Navsarjan was established in 1989 to empower Dalits and fight caste discrimination in Gujarat, India. It operates through various programs and units focused on legal aid, women's empowerment, education, campaigns, and community video. The report describes Navsarjan's work, including successful land rights struggles and challenges that remain regarding untouchability, poverty, and manual scavenging. It also details a visit to understand their strategy, including observing a community video unit and schools for Dalit children.

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Navsarjan Field Visit Report
Back ground of Navsarjan: - The story of the establishment of
Navsarjan has begun from Golana in 1986. In 25th January 1986, the feudal
community of village Golana in Anand district of Gujarat, unable to bear the loss
of its social power, brutally attacks on Dalit community in which the 4 Dalit were
gunned down on the spot and 18 Dalit were wounded and houses of Dalit set on
fire. After the incident legal battle fought by Dalit for 13 years, and finally the 10
offender get life imprisonment. In the process of legal battle in 1989 the Navsarjan
was established in Dholka tahsheel in Ahmadabad. Navsarjan main focus or the
center of focus is Dalit. The structure of Navsarjan is as follows:-
NAVSARJAN
Director: Manjula Ben
Program Director
(2)
Zonal Coordinator (9)
Tehsheel Coordinator (44)
Field worker (10)
Navsarjan works on five main programs these are (i) Legal Aid, (ii) women’s
empowerment, (iii) Training (DSK), (iv) Education and (v) Campaign. The
Navsarjan works on these programs by various units. The units of Navsarjan are:-

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(1)CDHR (Center for Dalit Human Right.)
(2) Land rights.
(3)Campaign for women empowerment.
(4) Primary education.
(5)Minimum wages.
(6) Manual scavenging.
(7) Political education.
(8)CVU (Community Video Unit.)
(9) ECVU (Educational Community Video Unit.
(10) Navsarjan Vidayala.
(11) DSK (Dalit Shakti Kendra.)
Dalit Shakti Kendra: - For the empowerment of Dalit, Navsarjan trust in
2000 established Dalit Shakti Kendra (Dalit Empowerment Center). DSK provides
the vocational training for both, member of Dalit community as well as the
potential social worker. The training programs specifically focus on women
participant thus providing them with an opportunity to relate and to learn to
interact with the outside world. DSK provide training on various technological
fields like; Computer learning, Mobile repairing, Motor driving, tailoring etc.
Objective of the visit: - The main objectives of the visit were:-
(i) To understand the socio-economic condition of Dalit.
(ii)To understand the strategy and works done by Navsarjan for the empowerment
of Dalit in various villages in Gujarat.
(iii) To understand the role of CVU for sensitizing the people.

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For this purpose I and my colleague Mr. Nivedan Manglesh Prabhakaran
visited CVU in Navsarjan Vidayalaya in Kataria near Limbdi tehsheel in
Surendranager district as shown in following map. The Surendranagar district
occupies an area
of 10,489 sq km
and has a
population of
1,515,148 of
which 26.56% is
urban according
to 2001 census.
Headquarter of
the district
Surendranager
situated on the
bank of river
Bhogaavo.
Surendranager is
the one of the
highest quality
producers of
cotton in the
world. First
cotton trading
exchange in India
was established in
Surendranager.
In the past,
Surendranagar
was used as a hill
station by the
outsiders as it has dry environment. This was mainly because this type of
environment helps the people to cure some physical as well as mental tensions. In
fact, Surendranagar's dry air is still believed to be the best place in Gujarat to cure
T.B. patients. World's only Onager (wild ass) century is located in Little Rann of
Kutch in Surendranagar district. Chotila hill located at approx 60 km from
surendranagar city is a place for worship for Chamunda Mataji, a Hindu goddess.
Thousands of pilgrims comes walking for as far as 300 km to this place.

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In the beginning of the visit we went to observe the function a structure of
the CVU. Media is the extremely powerful tools in community development. For
this purpose in 2006, Video Volunteer and DRISTI launched a Social Media
Network of the poor by building seven Community Video Units across India in
partnership with seven respected NGOs including Nvsarjan. The main goals of the
CVU are:
• Increase their community’s access to a voice;
• Promote awareness and availability of information;
• Advocate with government and authority;
• Enable social issues to reach the mainstream media;
• Provide a platform for community-led change and;
• Expand scale and reach to greater numbers of people.
Community Video Units empower communities to
combat rights violations, isolation, exclusion from the mainstream media, and their
lack of control over decisions affecting their lives.
• A Community Video Unit is a local production unit run by six-ten full-time
community members trained in all aspects of video production
• It has two-four digital video cameras, one-two computers to edit, one TV/VCR
and one wide screen projector and sound system for outdoor screening
• Video Volunteers/DRISHTI place a full time Video Trainer for one year at each
CVU, and intensively train that trainer for a one-month period
• The CVU produces monthly Video Magazines on different social issues
• Issues are decided by an Editorial Board of community members, the CVU team
and
NGO
• The video magazine is screened each month in a minimum of 25 villages or
Bastis
• The CVU operates in a single geographic area (approx 100km in diameter) of
strategic importance to the NGO
• Additional local distribution includes local cable, VCD screenings in training
programs
• National and international mainstream and Internet distribution is coordinated by
VV/Drishti
• The CVU moves towards community ownership and sustainability
The CVU run by the Navsarjan is an all Dalit CVU, which is known as
“Apna Malak Maa” (In Our Land). The CVU’s mission is to create a dialogue
between “upper” and “lower” castes in an extremely caste-ridden part of Gujarat,

