On a Roll

Published in harmonyindia.org, March 2016

On a roll

by Shail Desai / Text and photos

harmonyindia.org, March 2016 http://www.harmonyindia.org/hportal/VirtualPageView.jsp?page_id=25320 Text and photos by Shail Deasai

On a roll

by Shail Desai Text and photos

Ulrike Reinhard from Germany transforms a remote village in Madhya Pradesh by using the humble skateboard as an agent of change.

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Reinhard at Janwaar Castle, the skateboarding ring, with the children of Janwaar.

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Travel has been a constant in Ulrike Reinhard’s life but who would have imagined that the wanderlust of this 50-something, footloose German woman would transform a remote village in rural Madhya Pradesh!

Janwaar is 11 km from Panna, a town best known for its tiger reserve.

When Reinhard drew up at the village in a cloud of dust on her Royal Enfield – by then, she had travelled the length and breadth of India on her trusty motorcycle – it was just another unremarkable Indian hamlet.

Two years down the line, Janwaar boasts an unlikely ‘facility’: a skate park in the village square. Here, a bunch of kids, most of whom are still oblivious to the outside world, zip across on skateboards with ease.

Screams and shouts rent the air, and the excitement is infectious. But this skate park is no ordinary amusement rink. It’s a vehicle on which the future of Janwaar rides.

Believe it or not the skateboard, little more than a plaything in its typical context, has significantly upped school attendance in Janwaar; it is bringing about gender equality; it has disrupted mindsets that are now beginning to see a future beyond eking out a miserable living; and it is encouraging community development. Better still, the most valuable asset of the village – its children – have developed a sense of confidence and are embracing a brand new destiny.

Reinhard has christened her project Janwaar Castle, the end result of many events that eventually led the German activist to this economically backward hamlet. When she journeyed across the country in 2012, she hoped to engage in developmental work in rural India. “I strongly believe growth cannot be defined by pure economic number crunching; it has to be understood by its social and environmental impact,” says Reinhard, who earned a degree in economics from the University of Mannheim.

After she acquired her degree, she travelled around the US for a year 7

and also got involved with the Internet, which was still finding its feet then. She returned to Europe in 1994 and conducted conferences in interactive formats to make a living. That same year, she started a cross-media publishing house that looked at books, CD-ROMs and the online market.

When she sold her business 10 years later and started working as a consultant, Reinhard decided to use her spare time to explore the world and, on the invitation of a friend, visited the Skateistan project in Kabul, Afghanistan. That's when she realised how skateboarding could drive social and economic development, especially in marginalised communities.

Hoping to replicate the Kabul skateboarding project in India, Reinhard initially planned to set up a school for the tribal community in Khajuraho.

The project did not get off the ground but, during that time, she met Shyamendra Singh, a future collaborator. Singh hails from the royal family of Nagod and is the son of the MP from Khajuraho. He was familiar with the region and joined Reinhard in her endeavour to set up a skating rink.

“I had seen skateboarding on television but it was still a new concept for me,” says Singh. “However, I thought it held great promise. So when Ulrike proposed the idea, I de-cided to be part of this project.” Singh’s search for land led them to Janwaar, a village community stuck in time.

The villagers here were engaged in agriculture and livestock rearing.

Others led a hard life, collecting wood from the forest and selling it in the town to earn their daily bread. “I thought of using skateboarding as a tool of empowerment for the children at Janwaar,” says Reinhard.

“I noticed most of them have preset lives owing to the society and environment they grow up in. There are no disruptions in their daily lives and no change in sight either.”

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Ankosh develops his skateboarding skill at the Janwaar Castle

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While Singh helped her acquire land for the skate park, in addition to sorting out the necessary permissions, Reinhard focused on raising funds. She first approached skate-aid, a non-profit organisation in Germany that had funded the Skateistan project in Kabul. With over 30 projects in countries such as Palestine, Afghanistan and Costa Rica and many in Africa, this was a first for skate-aid in India. "We aid projects worldwide that support youth and development through the power of skateboarding," says skate-aid's Torben Oberhellmann. “We had no projects in India, so this was interesting for us.”

Reinhard also enlisted the help of her friend and fellow countrywoman, Bea Gschwend, who launched a campaign called Skateboard/Artboard.

Gschwend set up an auction and roped in artists who created works of art on skateboards, which were then auctioned. In 10 days, they managed to raise $ 15,000 that was used to build the Janwaar skate park.

The first wheels rolled out in Janwaar in February 2014, and although most of the children had a hard time taking to the sport, they soon got the hang of it. Over the first few weeks, Reinhard realised a couple of things that were amiss. “First, the kids were at play all day and didn’t turn up at school,” she shares. “Second, it was only the boys who were giving skateboarding a go. So we established new rules at Janwaar Castle, ‘No school, no skateboarding’ and ‘Girls first’!”

Almost immediately, school attendance went up. Also, Reinhard and the school teachers urged locals to send their kids to school instead of involving them in domestic chores. “The skate park is now engaging the children, boys and girls equally,” she says. ”No one is excluded. And once they’ve latched on to skateboarding, things like community, education and leadership take on new meaning. This, in turn, builds trust and social capital.”

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Mohammad Rashid, a teacher at the middle school, be-lieves the skate park has given his students a new avenue to explore. The children would otherwise be taken along to the forests to work alongside their parents or be left behind to tend to their siblings. “It was hard to bring these kids to school,” he says. “After the skate park was built, they gradually started attending, as play is a natural attraction for them. They have become more active now and are more disciplined. This exposure has opened their minds.” Malti Ardasi, sarpanch of Janwaar, adds, “Ulrike insists that the kids call her by her first name, and that bonding has given them confidence. She has taught them that everyone is equal and I can see it slowly take shape.”

Reinhard gave the kids an added incentive by announcing that those who were consistent at school and at the skate park would be taken on excursions to Panna National Park, Khajuraho, and New Delhi, whenever she went there on work. Janwaar's children not only got a chance to experience the world outside but also had the opportunity to rub shoulders with better skateboarders in the capital.

“The exposure my daughter has received through the skate park is immense, and she now insists on going to school. She even had the opportunity to visit New Delhi and experience life there,” says Hari Singh Yadav, whose daughter Priyanka studies in the sixth grade.

Currently, the school at Janwaar caters to students only till the eighth grade. To pursue their studies, children have to go to Panna, which is why so many drop out of school. Reinhard and Singh have thus approached the local authorities to get a high school for Janwaar.

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After earning the trust of the village elders through the children, Reinhard is looking to uplift the village as a whole. She has invited experts from various fields to impart skills to the locals, which would allow them to earn livelihoods within the region, instead of migrating to towns and cities in search of work. A farming cooperative is in the pipeline through which each villager will be trained in methods to improve produce, grow organic crops and get the local agriculture department involved with the newly formed society. The biggest task, though, will be to fence the community of Janwaar, to protect the crop from wild animals.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the humble skateboard. Yet, although the change in Janwaar has been led by Reinhard, it’s the kids who have taken charge. As the German activist says, “All you need to do is give them a chance.�

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janwaar-castle.org