FIELD WORK REPORT

NORTH EAST RESEARCH AND SOCIAL NETWORKING (NERSWN)

Dist. Kokrajhar, Assam.

Date

13 August 2018 to 08 September 2018

Submitted To

Prof. Dr. Alex Akhup

Centre for Social Justice and Governance , School of Social Work, TISS, Mumbai.  

Submitted By

Kunal Ramteke

Student, MA. In Dalit And Tribal Studies And Action,

Tata Institute Of social Science, Mumbai.  

Index -

1) Preface

2) About the organization

3) Hierarchical structure of the organization

4) Activities of NERSWN

5) Work done

6) Observation

7) Learning

8) Suggestions

9) Conclusion

Preface –

As a student of social work I done my academic block field work in ‘North East research and social network (NERSWN)’ at Kokrajhar district of Assam. This was a very good learning experience for me. In the medium of my fieldwork I learn various thinks about grass ruts level field work. It was a great experience of understanding on field.

For my fieldwork I placed in NERSWN. This organisation is working on the issues of upliftment of marginalised people of Assam. The organisation is registered under Section XXI of Society Registration Act of 1860, FCRA 1976 and Section 12A of IT Act 1961. The organisation was started by young student social activist from Assam. The organisation is working on various issues which are related to development of common people. There are lots of achievements of the organisation in the field of sustainable development.

As a student of anti oppressive social work my profession is not just only to give social service to the people but also my real work is do my best for the upliftment with the perspective from within. Social work is the process of change. In medium of the people of the field we must create awareness about their rights and their responsibilities. Social worker is not a servant of the people but also he is just a helper of the community. As a social worker my role more than a servant of society . from my fieldwork experience I realised the importance of real social work which is based on the principle of social change.

In contemporary situation of Assam NERSWN is doing great work for the marginalised communities. In the intervention aria of NERSWN there are different types of tribal communities are living. The organisation working or the betterment of community without any kinds of discrimination.  In the conflict of Assam this work is most important as a role model for humanity.

As a student social worker I am very happy from my fieldwork. This was a very good opportunity to reflection from within. I try my best in duration my field work. I try to apply some skills of social work. As a student when i interact with people I realised about the importance of grass level field work. This bloc placement was helpful to me as a student for my life time understanding.     

About The Organisation -

NERSWN is a voluntary organisation. The long form of the NERSWN is ‘Northeast Research and Social Work Networking’. The organization is registered under Section XXI of Society Registration Act of 1860, FCRA 1976 and Section 12A of IT Act 1961. The organisation was established as a group by the young student social workers. The previous group known as 'BRANSTHU'. The group was founded in December 2004. As an organisation the group has registered in June 2005. The head office is in Chandrapada, District Kokrajhar, Assam. Project offices of the organisation is located at Gossaigaon and Kazigaon, sub-divisions in the district of Kokrajhar. For the holistic development of the people organisation is working in Bodoland region of Assam in various sector of social work. For the betterment of the community NERSWN is working in extreme marginalised aria. In Assam there are some conflicts between Bodo, Santhal and others tribe. For the resolution of all conflicts organisations work is very fundamental in tribal Adivasi sector. For the sustainable development of adivasi community organisation is working in the field of livelihood, education, health, development and others sector. For the capacity building of community organisation is focusing on self employment and skill development of community. Educational work of the organisation is a milston model for social sector.

Vision And Mission Of The Organisation -

The vision of the organisation is, “a society free from poverty, injustice, violence & prejudice”. Organisation is doing its work with the mission of “Through transparency & participatory means, NERSWN strives to realize development & rights of the marginalized through building capacities of communities & strengthening knowledge technology & networks”.  

Hierarchical structure of the organization -

Activities of NERSWN -

Training program for the capacity building.

Development of farming industry through the help of community.    

Kitchen garden promotion.

Enhancing Commercial vegetables

Enhancing Oil seeds and pulses.

Development organic manure.

Horticulture promotion

Pig rearing

Enterprise and Agro-techniques inputs

Nurturing grass roots and SHG promotion

To making of handloom material.

