India, US and the volunteer connection

In search of relevance...

2009-07-01T10:25:00.000+05:30

My fellowship with CHC came to a close in March. The rest of the fellows wound up in February, but because of my month in US/Canada, I had requested an extension. My report was due at the end of March and I spent a lot of time on it from December onwards. In retrospect, I'm glad I did and am thankful to CHC. Because of the report and my blogging, I have a much better record of what I did during my first year back in India.

The report can be found here. It's 77 pages long, but I think it is an easy read. I will start blogging again, so there should be more to read out here as well.

From victory to celebration... to reflection

2009-02-28T10:13:00.003+05:30

After the achievements of the dharna, plans were made to organize a sammelan, a gathering in Sitapur city. The goals of this sammelan were many: to mobilize other villages in Mishrikh and Pisawa blocks as well as other blocks throughout Sitapur dt., to show the people of Sitapur city, media etc. that the Sangathan did more than organize protests, to discuss the problems of the rural poor etc.

In the meantime, some progress had occured after the dharna vis a vis issual of job cards. Further, work had been started in most of the Sangathan villages. After almost a year of almost no work being provided, ponds were being dug, fields were being leveled and labourers were being employed under NREGA for this work.

For me, most of February was spent planning for the sammelan, from discussions at the village level on the reasons for holding a sangathan to the nitty-gritty of the venue, equipment etc. The expected turnout was 2000-2500, so this was a bigger event than any I had worked on in the past. My role was small – mainly helping out with posters and a small photoexhibit, helping out in meetings etc. Dwiji had a bigger responsibility – he was in the logistics team.

The sammelan was held on the 24^th and 25^th of February. Attendees were expected to arrive by noon, but as usual, it was 2:30 pm before the venue began filling up. The sammelan was inaugurated by the lighting of torches held by 5 women and 5 men of the Sangathan. It was followed by slogans, speeches and songs. Activists and supporters who had arrived from MP, Lucknow, Delhi etc. spoke, congratulating the Sangathan and exhorting the audience to continue the struggle. I found the speeches given by the Sangathan Saathis Bitoli and Prakash as inspiring, if not more. Maybe more because I had seen them practicing and had given feedback. To see all their hard work pay off was immensely satisfying.

After the inaugural, we took a break for three hours to relax and have dinner. Incidentally, meals during the sammelan were being cooked using the rice and wheat flour that had been collected during the dharna. At 9 pm, we re-convened to discuss problems with implementation of NREGA, changes necessary to the Act itself and the problems faced by the poor in general. This session continued till midnight after which entertainment commenced in the form of songs. I guess a gathering this size never sleeps! Some singer performed the traditonal 'alhas' while others sangs songs from movements, ghazals and filmi songs. Some performers bagged a good sum of money through requests!

Over in the food tent, events were progressing less smoothly. About 1500 packets of poori-sabzi were to be distributed in the morning (the turnout was less than expected), but by 4 am only 400 had been made! The team hired for cooking may not have ever cooked for this many people and had clearly not anticipated the effort required. Tea was served early, but by the time there were enough packets to distribute, it was almost 11 am. After distribution, a few people started saying that the sabzi was rotten (it did smell a little off, maybe because it was packed tight and because tomoatoes were used). Anyway, that started a commotion and the next hour was not pleasant!

The sammelan was to end in a rally, but first, word was received that the CDO and PD (Program Director) would show up. They did, and spoke as well. The CDO assured the assembled people that overdue payments for work done would be made before Holi and that work would be started in all villages. He said that the government had enough funds to ensure that every family worked for 100 days in a year. There were just a few problems in the system that needed to be fixed, for which he asked the Sangathan to continue working!

Of course, our friends did not let him get away with that! They thanked him for attending the sammelan but also reminded him of the many things that were still wrong. They took on the issue of overdue wages and he assured the assembled crowd of payment before Holi.

Like with other Sangathan events, the sammelan ended with a rally. The resolution that had been approved in the morning was presented to the DM. With a little bit more of slogan chanting, the sammelan was completed.

The sammelan had its highs and lows, but it was clear that this event marked a new phase in the Sangathan's journey. Sitapur had sat up and taken notice of SKMS. And while all the stated goals of the sammelan were not met, such as mobilizing in other blocks, the seeds have been sown. It was a satisfied lot of people brimming with ideas that returned to their villages on 25^th February.

Two steps forward, half a step... forward?

2009-02-04T17:01:00.001+05:30

Immediately following the SKMS dharna, I was down with diarrhoea for 2 days. I had been fine during the summer and monsoon in Sitapur, so to be brought low in the winter was surprising. Thankfully, the dharna was over, so I could concentrate on rehydration and rest.

Things were better on the Sangathan front – account numbers were being collected for payment of the unemployment benefits and work had started in many villages. Of course, there are problems. In Mishrikh and Pisawa, the 3-day camp for job cards started off badly with the Block office asking for just the list of people who needed job cards. No application forms were available and no photographer was present. After a little wrangling, the process improved in Mishrikh over the next 2 days.

On another front, there were rumours that the BDOs who were to receive suspension orders had gone to court. And soon the news came out that they had indeed filed a writ petition in the Lucknow High Court, claiming conflict-of-interest by committee members, labourers incorrectly deemed eligible for benefits etc. The bench mainly ruled on whether the Commissioner at the Ministry of Rural Affairs was the responsible authority with powers to overrule decisions at the district level. They deemed that he was and asked him to review the additional documentation presented by the BDOs within 10 days. They also asked him to ensure that eligible families received the unemployment benefit as they were entitled to. This was a better outcome than many in the Sangathan and among its supporters had expected and the mood was upbeat.

At the village level, there are still problems with work not being made available, applications not being received etc. But some people, at least, have learnt to demand their rights. In one Gram Sabha, a few hundred people went to the Pradhan's house and demanded job cards. He was forced to bring out cards that had been in his keeping since 2006!

Finally, fights in villages continue. In some cases, they seem to be power plays between Sangathan members and those close to the Pradhan or older powerful families. Nerves are also a little frayed and people are reacting to every little thing that seems out of the ordinary. Until the unemployment allowance reaches the accounts of the beneficiaries, this state of affairs will most likely persist.

On another front, planning has started for a sammelan to be held on the 24th and 25th. Farmer-labourers from across Sitapur district and other areas will be invited to share their experiences, learn from SKMS' journey and plan for collective action to ensure a better life. There is talk of about 1500-2000 people attending from Mishrikh and Pisawa and ~500 from other blocks in the district. I think the numbers will be higher. At any rate, Sitapur city will witness a bigger gathering of the rural poor, without any party backing, than it has been accustomed to!

End on a high note!

