Two of us from my batch we lucky enough to win the lottery ticket for doing our DOCC (don’t ask me full form of DOCC as I too do not know it, but it is an NGO attachment for 10 days as part of our PGPM program) at Baroda. No prize for guessing why I was happy about it. So to some extent DOCC started off well for me. We were attached to a NGO named Deepak Foundation (www.deepakfoundation.org) which had its headquarters (HQ) at Baroda and was operational in Baroda district. We were to work on Data Audit for Safe Motherhood and Child Survival (SMCS) Project.
Couple of days before our reporting at the NGO HQ at Baroda we received an exhaustive schedule of 11 days in place of 10 days which we were to spend with the NGO. We called and told the HR at the NGO to modify the schedule, which she promptly did. She enquired about our travel plans and stay plans. Everything seemed fine to us.
Day 1 Date 10/5/2010 Location Deepak Foundation HO
Pooja reached at 9.40 am and I reached at 9.45 am to Deepak Foundation office to give company to the security guard, housekeeping staff, receptionist and a couple of dogs. We were told to sit in the waiting area outside the office. Employees started flowing in at 1000 am. Lucky enough we…. But not much. Our coordinator was yet to arrive. We waited n waited enquired and enquired… but our coordinator had not come. Finally at 1045 a lady from HR dept emerged from somewhere and handed us a piece of paper to write our names. Something else was written on it in English. But that was of no use for us. Coz it mentioned the amount of stipend we were to get, travel and accommodation arrangements made for us, etc. Thanks to RJ (name changed), our coordinator at the institute, we were not to get anything of these. We filled in our names and then waited for another 30 mins for her to re-emerge.
Finally we were allowed to enter the office and were escorted to the conference room. In the conference room we expected some courtesy questions, like tell us something about you, your background, etc etc which normally are asked to make people comfortable. But nothing of that sort was there. It seemed as if we were forced on them and hence they were as little interested in us as we were interested in DOCC. Infact it felt as if it was expected of us to know everything about the organization and the project we were supposed to do. There we were briefed about the foundation, various projects (?? Only doing one thing since long, now entered a new area) they were working on, and the work which we were supposed to do. The main surprise was still waiting for us. We were briefed on what we were supposed to do. Our project was on Data Audit for SMCS (Safe Motherhood and Child Survival) Project. We had to go door to door and ask in every house if there has been any infant and maternal mortality in their family in the last 3 years. Yes, you read it right – go to each and every house in the village and ask them if there has been any infant and maternal mortality in their family in the last 3 years. And the goal set for us was to complete 250 houses in a day and 4 such villages in 4 days. We did not know what an uphill task it was before we met the field official in Dabhoi. We later calculated that we needed exactly 35 working hours each day each person even to get close to the target.
After our first encounter with the project senior officials, we paid for our lunch of 4 chappati’s and 1 bowl vegetable. (how much I desired to go to the Bhavans canteen to have lunch…) Having undergone and coordinated so many trainings till now, atleast I expected our lunch to be sponsored on the first day. But….
After lunch we were told to go to their Dabhoi office. In fact the HR executive was surprised to see us in office as she supposed we had already left for Dabhoi. We had to ask her for the address of the office where we had to go, the means of transport to get to Dabhoi and the details of the contact person at Dabhoi. Since it was our first day in the foundation, and there were many vehicles of the foundation standing in the campus, we expected some courtesy from the office that they take us to the Dabhoi office on the first day. But to our dismay, we had to search for options to go to Dabhoi. We felt lucky enough to atleast get the contact number of the person who we had to meet. We were told to reach Dabhoi office in one hour from the time we were given the address, when in fact the same lady told that it took nearly 2 hours from Deepak Foundation office to reach the Dabhoi office. We were supposed to be in possession of some magic carpet or time machine to deport us to a place which was 2 hours away in one hour. Don’t know what RJ has communicated about us to the foundation people. Later we found out that since we were just to spend 10 days with the NGO and probably the NGO did not want to sever its ties with SPJIMR, they must have allowed for the project. And because of that we were not provided with transport facility. But while expecting for some transport facility, we forgot that we were working for a NGO and not a corporate which can provide us with all the facilities we want.
