The Auroville Village Action Group organises an intensive and fairly long training programme for its social workers who are destined to work with, and in, the many villages in whose midst the township is emerging. This training is special to Auroville. No other NGO that we know of takes the personal development of their field staff as a matter of prime importance, requiring enormous input from both the trainers and the trainees. AVAG sees to it that a good and dynamic team spirit prevails, and that the development workers have a growing understanding of what tries to be done in Auroville and its immediate surrounding.

The drop-out rate is quite high, since we cannot screen people sufficiently before, and also because social work is basically a vocation, not a job, - not everyone is called to it. People drop out because they find the challenge to their assumptions regarding f.i. gender and caste too much to take, or the hours too long and at unusual times, or because they can be paid better elsewhere. It also happens that we dismiss people because, after many trials and evaluation processes, some people are found unsuitable. Good social workers have to develop skills, knowledge and right attitude. If all three are not in balance, we have to let them go. We do have an annual AVAG Day to which our "alumnae" are invited and honoured.

We offer a two-year training (see its curriculum below), in three parts: 6 months, 6 months and 1 year. During the first part, trainees attend classes six days a week, morning and afternoon for four days, morning class and evening field during two days. During the second part, trainees attend classes during five days a week in the morning, three days also in the afternoon, and in the field one full day and two afternoons. Finally, during the third part, they spend three full days in class, and three full days in the field, distributed according to the need. An 'afternoon' usually means afternoon and evening, because much of a social worker's work takes place in the evening, attending sangam meetings, night schools, meeting people etc.

First Part (6 months)

Orientation to Social Work (by Ms. Anbu Siromani)

• AVAG Organisation and Policies 6 Sessions (2-3 hours). - History of AVAG, why we do what we do. Policies for running night schools; microprojects, crèche selection, food, training; policies for women's clubs, youth clubs, savings groups; recruitment of development work trainees.

• Principles of Social Work 3 Sessions. - Different approaches to development: charity, service, developmental and why and how we work with the latter

• Evaluation: Individual, Team and Whole Group - 2 sessions after 3 months, 2 sessions at end of First Part. Both written and oral exercises.

Introduction to Medicinal Plants and Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (by Dr. Loganathan)

15 sessions-Introduction to herbal medicine; identification of various indigenous plants and their uses; field trips to remnants of the endangered indigenous forest and herbal gardens; demonstrations of preparation of herbal medicines

Health, Hygiene and Nutrition (by Dr. Beena Naik)

20 sessions-Body and its systems; nutrition, connection between nutrition and health; hygiene, AIDS, waterborne diseases, Workshop on how to communicate and convince people in the villages of the ways to improve health through prevention.

Socio-Economic Survey and Mapping (by Dr. Martha Mendez and S. Harini)

15-18 sessions-How to collect data, how to collate and interpret; how errors in data collection effect analysis, mathematics related to data collection.

Community Organisation (by A. Gerald Moris)

15 sessions-Special features of villages as compared to towns and cities; Common existing problems in our villages; Leadership pattern; Need for village organisation.

Staff and Planning Meetings (by Moris and Anbu)

24 sessions (weekly) - Whole group meets, and each cluster team gives report on work done, gets feedback from the group, comments, suggestions.
24 sessions (weekly)- Each cluster team meets to plan the week's work
6 sessions (monthly) - Each cluster team meets to plan the month's work

Library and Reading, 

24 sessions

As most trainees do not have the habit of keeping themselves informed through reading newspapers and books to do with social work, this is encouraged by a weekly session set aside for study.

Exposure to Auroville (by Bhavana Dee, Subash Chandran, David Feith)

13 sessions- trips to various units of Auroville to see appropriate technology, renewable energy, health centre, electrical service, solar service, schools, libraries, gardens, production units and meet important people to explain the ideals and goals of Auroville

English (by David Feith)

24 sessions - As a certain amount of a development worker's job will involve relating to the English speaking people of Auroville, and since English is also used widely in India.

Cultural Exchange (with visiting interns from European social work schools)

8 sessions - explorations of differences between cultures

Liaison Work with the Government Offices (with A. Gerald Moris)

2 sessions

• Explaining the government welfare programmes and finding out the needy people

• Helping the people to write applications to the concerned departments

• Helping people to represent their problems to the officers and to follow up

Trips to other NGOs (with Anbu and Moris)

6 sessions, to meet other NGOs doing similar programmes, with women, children, communities etc., and to compare approaches and results

• Hemeryckx Centre - to learn about leprosy, its prevention and cure.

• Local NGOs - People's Development Society and ASSEFA (both in Marakkanam), to interact with their staff and to notice the differences in approaches, achievements and failures.

• Action NGOs - With each trainee group we visit at least one NGO which is organising the people to action on social issues and women's issues.

Workshops

• Education - 6 sessions (3 days) - Resource people from neighbouring alternative schools: Isai Ambalam, Pondy Science Forum.
  The state of Indian education, alternative, participatory methods, creating teaching materials

• Group Organisation - 4 sessions (2 days) - Resource people from a neighbouring NGO, "LRSA-Legal Resources for Social Action"
  Understanding how the development work team is organised, management training, making an organogram,

• Groundwater - 2 sessions (1 day) - Resource people from Harvest Water Project. How water is stored underground, current threat of salinisation due to over-extraction.

• The Natural Way to Health (3 days) - Resource people from a local Association of Natural Food Eaters. Theory of natural foods, practice in preparation of natural dishes, eating natural foods only, meditation, physical exercises, mudbath.

Educational Materials Preparation (by Anbu Siromani)

4 sessions - making games and cards to be used for teaching at night schools and government schools.

