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By Keya Saha-Chaudhury
December 8, 2009
Everyone has a story about India, love it hate it most people will give you their opinion, their favourite city - the tout that got them. l am no different, except the tagline to my story would probably be 'you know, you look Indian...'
My fascination with India started from childhood with the smells, tastes and customs my parents wrapped me in. My previous visits to India had also allured me to the country's colour and chaos so when CSI and the Chain Reaction Foundation offered the opportunity to undertake the PRIA International Internship Program (PIIP), and gain exposure to Indian NGOs working with communities, I jumped at the chance to see this different side of India.
The Internship was held over eight weeks and brought together people from Australia, USA, Canada, Spain and Holland. Our time was divided between the PRIA head office in Delhi and two field placements, the first one with a PRIA branch office and the second with an affiliate Indian NGO. I was fortunate enough to be placed with the PRIA Jalpaiguri office in West Bengal and then Seva Mandir in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Both were beautiful places but stood in stark contrast to each other. One in the east the other in the west; one surrounded by lush tea estates the other marred by drought; one consumed by politics and the other dictated by caste. These two very different experiences gave me a glimpse into the diversity that shapes India.
During our time in Jalpaiguri we regularly went to visit NGOs working in remote parts of the district, many of which were in closed tea estates. Reaching these places was an adventure in itself. On a typical day we were in the office between 6am and 8am so we could take the public bus for three hours, to another transport hub, where we would either change buses or take a jeep/scooter to the actual village, often much to the amusement of locals. If we were lucky, we would get a seat on the bus, either way though, we like the hundred other crammed people could not avoid the bumpiness of the potholes, the flying speed of the driver and the incessant beeping of horns. In thirty eight degree heat this provided for a ‘special' experience. I very quickly came to understand why it was only possible to schedule one meeting per day.
The internship taught me a lot about rural life and local self governance structures in India but it was the stories from the communities that taught me the most. Both the organisations I worked with were focused on empowering communities to take responsibility for their own development, by building their capacity to participate in public processes and assert their rights. Below are a few of the remarkable stories I heard: In the village of Saru, in Udaipur we met with a group of trained birth attendants, strong, older women, who apart from their daily agricultural work had taken responsibility for providing pregnant women in their village with relevant information and safe home deliveries. They had asked Seva Mandir for technical skills training including a small medical kit to help them with their work. When we asked about the benefits of the training, they said that they could see that less women were dying when giving birth because of their skilled assistance; they could now cut the umbilical cord with a sanitised blade opposed to a harvesting knife (large, curved rusty knife) and their advice on child immunisation and antenatal checkups were now respected by the community.
One of the leaders of the Women's Resource Centre from the same village shared how she fought to have the rations of about eighty households restored after she realised that a local official had been taking them for the last three years. Only a few years before this woman was not permitted to attend community meetings let alone voice her opinion publically.
In the nearby village of Kaya we sat with the local village committee as they discussed how to resolve an issue of a witch accusation. The committee was trying to ensure the woman's safety and stop the accuser (a male relative) from further spreading this rumor. This was a big shift in attitude from earlier years where witch accusations were taken seriously and women were ostracised by the community.
In Jalpaiguri many of the Self Help Groups we met were enabling women to generate income by providing them with access to bank loans they would not be able obtain as individuals. One woman spoke of how the loan she had received from the group had helped her buy a sugar cane machine which allowed her husband to make a living. Now after only a few years she had paid back the loan and had enough money to buy school books for her children. Many of the groups had also become more than financial lending organisations, with the support of local NGOs they had also become platforms for female members of the community to get together and mobilise change within their villages.
I noticed that when asked about rights, most people spoke of their right to information which came into effect in India with the 2005 Right to Information Act. The Act allows people access to government documents in the aim of making process' more transparent. Since its beginning, NGOS like PRIA have been running awareness raising campaigns in villages to encourage communities to make full use of the act, particularly to uncover corruption. In Sonipat, Haryana, we met one man who had made 100 RTI applications (with varying degrees of success). His home and life have been threatened by local officials but nonetheless he continues to pursue his rights. To date, he had recovered a number of misappropriated funds for his community and ensured that facilities such as hand pumps, were being distributed according to the public plans.
On all my field placements, I was paired with other Australians, so at the end our discussions we would always ask if there were any questions for us. The first four were always; did we own a water buffalo? What were our main crops, did we have a dowry system for marriage? and why Indians in Melbourne were being attacked by Australians? It was interesting to see how keen everyone was to know about rural practices in Australia, and highlights a possible area for further exchange. The last question apart from being embarrassing demonstrated the power and reach of media in India, particularly considering the limited connectivity of many of the villages. People were never hostile though and welcomed our perspective on the issue. If needed, we could also always turn the conversation to cricket!
One of the biggest challenges I found during the internship was navigating the cultural differences in communication. Although we had a translator it was difficult to receive a direct translation. Often we would receive only a translation of the ‘important' information, missing many of the jokes or side comments made by villagers. At other times it was difficult for male translators to understand or talk to women about issues of domestic violence and gender differences. In one instance, our male translator asked the women if they had gone for a sex selective abortion (which is illegal) instead of asking whether they had heard stories about such cases. This miscommunication resulted in a few moments of awkward and stony silence amongst the women.
Two of my field placements were in relatively small cities, so the sight of foreigners (even if I ‘looked like one of them') provided much interest for the people. This often translated into incredible hospitality. In Jalpaiguri we found a local chai wallah who not only provided us with amazing sugarless ginger chai but also great company. Over the three weeks he became a pseudo father figure, always fussing over us despite communication barriers. In Haryana, we always had a home cooked lunch with a different family. After eight weeks in India I have decided there is definitely a separate stomach for sweets.
When coming to India everyone will tell you that you need patience, to this I would also add bring a good book and a board game. Between being told that our train was delayed for 14 hours to having to wait for offices and shops to open after yet another religious festival, I became somewhat of an expert at waiting. During these times I found my travel scrabble to be an invaluable investment. For all the achievements I saw and heard there were also an equal number of stories about malnutrition, alcoholisms, violence, gender inequality and caste discrimination. There is no doubt that many challenges still face India but what inspired me was seeing that change was happening, and that Indians were leading this change. Villagers were saying no to dowries, no to violence, demanding employment opportunities and education for their ‘girl' child. With the support of extremely dedicated and capable local NGOs they were being empowered to come up with their own unique solutions. The model of seeing communities as change agents rather than mere beneficiaries of outside help is something I think that we in the ‘west' can learn from.