Maniram Raut - The Real Mani (Jewel)

Maniram Raut, son of Miron Raut, has 4 siblings - 2 brothers & 2 sisters. Maniram belongs to an extremely poor family with his father earning a meagre income of less than Rs.50/- per day. He is the youngest member in his family. While both his sisters are married, his elder brother failed to clear his Std 10 exams. As a result, his elder brother works with his father as a labourer.

When the CSFE programme was initiated in his school, Maniram was in Std 6. He participated in the programme and learned more about the importance and power of saving. It was not long before he decided to save.

Maniram was aware of the unfortunate financial condition of his family and there was a strong urge within him to do something to support his family. The outcome of this was in him withdrawing an amount of Rs.100/ from his Aflatoun Bank account in July 2008 & initiating a small business of selling and delivering bread to nearby villages.

Every evening he procured bread from local vendors and sold the same bread at 5.30 am to households in the nearby villages of Haldi, Vajipalla and Bhainsmundi. He would get home by 8. 30 am and go to school. The result on the whole was in Maniram earning Rs. 30/- to Rs.40/- daily without compromising on his education.

Not only is he supporting his family in whatever way he can, he also is completing his education and still manages to save in his Aflatoun Bank account. Maniram’s teachers Mr. Kishore Chandra Kar and other villagers opine Maniram Raut is a real Mani (Jewel).

Greater Incentives for Tribal Girls Education!!!!

Incentive to tribal girls attending school needs to be increased
The Karegaon Ashram School is located in the lush green hilly area on the way to Mokhada, in Thane district. It is almost 30 kms from Kasara and this Ashram school run for tribal children is from class 1 to class 12. The 5th 6th & 7th classes are located at the foothills while all other classes are on the top of the hill. It is really sad to see that the number of tribal girls pursuing school education is half the number of boys. There are only 251 girls while there are 441 boys in this school. This is despite tribal girls being given an incentive of Rs. 50 per month for attending school. Girls from class I to IV are given Re. 1 per day of attendance while girls from V to VII are given Rs. 50 per month and from class VIII to X are given Rs. 100 per month. This incentive is a very good idea because teachers think it does help the tribal families that get this money. But if we reflect on the amount it is rather paltry as the amount given at the end of the month is equivalent to one day’s wages!. The government needs to think of increasing this amount.
Well, atleast double this amount.

The Karegaon Ashram School has constructed a small hall for the children which they call the ‘MelJol hall’ and all MelJol activities are conducted in this hall or in the open, just outside the hall. Shri. L. M Ahire is the teacher who has undergone MelJol training in the past 2 years and conducts all MelJol activities in full gusto. After undergoing the training this year, he came back to the school and immediately had a one day camp for the children where he taught them the MelJol songs he had learnt and also conducted the games that were conducted at the training. That included the group division game called ‘dongarala aag lagli palla’, the game on savings using 10 small pebbles, and the introductions game where participants stand in 2 concentric circles and introduce oneself to person standing opposite them and likewise also get to know the other person.

Children have also formed Aflatoun clubs and they have 3 girls and 3 boys who are the President, Secretary and Treasurer of the club. They take the MelJol songs twice in the week. The children are saving money in the Aflatoun bank. These children give money in small amounts of Re.1 or 2 and have small amounts of say Rs.10 or Rs 20 in their personal accounts. A printed pass book format was shown to the children and they have now prepared their own tiny pass books and drawn beautiful pictures on the covers. They really look like children’s pass books. The days for operating the Aflatoun bank account are Monday and Saturday between 12.00 noon to 2.00 p.m. The children like to deposit money in the bank. They sometimes withdraw Rs. 2 or 5 to buy pens, pencils, sharpener or books. The girls sometimes buy hair ribbons or hair clips with their saved money. The number of girls saving in the bank is half the number of boys and efforts are being taken to enthuse the girls to also save money. The incentive money given by the government to these tribal girls could have been saved by them in the Aflatoun banks but it is instead taken away by their parents to be used for household needs.

The incentive given by Government to tribal girls attending school indeed needs to be increased!