Uyir Puththagam - Book Review

Uyir Puththagam (Tamil translation of Ayussinte Pusthakam Malayalam) - Book Review

Kizhakku Pathippakam deserves appreciation for its innovative book review scheme. I got uyir puthagam for a review. It took three days to read the book, one day to write the review and for more than a month to post my review. People are making tall claims about Tamil computing, but for people like me it seems to be a luxury. Finally I scanned my review and uploaded it. If any one suggest me an user friendly Tamil software, I will be thankful to them to the rest of my life. "kizhakku" people may apolozise for this delay over which I have no control. If they teach me tamil computing, I am pleased to write more reviews in this blog.

உயிர்ப்புத்தகம் - மதிப்புரை

கிழக்குப் பதிப்பகத்தாரின் புத்தக விமா;சனத் திட்டம் உண்மையிலே பாராட்டிற்குரியது. இத்திட்டத்தின்படி மலையாள எழுத்தாளா ஸி.வி.பாலகிருஷ்ணன் எழுதிய ஆயுஸ்ஸின்டே புஸ்தகத்தின் தமிழ் மொழிபெயா;ப்பான 'உயிர்ப்புத்தகம்' (தமிழாக்கம்; வை.கிருஷ்ணமூர்த்தி) எனக்குக் கிடைத்தது.

எந்தப் புத்தகத்தையும் மதிப்புரை எழுதும் கண்ணோட்டத்துடன் படித்ததில்லை. வாசிப்பிலிருந்து மதிப்பிடலை புறந்தள்ளி விட முடியாதாகையால், மதிப்பிடல் பெரும்பாலும் மனஅசை போடலோடு நின்றுவிடும். அந்த அசைவை எழுத்தாக்க வேண்டும். அந்த எழுத்தில் நோ;மை இருக்கவேண்டும். எழுதுவதென்பதையே கடினமாக நினைப்பவா;களுக்கு, நோ;மையாக எழுதுவதென்பது இன்னும் கடினம்தான். படித்து முடித்து பல நாட்கள் கடந்த பின்பு எழுதினேன். எழுதி முடித்த பின்பு சுகமாக இருந்தது. அந்த சுகம் என் எழுத்தினால் கிடைத்ததா இல்லை ஒரு நல்ல புத்தகத்தைப் படித்ததால் கிடைத்ததா என்று எனக்கே புரியவில்லை.

உயிர்ப்புத்தகத்தின் களம் கனமானதுதான். மொழி பெயா;ப்பாளரே ஒப்புக்கொண்ட மாதிரி உருவகங்கள் நிறைந்த இந்நாவலுக்கு 'ஆழமான வாசிப்பு' தேவைப்படுகிறதென்னவோ உண்மைதான். இலக்கியம் என்பது கடல்மாதிரி. கடலில் படகில் பயணித்து வலைவீசியும் மீன்பிடிக்கலாம்;, மூழ்கியும் முத்தெடு;க்கலாம். ஆழமான வாசிப்பு என்பது முத்துக் குளித்தலைப் போன்றது. முத்துக் குளிக்கத் தொயாத மீனவரை, பெரும்பாலான மீனவா;கள் அப்படித்தானிருக்கின்றார்களென்றாலும், அவா;களை மீனவா;களி;ல்லை என்று எப்படிப் புறந்தள்ள முடியாதோ அதுமாதிரி, ஆழமாக வாசிக்க இயலாதவா;களை நல்ல வாசகா;கள் இல்லையென்று புறந்தள்ள முடியாதில்லையா? நானும் அப்படித்தான். முத்துக்குளிக்கத் தொயாத, வலைவீசி மட்டும் மீன்பிடிக்கத் தொந்த மீனவன் மாதிரி. உயிர்ப்புத்தகத்தில் நான் வீசிய வலையில் சிக்கியவற்றை உங்கள் கவனத்திற்கு கொண்டு வருகின்றேன்.

கதைக் களத்தை விட, 'உயிர்ப்புத்தகத்தில்' கதை மாந்தா;களின் மனக்களம் தான் நாவல் முழுமைக்கும் ஆக்கிரமித்திருக்கின்றது. பௌலோ என்ற பொயவா;, சிறைக்குச் சென்று திரும்பிய அவரது மகன் தோமோ, தோமோவின் மகள் ஆனி, மகன் ரோஹன்னான் இவா;களை மையப்படுத்தி நகரும் கதை. முப்பதிற்குள் அடங்கிவிடும் சாமன்ய கதாபாத்திரங்கள். பொpயவா; பௌலோ, அவருடைய பேத்தியின் தோழியான ராஹேல் என்ற சிறுமி பதற்றமடையும்படி சஞ்சலத்துடன் நடந்து கொண்டதை அவா; மகன் தோமோ பார்த்து விடுகிறான். அவா; மீது கோபமடைந்து அவரை அடிக்கிறான். தன் தந்தையை அடித்தற்கான காரணங்களை சாராயக் கடையில் வைத்துச் சொல்லும் போது, பொயவா; பௌலோவின் மானம் பறி போகுமென்று நாம் நினைக்கும் முன்னே, பௌலோ தன் முடிவைத் தேடிக் கொள்கிறார். மானம் போகுமே என்று பயந்து தற்கொலை செய்து கொள்வதும், அப்படி மாத்தவா;கள் கொச்சைப்படுத்தப்படுவதுமே நாம் அறிந்தது. ஆனால், சாதாரண மனிதா;கள் அதைக் கொச்சைப்படுத்தாமல், அதைக் கடந்து சென்று மாத்தவருக்கும், அவா; தொடா;பான உயிருள்ளவா;களுக்கும் அவா;கள் கொடுக்கும் மாயாதை வித்தியாசமான அணுகுமுறை. பௌலோவின் துர்மரணத்தைப் பற்றிய விளக்கங்கள் தவிர்க்கப்பட்டிருப்பது, நாவலாசிரியான் அணுகுமுறையா அல்லது சாதாரண சமூகங்களின் எதார்த்த நிலையா? ஒரு சமூகம் மகிமையுடன் படம் பிடித்துக் காட்டப்பட்டிருக்கிறது உயிர்ப்புத்தகத்தில்.

