THE FEMALE SECURITY GUARDS OF DIBRUGARH UNIVERSITY

CENTRE FOR STUDIES IN JOURNALISM AND MASS  COMMUNICATION, DIBRUGARH UNIVERSITY

Title of the paper
DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION
Report on: Community visit
Community: Female Security Guards of Dibrugarh University.
Paper Code: 20300.
Submitted by: Anwesha Baruah,Roll no.02 Nasrin Hussain,Roll no. 24 Nilakshi Saikia,Roll no. 27
Smita Gogoi,Roll No. 39
Rheashri Borah, Roll No. 33
Gargi Baruah, Roll No. 12
 Manalisha Gogoi, Roll No. 20                                                               Sunayana Borah, Roll No. 40
Pranjal Buragohain, Roll No. 30
Simanta Phukon, Roll No. 41
Second Semester, MAMC
Submitted ToFaculty:
AbhijitHandique(Assist. Proff.)


CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
OBJECTIVES
ASSUMPTIONS
ANALYSIS
FINDINGS
CONCLUSION


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to express our gratitude to our faculty-in-charge Abhijit Handique who gave us the opportunity to visit a community of our choice and have an interaction to know their experiences as a female security guard in the University Campus.
And, we are thankful to the female security guards for their co-operation and helping us to further proceed with our assignment.


OBJECTIVES
To know the hurdles they face during their day to day working hours.
To know why they have opted for this job.
To know whether they face any discrimination based on their gender.
To know their opinions regarding the current security system of the University and do they think it should be more improvised.
To know if they are aware of the Maternity Benefits Act recently amended in 2017.
If they are treated equally with the male security guards in terms of income.
To know if they face any challenges during the nightshifts.
To know if they receive proper accommodation and health facilities.
To know whether their jobs are permanent and are they appointed by the University authority or any other private security agency.
To know whether their income is sufficient to run their household.
To enquire if they arehappy as working women.



ASSUMPTIONS

We want them to be provided with adequate technical facilities.
Encouraging them to put their problems infront of the concerned authority.
Informing them about the different Acts made for them.
Developing their living standards.




INTRODUCTION
Security guards are crucial components of the University space as they strive to make the University a hassle-free and secured environment.The role of a security guard is not only confined to providing “security” of the University, but also keeps the nearby areas under their surveillance.We have chosen this community to understand “security service” as an occupation as well as a metaphor and use this project as an opportunity to understand the various meanings attributed to the profession.And also to sensitize ourselves regarding the plight of the female security guards and convey the concerned authority to adopt measures that lighten their institutional and personal challenges.




ABSTRACT
 The purpose of the visit is to look at the working condition of the female security guards of Dibrugarh University.
The report  focuses mainly on the issues they are facing as a female security guard during the working hours. We tried to acknowledge them with the various Schemes and Acts especially made for the female security guards. We also tried to encourage them to put their issues in front of the concerned Authority. During the interaction they were very co-operative, although they hesitated a bit at first.




ANALYSIS

The community visit on 13th of May,2018, Sunday. We started our visit from the main gate “Jyoti Batsora” around 4pm. There are total ten female security guards in the University and we almost enquired six of them. They informed us that they have not been posted permanently by the concerned authority.They are working on a contractual basis for two years. We have interacted with the guards working in the main gate followed by University park, hostels, and in certain departments.
                    The first lady we interacted with informed us that their working hours are divided into two shifts from 5am to 9am and 9am to 5pm. Generally, they do not have any night shifts except on certain days when the University organizes programmes like general freshers’ social and farewells, etc. The accommodation facilities are only allotted to the ones who are permanent in their posts. There is no any discrimination in case of income.
                  Our next area of surveywas the park. The female guard we met there was very generous to us. She provided us with much information regarding the status of their job. There is no any facility of restroom, proper sanitation, drinkingwater facilities. They have to carry their own food with them. Their income is not sufficient enough to run their households smoothly. She also informed us that they get one day leave per week.
                 Then we went to the hostel,MamoniRaisomChatriNivas. There we interacted with the female security guard who informed us that they get a casual leave of only twelve days in a year. There we came to know that they also find problem in transportation. Some of them have to travel a lot to reach their destination and then to return. They also need an increment in their salary.  They said that the Students’ Union is very supportive and stand by them whenever they need them.

