“One hall for men, other for women and common washrooms. That was the first surprise while living in School for Democracy (SFD), followed by ‘Shramadan’ (donation through physical labour) and hectic daylong lectures.”
This was only the beginning. Shrikant Wad, an MA student of the Master of Public Policy (MPP) course at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, had much more to discover during his stay at SFD, Rajasthan.
“There is no division of labour in SFD. All of us do all the work – cleaning utensils, rooms, toilets, campus, cooking, etc. Every day, your group is assigned one task and rotation makes sure that you do all sorts within a week. It didn’t take long to realise that this whole exercise was about dignity of labour,” he recalled.
Students from the course are going back to the roots, literally, to experience what they never thought they could while studying at an institution of NLSIU’s repute.
From a cosmopolitan city like Bengaluru to the most backward of villages in the country, students from the two batches have seen it all.
Niraj Kumar from the MPP 2016 batch has completed two field works – one with Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) at Thana of Rajsamand district, Rajasthan, to study about the trend of migration of people in upper caste, and the second about Karnataka’s Annabhagya scheme on the outskirts of Bengaluru (this for his dissertation).
“I was surprised to know that male members from almost every household (in Thana) had migrated out in search of job, mostly to Gujarat and Maharashtra. The second one on Annabhagya took me to 84 households. What I learnt is that due to the impact of the food security scheme, younger siblings of children engaged in child labour in Gangondahalli, Khamar Nagar and Pathan Kothi are being sent to private schools because of an increase in real income,” he said.
MPP 2017 batch student Vedprakash Singh worked with Kovel Foundation in Vihakapatnam.
“I was part of a three-member team which visited some indigenous tribal villages (Bhadrachallam) alongside the border of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chattisgarh and Odisha, where we got exposure to their various livelihood practices. Tribal people here are least concerned about the outer world chaos and demand for minimum government intervention,” he said.
Credits and certificates aside, it is instances from their brief internships that remain etched in their memories. Like for Niraj, a native or Bihar for whom it was the first experience in backward regions: “People used to ask me if I’m from a government organisation who is there to help them. They were simply not used to government representatives talking to them,” he recalled.
