Inspiring Stories - Girigowdanadoddi

The village of Girigowdanadoddi , Somanahalli GP of Uttarahalli hobli with 82 households with a population of 450 is the last outpost of the Bangalore Urban district. With access being restricted, the village does not enjoy many facilities except for a Government Lower Primary School . Catering to the population of 79 children, is the single Government Lower Primary School .On completing education till the fifth grade, the children have to go to Mookodlu or Kagglipura for higher studies which are about 3 and 5 kms respectively, away from the village. The main occupations are agriculture and casual labour. A quarry nearby also draws in migrant labourers from Tamil Nadu who often leave their children at home and go to work at the quarry. Many of the women travel to Bangalore city to work as domestic help. The government bus that visits it twice a day, is the only transport available; at other times, people need to walk the 2 kms to the main road in order to access any other transport.

There was an immediate and urgent need for full-time care for the children of 2-6 years as the nearest anganwadi was 1.5 kms away at Mookodlu. However, for reasons of accessibility and insufficient population, the request for an anganwadi was turned down by the Dept. of Women and Child welfare; since according to the ICDS norms, one anganwadi can be sanctioned only for a population of 1000. The people of Girigowdanadoddi therefore had to grapple with the lack of childcare on their own. For an anganwadi to be sanctioned the criterion for minimum population for the habitat is marked as thousand, thereby already eliminating any chances for access through anganwadis.

Because of its remoteness and size, Girigowdanadoddi is always tucked away from the notice of the public as well as the State administration leading to its continuous isolation and lack of services. While assessing the situation of early childcare in Somanahalli GP, the facilitators met with all the members of the Gram Panchayat, to discuss the issue and share our concept of community owned childcare.

As part of the initiation process, when the team member met with the GP President, Patlamma who was also Pancbayat member for Girigowdanadoddi, was quick to respond to the issue of initiating this facility. The GP and the SDMC members had also been supportive and actively interested in the functioning of the local school, which had relatively good facilities for the children. An ex GP member, Gundanna keen on the facility, took it upon himself to organize a volunteer in the village to undertake a survey of the children in the 2-6 age group. 25 children were identified and a discussion among the GP member, SDMC member and few interested parents was conducted prior to the larger meeting in the village. People already enrolled to the idea of initiating such a facility in turn enrolled people to be present at the Makkala Araike mattu Shikshana Sabha. Even during the Sabha, Gundanna played an important role in persuading the parents to pay a fee, explaining that the village could not otherwise access any child care from the government and that a nominal fee of Rs 25 was necessary.Ably supported by the local government school teacher and the SDMC president, the people of Girigowdanadoddi assembled to address the issue of childcare after a survey of the village by a local volunteer revealed that 28 children were of pre-school age without any facility.

Though there was an initial hesitation about parents sending food for their children and paying a fee; during the discussion, the entire community rallied together to support the preschool- donating mats, low benches, colours, toys etc. The govt. school teacher allotted a room within the govt school premises for the preschool. The relationship within the facility and the community members, were strengthened with subsequent processes of- mapping parents expectations, planning and budgeting with the parents, parents generating learning materials continually ensuring that parents in turn send their children very regularly to school with food and fees paid on time. The parent committee of the preschool and the local representative are very committed to the effective functioning of the facility which further strengthens the community's effort at childcare.

he approach to facilitating community ownership in creating the facility reveals that when communities have relevant information to act upon and are facilitated through contextualised and appropriate mechanisms, they are able to take responsibility for their immediate local needs. Girigowdanadoddi is just one among thousands of little villages scattered across the country- that are equally if not more remote and have no access to the services provided by the government. Girigowdanadoddi highlights the fact that community ownership does not come in tandem with schemes or edicts and does not require prior criterion to be fulfilled. Rather it is the simple coming together of people as a community to own and address their life issues wherever or whoever they may be.