At the Dabhoi office the things were different, but as per our expectations. The office was on the second floor of the house. It was hot. But no issues, we expected it to be. The people at Dabhoi were courteous and followed the orders issued from the HO. The HO had told them that we will b reaching their office at 2.30 pm. So they kept tea ready for us, which was promptly served when we reached the office at 3.00pm. No need to mention that the tea was close to ice tea, except the ice was missing. The first question fired to us was ‘whether we will be able to meet the target of 250 houses in one day?’ The contact person at Dabhoi, Taluka Coordinator (TC) Mr. Mayank, was surprised that we had agreed to meet such a huge target. He told us that it is impossible for us to complete 250 houses in one day even if we went alone. Mayank told us that they cover max 60 houses per day with their regular staff for similar projects. So he told us to reduce our commitment level of the number of villages to be covered, which we accepted immediately. We also put forward to him that we will do a fantastic job for a couple of villages and set up a model for them which they can blindly follow to complete the rest of the job.
We spent an hour at Dabhoi and went back to Baroda.
Day 2,3,4 & 5 Villages in Dabhoi Block / Taluka
The following 4 days we were to spend in villages of Dabhoi taluka collecting information for our project. Since we were not provided with any transport facility our day started at around 8.00 am by catching a local transport to carry us to Dabhoi. This was in the form of shared auto, or mini bus or state transport bus for our journey of 30 kms. For the next 4 days we went to the Dabhoi block office from where we were to arrange for our transport for the next destination, i.e. the village we had to visit. Transport from Dabhoi to the village was mostly in auto’s. Nearly all the auto drivers were funny kind of people who did not move the auto till the minimum number of passengers did not fill in their auto. It felt as if there was some sensor fitted in the auto which did not let the auto move before minimum 7 passengers were not pushed into it. The auto might be kicking or pinching the auto driver if he started the auto before filling in 7 passengers. Getting an auto from Dabhoi still was not a problem as there used to be many auto’s waiting to go. The main problem was while returning. Coz the auto will return only when it goes to the village. And the auto goes to the village only when he gets the minimum number of passengers. There are state transport buses, but there is only one or two buses max which go to the village. A bus once visited the village in the day may not come again. So that was a dreadful fear we had while going to a village. But luckily we never had to face such a situation that we had to long for getting a transport on our way back. Though we had to wait a couple of time for more than half an hour to see an auto coming to village we were in. we also visited one village where even the auto visited rarely. And if no auto turned up we have to follow Gandhi style for nearly 5 kms to reach the highway from where we could get some mode of transport to Dabhoi.
Our modes of transport
In the villages we were taken around by the ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist), who was the front face of the NGO in the village. Due to language barrier she was a great help to us. Once with her, our job started. We had to go to every door in the village and just like a door to door salesperson we asked the same question in each and every house – “aapke yaha pichle 3 saal mein bacche huey hai?” If yes, kitne aur kab kab. Us mein se kitni pregnancies mein problem hui hai? And its result. Any cases of child or mother death during pregnancy or until 42 days from child birth. If yes, then the reason for the deaths, blah blah blah….. We later found that the process of going door to door is scientific technique named Transact Walk which is used for similar data or social audits. This was learning for us.
The expectation of the NGO officials from us was that we do donkey work. But being management students we did some smart work completed the whole day job well within time. Seeing our speed the official expected that we do some additional work. But then we refused it saying that we want to add quality to the work and not just complete volumes. This specific incidence happened with us on the first day of our field visit. From this we learnt that …. Kisi dehat mein 3 ghante khali baithe raho…. Bus stop pe so jao… par wapis office jaldi nahi aao.... else you will be expected to do more work. But then we applied this learning quite well during our filed visits on the subsequent days.
Initially we thought that it will be quite difficult to talk to mothers about their child’s death. But we were amazed with the ease with which the mothers told us about it. It felt as if they had very little affection with their child to be. We cannot think about an urban mother talking with so much ease.
There was only thing which created problems for us while doing the field work, the sun. Even a dark person like me could see the effects on tanning on me. My body parts, which were exposed to the sun were nearly 3 to 4 shades darker than the parts which were hidden from the sun.
Day 6 Date 15/5/2010 Location Deepak Foundation Office, Baroda
This was the best day of our DOCC till now, though it gave us some frightening signals. This day again reminded us that we are students working with an NGO.
