Site Visit Report: Bhoomiheen Sewa Samiti 11-12 February, 2011 Visit by: Aparajita Durga & Srijan Chakraborty Aparajita and I visited Bhoomiheen on 11 th and 12 th February, 2011. This was my second visit to Bhoomiheen – I had visited them earlier in 2007 – close to 4 years back. We reached Manikpur station in the afternoon. One of the teachers and driver was waiting for us. From there it was about an hour’s drive to Aau village, where the Bhoomiheen School is located. Atarra is the nearest city and about 10 minutes’ drive from Aau. Lalit-ji greeted us as we reached the school. By the time we reached there, the school was already winding down for the day. Most of the students had already left. Most of the teachers were also waiting for us near the entrance. They greeted us as we entered. After brief chit-chat with them, we freshened up in one of the guest rooms (the school has a couple of them in the main primary school building). Some background on the school and the social context in this village will help understand this site visit more – take a look at the project webpage and my 2007 site visit report. I could see one new structure coming up near the high school building that I did not see last time. All the other buildings have been maintained fairly well. Since the school was closed, we decided to take a stroll through the Aau village with one of the school instructors. The village was still as segregated as I remembered it 4 years back – there are different sections for different castes. As we walked through the main path way inside the village, we crossed the localities of various castes, and observed how the road was wider, the houses bigger and cleaner, in the upper castes area, in contrast to those in the lower castes area. Most are earthen houses with bare necessities, tiled or thatched roof. There are a few bigger ones and couple which are ‘pukka’ buildings, multi-floors with a huge courtyard and front gate. The wealth distribution reflects the feudal structure, Primary school building from the main entrance A new multi-purpose shed being constructed
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Site Visit Report: Bhoomiheen Sewa Samiti Visit Report: Bhoomiheen Sewa Samiti 11-12 February, 2011 Visit by: Aparajita Durga & Srijan Chakraborty Aparajita and I visited Bhoomiheen
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Site Visit Report: Bhoomiheen Sewa Samiti 11-12 February, 2011
Visit by: Aparajita Durga & Srijan Chakraborty
Aparajita and I visited Bhoomiheen on 11th and 12th February, 2011. This was my second visit to
Bhoomiheen – I had visited them earlier in 2007 – close to 4 years back. We reached Manikpur station in
the afternoon. One of the teachers and driver was waiting for us. From there it was about an hour’s
drive to Aau village, where the Bhoomiheen School is located. Atarra is the nearest city and about 10
minutes’ drive from Aau.
Lalit-ji greeted us as we reached the school. By the time we reached there, the school was already
winding down for the day. Most of the students had already left. Most of the teachers were also waiting
for us near the entrance. They greeted us as we entered. After brief chit-chat with them, we freshened
up in one of the guest rooms (the school has a couple of them in the main primary school building).
Some background on the school and the social context in this village will help understand this site visit
more – take a look at the project webpage and my 2007 site visit report. I could see one new structure
coming up near the high school building that I did not see last time. All the other buildings have been
maintained fairly well.
Since the school was closed, we decided to take a stroll through the Aau village with one of the school
instructors. The village was still as segregated as I remembered it 4 years back – there are different
sections for different castes. As we walked through the main path way inside the village, we crossed the
localities of various castes, and observed how the road was wider, the houses bigger and cleaner, in the
upper castes area, in contrast to those in the lower castes area. Most are earthen houses with bare
necessities, tiled or thatched roof. There are a few bigger ones and couple which are ‘pukka’ buildings,
multi-floors with a huge courtyard and front gate. The wealth distribution reflects the feudal structure,
Primary school building from the main entrance A new multi-purpose shed being constructed