Magsaysay winner spells Asha in UP

Swati’s parents are illiterate, like most of the elders she knows. In the entire village of 600 people, there is only one individual who has passed higher secondary. Swati knew nothing of English till four months ago, when she started coming to the Ashram. Now she recognises all the alphabets and can write some of them.

The Ashram also functions as a dispensary and the place where people with problems come for redressal. ‘‘The difference is for you to judge,’’ says Swati’s father Bhaiya Lal. ‘‘The Ashram has brought happiness, especially to our children.’’

Asha, the NGO founded by 37-year-old Pandey who won the Ramon Magsaysay award for 2002 in the Emergent Leader category, has also changed lives of others here. Just 10 km from Lalpur, its volunteers have started weaning away the women of Natpurwa from prostitution, which has had social sanction for ages.

‘‘We picked up local boys and now they regularly meet the women to persuade them to shun the practice. Though a habit of years takes time to change, regular hammering is yielding results,’’ says Pandey.

In Murrabhakheda village, Asha again shifts focus, to providing self-employment to women. It runs a sewing centre where women are trained so that they can earn a living. In Bharawan village, the NGO runs a physical training centre for the disabled.

At Lalpur ashram, the villagers are taught how to use the resources at hand for amenities like energy. With wonder in his voice, Tula Ram says: ‘‘At nights, the ashram remains illuminated through solar lights.’’

Besides this, Pandey’s men are at work in Rewati village of Ballia district, Mandhana of Kanpur and Kaithi in Varanasi. Outside UP, they are spreading Asha to villages of Chennai, Mumbai and also Karnataka. ‘‘The thrust remains the same,’’ says Pandey, ‘‘which is to develop a society free of caste and communal bias.”

Pandey had himself led a protest march from Pokhran to Sarnath when clouds hovered over India and Pakistan and he is also planning to visit Pakistan to make further efforts to solve the dispute. The Magsaysay citation also acknowledged his efforts in this regard.

Recently, he led a padyatra from Chitrakoot to Ayodhya, warning people along the way about the ‘‘real game’’ behind the temple-mosque controversy. Its Lalpur Ashram has photos featuring religious leaders from Sant Ravidas to Guru Gobind Singh, each carrying the message of universal brotherhood. ‘‘We don’t want temple but water. We don’t want mosque but education,’’ reads a placard at the Ashram.

‘‘My service to the downtrodden is not because I am expecting some citation from anywhere, but this gives me personal satisfaction,’’ says Pandey. His wife, Arundhati, who has worked with Medha Patkar’s Narmada Bachao Andolan, says their initial reaction at hearing about the Magsaysay award was that someone was playing a prank on them.

But the villagers of Lalpur are not surprised. Among those whose hopes rest on Pandey is the widow Maitri. ‘‘The authorities ask for a bribe of Rs 200 to release my monthly widow pension,’’ she says. ‘‘How can I when I get Rs 500. I have three children to feed?’’ She turned to Pandey, confident that when he goes with her to the official, things will be all right.