FINDINGS

The age group is between 22 to 35 years.
The minimum qualification required is HSSLC pass.
A new security room will be built up in the premises of MamoniRaisomChatriNivas.
Self-defence is a must for any security guard, but they are not provided with it.
As there are only ten female security guards in the entirecampus, it becomes hard for them to carry on with their responsibilities.




CONCLUSION

In conclusion, we can add that the female security guards of DibrugarhUniversity, are satisfied with their job and simultaneously, they are hoping for some better changes in near future.

Community Visit: sensitize and promote WASH Programme

A report on the campaign done to sensitize and promote WASH Programme

                                   Submitted by

ANKUSH BHATTACHARJEE                           JEPULEEN DUTTA

BINOY SONOWAL                                           NANDAN C BORUA

DEEPKAMAL BORAH                                     SUDESHNA SAIKIA

DEVID HAZARIKA                           ADITYA ASHISH KASHYAP

IPSHITA SHARMA                                          AVILEKH GAUTAM

CONTENTS:                                                                                  Page No

1.    Acknowledgement..........................................................

2.    Abstract..........................................................................

3.    Introduction: What, Where and Why?...........................

4.    Objective of the study.....................................................

5.    Methodology...................................................................

6.    Results..............................................................................

7.    Suggestions....................................................................

8.    Conclusion.......................................................................

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

We have taken effort in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind support and help of many individuals and organizations. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to all of them and we are highly indebted to our course teacher Mr. Abhijit Handique for his guidance and support for providing necessary information regarding the project.

We would like to express our special gratitude to the secretary of KALYAN ASHRAM,    Miss Bina Borah.

Our thanks and appreciations also go to our classmates in developing and executing the project and to the people who have willingly helped us out with their abilities.

Date:     30-05-2018                                                                         

ABSTRACT:

In the light of the development communication, the purpose of the program was to sensitize and assesses the impact of WASH initiative in the community. The program addressed and focused on the dimensions of health and hygiene development in the Ashram and how to imbibe the boarders with the appropriate ways to attain a better health. The program tried to initiate the ideas of health and hygiene promotion through community participation. This was affected through identifying the basic components of health and hygiene including a better understanding of the problems and hindrances relating to Menstrual Hygiene. The study employed a baseline survey design. It collected both qualitative and quantitative data through document structured questionnaires, focus group discussions, observation checklists, and key informant interviews. The study concluded that development communication was effective in achieving positive change in a group of adolescent girls, but it focused on core issue like menstrual hygiene and food and nutrition among the adolescent and children group. The findings of the program highlighted on achieving the end goal of providing a better understanding of hygienic environment and health development for children to learn and grow.

INTRODUCTION- What, Where & Why?

Communication for Development involves understanding people, their beliefs and their values, the social and cultural norms that shape their lives. It involves engaging communities and listening to adults and children as they identify problems, propose solution and act upon them. Communication for Development is seen as a two way process for sharing ideas and knowledge using a range of communication tools and approaches that empower individuals and communities to take action to improve their lives.

The selected site for the program was 'KALYAN ASHRAM' situated in Central Chowkitingee, Dibrugarh, Assam. The ashram is basically a  residential hostel specially  for the girls who belongs from rural under developed areas throughout the state in the age group of seven to sixteen years.

KALYAN ASHRAM is a national organization spread throughout the country with 11 branches in Assam. The organization's key goal is to create a cultural harmony by adopting children from diverse ethnic groups by providing them with food, lodging, education and other co-curricular activities in the form of skill sets.

Following up the assessment procedure, a 30 day intervention program was designed accordingly to meet the needs of the lagging factors in relation to WASH.

Menstrual Hygiene & Food Nutrition has been the core areas in the focal length of the overall initiative.

OBJECTIVES:

ü  To sensitize the boarders of the ashram regarding menstrual hygiene.

ü  To address key issues of food and nutrition.

ü  To infuse the importance of personal hygiene.

METHODOLOGY:

The evaluation of the WASH programme used a non-experiential design since no comparison could be made between ‘the actual and the counterfactual (control group)’. Even though it might have been possible to look at the ‘before and after’ situation of the programme in a comparable manner, the evaluation period was not long enough to permit the program. The evaluation had an additional brief to draw lessons learned for the purpose of improving the implementation of similar programmes in future. Taking all of this into account, the study focused on changes before and after the project within the same population.