2009-01-23T13:47:00.006+05:30

January 19^th- 20^th

When we returned to Vikas Bhavan on Monday morning, it was to find messages in limestone written at the gate. Some friends sent me off to read the slogans and messages written at the entrance to the Collectorate building. All 9 demands of the Sangathan had been written out in huge bold script. 'Sangtin Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan Zindabad' was written on the vertical portion of the steps, clearly visible to all who walked up them.

My first action, after congratulating those who made this happen, was to find out who had done the writing. I had found the scribe for the next edition of Sangtin Samachar!

Today, it was a little easier to get some articles, though I still had to work with a few of the writers to improve their work. Some were responsive – others, especially the more educated among the lot were not. But the best part of the day's effort, for me atleast, was finding two teenagers, Akhilesh and Pramod, who were willing to be budding cartoonists. I told them the story we wanted to depict – villagers going to ask their Pradhan and Secretary for work, while the latter were busy preparing forged muster rolls. The two worked together and came with a very good depiction. I had realized the previous day that people here had a unique way of drawing figures. They learnt to adapt that to tell the story, which was great!

Towards evening, everyone was getting impatient with the lack of response from the officials and talk started about gheraoing some officials. We then received the message, via Sharmaji, that the CDO had returned to Vikas Bhavan (he was out all day) and wanted to talk with the Sangathan. There was a brief discussion on whether the negotiation team should go to meet the CDO and the issues that were non-negotiable. The team then set off. The rest of us began a program of songs and slogans. The Sangathan has got this process down pat. As Mukesh bhayya put it, while the CDO is talking to the negotiation team, he should be able to hear our voices and know we are there. It was a good session. We had all eaten and there was a cold wind blowing, so everyone came together inside the canopy rather than spreading out. Some old friends finally made their appearance and entertained us with their songs.

Finally, the negotiation team came out. The CDO had agreed with all of their demands and a notice was being sent out to the BDOs! Camps would be set up to issue new job cards. Work would be started in the Sangathan villages soon and go on till March 31^st so that labourers could do as much work as possible this financial year. Where wages hadn't been paid for work done, the payments would be made immediately and responsible officials punished. And so on. These were the commitments the Sangathan was looking for. The struggle was not over – these changes would have to be implemented at the block and village level. But the purpose of coming to Sitapur was fulfilled. Plans began to be made to organize a sammelan in late February to celebrate the victory and galvanize more people in Mishrikh and Pisawa as well as other blocks in the district.

We decided to end the dharna the next day with another small rally – this one towards the place where jeeps and tempos would be available to ferry people back to their homes. This one was less organized than the earlier rally, but no less enthusiastic. The happiness was visible on people's faces and communicated by their voices.

The road ahead for the Sangathan is new and uncharted. This is the first time it has directly brought money into the villages (if one does not count the work obtained through NREGA and payments for the same). And 15 lakhs worth of it! Sadly, many of the less active people and villages are getting a larger payment. This is largely because the more active villages managed to get work. But this is a potential point of conflict. Further, a lot more people will want to join the Sangathan because of the perceived benefits. So the work will expand dramatically. But these are good problems, I think, and with the renewed energy after this victory, the Sangathan should be able to meet these challenges.

Getting our message across

2009-01-23T13:41:00.004+05:30

January 18^th

The third day of the protest was on Sunday, when the officials would be away. Therefore, plans were made to get some work done, especially recording the account numbers of all the recipients of unemployment benefits. Messages had been sent to the listed villages to send passbooks so that the numbers could be accurately recorded. Further, meetings were held with each of the Sangathan villages to record their individual problems.

While this was going on, I was busy trying to get 'Sangtin Samachar' going. The previous day, we had written out some news items on chart paper and posted it on some boards facing outward so that passersby could read them. We received the feedback to paste a number of chart papers together and make a consolidated newspaper. I started going around the venue asking people to contribute articles and discovered the challenges with a group of mainly illiterate folk. In many cases, I asked people to get someone to write down their opinions, but that didn't always happen. I also tried to get some people to draw – my idea was to make cartoons. But most people had no concept of cartoons and even that was challenging. I ended up drawing my first cartoon ever! Overall, we managed to get a decent paper together.

Dwiji was busy presiding over the cooking (surprise, surprise!). A number of women kept asking me throughout the day whether we were married or brother and sister, whether we had children, who cooked at home etc. etc. I also got a lot of ribbing from Bitoli and her enthusiastic group for 'allowing' Dwiji to grow a beard!

Starting with a victory!

2009-01-22T13:41:00.002+05:30

January 16th

While we were preparing for the dharna in Sitapur, efforts were underway in Lucknow, mainly through Arundhati Dhuru, to get the order for payment of unemployment benefits issued. And these were successful - on the morning of the 16th, Hindustan Hindi reported that the Commisioner at the Ministry for Rural Affairs had signed the order to release almost Rs. 15 lakh in unemployment benefits and it had been sent to the District Administration. My first reaction to this news was that we could call off the dharna. But during further discussions, it dawned on me that the struggles of workers at the village and block level to get work, get new job cards, be paid for work already done etc. did need resolution.

We set off to the dharna site to find the shamiana up and a few villagers already there. Action picked up around 2 pm, with speeches, slogans and songs. Richa talked about the order issued in Lucknow. The Sangathan hadn't received a copy yet. Further, there were 9 more demands that had to be met. Should the dharna be called off? The answer was a resounding no!

At some point, I took a break to have a snack – the villagers had brought food from home, but we hadn't cooked anything. When I came back, it was to find that the P.D. (Program Director) had read out the order on unemployment benefits with the list of recipient villages and the amount to be paid out! Officials at the Collectorate have finally learnt that all such announcements need to be made in public, in front of the Sangathan, rather than privately with one or two representatives...

January 17th

The victory over unemployment benefits is not a small one – this is the first time such a payment has been announced in Uttar Pradesh and perhaps the only place where a committee with equal representation from the aggrieved parties was set up. To celebrate, a victory rally was planned at noon. But first, the negotiation team went to parlay with the CDO. They came back with disappointing news – the CDO had promised to look into the issue and had not offered any concrete proposals.

Anyway, the rally set out with all of us standing in 2 lines and streaming out onto the road. The two lines spread out and effectively blocked traffic. We first went to the nearby Gandhi statue to offer our prayers and commemorate the Father of the Nation. We then headed to the market area, chanting slogans and distributing pamphlets about the issue. In the market, the head of the Merchant's Guild, who has been supporting the Sangathan, showered flowers on all the marchers.

I was at the rear of the procession, helping to keep the line in place and prevent any vehicle from entering between the marchers. We didn't have a mike due to a last-minute snafu, so all slogans were chanted with sheer lung power. Different Sangathan saathis took up the lead in chanting slogans and others enthusiastically joined in. The way in which people struggling for their daily existence have taken ownership of the Sangathan is truly heartening.