We reached office to meet the HR and collect some data from them for the project. Since it was just a formality, but this visit helped us a lot to direct our efforts towards making the project report and presentation. We met Mr. B S Singh, our project guide and Head of MIS of the SMCS project. He guided us on how to take the project further. We now knew how much we had to cover up. But we were lucky that our findings were what exactly the senior people sitting in the AC office of the NGO wanted. They wanted discrepancy in the data reported by their people and what we found out. We were lucky on that front and we also got a clue to questions which may be asked to us during our final presentation and what all things we need to be ready with. That was the good part of today’s visit. But there was a twist to it. He wanted us to get some more data on the maternal mortality. He left to us to check our schedule and see if we could get some more data on that on Monday when we were to go to Dabhoi office again for preparation of the final report. So we knew what was to be done and it doesn’t need any elaboration.
But there is always another side of the coin and that has to be frightening as the first part was good. When in villages we pacified ourselves by saying that these are the only hot few days we have to spend. Then we will be sitting in the AC conference hall in Deepak Foundation office making the report. But again we were proved wrong. It felt as if Deepak Foundation was there to prove our expectations wrong, every time. We got a chance to get a glimpse of the room where we will have to sit and make our project report. When we met the HR person today she told us to sit in a lounge. We were happy to see a beautifully carved name plate hanging on the door mentioning ‘Lounge’. We were happy to see the exterior and expected the room to be AC room. The room was 6ft x8ft, with one wall fan and completely closed i.e. no place for air circulation with the outside world, except for a 4” diameter exhaust fan. The room was to be shared with another three people like us who were making their projects. It was just like a pigeon nest. After spending 4 days in villages, we preferred sitting below a tree than sitting in that room. At the first instance we ran out of the room and stood beneath a tree. It was so soothing.
After spending an hour in office we left for the day. Next day was Sunday – holiday in Deepak foundation. No one was to work on that day, except the ASHA who had to work 365 days. Poor ASHA. We really pity them for the work they do and the returns that they get from the government. One of the ASHA complained that in the last 14 months they have received their payment only once, that too at the end of 10th month for their work done in the previous 10 months. They are now eagerly waiting for their next lot of pay.
Day 8 Date 17/5/2010 Location Deepak Foundation Office, Dabhoi
Today was our last day at Dabhoi block office. We took the best available option for us i.e. shared auto to reach Dabhoi. We were very happy taking the ride as we knew that was our last ride to Dabhoi as part of DOCC. How relieved it felt just thinking about it. The last day in field office. Next 2 days were to be spent in their main office in Baroda. Although the thought of sitting in the pigeon nest did not inspire us much, but the thought of DOCC nearing its end was more soothing.
We reached office by 9.45 am just to wait for the coordinator to come to office. We started our work of making the ppt so that we could get the required data from him. Once we were done with the basic template we went to the coordinator to compare our data with their data. Although he was aware of the deviation in the data, he was surprised and tensed by seeing the extent of deviation. We tried to soothe him and told him to search for the missing data in his other databases. To some extent he was able to find the missing data and reduce the discrepancy. He was relieved a bit.
We prepared most of the presentation at Dabhoi office and also took inputs from Mr. Mayank on what he wanted to communicate to the top management but he was not able to communicate due to hierarchical structure.
During our retreat, our hearts felt heavy and went all the way to the ASHA who toiled hard each day in and day out irrespective of the weather conditions, holidays, etc. We even felt bad for them as they were working for such a noble cause and the government was not able to pay for their services on time. We later came to know that even today Deepak Foundation (DF) paid a token amount each month to the ASHA, but this was so paltry amount that I feel ashamed of mentioning it here. But it is no fault of Deepak Foundation as they took good care of the ASHA when they were employees of DF. But not the ASHA are not employees of DF, but still DF is doing its part of supporting the ASHA to the extent possible to them. Hats off to DF for remembering the work done by ASHA for them and recognizing the work of ASHA even when they are no longer working for them.
But at the same time our hearts were filled with joy that we have successfully completed the field work and not just the report writing remains.
