The school in Sabukpur

The village

Sabukpur is located in the district of Akbarpur in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP). The capital's name is Lucknow. "Uttar Pradesh" - translated it means "northern country". Uttar Pradesh has 166 million inhabitants. Due to its density of population Uttar Pradesh is on rank 6 world wide.   

The most famous town in Uttar Pradesh is Benares, called Varanasi. It is one of India's best known places of pilgrimage, which probably is on most of the programmes of tour companies.  But even for most Indians is the holy place on the Ganga destination of a journey and sometimes they do their final journey there. For a Hindu it is desirable to die and be cremated at this holy place, so that the ashes can be spread in the holy river, the “mother Ganga”. As well as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh borders on Nepal in the north. The fertile alluvial land on the river of Ganga makes it possible to grow vegetables there.
During the monsoon season UP regularly is stricken by flooding, and is drought-stricken when the monsoon fails to appear. During the winter it is very cold, the temperatures sink down to the freezing point, and in summer the thermometer climbs up to over 50 degrees Celsius. It is very muggy. The climatic conditions are comparable to those in Bihar.
The only possibility to reach Sabukpur is by train. It is the best to take the night train, so you reach the train station of Akhbarpur in the morning. Similar to Jamui it is necessary to hire a jeep from here to reach Sabukpur, via Tandha, the little market place. This very bumpy journey by jeep takes about another hour.
Like Khadigram, Sabukpur is in the middle of nowhere. The local people's circumstances are comparable. The people there live under the most primitive conditions, mostly in straw covered mud huts.

In Sabukpur, as well as in Khadigram, the water and electricity supply is poor. But it is more easy to find water here, because the Ganga and a branch of it is not too far away, and so the ground water level is not as deep as it is in Khadigram, where the lack of water is playing an important role.
The consumption of water in the area of Sabukpur is not secure for the health. The rate of infectious diseases is quite high and is definitely a danger for the people's health.

There are electricity lines, but it doesn't mean that the flow of electricity is regular.
For the people there this is not the most important thing anyway. Normally they do not own any electronic gadgets. They don't have to charge a cell phone, because they don't own one.

The likes of us get euphoric as soon as there is any sign of possibility that there might perhaps be some electricity. And one runs to the notebook and cell phone charger hectically, to seize some modern age to bring oneself up to date, which mostly fails, because the power supply is no more than a weak flicker.

History

The history of Uttar Pradesh begins about 340 b.c. It was the empire of the kings of Nanda. Later the state of UP, like Bihar, was reigned by the Mauryas. Emperor Ashoka's (272 b.c.) sphere of influence did not end at the borders of the state. Ashoka declared himself a Buddhist. In UP Ashoka's edict column with the lion capital, which is India's coat of arms today, was found years ago.
Mahmud of Ghazi's descendants conquered India and brought the Islam after the 12th century. Mahmud Ghazni is hated up to today. Mahmud invaded India from Afghanistan 17 times in total, robbing and sacking, and he destroyed the temple of Somnat, which is very important for the Hindus. The remnants of the impressive temple can still be visited and admired.

Mogul sovereigns like Babur and Akbar strengthened the Islam and built up numerous highly interesting buildings like for example the Taj Mahal in Agra or Fatepur Sikri.
Because of the clash between Hindus and Moslems about the Mosque of Ayodhya, UP gained sad knowledge in 1992. Radical Hindus insisted on the fact that the mosque was built on the foundation walls of a Rama temple and demanded its demolition. Hindus destroyed the Babrimosque in a cloak-and-dagger-operation. That led to a counter reaction, of course, with lots of hurt and dead people. Soon after it turned out that there never had been a temple at this place. During the British colonial conquest UP's inhabitants put up bitter resistance.

Up to today these people are shown as criminals in the British history books, whereas the Indian history books show them as heroes. It is remarkable that the queen/Rani of Jhasni herself led the troops against the colonial power. She died deadly injured during the fight of 1858.

Economy

Like in Bihar more than 70 percent of UP's inhabitants work in the farming. There is no important industry in this state. But there are numerous weaving mills and tanneries. In these factories there mainly work untouchables (Dalit) and Muslims.
Referred to the economical development Uttar Pradesh is one of the back markers/tail ender/rear light. The rate of unemployment comes to about 68 percent, which is exorbitant high. The same goes for the rate of illiteracy.
UPs government is led by the prime minister Mahavati and is exceedingly corrupt. Unfortunately she belongs to the group of so called “scheduled casts”, like the former prime minister of Bihar, Lalo Prasad Yadav. Mahavati is Dalit and regrettably she doesn't do any credit to her section of population.

The sad truth is that India takes a top position when it comes to corruption according to the index of Transparency International. Owing to the prime minister's extravagance, the funds don't come in useful to the projects they are thought for.
There is a lack of money for very important sectors that have to be covered by a state, like health service and the educational sector, the public service, just to name a few.