Preparation and Attendance at Seminars and Large Group Meetings
(by Moris and Anbu and team-leaders)

3 sessions - meetings for Panchayat leaders, youth representatives, women's representatives require preparation of posters showing achievements, main points, etc.

Personal evaluation sessions for trainees (by Anbu and Moris)

8 sessions - interviews with individual trainees by coordinators; feedback sessions with the cluster team.

Field Experience (with the team-leaders)

48 afternoons/evenings - working with teammates, meeting with women's and youth clubs, visiting night schools, attending microprojects in the villages. Two Sundays per month at work camps or seminars are required.

Village Study

• Socio-economic survey

• Village map

• Forming youth groups and women's groups

• Prioritising their needs and actions

• Preparing a Quarterly Plan with the groups

• Analysing the problems of the villages

Supervising the Village Activities

• Helping and guiding the night school teachers

• Encouraging the youth and women to do microprojects and work camps in their villages

• Generating discussions in the monthly meetings of youth and women's clubs on social issues: alcoholism, encroachment of common land, illegal tap connections, groundwater depletion, AIDS, dowry deaths, etc.
  

Second Part (6 months)

Communication (by Anbu)

10 sessions

• Various ways to communicate (over 25), affectivity in communication (do's and don'ts), how to organise meetings and communicate in groups, handing the village community as a whole, problems in inter personal communication. Lots of participatory exercises, role-play, demonstration. - 12 sessions

• Effect of mass media on the people - lectures, discussion; viewing and discussion- 15 sessions

Gender sensitisation (by Anbu)

8 sessions

History of gender inequality; how it started, how it is now, why we should change, how to change, difficulties in changing - 10 sessions

Caste Class Analysis (by Anbu)

8 sessions

Origin of caste system, problems of untouchability, how to change, examples of differences in the problem (Bengal and Kerala where it is less, Bihar where it is very strong), how to influence the politics of caste - 7 sessions

Religious Tolerance (by Anbu) 

4 sessions

Comparing the different emphases and practices of Hindus, Muslims, Christians; counteract prejudices promulgated by mass media - 4 to 6 sessions

Reporting (by Anbu)

4 sessions

How to prepare oral and written reports on the work; measuring indicators; using baseline to assess one's effectivity.

Community Organisation (by Moris) 

20 sessions

Village participation and how to achieve it; Panchayat Raj; Government schemes for rural reconstruction and problems in implementing them in the villages; Government administrative set-up: district level, divisional level, block level; village mapping

Health (by Dr. Beena)

10 sessions

Community health, community hygiene, communicable diseases, how to help people take measures to improve their health through nutrition, exercise, hygiene, etc.

Staff and Planning Meetings (as in first part)
Evaluation Sessions (as in first part)
Library (as in first part)
English (as in first part)
Trips to GOs and NGOs (as in first part)
Workshops - Leadership, - 6 sessions
Educational Materials Preparation (as in first part)
Field Experience - 96 sessions (as in first part)

Third Part (one year)

Gender Issues (by Anbu)

10 sessions - Dowry, property rights, female infanticide, discrimination against female children in food, education, decision making, domestic duties; prejudices against women, etc.

Current Problems in Education (by Anbu)

10 sessions - Comparison to other styles of education, gurukulam system, participatory methods, playway methods, relevance to child's lire, attention to te individuel Child, innovation matériels.

Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating Village Action work (by Anbu)

12 sessions - Programme by programme evaluation, reviewing policy and indicators with a view to how to strengthen each programme.

Discussion - Anbu 

20 sessions

Taking topics from the newspapers, or from cases coming from the village, topics relating to social justice, gender in-equality, caste and religious prejudice are opened for thinking together. How to analyse the cinema messages. Taking a critical look at customs such as expensive rituals for marriage, maturation, etc, much expenditure on temple festivals, etc. ; matriarchal and patriarchal systems; modernisation and urbanisation; changes in family life (from joint to nuclear) and its effect on society ; craze for 'English medium' schools, etc.

Local Social Issues - Moris 

10 sessions

Becoming aware of what we could change; groundwater depletion and over-extraction, encroachment on roads and common lands, illegal arrack, illegal tap connections, maintaining village facilities (tank, school buildings, health centre, common land, trees, etc.)

Awareness Building - Moris 

10 sessions

Government facilities which could be used, Government service camps (veternary camps, blood donation, AIDS, adult literacy), pollution, corruption.

Attitudinal Change for the Social Animator - Moris

6 sessions - role of the development worker in relation to 1) time of election, 2) Panchayat Raj, 3) division arising in village groups, 4) towards the scheduled castes, 5) towards women.

Leadership Training - Moris 

10 sessions

Interactive sessions using role play and group exercises, related to the local village situation.

Concept of an Ideal Village - Moris 

4 sessions

Introducing thinking about how a village could be the perfect habitat, what would have to change to make it so.

Bringing problems being faced by Cluster Teams for discussion by the whole group - Anbu and Moris

2 sessions.

Analysis of Women's Clubs' annual evaluation sessionn - Anbu

8 sessions.
Reviewing the Savings Programmes - Anbu - 8 sessions.
Weekly Staff and Planning Meetings - 96 sessions
Evaluation Meetings - 10 sessions
Workshops - 12 sessions
Monthly Planning Meeting - 12 sessions
Half-yearly and Annual Report Meeting - 8 sessions
Personal evaluation sessions by Cluster Teams - 24 sessionss
Preparing of Annual Days (Children's Day, Women's Day, Youth Festival, AVAG Day) - 10 sessions
Summer Camps (for night school children) - 10 sessions
Seminars and Large Group Meetings (Panchayat Leaders, Panchayat Teachers, Youth Clubs, Women's Clubs, Night School teachers) - 10 sessions
Trips/visits to GOs and NGOs - 6 sessions
Educational Materials Preparation - 6 sessions