IU Impact: A Step in the Right (to Education) Direction

Sunita Kasera

Sunita Kasera

43-year-old Sunita Kasera is the only female member of the 150 member strong Karauli Press Union in Rajasthan. Sunita feels that Karauli is a backward district that offers little opportunity to local residents. Although Sunita completed her graduation from Jaipur University, after marriage, her in-laws insisted she stay at home. In her spare time, Sunita joined an NGO, Sathya Naval Development, that helps provide access to basic human rights to rural communities in Rajasthan. She learned about Video Volunteers from Sathya and joined as a community correspondent in 2010. Sunita has made videos on issues ranging from discrimination against widows…

In 2010 Sunita Kasera made a video that showed that the ironsmith community in Karauli, Rajasthan were not being able to send their children to school. The problem was two fold: the government school near where their home was not functional, teachers would rarely visit. Secondly, they barely made any money from iron mongering and their kids were forced to work to earn more money.

For Nilambar and the other children in his community, Sunita’s video was a blessing. On seeing the video, an NGO in Jamshedpur called Bhavishya decided to come in and help ensure that these children got education.

They roped in Sunita to select a few children from the group and then monitor their progress once they were enrolled in a private school. Though they wanted, they couldn’t fund all the children from the community.

Sudhir Naik, the principal of the Shiva Academy Public School assures Sunita that the children are being given special attention to make sure they catch up with the rest of their class.

While the video brought attention to the plight of the community and also ensured that some of the children started receiving the education they yearned for, for Sunita, the victory is bittersweet.

“My children go to school. I have been lucky that I am able to make sure they do. But when I see other children at roadside hotels and working elsewhere I feel bad. The Right to Education Act is a strong one. I wish it were enforced in a better way.  I want the government of Rajasthan and India to take notice of all such communities and ensure that their children get the free education they are being promised. For instance in some private schools, even though education is free for people living below the poverty line, a fee is taken. Why? One day I hope that all the children in Karauli have a school to go to. In time, I hope children across the country will be able to,” says Sunita

Sunita Kasera

Sunita Kasera

http://www.videovolunteers.org//?author=27

43-year-old Sunita Kasera is the only female member of the 150 member strong Karauli Press Union in Rajasthan. Sunita feels that Karauli is a backward district that offers little opportunity to local residents. Although Sunita completed her graduation from Jaipur University, after marriage, her in-laws insisted she stay at home. In her spare time, Sunita joined an NGO, Sathya Naval Development, that helps provide access to basic human rights to rural communities in Rajasthan. She learned about Video Volunteers from Sathya and joined as a community correspondent in 2010.

Sunita has made videos on issues ranging from discrimination against widows to non-implementation of the Right to Education Act. She has managed to make successful impacts in many of these cases, be it through fighting with excise authorities to ensure that 20 women received the grant they were entitled to under the Navjeevan Yojna scheme or to put an end to discriminatory practices against Dalit women in Dangariya village through an online petition.  “I try to report on issues that local newspapers don’t take up,” says Sunita. “I am the only woman journalist in Karauli, so sometimes, there may be a small piece on something related to a woman in the newspaper. My male colleagues tell me about it and I pursue that issue because I think I can do a good job of reporting on it. As I am a woman, women feel more comfortable talking to me about their problems.”

Sunita is also interested in documenting the traditional art and cultural practices of her region, which she feels are getting eroded. She has reported on interesting practices like the Sanjhi ritual observed by married men for the well-being of their wives or the alternative way of living of the Gadiyanwal tribe who live out of a cart.

In 2015, she was awarded the prestigious Laadli Media Award for her story that put an end to the practice of untouchability in Dangariya Village in Karauli district and her documentation of the traditional Sanjhi art form that creates gender sensitivity. She feels that her work with VV has earned her a good reputation in her district that has also enabled her to get a job as a legal advisor in a court. “Earlier, people used to know me only as a housewife. Now I have a new identity because of VV,” she says. “My children feel proud of me and tell their friends at school that their mother is a reporter. Every impact that I have made has made me very happy because I have been able to change people’s lives for the better. I want to keep doing good work and want every video of mine to go viral so that it creates meaningful impact.”

Sunita is also a part of Video Volunteers’ campaign #KhelBadal to dismantle patriarchy. The campaign is taking on patriarchy through stories of women and men who face, negotiate and challenge patriarchy in everyday life — at home, at work, at school, in cultural and public spaces. Under the campaign, she makes films that capture the nuances of routine, normalised gender discrimination, stories of change and runs Gender Discussion Clubs where lively, introspective conversations around gender equality and patriarchy happen.

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