School development and management

Work done -

In the medium of field work student social worker has done some remarcable activities in the field. Some activities are very manten in the report.

Training program for the capacity building -

With the help of Assistant Field Coordinator Mr. Raman Narzary and Mr. Anil Muru we conduct some training program for farmers as well as self help group members. As a student social worker I was gone to the field and interact with community. This information is also help to us for conducting training for them.

a) Line Sowing - From the field of Sukabavnai, Block Gosaigaon, District Kokrajhar, Assam. It was a great opportunity to interact with farmers. Till today indigenous people have been using their traditional methods of farming. But it's a need of today we use new path of development of agriculture . For the application of new ideas we conduct a demonstration on 'line sowing' in our field.

    b) Self Help Group - For the betterment of the family self help group is working in the field of family garden. We had a part of training program for them with field coordinator.

Participated in Independence day in Dolkata School -

As a student of social work this was a very good opportunity to participate in independence day program. The Dolkata school is supported by NERSWN which is located in a Santhali village Dholkata, Block Gosaigaon.

Development of farming industry through the help of community -

As a student social worker I work for the development program which is conducted by organisation. We went to some villages in Gossaigaon block. There are we have take some interviews of beneficiaries as well as we we done our ontological inquiry of their livelihood. We had also part of the activities of the organisation like line sowing, piggery training and evaluation, family house garden visit etc.   

Home visits and collected case study -

We had visited to different villages in Gossaigaon block, Kokrajhar District. In the medium of this visit we also collected case study and successful stories.

Kitchen garden promotion -

Organisation is working on the issues of holistic health development of the people. For the betterment of the community organisation is conducting training program for them. For the development of kitchen garden the team decided to conduct an Expert Hand Holding Programme among the SHG members. As planned, they invited Mrs. Porna Sharma as nutritional food expert from KVK. On the programme , she explained the SHG members about the concept of Kitchen Garden. It was a very good opportunity to understand and work on the issue. Marginalised, poor Tribal and Adivasi people are not able to purchase valuable and healthy vegetables so this types of kitchen garden is very helpful for them. Organisation working on training as well as monitoring regarding garden. Ist is a very good project for the self  helf of people. In the duration of the field work we are working on the development of the kitchen garden program.

Enhancing Commercial vegetables

   For the increasement of the farmers organisation is working on the project on commercial vegetables. As a student social worker it was a good opportunity to work with the expert of organisation. As planned, the social work trainee and Mr. Anil Murmu invited the Commercial Vegetables Expert, Mr Nikudim Hembrom from Grahampur Village. On the programme, he spoke on benefits and methods of working on commercial vegetables and this entity help in higher income.

Development organic manure -

    Under this activity, the social work trainee visited KVK and learned about the procedure on preparing organic manure i.e. Vermicompost. The social work trainee along with the team visited households and described about the preparation of vermicompost both for kitchen garden and other cultivation.

Horticulture promotion.

   For horticulture promotion, on the same programme for kitchen garden, the guest speaker spoke about promoting horticulture in their premises. Horticulture is also a good medium of income , so she motivated the SHG members to and encouraged them to plant fruits trees in their premises. She also explained about the health benefits of horticulture.

Pig Rearing

   For the above enumerated activity, the livelihood team organized training programme in pig rearing. Dr. Rinku Deka, Veterinary Officer of Gossaigaon Sub division was invited to conduct the training on pig rearing . The participants on the training was the SHG members from Nilai Jhora Cluster. The registered members were distributed piglets by livelihood team. Another distribution was also done on Hultu village of Sapkata Cluster.

Rajbanshi cultural program

Rajbanshi is own of the tribe of Assam. It was a very good opportunity to learn about the culture of the tribe. We also did some case study on its culture. In a village in Sapkata, the Rajbanshi community had organized a cultural program in which we took part as an observer.

Mornai Tea Garden visit in Kathalguri -

Mornai tea garden is established by the britishers. They magret to Munda, Santali people for the work as a tea tribe.

Sidho-Kanho school in Srirampur-

We visited a self help school in Srirampur which is established by the Vijay Mardi who is a 35 years young man. The school is working for the poor and dropout children of Santhal tribe.

Nurturing Grassroots and SHG promotion.

     As a student of social work we had visited to Joharbil. In the medium of the visit we interact with self help group members named ‘Jivatjharna’. We take efforts on the uplifting the SHGs as it is one of the priorities of livelihood. Organisation is working for the capacity building of the SHG.

Conducting seminars at schools -

We took personal initiative to go to schools of Gossaigaon and Kuthalgudhi. In those school we conducted seminar on study skills. This was a very helpful for the students of those school.

Ontological Enquiry of Joharbil -

We had a very good opportunity to village stay of three days in Jowarbhil. We did our ontological enquiry of Joharbil. The village is based in Gossaigaon Block. There is a group of 8 villages by Santhalis who were chased away during Bodo-Santhal conflict. It is located in the Assam, West Bengal and Bhutan border. After 1996 Teel today villagers has no rights as a citizens of the land. The Village is not considered as a revenu village. Villagers has totally dependent on farming and fishing. There are 350 household in all sectors of the village. the study of Joharbil is very helpful for our understanding the problems of the tribal people.

Enquired about Bodoland Territorial Council -

Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) is an autonomous governing system which is amended under the sixth schedule of the Constitution of India. We had a very good interaction with the some officers of BTC. In that meeting we had very good discussion on the issues, structure of governance and problems  of BTC.

Observation

As a student of social work my observation is based on my experiences and introduction with the people. NERSWN is working in various sector. This work is very important for the development of the people. From the overall Block Placement under the organization, placed in Gossaigaon block. We have worked in the rural areas for strengthening the rural life of Santhal, Bodo, Rabha and other community. As a social work student I observe following enumerated observation.

NERSWN is working in the field of socioeconomic development of the people. The field office of the organisation is placed at Gossaigaon block, Dist. Kokrajhar. In this aria transport situation is not very good but team of the organisation is working with his own transport system.

In the medium of my transact walk I observe about the life of Bodo and Santhal community. Mostly community is depending on farming system for their livelihood. Rice is the famous food of the people. There lifestyle is totally depending on the nature.

The organization is working for the marginalised people who are deprived from getting the basic requirements from the society. Basically organisation is working with those people who are the victim of the complict of the 1996.

The staff of the organisation is very grounded. They are working dedicatedly for the empowerment of common people. There are some CRPs of the organisation is very helpful to the people. In the medium of the their help organisation is working in ground level.

Organisation is working with ground level farmers. The farmer of the intarcation aria of organisation is also work in the field with organizational health. Organisation is only give some training as well as basic help.

As an aria with conflict government is also try to work in ground level. But this is not possible to them. That why government is working with organisation like NERSWN. The organization and government is working in hand in hand for the betterment of the people. But there is ni lots of education and awareness about the scientific way of progress that is a very big challenge for organisation as well as government also.

In the medium of encouragement of the organisation SHG is working for their dally employment and other benefits. This is very helpful for the people. In the process of SHG women is going in the process of progress and empowerment.

Organisation is also working on the issue of education. The educational model of the organisation is very important to understand about the role model for the self help school. With the help of the community school is working with the progress. As a student of social work I observed this kinds of model of education is very good for groun level.

Learning from the field -

As a student of social work it had a very good opportunity to learn from the block placement. The experience of the field work is very important for me to understand about holistic knowledge of ground level rtality. Its help me  as a student to know about perspectives from within as well as below. The field work is also help me to build my skills on the basis of following conceptual framework.

1. Systemic skills,
2. Structural skill,
3. Sectoral skills,
4. Contextual skills,
5. People skills,
6. Ethical skills,
7. Aesthetic skills
8. Historical skills,
9. Analisis skills.

