Introduction.
As a student of social work, it’s necessary to spend time in the field to relate learnings from class in the field. Context is much important and therefore developing epistemology through field helps to understand different contextual realities. A theory does not make contexts, it's the context which makes theory and as a student of Dalit and Tribal social work it's necessary to focus on the context and not only on theory. Context is equally as important as theory.
For the student of Dalit & Tribal social work, the clarity of perspective is most important, without clarity of perspective the complex caste and tribe realities will be difficult to understand, therefore the perspective from below is needed to understand Dalit realities and perspective from within is to understand tribal realities. Without perspective, the knowledge will be not that rich and could not make us understand the realities better. Going into the field with perspective from above, will not generate epistemology which empowers the communities, not just community but it will not help the social worker to learn and understand the reality. So, therefore, perspective is very important.
The student has invested enough time in understanding the importance of context, the perspective from below and perspective from within and critical thinking before going into the field.
The student has placed in Udaipur to study the effectiveness of DMFT( District mineral foundation trust) so the target population was people who are directly or indirectly affected by mines, the student has been given an interview schedule by which he conducted interviews and did case studies to get rich qualitative data as so much quantitative data is already there. District Mineral Foundation (DMF) is a trust set up as a non-profit body, in those districts affected by the mining works, to work for the interest and benefit of persons and areas affected by mining-related operations. It is funded through the contributions from miners. Its manner of operation comes under the jurisdiction of the relevant State Government. Setting up of District Mineral Foundations (DMFs) in all districts in the country affected by mining-related operations was mandated through the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Amendment Act, (MMDRA) 2015. On 16 September 2015, Central Government issued a notification directing states to set up DMF. The Central Government notified on 17 September 2015, the rates of contribution payable by miners to the DMFs. In case of all mining leases executed before 12th January 2015 (the date on which MMDR Amendment Act came into force), miners will have to contribute an amount equal to 30% of the royalty payable by them to the DMFs. Where mining leases are granted after 12.01.2015, the rate of contribution would be 10% of the royalty payable.
So the interview had to parts:
1. To Give information on DMFT.
2. To conduct Interview on the effectiveness of DMFT.
· Expectations from the field.
The student has expected many things from the field. The fieldwork setting is in Massaron ki obri a panchayat 8 km away from Rishabhdev, Udaipur. The village has 85% of the tribal population, and there are some Dalits are living. So the basic expectations from the field were to understand tribal realities as the student was never got the experience of the fieldwork in the tribal village. As there are some Dalits and other castes living with the tribes in the same village it gives an opportunity to understand castes and tribes realities. It's also expected to learn research skills like to identification of potential stakeholders, understand issues of mine workers, politics of labor union, contextualize mine issues in Rajasthan, and documentation skills like a report, case study writing. It’s also expected to understand the issues of mine workers, politics of labour union, contextualise mine issues in Rajasthan, and to understand effectiveness of government policies, understand DMFT and its effectiveness at ground level, what are key issues of the mining and how to deal with it, also to understand the need of people who are directly or indirectly affected by mines, their view on the spending of the DMFT.
· Experiences and Opportunities In The Field.
The student was expected to stay in the field for 23-24 days and then the documentation will be done in 7-8 days. The village panchayat selected for fieldwork is Massaron ki obri which is 8 km away from Rishabhdev. There are two villages in this gram panchayat, Massaron ki obri and Odwas. There is mainly tribal population living in the village. So the student has been involved in 45 interviews of the affected people by mines. This includes mineworkers, mines supervisors, Panchayat office bearers- Sarpanch, Upsarpanch, and Ward panch, Health workers, Tribal union leaders of mine workers, Students, Teaching staffs of schools, Ex. mine workers, Anganwadi workers, ASHA Workers, Shopkeepers, and Self-help group members. The student has visited mines and mines affected farms and grasslands, got chance to see ground realities of DMFT, and how it is operating.
· Understanding Issues of Mineworkers.