Preparations for the heart, mind and stomach

2009-01-22T12:51:00.002+05:30

On 11^th and 12^th January, I attended the regional meetings in Qutubnagar and Pisawa. Here, plans for the dharna were again discussed – the wheat flour, rice, potatoes etc. each village would be contributing, dos and don'ts during the dharna etc. A good amount of time was also spent on other issues such as compensation for collapsed houses. A number of people still haven't received the Rs. 1500 that was promised for houses that collapsed during the severe monsoon from June to September. Plans were made to submit these lists on the 13^th at the tehsil in Mishrikh.

Another major point of contention was the manner in which work was being conducted at worksites. As a number of people put it, those who had not filed applications for work were still getting it because they are close to the Pradhan. Surbala tried to explain (and I joined in) that we had no way of making this case. If we complained, work applications could be made up on the spot. We need to pick our battles and this one wasn't worth engaging in. Further, if other people were getting work, what is the harm in that? Didn't they need the extra income as well? This point of dissent highlights the divisions along caste and/or party lines that exist in villages and that prevent mass mobilization at the village level. On the bright side, some older Sangathan saathis seem to have understood this and are promoting the message.

One poignant moment occurred in the Qutubnagar meeting when an active Saathi, Prakash, talked about how a group in his village challenged their Pradhan and wrested back the 'commission' he had taken to get old-age pensions and the like done. This group then got the work done legally, without any extortion. Prakash got a pension for his mother as well. One day, when he was away from home, the Pradhan came to his house and demanded Rs. 500 as commission from her. She gave it to him without a murmur! How hard it is to reverse decades of subservience!!

At any rate, the preparations for the dharna were proceeding at full strength. On the evening of the 15^th, a tractor deposited all the collected provisions at the Sangathan office. A whopping 20 quintals (2000 kg.) of wheat flour and rice had been collected, as well as potatoes, salt, oil and other supplies and about Rs. 3000 in cash. What a thrill to start a dharna knowing that you have food supplies for atleast 20 days at hand!

NREGA at work

2009-01-22T12:45:00.001+05:30

10th Jan 2009

Saturday found us accompanying Richa and Sharmaji to a village where a serious dispute had broken out over measurement of work at an NREGA work site. A pond is being dug in a village in Mishrikh and ~150 labourers turned up to work here. As we've seen and heard in many places, the Pradhan's 'chamchas' and cronies were doing less work and getting paid more. This was frustrating the rest of the workers, especially those who are SKMS members. A serious disagreement had broken out and a full-blown fight had been narrowly averted. A few of the Pradhan's 'gang' had used extremely foul language against some women and this had become more of an emotional issue.

At the village, people quickly assembled – work had been shut for the day – and began recounting their versions of the incident. The Pradhan Pati (his wife is the puppet Pradhan), his son and cronies were nowhere to be found, even though they had promised to be there.

A major point of contention was the measurement of work done – the government assessment is that an average worker can dig and remove 70 cubic feet of earth per day and will receive the minimum wage – Rs. 100. If a worker digs less or more than that, he/she will be paid accordingly. Now earlier, the average volume of earth was set at 100 cubic feet. With the downward revision, most workers would be eligible to receive more, but at this worksite, 100 cubic feet was still being used as a reference. Further, the measurement of work done is supposed to be recorded daily in the Measurement Book. Instead, it was recorded only after 6 days. And the calculations showed that most people would be paid Rs. 25-40/day, a number that seems absurdly low.

Sharmaji stepped into the half-dug pond to demonstrate how to measure the volume of the pits each worker or team had dug. This is a simple process – most pits are cuboids, so the volume measure is length x width x depth. But I realized that for semi-literate/illiterate workers with low self-confidence, even this level of math is a challenge. I am sure that they can compute more difficult sums, such as interest on their loans etc. So how to get them to figure out this relatively simple equation? As Dwiji remarked, workshops on muster roll records, measurement of work etc. are in order and a good time and place for them will be the dharna!

Richa and Sharmaji persevered in locating the Pradhan Pati and his son – we finally got them to meet us in Mishrikh in the presence of the Block Pramukh. After some amount of arguing and negotiation, a compromise was arrived at. The main mischief monger would apologize for the foul language he used and would be removed from the worksite. The Junior Engineer for the region would come and independently measure the pits and calculate the wages to be paid out. This process is planned for the 15th – till then, it's wait and see and continue preparations for the dharna...

The road to Sitapur

2009-01-22T12:17:00.002+05:30

6th - 7th Jan 2009

We returned to Sitapur on New Years Eve after an absence of 4 months. Most of this period was spent in traveling – in the US and Canada, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP, Karnataka, Tamilnadu... Dwiji even spent a few weeks in Kerala while I was busy at CHC. So I was ready for a change to mere local journeys – after all, travel within Mishrikh and Pisawa blocks in Sitapur dt. feels comparable to commutes within Bangalore city, maybe better. Though the distances are greater, one is not stuck in traffic jams, breathing in diesel fumes!

The first few days of our return were mainly occupied in acclimatizing to the cold and setting up supplies in the kitchen and one room of the new SKMS premises – we are staying here until we can find a place of our own. I did accompany Reena, Surbala and others to a couple of villages near Mishrikh. The year-and-a-half long campaign for unemployment allowance that SKMS has been involved in is stuck in what should be its penultimate phase. The DM-appointed committee, set up after the December 2007 dharna, came out with its final report on Oct 10th establishing the eligibility of 800+ families for roughly Rs. 15 lakh worth of dues. But, since then, the district administration has been pursuing the usual beaurocratic delaying tactics. Therefore, SKMS is planning an indefinite dharna to demand action on this matter, viz the release of funds to the families as laid out in the report. The current round of village meetings was to drum up support for this dharna in villages in the two blocks.

A committee of 3-5 people from each village were also invited for a 2-day meeting to coordinate and plan for the dharna. The meeting was held at the Mishrikh dharamsala. It was to run from the noon of 6th January to noon of the next day, with as little time spent sleeping as possible! Usually about 60-80 people have turned up at such meetings – this time there were almost 150 people! This did create a few problems with logistics, such as sleeping arrangements, and seating when we had to move inside from the terrace. Also, the even mix of newbies and older hands made it harder to organize the meeting and the agenda. But overall, it was an entertaining mix of songs and slogans (with a lot of people being trained for the same), coordination for the dharna, discussions of other issues and problems and even some scoldings and exhortations. During the past dharna in December 2007, a lot of help and support was requested and given by people in Sitapur. This time, there were more efforts to raise donations in cash and kind (wheat flour, potatoes) from the villages itself. Enough foodstock was pledged to provide food for the protestors for 15 days – hopefully, that will suffice!