பௌலோவின் துர்மரணமோ, ஆனி-பாதிரியார் மாத்யு+வின் காதலோ, கன்னியாஸ்திரி பயிற்சிக்குச் செல்லுமுன் ராஹேல் ரோஹன்னானுடன் உடலுறவு கொள்வதோ, ஸாரா-ரோஹன்னானின் காதலோ, தோமோ ஸாராவின் கழுத்தை நெறித்ததோ - நம் அன்றாட வாழ்ககையில் கேள்விப்பட்டதுதான். இருப்பினும் கதை முடியும் போது ரோஹன்னானின் நிலை நம் மனதை பிசைவதென்னவோ உண்மை. இவனுக்கு நைனானைப் போலவோ, மைக்கேல் போலவோ, ஜோஷி போலவோ ஏன் வாழ்க்கை அமையவில்லை? ரோஹன்னான் அக்கிரமக்காரனுமல்ல, வஞ்சகனுமல்ல, உறுதியற்றவனுமல்ல…இருப்பினும் கிறிஸ்துவின் கிருபை அவனை ஏன் சென்றடையவில்லை? துன்பமற்ற, மகிழ்ச்சியான வாழ்வு மட்டும் தான் கடவுள்ஃகா;த்தாpன் கிருபையின் வெளிப்பாடாக இருக்க வேண்டுமா என்ன? எதையும் நிந்திக்காத, எதார்த்தத்தை ஏற்றுக் கொள்ளும் மனப்பக்குவம் கூட கிருபையின் வெளிப்பாடாகத்தானே இருக்க முடியும்?

எதுவுமற்றவா;களாக கதாபாத்திரங்கள் காட்டப்படாவிட்டாலும் கூட, அவா;களின் மனஓட்டங்கள் சித்தாக்கப்படும் விதம் நம்மை சோகத்திலாழ்த்தி உடைய வைக்கின்றது. உடைந்;து போய்விடுவோமோ என்ற சுயபயத்தில் தானென்னவோ, சாமுவேல் ஆசிரியா;, யாகோப், ரோஹன்னானுக்கு கா;த்தான் கிருபை கிடைக்கவில்லையென்பதை நினைத்து நம்மை வருத்தப்பட வைக்கின்றதோ என்னவோ? எனனவென்று புரியவில்லை. புரிதல்களற்று, பல திசைகளிலும் அலைக்கழிக்கப்படுவது தான் வாழ்க்கையின் எதார்த்தமோ? நாவல் முழுக்க இந்த எதார்த்தம் விரவிக் கிடக்கின்றது. இந்த எதார்த்தத்தைப் புரிந்து கொள்ள ஆழமான வாசிப்பு தேவைப்படுகிறது.

ரோஹன்னான் - விதவை ஸாரா உறவு கதையின் முடிவைத் தீர்மானிக்கிறது. இவா;களின் உறவை வதந்தியாக்கும் போஸ்ட்மேன் பீட்டா;. வதந்தியை நம்;பி 'ஸாராவுடன் உடலுறவு கொண்டாயா? ஏன்று பாதிரியா; ரோஹன்னானிடம் இங்கிதமற்று கேட்பதால் ஏற்படும் விளைவுகள். தன் மகனை வதந்தியிலிருந்து காப்பாற்ற, தோமோ ஸாராவிடம் பேசச் சென்றது தவறாகப் புரிந்து; கொள்ளப்பட்டு, அதனடிப்படையில் தோமோ-ஸாராவிற்கு அவா;களிருவருக்கும் திருமணம் செய்து வைக்க பிலிப்போஸ் செய்யும் வெகுளித்தனமான முயற்சியால் ஏற்படும் திருப்பங்;கள். யாரும் யாருக்கும் திட்டமிட்டு தீங்கிழைக்காத நிலையில் துயரங்கள் தன்னிச்சையாக வந்து கவிகின்றது. அதுதான் வாழ்வின் எதார்ததமென்றும் அந்த எதாhத்தங்களை மீறிச் செல்லாதவாறு நாவலின் போக்கு அமைந்திருப்பது வாசகனுக்கு வலியை ஏற்படுத்துவதென்னவோ உண்மை. அந்த வலி கூட, எதார்த்தங்களை ஏற்றுக் கொள்ள மறுக்கும் நமது சுயபயத்தினடிப்படையில் ஏற்படுகின்றதென்னவோ தொயவில்லை. மொத்தத்தில் 'உயிர்ப்புத்தகம்' எந்த ஒரு மதநம்பிக்கையும் கடந்த வித்தியாசமான ஆன்மீக அனுபவத்தை நமக்குள் ஏற்படுத்துவதென்னவோ உண்மை தான்.

உயா;நிலைப்பள்ளியும், பேரலல் காலேஜீம் செயல்படும் ஊரின் பிழைப்பாதாரப் பாமாணங்கள் விளக்கப்படவில்லையென்றாலும், ஏற்றத்தாழ்வற்ற உறவுமுறைகள் பு+டகமாகச் சொல்லப்பட்டு செல்லும் பாங்கைச் சட்டென்று புரிந்து கொள்ள நாம் தடுமாறினாலும், அந்தத் தடுமாற்றத்தினூடே சிறிது சிறிதாக அச்சிறிய சமூகத்தின் மீது மாயாதை உருவாகிறது. கதைக் களத்தின் பொருளாதாரப் பிண்ணணி விளக்கப்படாமல் தவிர்க்கப்பட்டிருப்பது கூட கதாசிரியா; கையாண்ட உத்தியாகத்தானிருக்குமோ என்று நாவலைப் படித்து முடித்தபின் நம்மை எண்ணத் தூண்டுகிறது. பொருளாதாரப் பிண்ணணியே மனிதா;களுக்கிடையே ஏற்றத்தாழ்வுகளை உருவாக்குவதால், அதைப் பற்றிய விளக்கங்கள் தவிர்க்கப்படும் பொழுது, கதாபாத்திரங்களிடையே சமத்துவம் வெளிப்படுத்தப்படுகிறது. எந்தக் கதாபாத்திரத்தையும் மேன்மையுள்ளவராகவோ, கீழ்மையுள்ளவராகவோ காட்டும் போக்கு முற்றிலும் இல்லாதது வாசிப்பவருக்கு புது அனுபவம்.

உயா;நிலைப்பள்ளியில் படிக்கும் வயதுடைய கதாபாத்திரங்களை மையப்படுத்தி கதை நகா;ந்தாலும், மற்ற வயதுடைய கதாபாத்திரங்களும் ஊடாடி வருவதும், பொயவா; சிறியவா; என்ற பேதங்கடந்த நிலையில் கட்டமைக்கப்பட்ட கதைக்களம் புதுமையானது.

தாயில்லாமல் வளரும் குழந்தைகளின் மனேபாவம் நாவலில் சுட்டிக்காட்டப்படுவதாகவோ, ஸாரா-ரோஹன்னானை சோ;த்து வைத்திருக்கலாமென்றே, இந்த சம்பவத்தை இப்படி விளக்கியிருக்கலாம், விளக்கியிருக்கக் கூடாதென்றோ…. அங்கங்கே தென்படும் அச்சு, மற்றும் வார்த்தைப் பிழைகளை மதிப்புரை என்ற பெயால் சுட்டிக்காட்ட விரும்பவில்லை. ஓரு நல்ல பிறமொழி இலக்கியத்தின் மொழிபெயா;ப்பே என்னைனப் பொருத்தவரையில் முக்கியமாகப்படுகிறது. வை.கிருஷ்ணமூர்த்திக்கும், கிழக்குப் பதிப்பகத்தாருக்கும் நன்றி.