There are many issues that are faced by the mine workers in the village. The workers are Meena tribes and the mine owners are upper castes, they are discriminating workers in many ways. There are many issues but I will focus on broader issues. The main issue of the worker is the tender system. The workers of works in the mines in 2-3 shifts, mostly they worked in 2 shifts which causes the workers to work more than 12 hours and many workers are forced to overtime and the working hour's shifts to 12 to 16 hours. In this village women's don't get a job in mines as they considered to be weak and therefore not qualified for the jobs in mines. The workers have only one holiday a month. They feel alienated while working in the mines, most of the workers started drinking alcohol and beats their wives after drinking, they don’t have much time to spend on their children's so it badly affects the education of their children's. Other issues faced by mine workers are related to this tender system, like safety tools, PF Facilities, Health facilities, working hours, 2 shifts, wage rates, this issues are faced by them because of tender system. There is no strong union of labor, the member of unions only speaks on the time of election and then they don't speak for five years, the mine owners don’t recruit the local people as they can be united due to same village identity and can easily protest and therefore the mine owners recruit non-local workers so it became easier for them to manipulate them. The workers don’t know much about DMFT and their rights, only local politicians have little knowledge of it.
· Issues / Problems faced by villagers due to mines.
Women's of the village faces so many problems, the mining sector does not accept women as a strong human being, so in this panchayat not a single women working in mines. As mentioned above mines destructed livestock and agriculture so now women's of the village don't have any livelihood options, not just livelihood option, nearly 90% of the male population are addicted to alcohol, after drinking the husbands beats their wife, children, waste money on alcohol and therefore it affects the education of children's and health of the family. The life expectancy of the worker is very low, therefore there are many widows there in the village they don’t get any facilities like widow pension, so the condition of the women's and children is very bad in this village.
Students in the village also face so many issues, mainly girl student. Most parents don’t like to send their daughter to school as they don't like the idea of studying girl and boy in one school, most of them believe that there is need of a separate school for both boys and girls. Still its not issue till 12th class, but after 12th class there is no college in the village and there is no bus facility for the village, and the private vehicles are so risky as people have to sit on the roof of the jeep, so many parents don't send their daughter to college after passing 12th, as the economic condition of parents is also very weak many girls cannot study more, most girls get married at the age of 17-18 so the condition of girls in the village is not improving. for boys the situation is different, they don't have any motivation for study as they know that they will easily get married and find a job in the mines, as their parents economic condition is not that good, students who study hard also forced to leave education and start working, many students are studying by doing part-time job.
· Learnings.
One month period in the field gives good opportunities to observe, learn and reflect. In Massaron ki obri I get an opportunity to see caste and tribal realities. Before fieldwork, the student has invested enough time on learning perspectives, and the importance of context and critical thinking.
So first thing was to learn what is DMFT and read related documents regarding it, do pilot study to check the usefulness of the interview schedule and then edit interview schedule, then student went into field When student went into the field he didn't have any contact with the villagers, so the first learning was the importance of identification of potential stakeholders, as its a research, and students have to conduct an interview and transform it into case studies, so, therefore, it needs good casework skill for case study, also the perspective is most important while documenting case study. During this period while conducting interviews and meeting the affected people, the student has also invested a good amount of time in observing and reflecting upon various factors of village, the power structure of village, history of village, systemic, structural and sectoral issues in the village and how it defines and affects people's directly. The student has understood it better by discussing and debating with field partner around the things which has been observed in the field. Students came in contact with Mineworkers, mines supervisors, Panchayat office bearers- Sarpanch, Upsarpanch, and Ward panch, Health workers, Tribal union leaders of mine workers, Students, Teaching staffs of schools, Ex. mine workers, Anganwadi workers, ASHA Workers, Shopkeepers, and Self-help group members during this fieldwork. So by meeting and interviewing people with different caste, class, gender, age and occupation gave different views and by it, the student was able to understand their issues better. By visiting farms, grazing land, dumping area, and mines students got chance to observe things clearly and seen grounded realities so the knowledge developed from the field is not just what people said but also directly experienced it by intervening at the grassroots level, and tried to get answers of how and why. The union and local politics is also difficult to understand so tried to understand it, how it operates and how people can be included more, the issues of mining sector is too wide and the workers are facing so many issues it cant be understood by just reading some books it can be understand by visiting them and looking at their house, farms and how their children's studies, how their families lives, the village and tribal communities also facing so many issues in the village due to mines it also affected their religion, traditions, and culture. The learnings in the field don’t have that important if it does not document properly so, therefore, documentation skills are also important, so report writing, case study writing is also important, as well as started to learn how to write a blog, how to articulate different field realities and how to argue an academic manner. There are things which need to be considered as learnings, it's just Aesthetic behavior like, to respect the individual and his choice, and take care of ethics and values, give complete freedom to individual and confidentiality, respect their traditions and cultures, be an agent of change and work to empower the community rather than using them as data and for personal benefits. Understanding things from their perspectives and the documentation will be done by looking from their context and perspective.
