The School of Petroleum

Technology

SUMMER RURAL
INTERNSHIP
2009

SESSION: 2008-09

FINAL REPORT

Prepared by:
Ankit Avasthy
08BT01010

1
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We are thankful to the officials of ‘The Young Citizens of India

Charitable Trust’, and their director Mr. Amar Vyas, the founder of
the NGO for their constant help and support throughout the
internship. Though our academic knowledge was of limited use, we
have gained a lot from this experience which will certainly help us
further in life.

We are also thankful to the college authorities for organizing

such a wonderful programme.

The entire experience was delightful and we recommend sending

future batches of our college to this NGO for Summer Rural
Internship.

2
 LIST OF CONTENTS

TOPICS PAGE NO.

INTRODUCTION 1
ABOUT THE NGO 2

OBJECTIVES 3

STRATEGIES 4

IMPLEMENTATION 5

ACHIEVEMENTS 6

LEARNING 12

3
 INTRODUCTION

Rural internship is a work based activity designed to render

practical experience in rural areas. In India, rural population
comprises of nearly 70% of the country’s total population. We
know that the young generation is going to lead the India in
near future in various perspectives. Therefore, it is necessary
for every young future engineer, doctor, scientist and of other
professions to feel the status, the lifestyle of this majority
portion of society and to understand the problem they face and
how they cop up with them despite of having less resources
and facilities.

As the title of our Summer Rural Internship programme 2009

suggests, ”To lead India, I need to feel India”

We the group of 20 students went to the Mehsana district to

coordinate with the NGO- The Young Citizen of India Charitable
Trust to understand the various problems prevailing in that
area. We visited various villages and had direct interaction with
the local people on the issues concerning to the HIV/AIDS and
female foeticide. We found that the sex-ratio in the villages was
very low, thus, we tried to investigate the root causes behind it
and tried to spread awareness among local people by informing
them about the dire consequences of it in near future.

Overall, we had a multi-dimensional learning experience. Also,

we had a glimpse of the lifestyle, customs and rituals of the
rural part of the society.

4
 ABOUT THE NGO:
The Young Citizen of India Charitable Trust is a non-government
organization founded by Mr. Amar Vyas. The NGO works on
three main issues/projects in Mehsana district:

 Control and prevention from HIV/AIDS

 Curbing Female Foeticide
 Water management

The NGO has chosen three talukas in Mehsana district which

are the most infected ones, namely:

1) Mehsana

2) Visnagar

3) Unjha

Form each taluka, twenty five most prone villages have been
selected. Thus, total seventy five villages in Mesana district are
being covered under the three projects.

5
 OBJECTIVES

 To find and study the reasons contributing to

decreasing sex ratio in Mehsana district.

 To spread awareness in people regarding

curbing female foeticide and its vulnerable
consequences.

6
 STRATEGIES

The strategy implemented by the NGO for effective working of

project includes the following steps:

STRATEG
Y

RESEARC IMPLEMENTA ADVOCAC

H TION Y

 Research includes need assessment.

Before embarking on any project, need assessment is

done. Need assessment is done to identify the target
groups and to understand the social and economic
conditions of the village. It also helps in acquainting
oneself with the religious cultures, practices and mentality
of the people of the region.

 Implementation includes execution of the measures

coming out from intensive research.

 Advocacy includes debate being carried out with local

people and authorities regarding the policies.

7
 IMPLEMENTATION

To carry out the research in fifteen villages, we were divided

into three groups and then assigned one of three talukas. Two
NGO volunteers were placed in charge of each group. After
these preparatory steps, five villages from each taluka were
identified in which surveys would be conducted. We prepared a
questionnaire which was a useful to interrogate the target
groups.

Our group was given Visnagar Taluka to carry out the research
work.