While I have spent a reasonable amount of time with the members of SKMS, this workshop provided a lot of new perspectives. Some were quite simple, and given my previous experiences here, logical. After initial problems with people dirtying the toilets, it was quite easy to find an empty and clean one, though there were just 3 available. Villagers here are used to answering nature's call in the open, and they seem to answer it less frequently than us city-bred folks!

A tougher issue, and one that will very likely be a problem during the dharna, is getting folks to cooperate while distributing food, blankets etc. The sad truth is that the members of SKMS are deprived in many ways. When food is being distributed, they think about the children or other family members back home and try to squirrel away some for later. This sometimes results in other people not getting a serving at all, as during the workshop with samosas. At night, the distribution of quilts was similarly problematic. Maybe people just have to develop confidence in the sangathan and in each other. Or perhaps that will always be a challenge.

Anyway, I was sadly reminded of how much food is wasted in marriages, parties and all the other events hosted by the better-off among us. In contrast, during the dharna, due to logistical and economic issues, a simple meal of rotis and 'alu ki sabzi' will be prepared in the evening and just chai in the morning. Some people mentioned how tough it would be to not have anything to eat in the morning and it was suggested that they keep aside some rotis from the evening before. Thankfully, it is winter, with less chances of food spoiling.

The dharna has been finalized for January 16th. My primary responsibility at the time will be with the 'khabar' or news team. We are planning to come out with a daily 'akhbaar' – here's hoping we'll be able to come together as an effective news team!

A balloonist's view of agriculture

2009-01-11T18:40:00.002+05:30

For the past month and a half, I have been hard at work trying to put together a report of all I have seen and learnt in the past 6 months. This was a requirement from CHC - a good one, because it forced me to put down on paper a lot of thoughts that were randomly floating through my brain!

Below is the chapter on agriculture. The context to the 'balloonist' is from a question posed to us at CHC: 'Do you want to be a balloonist or a molecular biologist' referring to two approaches of looking at an issue. I consider the past 6-9 months of hectic travel to be in the balloonist mode of learning!

Since 2004, I have been building my understanding and perspective on agricultural issues in India and throughout the world. In the last few months, I have met a number of groups and individuals working on this issue and have had extensive discussions with them. Following is a brief description of each of these visits:

LEISA project – connecting the dots

In December 2005, Dwiji and I had visited Motaganahalli, a village in Bangalore rural dt., where Prasanna Saligram and others were working as part of AID India with locals on a LEISA (Low External Inputs Sustainable Agriculture) intervention. Back then, their focus was more technical – they were looking at how much biomass was required, what crops to grow together etc. Now, with the implementation of NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) in all districts of the country, the social aspect of this program has increased to getting Panchayats involved and using NREGA funds to pay for some of the off-farm activities such as composting and preparing biosolutions. A new field area: Dhanametapalli in Kolar dt. has been added.

The basic model is as follows: a group of 4-6 landless women are selected to work on leased land to improve its fertility and organic content. In the process, they receive a share of the produce and valuable training that can allow them to become resource-persons or workers on organic farms. The philosophy of work is inspired by Dabholkar's ideas and practitioners like Mr. Renke. The current conceptualization with the social components was done by Mr Datye, an expert who passed away recently.

The challenges in this work are immense, the extremely low levels of the water table, shortage of biomass, good quality seeds etc., dependence on the goodwill of the leasing farmer and now cooperation of the Panchayat and so on. But there has been progress – local leaders have been created at the village level and the project has continued due to their commitment. The women of Dhanametapalli, in particular, were enthusiastic and enterprising. At a point when the work was delayed due to non-availability of seeds, they took the initiative to find out who farmed organically in the area. They visited these farms, learnt some farming approaches and procured seeds themselves! Because of the proximity to Bangalore, selling their produce has been relatively easy as well.

In conclusion, this initiative is worth supporting and learning from. It has pitfalls and inconsistencies, but it has also provided valuable capacity-building. Also, from the beginning, importance has been given to replicability and the larger picture, something that is lacking in many agricultural interventions.

Revathi and TOFARM - where there is no alternative

I first met Revathi in early 2005 in Tamilnadu, while helping her draft a proposal for rejuvenating agricultural land damaged by the tsunami. At that time, agricultural unversity professors were saying that it would take 3-7 years for the land to return to full productivity. Revathi, along with Nammalvar and other people involved in organic farming, wanted to prove them wrong and they did. Of course, whether the farmers involved are continuing these practices is another matter...

Since then, Revathi has continued to work on training trainers and on setting up a model farm near Thiruvarur. More recently, her group has worked with Oxfam in Ampara province in Sri Lanka. The entire province has turned organic, in large part due to the difficulties of supplying fertilizers, pesticides and seeds in this conflict-torn region. A huge challenge from an organic farming standpoint was the lack of domestic animals, again due to conflict. But by using techniques such as green manuring with 15-20 seed varieties, they have been able to make land productive again.

The model farm that Revathi is setting up near Thiruvarur is only a year old, therefore it was an excellent point in time to observe her planning. The land she and her husband purchased is low-lying and often gets waterlogged, therefore it was sold at a cheap rate. Revathi and her team are trying out many innovative techniques to compensate for this. A number of ponds have been dug and the mud from them was used to elevate certain fields. In another place, a zigzag system of trenches has been created with the dug-out soil elevating the space in between them and creepers planted to reduce evaporation in summer. Fish have been introduced into the trenches and ponds – their sale provides income as well.
Revathi's mentor is Nammalvar, one of the pioneers in the Tamilnadu organic movement. He once very beautifully explained to us how it is essential to tailor farming practices to the local conditions. Seeing Revathi's work underscores those principles and provides inspiration for coming up with such approaches wherever we are.

Farming in Auroville

Around the time we were to visit Auroville, we found that some friends from ReStore, a Chennai collective fostering consumer-producer links, were attending a 10-day workshop at Solitude Farm. We decided to attend part of the workshop while visiting other groups at Auroville. The parts we attended included discussions on Fukuoka's methods, digging a soak pit with banana saplings and other seeds and processing of traditional grains. I also briefly participated in making seeds pellets – encasing them in clay to prevent being eaten by birds and insects when broadcasting (no-tilling sowing).

Solitude farm fits seamlessly into the Auroville ethos of living in harmony with the earth. Also, since Auroville markets and consumes a huge amount of organic produce, the market does not seem to be a problem. The farm, like everything in Auroville, seems quite disconnected from the surrounding population. The cook, who comes in from a nearby village, told us: 'What is the point of going through all this trouble to pound, clean and then cook these grains?' Perhaps, because the farming and food practices are so rooted in spirituality, the residents of Solitude Farm and Auroville are willing to work harder, and pay more, for this lifestyle.

