The innovative DISSHA (Developing Integrated Strategies for Students Holistic Approach) program has been implemented to address the COVID education gap by our partner organization Dr. M. L. Dhawale Memorial Trust (MLDT) in government schools surrounding the small town of Bhopoli.

The program trains recent alumni of tribal schools to be “Vidyarthi Mitra”, or “student friends” to assume a mobile teaching role in the schools listed below, closing some of the gaps in resources. We elevate the science curriculum of the DISSHA program by bringing to life the joy of science and providing hands-on tools to supplement the curriculum. The DISSHA program is led by Mr. Sunil Chavan and Dr. Chandrashekar Goda from MLDT..  REAL is grateful for their partnership in India, as well as their dedication, perseverance and leadership in providing much needed services to this impoverished community. 

Project Goals:

To spark a lifelong interest in education and learning

To build self-confidence and empower students to identify and solve community problems

To provide a small group learning atmosphere

To reinforce basic literacy skills – reading and writing

To allow free exploration of math, science, and technology manipulatives

To teach health, environmental, and global concepts by engaging all senses

To provide teachers who create an encouraging and positive learning atmosphere

Who are the Vidyarthi Mitra?

Vidyarthi Mitra loosely translates to “a student’s friend” in Hindi. This new model, innovated by MLDT through the DISSHA program, trains recent tribal school alumni in the west Indian state of Maharashtra to serve as roving tutors to 9 area government schools. The Vidyarthi Mitra model aims to 1) provide quality, unintimidating education to underserved tribal students, 2) close the teacher shortage gap in village government schools, which was amplified by pandemic closures in 2020, and 3) offer motivated alumni who wish to remain in the community gainful and stimulating employment and mentorship opportunities.

Project Location: Village schools near Bhopoli, Vikramgad taluka, Palghar District, Maharashtra – 2 hours north of Mumbai, India

Target Population: Tribal indigenous Adivasi youth ages 13-16 years –  8th and 9th grades (1,639 students annually).  This community is a primarily indigenous Adivasi community which has been marginalized and has high poverty.  The  literacy rate is 37% and many villages have no educational facilities within five to ten miles. Infant mortality rates are high; 84% of the villages do not have access to healthcare; only 12% of households have toilets; 65% of the working population is unemployed, which only exacerbates poverty levels. 

Entire families, or working members, leave their villages between November and May to find work and meet basic livelihood needs. This results in hardships for the old, the sick, and the children who are not only left behind, but are deprived of a basic education. The migrant separated from their family works in bad conditions, is exploited, becomes ill, and later, brings illnesses back to the tribal community upon return, further amplifying existing hardship.

The Need/The Why/The Problem: Low academic performance due to COVID gap (2 years of school closures) and low quality science education in government schools.

Project Objectives: To improve the understanding of science and technology, build confidence and empower students by creating an encouraging and positive learning atmosphere. 

The Solution:   DISSHA (Developing Integrated Strategies for Students Holistic Approach) program has been successfully implemented by MLDT to address the COVID gap (students did not go to school for two years) in Math, Science and English in the following schools

DISSHA Program :No. of Participants/Students 2023-24
School No	School Name	STD		Total
		8th	9th
1	Shanti Ratan Vidyamandir Kondgaon	47	104	151
2	Kunrze High School	73	121	194
3	Bhopoli Ashram School	76	91	167
4	Kev High School	72	91	163
5	Jogani High School Bhopoli	114	153	267
6	Uprale High School	102	175	277
7	Maan Ashram School	67	72	139
8	Vikramgad Ashram School	59	78	137
9	Vatsaly Ashram School	64	80	144
	Total	674	965	1,639

Project Implemented By: Non-profit Dr. M. L. Dhawale Memorial Trust (MLDT) which has been providing healthcare to this community since 1987 and has established a strong trusting relationship with local government schools and principals.

REAL’s Support – Students will read about the existence of magnetism, but most will never feel the pull of a magnet. REAL: Youth To Youth volunteers find this reality unacceptable.  We want to connect words on paper with the power of experiential learning. STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) education should be engaging and exciting, inspiring the next generation. 