Day 9 Date 18/5/2010 Reporting time: 1030 am Location Deepak Foundation Office, Baroda
Today was a big day for us, work wise. As per the schedule provided to us, we were supposed to prepare the report and the presentation. As usual we had worked smartly. So, most of our presentation was ready. We just had to collect some data from the MIS on some of the parameters which were not available due to technical reasons in Dabhoi office.
We reached office at 1030 am and met Ms Khadija, our coordinator in office. We showed her our presentation and asked for the additional information from her. She told us to submit a report of the study. We had not prepared anything. But then we agreed to make the report today itself as we had to copy paste the details from the presentation itself.
We had requested Ms Khadija for some data. She took her sweet little time to extract the data from the database for us. In the meanwhile we sat in the pigeon house and worked on the report and updation of the presentation. We were ready with both the things and were waiting for further marching orders. But there seemed no movement from the concerned side. So we started killing our time in the Business Strategy class style etc etc.. It was lunch time and we had our lunch. After lunch we went to Ms Khadija and told her that we were ready. Then she collected some people to see our presentation. We made our first round of presentation in front of 5 people who were interested in the presentation, but our findings did not startle them much. They were aware of all these things and just wanted to validate it from our study. They were happy with the efforts we had put in.
In fact it was our smart work in field and conversion of smart work into donkey work for presentation that saved us. There were some question on how we did the study and all, but then, just like Rahul Dravid, we stood there like a wall defending ourselves. We did not face any bouncers, so we did not have to duck to save ourselves. As such the first round of the presentation was over. We were told to do some minor modifications and add some slides, which we promptly did before leaving the office.
But the presentation part also gave us a glimpse of what not to expect at an NGO office. We were to make a presentation, and we had to book to conference room, take care of our as well as others tea, search for the IT guy to get the PC & Projector ready, and all other related jobs. For a moment we felt ki kahi in logo ne hame job offer to nahi kiya hai. And they thought that we were employees of DF and were aware of all the things here. The coordinators and others who had come to attend the presentation walked in like audience and left the conference room like audience. We were left behind to search for all switches to be shut down. But the icing was that everything had gone as per the expectation of the coordinators and they were happy with our work. All that ends well is well.
Next day was the last day in office. We were told to come to office as a formality, make a presentation to the Director of DF, complete the HR formalities and off by lunch time.
Day 10 Date 19/5/2010 Reporting time: 1000 am Location Deepak Foundation Office, Baroda
Today was a great day – the last day of DOCC. We were eagerly waiting for this moment, and finally that moment had arrived. We waited for this moment more eagerly than we desired for a glass to cold water or aam panha while moving around in the sun in the villages.
We reached office on time and saw all the employees flowing in. We waited in the pigeon hut for further orders. The HR lady came in the room for some details about the project name, duration, etc for making our certificates. But she also could not stand in the pigeon hut for long and at the first instance ran away from the room. We reminded her to fill our feedback, TNA form sent, etc.
Today we had to make a presentation to the Director, DF. The coordinator, rather than talking to the Director and taking her appointment, told us to talk to the PA of the Director and take her appointment. It felt as if she was not at all interested in letting us make the presentation in front of the Director. But since her boss had said so, so we have to make a presentation. We told the PA that whenever the Director is free, just tell our coordinator to arrange for the presentation.
We then got the opportunity to meet the Director. After talking to her for a couple of minutes we understood why she was the Director. She had a broad vision and was able to link up different things related to the project. She was also aware to the technical terms involved in Data / Social Audits. She told us to add some technical terms in the presentation to make it more effective. We had a meeting for around 15 minutes with her. She was so impressed with our work that she immediately told her PA to add a point in her monthly meeting to discuss the findings of our project. She also showed her inclination towards presenting our findings to the State Government officials. After listening this we were a bit surprised and had a thought that if our presentation was going to be presented to the government officials, then we should have put in some real good efforts in the project. But what we had done could not be changed.
But one good thing about the presentation was that our findings matched the expectations, in fact over shoot the expectations of the officials of Deepak Foundation. So we can conclude that we were successful in our work.
We were then given our filled feedback form and the project completion certificate, the two things for which we longed for the last 10 days. Finally our stint with the NGO was over. It was the most sought things for us from last few days.
Over all the experience was good.
Glimpses of Rural Gujarat
