At a time when COVID-19 forced school closure, several schoolteachers in West Bengal and the members of the Pratichi team regularly met online to discuss not only the unprecedented educational challenges that the Pandemic triggered but also some of the concrete remedial measures that appeared feasible even in those hard times. This collection of essays authored by a number of schoolteachers provides glimpses of such resilient insights.
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Former Professor of Human Sciences, Subhoranjan Dasgupta attained his Ph.D. at the University of Heidelberg. Though he was a student of English Literature at Presidency College and Calcutta University, he has delved deep into history and political philosophy and has examined creativity and aesthetics through the prism of social sciences. His research is essentially interdisciplinary, and he has authored several books in English and Bengali. He is fluent in three languages — Bengali, English and German.
Uday Bhanu Pattanayak is an Architect with over 40 years of experience in India, Qatar, France and New Zealand. His professional training was at School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi and he is presently a partner with EFNRA CONSULTANTS formerly EFN Ribeiro Associates. His professional experience encompasses Architecture, Structural Design, Urban Planning, Urban Design and Heritage Conservation. As the team leader sent by the PM following the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat, he and his team set up a special world class hospital there in record time. His major contribution has been the design and construction of about 35 major hospitals in India and abroad., for which he was commended by the President of India and awarded the Indian Buildings Congress award.
Samar Chakraborty is an educator, editor and writer. For over three decades he has guided students as a schoolteacher, and continues to be engaged with issues of school education after retirement. He is the editor of the monthly publication of the West Bengal Primary Teachers Association. He has published a volume of poetry and has co-edited two books of essays. A long-time associate of Pratichi, he has been advising the research team on school education and schoolteachers’ networks.
Sahana Ghosh is Professor of Practice with IQ City United World School of Business, Kolkata. She teaches Economics, International Business and History of Indian business for the MBA course. She is also a consultant for business and market intelligence. Earlier, she worked as a policy researcher with institutes in Delhi, as a corporate strategist in Delhi and Kolkata and as a business writer for global media organisations. Her areas of interest are Macroeconomics, Development and Energy Economics.
Parthasarathi Majumdar (PhD Theoretical Physics) works on black hole theory and gauge field theory in theoretical physics and on decentralized microsolar electricity harvesting in renewable energy generation and application. He has taught at Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Belur Math and at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata where he continues to teach and mentor students.
Gautam Ghosh was Chairperson of the District Primary School Council, Birbhum for two terms. Following a masters in physics from Visva Bharati University, and a B.Ed also from Visva Bharati, he had a long career as a school teacher. For a decade he has closely worked with the West Bengal government to improve school education in the state. He has been a long-time associate of Pratichi.
Anirban Chatterjee is an Electrical Engineer from Jadavpur University having 40+ years of experience with deep skills in Business and Technical Consulting along with Large Project Management. He has worked in several countries across the globe including Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, India, Jamaica, Namibia, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, UAE, Uganda, USA and Vietnam.
He has held senior positions in global consulting organizations such as PwC and KPMG. During his tenure with corporate entities, he has built large corporate teams and has defined delivery models, processes and governance practices. He brings his experience and expertise to help and advise ASRC in solving Infrastructure and Governance issues.
Achin Chakraborty is currently Visiting Professor at the Centre of Excellence in Public Policy Law and Governance, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He was the Director of the Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK) from 2013 to 2023. He has research interests in welfare economics, development economics, health economics, and political economy of India. He received Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Riverside, USA. He has published widely in national and international journals. His recent works include Limits of Bargaining: Capital, Labour, and the State in Contemporary India (CUP, 2019) (co-author) and five co-edited books – The Land Question in India: State, Dispossession and Capitalist Transition (OUP, 2017), Changing Contexts and Shifting Roles of the Indian State (Springer, 2019), ‘Capital’ in the East (Springer, 2019), Indian Business Groups and other Corporations (Springer, 2023), and Revisiting Inequality: Theoretical and Methodological Advances with Empirical Examples from India, (Routledge, 2024).
A. K. Shiva Kumar is a Delhi-based development economist, policy adviser and evaluator whose work spans human development, poverty, health, nutrition, basic education and the rights of women and children. He has led thematic evaluations and assessments of country-level development outcomes for UNDP, UNICEF, UN Women, the World Food Programme and other international organisations. A former adviser to UNICEF India and Director of the International Centre for Human Development, he has contributed to numerous global and national human development reports.
