Gupta Akash Ajay Kumar

ID No.: 11640100

CA 104 – Social Engineering for Collective Action

Introduction:
CA 104 – Social Engineering for Collective Action is an elective course offered
by the institute. This instructor of this course was Mansee Bal Bhargava who
is an environmentalist. This course was about how people with good education
and in good colleges can help local rural people to live a better life just by
creating some awareness among them. The interaction need not be like
lectures or addressing people at once, instead it should be through some
interesting activity, which can possibly help them in their daily lives. This is a
very good way of solving common problems in rural areas and simultaneously
making people aware of social problems and help solving them.
Approximately, 80 people were there in this course, each one of them had to
make a friend in Sejbahar Village. By making a friend we can interact with
them and their family, we can know their problems, make them aware of
common ways of environmental problems and acknowledging them with
common ways of solving some of the problems. This is a very good and
effective way since, your friend and his/her family would do constructive
things for society and if 80 people do same thing the village can become self-
sufficient and this can become a great positive example for the District, Sate
or Nation.
The activity which we did for the interaction was tree plantation. The chosen
activity served the purpose of interaction and also told my friend about
benefits of tree plantation and effects of cutting of trees just by simple
example of soil erosion by the bank of the pond. Apart from this activity it
would take just 30-40 minutes of a week for a positive interaction with friend.

Me & My Sejbahar Friend

While exploring the Sejbahar village on other side of the road I went near a
temple on a junction of roads. There were 3-4 people talking to each other,
they seemed to be in their early 20s. I went near them and contacted them,
talked to them about where they lived, their houses, their education, job etc.
Two of them worked as helper in somebody’s shop in Sejbahar, while one had
a fruit stall in Sejbahar. The person who became my friend was one of them,
his name is Dev, and he worked as a helper in a hardware shop. He is 22
years of age and could study on till the Intermediate level (12th).
Communication
So, I started talking to Dev as I met him near the temple in Sejbahar village.
We talked about our lives, education, aspirations, daily routines etc. After
talking for some time I got to know that his family was in farming, mainly his
father and mother. He had a younger brother who studies in local government
school. He studied till 12th standard due to lack of resources and money.

Information Sharing
As we talked further he told me some of his aspirations, like he wanted to
become a police officer and I told him about my life, where I lived and what I
did during last summer break. He told me about the condition of the
government high school near the village. The school run by government does
not has proper infrastructure and classes are dirty, no good provision for
washrooms.
Since, we had to do tree plantation I asked him about the environment related
problems. The answer was quite strange as he didn’t knew much about
environment related problems. I explained him about pollution, effects of
cutting down trees etc. I invited him to the tree plantation task near the IIT
Bhilai gate.

Commitment
On Saturday, when I invited him to IIT Bhilai gate for the task he was a bit
reluctant as he thought there would be some identification required. I made
him comfortable and told him about the activity elaborately. I told him that as
the plants would grow it would make your area look better, place would be
much cooler, a shade during summer and some fruits to eat obviously. I
showed him some pictures of soil erosion and how a tree can prevent the
disastrous thing from happening. After discussing all these and recent floods
which were in the news I convinced him enough to come to the collective
activity.
Compliance
Since, the schedule was given by Saturday afternoon I met him in the evening
and told him about the task and after convincing him we planned for the next
day. We decided to meeting at 8.30 AM after having breakfast. The next
morning I arrived by 8.30 and he came by 9 AM, with the help of gardener
and Dev we planted the tree and made a protection for it with the bricks. After
the task he left as he had to go to work.
Image

Coordination
The collective work which we did today must be monitored if we want a good
surrounding, so we made a resolution that we would take care of the tree till
we are here. The pact is, one would go to the tree on alternate days, so that
tree could be monitored daily and if there is a problem we both would resolve
it.

Conflict Resolution
After talking all through this time we had one point conflicting, he thought it
was fine to drop out of school and work as family needs money. I tried to
make him understand my point that by having good education he can not only
manage his family through bad times but can also help others. It was tough
to console him at one go, so I will try next time for this one.

Monitoring
One major task which I want to be done is that small children must get proper
education in school and he also felt same, so I told him to visit his younger
brother’s school and question authorities about any mis-management, if many
people would do so the school management will do much better and children
would do much better in their studies or sports. This will also enhance the
communication between school authorities and local parents and students in
the area.
Sanctioning
Through the entire journey it felt like a sense of responsibility, something I
had to do to make out surrounding greener, better and I had educate people
about environment.
“It was just a small step for a man, but giant leap in a society”
- Rephrasing Neil Armstrong’s words
Feedback
We both discussed about our futures and I got to know that he will probably
go to some big city to find a good job that gives him a good pay. Since, he
didn’t had a phone I took his father’s contact number and we planned to
remain contacted for at least next two years and told him to freely contact me
if he needs any help.

Conclusion
This course has been a good platform to interact with the local people and also
to make them aware of the common problems due to pollution. Since, we did
this task for plantation I expect other people and institutes would also come
forward to do such tasks and hopefully other task which would be next step
towards refinement of the village. Overall, this course was refreshing and
helped me to discover my own neighborhood. This course also shows need of
our contribution to the society, especially rural areas.

My Sejbahar Friend: