Increasing Tamil community participation
Writing by kosala on Saturday, 14 of July , 2007 at 9:17 pm
It was a busy day for me. KCR had organized a small workshop for the local public librarians in the Gampola area. We were suppose to talk about the use of new technologies in the field of radio and how the same technologies can be use in the public library’s. In the same day etuktuk had planned to visit a estate community to do a computer literacy program. This was the first time etuktuk went to a estate community to do a computer literacy program. How ever I had to participate in the workshop held in Gelioya public library about 20Km from KCR. I wished if I could be in two places at the same time.
Sriyapali who is the CMC manager and one of the relief staff members of KCR had planned to go to visit the Kanapathiwatta estate nearby KCR( 5 minutes from KCR). Intension of this visit was to educate the estate children and young people in the estate about the computers technologies and encourage them to use the facilities provided in the CMC. Lac of participation for the estate community in the CMC activities is one of the main issues with the CMC and this was spoken i the CMC staff meetings by the EAR researcher.
One of the main reasons for lack of participation for the Tamil communities is the absence of a Tamil speaking trainer in the CMC. For the last 10 months I have witnessed very few Tamil youngsters coming to the center to be trained in computer skills but they never continue to come. The main reason for this is language. Absence of a Tamil speaking person makes it harder to be in the center for person from the Tamil community. This was reviled in one of my interveives in the same tea estate community. When I was interviewing a housewife from the same estate I asked her about the CMC. And her reply was, “my children use to come there to use computers when the foreign lady was there (in 1999-2002 when an Australian volunteer worked at the CMC), but after that they didn’t go there. Because nobody was there to teach them”. This clearly meant that they felt unwelcome at the CMC.
Another reason for this is their mentality. People in the communities don’t feel that these facilities are provided for them too. This mentality arises from their social status. Tea estate workers are considered as a minority in these areas. These communities live in separation with the other Sinhalese communities. Most of the time they live in line house colonys within the tea estae or near the tea estate. Mostly it’s a separate community and social interaction with other people(Sinhalese community) in the same village or area is very much limited. Usually the people in the estate are employed in the estate or they find day to day labor in the village. Clearly the livelihood of these people has created a social difference in the society. Therefore social status of these people is considerably lower than the other communities in the village. Even though there isn’t a cast problem this is pretty much similar to a cast difference. Living in a Sinhalese majority area I have personally witnessed this in day to day life. Most Sinhalese people see these people as a lower cast community. But at the same time they them selves have the mentality of being isolated in the society and they feel that they don’t have a much place in the society. This mentality has also prevented them form coming to the CMC.
Lack of education is one of the other factors affecting the level of participation form the Tamil community. Majority of the matured generation in the tea estate are illiterate. But it was clear tat they encouraged the younger generation to go to school. But not all. Some of the children drop out from the school from grade 11 or less. Very few make it trough to Advanced level. Most children/youngsters are sent out for work outside in cities. Young boys find employment in cafes, shops, etc. young girls are employed as baby sitters or housemaids. It is clear that the people don’t see the relevance of such facilities provided in the CMC. In one of my interviews I asked one boy from the same estate about the CMC and whether he knew about it, and he told that like to come there but he has to find work out side the village and he didn’t have time to come to the center. When I asked the same question from the elderly people majority told that use of new technologies is important for the younger generation and they are happy if they are learning things from CMC. But some felt frustrated about education. When I visited the riverside line house one women in the community talked about a boy who had completed the advance level yet he wasn’t able to find a decent job and he ended up finding day to day labor. She felt that even though they encourage their children to go to school it doesn’t help much to have a better life for them.
Money has become another factor for not participating in the CMC. All the computer training courses conducted at the CMC are not free of charge but at a lower rate than the other computer centers in the town areas. But still these people are unable to bare even the minimum amount for computer courses for the children. Another reason for lack of participation is lack of awareness about the CMC. Lack of promotional activities in the CMC is the main reason for this.
These were some of the main issues of participation being limited just for one fraction of the community. As the CMC manager Sriyapali had planned a series of programs using the etuktuk focusing the estate communities, specially youngsters. By conducting the basic awareness programs in the estate, interested children/youngsters are invited to the CMC and they will be trained in computers free of charge. Eventually one of the students will be chosen as a trainer along the process. It is hooped that this will increase the participation of Tamil children in the CMC. The long term plan is to establish a community owned Mini center in the tea estate.
The first awareness program was held on 14th Saturday in the kanapathiwatta estate Hindu Kovil. Many(number) youngsters from the estate line houses joined the event. Sriyapali being a Sinhalese speaking person had to accompany a Tamil announcer(Fausia) with her in order to translate. She had used laptop, Scanner , Printer, and the computer projector in the etuktuk to conduct the mini workshop at the estate. At the end of the workshop she had given application forms for the interested people who are willing to join the CMC in learning computer skills. She had used a digital story about the Kothmale CMC made by Niroshini, one of the volunteer staff at the CMC in order to let the people know what the CMC is doing. unfortunately it was in Sinhalese language, but most of the people understood Sinhalese and fausia didn’t have to do much in translating. Then she used the equipment in the etuktuk such as the printer and the scanner to tell them what can be done using them. The program went on for about one and half hours. Asanka the etuktuk driver took pictures of the happening event using the digital camera. The pictures will be used to make a digital Story about the program conducted.
In the evening of day before the workshop the etuktuk went around in the village announcing about the event. Sriyapali together with Fausia had made a announcement in Tamil language for this purpose. Definitely this has increased the participation for the mini workshop conducted at the estate.
After the program sriyapali commented about the difficulties she faced. She said that it’s better to have a white board to explain things better to the crowd. But I suggested her to have a Power point presentation or a DST about the basic computer training and she agreed to that. She felt a bit uncomfortable when explaining because she wasn’t sure that the crowd understood what she was telling although the people commented that they understood the language.
I was able to get all these information by speaking to Sriyapali, Fausia, and Asanka(etuktuk driver). Sriyapali was pretty descriptive about the event since she had been trained in EAR research methods earlier.
The story above was contributed by Kosala Keerthiratne who is the research coordinator at the etuktuk project and is supported by staff from the Adelaide University and Queensland University of Technology as part of the Finding a Voice Research Project.
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