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V Shantaram in his epochal film, Do Aankhein Barah Haath had dreamt of reforming criminals who had been lodged in the jail where he was a warden, so that they could live a decent life after completing their term. Sneh Prayas, an NGO, working among the denotified tribe Chharas, near Ahmedabad in Gujarat seems to be taking the dream of Shantaram to another extreme by providing training to the children of this tribal community.

Chharas, a denotified nomadic tribe (DNT) settled around Sardarnagar Police Station of Ahmedabad has got the tag of criminal tribe as an appendage. And the reason is clear. While the men folk of the community have mainly been indulging in petty property offences,  the women folk  have been engaged in bootlegging.

Unortunately, while there are several of their clan who have moved on to become judges, advocates, doctors, journalists teachers and even policemen, majority in the community have not been able to shrug of the legacy of crime attached to name for generations. The stigma has so far forced most of them to continue with their age old practice of criminal activities for livelihood.

A Little History Mughal times -Community confined to jungles Survived through criminal activities 1871 - Criminal Tribes Act passed Tribes like Chharas, Sansis, Daffers, Kaikadi etc., included in the Act 1932 - British herded Chharas of Ahmedabad in Kubernagar Were kept under watch and roll-call taken daily 1950 - Shifted to residential locality named 'Free Colony' 31st August, 1952 -Declared as Denotified Tribes The Chharas Today 1952 - Present Chharanagar of Ahmedabad established The approximate population-20,000 in 3 Sq. Km. Among Chharas - Advocates, Judges, Doctors, Journalists, Teachers and Policemen

The Crime Factor
Living on the margins and caught in the vicious circle of crime, an average Chhara member would be having not less than a dozen criminal cases registered against him. The problem is further aggravated by the fact that higher the number of crime commited by a member, the higher is his possibility of getting a good bride. This makes most of the Chhara youth  inclined towards crime.

To exorcise the stigma of criminal tribes, as also to wean away the youth and the children of this community from the vocation, Sneh Prayas, the Gujarat chapter of the national NGO Prayas initiated several programs, including community policing,  education and computer training, police training and theatre. The idea was to build a bridge between the community and the police and motivate them them take up better career options, thereby bringing them back to the mainstream of the society.

That the project has caught the fancy of the children and the youth  can be judged from the fact that the center set up by Sneh Prayas is now frequented by nearly 150 children. Besides the non-formal education, the participants also get snacks once in a week for their interest in the project.

The Intervention
Exposure to the world of information, communication, and technology was provided to these children for the first time in 2004, when a second hand computer was bought into the center.  The response to computer was infectious and it caught the fancy of all the students coming to the centre. In course of time, a second new computer was donated to the center. Since then, it has been the progress forward on the path of development by adopting ICT to attain education of the times, and there has not been any looking back.

The project got a filip on January 14, 2006, when Sneh Prayas in association with Hole-in-the-Wall Education (HiWEL), set up the first learning station. The hole-in-the-wall project envisaged running educational program for class one till 12 through a specially developed kiosk.

The kiosk enabled a child to log on anytime between 9 am to 11 pm and browse through the sites associated with his subject and areas of interest. The approach was clear-learning through minimally invasive education.

The computers in the kiosk are connected through the Internet and Web-cam to the remote monitoring system (RMS) of the central control room at HiWEL centre in Delhi.

 What this means is that, as soon as a child logs on to the computer, his image is captured and from then onwards a profile of the child starts getting built up at the Center for Cognitive Research at NIIT. The progress of each child is monitored through the profile. Each child is also provided with a personal email ID and is expected to interact with the HiWEL centre through e-mails.

While this is the first Internet enabled computer learning centre set up in a Ahmedabad slum, it is also one of the only kind in the state of Gujarat.

The Impact
The initiative is a combination of community policing and computer literacy for crime prevention in an area infested with crime and criminals. It has also facilitated in laying the foundation for a government-NGO (GO-NGO) partnership.

Such has been the impact of the project that Tata Consultancy Services has also pitched in with 12 computers for settining up a computer lab for the Chharas. Corporate support from State Bank of India, Airtel, Blue Dart, HSBC and Crossword has also follewd in. Encouraged by the support the NGO also aims to empower the children and the youth economically by setting up Sneh Prayas Institute of Economic Empowerment soon.

Interestingly, while it has just been a little over three months since the project with HiWEL has been launched, the feedback gathered by the NGO has thrown up some interesting facts. One of the biggest benefits of the projects has been that the students have been able to shed the stigma attached with their clan. Most in the Chhara community now look up to education as the key to economic and social success.

The study conducted by the NGO also suggest that majority of the students have the aspiration to become professionals, which for 36% of them is synonymous with being a doctor.  Of the others, 23% of the children want to become police officer  and serve the nation; most of them looking up to Keshav Kumar, the DIG Gujarat Police as an inspiration.

Elder children teaching their younger lot in the library; truly seting their mind free from the stigma

This is also indicative that the project has been able to deconstruct the minds of the children and the youth and they have gained the confidence to try to weed out the areas with which there community has been notoriously associated. Among other career choices, teacher, pilot, advocate, soldier, musician, engineer, cricketer, and nurse have emerged as the top choice.

Besides, the exposure to computers has also meant that the children are now fully aware of the benefits that accrue from the technology. Exposure and learning the usage of a computer is perceived by the children as a tool that would facilitate them to get the jobs, help them in getting the education desired, and play games as well.

The Shantaram Dream
The ICT intervention of Gujarat Police is not only another step forward towards the Shantaram dream, it is yet another proof that given a chance technology can lead to new learning experiences; the lack of formal education not withstanding.

Today the children from Chharanagar have become proficient in usage of Microsoft based program and are able to search through Google. To quote 14 year old Rishi Kumar: “Internet sey America baat type karkey bhej saktey hain (one can send typed conversation to Amercia using Internet).”

However, there is still a lot to be achieved before the Do Aankhein Barah Haath experiment can be called successful. As of now 34% of the Chharanagar students are still not aware about the usage of computer and benefit that can accrue for them from a computer.

For the parents, computer education to the children has been a welcome step forward towards integration into the society. However, there is still an apprehension about its outreach, as the community does not allow the girls to learn. As one of the parents said “bacchiyon ko zyada nahin padhatey-8th, 9th tak padha liya to bohut ho gaya (we do not send girls for higher education. It's enough for them to get education til class 8th or 9th).”

Nevertheless, a small, but definite beginning has been already been made through the ICT intervention. Also, thanks to the emphasis of education among the youth through this project, there has been an increase in the participation from 24 Panchayat in the area. This has been made possible as the children and the youth are now encouraging the parents to actively participate in the program and also creating a pull by explaining the possibilities of what all can be achieved through IT and education.

The message that Shantaram wished to give through the movie that once a criminal always a criminal should not be the maxim of the society, seems to be finding its echo through implementation of this project, and is also indicative about the fact that given a chance a criminal can contribute in a same manner for building of the nation, but the chance has to be provided by the society. The reduction of criminal activities in the village is a definite indicator of this.

Osama Manzar
The author is director,
Digital Empowerment Foundation

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