Shiv is a Visiting Professor at Ashoka University, Harvard Kennedy School and the Indian School of Business. He holds a master’s degree in economics from Bangalore University, a postgraduate diploma
Urba holds an MA in Sociology, a PG diploma in Human Rights and a B.Ed. in Special Education. She officially joined Pratichi 2019 but has been associated with the work of this organisation from long before. Earlier she worked as a Special Educator in the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy, Kolkata, and as the District Coordinator in Sarva Shiksha Mission, Kolkata. Her research interests include education in public schools, special education and rights of children, women and people with special needs. She co-authored the report, ‘Primary Education in Kolkata: Overlapping Barriers and the Need for Collective Efforts’, published in 2020 by Pratichi (India) Trust and supported by Tech Mahindra Foundation. She regularly writes articles for newspapers and magazines.
Sumanta has been working at Pratichi since 2008. His primary brief is related to administration and logistical work including assisting in organising meetings, seminars, workshops, field work, bank related work, etc. Prior to joining Pratichi, he was employed with MARG and ORG as Market Research Coordinator in both organisations.
Suman has been working with Pratichi since 2017 and assisting the organisation by carrying out various assignments related to accounts and administration, logistical support to research work and various other in-house as well as outside-the-office tasks. He looked after stock maintenance and other logistical activities of a company in the leather complex area of Kolkata before joining Pratichi.
Subhra has a Master’s degree in Rural Development and Management from Kalyani University. She has been associated with Pratichi since 2011 and played a significant role in various projects of Pratichi like the Essential Health Care Program (EHCP), Monitoring of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, the Kanyashree Assessment Study, the Tripura Human Development Report II, The Living World of the Adivasis of West Bengal: An Ethnographic Exploration, etc. Her areas of interest are gender, public health, ethnography and education. She is especially interested in field studies including in-depth ethnographic interviews.
Subhra holds Bachelors degrees in Commerce as well as Library and Information Science and has been working for the organisation since 2013. At present, he is in charge of not only the entire library and archives related work but also the accounts of the Kolkata office. He has also been involved in several research projects like data collection for the on-going study of the effects of COVID 19, the Essential Health Care Programme (EHCP), the Tripura Human Development Report project and Kanyashree. His essay – ‘Shoisober Beej Tola’ – was published in the volume entitled ‘Alochonar Jonyo – Manob Unnayaner Pawthe’ jointly published by Pratichi and Gangchil.
A true product of Santiniketan, Shantabhanu possesses an MA in Economics as well as a PhD in the same discipline from Visva Bharati. He joined Pratichi in 2005 and has actively participated in field work and report writing for several studies and projects undertaken by Pratichi pertaining to primary education, basic health services, child nutrition, gender equality, etc. He is a talented writer whose articles are published regularly in Anandabazar Patrika as well as periodicals like Saptaha and Pashchim Banga Prathamik Shiksha Samachar in addition to various little magazines. His Bengali translation of Raghuram Rajan’s I do what I do has been published by Ananda Publishers. He has also translated the entire study on ICDS by Pratichi as well as a few chapters of The Argumentative Indian by Professor Amartya Sen.
Shailaja is responsible for overseeing daily administrative tasks, including office management and maintaining an organized and effective work environment. A graduate of Delhi University, she is based in New Delhi and has been with Pratichi for 25 years.
Saumik’s association with Pratichi goes back to November 2001. Not only is he Pratichi’s ‘go-to’ person with regard to office administration, accounts, arrangements of the annual workshops, meetings, seminars, field visits and arrangements for different projects within the state as well as outside but also the one overseeing the plans and schedules of Professor Amartya Sen during his visits to Kolkata and Santiniketan. Before Pratichi, Saumik was associated with different projects sponsored by Oxfam (India) Trust and International Development Research Centre (IDRC), etc.
Sandip started his journey with Pratichi in 2010, assisting with the CRY Project. He is based in Santiniketan and focuses on office work and logistics for Pratichi’s projects, meetings, workshops and events, as well as the Chair’s official engagements when he is in Santiniketan.
