Rajasthan – It was through a phone call that I heard about the new endeavor starting from this village. It was going to be a long journey, so I got up early morning and set off on my trip. After passing through a town, the road carried on ahead to reach a village called Jodli, located in Neem Ka Thana tehsil in Sikar district of Rajasthan. My eagerness to know about the initiative increased, how, after all, was there so much awareness of the constitution in this village?

In the majority of Dalit dhani (a small village settlement), the houses were mostly made of mud [kachcheghar], some people were still on their way to work/business, and the women were fetching water, and children were getting ready to go to school. And in this village school, a plaque of the Preamble of the Constitution (samvidhan) was going to be installed. (A first for Rajasthan, according to the SamvidhanikVichar Manch and according to the school staff.)

School children read the Preamble to the Constitution every day

My eyes then fell on a board on the side of the village road, on which was written 'Samvidhan Marg'. About two years ago, youth in this village had formed the Samvidhanik Vichar Manch, with the aim of raising awareness among the villagers about the Constitution and about their rights. Now, a plaque inscribed with the Preamble of the Constitution was going to be installed in the government school that was on this main road of the village. We were told that every day here, copies of the Preamble of the Constitution are shared among the school students, both male and female. There is a green space in front of the school, and on the other side are mountains.

The village people have come together in this endeavor, and behind this is the work of the youth collective of the SamvidhanikVichar Manch. The Manch's founder is Gigraj Jodli, whose work has always been informed by the Constitution and who has been vocal on the issues affecting Bahujans.

The aim of creating a constitutional forum

Established in the Neem Ka Thana area of Sikar, the Samvidhanik Vichar Manch has been active for about two years now. Its aim is to educate citizens about the Constitution, promote its basic tenets among the public, and create a community of conscientious youth with regard to the Constitution, which will enable all citizens equally to be economically and politically empowered.

Why was the Samvidhanik Vichar Manch established?

Gigraj Jodli, the founder of the Samvidhanik Vichar Manch, explains that the purpose of this platform is raising awareness about the Constitution [among the people], and to ensure that every household and every child in the village are educated about their rights.

Except for Gigraj, no other member of his household is a matriculate. His father is literate, but his mother is illiterate and they are laborers in a brick kiln. It had beenGigraj's dream to study to become a doctor, but due to financial constraints and his brother's illness, he could not sit for the PMT, but then on the basis of a scholarship gained admission to a private nursing college. When he started to be vocal about students' rights, he was subjected to violence as well as verbal caste abuse by the college administration. This experience shook him, and he then established the Samvidhanik Vichar Manch for concertizing deprived and backward sections of society about their rights.