A weekend trip to the remote and underdeveloped G-Plot island prompts a corporate executive to quit his job and start SOUL - dedicated to improving the life of the Adivasis living there, as reported by a SOUL volunteer.
In 2015 a successful corporate executive from Kolkata, Subhankar Banerjee, took a leisure trip to G-Plot island – travelling five hours, including one-and-a-half hours in a boat, to the last stretch of the Sundarbans delta.
Surrounded by the Bay of Bengal, the densely forested island is infested with tigers, crocodiles and poisonous snakes.
Within a couple of weeks Banerjee learnt that a villager he had befriended on the island was no more.
This friend – who had made Banerjee’s stay comfortable by parting with his blanket on a winter night – was killed by a tiger.
It was a life-changing moment for Banerjee, as he couldn’t stop thinking about the plight of his friend’s child, who had suddenly become fatherless.
This is a regular affair on the island. Many kids have even lost both parents.
Infrequent electricity, saline agricultural land, feeble mobile network, schools without quality teachers and little healthcare also vex the G-Plot island, which has a curious history. The British brought in Adivasis (Scheduled Tribes) from the other parts of Bengal about 150 years ago to clear the forests and commercialise the area. But the logistic challenges proved too much and the Adivasis were left there alone.
Banerjee started visiting the island every weekend for the next two years or so.
He began teaching the kids two days a week. Often he carried medicines and toys during those weekend visits. Sometimes he went with friends and acquaintances, other times he went alone.
After two years of soul searching, Banerjee quit his high-paying job and took permission from his aged parents to devote his life to these Adivasi villagers.
In 2017 he launched SOUL – Source of Unconditional Love – to serve the inhabitants of G-Plot. SOUL’s aim is to care for the orphaned and destitute kids by providing food, lodging, education while introducing the higher values as laid out by Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda.
Thus began the journey of SOUL with the motto of “If the poor cannot come to education, education must reach them at the plough, in the factory, everywhere,” as Vivekananda had famously said.
Reaching these islands and working within its difficult terrain is no easy task – something even the government has failed to do for decades.
Almost all the children in the village suffer from malnutrition. Families use the same pond water for drinking, washing clothes and ablutions.
It was common to see infants being drugged with tobacco leaves so that they would not cry or make sounds out of hunger while accompanying their parents into the deep forests. Most women were alcoholic and drunk by morning. The tasks before Banerjee and his friends were daunting.
SOUL made inroads by using a multipronged strategy to win the trust of the community.
With the help of the panchayat it established a residential ashram, hiring some of the villagers to help maintain it, indicating SOUL’s intention to stay.
Gradually, SOUL created an awareness about unhygienic pond water, explaining the benefits of using tube-well water instead. As most villagers illegally hunted crab or collected honey from the dangerous parts of the Sundarbans, there were also frequent brainstorming sessions on alternative livelihoods.
The road to village development has not been easy, with the lockdowns, two super cyclones hitting the island hard, political interventions and human-tiger conflicts.
Yet SOUL’s ashram has housed about 70 girls. They receive free food, stay, education, vocational training and lessons in fine arts and music. Gone are the days of fights and hurling abuses. The ashram children speak broken English, chant long Vedic prayers and sing Tagore’s songs. One child has even appeared for the Class X exam – a rare feat for a girl in the history of Sabar tribes in G-plot.
On the village front, two deep tube wells have been installed with the local government’s support. Diarrhoea and skin diseases have reduced significantly.
SOUL also has convinced most mothers not to intoxicate kids with tobacco leaves. Children are healthier, as exhibited by their BMI. Less than 20% of the kids are malnourished.
Village roads have been elevated and made stronger to withstand the incessant rains. After the cyclones, SOUL helped build broken walls and roofs in many houses. It distributed more than 18,000 meals/dry rations per person during COVID-19 lockdown and post-cyclone relief. The Adivasi women now inspired by SOUL, have drastically reduced alcohol consumption.
SOUL’s efforts extend beyond the G-Plot island too, distributing food and dry rations during the lockdown and arranging for free telemedicine consultations and medicine.
SOUL has excelled by identifying social schemes and using government machinery and local talents to usher in a holistic development framework.
An NGO cannot replace the government but it can be an enabler. Practicing sattvic (pure essence) service by serving the right person in the right manner and at the proper time – without any self-interest or personal glory – SOUL helps the community thrive.
The lead image at the top of this page shows the author with children in G-Plot island (Photo courtesy Saunak Bhattacharyya)
Saunak Bhattacharyya, who volunteers for a handful of organisations including SOUL, is a mechanical engineer passionate about rural development.