In rural India, learning means sitting in a crowded classroom listening to a lecture with only a chalkboard for visual aid. While students can recite lessons, true understanding is virtually non-existent.  Classrooms lack educational manipulatives and there are no school libraries or labs.

The children in our target schools are the first generation to attend formal schooling.  Most rural schools have teacher shortages and large classrooms. None of the schools have science labs, and the children find science to be a difficult, non-interesting subject.  Science books either bore or intimidate students.  It is rare for a student to go on to college and if they do, no one chooses science professions because they are poorly prepared.  Without community mentors or family role models who work in scientific fields, students are reliant on their schools— which contain no science materials or science labs—to drive their curiosity.

Student Testimonials

“The Discover program has helped me develop self-confidence and self-reliance. It has helped me develop the confidence to speak up in class and ask questions. This program helps rural students like me get a glimpse of the outside world. I have no doubt that all the topics that I have learned in the last 3 years have transformed my educational experience. “

Name: Jadhav Bhavesh Satish

School: Kunzre High School

Grade: 10th

“I used to be afraid of mathematics and found it to be a very difficult subject. Since I started in the Discover program, I am no longer afraid and I am beginning to enjoy learning mathematics.”

Name: Rituja Naresh Jadha

School: Kev High School

Grade: 10th

How Many Students Are Part of the Program?

Approximately 2,000 students, from eighth to tenth grade, benefit from our efforts and your contribution.

Budget

REAL currently provides an annual grant of $13,230

Over the last 11 years REAL has donated a total of $93,000 towards this program.

Summary

This project provides 8th to 10th grade students with essential concepts and skills in core areas, Math, Science, Geography, English. This grant provides funds for:

1. Teacher training, through workshops and classes, on lesson planning, activity-based teaching styles, assessments, and evaluation. Overhead projectors, and magnetic boards supported by worksheets, to increase the efficiency of the lessons.

2. Direct intervention with 10 students from each school, from the eighth and ninth grades, to create a group of student leaders and tutors. The students will mentor their peers, using materials given to them. This is a pilot program, which will explore how well students learn from their peers.

3. Stronger fundamentals will be built. Traditionally, students are forced to work within a culture that is oriented towards grades, and scores, instead of learning. With interactive, and varied, activities, this will change. The quality of education will increase, students will experience joy in learning, and the high dropout rates will decrease.

4. Testing to determine current levels of competence and subsequent impact of program.

Regional Profile 

Over 95% of the population is tribal

Literacy rate of the tribal population is close to 37%, significantly lower than than the global average of  86.3%.

Most villages have no educational facility within 5 to 10 km.

84.28% of villages do not medical access.

High infant mortality

Only 12% of households have toilets.

50% are farmers, 50% of land is cultivable, but barely 0.79% of the cultivated area is irrigated. Consequently, cultivation is near impossible after the monsoons. On average, agricultural produce supports partial food needs of families for 5-6 months in a year. Land degradation, and falling yields, is a consequence of high usage of chemicals for agriculture.

65.5% of the working population do not work, which is leading to worsening poverty in the area. Entire families, or working members, migrate between November and May to meet basic livelihood needs. This results in hardships for the old, sick, children deprived of basic education, and the migrant, who is separated from his family, works in bad conditions, is exploited, becomes ill, and later, brings these illnesses into the tribal community.

History

The Dr. M. L. Dhawale Memorial Trust (MLDT) was established in 1987 to carry on the work of Dr. M. L. Dhawale, an eminent Homoeopathic clinician, educationist, and compassionate human being. The MLDT has, at its core, the mission of promoting positive health in a cost-effective manner. Over the last 18 years, MLDT has established effective infrastructure for providing rural and tribal healthcare in the Palghar, Vikramgad and Wada talukas in the Thane district of Maharashtra. Over several years, members of the organization realized that the only way to improve the health of tribal communities was to focus on holistic integrated development programs, which improve the health, livelihood, and education of community members.

Organization’s Approach

To provide infrastructure to improve the health, livelihood and education of people in the Palghar, Vikramgad and Wada talukas in the Thane district of Maharashtra.

