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.
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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.
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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