacity, knowledge, strong physically and mentally, hard worker,
Looking after home- Women –> patience, perfect for home, supportive more time in home, mainting kitchen, guide, HM
Decision making for carrier- Men -> (head of the family, culture, experience, patriarchy family, guide the family, educate, economic power, source,
Prime Minister-Men -> (policy maker, direct representative, head of the cabinet, mass leader, law maker, responsible)
President- Men-> (leader, innovator, mass leader, authority, head of the nation, well wisher, international, representative
Manager- Men-> (skills, brilliant, managing people, administrator, leader, good planner, decision maker, guide, advisor, facilitator)
Police /Soldier- Men -> (powerful, stronger, courageous, intelligent)
There we discussed on each role of men and women. During this discussion some questions were raised that Women are more responsible for discrimination between boys and girls, they are the first teacher, they spend more time with kids, and women are more responsible for all house work. Men are giving opportunity to the women but they are not ready to take. Women do not have that much strength to deal in society. Men are stronger than women etc. For satiating all these queries--------
Ajay continued this session with power point presentation on 'socialization of Gender’. After defining the definition of gender and difference in gender and sex. This presentation was based on the process of socialization in human life and how a boy and a girl are treated in the society, how all stake holders of the society support and encourage discrimination against a girl/women directly or indirectly. During the presentation there was used one play on how we are promoting discrimination against a boy and a girl and this play was performed by student voluntary as part of this work shop. How our identification as a men or as women relates to the particular things that we use in our daily life it was shown. In the last part of this workshop we discussed on gender tree. It was showing that what are the things like social values, our behavior are deepen in the society like a root of a tree and in stem social institutions- family, education, media etc promotes these values to spread and at last in the farm of result that indicates in a tree as fruits and leaves shows discrimination against women and violence against women.
Learning:
Session was interactive, participatory and debatable some time.
First listening to the students and then replying logically was good method.
In all regions/states most of the situations are same related to men's behavior with women.

With Gururaj and Jaishree Deshpande


Founder of 'Deshpande Foundation' Mrs. Jaishree Deshpande and Mr. Gururaj Deshpande spent their valuable time with us on February 7. Mr. and Mrs. 'Desh' interacted with all the fellows and told us about their life journey from Hubli to Bostan, US.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Bommasamudra Village Study and PRA

Participatory Rural Appraisal PRA is a method of village study to know the reality of villages and the clear picture of all resources and facilities available there. I attended four days PRA theory sessions facilitated by Dr. Prakash Bhatt. On 10 February, Tuesday, I reached ‘Gram Chetana training centre, Soorashettikoppa, with my all co-fellows for the village study. We were told that this training centre was made by participatory efforts from villagers and this training centre is an entrepreneur of BAIF (Bhatia Agro Industries Foundation) organization. BAIF is a leading organization in the rural development field that has been working since 1967 and founded by Dr. Manibhai Desai. The journey of BAIF in Karnataka started in 1980 and BAIF-Karnataka now works in 20 Districts.

In the evening I visited village Kamplikoppa with all co-fellows Program Manager ChinnaBabu and PRA trainer Mr. Prakash Bhatt. Here we were welcomed by village people. We used tools of PRA like- Venn diagram, seasonal mapping, focus group discussion for dairy and milk, matrix ranking for vermi compost, time line for sanitation and disease and resource mapping.

On the second day we were divided into separate groups for the village study. I was in the team for Bomm samudra village study. There were four members (Lakshmish, Jagadish, Meenakshi and Ajay) in our group.
I reached the village after walking about 8 Kilometres. Here one facilitator, Mr. Shettappa from AME Foundation helped us in interaction with villagers. We had a meeting with about 30 people where we introduced ourselves to them and told them about our objective. In this meeting they told us that they all are busy from morning to evening in farming. We decided to collect demographic information of the village, we questioned village people about village population and other data and visited Junior High School (1st to 8th) and Aganwadi worker to take the related information on education and health of the village.