The evaluation process had four component methodologies:

·         Key informant interviews

·        Interviews with the management and school going pupils residing in the Ashram

·         Physical inspection of WASH infrastructure and field observations

·         As in other evaluation assignments, the absence of key baseline information e.g. health status before the WASH programme, awareness levels, hygiene practices, school clubs on sanitation made it impossible to evaluate the programme entirely based on quantitative evidence.

·         Qualitative methods were therefore adopted in order to understand the perspectives of the programme stakeholders.

For the campaign, we used some tools to communicate with the children and make them understand the topics we wanted to touch. We used verbal communication as the baseline tool. We asked them about the problems they were facing in the ashram as well as their native faces.

Tools used for the purpose of communicating with the boarders of the Ashram:

v  Focus Group Discussion

v  Audio and Visual Aid

v  Filling up of questionnaire by one to one interaction

RESULTS:

Main objective of our campaign was to make the children aware about the need of personal hygiene practices, menstrual hygiene practices and necessity of food nutrition. In the initial stage, we started off with the personal hygiene practices. The children were amused to know about the existence of the minute organisms spread all around our environment. We told them about the need of brushing teeth, having daily baths, hand washing , toilet hygiene etc; they understood the concept and told us that they will follow up the hygiene practices we have told. Next we had a session on the most important part of the campaign which is menstrual hygiene. The girls were very curious to know more about the cycle and events related to it. We show them some short films to understand the issues in an audio-visual media. We noticed that the girls had some misconceptions and confusions initially, but after the session many of their doubts were cleared. Additionally, we talked about food nutrition especially at the teenage. We told them about the hormonal activities which take place and resulting changes in the body structure during this time. Then we told the students that due to the hormonal activities, our body requires better nutrition supply such as carbohydrates, protein, iron and calcium etc and we can consume these as vegetable, fruits, milk, meat etc. The girls got an idea on what should be their diet in the growing age.

SUGGESTIONS:

Development is a long term process. If we want this programme to be more fruitful, we can follow up the process by taking some initiatives to achieve the desired outcome. We can arrange for a health check-up camp and a nutritional knowledge camp in the coming days. This would be helpful for the pupils as experts on these two topics can provide them better knowledge on these important issues. Also we can inform them about the ongoing health policies which are run by the government especially for the female populace.

Community Visit:A STUDY ON THE COMMUNITY OF HINDI SPEAKING RICKSHAW PULLERS OF DIBRUGARH TOWN

A STUDY ON THE COMMUNITY OF HINDI SPEAKING RICKSHAW PULLERS OF DIBRUGARH TOWN.

             Course Paper: Development Communication

Paper Code: 20300

Assignment No: 01

Submitted to:

Abhijit Handique

Centre for Studies in Journalism and Mass Communication

Dibrugarh University

Students Name and Roll No.

Deepanjali Phukan -7

Deepjyoti Dutta  - 8

Jayashree Roy -14

Jesus Gogoi- 15

Kalyan Sengupta – 17

Madhusmita Saikia – 19

Mridupwan Borah- 22

Neelakshi Baruah- 25

Neeva Dutta – 26

Rajshree Gogoi – 32

Shivani kalita- 37

Acknowledgement

In performing our assignment, we had to take the help and guideline of some respected persons, who deserve our greatest gratitude. The completion of this assignment gives us much Pleasure.

We would like to show our gratitude Mr.Abhijit Handique, Assistant Professor in Centre for Studies in Journalism and Mass CommunicationDibrugarh Universityfor giving us a good guideline for assignment throughout numerous consultations.

Many people, especially our classmates and team members itself, have made valuable comment suggestions on this proposal which gave us an inspiration to improve our assignment. We would also like to expand our deepest gratitude to all those who have directly and indirectly guided us in writing this assignment.

Contents

·        ABSTRACT

·        OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

·        STUDY AREA

·        ASSUMPTIONS OF THE OUTCOME VISIT

·        BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

·        INTRODUCTION

·        OBSERVATIONS OF THE FIELD VISIT

·        PROBLEMS FACED BY THE RICKSHAW PULLER COMMUNITY

·        RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTION

·        PHOTOS

·        CONCLUSION

Abstract

The students of CSJMC, 2^nd semester Dibrugarh University has done our project of community visit successfully. For our community visit, we choose the Rickshaw community. Rickshaw is a familiar means of transport, our study is conducted to analysis the social-economic conditions of Hindi speaking rickshaw pullers of Dibrugarh town. The reason for our choosing the particular community is that rickshaw pullers community was migrated, illiterate and poor rural people in majority who spent their nights in poor dwelling where civil amenities and facilities were absent or poor. They often used to carry passengers by negotiated fare for shorter distance. Through this survey we want highlight the problems of rickshaw community and make people focus on their problems extent.

