A society without Mrityu Bhoj

Our story of Change from

Satya Bharti School, Basai Bhopal Singh, Alwar, Rajasthan,

Bharti Foundation

The change we plan to bring about in the community:

•A society without Mrityu Bhoj

• Bharti Foundation

– Bharti Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Bharti Group Companies.

– The Foundation aims to help underprivileged children and young people of our country realize their potential.

• Satya Bharti School Program

– The Satya Bharti School Program is the flagship program of Bharti Foundation.

– It aims to deliver free quality education to underprivileged children, with special focus on the girl child across rural India.

– The program goal is to establish 500 Primary and 50 Senior Schools reaching out to over 200,000 students

– The promise of this large scale program, through its operation, is to create a replicable, scalable and holistic model of quality education in rural India

– Present Operational Status:

• Number of Schools Operational: 236

• States of Operation: Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh & Tamil Nadu

• Number of Students Enrolled: Over 30,000

Introduction

• Geographical Location:– Basai Bhopal Singh is located at 20 km from NH-8 and

District office of Bharti Foundation.

About the Community

- With a total population of 1572 In 756 no. of households.

About the Community

• Cultural Background:

–Majority of the population

belongs to Hindu community .They follow Hindu rituals and traditions.

• Dominant Caste in the Village is Rajput.

• Women use to wear Ghagra & Odhni.

• And the for men it is Dhoti Kurta or Pants Shirts.

• Mrityu Bhoj is one of the last rituals in which the family of the deceased person offer feast to the villagers so that soul of the dead may rest in peace.

We ‘Felt’:

• For this the Family of the deceased person has to feed not only the villagers but also to the people form other villagers, so that the soul may attain peace.

• No body is excluded to disobey this ritual weather his or her financial conditions allows or not.

• Poor people abided by this ritual are bound to lend money or mortgage their land or property.

And if not organized “properly” traditionalist society curses the family.

At first we thought that it would be good to take views from the villagers on this issue.

We ‘Imagined’

We Invited people from the community and demonstrated a skit on the issue and discussed the issue with them and found that somewhere deep in their heart they feel that-

• This ritual should be abolished immediately,

• The money spent on such rituals should be donated to some social or religious cause,

• The departed soul or religion has nothing to do with social evil.

After discussing the issue with the community at length, we decided to put forward our efforts to make a change.

We ‘Did’:

• we organized a rally in the village and awakened the people of the community against the evil.

We ‘Did’:

We developed and prepared some skits and performed them with in the community

We ‘Did’:

Students wrote slogans on the walls of the village.

• Community people have signed on a common memorandum and participated in an oath ceremony to stop Mritu Bhoj in their village.

Impact on Community:

• Cooperated their full extent and participated with full spirit to make this event successful• Cooperated their full extent and participated with full spirit to make this event successful

• Children feel proud to be a part of this campaign and become change agents.

• A great satisfaction to raise voice against one of the biggest social problems of our society.

• Have been motivated to work for the same in future.

Impact on Us:

Experience of Community Members & Teachers:

• Community members:

- ”Aaj bharat desh, hamare gaon aur apne ko agar age le jana hai to hum ko Miritu Bhoj jaise kureetiyo ko apne samaj se door karna hoga aur satya bahrti school ke bacho ne pure gaon ki anke kholi hai.”

- Kishan lal Sharma Retd. Govt. teacher.

• Teachers: - ”The evils like Miritu Bhoj free society will help to

people to overcome from their financial situation.

- Rajaram Yadav HT, Basaibhopal Singh

• Periodic and timely follow-up through:

- Door to door visit.

- PTM.

• Regular counselling to every stake holders.

- Students.

- Parents.

- Community members.

- Community key persons.• Trying to impart knowledge on making:

- More events and awareness programmes whenever possible.

The Road Ahead…..(in the next 3 months)

Students Participating in the Contest:

# State District SchoolNo. of Students

ParticipatingName of Student

Class

 

Rajasthan

Alwar

SBGUPS Basaibhopal Singh

10Khushbu Paliwal 

VII

      Khusbu Chouhan

 V

      Priyanka VII

      Reena VII 

      Jyoti Sharma VI 

      Neha V

      Madhubala VII

Rekha VII

Aman V

Pinki bai VII

Name of Mentor Teacher: Sandeep kumar

Thank you