On the road again

Yesterday I toured 'Utthan' Kendras' instead of sampling the famed Muzaffarpur Litchis. These ' uplift centres' have nothing to do with what you're thinking right now, [ even if you're reading this with a tall glass in one hand and a tall Bahama mama in the other]. 'Uplift Centres'  are in fact, places where Bihari kids from what we now term the 'deprived sections' are made to sit and study after school hours.

The idea is to encourage those communities who, unlike some of us, are forced live like there's no tomorrow: no job security, no bank accounts, no food in the fridge, no fridge, no electricity, no electric wiring, no roof, no crockery, no anything but their bare hands, bare backs,  bare labour and mostly bare children to call their own - to start recognising that the local government school is in fact, the beginning of the rainbow beyond which lies a pot of gold, a pot belly, or just plain pot [whatever takes your fancy].

The scheme goes like this: a 'tola sevak' [translation: servant of the habitation], who is a local resident sporting the same spots that the rest of that particular 'deprived section' are supposed to show [ probably after a day of toddy tapping, rat hunting, shit carrying, or corpse removal] is appointed by the community [but not paid by them] to round up their dirty kids and to shove them under the shower or duck them under water or whatever serves to wash the grime off the kids' snot streaked noses, and then pack them off to the nearest government school.

These 'tola sevaks' then attend the school with the kids, to make sure that they are not 'discriminated against' and that the kids get their fair share of the mid-day meal whenever it is served to them. At the end of the school day, the 'tola sevaks' accompany the kids back to their village, to see that no harm befalls them on the way.

As the afternoon stretches on, the kids come over to the 'uplift centre' to get help with their lessons.

The tola sevaks, are in fact nannies, from the previously untouchable - now acceptable 'segment', [or PUNA ]; of the PUNA placed there on behalf of the PUNA by the Government of Bihar.

It's a matter of Maha-Dalit pride, the twice-born and very touchy Government officers in charge of the Utthan programme insist.

The 'proud servants' recite words like 'mainstreaming' and 'intellectual poverty' and are beholden to the chaps who pay them their two thousand rupees a month.

Sure, says one, he could earn more at a construction site, but the nanny's job is far easier, and it earns the gratitude of the community as well because they are just too occupied making ends meet to worry about high class things such as child rearing. Jai Ho!
But does UTTHAN stand for Un -Touchable-Then-How- Acceptable Now?