BAIF Karnataka – tree-based dryland cultivation

BAIF is one of the oldest NGOs in the country, set up during Gandhiji's lifetime by Manibhai Desai. It works in a number of states across the country. BAIF Karnataka works on a number of issues, but we were primarily interested in the agricultural aspects of their work. They have been promoting tree-based farming as the best solution for dryland areas. We saw two types of interventions. One was with individual farmers, where over a 3 year period, they introduced organic practices such as trenches filled with organic matter, biosolutions etc. A lot of their work has been with mulberry growing in this silk-producing area. Through use of biomass, they have cut down on water consumption significantly.

Another effort has been to rejuvenate huge tracts of land, such as a 100 acre barren area that was distributed among landless families. BAIF provided training, support and funding for 3 years, at the end of which the land is productive and covered with trees. This is quite an achievement, given that many such projects are not successfully implemented. The BAIF staff told us that they paid people to water saplings in the summer and extensively monitored to ensure that they were doing so. In the words of their director, 'such work requires commitment over long periods of time'.

The work that BAIF does requires a lot of funding. They have even signed MoUs with the government in order to implement some of this work, and advocate similar styles of functioning for other NGOs. They do not have faith in local government functioning in an honest manner without inspection by NGOs, but NGO can be as susceptible to corruption as a local official, in my opinion.

Bhaskar Save – the voice of natural farming

In 2007, Bhaskar Save, a famer who has grown using natural methods for decades, wrote an open letter to M.S. Swaminathan about the agricultural crisis in the nation. That letter was an inspiration and we were keen on meeting Bhaskarbhai. We met him a couple of days after Diwali at his farm near Umargaon. A number of pilgrims seem to have found their way here and he now has developed a 2 hour session for visitors! He talked about realizing that he was losing money rather than making a profit through chemical farming because he was spending so much on seeds, fertilizers etc. The understanding that he needed to bring down costs led him to Fukuoka and natural farming. Since then, he has not looked back. His son, Nareshbhai, is also farming organically – the premium these products fetch in the market is also attractive.

Sadly, the area around Umargaon is rapidly getting industrialized. Land prices are shooting up and pollution has shot up. It will be sad if the land that was nurtured carefully for all these decades will be impacted by these new developments.

Becoming the change – individual experiments in farming

A significant path for people aiming to lead more meaningful lives has been agriculture. I have heard of and met people both in India and the US who have given up professional careers, bought land and begun growing their own food. It is an option we have considered too. In early November, we met Smitaben and Dhirendrabhai, a couple who were professors in Baroda. Through a process of reading, discussions and reflection, they decided to live a more sustainable life and moved to Sakvi, a village near Rajpipla. They learnt traditional farming methods from their Adivasi neighbours, who have now ironically moved to chemical farming.

The couple educated their children at home, allowing them to learn what they were interested in. They grow all they need on one acre of their land. The other acre is devoted to trees and is almost like a forest. They provide mentorship and guidance to others interested in taking up farming. If there is regret, it is that they have not been able to do more work with the villagers. But they feel that such efforts would lead them to neglect the land for which they came here in the first place. It was really nice meeting them and their older son. However, I think I would need a lot more patience and humility than I have to live life as simply and steadily as they have!

The farmer-labourer connection

In more than one place, we have heard farmers talking about how hard it is to find farm labourers. 'People don't want to work hard','Men are addicted to drink' etc. are some of the comments I have heard. On the other hand, we know that many in rural areas are poor and underemployed. So why does this situation persist? Visiting Subhash Sharma's farm near Yavatmal might provide some of the answers.

The first thing he has done, which is simple yet profound, is provide employment for his labourers all year round. Conventionally, agricultural work has been seasonal, with a lot of demand during the sowing and harvesting times, but little in between. Subhashji has planned his farm so that there is somthing or the other to do. He provides food and accomodation to his employees and even takes them on early vacations! These systems have allowed him to not only farm successfully on his own land, but also lease others' and make them productive and profitable.

Subhashji mainly grows greens, vegetables and pulses. He sells almost all his produce in Yavatmal, with oly a few items bought by dealers in Nagpur. He firmly believes in selling in the open market as close to the farm as possible. I agree with him on this – food that is labeled organic and sold in the export market defeats the goal of sustainability. Subhashji has been able to make good profits by timing the arrival of his produce in the market, for example, the first methi in the market always fetches a good price, so he plants an early crop even though the yield is low. By incorporating natural farming techniques, Subhashji has been able to reduce his costs and his water usage. The tree cover on his land provided a haven for birds, which naturally control pests. He leaves some land fallow every year to let it 'rest'.

After touring Subhashji's farm, I was stuck with the uncomfortable thought that this kind of planning and practices would be possible only on a large landholding. One would need atleast a few acres to allow some of it to remain fallow, to plant trees etc. Would the labourers on this farm follow these practices if they owned the land? I talked to some of them who have land back in their native village – one said that his son, who farms the family land, grows cotton using chemical methods. I was left wondering how to incorporate some of Subhashji's approaches in a collective of marginal farmers.

10-gunta farming, rooftop gardening – a model for Indian farmers and cities?

I have been reading 'Plenty for all', a book on how everyone can enjoy a good quality of life with juat half an acre of land. The author, Dabholkar's description of Prayog Parivar, a network of people who learn from and teach each other and collaboratively build on existing knowledge. Dabholkar passed away recently, but many people inspired by him continue to work and refine on the techniques he propounded. Even the aforementioned LEISA project draws on some of these techniques, though one problem with them that the group found was the huge biomass requirements in the first year or two.

Anyway, we heard of a rooftop garden experiment by the manager of a Bombay Port Trust canteen, Preeti Patil. The approach taken by her is inspired by the Prayog Parivar. She has been able to convert all the organic waste produced by her canteen into compost and her team grows a number of vegetables using them. While nowhere near producing the vegetables needed daily in the canteen, this effort effectively manages waste and is a green oasis in the dreary Port area.

We also visited Deepak Suchade in Bajwada, MP. Deepakji is Dabholkar's protege and is working on documenting many of these approaches and providing training and workshops. His farm is on the banks of the Narmada and is a beautiful place. Over the past two years, he has transformed his land and has laid out a model of a 10-gunta (quarter acre) farm that will provide for all the food a family needs. Another model that is called the Gangamaa mandala uses all the household wastewater and provides enough fruits and vegetables for a family.

