Friday, October 23, 2009

YOUTH FOR RURAL ADVANCEMENT CAMPAIGN

YOUTH FOR RURAL ADVANCEMENT CAMPAIGN

By

National Council of Rural Institutes (NCRI)

In Collaboration With

PEOPLE’S INSTITUTE OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT - PIRD

(2nd -19th October, 2009)

CAMPAIGN REPORT


YOUTH FOR RURAL ADVANCEMENT CAMPAIGN

PIRD conducted Youth For Rural Advancement Campaign in 10 villages of Ahmedpur block in Latur Distict of Maharashtra as per NCRI’s plan & Guidelines. The campaign was conducted in Mangdari, Valsangi, Rudha, Mogha, Varvati, Rui / Varvati Tanda, Hippalgaon and Malegaon in Ahmedpur block and Borgaon Village in Chakur block.

The Campaign focused on following types of programs.

1. Youth camps / Talk on various issues & problems related to rural development.

2. Essay competitions

3. Speech competitions

3.1.YOUTH CAMPS / TALK ON VARIOUS ISSUES & PROBLEMS RELATED TO RURAL DEVELOPMENT.

The youth camp was conducted in all 10 villages. PIRD had invited eminent people to deliver lectures on following issues.

1. Present education system & opportunities of employment

2. Gender issue

3. Health & sex education for youth

4. Rural Development

After lectures the issues were discussed by youth and they expressed their views and ideas about the issues. Near about 50 to 200 people participated in the camp including youths at every village.

3.2.ESSAY COMPETITIONS:

Essay competition for youth was conducted in 10 villages. The number of participants was 146 in all villages including 113 girls. Owing to the curiosity around 62 children participated in this completion. Details are as follows.



Youth Group

Children Group

Edu. Level

Sr.
No

Village Name

Male

Female

Total

Male

Female

Total

8 to 10

11
& Above

1

Hipalgaon

1

15

16

5

5

10

12

4

2

Mangdhari

0

8

8

0

8

8

4

4

3

Varvati

0

9

9

2

0

2

9

0

4

Varvati/
Rui Tanda

0

9

9

0

7

7

9

0

5

Mogha

0

19

19

0

0

0

7

12

6

Rudha

0

21

21

0

9

9

21

0

7

Malegaon Kh

5

8

13

5

6

11

11

2

8

Borgaon Kh

27

4

31

8

0

8

14

17

9

Valsangi

0

20

20

0

7

7

20

0












Total

33

113

146

20

42

62

107

39

Essays written on following subjects by Participated youths-

1. Importance of Women education

2. Role of Education in personality development of women

3. My dream about my village / Development plan of my village

Children also participated in this completion and we had given following subjects

1. My village and I

2. My favorite teacher

3. My mother

For each groups on village level, PIRD has decided to give awards for first three winners. The first award will be Rs.201, second will be Rs.101 and third will be Rs.51.Certificates of participation will be awarded in the special function on village level.

3.3. SPEECH COMPETITIONS

We were able to arrange speech competition at only one village l.e. Borgaon but it was very excellent event. In speech competition, 8 youth participated and they raised basic issues and problems of their

village like primary school education problem and unsatisfactory role of village education committee, problem of linkage road, education for girls, gender issues, problem about higher education regarding rural youth and women participation in decision making of village level development process. Not only they raised the issues but they decided to organize themselves and will work with Grampanchayat in the view of coordination.

4.SUPPORTING STRUCTURES :

To enable successful implementation of campaign village volunteers, Aganwadi teachers and helpers, grampanchayat members and village people assisted our staff on their level best.

5.CHALLENGES:

We faced following challenges during the preparation of program plan and implementation.

i) Assembly Elections was announced recently before campaign and it was finished on 13 oct. Our campaign started on 10th oct and finished on 15th oct.Due to the elections young men didn’t participated in sufficient numbers.

ii) College and High School mid term exams held during the time.

iii) Deepavali Festival also fall on during the campaign period. This decreased the number of participants.

iv) Agriculture harvesting period was also on top level.

v) Due to all above conditions, we could able to conduct this campaign only for 5 days and in that also we had to take one day holiday for election voting day.

6. LEARNINGS AND OUTCOMES;

i) Our experience can be best said as: If you decide to do something by heart, the whole world conspires to help you.

ii) Our expected target was to reach at least 100 young people. We could able to reach 146 young people.

iii) We learned that youths are eager to know more about various issues and like to participate in process of village development.

iv) We learned that girls are more serious on the issue of development and social change.

v) There is emerging need of unity of youth for rural development.

vi) There is tremendous strength and willingness to do something in youth but they need is proper exposure to the knowledge and skills.

vii) The number of participated girls in the campaign above the age of 18 were very less owing to the practice of early girl child marriages.

viii) We have learned that the level of malnutrition in youth is high.

xi) The unavailability of high school in own village or nearby village is forcing a lot of girls to leave schooling in early age.

Kindly visit www.pird.multiply.com to see more photographs & videos clips of the program.