What drives you ?

As a Gandhi Fellow, I was sent for my initial field immersion to a government school in dire situation - worst learning outcomes in years, sky-high dropout rates and extreme performance difference by gender. My only hope was having some people in the school who were bothered by this. The vicious circle had caught the stakeholders in it. The school blamed the parents most of who were poor people living in a nearby slum. They, in turn, blamed the school.

I needed to find a solution that would bring the school and the parents together and decided to create an open library owned and run by the community. It would be used by the students under guidance from the school and designed to ensure that women and girl students could access it without disrupting their routines as homemakers.

To my happy surprise, the idea got accepted very well by the community, especially women. However, we faced several himalayan-sized challenges. Slum real estate was premium and our library needed space. In addition, women were free only by late evening but crime levels made it unsafe at that time. This seemed to nip the idea in the bud.

However, leaders began emerging from among the community - women, students and school staff who encouraged each other and me. I visited 30 families and created a group of 45 women and 30 men who vowed to make the library work. Soon, we were offered space after working hours in a local incense stick factory. A day and time was fixed for our first community meeting. We were on cloud nine. This was serious progress.

In the first community meeting, no one from the community showed up even when we waited for an hour. We decided not to pity ourselves and find the causes. Women told us they would have to risk making their families’ anger to come to us. And we also came to know that the space offered to us was used for illegal activities by gamblers and drug addicts.

I again visited those 45 women. Together they convinced their families to let them get involved. We started a parallel book donation campaign and collected 250 books. The library operations started and several workshops also began to be held. I felt I have made a difference. Community members started developing a taste for library and its activities. A waterfall of support just came my way. And the community stood up for us when our books were stolen and we were threatened by the goons. However, we continued.

At this point we decided to include the goons as well. We visited their homes, invited them personally, appreciated how challenging their lives were and gave them tasks to contribute to the library. That worked. Children who were members of gambling gangs earlier now began to enjoy folk tales.

In one year, library’s impact was visible. Community now protected it. Dropped out girls became regular in school again. Language learning ability improved, students’ confidence skyrocketed. Inhibitions, doubts, fears were overcome. The school inspired the community and vice versa and the vicious cycle changed to a virtuous one.

Community owned libraries became a part of Gandhi fellowship curriculum, was adopted by 5 locations, 250 Gandhi fellow and impacted 1000 families.

I learnt that all the communities, however passive, have people waiting to be tapped for positive outcomes. It strengthened my belief in impact of long term sustainable solutions and the magic people are capable of creating given a chance.

(Reflections)