While these techniques are worth learning, the earlier mentioned drawback of huge amounts of required biomass still exists. Further, the principles that Dabholkarji laid out and which Deepakji advocates seem a bit unrealistic. For example, they say that the Gangamaa mandala would yield atleast 2 kg of vegetables every day. One kg. Can be used for domestic purposes and another kg. can be sold. In my opinion, one cannot sell 1 kg. of vegetables unless one belongs to a cooperative that can take small quantities from a lot of people and sell them collectively. To set up such a cooperative is not a trivial task and may not make business sense, but the Dabholkar school of thought does not seem to give much importance to this problem. From a personal nutrition point of view, this approach is very useful, but I am not convinced that this can provide a livelihood for a marginal farmer, let alone a middle class lifestyle.

All these visits, combined with my learnings in the past have now given me the confidence to begin some work on agriculture in Sitapur dt. The farmer-members of SKMS hold small tracts of land, many under an acre. Most have access to irrigation and therefore grow 3 crops a year. The rabi crop is usually wheat, followed by lentils or vegetables etc. In the monsoon, some grow paddy, others corn, groundnuts etc. A lot of sugarcane is grown, though receiving prompt payment from the sugar mill is a challenge. Monocropping is prevalent and soil erosion is extensive. On the nutrition front, there are high levels of malnutrition and anaemia.

There are many fronts on which I could proceed and I plan to explore them in the future months.

Beyond lectures: new ways of learning

2008-11-22T20:16:00.000+05:30

All of us who have gone through the institution of formal education know how easy it is to sit through a lecture, look attentive and not absorb anything! Even with a desire to learn, there is a limit to what can be absorbed and retained in the standard lecture format. In recent years, many innovative methods of learning have been experimented with and implemented in schools and non-formal learning centres, among village-level activists etc. During the orientation and mid-term review at CHC Bangalore, we experienced firsthand the benefits of such approaches.

During the 6+ weeks of sessions in June, July and September 2008, we sang, danced, acted, drew, presented and debated. For me, these interactive sessions often crystallized the content of lectures into valuable insights. One game, in particular, challenged our perceptions of the world we live in and ourselves. This was the monsoon game, led by Ravi Narayan, which we played on the 3^rd day of our orientation. It is a role-play which simulates life in a village. Most participants were divided into 8 upper caste, OBC and Dalit families with varying amounts of land. The huge landholders were all upper or the dominant caste, as is common, while the Dalits were marginal landholders. Other participants were moneylenders, government officials, journalists etc.

The game took us through 7 years of planning what to 'plant' and then 'reaping the harvest' in a good, average or bad monsoon. Those who did not have enough to eat 'starved' and a family that went through 3 years of starvation 'died'. While all this was going on, the moneylender was lending money at exorbitant rates; government officials were announcing relief schemes, very few of which the most needy were eligible for and the journalist was documenting the abuses. Finally, at the end of the game, 3 families were dead and the moneylender had acquired a lot of land!

In the post-game discussion, we realized how easily each of us had fallen into our roles, becoming complacent and often selfish as an upper-caste family and feeling powerless as a Dalit family. We appreciated the difficulty of mobilizing communities that are living a hand-to-mouth existance. We also realized that we had forgotten the activist part of our psyche! We hadn't protested, refused to obey the rules or 'organized'. The game was a powerful tool to make us appreciate the lives of the rural poor.

Dwiji and I traveled through the US in September-October visiting chapters of the Association for India's Development (AID), an organization both of us have volunteered with. While planning sessions on topics as varied as Sustainable Agriculture and Group Dynamics, the games and other activities at CHC provided plenty of inspiration and ideas. We wanted to have more discussions and debates and found that these methods were very effective in getting inputs from participants in these sessions.

While we did not have the time to play something as elaborate as the monsoon game, we tried to come up with a shorter role-play to illustrate group dynamics in the presence of an 'outsider'. The role-play is quite simple – most participants are villagers, while two are the 'change agents', representatives of an NGO. Each person is given a chit that assigns them their role and provides further information that they can choose to share or not share. The background is that the change agents are at the final stage of selecting the village as the site for a new high school which their NGO will manage, but they feel there is something the village is not sharing with them that could impact the success of the project. Their goal is to find out what this 'secret' is. On the other hand, the villagers are vested in seeing the school set up in their village and the resulting benefits. At the beginning, both the change agents and the villagers are allowed time by themselves to strategize – then comes the interaction between the two groups.

We played this game with the volunteers of two chapters and found it was even more successful in illustrating group dynamics and negotiations between groups than we had expected. Hierarchies were formed within the village group and the change agents in both chapters took different approaches – confrontational and friendly - while engaging with the village. We analyzed these interactions later and discussed their pros and cons, comparing them to modes of engagement in the field. Further, a number of issues were raised that were not covered in our initial briefing but are, in reality, important for a school's success. We discussed child and adult education, child labour, migration to cities, public land in a village, mid-day meal schemes and more.

Whether these interactive approaches are more effective than traditional methods remains to be seen. I think they are and we certainly enjoyed planning and participating in them! I hope to benefit from more such games and interactive sessions in the future, whether as just a participant or a co-ordinator and planner as well. In such an interactive process, we all learn and what could be better than that!

At the mercy of Mother Nature

2008-11-22T20:07:00.000+05:30

August 2008

Growing up in Bombay, I thought I understood the downsides of monsoon well – the unceasing rain, the flooding, bus and train delays and cancellations... I prided myself on not just coping but also enjoying the season. Of course, things were much worse for the slum dwellers and people living in low-lying areas. But the rains would eventually stop and things would get back to normal, right? It took spending a few weeks in Sitapur in July-August to really appreciate the short-term and long-term impacts of the monsoon.

Most of the SKMS members are agricultural labourers or marginal landholders. They live in 'kuchha' mud houses with thatched roofs. This year, the monsoon was so fierce that it was, in the words of an SKMS supporter, 'Nature's terror'. All the fields were flooded through July and only the paddy seemed to be surviving. But further downpour through August and during the critical period of harvest damaged the paddy crop as well.

In the second week of August, it poured nonstop for 3 days. Houses, already unstable with the water-logging, began collapsing by the dozen – in some cases just one wall, in others the entire structure. These humble homes provided very basic shelter; with their collapse, people were all the more vulnerable to the elements. In one village, entire families spent days under plastic sheets hoisted next to a statue of Ambedkar, the one area in their 'basti' that was not waterlogged. Fevers, diarrhea etc. were rampant. The spring's wheat crop had been a bumper one and many families had stocked up on grain for the entire year. This grain was now wet, spoiled and mostly unusable.

While all this was playing out, we were hearing of the calamity in Bihar where the Kosi changed track and inundated entire districts. The suffering of the people in the affected districts was unprecedented. Even in Sitapur dt., certain blocks such as Rewsa were completely flooded and people were camped out on the roads and highways. Was the suffering of those people worse than that of the people here? After a point, can one quantify suffering?