கடைசியாக மதிப்புரை சாராத சில வார்த்தைகள். கனமான, வித்தியாசமான கதைக் களத்தைக் கொண்ட ஒரு நாவலை மொழிபெயா;த்து வெளியிடும் போது, கதைக் களத்தின் கனத்தை வாசகனுக்கு அறிமுகப்படுத்துவது கதையின் கனத்தைத் தாங்கிக் கொள்ள வாசகனைத் தயார்படுத்தும். இது மூலத்தில் இல்லாத ஒரு முன்னுரையாகவோ, மூலத்தைப் பற்றிய தோ;ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்ட மதிப்புரையாகவோ இருக்கலாம். அது வாசகனுக்கு ஆழ்ந்த வாசிப்பின் அடியில் கிடைக்கும் முத்துக்களை இனங் கண்டுகொள்ள உதவும். புத்தகத்தின் இணைப்பாக அதைத் தந்தால், இனி உயிர்ப்புத்தகத்தை வாசிப்பவா;களுக்கு உதவியாயிருக்கும். இதைச் செய்ய இன்னும் காலதாமதாமாகவில்லையென்றே எனக்குப்படுகின்றது.

Mekkarai

First visit to Mekkarai

It was a pure destiny in the physical form of Mr. M.Ramachandran of Naethra Technology, Chennai that took me to Mekkarai,a beautiful village on Tamilnadu-Kerala border,which opened up new learning opportunities and to initiate development experiments from new perspectives.

A friend known to both of us, told me that a man from Madras, a devotee of Achankoil Iyyappan is interested in rural development in a village near Senkottai on the way to Achankoil and my guidance will be of great help to that man. My previous experience with some of the goodwill based development experiments made me to not to accept his request immediately. But that friend was persisting me and finally I accepted his request .. not because of the proposed initiative the Madras man is going to take up..but because of my interest to visit at least one Iyappa shrine.Finally a date was fixed and it is planned to start our journey from Madurai at 4 o’clock in the early morning.

When I met Mr. Ramachandran, he looked like a Swamiji with his kaavi dhoti. When I asked him what made him to take up this initiative, his answer was simple and straightforward. "எனக்கு கிடச்ச வாழ்க்கை, செல்வம்… அச்சன்கோவில் அய்யப்பனாலும், மேக்கரை கருப்பானாலும் கிடச்சதா நினைக்கிறேன். அதுல கொஞ்சம் பிறருடன் பங்கிட்டுக்கொள்ள நினைக்கிறேன். (I strongly believe that whatever I have is the blessings of Achankoil Ayyappan and Kottaivasal Karuppan and I have to share it with those who live in that area) If he would have said that he was moved by the poverty and backwardness of the village, I would not have been attracted either to him or to his initiative in Mekkarai. What I found in him was a quest for self actualization, which basically sustains initiatives like this. That attracted me towards Ramachandranji and Mekkarai.

I went to Mekkarai along with him and our common friend Swadeshi Srinivasan. For a man like me who hails from a rain fed area, Mekkarai looked beautiful with its scenic beauty. Mekkarai is a border village between TN and kerala, on the way to Achankoil is located in a forest area. We always presume that wherever beauty reigns it will automatically bring riches and prosperity. Is it not? Any one who passes through Mekkarai will definitely think that it should be a rich village. As I looked at Mekkarai, I thought that one need to adopt a different strategy to work in Mekkarai. ஆனால் அடுத்த ஐந்தாறு மணிநேரத்தில் மேக்கரையில் நெடிதுயர்ந்த மரங்களின் நிழலில் வறுமை பல்லாண்டுகளாக சுகமாக அமர்ந்திருப்பதை காண முடிந்தது. I realized within a short time poverty is deep rooted as the roots of the trees standing there.But condition there in Mekkarai was entirely different..the entire land being owned by a mutt…the houses are being dispersed over 2500 hectares..population consisted of Tamils, Malayalis…more than that seeds for Meenakshipuram episode was sown here. For my limited experience, it was an entirely different village.

I promised to be with Ramachandranji in his initiative, be with the villagers, to work with them. We returned from the village with a determination, a determination to share our destiny, knowledge, resources with Mekkarai people.

It was really a paradox, when we left the village in the evening, the village entered into us from the opposite side. It is an interesting story to share, how not only we, but also our friends also have been entrapped by Mekkarai.

Integrating PRA with GPS

My urge to further understand Mekkarai, to qualitatively improve the PRA tools especially mapping tools with GPS (Geo-Positioning System) and my students (2007 batch of Community Development) interest to get a hands on experience in PRA tools..all these resulted in organizing a PRA Camp in Mekkarai.

Since I planned to integrate GPS with social mapping and I could not find any previous model or review to fall upon, I asked help from Dr.T. Pavendar of MKU and PAD-Vembar and my good friend Mr. Rajeshkumar to work with the computer in the field.

While the students with the help of Mr. Ramalingam (PAD) and another student Mr. Jeganathan facilitated PRA exercises as I planned, Dr. Gladwin of PAD and Dr. Pavendar as per my plan took GPS points and tracked the routes with GPS. There was a problem in downloading the GPS points (now there are humpty number of

What made me to use GPS in PRA In the past, when PRA was introduced, it was possible to bring quality PRA outputs when we directly facilitated PRA tools. Now I find it very difficult to get quality output. The reason I found that, a decade before, as facilitators we felt that to get quality output we have to spend time with the communities and local people were also found time to be with us. It normally took 4-5 hrs or even more to draw a self explanatory social map of a village with 200-250 households. It was possible to engage the participants with interest through our facilitating skills. The present generation of facilitators as well as communities are impatient to spend this much of time. The output brought by the facilitators many times is incomplete and also frustrating. Since the nature of participation has underwent a radical transformation, no one can be blamed for this. In order to overcome the problems of facilitating some basic PRA tools, I thought of using GPS. I used GPS, to locate the important landmarks in a community (depending on the size of the community 20-50 GPS points) and converting it in to a sketch and asking the locals to put the details in to the sketch as one does it in the conventional social mapping. This really saved time for both of us. I found that more informative and reliable social maps could be generated by using this methodology. Since using GIS software and getting training in it is beyond our reach, I used COREL Draw to digitalize the social map and other visuals. The maps thus produced are roughly scalable and the local communities liked it immensely. Now we are in a process of developing a database of households that can be viewed when the cursor moves on to a particular household.

soft wares available to download it), finally we prepared a GIS map and the social map taken by the students integrated with it and Rajesh has developed a Mekkarai map in coral draw for presentation.

We were able to draw not an eye sketch of the social map as any PRA practitioners do, but a scalable social map with 540 households spread in more than 2500 hectares.

