This week at Vidyavardhaka school, I was trying to understand how 12 year old students perceived government. The majority of them think that government won’t do anything good! Without any experience, if these children can have cynicism about the government, then it actually reflects on us. Any system is only as good as the belief people have in that system. If we lose belief, we start propagating negative air among everyone including children and the whole system fails. I needed to  change this in at least a small way and gave the kids an exercise.

I discussed an issue which each one of them knew. The issue I took was the cutting of lalith mahal road trees in Mysore. The students read a newspaper article in the classroom. Then, I explained them how a democracy works and how we are responsible for its upkeep. I then explained the various departments, ministries in a government and finally asked the children to write letters to anyone they seemed fit to receive the letter. Here is the result of the exercise.

An interesting thing I noted is how many of them had addressed the letter to Manivannan! I never even mentioned his name to the children before the class. It shows how one person can inspire confidence in so many others.

The exercise does not end here. If possible, I want to get these children to meet  people from the government and understand how it works. Only when you have the belief that democracy with all its flaws can still work, you will do justice to it. And this belief needs to be instilled at a young age.

The answer is to visit Gram Panchayat offices, Agricultural information centers, rural forest offices etc. Yes, all of them are government offices. Strangely, these offices are not like the government offices we see in cities where apathy rules. Rural offices typically consist of 2 or 3 officers. In all my recent experiences these rural officers have been extremely helpful. Being in a rural area, their expertise is seldom sought by any. As a result, they are more than happy to talk when a city fellow asks their expertise.

The reports prepared by these offices collectively form a summarized report at the Taluk level. These move higher to the district level, state and then the national level. During this process however, much of the qualitative information gets smudged as the information reaches higher levels. Only the quantitative information typically remains. Quantitative information most of the times can give a wrong idea of the real situation on ground. For example, community forestry on a national report may not be true at the ground level (as I have seen in one instance).

The rural market may be huge. Yet, it is extremely complex too. And as far as I have seen, rural areas can’t be generalized. Every village is unique with its own set of benefits and problems. If you are in a business dealing with villages, you have to solve one village at a time. No single solution applies to all.

Another thing is, I see an opportunity here. An aggregated knowledge pool of rural statistics which is inclusive of real opinions, reviews etc on the ground situation might be extremely valuable.

Why not introduce environment science as a part of main curriculum at schools. At least 1 or 2 hours of this class per week would go a long way in improving the state of our planet. This subject could include theoretical and most importantly practical lessons in rainwater harvesting, biogas generation, energy efficiency etc. Just like every school has a lab, every school could have a tree nursery. Each student could be made responsible for one sapling, from seed to tree in an year. How many crores of trees could be planted in a year!! Also,  with renewable energy technologies being taught in practical form, think of the innovation that would result when the children grow up; assuming at least a few would be inspired.

Also, from my past year’s experience at Sapgreen, I have seen that children in cities lack respect for saplings or trees. I have seen them vandalize saplings I had planted; for no reason. I can’t blame the children for such acts as I have seen that the reason for this behaviour in most cases was ignorance. If the same children had learnt the process of growing a seed into a tree practically, I am sure they would be much more caring for other trees too.

Its just a matter of government policy. One small change in the rule book could change a whole lot of things for the world. For the time being though, I am trying to get one school to make this activity part of its curriculum.

Some things I learnt from the proceedings:

• Loudness works only to a particular level. People who are loud also tend to lose their patience pretty  soon. Slowly, they lose attention and interest. The ones who wait with patience and the ones with real issues to talk always get a hearing in a democratic system.
• You can’t make an illogical man understand your point with reasoning. However, the same man will agree with you provided he doesn’t have enough people to back him.
• On the other hand, if a logical man has a particular point and he knows that he is right, he becomes stronger if he faces more opposition.
• Politicians typically try to please an audience. One of them who was present at the meeting today was initially of the view that trees should be cut. Later she understood that she didn’t have support  and immediately switched sides. We should know to make use of this behaviour of politicians.
• Democracy has its flaws. People with vested interests make use of goons to fake citizen representation so that their agenda succeeds. The only way to counter this is by more citizen representation. Concerned citizens always outnumber those with vested interests. If more such citizens participate in public issues, democracy succeeds.

I know, I have not been able to convey everything that I experienced there. I think it cannot be conveyed by writing. You should attend one of these public meetings to know how it feels.

49-O is a rule which can be used as a civil rights tool. The rule states:

Elector deciding not to vote — If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form 17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.

The rule doesn’t go any further than being just a civil rights tool. It will only mean that you have not opted to vote for anybody and is nothing more than that (There are hoax mails circulating which claim more than this and are all false). However, there is one way of making this rule a really powerful tool. By default, the number of people who exercise 49-O are not disclosed by the election commission. Yet, using the right to information act, you can obtain the information and publicize the issue. As a result, this can be a demonstration that you have performed your duty and yet do not subscribe to the country’s laws fully. Say for example, one thousand people in a constituency of one lakh decide not to vote. That is 1% of that constituency’s votes. The information if made public is pretty good news for the papers and tv channels. That is a start.

In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “the function of a civil resistance is to provoke response. To continue to provoke until they respond or they change the law”. In this case, until we have a system where unfit, undeserving or criminal candidates cannot contest the elections.

There are some who don’t believe in the power of their vote. Yes, you alone can’t change everything. All you can really do is to be true to yourself with the help of that one vote. Truth will take care of everything else.