Sector 5 ↔️ Chhend: A Journey Of Transition

Sector 5 ↔️ Chhend

A Journey Of Transition

A remarkable academic year comes to an unexpected close. While the spring end-semester stands cancelled owing to an unprecedented pandemic, the entire fraternity of NIT Rourkela has seen a roller coaster of an academic year. The same has extended to AASRA and consequently to Sector-5 and Chhend as well. Let us rewind all those that happened in this year – 2019-20 in the workplaces of Chhend and Sector-5.

 Sector 5

Sector 5 was one of the workplaces of AASRA until December 2018. It is 5 km away from the NITR campus. Our mode of transportation was through cycles. We provided our service for 7 years. During this course of time, there was an incredible shift in their mindset. Every individual residing in Sector 5 started aiming for a better way of life. They started giving utmost importance to education. We strived wholeheartedly to cultivate this kind of mindset and we finally achieved it by the end of 2018. By this time, all the members of the community were capable of affording private tuitions to their children.

In 2k17, there were around 30 children who were actively interacting with AASRAites. The number decreased to half by the end of Spring Semester 2k18. By the end of 2k18, we decided to divert our primary services towards Chhend. In the past year i.e. 2019-20, we managed our workforce to visit both the workplaces during festivals, sports day, foundation day. We just stopped visiting Sector 5 regularly but kept track of the academic status of some of those children;

CLASS	No. Of CHILDREN
3	1
4	6
5	3
6	1
7	5
8	6
10	4
12	3

As per Jan 2020 - TOTAL: 29 Children

• Sanjana is one of the three 12th class children. It was her 2nd attempt to give 12th board exams this year.
• Tulsi Nayak and Anisha Kindo gave their attempt to secure a Lateral entry into JNV but did not get selected.
• This year, we have 6 children who are on the platform to crack the JNV examination. Out of those 6 children, Kushboo is a very active child and a fast learner too.

A worrying incident:

During the lockdown, in April, there was an issue with Ration. Some ration distributors came to the workplace and told the residents that they were planning to provide ration to senior citizens and differently-abled persons of the workplace. In a radical reaction, all others started revolting against the ration providers and they finally made those ration distributors move away from the workplace immediately. This one foolish act made them starve for a couple of days. This made us step back while asking for help from our alumni because there was no guarantee that the money that we would give them would be utilised properly. Now, the situation is fine but this incident gave a conclusion that those people are not united. This was never the case when we used to visit the workplace.

Differences are common and they do exist in a society but there should be a limit. We were able to maintain that limit till the end of Spring Semester of 2k18. Slowly, we lost control over that limit and we saw a depreciation in attendance of those children. This led us to land up in a scenario where we were not even teaching 10 students and this even led us to come to a decision of diverting our services towards Chhend. Now, the parents are asking us to visit their workplace again as we did earlier to re-establish the bonding and to elevate their mindset.

STRENGTH = SUCCESS + FAILURE

• We were successful in maintaining a peaceful relationship among all the residents when we were visiting the workplace.
• At the same time, we failed in inculcating those behavioural ethics firmly into their minds that could last forever.

CHHEND

Post 2k18, we started visiting Chhend. Now, Chhend is one of the workplaces of AASRA. It is 11km from the campus. Aasraites go to Chhend by auto (Rs 400/- per visit). At present, we are visiting Chhend 8 times a month (every Saturday and Sunday). Chhend is an orphanage and Pradeep sir {Ex-Child Welfare Committee member} is the present caretaker of Chhend. There are around 18 children in Chhend but 14 out of them are actively participating in utilizing our service.

CLASS	No. Of CHILDREN
5	2
6	2
7	3
8	2
9	1
10	3
+3	1

 

  As per Jan 2020 - TOTAL: 14 Children

• Rajaram Oram and Pawan Kumar attempted to secure a Lateral entry into JNV but did not get selected.
• This year, we have 3 children who are on the platform to crack the JNV examination.

      There was a major financial issue raised by the caretaker of Chhend in the Autumn Semester of 2k19. We contacted 8-10 alumni who were related to this issue and they advised us not to take part in any kind of financial transactions. Subsequently, we arranged a meeting between Prof.S.K. Das Sir of ECE Dept. and Pradeep Sir. After the meeting, on 25th January 2020, Dr. Archana Mallick ma’am of Dept. of Metallurgy with S K Das sir’s wife visited Chhend workplace and they ended up contributing ₹10000/-.

Two of our alumni, Siddharth Kumar Patra (President: 2017-18) & Samir Kumar Nayak (President: 2018-19) are now contributing ₹12k/year each.

      There were many concerns raised about Chhend and the root cause of all those arguments was FUNDS. There are not enough funds to maintain this workplace. Chhend is the workplace that draws most attention from the treasurer. The amount collected as monthly contributions is satisfactory as far as the active members of this workplace are concerned but it is not sufficient.

We were managing to visit both the workplaces i.e.; sector 5 and Chhend. In this process of maintaining an active relationship with those workplaces, we ran out of money many times.

Chhend’s situation is totally different from all other workplaces. The children here were extreme introverts to the people outside their reach (their world was just the workplace premises and their school). In the beginning, we landed up in the same situation where children placed us in the list of those people who they considered as the people out of their reach. It took us 1 year to gain their trust. One such incident was on HOLI – 2k19. On that day, children were standing on the roof of their houses and watching all other people playing Holi. We reached the workplace with colours and sweets by 9:00 AM. After seeing the situation, we asked everyone to come out and participate in the celebration. The children with lots of hesitation in their mind finally stepped out at 9:45 AM.

In the due course of time, the bonding between our members and those children strengthened and now we are very happy to say that the situation is quite opposite to that of the opening months.

 In the end, I conclude that the 2019-20 year played an important role in acting as a transition phase for all those members who were connected with sector 5 to divert their services towards Chhend. I am grateful to all the members of Sector 5 and Chhend who contributed their valuable time and energy to make this year a memorable one. This is how we put an end to the year 2019-20 and invite the new executive body to exercise its power for the further upliftment of weaker sections of the society.

 -Challa Vamshi Krishna Yadav

Vice Captain(2019-20)