Yakshi and Girijan Deepika
Yakshi is a small NGO based in Hyderabad in India who offers technical support to Girijan Deepika (GD), an independent tribal peoples’ mass organisation working in East Godavari District. YAKSHI and GD decided to experiment with the Reflect approach in 1995. They saw it as a way of promoting sustained dialogue at a community level; integrating the learning of literacy with the systematising and strengthening of indigenous knowledge systems.
Facilitators were recruited from communities with a view to collectively analysing local problems. In the process of local research they discovered that an indigenous system of community interaction known as the ‘Gotti’ was in decline. It became clear that, if reactivated, the Gotti could offer an ideal forum for people to engage in dialogue. The reviving of the Gotti was therefore the first task and was undertaken through a campaign using street theatre, music, dance and painting. The facilitators developed a play which dramatised how the Gotti functioned - emphasising the importance of the active and equal participation of everyone. With the Gotti tradition reactivated the ground was laid for Reflect to be introduced, this happened in 10 villages.
PRA tools were developed to address forest and environment issues, credit and gender relations. The Gotti is a vibrant forum for community debate and as an indigenous (albeit revived) institution offers much greater chances of sustainability. It is a space ‘to sit and talk’, ‘to share our happiness and our sorrows’ and ‘an opportunity to reflect’. The Reflect methodology sits comfortably within this space and helps to structure and reinforce the interaction.
The Gottis often attracted most of the adult population of a community to engage in the discussions. And in each community a certain number of adults chose to learn literacy. A one Gotti member observed:
‘Palm oil is an important product here and one youth in every five households can climb the trees to tap the oil. One in five is enough. It is not necessary for everybody to have the skill. The same is true of literacy. As long as we have enough literate people in the village we will manage’.
In learning literacy skills a big emphasis is placed on maintaining the participatory mode of behaviour, with participants asked to act out words and then letters (shaping their bodies into new letters) – and being asked to form words by moving around.
Addressing agricultural issues in the Reflect Gottis: Agriculture was consistently highlighted as a major concern by the Gottis, particularly owing to rapid changes that had taken place in the area over recent years with the introduction of cash crops. A series of PRA tools were thus designed to bring out key agricultural issues, starting with historical maps showing agriculture in the village comparing and contrasting the present situation with that 30 years ago. This was followed up with a crop matrix exploring the uses of each crop that was grown locally. This then led to separate matrices analysing the advantages and disadvantages of each cash crop and each food crop.Cash crops were rarely identified as offering anything other than cash but had considerable requirements (e.g. land, plough bullocks, seeds, capital, market, water, pesticide, labour) and had led to many losses such as: indebtedness, no food, no proper market, suicides (drink fertiliser), livestock get no fodder, health effects (fertiliser contamination, tobacco gives TB).
In contrast food crops were seen to be useful for encouraging communal work, providing food security and fodder for livestock and poultry, maintaining fertile soil, producing some cash (if sold) and preventing debts (as inputs were low). The disadvantages related to predators and the vulnerability of some crops to heavy rains or winds.
Following detailed analysis of agricultural issues the Gottis begun to look at solutions. The cumulative analysis over several weeks meant that the actions were often substantial rather than piecemeal, with many Gottis deciding to plant 50% of their land with food crops (reversing the trend towards complete domination of the land by tobacco and cotton).
For more information see the following articles: PLA Notes, Education Action Issue 8, Issue 12.