The idea of integrating GPS with PRA was literally thought of by me and I am happy at the output we got. The problems we experienced and the solutions we arrived was ours own. After returning from Mekkarai, I happened to visit PPGIS site, but it was not helpful in answering some of the problem we experienced in the field.

Mekkarai in fact opened up possibilities in further making PRA as a pleasant experience.

What we did in Mekkarai after this? See the slide show See Mekkarai Village in Flickr Learn more about using PGIS in a Urban Ward & in an island

Part II

Integrating PRA with GIS is called as People’s Participatory Geo Information System(PPGIS).Experiments are plenty in using GIS to generate information for planners. There is nothing wrong in generating data for planners but the people do not own the process as it happens with the village maps.
If we want to claim PGIS as truly participatory, we should address the problems of the field level workers who are involved in facilitating participatory exercises. Creative integration of GPS / GIS in facilitation can improve the quality of PRA exercises, make the local people to understand the process better and reduce the time taken for facilitation. Though GPS belongs to high end technology, fishermen in Tamilnadu are extensively using GPS and I personally seen how it reduced their drudgery and improved their mobility in the sea. Grass root level workers with their fresh thinking and creativity definitely enrich and add value to those tools we give them. I happened to be with Robert Chambers when he was impressed by a physically challenged girl using a cigarette wrapper to enter the household data and Chambers finally adopted it as a card methodology to enter the household data and this methodology till date is used by thousands of facilitators in the field.
In integrating GPS/GIS with PRA, I was misguided, cheated, made to waste time and precious personal resources by those who claimed that they knew GIS. Finally, we learnt many things on our own. Any one in the PGIS will be surprised to know how we improved our capacity on our own, if they happened to see our earlier social maps and the present one I attempted at Mekkarai village in Tamilnadu using GPS. I am happy to say that now we are experimenting PGIS on a wider scale both in the rural as well as in urban settings.

What we need

From my personal experience what we need to practice PGIS is to find out a simple tool for digital map making (a diagramming tool), learn to use GPS (which is used by ordinary fishermen in Tamilnadu) and finding out an appropriate software that can use the map as an front end to retrieve the data base or else encourage the local people to insert comments as millions are doing it in wiki maps. Since many of the development workers even at the grass root level are using computers it is possible to scale up PGIS. Development workers at the grass root level will take care of the next phase of participatory GIS if we provide them with appropriate and affordable soft wares.

The Pride of Madurai -Councilor Smt.Thayammal (1933)

COUNCILOR Smt. THAYAMMAL

(Note: This post is about a document accidentally I have seen it in the district documentation center. The document was about the proceedings of the then Madurai Council in the year 1933 – about a resolution brought by a woman councilor. I was really moved by the words and vision of the resolution. Since I was not permitted to xerox it, I copied it and made a translation. This translation is nothing before the original in Tamil – the handwriting, the phrasing – it was really beautiful and nothing in Madurai stand before the beauty of that document - it was a love and vision personified.

I used the document in one of my monograph published for limited circulation. I was trying my level best to trace out the lineage of that great woman who brought the resolution with some of the Madurai elders, but they could not recollect her. I will be thankful if any one helps me to trace out the origin of that great woman – to simply pay my respect to her lineage.)

Prelude

It is an irony when women themselves were not empowered there was a woman in Madurai, some 75 years before, laid the foundation for a dignified living of thousands who were not even considered as human beings at that time.

That woman achieved it not by fighting; she did it with her maternal love and persuasive skills.What she was intended for thousands at that time had now grown into millions.

Here is a story to emulate….and this piece of writing is a humble attempt to propagate the glory, maternal love and affection shown by an ordinary Madurai woman to the neglected…

This piece of writing is an attempt to sustain her vision….an attempt to introspect the past …an attempt in renovating the path on which an ordinary but visionary a Madurai woman walked.

73 years back – in the year 1933: June 6

It was a hot summer day.

As usual Madurai Municipal Council meeting was held. Sriman V.Muthramier was adorning the chair. Eminent Madurai citizens like Sriman E.M. Gopalakrishna Konar, Sriman L.K. Thulasiram and Sriman. Nallathambi Pillai was adorning the council as members. Among these doyens, there was a women member by name Srimathi. Thayammal.

Even today there are calls for emancipation of women and reservation for women in legislatures. Think about 75 years before. They were literally chained. At such a time, a woman, hailing from an ordinary family gave her voice not for herself, nor for her community, nor for the people whom she represented but for the whole community, which was leading a life about which she felt hurt.

Sriman Muthramier looked at Srimathi Thayammal, who asked permission from the Chair, to move a resolution, signaling to read the resolution. She raised more in sorrow than in anger and read the resolution. Her voice was choked with emotion. But the fire in her and the healing touch of a motherly love and care with which she read the resolution seemed to echo the voice of Meenakshi, the very Goddess of the temple city, feeling for the sad plight of her children whose confidence of leading a honorable life at her abode was being shattered to pieces at her own feet.

Any one who has a sensitive ear can even now hear the resolution that Smt. Thayammal read on that day, 7.6.1933

(Translation of the original resolution.Please take some time to read the original resolution)

Hon’ble Chairman and dear brothers!

All of us are well aware that all the cheris (slums) in our municipal area are unfit for human habitation due to improper maintenance, lack of basic facilities like water, electricity, toilets and even housing. And all of them require our immediate attention. But the financial crisis through which our municipal council passes at present, --- forbids us from taking up the work of improvement of all the cheris (slums) simultaneously. I request the honorable members of this august assembly to accord sanction of funds for the improvement of at least two of the following cheris (slums).

1. The scavengers’ colony adjacent to Raja Mill.

2. The cheri (slum) on the west of Police Parade Ground in TPK road[1].

These cheris (slums) should be so modernized by providing basic amenities like housing, hygienic surroundings, water taps / wells, public conveniences, day schools or night schools so as to deserve the title of modern cheris.

Now kindly let me elaborate this issue. It is crystal clear that all the cheris (slums) in our municipal limit sail the same boat and all of them require our immediate care and attention. But taking into consideration the economic condition of the council, I feel reluctant to pressurize the council to start work in all the cheris (slums) simultaneously. But at the same time I’ll be much pleased if the council generously accord sanction of necessary funds to make a beginning at least. When the financial condition of the council improves it is our duty and responsibility to uplift all the cheris (slums). But the work should begin to modernize at least in two cheris (slums), which will act as the model cheris (slums) in future. This is the most pressing work on our hand this year. I need not educate my learned colleagues that this work has to be carried out everywhere without any obstacle and without anybody’s reminder. Postponement of this noble task on the grounds of shortage of funds will only tarnish the image of our city. The shortage of funds may be over come by austerity measures and transfer of funds from various heads like chairman’s salary, cholera staff salary, anti hukewarm fund, purchase of bleaching powder etc to this head of modernization of cheris (slums). Or the honorable chairman may allocate funds from any other means. The point is that the thing should be done and that too, at once. If necessary, the council may seek the financial assistance from the state govt. for the fulfillment of this noble deed.