1. Villages Assigned to us were :-

i. Bhandu

ii. Savala

iii. Kamana

iv. Valam

v. Kuvasna

2. Student Members in our group were :-

8
 i. Ankit Gupta

ii. Ankit Avasthy

iii. Unnat Singh

iv. Aarshavi Shah

v. Udayani Makwana

vi. Sneha Nair

ACHIEVEMENTS

As a result of our extensive research work, we could draw

following conclusions:

• Even the educated portion of the society gets the gender test
done.

• If the first child is a boy, then people opt for the family
planning operation, and if the first child is a girl then go for
second, third…….until a boy is born.

• In general, people were unaware of the laws concerning

foeticide.

• Today there is a need, to educate the educated.

• The villages became male dominated, when the women

ceased to practice their freedom of speech in their presence
and continues to remain so.

9
• The authorities in the concerning villages are found to be
quite ignorant.

• Majority of the answers on liking of girl child were biased and

designed to please the interviewer. This can be clearly seen
from the graph below and the present sex ratio in the
villages.

The general information of the five villages of Visnagar taluka

are shown below.

BHANDU

10
• The sex ratio of Bhandu is 667 females to every 1000
males.

• Approximate Population: 7500.

• Majority of the answers given were biased and designed to

please the interviewer.

• We met a 19 year old newlywed boy, who despite having

knowledge about foeticide, was reluctant to speak.

• The Sarpanch was ignorant about the low sex ratio in his
village.

SAVALA

11
• The sex ratio of Savala is 563 females to every 1000
males.

• Approximate Population: 3500.

• Morally foeticide is a sin, but considering the condition of

the family and social pressure, foeticide need not be
considered as a sin.

• While a Daughter in Law was speaking against her Mother

in Law, her six year old daughter tried to stop her.

12
 AMANA

• The sex ratio of Kamana is 710 females to every 100

males.

• Approximate Population: 6000.

• The mothers want daughter, but the family wants son.

• The Sata-Pata system is prevalent in this village.

13
• They told for the boys that “We get interest and interest
from them.”

VALAM

14
• The sex ratio of Valam is 703 females to every 1000
males.

• Approximate Population: 7100.

• Though the Sata-Pata system is present, it is not

prevalent.

• People are willing to send their daughters out of village for

higher education.

• They generally take their admission in PTC.

KUVASNA

15
• The sex ratio of Kuvasna is 656 females to every
1000 males.

• Approximate Population: 3200

• Though people understand that boys are useless,

they are still preferred.

• Girls can also continue the family name.

• The villagers were very generous.

16
 LEARNING

The whole internship was a multi-dimensional learning process

in which at every step we had a completely new experience
which is capable of modifying our behaviour towards social
responsibilities. We learned about various things like:

• Multitasking nature of NGO workers and the way the ‘repo

build’ up takes place in the village.

• How the research work is done and the process of identifying

the target groups.

• How the analysis of data collected is done for further

interpretations.

• Various schemes run by the government through”

Aanganwadi” which provide nutritional food to poor children
in villages and takes care of pregnant women.

• Customs, beliefs, rituals prevailing in the villages.

• Factors behind disliking of the girl child and supporting the

female foeticide.

• Actual problems faced in villages.

17
 HIV/AIDS Project
The NGO has been working on the projects related to this for
the past several years. We were given information about the
projects related to HIV/AIDS and were taken to different centres
where treatment is done.

The government has started National AIDS Control Program

(NACP). Till date, there have been 2 NACP phases carried out in
the Mehasana district. The third phase is currently in progress.

NACP Phase I : 2002-05

NACP Phase II : 2005-08

NACP Phase III : 2009 onwards

The first phase was with regard to spreading general awareness

among rural people. Infection has spread rapidly from urban
regions to rural areas. The most vulnerable group are
teenagers, farmers and truck drivers.

The second phase includes creating awareness among the

FSW’s (Female Sex Workers) and MSM’s (Males having Sex with
Males).

18
The third phase which is currently in progress includes
prevention and cure projects. The IRHAP (Integrated Rural HIV
AIDS Control Programme) as a part of this phase in order to
control the spread of AIDS from one person to another, limit its
spread from one region to another and to ultimately cure all
opportunistic diseases for free which the AIDS patients may be
suffering from.

