Democratic Nature of the Modes of Learning by the Farmers Community in India: An Analytical Study

INTRODUCTION

Being a democratic country, citizens are supposed to understand and live-up the fundamental values stated in the constitution. And, so the learning process of the farmers should engage them to share their valuable experiences. Democratic education infuses the participatory, democratic and empowering learning process providing ample opportunities to farmers to be active co-creators of their own learning. Democratic education is both a means and an end in itself nurturing self-determined and caring farmers who enjoy learning for the sake of it. Learning in an engaging and participatory environment builds a more equitable and socially just society. The value of the democratic education learning environment, include key elements such as collaborative projects, age mixing, learning through active experiences, and the importance of a caring community. In ancient India, The history of education is considered from 2000 BC to 1200 AD.The history of the tradition of adult education is quite long, but in the modern context, the emergence and development of adult education is credited with the Christian missionaries, who came with Britishers. Christian missionaries received the right with the approval of Charter Act 1813.From here itself, to provide adult education various efforts were made like press and sanchar madhyam, Night schools, library, Adult education in Jail along with creative works / activities, etc. In India mostly the population resided in villages and agriculture has been the important and integral part of rural life, which continues till date. On this basis, to promote agricultural research, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute was established in 1908 in Pusa, Bihar. This marked the beginning of agricultural extension education in india. Whereas in the world scenario origination of extension education is considered in Britain. For the first in 1873 cambridge university used the world Extension education for disseminating agriculture related information to the farmers.

Evolution of Extension Education Could be classified in four parts-

Objectives are the expression of ends toward which our efforts are directed. The fundamental objective of extension is to develop the rural people economically, socially and culturally by means of education. More specifically the objectives of extension are- i. To assist people to discover and analyze their problems and identify the felt needs ii. To develop leadership among people and help them in organizing groups to solve their problems. iii. To disseminate research information economic and practical importance in a way people would be able to understand and use. iv. To assist people in mobilizing and utilizing the resources which they have and which they need from outside v. To collect and transmit feedback information for solving management problems (Ray, 2011) of the Extension Education. So to understand and assess the reflection of Democratic Nature in the framework of the researches done: a brief Literature review was done. Research Articles were related broadly with the topic viz. attitude, decision making, skills & communication of farmers; Extension Functionaries/Professional; Frontline Demonstration Technologies; training Transfer; Social Media and MGNREGA.

From the literature review, we had a better understanding of how the democratic learning is being carried out. First and foremost the local people and local administrators are fully involved in deciding the theme /topic of training and learning programmes. After understanding the problems and issues to be dealt with; the selection of respondents is mostly purposive but also randomly done giving opportunity of equal participation. While selection of respondents and trainer, due importance is given to their profile. The instructional material/ package are prepared keeping in mind the actual agricultural issues of a particular region. Communication between trainer and learner is of democratic nature; both behave as co-creators and co-researchers of the teaching-learning being taking place. Through frontline demonstrations, both gets ample opportunities to share and exchange their learning and experiences. As a feedback healthy discussions take place.

The soul of our country resides in the villages of India and the means of livelihood of most of the citizens is agriculture. For assisting in resolving the agricultural issues of the farmers and sharing and learning from the experiences of the farmers demands that the nature of learning programmes should be democratic. So, this observation inspires to analyse the extent of democratic nature of the learning programmes designed for the farmers community.

―Democratic Nature of the Modes of Learning by the Farmers Community in India: An Analytical Study‖ democratic.

To explore the various modes of learning related to agricultural issues and To focus on analysing to what extent, does the farmer‘s learning process is of democratic nature.

Delimitations of the study: In the study area, all the farmers present during the period of data collection and willing to participate were interacted as co-researcher. Limitations of the study: Only the farmers and their trainers involved in the study and place of data collection is restricted to only selected blocks (Rehli & Banda) of Sagar district, M.P., India

On the basis of identified characteristics conforming to democratic nature, Survey research design was used to assess the extent of democratic nature of the trainings and programmes designed and implemented to keep the farmers abreast of the latest information. Respondents were selected using purposive sampling. The farmers (50) and Trainers (06) were interacted using a structured interview schedule and observation. The structure and the nature of the programmes being telecast, broadcast, printed information, help-lines and organised workshops/ trainings would be analysed with reference to the views expressed by the respondents.

expressed by the Farmers and the trainers, we find that the characteristics of democratic learning were mostly reflected in the way the plan is prepared, implemented and executed. Both farmer and trainer are being empowered and are progressing by acquiring the right set of skills.

Above table shows and prove that healthy practices of democratic learning are being carried out. This proves the democratic nature of the teaching-learning Programmes in our survey like in the various researches already done. The only shortcoming is the policies which hold lot of merits and is capable of transforming farmer‘s life, but the execution lags were found. These findings would assist in creating a better democratic learning environment enhancing, engaging farmers with the world around them, and become positive and contributing members of society. Democratic education carries the potential for a broader societal impact.

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Doctoral Student in Adult Education, Dr. Harisingh Gour University, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh pawan20092010@gmail.com