Key Information about the Village:
} It's 13.5 k.m. away from Hubli city.
} Population of around 1519.
} Main source of income is agriculture.
} It has Palya to east, Kardikoppa to west, Balagali to north and Varur to south.
} Around 300 families stay in the village.
} 100% of the households are connected by electricity.
} 70% are pakka houses and rest are kaccha houses.
} Only 30% of the houses have toilet facilities.
} Village contains 60% Kurubas, 30% lingayath, 10% Badigas, SC/ST and Muslim and Valikar.
} There are 5 water tanks and 7 bore wells, out of which 2 bore wells are not working.
} Many youngsters are in the driving profession.
} PHC is situated 1 km away from Bommasamudra at Harlikatte.
} Around 98% of deliveries are done in hospitals.
} Malaria is common during the rainy season.
} “Mid- day meals contributes to children’s participation and healthy development” – Head Mistress.
} TB (2-3 cases) in a year found and HIV (Human Immune deficiency Virus) positive (1 male & 1 female).
} Around 21 residents are disabled,which includes mental and physical disability (deaf, dumb etc…)
} The village has an Anganwadi and a school that teaches till class 8th standard.
} School has 230 children and 7 teachers.
} Main crops: jawar, soya beans, cotton, groundnut, paddy, chikku, maize, sunflower
} The area is surrounded by black and red soil
} Agriculture, carpentry, petty shops, coolie, small hotles are the main sources of income.
} Natural sources: two ponds, one Government and one private and 120 acre of fodder is there in the village.
At evening time after 6 pm most of the villagers used to come back to the homes from their daily work and aggriculture farms. But I had to go back 'Gram Chetana'. So we did two personal Interviews and left the village at 6 pm.

On the third day we started with transect walk and during the day we used PRA Tools like: resource mapping, matrix, Venn diagram, family visits and collected the related information from the villagers in participatory way.

Important Learning:
Castism is not followed by villagers; they celebrate all festivals together. Women and men both work in farms and go to markets. Language is important for deep interaction with villagers. Villagers have talent but they are not getting the platform to enrich their hidden talents. Attitude towards women is gender biased. Cattle are much more costly compared to north India. Pre-planning and some knowledge about villages is must before using PRA techniques.

Challenges:
Could not involve women for group activities with men. Gathering of villagers as much as required for participation. Villagers’ expectations.

Monday, February 9, 2009

DCSE Inauguration By Dr. kalam Ji


Energy source for youth, Famous Scientist, Honorable Ex President of India Mr. A P J Abdul Kalam visited and spent some time with us. It was occasion of Inauguration of Deshpande Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (DCSE) on February 6, 2009. Along with kalam Ji, Founder of Infosys Mr. N.R. Narayan Murthi, Mrs. Sudha Narayan Murthi, Founder Trusty of Deshpande Foundation Mr. Gururaj Desh and Mrs. Jaishree Deshpande also make this occasion memorable. First Kalam Sir Inaugurated RH Kulkarni Building and then DCSE.

I was waiting curiously for Kalam Ji to see him closely with all Deshpande Foundation Fellows and Staff Members. As he entered into building premises I started clapping to welcome him. I was not hoping that he likes youth and children this much but today I realized it. As he saw all of us he raised his hand towards us to hand sake, first of all I was hesitating but I too felt myself encouraged to get this opportunity and hold his soft hand into my hand. After inauguration we all fellows had a group photo with Dr. kalam, Mr. and Mrs. Narayanmurthi, Mr. and Mrs. Deshpande. Dr. Kalam Preached us by his valuable motivating words. In his speech he gave us lesson that-

He said that having small aim is crime so always have a great Aim, Acquire Knowledge Continuously, Work Hard Sincerely and Perseverance. His next word were that instead of fearing by problems defeat the problems and be succeed. He defined the Creative leadership with power chain that ‘Nation’s economy powered by competitiveness, competitiveness is powered by knowledge, knowledge powered by technology, technology powered by resource investment, resource investment powered by revenue and return of interest, revenue and return of interest powered by customer loyalty, customer loyalty powered by quality and value of product, quality and value of product powered by employee’s productivity, employee’s productivity powered by employees satisfaction and work hard, employees satisfaction powered by environment, environment powered by management leadership, management leadership Creative Leadership. So be a creative leader. Then he replied students’ asked questions. His presence was making this occasion grand.

After Dr. Kalam’s speech Mrs. Sudha Narayanmurthi, Mr. NR Narayanmurthi and Gururaj Deshpande share their constructive thoughts. This program was memorable for me to have all these great personalities and to listen their view on Social entrepreneur.



