Swadhina

Anandam : A celebration of Togetherness

‘Anandam- the name itself denotes the concept a joyful celebration . It is also the name of Swadhina's Annual Get-together. “Anandam” is not just a gathering but also a process of training and capacity building through creative exercises. This year Swadhina had organized Anandam 2013 from 6^th to 8^th of September 2013 at Seva Kendra, Kolkata. Field workers from distant field areas of Purulia , Orissa , Jharkhand had gathered at Seva Kendra to attend the programme. Workers from Kolkata joined the festivity too.

 Day 1 (6^th September 2013) : The first day began with a lot of enthusiasm. Most of the field workers had all gathered a day before. One by one we all headed towards Seva kendra, our venue, in groups.Our Day One began with registration of the participants. Srichandra from Kolkata office welcomed all the participants and read out the agenda of the programme. The actual programme then began with a Santhali song from Purulia region sung by Sonali and Bahamoni. It was then time to focus on the theme of this year’s Anandam : Women’s Empowerment and challenges. The discussion was facilitated by senior Development Consultant, Tridib Reeves. He initiated the discussion by focusing on the social problems in both village and urban areas which are the root causes of social discrimination. Each of the participants gave input to this discussion – touching on issues like health, security, education, economic situation etc. Lunch break barricaded the flow of discussion for the time being. After lunch break the formal inaugural programme of “Anandam 2013” began . A floral drawing with a candle in the centre was kept for the inauguration. Each participant was asked to put in their own art around the floral design while the inaugural song was being sung. Supta Mukherji, one of the founder members of Swadhina, formally welcomed all the participants.  After the welcome ceremony the participants were divided into three groups. Each group was assigned a colour each – red, blue and green. And each participant was given a bangle of the team colour. This was a throwback at the traditional belief that bangles are a symbol of weakness and vulnerability. A competition on singing in a group was held. Each group was asked to compose a song on the team colour and then present it as a group. Each group came up with innovative song and presented it. While some sang in tune, the others were totally out of tune but the overall effect was very lively and interesting. After this fun event, it was time to go back to the core theme. Mr. Reeves asked each of the participant to identify one social issue that affects women’s empowerment. Each participant came up with different social issues based on the socio-economic background that they come from. A detailed discussion took place on this.

It was activity time once more and it was announced that the groups had to compose one drama each based on social issues from the song booklet of Swadhina. Each had a theme related to women issues and was asked to be presented next day. Each of the team got down to work immediately, some jotted down the plot while the others added on to the script. Some of them even began rehearsing their lines. And amidst all this excitement the curtains were drawn on day one of Anandam 2013.

Day 2 (7^th September 2013) - Day Two of Anandam began with a sumptuous break fast . The morning session began with an Oriya worship song sung by Nirmala from Orissa. This was followed by a Bengali song suggesting about women’s empowerment especially for the mothers. This was sung by Alochana and Asma from East Singbhum. This was followed by continuation of the discussion on women’s empowerment ensued the previous day by Tridib Reeves. The interactive discussion dealt on how the vices in the society are interlinked to form a viscous circle of gender suppression. It was also shown how the society actually contributes in keeping alive the gender discrimination.

The following session was presentation of dramas prepared by the groups. Each of the group presented very realistic situation related to gender. While one group focussed on the evils of child marriage, another group highlighted the need for education for women. The third group based their theme on women’s empowerment. Each of the participants put in a whole-hearted effort and their efforts were well appreciated by the rest.

 Post lunch there was a small presentation by 

Dipanwita Pal from Swadhina, Kolkata .The discussion was regarding the participation of Swadhina in a workshop on Gender Evaluation Criteria, conducted by UN-Habitat, Global Land Tool Network and International Land Coalition. The workshop took place at Jakarta, Indonesia. Participants from different Asian countries took part in the workshop. Swadhina was repesented by Dipanwita.

     

Hrudananda Sahu from Orissa made his presentation about Swadhina’s participation in a workshop on Right to Education organised by the Government of Orissa.

Smita Kongari spoke on the issue of tribal women and triabl welfare. She said that most of the feats that seemed impossible were achieved by tribal women. She felt that the tribal women have a lot of inner strength and stability.

Many different team-games were organised after this – thread and needle, paper collage, floor designs (Rangoli) etc. The games were organised in such a way that they were not just games but also were a lesson in grass-root level organisation and creative leadership. All the participants enthusiatically took part in the programme.

After a tea-break it was once more discussion time. Tridib Reeves summed up the discussion of the past two days. He then led forward to think about the ways to ensure women’s empowerment. Veteran social trainer Diptendu Mukherji too facilitated the discusssion. He said that at the grass-root level we need to concentrate on education, socio-legal awareness, health and nutrition and environment protection if we want to ensure women’s empowerment.

Day 3 (8^th September 2013) : Day Three was the last day of Anandam . As a last day of the celebratation we wanted to create memories of fun and merry making. So from the morning there was a whole lot of fun games and activities chalked out for the participants. The first tournament was musical chair, followed by design competition, , dumb charadeds , balloon games, biscuit tower, ball in the bucket etc. As the participants competed with each other and won the games they were given small token gifts picked up through lots. Post lunch session there was a magic show by Hrudananda Sahu.

The last session of the “Anandam” comprised of future planning  .We tried to find out how programmes can be best implemented for the development of the rural women. The session also comprised of a lot of case study and personal experiences shared by the villagers.

Finally it was time to close the show. Like every year the gala programme ended with a group dance by each and every participant to the beats of a tribal song.