We were ourselves staying in Surbala's house in the village of Satnapur. Surbala, through sheer determination and some financial strength, had constructed a concrete 2-room house. Unless there was severe waterlogging, her house was safe. But her husband was sick, one of the walls in her in-laws' house had collapsed and she was busy with personal and SKMS work. We were in a quandary – should we leave 10 days from now as we had planned or leave earlier? If we stayed, should we move to a hotel in Sitapur? Our utility to the sangathan was limited – we could help out with the applications for compensation for all those who had lost homes and property, but there were more experienced people already doing that. We could not work on long-term projects in this emergency situation. So we decided to leave early. It did not feel good to leave at such a time...

The rains have now stopped in Sitapur. It is likely that the damage to families' food stocks will have an effect in the coming months, though work through NREGA can mitigate that. It is to be seen how the winter will be. We will be back in Sitapur then and will hopefully contribute in a better manner than we could in the midst of the monsoon fury.

Becoming a 'jhola chhaap' doctor

2008-11-20T16:22:00.000+05:30

'Jhola chhaap' is a colloquial term used to describe informal medical practitioners in some parts of India. These are usually people with some experience with medicines and health care – they may have worked as a compounder with a doctor somewhere or received some formal/informal training or just picked up medical knowledge along the way. But health services are so scanty in rural areas that these people can get elevated to doctor-like status. At CHC, we've had a few discussions about such practitioners – are they just quacks who should be discredited and banned? Or are they providing a valuable resource in the absence of trained professionals? Some groups have been working with such practitioners to improve their techniques – a powerful example is the trainings provided to traditional dais (midwives) to promote safe deliveries, prenatal and antenatal care etc.

The ease at which one can become a medical authority was brought home to me in Sitapur district this August. Malaria seems to be quite prevalent here – exact numbers are hard to come by. In Mishrikh block, only the town of Mishrikh has government and private labs that can test for malaria. The time and expense (including travel expenses and loss of daily wages) involved in the testing process discourage many people from going through with it. We were discussing this issue in the Sangtin Kisaan Mazdoor Sangathan's (SKMS) regional meeting at Qutubnagar and I asked what people did instead. One or two replied that they go to a 'doctor' in Qutubnagar who injects them with some medicine that makes them better.

Many situations have come up in Sitapur where people have taken decisions or acted in ways that I am sure are wrong for them. But I have often kept quiet due to the lack of alternative options for them and because I did not want to get into an indefinite 'lecturing' mode. Even with friends and family in one's socioeconomic strata, we choose to keep quiet during difficult discussions to keep the peace. But here, I decided to speak up and told the group that that was not the right way to treat malaria.

'Then what is the right way, didi?' asked someone. I mentioned chloroquine, the most commonly used drug for treatment or prevention of malaria. The group talked among themselves and more people joined the conversation. A little while later, another SKMS member came up to me and confirmed the name of the drug. By that evening, a number of people had bought chloroquine tablets to stock at home and had told their fellow villagers to come to them if they had 'jaada bukhaar' (cold and fever, the colloquial term for malaria)!

Was this the right thing to do? What if they used the wrong dosage? What if....? I was quite worried at this outcome and wondered if I should have instead pushed these folks to get tested and get proper medical advice from trained professionals. I called Sukanya at CHC Bangalore and the feedback she gave provided some comfort. She suggested that I talk to doctors in the area and the PHC and government staff to get an idea of the malaria situation in the area. Also, CHC would send me pamphlets on malaria, its diagnosis and treatment (written in Hindi) that I could distribute to the group and use for further discussions. 'You gave them the right information,' she added. 'The need for good health services in these communities is so acute that any good information they get can only be beneficial. So don't hesitate to share complete and accurate information – we all have a role to play.'

So this is how, for a short time, I became a 'jhola chhaap' doctor! I expect to fulfill that role again in the future and hope that I will be able to respond in a sensitive and useful manner. After all, when campaigning for 'Our health in our hands' (a message of the People's Health Movement), each of us have to step up to the challenge as best as we can.

In search of a doctor (and the system)

2008-11-20T16:05:00.000+05:30

Again, it's been a long time since I posted - apologies! Also, considering the record length of my posts, I'll try to post shorter, more reflective pieces from now on!

August 2008

The orientation at CHC had given us a thorough introduction to Community Health. But in Sitapur, given that Sangtin Kisaan Mazdoor Sangathan's (SKMS) primary work was in mobilizing for NREGA, I did not plan on sharing my learnings at their meetings. My plan was to discuss these issues with a few people and then see what came through. However Mukesh, who serves in an advisory role with SKMS, suggested that I speak about health at the regional meetings using one or two talking points, thus starting the thought process in this important topic. Other SKMS members concurred, so I raised the issue at the Aug 10th and 11th meetings in Aant and Qutubnagar respectively. We discussed why it is easier, or rather more natural, to work on livelihoods, BPL etc. than on health – we only think about the health system when we are sick, knowledge and power are concentrated in the hands of medical professionals etc.

I asked the assembled people, about 100-150 in each meeting, to think about health-related issues and come up with one or two that they would want to work on. While everyone was mulling over this, a few people raised the issue of malaria. At this, others began speaking up about their own and their village's situation. From there, matters progressed very quickly, and before I knew it, plans were being made to prepare lists of people affected by malaria and to demand action at the block level.

I was not sure what to do with the information being collected, so contacted CHC. Armed with their advice, I went to meet Richa. She was quite concerned with the various illnesses prevalent in SKMS villages this monsoon. She felt that camps should be organized in a few central villages so that all the sick could easily access health services. We decided that I would meet the chief doctor in Mishrikh where a CHC (Community Health Centre) is based.

But first, a brief description of the area: the Mishrikh CHC serves most of Mishrikh block, with some villages as far as 20 km away. The average cost of travel one-way is Rs. 10. If the patient needs to be escorted, travel costs themselves could be as high as Rs. 40. Further, patients need to get to the CHC before noon to get a 'parcha' or token that would allow them to see the doctor, get medicines etc. Transportation in the form of tempos is not very reliable and if one is late, the entire day is wasted. In contrast, Qutubnagar, one of the big villages, is more accessible for the people in that area and has one MBBS doctor who charges ~Rs. 40 / diagnosis and a couple of 'Jhola chhaap' doctors who charge even less. But inspite of this, the Mishrikh CHC is well used as I discovered when I visited it on August 19th.

