THE GOAT HERD GIRLS IN SCHOOL; REPORT FROM RAJASTHAN*
Driving northeast of Jaipur, India, in the district of Virat Nagar, we veer around the camels, and careen up a dusty road in the Aravalli Mountains, to a small village called Shyamapura. Young girls in simple dress will soon sing to us. Waiting patiently for us, seated in the open courtyard, wearing simple cotton uniforms, modest tunics and trousers.
The setting is surreal and lovely. They give us garlands of marigold, and we look up to see their mothers and grandmothers, perching on a baked roof, silhouetted against the dark blue sky, and nodding in welcome.
In another nearby village down another dusty road, another thirty girls are waiting for us. Wedged together in their muted salwars, like colorful yarns in a reed basket, the girls, from a small village called Sewrani Ki Dhani, are breathy and curious.
In both of these communities, our Executive Director, Levani and I are asked to sit on plastic chairs, slightly above the young goatherd girls. They are still and clustered, leaning into each other, like old-fashioned miniature roses climbing a stucco wall, slowly unfolding in bloom. With sinewy limbs and sun-darkened faces, they watch us, stoic, lean and surprisingly timid, given the freedom of juvenile lifetimes spent climbing rocks with no particular schedule, just chasing the young goats hither and yon across the parched Rajasthani desert.
Their day would have been ten or twelve hours in the hot sun, before they could return home to help their Mothers strain the rice kernels and prepare the family dinner. And then, when the goats curl up in their own family groups to sleep close together under the beginnings of stars, the girl goatherds are free. With the last twilight burst of energy, they come to this small building in the village compound, identified by a crooked hand painted sign.
Beginning in January 2005 and in conjunction with dedicated staff from New Delhi’s Humana People to People India, we are funding two small Ananda Bridge Schools in this remote corner of Rajasthan.
The project has provided an opportunity for these young girls to tread lightly into a vaster world, painstakingly learning to read hieroglyphs on a small blackboard, and the wonder of writing their names in a language they never knew. Our proud students hold up miniature slate blackboards trimmed in lime or day-glow pink. This is the “real prize” – - each girl has learned to write her name in script.
Photo: Mamta, a teacher at the bridge school in Virat Nagar
Humana Project Leader for Virat Nagar is Mr. Saurav Kumar Das. Ananda Foundation’s Country Director, Sherly Mathew, is working alongside school teachers, Mamta Jangid, and Mamta Gujar,who recently discovered two young girls with immense learning potential -- Renu, aged 10 years, from the tiny village of Sewrani Ki Dhani and eleven year old Krihna in Shyamapura. Identifying gifted children may be a tried and true process in America, but the rules are different in these remote villages in Rajasthan.
Since these children have little or no experience with regular schooling, they are sometimes fearful to begin. How do we show them the benefit of education? And, should they become more excited and adaptable to the concept of reading and writing, what will the skills bring to their lives?
Gaining parental support, especially from the fathers, is certainly a good beginning. One father shared that, only when the staff thoroughly explained the benefits of education for his daughter in a detailed manner, he agreed to let her join the school. “She had never been to school, he said, “as in our community we do not give much importance to girls education, but more to household matters.”
Another tall, mustachioed father told me, “They may not be able to use knowledge much themselves, but they can read us a newspaper, and they can teach their children. Their children will read and write,” he smiled.
Photo: Sheree & Levani with fathers of girls who attend Ananda's Bridge School
With a history imbedded with warrior ancestors, their lives once ruled by the games of war, seeing this breakthrough in village thinking is very inspiring to us. As our country director in India, Mrs.S. Mathew, has suggested, “ongoing meetings with parents will be continue to be a major component of the project. The family group, the “we feeling” can often lead to successful exchanges.” In a region of the world where thumbprints are still the signature for attendance, we hold strong hope for the goatherd girls of Shyamapura and Sewrani Ki Dhani.
Since 2004, Ananda has awarded HPPI grants to support the bridge schools in Shyamapura and Sewrani Ki Dani villages of Virat Nagar.
* Field notes by Sheree, Program Director, Ananda Foundation
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