The MLDT found that the rural people needed food, employment, and better living conditions – not just medicine. To respond to this felt need, they have focused on:

1. Empowering the people themselves, through employment, education, newer agricultural techniques, and promotion of tribal art
2. Building local leadership by identifying educated people who can lead their own communities
3. Regenerating human and natural resources with optimal resource planning and utilization

The Dhawale Trust Fund works to improve Holistic Community Care, which includes:

1. Community Health Needs – Preventive, Promotive, Curative through Homoeopathy, Hygiene, Nutrition
2. Human Resources – Education, Livelihood, Finances
3. Environment and Natural Resources – Land, Water, Plants, Animals
4. Talent – Arts, Crafts, Culture
5. Knowledge – Community-Based Research

To promote education, the Dhawale Trust Fund is working with schools to:

1. Provide for basic personal and academic needs, including academic covering uniforms, exercise books, workbooks, compass boxes, etc.
2. Tutor students in math and English.
3. Improve teachers through workshops.
4. Educational tour.
5. Organize sports, and cultural, meets.
6. Give scholarships to outstanding students to pursue further education.
7. Run a mobile library for children.
8. Develop vocational education relevant to the rural context, including an introduction to basic rural technology course (IBT).
9. Start environmental programs in the schools, as part of the larger efforts to educate about and encourage sustainable livelihood and eco development goals.

Dhawale Trust – Education @Bhopoli –  Website

Life of the People

Due to misconceptions and little education, unhealthy practices persist. For example, a pregnant woman is made to do domestic and field work until the day of delivery, and then resume again five days after the birth. She is given less food to eat, and made to eat after everyone else in the household, because people think her child will be harder to deliver if it is larger. This pregnant woman may very well be a teenage girl, because early marriage, combined with little education, leads to early pregnancy, and many children. Girls are illegally married (with false certificates from village officials) by the time they are 15 or 16, while boys are married between the ages of 16 and 20. These marriages are conducted in April and May, when families have money, in order to absolve parents of the responsibility of their children.

As far as schooling goes, in village schools, one teacher, from far away, manages first through fourth grade. The teacher must find his pupils and get them to school, because many parents don’t. Instead, girls above five, for example, are used for babysitting and other chores. In addition to teaching and rounding up students, the teacher does other administrative jobs for the school. Unfortunately, the child’s education, and future, depends on the, often nonexistent, ability, and motivation, of the teacher. Fifth, and higher, grades are far away from the village, and few parents can afford to send their children. Furthermore, the Adivasi population is largely dependent on agriculture. Therefore, parents prefer them to work, as opposed to attending school

Statistics for the Vikramgad Taluka, in the Palghar District (Based on 2001 Census Data)

1. Over 95% of the population is tribal.
2. The literacy rate for tribals is 25.84%; for women, the rate is 14.53%, while for males, it is 36.82%. The general literacy rate is 69.54%.
3. 67 villages have no educational facility within 5 to 10 km.
4. 84.28% of villages do not have any type of medical facility. 44% must travel more than 5km to reach a medical facility, which is difficult because the sick must be physically carried over long and rough terrain.
5. The infant mortality rate (before three years old) is 116 per 1000 males, and 99 per 1000 females. This is significantly higher than the national average, and in parts of Maharashtra, community health programs have brought rates down to from 180 to 25 per 1000 in 15 years (source: People’s health in People’s hands, Dr. N. H. Antia, Kavita Bhatia, FRCH).
6. Only 12% of households have toilets.
7. 50% of the working population are cultivators. Around 50% of land is cultivable, but barely 0.79% of the cultivated area is irrigated. Consequently, cultivation is near impossible after the monsoons. On average, agricultural produce supports partial food needs of families for 5-6 months in a year. Land degradation, and falling yields, is a consequence of high usage of chemicals for agriculture.
8. 65.5% of the working population do not work, which is leading to worsening poverty in the area. Entire families, or working members, migrate between November and May to meet basic livelihood needs. This results in hardships for the old, sick, children deprived of basic education, and the migrant, who is separated from his family, works in bad conditions, is exploited, becomes ill, and later, brings these illnesses into the tribal community.