Objective of the Study

·        To know about their livelihood, wages

·        To know how they adjust their expenses

·        Have they ever got any scheme from the government

·        To examine age group, marital status, religion and caste of rickshaw pullers

·        To analyses education level, residential conditions and facilities of rickshaw pullers in Dibrugarh city

·        After a particular age leaving the profession, how do they arrange their livelihood

·        Does someone from their family continue their profession

Study Area

For the study group choose Dibrugarh town in general and Maruwaripatti and the market area of town in particular. The group visited the area and studied. The study

was conducted for two days. The group met the President and Assistant Secretary of  Dibrugarh Rickshaw Chalak Sangha (DRCS). We asked various questions to the rickshaw pullers and took their interview. Recorded their interview and took some photograph.

ASSUMPTIONS OF THE OUTCOME VISIT

·        People who belong to lower segment of society, due to lack of money and education, they prefer the work of rickshaw pulling to get earning and employment.

·        Though, it is a symbol of poverty but they are solely depending on this profession because it provides bread and livelihood to them.

·        According to our assumption most of rickshaw pullers are below the age of 50 years, because this occupation needs more physical labor.

·        Majority of rickshaw powers were rural-immigrants leaving their previous occupations. They mainly belonged to backward community.

Background of the study

It is believed that the first Rickshaws in India appeared circa 1880 in Simla and around 1900 in Calcutta (presently Kolkata). These were the hand-pulled rickshaws. As time evolved, Cycle Rickshaws with three wheels came into vogue, leading to the famous Indian Auto Rickshaws (Tuk Tuks) and much later the motorized cycle rickshaws (in Chennai). Cycle Rickshaws, are economical and environmental-friendly and hence, should be able to play an important role in today’s chaotic transportation system in the country.  As plying a Cycle Rickshaw does not require any educational qualification but sheer physical ability, it becomes the first choice of employment for the poor and migrants from rural areas to urban areas. One immediate attraction is that it does not call for financial capital for the Rickshaws as they are available on rent. However, due to this, a significant chunk of the daily earnings also go away towards rent and perennially.In addition to this, continuous exposure to all natural vagaries, lack of awareness on health and hygienic issues, alcoholism etc., take a toll on the health of the Rickshaw-puller which has an effect on the family rendering the families to be eternally below the poverty line.

Introduction

The first day of our survey

We go to meet Mr. Nabin Gupta, the Assistant secretary of the Dibrugarh Rickshaw Chalak Sangha (DRCS) in Marwari patty Dibrugarh city. He said that there are different languages people which is Hindi, Miri, Bengali, and Assamese. In the Dibrugarh district, there are 10,000 Rickshaw pullers. Some people are come from Goalpara. He said that there are most probably 500 pullers are Hindi speaking people. In the DRCS, Binay Jaishwal is the president and Dasrath Rai is the President. They mainly demanding to the government is to increase the price rate of the pullers. But the government didn’t provide any facilities for them and also there has no scheme for the Rickshaw pullers. Rickshaw pullers are mostly came from the outside of the different places. They still didn’t get the opportunity to vote for the election. The age group of the pullers is 18-70 and the daily income is 300-400 Rs. From the daily income, they provide 50 Rs. to the owner of the house. The starting time of the pullers is 8:30/9:00AM to 7PM.

Mr. Nabin Gupta introduced  us to a 45 year old rickshaw puller whose name was Dinesh Rai. When asked whether he went under some obstructions or faced any problems, he replied that he hasn’t. During questioning about his family members he informed us about their whereabouts back in Bihar. Although his stay in Assam hasn’t been that long {4years}.

We asked Dinesh Rai whether there are any other Hindi speaking people or not. He replied that there are some people which we were looking for who can be found in the Railway colony. After that we met another rickshaw puller named Sunil Shah aged 25 from the district of  Baishali in Bihar. He didn’t have access to any sort of education. Dinesh’s father lives in Kolkata and manages a Pan shop. Fortunately his elder sister has completed her educational qualification till 7^th standard. His brother in law and sister live together with Dinesh. Dinesh pays 1800 as rent per month. The rickshaw Dinesh has actually is rented and he pays 50 rupees daily to return the interest. .Dinesh’s brother in law and sister have got the opportunity to vote unlike Dinesh himself.