What we are going to do is not an act of mercy but it is our duty and responsibility to free our fellow human being from the intolerable suffering due to lack of water for drinking / bathing / cleaning which makes the poor people living place a breeding ground of diseases.

I do solicit the cooperation of all members in shouldering the responsibility of uplifting the living conditions of the down trodden, an act which is nothing short of worship to god. Kindly extend your utmost support in passing this resolution unanimously, for true manliness lies not in self-advancement but in selfless service to society. Thank you.

While she completed reading the resolution, the most respected members of the council stood-up spontaneously in order to second it and Sriman E.M.Gopalakrishna Konar was quick enough to second it. Sriman Nallathambi Pillai felt extremely sorry for having missed a god gifted opportunity of seconding this historic resolution. Reading his mind, another member Sriman L.K. Thulasiram asked him to wait for a minute. He brought an amendment to Srimathi. Thayammal’s resolution. By the first, the nomenclature was changed from “modern cheris” to “model cheris” and by the second the number of such model cheris as per the wish of Srimathi. Thayammal should be raised to as many as possible. Shri.Nallathambi Pillai seconded the amendments and the resolution with the amendments was unanimously passed as per the wishes of Smt. Thayammal.

The resolution Smt.Thayammal brought was no doubt a world-class resolution. It was basically a swedeshi resolution thought by the people of Madurai for the people of Madurai. The resolution was put into action and 180 houses were constructed to the down trodden in the following five places at that time.

1. Sangili Thoppu 2. Simmakkal 3.Moolakarai 4.Subramaniyapuram 5.Melavasal

These five habitations are not the physical structures. It was the reflection of the conscience of Madurai city. But what is the present state of these habitations. It looks opposite to the original intention. The present condition of these colonies will definitely prick the conscience of right thinking Maturities. Not only these five, there are more than 200 habitations in Madurai, which is longing for Maduraites love as Smt. Thayammal showed 75 years before.

The occupants of these model cheris at present lead a worse life than their forefathers for whom these colonies were made. Such degeneration in the standard and upkeep of the colonies certainly tells upon the image and glory of this ancient city.

What can we do for these habitations at present?

First of all sincere efforts should be made to renovate these model cheris, the occupants of which do belong to low-income group. The clauses in the original resolution should be fulfilled to the letter, keeping in mind the spirit of the resolution. The living conditions of these colonies should be improved upon so as to meet the basic requirements and comforts of the dwellers.

With a view to glorify and perpetuate the memory of a noble soul, this initiative is should be named after her, as Councilor Smt.Thayammal Memorial Habitation Improvement Program.

Every Maturities should be proud of Smt. Thayammal for her broad social outlook. Even before 75 years, she put forth her vision in such a persuasive way and got succeeded in her mission. Smt. Thayammal was a concrete example to show what the representatives of local self-governments can achieve.

The fact that her descendants are not immediately traceable indicates that didn’t belong to any affluent family. Hence she deserves much more praise.

[1] The present Melavasal Slum. Police Parade Ground was called as Kavaathu Maidanam

Unit for Madurai Studies - An Invitation to dream

An invitation to dream about the future of Madurai
I don’t know what motivated me to document the news about Madurai under the banner of Unit for Madurai Studies in MISS. But whatever it might be, it helped me to constructively engage myself and focus my energies, during the testing periods MISS have undergone.
I am proud when I look back the brochure I designed and printed to explain the purpose of the Unit. It is an invitation to dream about the future of Madurai. I will be happy if you take some time to read the brochure. I always felt that the memories associated with Madurai city can provoke a sense of solidarity not only among our students but also with others.
The atmosphere prevailed in MISS at the beginning of 2000 might have made my dreams like the dreams of a dumb, but for the cooperation of the students like Mr. Marirajan and Miss.Meeankshi. Marirajan was a great source of support with his natural interest in documentation and Meenakshi with her family background (Sri.Muthiah who wrote many books on Madras history known to her family) was the first girl placed for her field work in the Unit (along with Mr.Kumanan). (It was really unfortunate that she discontinued her studies. It is very rare to have student like her. I have a lot of pleasant memories about them to write separate posts). In the subsequent years Mr. Nisanth (now lecturer in MISS) and Mr. Karunakaran shared the responsibilities. After that, I find it very difficult to motivate students. After a major surgery in the year 2004, I could not continue the documentation as I did during the previous three years. Reading the news related to Madurai, cutting it, classifying it under 45 headings and preserving it was a great source of learning. More than the learning, insights, the laborious process generated day after day was really marvelous and we felt helpless in comprehending the issues that we documented.
Madurai city is bigger than some of the smaller countries in the world. No doubt the great city and its residents deserve better governance. But the question is whether the city is governed as it deserved? But the documents available with us for the three years (2000-2003) prove that there is an utter lack of vision in governing the city. One can see from the documents that both the politician as well as bureaucrats competing with one another to make a mess out of every thing.
Documents in the unit reveal that it is the River Vaigai, as it brought prosperity in the past also brought 150 crores in its name at the start of this century. Nothing can stand before Vaigai for its contribution in sustaining the livelihoods in Madurai.
Social work departments in the USA and in European universities usually claim that the city where the departments are located is the base for their field practicum. Social work departments in a way wield influence in the municipal governance. But social work institutions in our country, majority of them are located in the major urban ceners are alienated from the city life. This has to be changed. Understanding the settlement / place where one lives will always bring the positive transformation that we expect. Unit for Madurai Studies will help us to attach ourselves with the city life.
**
No doubt the first phase in the Unit of Madurai Studies has not progressed as I expected. Even then it was a source of learning –sown the seeds for continuous life long learning. Some students have made wonderful observations about the issues and life in Madurai - Slums, Waherman, Dalits especially about Arunthathiars, Vaigai River, Secondary Mode of Transport, Foot Loose (unorganized) Laborers, Vegetable Markets, Sanitary Workers are some areas that I can proudly mention.
**
The second phase, as I am seriously contemplating to use information technology to make documentation as a pleasant experience for the students so that many will volunteer in the work. I dream as I dreamt at the dawn of this century, that one day Madurai Institute of Social Sciences will serve as a Knowledge Center to guide the destiny of this great city, in partnership with others.

Nativity in Social Work Teaching

Empathy யும் புளியங்காயும்
I owe a lot to people with a native wisdom who helped me to understand certain basic concepts that as a social worker I am expected to understand. Native wisdom has the power to clarify complex concepts in a surprisingly simple way. Native wisdom no doubt enrich social work, both teaching and practice, but I have to admit that as a social work educator, I failed to nurture it both in me and in my students, because of my own ignorance about its value. My mind goes blank, if I attempt to recollect what I have learnt it from the classroom as a student. Though I had some good teachers, they could not nail me down with their interpretation dyed with their native wisdom. Even good teachers interpreted certain concepts in such a way that alienated students from the subject. Since, I followed their foot steps, I would have continued the same mistakes with my students unconsciously. (Sorry Students)

It was an ordinary police constable (father of a student) who helped me to better understand the meaning of “SOCIAL” in “SOCIAL WORK” which I proudly shared it in my class room for the past several years. It was Mr. Indira Soundarajan, a popular Tamil writer, who made me to understand the meaning of “community pace” from a native perspective. There are lots of examples like this. That is why I said, I owe a lot to ordinary men & women who took pains to dye me with the native wisdom.

In the beginning of my teaching carrier, I was searching to find out the etimiology of social work i.e. Samoogappani in Tamil, that took me to several Tamil scholars, a few of them were useful and suggested me to refer Tamil Nigandus (Dictionaries), through which I learned about 22 Arams (இருபத்தி இரண்டு அறம் ), an inclusive welfare concept, about which any tamilians can be proud of. Since I was half hearted in my attempt, I could not make any appreciable output out of that.

Some years ago, out of my interest, I arranged for a small interdisciplinary dialogue, to throw light on the principles of social work from the perspective of Tamil literature and culture. We invited Dr. E.K.Ramasamy of Yadhava College (a Periarist) and Dr. Pothi Reddi of American College (a Marxian thinker) for that dialogue. Dr. E.K.R was point blank in his remarks about “self help” – “How can we, who are incapable of preparing a cup of tea in our homes are morally qualified to teach the values of self help? Since the meaning of self help is itself self explanatory, we presume that it needs no further thinking. In a way it is true that we never bothered to probe what impedes self help and the enabling environment that needed to cultivate it both in the personal and in the public arena. After listening the idioms, phrases and proverbs we used to interpret the social work principles, they pointed out the lack of native touch. They suggested to use native proverbs and phrases to interpret (for example for empathy we conventionally use the phrase - putting ourselves in other shoes) and suggested to replace alien proverbs, however it may be popular globally, with native proverbs (for example instead of giving fish, teach people to catch fish)- the rationality behind their suggestion was, the interpretation that we use should fire the imagination of the students – make them to relate it with their life.

After this I literally stopped interpreting certain concepts as we did conventionally, but I could not equip myself to interpret it in a different way. I was feeling helpless and ordinary people came to my rescue.

One such wonderful man I met recently was Sri. Jeyapandian, an ordinary load man in Madurai Central Vegetable Market, with an admirable qualities and native wisdom. Without any formal schooling, he designed more than 100 prototype models, ranging a water splasher to wake anyone from sleep and a robo to safeguard our national boundary. He used scientific principles of mechanics, hydraulics, electronics and computers in designing and developing his prototype models.More than his models, I was interested to listen to him, for the ease with which he used idioms, phrases and proverbs to explain his points.

When he talked about human feelings, he emphasized the need for empathy in his own native way. In Jayapandian’s words “empathy should be like ...secreting saliva automatically when we happened to see a person chewing a tamarind fruit” (அடுத்தவங்க புளியங்காயை வாயிலே வச்சதும் நம்ம நாக்கிலே எச்சி ஊருவது போல) . This I can understand better than putting my self in other shoes.

This native touch will definitely enrich our understanding of social work concepts and one can see lot of such examples in management education.

Let us think about giving more and more native touch in social work training.

Sri Jayapandian's demonstration of remotely operated rifle robo at Madurai Institute of Social Sciences

Washerman in Madurai City

The extended class rooms for MSW students

My interest towards the marginalized communities is the result of my experience as supervisor for the fieldwork programme of Master of Social Work (MSW) students placed in Tamilnadu Theological Seminary's "Labour and Peasant Center"(TTS-LPC) and IDEAS Institute of Development Education and Action Studies). I have seen with my own eyes how the seeds they have sown before two decades have grown into big trees and provided shadow and shelter to those who needed it. There are several instances, I sincerely attempted to remove the misconceptions about these agencies with some of my friends. I used to get sad with those of my students who were not serious with the works of these agencies and in fact shouted at them that their indifference amounts to urinating over a goldmine than to digout the precious metal there. But those genres of students who used the field work learning opportunities provided by these agencies are shining in the field of development. If TTS-LPC opened my eyes towards urban informal sector, IDEAS took me close to Arunthathiar community.
Why washer man?

The coordinators in TTS-LPC- Rev. Koil Pillai, Mrs. Nirmala Victus and Mr. Jawahar were source of encouragement to me and my students.It is a joy to spend time with them and their staffs during the supervisory visits.I hope that my wish to document the feedback of all my students who did their field work with these agencies may be materialized through this blog..Though there is a lot to write about the work of these agencies, I decided to share my observation about Washer man in Madurai City as a mark of my respect and regard to Miss. Vanitha (one of the good student we had) daughter of Sri. Chinnathambi who did washing when I was a student and then as a warden in our hostel during 70s. His honesty was remarkable and he handed over the students’ the money they forgot to take away from their clothes given for washing. It is this quality of honesty that makes the people to trust on the washer man. Is it not that people who get services from others like plumbers, mechanics, painters, domestic servants and street vendors always suspect them and watch them constantly. Though washer men also belong to the same category of poor, they are trusted upon by others and that make the people to handover clothes worth of thousands and thousands to the washer man and in turn washer man never betrayed our trust.

TTS & Washer man
I still remember the discussions carried out in TTS-LPC, when they thought of organizing a union for washer man of Madurai. Continuous interaction with the washer man subsequently during fieldwork took me to Aruldosspuram, popularly identified as a washer man colony and then to Vaigai River, their work spot,that gave me several wonderful insights about life and livelihood. At my request a student took a research project on washer man and I remember still vividly the time spend in Aruldosspuram and in Vaigai River.
For me research was an excuse to be with them. Personally it was not the outcome of the research, but the process and the clarity we got it from the attempt which was more important.
I feel that this post and the link to the work we did with washer man community is definitely not an attempt to share our work publicly but to gratefully acknowledge the how the seeds sown by (TTS-LPC & IDEAS) have grew.To be with the marginalized sector is not a fashion but of a commitment was a lesson we learnt from these agencies.