Monday, February 2, 2009

Module Session

Today it was my first Module session. This session was on Public Health and was facilitated by Mrs. Meenakshi Verma-Agrawal (Program Officer-Global Exchange Programs) Deshpande Foundation. She used various tools for teaching us about Public Health. We gave our introduction to her including our last day involvement in activity. Most of the fellows told about their last day involvement in Polio Eradication Campaign. Meenakshi explained about her background and qualification. She has done her Masters in Public Health.
She taught us about Public Health with help of PPT that what is Public Health, Core Areas of Public Health and it's explanation. She told that in United States the cholera epidemic started the public health movement and every fourth person is over weight there. Then she shown a documentary called "Tale of Two Cities". This documentary was based on dwellers in Indore and their accessibility to the Public Health Services. Then we were given some questions based on the documentary to answer on them.
In second session we all fellows were involved in the debate to discuss on two given social topics. In another activity we were given two Mumbai based NGOs case study and on basis of that study we practiced the Problems, Causes, Solutions and challenges in that particular slum. After the lunch all practised on project proposals for public health and represented them in front of funder organization through a live practice play. It was a great learning for me because I was in the role of funder. So I came to know that what are the key factors that we should keep in our mind when we represent a proposal. Overall full day session was a bunch of learning to understand Public Health.

A Horrible Night

(My One Night Biography)
At 8 pm on 31st I left Hubli. I was at Ankola Bus Stop at 12 am on 1 February. I watched here and there but no one was there to tell me the except a shopkeeper, he told me the way of Ankola Railway station and said that it is on walking distance. So I decided to not hire the auto and started walking towards railway station. I had to met my cousin who was coming from Lucknow and going to Mangalore and train stops only for two minutes at Ankola railway station.



It was 12 midnight so no more people were there on the way. I asked one cycle man he gesture me to move strait (Because I was not able to get his Cannada speech). Again after walking some more I asked two more people the way they guided me. Now after 15 minutes I was on high way away from the city. There was no one person on this lonely way I was just keep moving ahead with hope to reach to the destination soon. After walking around 2 and half KM I saw a shop beside the road where shop keeper was going to close it. I asked him for the railway station he said after one km near a Dhaba you have to turn left. I was assured so again started walking. On this lonely high way only trucks were passing every after some minutes and it was a dark night, only I was able to see properly way in the trucks headlight and after passing the truck again it was dark on the road. Now I was much far from the city and no one was there to tell me the way that where should I go? I reached near light place it was a Diabetes research centre but on the gate I was not able see any one.
Now there was fear and I was misguide that what should I do? At the same time I saw on contact numbers on the hording of Diabetes Centre So I dialled the number, ring was going and I was listening that near by the place where I was standing that phone was ringing, a man picked up the call he said "hello" in sleepy way. I request him for the help to tell me the way of railway station. I was not getting him much because he was speaking in Kannada and Hindi mix. I disconnected the call. Now again I was thinking that what should I do.........I dialed '100' number and request for the help, he gave me a phone number of a railway station and said to call on this number for help because he was speaking from Karwar centre. I dialed that number and asked for help that policeman was also from Karwar Police Station and he said that he is 35 km far from the location and gave me Ankola Police Station's Number. I make call to this number and explained all about my problem and location he said me to go some more ahead.
I was sure that now I will reach very soon to the railway station, again I walked around 1 and half km more but there was no way for the railway station. I was in dilemma that what should I do now? should I move ahead or should I go back. There were jungle around me apart from huge trees nothing was there to whom I could ask for help. But I was keep walking ahead then I saw a small mill. The gate was locked and watchman was not there. But one dog was there on gate, I thought that if I go near the dog he will start barking and some one sure come to see that why he is barking. But I was failed in this experiment that dog was just watching me and no barking no movement. Then I saw that near the gate in a room two people are sleeping, I knocked the gate to get up them, one of them got up and after listening me he replied that " you have come very much away from the railway station, go back around two km and then turn right near the Dhaba." I innocent what could do? again turned back and now I started running. Meanwhile my cousin gave me call and asked that have you reached railway station? I explained him in brief all about it. Now after running around two km I was near a Dhaba there some boys were watching television I asked them the way. Told me again go back the side I was coming and turn left from first turn. I did the same and again after walking one and half km through a very narrow way covered by trees I was able to reach Ankola Railway Station at 1:35 am .