The first month

We were well-received by our NGO host, the Family Planning Association of India (FPAI); they are excited about our project and are as determined as we are to see it to fruition. The FPAI people who we come in contact with most are S. V. Morab (“Morab-Sir”), the Dharwad branch manager; Mrs. Sujata Anishettar, the monitoring and evaluation specialist (and PhD student) who is our first point of contact; and S.V. Kulkarni (“Kulkarni-Sir”), the projects coordinator.

Our first group tasks were to finalize our budget and to create an action plan for our entire project. These two tasks led to reprioritizations and a number of surface modifications while maintaining the integrity of the program. The primary changes are an increased emphasis on qualitative evaluation and a decrease in the number of program participants, but across two colleges/universities rather than just one.

A good program plan will align with the strengths of its participating organizations. In this case, FPAI has a large and active network in rural areas surrounding Hubli-Dharwad. Although our project is taking place among college/university students, we have chosen this population primarily because we are not equipped to implement the program in a rural setting, where English is minimal. However, FPAI has identified a great need for this type of program in rural areas, and we decided to also investigate the potential for implementing our program in rural areas through a pair of focus group discussions (FGDs).

After a Herculean effort, the institutional green light arrived for the formative component of our project. Soon afterward, we held the rural FGDs. The women of PGP observed a FGD of young, married women facilitated by Sujata and recorded by a local note-taker. The men attended a FGD with single men in a nearby village; Kulkarni-Sir facilitated the discussion, which was also recorded by a local note-taker.

Although the discussions were entirely in Kannada, we felt that they went very smoothly, and the transcripts we have received contain good data.

Two days later, we traveled to the Adept Institute of Management Studies (AIMS) in Dharwad to conduct two more FGDs. AIMS was very excited to have us and offered us roses upon our arrival. We first met with Mr. Mahesh Masal, the chairman of the Adept Foundation; he described the mission of the school, which is basically to provide low-cost education and placement to students from rural and middle-class families in order to empower whole families and villages.

The PGP women facilitated the discussion with female MBA students (and Sujata was there for any language difficulties) and the PGP men facilitated the discussion with male MBA students (with Kulkarni-Sir also present for language issues). The discussions went well, although the students would have been much more comfortable in their native language; this was a good lesson for all of us.

We again met with Mr. Masal, who thanked us for coming and invited us back. According to Xanthene (a Deshpande Sandbox Fellow working with us at FPAI), he had also mentioned the possibility of us setting up an internship for the MBA students where they would implement our program. This comment has gotten us thinking more deeply about how to make our program sustainable after we leave.

We have transcribed the interview recordings the day after the FGDs and are now into the process of analyzing the information in order to adapt our program appropriately.