Reputation of teachers in villages still exists: Dipanker Shri Gyan
As part of the 75th anniversary celebrations of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mohatsav’, the Samiti initiated a dialogue on different aspects of ‘Mediation’ and the ‘Role of Mediation in making Villages Dispute Free’. In his endeavour, a webinar was organised with the teachers of Rajkiya Buniyadi Vidyalaya, Brindavan Ashram, West Champaran on April 10, 2021 on “Making villages dispute free for peaceful development of village”. The webinar was moderated by Shri Rajdeep Pathak.
Initiating the discussion, Shri Dipanker Shri Gyan mentioned that for any development, peace and solidarity is necessary. More than anything else, it is equanimity or sameness that is essential for development to take place.
Citing many examples of where conflict or disputes can hinder development, Shri Dipanker Shri Gyan based his thoughts on his personal experiences of almost twenty two years’ working closely with various administration machineries in different areas of the government both at the centre and the states. He said that unless there is one thought, one common ground and unanimous decision, development cannot take place, but said that even if there some dispute arises, the people of the village, instead of stretching it further, must sit with the administration and point the lacunae for its rectification.
“Sometimes petty issues which may take the shape of serious consequences can and should be sorted out by mutual dialogue and interaction”.
Elaborating on the role of teachers in their community and the role they can play in both identifying disputes and redressing the grievances of the disputed parties, Shri Dipanker Shri Gyan said “In villages, the reputation of the teacher still persists. They are respected and listened to by their community who accepts their suggestions. This can work as a major tool to address various disputes which can be sorted amicably through dialogue”.
Sharing their perspective on forms/types of disputes, the teachers said that mostly the dispute in the villages is related to land to which Shri Dipanker Shri Gyan outlined that there are mainly three types of such disputes – a) between family; regarding demarcation of lands and land sold by fraud means.
Echoing a similar sentiment, Shri Manish outlined that disputes also arise on supremacy of work assigned during a some programmes or functions on who will be assigned the work, etc; loan taken by the farmers and their repayment and religious disputes.
Dr. Vedabhyas Kundu, Programme Officer GSDS during the interaction made a mention of the survey conducted by students of the Tripura Central University in gauging the disputes in villages in Tripura and shared that similar survey should be conducted in the villages at Champaran.
He mentioned the directions of the hon’ble Member of Parliamennt, Dr. Sanjai Jaiswal who said that the initiative could begin with the Rampurwa Village, to which Shri Shambhu Singh said that there is need to identify disputes and suggested that the workshops to be organised under the aegis of the GSDS must include prominent people from the villages, farmers and women.
Shri Jagdish Prasad from GSDS suggested that the villagers could organise a meeting to identify themselves, to which Dr. Vedabhyas elaborated on the importance of survey and how it will provide clarity. He further suggested a joint virtual meeting with representatives from the Buniyadi Vidyalaya in and from Tripura Central University could be organised in the near future.