Krishna Lohar, a tribal, currently working as a teacher in Manav Vikas School, at Garudbasa Village near Jamshedpur, Jharkhand

Since childhood I have always wanted to work in my village. In 1997 some people had come from the Ration Office to fill the forms for ration card. They only visited certain houses to fill those forms. That day I met Mr. Harendra Pratap Singh from the MRA team in Jamshedpur. I started complaining to him thinking that he too was a Ration Officer. He suggested that we gather the youth of the village for getting all our ration cards done.

Krishna Lohar: My aim is to become an ideal teacher

He said, “There are many more problems in your village besides the ration card problem that need to be solved.” We established a group called ‘Manav Vikas Yuva Samiti’. With Mr. H. P. Singh’s efforts and through Telco’s Rural Development organisation we organised a two-day programme on ‘Creative Leadership for Holistic Development’ for the members of our club. The MRA team members from Jamshedpur shared with us about the ideology of Moral Re-Armament and listening to the Inner Voice. I started to attend the weekly MRA meetings at Chandreshwar Khan’s house. Along with a few members from my village, we started to slowly work towards the development of our village.

I started work as a watchman for the TELCO’s housing colony ’s scooter stand for Rs. 1000 a month, which took care of my studies and personal expenses. Since there was a need for teachers in my village school I started working there without salary. I had done my primary education from that school. I was working at nights as a watchman, teaching during the day and studying for my classes — all this while working towards the development of our village. After coming in contact with the ideology of MRA I have been inspired to find the right direction, good thoughts and surpass all obstacles that come my way and move ahead. There have been quite a few instances where listening to the Inner voice has helped me to take the right decision.

On March 27, 2002 an incident occurred in our village in which there were four witnesses. Warrants were issued to all four, amongst them only two of them were arrested and the other two were absconding. The Police constable asked me to give bail for them. I went with two of the absconding witnesses and the other two were accompanied by the Police to court.A policeman at court asked me for some money and on refusal,he started beating me in front of everyone.No one tried to come to my rescue.I felt like killing that policeman with his own gun. But I met H.P.Singh and informed him of the incident. He took me to meet a senior inspector, who was sorry for what had occurred and assured us that the policeman would be punished. I felt supported and calmed down.

Two days after this incident another mishap took place in the evening of March 29. On the evening of Holi,some people from our village beat up my father. My mother and brother were also hurt. When I saw the blood on my father’s forehead I couldn’t control my anger and started shouting loudly.On hearing me shout about 150 people gathered and started throwing stones at the house of those who were responsible. Many were injured and a lot of property was damaged. A case was lodged by both sides and my father and I were charged under Section 307. The other family was charged under Section 379.

I don't lack self-confidence or determination any more

The situation was tense from both sides. I was arrested but due to political pressure they did not lock me up and I came back from the police station. I referred to this in our weekly MRA meeting. The entire MRA team in Jamshedpur considered this very seriously. This incident had taken a communal twist between the adivasis and the non-adivasis. The MRA team arranged a meeting in the house of our opponent. I apologized to all those who were hurt in that incident and without litigation we were able to solve this problem out of court. Our relationship with that other family has improved tremendously. A riot between the adivasis and non-adivasis was thus prevented.

My inner voice has acted as my source of guidance and hence I would like to reach it to as many people as I can. My aim is to become an ideal teacher and I would like my village and school to be a model for other villages. I have already made the blueprints of the extensions of the school that will be built later, when finances allow. My I don’t lack self-confidence or determination any more friends and I spend four days a week,from 6.30 to 8.30 pm,taking literacy classes for men and women of my village. The villagers have established two self-help groups. MRA team members have also helped to organise tailoring and embroidery classes for women.After attending the National Youth Camp at Asia Plateau in Panchgani, I don ’t lack self- confidence or determination anymore.

Kishor Kumar
Jamshedpur