Some features about this program are mentioned below along

with information about the treatment centres.

The significant achievements of NACP – II have been as follows:

1. The effectiveness of the condoms as one of the safest

methods to prevent and control the spread of HIV and other
STIs has been well established.

The failures of NACP- II have been as follows:

1. Lack of investment in research on female condoms.

Recommendations for NACP- III are as follows:

1. Design programmes based on the varying contraceptive

needs of married and unmarried couples.

2. Integrate contraceptive services and information into

existing programmes that reach large number of youth.

3. Curb condom wastage and dumping by peer

educators/NGOs/ others through strict monitoring and surprise
audits. Reward persons and institutions suggesting practical
solutions to avoid wastage.

4. Work out a norm determining the number of condoms

required for demonstrations as opposed to usage. This should

19
be factored in while calculating requirements/indents at all
levels.

5. Promote female condoms and intensive research on

improving the quality and accessibility to the same.

The significant achievements of NACP – II have been as

follows:

1. Scaling up PMTCT and VCCTC services especially in the high

prevalence states.

2. Increasing access to free ARV is one of the major

achievements of NACP-II. The national program for ARV
provision has motivated other State Governments (Kerala and
Delhi) to announce provision of free ARV from the State
Exchequer which is also a good sign.

3. Recognizing the need of care and support for people living

with HIV and AIDS and scaling up of Community Care Centers.

We had a brief discussion with our NGO YCICT about the project
they are undertaking on HIV/AIDS, in the 75 villages of Mehsana
district. The strategy they implement for effective working of
project includes the following steps:

STRATE
GY 20
 PREVENTI CARE &
SERVICES
ON SUPPORT

Under the strategy of Care & Support, they have setup

Community Care Centre (CCC), which takes care of HIV patients
for whom ART has been started and initial infections due to it
need to be cured. There we met HIV patients and a senior
doctor who solved our various queries and gave useful
information on ART.

ART (Anti Retroviral Therapy): It is not a cure of HIV, but regular

medication slows down the growth of the viruses. If it is
possible to strengthen the immune system by making the
changes in lifestyle, then there is no need to take ART. ART is
needed when the immune system fails to fight against the
viruses on its own.

We also visited the Civil Hospital in Mehsana district where they

had ICTC.

ICTC (Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre) : We

went inside the laboratory where HIV test is carried out. ELISA
test is done for huge number of patients. Tri-Dot test is the
most confirmatory test. ART (Anti Retroviral Therapy) is started
when CD4 count is below 250. People having Gonolia, Syphilis
and other STDs are advised to take up Tri-Dot test. Doctor told

21
us about HIV infection. ART is started when a person has no
other medical options.

We also participated in a seminar on counselling and testing of

HIV among the local industrial workers, conducted by GIDC.

GIDC (Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation) : All

the industrial workers came voluntarily to attend the
counselling and testing of HIV. DKT India, a company which
works in the field of contraceptives, gave details on HIV/AIDS
and demonstrated the use of condoms.

THE PRE-NATAL DIAGNOSTIC

TECHNIQUES (PNDT) ACT AND RULES

The Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention

of Misuse) Act, 1994, was enacted and brought into operation
from 1st January, 1996, in order to check female foeticide.
Rules have also been framed under the Act. The Act prohibits
determination and disclosure of the sex of foetus. It also
prohibits any advertisements relating to pre-natal
determination of sex and prescribes punishment for its
contravention. The person who contravenes the provisions of
this Act is punishable with imprisonment and fine.

Recently, PNDT Act and Rules have been amended keeping in

view the emerging technologies for selection of sex before and

22
after conception and problems faced in the working of
implementation of the ACT and certain directions of Hon’ble
Supreme Court after a PIL was filed in May, 2000 by CEHAT and
Ors, an NGO on slow implementation of the Act. These
amendments have come into operation with effect from 14th
February, 2003.

23