Disha is an organisation based in Kalvakurthy in Mahboobnagar district in Andhra Pradesh State, India. Located some 130 kilometres from Hyderabad, it is run by Dalits who are Humanistically oriented. In a determined manner, and at the grass roots level, the organisation and its members have been fighting the caste system, and the various injustices the Dalit community faces – the district is one of the most backward in the country. The organisation’s leadership actively promotes scientific temper and fights superstition, and tries to educate the Dalits by inculcating an appreciation of modern values, especially the liberation of women, amongst the youth.

IHEU allocated Euros 5000 to help Disha expand its activities, aimed at empowering the community. Disha’s project benefits from the fact that it can get guidance from Mrs. Sujatha, a Humanist and a Sociologist, and it can collaborate with another Dalit Humanist organisation, Spoorthi, in the equally backward Suryapet town of Nalgonda district, another 130 kilometres away from Hyderabad, which is led by a successful social activist Mr. Veeraswamy. It is associated with expert antisuperstition showman Mr. Chandraiah whose science popularisation work near Suryapet town is supported by IHEU through a different project. All these principal players were trained in a week-long training program on Humanism in December 2007, organised by IHEU member organisations Social Development Foundation and Viveka Education Society.

Under the Disha project twenty villages have been chosen as areas of action, 10 villages in each of the two districts Nalgonda and Mahboobnagar. Each village will get a library with literature on human rights, Dalit rights and Humanism in the local language Telugu. The literature will be housed in a room to be called a Parivartana Kendra (Center for Social Change), and a library committee comprising local youth will be created in each village. Since the library rooms are conceived as Centres for Humanist Social Change, the library committee’s role is not restricted to running the library: they are to act as agents of social change, moving their community towards modern ideas. All the committee members will be introduced to, and trained in, Humanist ideas and values so that the Humanist alternative becomes available to them and to the community they work in – the latest of these training programmes was held recently in September in Mahboobnagar for 50 activists when they discussed contemporary social problems and learnt the techniques of exposing miracle-claims by fraudsters.

Celebrations

On 27th August and on 3rd September I participated in the inauguration of libraries in Umapur and in Polkampally (some 20 kilometres away from Kalvakurthy in the interior) and in Polumalla (30 kilometres away from Suryapet). The budding libraries are cupboards containing books by noted Dalit scholar and activist Dr. Ambedkar, some rationalist literature, and a daily newspaper – the contribution by a local sponsor. The libraries are hosted both in the local community hall and, significantly, in rooms made available for this purpose by members of the Dalit community.

When there are celebrations in a village, it is not the practice to invite the Dalits – traditionally they have been excluded from all communal activities. So when attention was focused on them, the joy of the community needed to be witnessed. An enthusiastic Dalit gave his own room in the colony for housing the library. And after the inauguration he took a drum and led our procession to the local school where about 300 members of the community had gathered. None of the local village leaders, all of them from the upper castes, turned up for the meeting. In another village the elders threatened the library organisers, claiming that no change was possible in society without their consent!

After the usual speeches and the anti-superstition show, a mini-training program was organised for the fifty youth who had gathered. In Polumalla village where Chandraiah was in full form, the four hundred strong crowd which had gathered refused to leave as they wanted more! A discussion was held with the youth on future action. The agenda became very clear as Spoorthi and Disha’s officials narrated heart rending stories of how superstition was destroying people’s lives.

The Humanist approach to social change was discussed and many youth committed themselves to actively work to transform their communities: they would meet regularly in the libraries, read the literature there, organise discussion groups and consider what they could do to improve their situation. New discussion and training items need now to be incorporated in the training program.

Disha and Spoorthi are adding a new dimension to Humanist activism, and the ‘new’ approach is being noticed. When a press meet was organised in Suryapet to give information about IHEU’s support to Humanist activism in the Dalit community, reports appeared in seven newspapers.

At the end of the meeting, as we walked out of the room, the village beggar – a sad and very weak old woman – was asking for alms. Bikshapathy, with a twinkle in his eye, asked me to watch: he went up to the lady who could barely sit and offered her five rupees (about ten cents) as alms. She refused to take it, and asked him to have someone else give it to her. He was untouchable, and she was from a higher caste. I cannot still understand whether the feelings that were roused in me at that time were disgust or pity.

Babu Gogineni is IHEU’s International Director