Perspective From Within -

NERSWN is working for the betterment of the marginalised people of Assam. Mostly with who are the victim of 1996’s massive violence. The organisation's work is belong to Santhal and Bodo community. In Bodoland, Assam Bodo is an indigenous community. But the thing is Santhal. Munda, Rabha, Rajbanshi and other are not the primitive indigenous tribes of Assam. When britishers has come to Assam as a rulers that time they had established gardens of tea. In that time they migrated to Santhal, Munda and other tribes from Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and other places. Teel today so called tea tribe has no basic rights as an Adivasi from the state. As a student when we interact with the community that time we realised about the extreme marginalisation of tea tribes. In student social worker I realised about the real perspective from within.

Perspective From Billow -   

Assam is the state of tribal people but there are some other castes are also living. They are also facing caste based discrimination from other so called upper castes. There are 15 % population is belong to SC community. But as a tribal state there are lots of problems they are facing which is related to caste certificate. The process is very tough for the  marginalised SC people. As a student social worker I had a visit to own organisation called ‘Harijan Bikash Parishad, Gossaigaon’. In the medium of the meeting with the  members and director of the parishad I try to understand about ontological reality of SC people in the state. I also learn about the ground level movement which is based on the principles of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. I interact with the basic problems of application of state and central government policies for the SC community. Because of the problem of caste certificate some community members are not able to take benefits of government schemes. There is also lack of awareness about lows for Sc community like Atrocity act 1989. I learn about their perspective from below which is based on their real ground level experience which is based on caste based discrimination. I also agree with the members of the organisation there are is the need of an application our constitution.

List Of The SC Community In Assam -  

conceptual framework -

As a student social worker I also learn from the application of the basic anti oppressive skills on the field. It was very helpful to me for the holistic understanding of the field.

Systemic skills -

I learn from my fieldwork on the way of systemic skills. In Assam there are lots of conflicts are happening within tribe, adivasi and other group. Those conflicts are also very deeply influence life of the people in negative way. That's why as a student social worker I try to learn about the system of Assam. That was very helpful to me for my understanding. For my learning I visited to lots of  places, villages, offices. As well as we had also meeting with the officer of BTC for the understand about the system of Bodoland.

Structural skill -

As a student social worker I try to learn in the medium of structural aspects of the field. In Assam there are lots of tribal and adivasi people living with some other caste and communities. In the medium of understanding about the community I try to learn about the basic structure of Assam.   

Sectoral skills -

In the medium of my fieldwork as a student social worker I also learn about the basic health, educational practice, livelihood, agriculture industry, food habits of different communities, housing system etc.

Contextual skills -

As a student social worker I learn from my fieldwork about the basic urban as well as rural based practice of tribes of Assam. There are lots of different practises in available in within tribes. In the small town there is no basic facilities like transport are also not very good but people are living life with all problems.

People skills -

I learn about the behavior, emotions, cognition, language of Tribal and Adivasi the people. It was very helpful to my basic understanding

Ethical skills,

As a student I learn about the concept of good and bad among the tribes and Adivasi community. There customs are very primitive. There principles based on the practise of nature.

Aesthetic skills

There a strong indigenous concept of beauty which is help me to understand about the community. I learn from my fieldwork the aesthetics are very important to survive of the society .  

Challenges faced -

In the duration of my fieldwork I faced some kinds of challenges in the field. Language is a basic problem in the field which all we have faced. Because there is no scope for English or Hindi language. Tribal and Adivasi People are not able to Speak other languages. Transportation is also very big problem which we faced in the field. Sometime there is no range and electricity that was a very big issue for us but we managed and take experience of ground level. Assam is an aria of conflicts. There are lots of conflicts are happening with different tribes and Adivasi people. That's what straik is a common thing is there. Because of Lack of awareness especially in marginalised Adivasi like Santhal, Rabha,Rajbanshi are facing lots of problem.

Conclusion -  

As a student of social work fieldwork is very good opportunity to learn about the tribal as well as Adivasi community. It was a build my perspective with below as well as within. As a student social worker my experience with NERSWN is very valuable for me.

-Kunal Ramteke,

Student, Dalit And Tribal Studies And Action,

Tata Institute Of Social Science, Mumbai.