Hope all of you are healthy and well.
As this year draws to a close, one only hopes this will be remembered as an unusual event and this will not become the norm in the future!
“The real tragedy would be if we come through this pandemic without changing for the better. It would be as if all those deaths, all that suffering would mean nothing.”
– Poet and novelist, Ben Okri, in The Guardian.
Effects of the Pandemic
The virus does not seem to have an obvious physical presence in our valley – as yet! The disease spread here has been nil or negligible. Of course, one is not completely certain as very few have been tested for covid here. So either everyone here has escaped the virus or many of us have been asymptomatic till now.
Socio – economic impacts of the lockdown
These are manifold and will continue to impact the valley for many years to come. In the last newsletter we had written about the rural tribal community’s ability to grow their own food and resilience to withstand deprivations.
But the actual economic impacts of the lockdown have been starkly felt in the villages only from July/August. Other than people working in Thulir, THI and related institutions no one else in the villages had any cash in hand. Most were already bogged down by earlier loans and struggled to pay their monthly dues. So though we had good rains in July/August, people didn’t have money to start the planting or hire tractors to plough their fields. More loans at exorbitant rates were taken out from private moneylenders to start farming. Fortunately most people are growing food crops this season.
Farmers of SOFA were unable to market their turmeric and other produce during the initial lockdown phase. But our network of friends gave them a hand and bought generously. To browse and purchase SOFA products please >> click here
The Panchayat team spent a lot of time sorting out irregularities in the MGNREGA scheme and has started work under the scheme in two villages.
Artisans of the Porgai craft association also didn’t have access to thread and cloth as well as their normal markets during the lockdown. They have risen to this challenge by very creatively up-scaling, recycling, coming up with new products and setting up an online market.
You can support them by treating yourselves to some of their artwork. >> Contact Porgai
Construction Artisans
Construction artisans too had no work or income during the lock-down and kept requesting us to start construction work. Group activities at public institutions and spaces were still forbidden at the time. We could not start construction work at school. So from the beginning of July we started construction activities around our house at the old Thulir campus, dismantling old unused buildings and repairing and renovating others, while taking due covid prevention measures.
From September, as the lockdown was relaxed, we started construction work at school. The caretaker’s cottage has been upgraded and a storeroom for construction materials and tools is being built. The frequent rains this year often delayed this work. But we hope to build two staff quarters and a dining hall this academic year.
Store room construction at the school.
Construction at SOFA.
Educational impact
“The Pandemic has moved us from a Digital Divide to what some have called a Digital Partition.”
– P Sainath
This pandemic has deepened the urban-rural, educated-uneducated and digital-nondigital fissures among us. The disease spread has been more in urban areas and negligible in rural areas but in many ways the rural students suffer more. Students in Sittilingi and other rural areas have no smart phones or laptops and little or no internet access. Lack of space to study or guidance at homes make it even more difficult for them. These students are being left behind in the world of virtual education. Families that are struggling to put together two balanced meals a day are under great pressure to invest in smart phones and laptops.
Decentralised classes
To help educate our children while complying with lockdown rules of not having large gatherings in institutions, we have been holding decentralised classes for children in their own villages. Children from other private and government schools also attend. These classes happen in nine locations. Children have been divided into small groups and each group meets the teachers twice a week. Class 10 students from Sittilingi government school attend classes conducted by Ram every afternoon.
Class in Sittilingi.
Class in Naikuthi.
Worksheets and books from the library are given to the children after instructing them on how to handle them. Teachers work though the week taking classes, preparing activity sheets and learning materials, growing vegetables and millets in the campus and attending teacher training sessions. This break has also been an opportunity for teachers to read, reflect, plan and improve their skills. We hold regular teachers training sessions every week.
Class in Palakuttai.
Class in Rettakuttai.
Internet Access
Till recently the hospital had the only broadband connection in the valley. The rest of us struggled with highly erratic 2G mobile data. Mr. Ansari and team from Digital Empowerment Foundation have helped us with the internet access in the old campus and the school by extending the broadband connection from the hospital using wireless network devices. It still develops glitches frequently but on the whole, our connectivity has vastly improved now.
Coming Home
Karadi Tales and the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) have recently launched a series of story books based on real stories of rural India. In this series a storybook called “Coming Home” has been launched, this book is based on Priti David’s article about Thulir in PARI >> Read More
Sakthivel’s Marriage
We are happy and sad at the same time. Happy that Sakthivel has married Swetha from Bengaluru. Sad that he is leaving for Bengaluru. Sakthivel has been an integral part of Thulir, first as a student and then as an administrator. We will miss him.
We wish both of them complete happiness together and hope they will come back to Thulir eventually.
Thank you all for your outpouring of solidarity, generosity and support which helped us wade through this difficult year!
Maybe this painful pandemic can give birth to a new year filled with consciousness, a consciousness of the unity of life, a consciousness of caring and sharing and a consciousness of all life and love. Wishing you all just such a wonderful new year!
Here is a short poem, written by our friends Sunder and Sonati from Thekambattu.
I wear my privilege
On me
Like an endi shawl
Wrapped tightly
About my shoulders
To keep out the cold
But just as
An endi shawl
Can wrap itself around
And warm
More than one person
I find that
I can use my privilege
For others
And the warmth
Of you warming others
And others warming you
Is privilege indeed.
******