Monthly Report of October 2020
12.11.2020 News
Primary and high school Coaching Centers:
The five primary evening coaching centres and two high school coaching centers of Ghosaldanga, Bishnubati, Bandlodanga, Bautijol, and Panchabanpur have continued taking regular classes this month. Because of Durga puja the educational activities were closed for ten days. Besides teaching, the music, campus cleaning, gardening and sports were also held regularly.
RSV Primary school:
RSV school has resumed its classes but with still one class on alternate days. The nutritious food comprising of rice, pulses, potato, green and yellow vegetable, soyabeans have been provided regularly. Also egg, fish and chicken were served to the students in rotation.
The normal and full-fledged classes have still not been possible due to government restrictions for Covid-19 but the educational guidance was provided to the students diligently. Sanyasi Lohar, the teacher-in-charge of RSV conducted a one-day teachers’ refreshers session (orientation programme) for all the teachers of the organization on the method of teaching.
Hostel:
The hostels are still closed but the two students who will appear for their class-X board examination are staying in the hostel for their preparation. The students from the nearby villages come regularly for their coaching classes to the hostel in the morning. The students also take part in all the activities like cleaning the campus and taking care of the garden, fishery pond, vermicompost and bee keeping.
Beekeeping
The students also along with their teacher Pintu Ghosh for the first time implemented the mulching method for growing ginger that Annalena Wagner and Jahannes Ritz, two German students volunteers experimented and taught them while staying here for five months. The ginger plants have grown very healthily and they are all so happy with the development.
Ginger and turmeric cultivation
As the winter is slowly setting in, the students and teachers are busy preparing their respective plots of lands for vegetable and flower gardens. In summer only a few and selected vegetables are grown due to heat and scarcity of water.
Bio-orchard:
After the good harvest of guava, lemon and papaya this year rice harvesting too was very good. The organizations of Ghsoaldanga and Bishnubati own about more than four acres of land from where most of the requirement of rice is met for the hostel students. Monotosh Das in Ghosaldanga and Bimol Baski in Bishnubati cultivated the rice in two villages. The harvesting of rice has just begun. After the harvest of rice, mustard, potato, tomato and onion will be planted in the plot.
Paddy harvesting
Kick for Help:
The football training for boys and girls are continuing as usual. Since the heat of the summer is no more now, all boys and girls are in full spirit practicing football. This is also the season of football tournaments in the surrounding villages. In October both teams had participated in three tournaments. In one match the girls’ team took the second position and boys’ team become champion in three tournaments.
General Information:
'Dasae' is one of the important festivals of Santals. Every year during Hindu’s biggest festival Durga puja Santal celebrate this festival in which Santal men headed by a guru (cultural leader) move out from their villages and sing and dance around in the families of other villages looking out for their lost companions. They sing the traditional mourning songs and each family gives them rice, vegetables and sometimes ‘ranu’ the herbal medicine to make rice wine.
Nowadays, lesser number of youth participates in Dasae festival. Mostly the unschooled youth and old people participate. This year the junior leaders of the villages who are all educated took part in the Dasae dance festival with great enthusiasm which has been a great inspiration for young generations as well as for elders of the villages for the preservation of Santal culture and tradition.
The dance group of Ghosaldanga headed by Ramjit Mardi, Anil Hembrom, Lakhiram and others covered five different villages of the area and performed in more than 400 families. The dance group from Bishnubati also did the same.
A finance committee meeting was held in October in which the new rule on FCRA (Foreign contribution registration act) that Government of India has introduced was the main agenda discussed.
Boro Baski gave a Webinar talk on the making of the Museum of Santal Culture at Bishubati. The talk was organized by the “Paschimbanga Sangharalaya Samity’, Kolkata. The senior member of the organization also had a Zoom conference with the Delhi based organization ‘ImmerseGo’ on the Environment Learning Module through Arts & Indigenous Wisdom’.