Live & Let live

Peace & Non

Violence

Zindagi Mile Nahi Dobaara

We tried to bring about a change in the way people approach life. We played the Role of an extinguisher to calm down rivalaries.We used children as a bait to makeWarring parties realize that these vicious cycle of revenge will only bring more destruction, murders & prisons.We got success in bringing together on a common platform, people who cannot see eye to eye.We used Sports as medium to propagate’Zindagi phir mile na Dobaara’ & it is much precious to be wasted by fighting.

Population: 12,000 app.known as ‘Bandookon wala Gaon’with almost every family possessing a licensed gun.Famous for long standing rivalries betweendifferent caste groups or within the same caste.Even women are involved in gang wars & have been to jails.No interest in education as village energies are diverted towards settling scores.

Burn Ego & Anger

The tensions between the families have settled down among the students & always surfaces whenever there are competitions or programmes at school. Students feel & behave as enemies making it difficult for the teachers to concentrate.Whenever there is some fresh flare ups in the enemity,attendance suffers badly as both involved parties stop sending their children to school fearing harm & other villagers also follows them..

The Reasons behind the Idea1.The miserable conditions of children whose family members are either in Jail or are in hiding.2.The sight of students fighting & abusing each other like adults on petty issues.3.Detoriating attendance & increase in dropouts.4.Closed down institutions like PHC,Co-operative bank,Kisan Centre etc out of refusal by the staff to work in this village.

The villagers are intense rivals baying for each other blood and forgoes no chance to defeat or humiliate each other.People are divided mainly into four groups & castes or sub-castes have cemented these divisions further.The gang wars have caused much sufferings with almost 12 men serving life sentences in Jail.Innate nature of human beings is peace but false ego never allows them to claim it.

We imagine a campaign where we will have to calm down emotions which have been boiling since several years & even passed through generations.Our campaign against this calamity was fraught with dangers as a group of people were benefiting from these tensions & sustaining them to further their cause.Future of their children was taken as a bait to make them realize the folly of their actions.The language, tone & tenure of the campaign needs to be scrutinized at every step as any misstep may have caused more harm than benefit.

Be the Change that you want to see in this world

1.Students were divided into teams.2.Literature on peace & non-violence by Gandhi,Budhdha & others was made available to students to motivate them.3.The entire plan of seven days was discussed and made ready for implementation.

Classification of Rivalries:1.Short term or Long Term2.Political or Personal.

Study of the village1.Origin of rivalries2.Losses incurred by both the parties.3.No of men & women in Jails.4.No of cases being fought in courts.5.Leaders & stakeholders of the conflicts.6.Religious & influential persons respected by all

Thakur vs. Pandit Thakurs lead by Mr. Pushpendra Chauhan & Pandits lead by Mr. Rakesh Mishra are fighting each other for the political dominance of the village.This has claimed 8 lives & numerous attacks on each other & has become a full fledged caste war. Both the caste do not see eye to eye & option for others it is either us or them.

We started the campaign by organizing a Friendship match between students & invited parents to see how their children can compete with each other in friendly manner .The match was aptly titled ‘Shanti Cup’

Cricket Match act as an ice breaker & it was a huge gathering of villagers. A group of students brief groups of

people about the idea behind the match

Newspaper

A motivational play based on conflicts & its consequences presented by

students to show the negative impact of

fighting's has on village

It presented a clash between two groups of the village.The play depicts the plight & miseries of families.How emotions are swayed by the middlemen & police harvesting conflict.And finally,the price all the parties have to pay.

21stth Sept 2011.To start the campaign an exhibition cum rally was organized in the village.The rally has slogans on peace & non-violence.Through the rally students appeal for peace sought change in approach.The rally has 3 meeting points where gathered people were addressed by the students.The rally gave us the start as the topic taken up was very emotional & no one before us has dared to talk about peace & reconcilliation.Rest of the day was utilized in slogan writing.

22nd SeptemberA meeting with the Police Station in charge was done to apprise them of our mission & his help required.Students also met Baba Kashi Singh of Hanuman Mandir to seek his help & utilize his influence to foster help.These two people appreciated our efforts & assured full support.23rd SeptemberEach Team was assigned an area to meet people at their homes & our idea of peace was shared.We were surprised to find a majority of commoners favoring brotherhood but their fear & suspicion of each other was holding them.Religious text & local examples were quoted to emphasize on the message.People were also invited for the friendly cricket match.

The journey of Change

24th September11Cricket match was organized in school & Police Inspector was the Chief Guest.It shows that children of rivals can compete with each other in a friendly manner.A playing code for students was made.All the warring factions were represented in the teams.Parents came out in large number to watch theirs & their enemy son playing together in the same team.A tea party after the match for the leaders of different groups was organized by School head teacher.

Mr. Brijesh Mishra,member of Zila Panchayat became the biggest hurdle in

our peace campaign as he feared that united village will harm him politically &

income as a middle man between police & criminals will vanish.

26th Sept 2011.To further our campaign, Nukkad Natak titled ‘Zindagi Na Mile Dobara’was organsed at the village centre.The play highlighted the silent sufferings of families & losing of innocence by the children.The main character Raju was fed up with all this & he wants to change but faced stiff resistance from Village Sarpanch.The play presented two options before the villagers, one of violence leading to death & destruction & another of peace & prosperity.It emphasizes that life is very precious & we get it only for once.Zindagi Na Mile Dobaara

27th September 11Sadhbhavna Committee: Our efforts & intensive campaigning starts showing results as Sarpanch from adjoining Village Palhora organized a meeting of villagers & announced the formation of a Sadhbhavna Committee, which will monitor the relations between people & promote harmony.A resolution was passed by the Panchayat that people must live by peace & avoid conflicts.People must try to solve their conflicts mutually/peacefully & must not involve police.

Luck smiled on us & we were able to bring together for the first time people who were sworn enemy.It was well known that people wants peace but who will comes first for it was a matter of ego.Religious text, scriptures & Gandhi JI came to our rescue as they provided weight to what we were talking.Police Inspector Mr. P K Gautam, was very helpful as he contributed with his time & data & his presence gave us the strength.We cash in on the concern of parents about their children future & presentation of a horrible future, if same conditions prevails, make them realize their follies. The biggest achievement that we can consider is that we were able to melt the ice a bit & have laid out a strong foundation for peaceful tomorrow.

School leader: Mr. Raziullah KhanMentor Teacher:Mr Vinod KumarStudents:Anubhav,Govind,Chhaya,Gyanesh,Kiran,Kanchan,Khushboo,Lukshmi,Satyam,Nityanand,Jaiprakash,Gouri Dixit,Ramshankar,Supria,Radha ,Sandhya,Shivmohan,Shivam Mishra,Anmolkumar,Kshamadevi,Neelam,Khushboo,Ashish,Pramilla,Shivani,Harendra