Sakila has been associated with the Santiniketan office of Pratichi for the last ten years. Earlier she was part of the CRY project, and was engaged in field work, data collection and data entry tasks. She has also contributed in the same way to various other Pratichi studies regularly as well as to organising and attending annual workshops, meetings, seminars, etc. Earlier, she was a teacher in a pre-primary school.
Sabir Ahamed’s professional brief is to visualize possible research ventures in sync with Pratichi’s core interests, conduct effective research planning, supervise implementation of research activities and manage project finances. However, this senior social researcher-cum-activist does considerably more for the organisation. His interests include the socio-economic status of Muslims in India, child protection, education and transparency as well as accountability in governance. He is adept at interpreting official statistics and trained in data analysis software. He played a leading role in producing the report on the Muslim population of West Bengal – Paschimbange Musalman: Ekti Parikrama and the volume – Caring Children: Essays on the Status of Children in West Bengal. His op-ed articles on various development issues have appeared regularly in reputed regional and English dailies over the last ten years.
Mukhlesur has been working for Pratichi since 2011. He has his Masters in Public Administration, Political Science and Social Work and is currently pursuing his PhD from Kalyani University. In course of his work at Pratichi, Mukhlesur has contributed to several important assignments like the project on Adivasis in West Bengal, the Tripura Human Development Report, the West Bengal Health and Nutrition project, the primary and elementary education project, to name a few. Prior to joining Pratichi, Mukhlesur was associated with a project run by the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences (CSSS), Calcutta in collaboration with the Sheffield University, UK.
Manabi has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Maryland, USA. She has had faculty appointments at the Madras Institute of Development Studies and the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences (CSSS), Calcutta and a research appointment at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard University. Currently, she is also an Honorary Professor in Political Science at the CSSS, Calcutta. Her research interests include areas of human development, democratic politics and social use of solar energy.
Manabesh possesses an MA in Sociology. He has previously worked as a Coordinator at the Liver Foundation West Bengal. His research interests include public health and tribal livelihood. His publications include a paper on informal health care providers. He jointly led the study – ‘Living World of the Adivasis of West Bengal: An Ethnographic Exploration’ – carried out by the Asiatic Society and Pratichi Institute. His articles are published quite regularly in various newspapers and periodicals.
The Santiniketan office of Pratichi would have lost out substantially on its characteristic homeliness had Lakshiram not been there. A most affable person, he resides on the premises. He takes very efficient care of the requirements of overall maintenance, cleanliness and even security – especially at night – of the entire building including the guest rooms. He is also a good cook who provides guests that stay there with delicious wholesome meals.
Kutty has been with Pratichi for 11 years now. His primary brief is to record and take care of all the accounts of the Trust on a regular basis and report the details to the Chartered Accountant. A B. Com. graduate from Kerala University, he has been living and working in the sphere of accounting in Delhi for well over four decades.
Dinesh is a practising Chartered Accountant (FCA) since 1998 and runs his own firm – Dinesh Kumar Bhat & Associates – in Delhi which has been providing various distinguished clients with finance, accounts and auditing services for the last 23 years. He is a B. Com. graduate as well. Dinesh is a wizard with numbers and as the Chief Finance Officer of the organisation, he has been looking after all financial and accounts-related matters of Pratichi and providing the Trustees with sound advice since the inception of the Trust in 1999.
Antara is an editor, social commentator, literary critic, translator and founder editor of The Little Magazine, the independent journal of South Asian ideas and letters. She has been Senior Editor of The Hindustan Times and The Indian Express and Guest Editor of Indian Literature, the journal of the Sahitya Akademi. Antara studied at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and Smith College, USA, and was a Reuter Fellow at Oxford University. She has had columns in several national newspapers and magazines. She is a Senior Fellow at the Henry J Leir Institute for Migration and Human Security, The Fletcher School, Tufts University.
Ankita is passionate about working in the development sector and started working for Pratichi in 2019. She has a Master’s degree in Agriculture and Rural Development. Her research interests include inquiring into education in public schools, health and livelihood. She likes to manage and analyse data. She co-authored the report, ‘Primary Education in Kolkata: Overlapping Barriers and the Need for Collective Efforts,’ published in 2020 by Pratichi (India) Trust and supported by Tech Mahindra Foundation. Apart from that, her interests include writing, painting, designing and photography.