Though I was interested to continue my observation I could not do it for personal as well as my inability to inspire my students to continue it. But to be with the washer man will definitely give insights about the livelihood options pursued by our subaltern brethren. I don’t have any regret to put our observation that we did it a decade before rather I feel that our observation has not become obsolete and no one has brought out any document or made any fresh observation about the washer man in Madurai City – so this attempt is a mark of making fresh commitments.
If you feel that it is worthwhile to take few minutes to see the document to mark your concern for Madurai Washer man community, you are welcome and I consider it as a previlage

Washerman & Washing
Draft to comment

Teaching Regional Planning

After two and half hours of tiring lecture, I was told that someone was waiting for me in my room.By then I was trying to interest my student on regional planning. It has been my topic of interest for years; when the long lecture ended I remembered that someone was waiting for me. When I went back to my room I could not find anyone, I went to canteen for a coffee and in my return, I found two senior professors from Meenakshi Govt. College for Women waiting for me. After a formal greeting, one of them informed me that she had accidentally visited this blog and to her surprise found the materials related regional planning in the site. I heard from her that regional planning has been introduced as an elective subject in M.Sc Geography under the new CBCS and they have been trying hard to find materials for their students. This blog made them find that regional planning is also included in the MSW curriculum and that made them to approach us (Madurai Institute of Social Sciences) to get some useful reference material as the resources related to regional planning in their library was totally damaged in previous year’s floods.

I recollected my own experience of running here and there to collect materials when we decided to have a paper on regional planning in our curriculum by then was abstruse; I had to work on my own interest to build some good material for the paper. Over the years, I developed materials relevant to our syllabus. When some of the affiliated colleges in MK university area started MSW course, the instructors of that regional planning paper advised their students to get it from their friends doing MSW in our college. Though I was disgusted about their behavior, in order to avoid the hardships faced by the students doing community development specialization in other colleges, I decided to upload the learning material given to my students in this blog and that has been noticed by the teachers like me who were infact searching for resources to help their own students.The decision of these two professors to visit our college itself is a proof for their concern towards their students. More than that their visit made me to realize the power of technology… thanks to Google with its user friendly technology motivated even computer illiterate like me to use its facilities. An enabling environment is needed even to share what we have.. Is it not?

If I recollect my experiences in teaching regional planning to social work students, it was really a frustrating experience. I thought of recommending to take away that paper from the syllabus but for the request of a fraction of my own alumni who really felt that knowledge about regional planning helped them to grasp the nuances of development. One alumnus told me that his knowledge about viability, range of goods and the concept of innovative firms made others to feel that he might have done his MBA additionally. No doubt it sensitized a limited number of students about the need for spatial social justice. But I have to admit that they are very few in number. My teaching experience in the subject has been very frustrating. Majority of my students always give me looks that admit their indifference to the subject.

But teaching of regional planning and adopting it social work curricula benefited me immensely..widened my cognitive horizons and perception. It sharpened my facilitating skills in participatory rural appraisal (PRA), it sensitized me about the intra village disparities and to produce beautiful self explanatory PRA visuals. My interest in regional planning made me a graphicrate.. it slowly made me to learn about GIS and to adapt GPS in PRA practice, normally not of an interesting area for social work educators. My attempt to incorporate GPS in PRA improved the quality of social mapping and reliability of household related information generation. This combination made both the villagers and the NGO’s field staff to feel that social mapping as a pleasant experience. (I am planning to document some of these experiences as an example for best practices in peoples’ participatory geographic information system- PGIS)
This is the positive side but on the negative side, to admit honestly I could not create any interest with my own MSW students. In an utter frustration I recommended to replace regional planning paper with the new livelihood promotion paper. Since locality/regional development is inseperable from livelihood promotion, I retained many of the core concepts that are borrowed from regional planning.
As the semester is coming to an end, I realized that this is the last semester for regional planning paper and it won’t be taught as a subject matter in the semesters to come. It is time to bid goodbye to regional planning from MISS. The approach of the two professors made me to share whatever I have developed. so far But, I feel honored when I think that the material may be better appreciated outside than my students and my colleagues.
Good bye regional planning from MISS and have a nice and fruitful days in the Meeanakshi College.
Thanks to professors Dr. Sethu Rakkayee and Dr. Rameshwari of Sri. Meenakshi Govt.College for women for honoring regional planning by visiting MISS with the real spirit of searching knowledge, the basic quality of a true teacher.

(Note: The entire material is uploaded in scribd site (see the Community Development Specialization Syllabus Post –Paper 16. Regional Planning in this blog ) and ppt presentation will be uploaded in this site after a little bit of editing)

Madurai Vegetable Markets- Sociological Museums

Mr.Udayakumar & Ranjithkumar II MSW CD(R&U) have been placed in the Unit for Madurai Studies for their III Semester Field Work and they were assigned to study about the Vegetable Markets in the Madurai City. As our previous work in K.Pudur ward and in Pudur Market revealed that vegetable markets seems to be sociological museums -one can learn about many things. This duo have taken more than 200 photographs about the markets and created a table descrbing the features of the vegetable markets. It is decided to georeference the markets in the Madurai city,with the help of Dr.T. Pavendar. Completing that task may take little more time but we have determined to do that. Working in the markets made us to realize that both the policy makers at the national as well as state level and the local governments ignore these markets without realizing these markets potentialities to promote decent & sustainable livelihoods for a sizable sections of the urban population. If the policy makers decides to seek the participation of the poor vendors,keeping away the power brokers, many,many things are possible.We dont know what makes our policy makers to be blind and insensitive to some of the basic issues. We hope that our work in the markets will bring forth learnings that are truely revealing. Wait for that revealing moments

Project Planning

Participatory Rural Appraisal

Since there is an increasing number of students and other friends working in the nonprofit sector have repeatedly approached me to provide some basic material related to PRA, LFA and Livelihood Framework etc, I have decided to put the material in the cdmissmdu (community Development) blogspot. I sincerely acknowledge all the sources from where the content is taken. This compilation will be useful both for the beginners and all those who want to refesh the subject matter. Please post a comment / suggestions so that I will improve it in order to make learning and understanding participatory methodologies as a pleasant experience. Apart from the original sources, I gratefully acknoweldge my sincere gratitude to Dr. John Devavaram, Founder of SPEECH & RCPDS who introduced me to PRA and Mr. Rajendra Prasad, Executive Director, PAD who sustained my interest in PRA and Mr. Balamurugan of Save the Children India, Mr. Muniasamy of CCFC and Mr. Rajesh Kumar and other staffs in SPEECH and PAD who made PRA as a pleasnt experience.