Education

In particular it affects the educational sector, the one Mädchenschule Khadigram stands up for.
In India there is a compulsory of school attendance for all children up to the fifth grade. The school attendance shall be free of costs. Doubtfully the reality doesn't always follow this law. In many cases, the headmasters charge an application fee. Also they demand an administration charge for further necessary administrative steps like for example certificates and school reports.
Of course the school uniform as well as the necessary books, exercise books and pens have to be paid. Headmasters, teacher and education authority at public schools charge fees that don't even officially exist. Often, teachers don't teach in the morning to offer a very expensive private tutoring in the afternoon. It is not unusual that they join an extra job instead of teaching at school regularly. This definitely goes to the expense of the state as well as the children. That is why education for the majority of the population is out of question because of poverty.
Since the schools in Khadigram and Bhatta stand by themselves and are accepted well in the area, starting another school for girls in a different district to give the girls in another place a chance to be educated was worth thinking about. Together with Vinay Singh, our coordinator in India, this thought was followed and driven forward.  First of all it was necessary to found an organisation to conclude the significances of a new school.
At first hand it is about the inevitable money that is necessary for a educational institution. This organisation's name is “Gramin Bharat Foundation” and it is Mädchenschule Khadigram's direct partner on site.

Apart from this we linked up with the Indian organisation "Bachpan Bachao Andolan", an organisation that fights to free children out of slavery from production plants. Child labour is an urgent problem in India.
In India, an organisation that works with a foreign organisation needs a so called FCRA (Foreign Currency Registration Act). Without such a paper, that is issued after three years of the organisation's existence and with the aid of bribe – money, money from foreign countries is not allowed to come into action in India. Why so ever.
Foreigners are not allowed to buy and own land, by law. This was a sobering experience at the very beginning. The matter with the land could have been arranged with Vinay, due to the above mentioned reason the transfer of money was not to arrange. We didn't want to enter an illegal area in any case. In that way one gets blackmailable and possibly has loads of problems one doesn't want to have. These circumstances led to the networking with Bachpan Bachao Andolan, who supports the interests of Mädchenschule in Sabukpur at the moment.

Unfortunately the corruption in broad areas determines the land's fortune and of the ones who try to support, like the Mädchenschule Khadigram does. Our first attempt to buy land went wrong, because the local mafia was interested in our activities and made sure that there was a very critical situation for us.
Vinay's family was extremely shocked and embarrassed that they offered to put their own land at our disposal in hereditary lease. So there wouldn't be any further problems and incidents that could disturb the intention of building a school for girls. In that way we got hold of a big piece of land for a yearly lease of one Rupee. All these facts were the decisive factor to start the new school in Sabukpur.
There could have been other places in question as a location, for example somewhere closer to Khadigram. But in the end, the safety was of prime importance. Like that nobody could annul us neither by criminal wheelings and dealings, what can become very dangerous in any way, nor had we to expect any administrative difficulties.
The only problem that has to be dealt with is the fact that the two places of Khadigram and Sabukpur are quite far off each other and can not be reached in a short time. There is a day trip by train between the two places, and this trip is not unexhausting.

The project

The German organisation "Architekten über Grenzen" takes on the building site supervision. The architect Michael Grausam made the blueprint of the buildings.
He looked after the first steps that were taken and visits the construction site regularly to look how things are going on. This is urgent, because mistakes slip in here and there, or the plan is just skipped and changed. The people build the way they are used to. Unfortunately this is not always good and leads to complications that are leading to a cold sweat.

When everything is finished, the hostel and school offer place for 90 girls in total. We want to start with 30 girls at first, and the extensions of the buildings depend on the revenue from donations as well as the willingness of people to agree to a sponsorship for a girl. Naturally one can not start a class without knowing if and how the four years of schooldays can be afforded. We don’t want to betray the parent’s and girl’s confidence.
The new school’s concept is identical to the one in Khadigram. Here and there general education is the most important thing to be given in this school for girls. Of course the girls shall be taught kitchen gardening and hygiene. Furthermore we attach importance to the fact that only girls from scheduled casts and disadvantaged classes of population are taken on. It is obvious that the girl’s basic needs will be satisfied.
After four years of school, the girls will pass a state-approved examination. With the school report they can go to a public school, if the parents can afford the fees and allow them to go to school further on.

In addition we would like to take five girls on each class that are freed from their work as child slaves in industrial companies, circuses or other places of work.
The members of Mädchenschule are very concerned about that, because most of these girls wouldn’t even have a home.
Most of them lost their families, they can not even remember their own or their families´ names or where they come from. In most cases they were taken away from their families or kidnapped when they were very little. The girls are under a great deal of emotional pressure and urgently need help.
As soon as the first phase of construction is finished and class for the first 30 girls has started, we want plan to start building a health station. This, too, is an important step, because the medical supply for the people around Sabukpur is poorer than poor. There is an urgent need for medical supply.
As soon as the health station is finished, it will be possible to run a medical camp without any problems and expenditure. Medical teams can go to Sabukpur and work there independently.

For the future we hope to find enough people that are willing to support and sponsor the girls and our work in India and that our sponsors and donators believe in and are convinced of our work in north eastern India.
The children are thankful for the help from Germany and are very grateful for it.
They are aware of the fact that education is a treasure which can not be taken away by anybody. It is something that belongs to the children all alone. – What a present!