So first thing was to learn what is DMFT and read related documents regarding it, do pilot study to check the usefulness of the interview schedule and then edit interview schedule, then student went into field When student went into the field he didn't have any contact with the villagers, so the first learning was the importance of identification of potential stakeholders, as its a research, and students have to conduct an interview and transform it into case studies, so, therefore, it needs good casework skill for case study, also the perspective is most important while documenting case study. During this period while conducting interviews and meeting the affected people, the student has also invested a good amount of time in observing and reflecting upon various factors of village, the power structure of village, history of village, systemic, structural and sectoral issues in the village and how it defines and affects people's directly. The student has understood it better by discussing and debating with field partner around the things which has been observed in the field. Students came in contact with Mineworkers, mines supervisors, Panchayat office bearers- Sarpanch, Upsarpanch, and Ward panch, Health workers, Tribal union leaders of mine workers, Students, Teaching staffs of schools, Ex. mine workers, Anganwadi workers, ASHA Workers, Shopkeepers, and Self-help group members during this fieldwork. So by meeting and interviewing people with different caste, class, gender, age and occupation gave different views and by it, the student was able to understand their issues better. By visiting farms, grazing land, dumping area, and mines students got chance to observe things clearly and seen grounded realities so the knowledge developed from the field is not just what people said but also directly experienced it by intervening at the grassroots level, and tried to get answers of how and why. The union and local politics is also difficult to understand so tried to understand it, how it operates and how people can be included more, the issues of mining sector is too wide and the workers are facing so many issues it cant be understood by just reading some books it can be understand by visiting them and looking at their house, farms and how their children's studies, how their families lives, the village and tribal communities also facing so many issues in the village due to mines it also affected their religion, traditions, and culture. The learnings in the field don’t have that important if it does not document properly so, therefore, documentation skills are also important, so report writing, case study writing is also important, as well as started to learn how to write a blog, how to articulate different field realities and how to argue an academic manner. There are things which need to be considered as learnings, it's just Aesthetic behavior like, to respect the individual and his choice, and take care of ethics and values, give complete freedom to individual and confidentiality, respect their traditions and cultures, be an agent of change and work to empower the community rather than using them as data and for personal benefits. Understanding things from their perspectives and the documentation will be done by looking from their context and perspective.
· Recognition Of Strengths and Weakness.
There are many strength and weakness you realize and works on it in the field, understanding tribe realities is different when you are coming from caste realities so, therefore, it becomes little difficult to understand it. The language also becomes sometimes little difficult but still, I didn't face much problem as my hometown is Gujarat and the language is spoken here was same as Gujarati. Traveling so much is difficult, and also the village was too big and has issues with transportation which was time-consuming. If I talk about the strength then, the biggest strength was the course Dalit and tribal social work, because of this it was not that difficult for me to understand the field, as in class we already studied many things about caste and tribal realities so it helped in the field, and due to it student easily got connected with the people and also the people helped so much with this learning process.
· Conclusion.
So the one month in the field helped in learning and understanding many things, it will help in future while working with this communities, this kind of learning experience is necessary while studying Dalit and Tribal social work as it gives opportunity to see the grounded realities of Indian society and can contextualize the learnings from the class, so when going back to class with the learnings from field it can help in better learning.
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