Participatory Rural Appraisal Part I
Participatory Rural Appraisal Part II
A compilation of material by S.Rengasamy, Faculty Member, Madurai Institute of Social Sciences collected from various sources to help the students and development workers to understand and refrsh the basic concepts and tools of PRA

Useful Resouces & Links

When I ask my students to read more than the material given in the class room or write assignments, they don’t think of the college library but of the browsing center. Of course they are not totally wrong in their attitude, because a library functioning with a limited budget can’t provide materials related to the newly introduced programs/emerging concepts. With their limited computer skills many of the students could not get worthy material for the time and amount they spend in the browsing center. For example to get relevant material for JNNURM program a student has spend more than 5 hours and 150 rupees. No doubt it is taxing the students. Besides there is an inequality exists in using the internet resources between the rich and poor students, between boys and girls because girls are expected to return to the hostel/home before 8 pm. That made me to collect the addresses of useful sites so that whenever we demand them to refer additional resources, we can advice them to go to a specific site, so that students can use the internet resources much more efficiently. This may sound funny for the students from elite institutions where the UGC itself is subsidising many facilities of their college through which students are benefited. Rich is becoming richer and the poor are becoming poor is also true as far as academic institutions are concerned. The elite institutions where the economically better of are studying are subsidizing certain services to their students through grants and projects.
The addresses given in this site may not be relevant or may be obsolete for those students who do their community development in the so called elite institutions. These addresses aimed at those students doing their MSW course in institutions where there is no subsidized IT facilities are not available.
The addresses will grow depending on the demands of the students
Following is the list of useful websites and other resources for student’s reference

Following is the list of useful websites and other resources for student's reference
Government of India
Ministry of Rural Development Government of India
Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
National Institute of Urban Affairs
Goverment of Tamilnadu
Departments
Rural Development & Panchayat Raj Department
Housing and Urban Development Department
Human Rights
Introduction to Human Rights
Human Rights Commission - India

INDIA

Wikipedia Reference - Basic reference about India - By clicking the subtopics and links therein students can access voluminous information.The side bar Republic of India provides the basic information. Information is presented under 12 headings.Each heading has links that provide detailed information

1 Etymology 2 History 3 Government 4 Politics 5 Foreign relations and military 6 Subdivisions (also about States for ex Tamilnadu) 7 Geography 8 Flora and fauna 9 Economy 10 Demographics 11 Culture 12 Sports

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Specialization Papers Syllabus

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT (RURAL & URBAN) (SPECIALIZATION) III Semester
PAPER-14 RURAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
UNIT. I

Community development-concept, definition, meaning, need, history, principles, objectives and scope. Rural development-concept, definition, meaning, need, objectives and scope.
Rural development in India - Orgin and background -early experiments like Srinekethan, Sevagram, Marthandam, Gurugen expriment, Baroda expriment, Firka development in Madras, Nilokheri expriment, Etowah pilot project etc. Rural development programmes since independence. Approaches to rural development - Gandhian contractive progam - contribution of Vinobaji.

UNIT. II

Problems and prospects of rural life with reference to agriculture and allied actives like land and its use, animal husbandry, irrigation, pre-production, production and post harvest technology, rural infrastructure- drinking water, housing, health and education.

UNIT.III

Rural backwardness- causes and the need for planned change. Rural poverty -causes, consequences, measurement.Five year plans and major rural development programs- objectives, characteristics, strategies, organization and administration.

UNIT IV.

Administrative and organizational arrangement for rural development from block to National level.Panchayat Raj - origin, philosophy and characteristics - Constitution 73rd amendment and its implications.Rote of co-operatives and rural banks, NABARD, District Rural Development Agency in rural development.

UNIT. V

Agrarian relations and movements in India with special reference to Bhoodan and Gramdhan. Role of NGOs, Industries in rural development. Voluntary efforts in rural community development with reference to Tamilnadu - case studies on specific rural development projects like Kunrakudi, ASSEFA etc.

PAPER-15 URBAN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
UNIT. I

Understanding urbanization and urban growth in India - definition and characteristics of urban areas, town, city, metropolis, suburbs, satellite towns, the relevance of urban ecology, urban sociology and environmental psychology for urban community development practice. The demographic and land use pattern in urban areas- social area analysis.

UNIT II

Urban community development - meaning and scope. Urban development programs in India. Review of Indian experience in urban development with reference to town planning, slum clearance and improvement. IDSMD (integrated development of Small and Medium Towns etc).

UNIT. III

Problems and prospects of urban life with reference to crowding and density, noise, air ,solid, and liquid pollution, urban housing, drinking water supply, transport, urban public health, urban non-formal sector, Commercial Sex Work and Juvenile Delinquency.

UNIT. IV

Slums in India: theories, causes and conditions, poverty in urban areas, culture of poverty in slums, poverty alleviation programmes.

UNIT V

Administrative and policy arrangements for urban development with reference to municipalities, corporations, metropolitan development authorities, housing and slum clearance boards. Constitution-73rd amendment and its relevance to urban community development.

PAPER-16.REGIONAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Note:The full course material for Regional Planning is available as shared document 1.www.scribd.com 2.
UNIT-I

Concept of Region. Types of Regions -functional and formal region. Techniques of regions delimitation. Regionalisation in India. Physiographic, Economic, Linguistic. Classification and Hierarchy of regions. The Concept of Rural - Urban Continuum.

UNIT-II

Causes and consequences of regional inequalities in India. Policy measures to overcome regional Inequalities. Backward Area Development Approach, Industrial licensing policy, Industrial Estates and concessions. Sub - plan approach.

UNIT-III

Methods of regional analysis and development. Export - base Model. Central place Theory. Growth Pole Hypothesis. Myrdal's Theory of Cumulative Causation.

UNIT-IV

Definition, Scope and Methods of Regional Planning. Town and Country Planning. Water- shed Planning. Agro-Climatic Regional Planning, District - Level Planning, Micro-level Planning. Relevance of micro-level planning in local self-government.

UNIT-V

Understanding Tamilnadu as a Region. Administrative Regions -District and Taluk - Characteristics of Population, agriculture, Industries. Issues related to education, health and infrastructure. Regional Planning in Tamilnadu.

The most beautiful photo ever seen

Click to enlarge

Students of community Development sitting in front of the landmark entrance of MISS. The group photo of the CD.2008 looks beautiful because "we" are not there.Their resumes will be uploaded soon. By clicking their names you can access their bio-data.

Welcome Note

நீங்கள் உண்மையென்றும் நன்மையென்றும் மனமொப்பி அறிந்ததை தயவு செய்து எங்களுக்கும் சொல்லுங்கள்.

Please share with us what you feel true & good.

I dedicate this blog to my loving students and the great institution and its founder Dr(Capt) DVP Raja. I am always proud of MISW (now it is MISS) which provided opportunities for those aspiring students from ordinary families, when other schools and departments of social work in the name of merit, class and religion excluded them. It is this vision of inclusion which binds us even today -is it not?.

I am basically a computer illiterate. Like an uneducated parent wants to provide quality education to his children, it is my desire to take IT skills to my students, especially to the students of community development who need it most when compared with other specialization students, made me to start this blog.

At present for practical reasons the blog is maintained by me with the hope that my students will be equiped soon not only to manage this blog but take it to greater heights as some of them have already achieved.

This blog is an expression of our collective desire to use Information Technology to learn more and serve better. Those who are interested in development are invited to share what they feel as good and useful to others in English as well as in Tamil.