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and also to project examples of Dalit leadership on the issues of poverty that are
common to all. Above information was given to us by the CVU unit producer Ms
Neeru and her colleague Jeetu.
After the knowing about the CVU we also got
some information about the Navsarjan
vidayalaya. The Navsarjan trust established
three schools of these kinds, in which one
situated Kataria. The brief features of these
Schools are:
· These schools run by Navsarjan Trust in villages outside of Ahmadabad to
instill confidence and self-respect in Dalit children - who are mistreated in
the local government schools.
· Boarding and lodging provided as well since most parents are migrant
workers
· Total of 100 students in the three schools in 5th, 6th, and 7th grades (86
boys, 14 girls)
· Several agencies are funding the basic tuition and fees.
· Parents have to contribute for the living costs, mainly food (Rs. 20/day/child
Rs.600/month/child Rs. 6000/10 months/child).
· It has been very difficult to attract and retain girls as parents don’t want to
pay Rs. 600 per month for their daughters (out of around Rs. 1500 – 2000
they earn).
· Proposal is that ASHA provides partial scholarships of Rs.
400/student/month to 44 girls to encourage parents to send their daughters.
Since the Navsarjan Trust would like parents to take responsibility and
contribute a portion – Rs. 200 per month as compared to Rs. 600. Navsarjan
is confident that it will be able to increase the number of girls from 14 to
more than 44 in 2007 if the scholarship is provided.
After the visit of CVU at Kataria we went to Surendranager for
participating in an annual plan for Navsarjan. At that meeting we interacted with
11 activist of Navsarjan, and know about the land issue and the successful struggle
for land. According to the land ceiling act no any person can possess above 54
acres of land. For this purpose a survey was done in 1994 and according to this
survey 6,000 acres of land illegally possess by the Darbar community. The Dalit
fought their struggle with the help of Navsarjan for five years and finally in 1999
won the struggle in High Court. After the struggle Dalit got 4,000 acres of land.

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For the observation of the land issue we went to Garyya village in sayla tehsheel
were the Dalit fight against the landlord Babu Bhai of Darbar community and
finally acquired 1200 acre of land.
We also observe another success story of Dalit in Chotila
tehsheel. In Pajvali village where 1,000 people live in which the population of
Dalit was only 150. In this village a primary school is situated in which 37 Dalit
student were enrolled. The government gives the scholarship for Dalit student so
the total amount of the scholarship was Rs 41,000 and this amount was not given
to Dalit student by the Principal Ishwar Patel of Patel community. The Dalit fight
with this unjust to district level and finally principal apologized for that and gave
the amount to Dalit student. In this village we also show the untouchability during
mid-day meal.
We also informed about the manual scavenger and its work in this district.
The manual scavenging still doing by the Dalit community in 10 villages in Chotila
tehsheel, these villages were dominated by the Darbar community. We also
observed this kind of latrine in Limbdi tehsheel.
Conclusion: - After the visit of Navsarjan we show the very crucial work
done by Navsarjan and its worker or social activists. They won several battles
against the untouchability, poverty, illiteracy and the upliftment of Dalit, but
struggle is going on because Navsarjan has many challenges like manual
scavenging, untouchability, illiteracy and Dalit atrocity still exist.
S.M.ZAKI
AHMAD

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For the observation of the land issue we went to Garyya village in sayla tehsheel
were the Dalit fight against the landlord Babu Bhai of Darbar community and
finally acquired 1200 acre of land.
We also observe another success story of Dalit in Chotila
tehsheel. In Pajvali village where 1,000 people live in which the population of
Dalit was only 150. In this village a primary school is situated in which 37 Dalit
student were enrolled. The government gives the scholarship for Dalit student so
the total amount of the scholarship was Rs 41,000 and this amount was not given
to Dalit student by the Principal Ishwar Patel of Patel community. The Dalit fight
with this unjust to district level and finally principal apologized for that and gave
the amount to Dalit student. In this village we also show the untouchability during
mid-day meal.
We also informed about the manual scavenger and its work in this district.
The manual scavenging still doing by the Dalit community in 10 villages in Chotila
tehsheel, these villages were dominated by the Darbar community. We also
observed this kind of latrine in Limbdi tehsheel.
Conclusion: - After the visit of Navsarjan we show the very crucial work
done by Navsarjan and its worker or social activists. They won several battles
against the untouchability, poverty, illiteracy and the upliftment of Dalit, but
struggle is going on because Navsarjan has many challenges like manual
scavenging, untouchability, illiteracy and Dalit atrocity still exist.
S.M.ZAKI
AHMAD