November 7th, 2001, at SAWCHU, Bharat Nivas
More than forty people attended this
meeting, mainly consisting of elected leaders and social workers
from the surrounding villages, and Aurovilians working in the
field.
Meenakshi introduced the raison d'etre of the meeting: a
discussion on the increasing occurrence of thefts and road
harassments, and general safety for all.
The following is based on a report
of the meeting in the AVNews:
Observations from the meeting
-
Some participants felt that the
problem of idle youth could lead towards harassment and
could be stemmed by encouraging and stimulating the sports
clubs in the villages. Perhaps members of these sport groups
could be approached to be functioning as guards along with
the Aurovilian youth guard group..
-
It was brought forward that
Auroville, due to its increase of inhabitants and
activities, is becoming 'anonymous' and there are many
people on the roads that are not known to the Village, and
neither to Auroville. This is partially because there are
many more new employees from villages further away daily
coming through the Auroville area. Employing more local
people instead of folks from villages further way, may help
stem delinquency. In that way both parties could be more
aware of who comes through the area.
-
There were also participants
observing that the increase of harassment may have to do
with the fact that there are no yearly Auroville Sangamam
reunions taking place anymore. (Sangamam reunions were
events where Village and Auroville would meet and be
together during one entire day in Bharat Nivas or Visitors
Centre, displaying the various activities and projects they
would wish each other to know about and sharing a communal
meal.)
These gatherings fostered in the villages a sense of
belonging to Auroville and its ideals.
-
Another suggestion was that
Auroville's goodwill (projects) for the villages should work
to a larger extent with the existing village organisations,
and not separately from them.
-
A study should be done, and
statistics be formulated of employment, eligible work force
and delinquency existing in the villages.
-
The Village Council and other
elected parties to be invited to visit Auroville (CSR,
Matrimandir, the various schools etc).
Everyone was concerned about recent
harassments and thefts, and felt that it was possible to have a
more active common alertness, so that suspect activity could be
immediately communicated to all.
Many of the participants wanted more of these meetings and were
glad to attend. We ended the meeting with a Tamil song lead by
Saraswathi Devi. The atmosphere was sweet and congenial.
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