Day 2 of survey

We went to Marwari Patty in Dibrugarh city where we interacted with another Rickshaw puller named Nareshwar Kamath.He is from the district of Madhubani in Bihar and arrived in Assam during the 1980s. Even though he lives currently in Dibrugarh he had stayed at Tinsukia for 5 years.  He has six children of which 2 are boys and the other 4 are girls. Two of the elder girls have been married, one has recently appeared for matriculation exam and the other one is occupied in knitting business. The boys are younger than their sisters and one of them goes to 3^rd standard while the other one has dropped out. Even Nareshwar Kamath drives a rented rickshaw and pays rupees 50to the owner. His daily income is around 400-500 rupees. According to Nareshwar they haven’t been entitled to any facilities or opportunities by the government.When asked whether someone from his family would take the job, his reply was negative. He said that all his children’s are studying and they won’t do that kind of job.

One boy we found during the study he was just 17 years old. He told me that his father died couple of month ago. He said that he has leaved his studies because of his families’ poor economic condition. He has mother and young siblings to feed so he chose to do the job of rickshaw puller.

Observations of the field visit

We conducted our survey in Dibrugarh town. While visiting the rickshaw community of Dibrugarh town, lots of facts related to the lives of rickshaw pullers were highlighted. At the beginning, we interviewed the Assistant secretary of the Rickshaw and Thela Chalak Santha of Dibrugarh, he stated that most of rickshaw pullers were not permanent inhabitants of Dibrugarh but came to Dibrugarh in search of employment. He added that they are not recognized in any schemes of the government. While interviewing some of the rickshaw pullers, most of them stated that they are originally from Bihar and they do have their families in Bihar. They stay here without their families and they never want their sons or future generations to be in the profession of rickshaw pulling. They further added that the daily wages they earn their daily wages they earn is not enough to fulfill the basic needs of their families. The rickshaw through which they earn their wages is also a rented rickshaw and most of them even don’t have a L.P.G for cooking, they use to cook their food by burning woods or kerosene. While conducting our survey, they also further added that they often receive unsatisfactory fare and behavior from the passengers. Most of them reveal that they are illiterate and had no formal education. According to them, illiteracy is one of the reasons, which led them to the profession of rickshaw pulling. So their children’s are having formal education. And they don’t want their children to take this kind of job. We asked about them about their political conscience. We found that some of them have voting right and some doesn’t. Most of the puller we interacted said that the government is totally ignoring their community. Both the central and the state government doing nothing to uplift this under privileged community.

Problems faced by the rickshaw puller community

·        Lack of proper housing facility.

·        No schemes from the government.

·        No proper cooking facility.

·        Illiteracy.

·        Unsatisfactory fare from the passengers.

·        Poor hygiene of the members of the community

·        Alcoholism among the member of the community

·        Most of the rickshaw puller doesn’t have their own rickshaws

·        No legal help for them

Recommendations and suggestion 

·        Rickshaw pullers are not economically sound. It can be observed from the study that the rickshaw pullers have not been benefited from the existing Government schemes. This calls for awareness among them about the various measures adopted by the Government. The general public should take initiative to create awareness among them about the benefits of the schemes while travelling in the rickshaws.

·        The study revealed that a large number of rickshaw pullers are not owner of the rickshaws. This hinders on their income as they have to pay a part of their income regularly to the rickshaw owners. In this regard, it can be suggested that the problems of society making them do the job.

·         It has been concluded that the rickshaw pullers should be treated as part and parcel of our society and provide necessary assistance as and when required to them.

·         The municipality and police including traffic control departments need to work together on assigning roads and appropriate rickshaw stands in  town with fare chart and to maintain urban discipline.

CONCLUSION

The study found that the condition of rickshaw pullers in Dibrugarh town is no better than the rest of them in other parts. They are deprived of good working conditions. A great majority of them had suggested that there were various accidental risks involved in this job and the working conditions were not satisfactory. The lack of proper parking place many times creates traffic problems during rush hours. The study underlines the need for a comprehensive policy of welfare of these teeming millions as they provide easy and cheap transport option to the people besides contributing towards environmental conservations and protection. Majority of rickshaw pullers were rural immigrants leaving their families in their own land and living a tough life with a low income. They conditions were more miserable than that of schedule caste people. The government should take measures and adopt schemes for their upliftment. Social approach is needed to their uplift like other targeted groups for their socio-economic development. Employment generation programmes must be initiated for their upliftment.

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