The chief doctor was not available – he was on leave till the 28th, the day after we were scheduled to leave Sitapur. Further, the situation was dire in many villages – just that morning, we had heard that the entire Dalit 'basti' in Kunwarapur was inundated with both lake and canal water. There and elsewhere, many houses had collapsed and people were exposed to the rains with nothing to protect them but plastic sheets. While I was in Mishrikh, Dwiji had gone to Kunwarapur and was wading through knee-deep water helping to document the damage.

On further enquiry, I found the junior-most doctor on service. He was swamped with patients. While watching him interrogate each patient briefly and jot down a prescription, I was reminded of Adithya recounting his health camp experiences at CHC Bangalore. In such a situation, the doctor can spend at most half a minute on diagnosis. It has got to be dehumanizing to treat patients as if they were parts on an assembly line. I managed to speak briefly to the doctor and ask him what planning the Health department did for malaria and other diseases in the monsoon. He looked at me like I was delirious – 'We are here treating patients – that's what we do!' I then asked what would warrant a personal visit by a team of doctors to a village. 'A serious outbreak of diarrhea or something equally contagious and life-threatening' was his reply before he was engulfed by patients again.

Given the lack of progress at Mishrikh, I went to the District Hospital in Sitapur the next day hoping to get more answers. Here, I was luckier – the additional CMO (Chief Medical Officer) and the Deputy CMO were both in the office and the latter was in a chatty mood. He talked about the staffing problems in the district – there was a shortage of at least 30 doctors. Government service and a rural lifestyle cannot compete with the salaries and career growth possible in urban settings. Currently, even C-sections had to performed in the District Hospital as there was no anesthesiologist at the CHC. They were under-equipped for normal times, let alone catastrophic situations. He then went off on a slight rant about how ignorant and lazy villagers were and how hard it was to treat them. These were comments similar to what I heard the past couple of days from private doctors in Qutubnagar – the path of least resistance in this thankless situation seems to be blaming the victims.

When pushed on health camps, the Deputy CMO said that a team would visit a village only in exceptional circumstances. Usually, there was a good reporting structure in place and news of outbreaks almost always reached them. In fact, in some situations, they had gone to villages and found that the situation there was not as dire as expected. Such visits were detrimental since the team could have spend their time better in the hospital treating the patients who arrived there.

After this discussion, I came to the conclusion that it would be very hard to get a medical team to visit any of the SKMS villages. Other areas in the district were in worse shape – in some blocks, villagers were practically living on the roads as all other areas were flooded. Nevertheless, I communicated this information to the SKMS team and they did try to get a team to visit Kunwarapur.

Two days later, we went to visit Reena and Shammu at Kunwarapur. No medical team had come to assess the situation. But we learnt that, in a nearby village, 7 children had died from diarrheal-related causes the previous day. So much for a good reporting structure...

But given the dire state of the Health system and the realities of rural life here in Sitapur and elsewhere, many such tragedies are in the making...

Potnal ooralli, part 3

2008-08-22T00:37:00.000+05:30

June 27th, 2008

On Friday, the JMS team came up with a good way to give us even more exposure to the land and its people. They divided us into 3 groups and sent us off in different directions with different itineraries. Our task was to map the available resources – housing, access to water, health services etc. and thereby gain a better understanding of how communities become marginalized. Each group would also visit a PHC – the State Health Secretary had recently stated that all PHCs in Raichur dt. were open 24/7 and we were to ascertain whether that was the case.

Our group consisted of Devaputra, a JMS staff member, Obalesh, who is part of JAAK (JanArogya Andolana Karnataka), Ria, Jeyapaul and myself. Our first stop was the Dalit basti in Tornadini. Here, a Sangha and savings group had been formed recently. Like most Dalit parts of villages, this one had narrow streets, small huts and poor drainage. But it had a nice community hall, which now served as the Anganwadi. When we got there, some children were in the hall and their mothers soon joined them. Our discussion started off with a song and a round of introductions. We then asked the women to talk about their Sangha, on why they started a savings group (to save money, was the response) and whether there were any problems they wished to tackle together. They started off by saying they had no problems. But as we asked more and more specific questions, their circumstances began to emerge.

Firstly, their land holdings were meagre. Some were landless and none had more than an acre of land. Men could expect to receive Rs. 50-70 as daily wages during the season while women could earn Rs. 30-40. The minimum wage is Karnataka is Rs. 73 and this was being offered through some NREGA work. But when the lists of labourers were published, only women were listed. Their menfolk discouraged them from taking up the work and thus they could not avail of the better wages. There were also high rates of seasonal migration in the community.

When discussing health services, or the lack thereof, the stories poured out. It seems that the ANM does not visit the Dalit colony for immunizations and does not touch the people here. When they are ill and go to the PHC, they are asked to pay money even though treatment is supposed to be free. If they do not have money, they are insulted and told to leave. In one case, a referral was made to a private clinic for a caesarian delivery, which ended up costing the family dearly. In another case, a woman mentioned that when her daughter-in-law gave birth, instead of receiving a cash payment under JSY, she was asked to pay the doctor Rs. 500!

We had plenty of ammunition for our PHC visit and decided to take the last-mentioned lady along with us. But before that, Obalesh exhorted the assembled group, which now included both women and men, to come together and work for the improvement of their community. He talked about how the Madiga communities in other districts in Karnataka had started in situations similar to these and yet had advanced in education and status. He mentioned that he also came from the same background as these people and remembered childhood deprivations and humiliations. But if he could overcome these handicaps, so could they. Listening to Obalesh speak, I was struck again by how important it is to both empathize with and challenge communities we work with. Of course, nothing beats such a personal and heartfelt testimony!

At the Tornadini PHC, we met with the Medical Officer. We asked him how the PHC was functioning and whether he felt the lack of anything. Like the villagers, he started off saying everything was fine, but under further questioning, admitted that the PHC and its subcentres were understaffed, no lab was sanctioned etc. etc. Of course, he did not admit that the staff (and he himself) were demanding money from the villagers. But he promised to process the payment to the daughter-in-law of the lady with us as soon as possible. He also promised to look into the matter of the ANM not visiting the Dalit colonies.

As we left, Obalesh again tried to convey the importance of standing up for their rights to the village women who had come along. But of course, these aren't lessons learnt in a day!

When we returned to the jeep, we found that our driver was missing. On further enquiry, we learnt that he had got into a fight into someone, and when that person left, got into an auto to chase him! Talk about combativeness!! Thankfully, the rental company had a spare key for the jeep and another driver a few kilometres away.

Our next stop was Donamaridi. The Dalit colony had a much neater appearance here – most of this community is Christian and apparently they have received some assistance to improve their homes and surroundings. But economically, they were worse off. Their land holdings were up to 2 acres but were not irrigated, so all they grew was jowar. Daily wages were as low as Rs. 15-20 for women. For me, the saddest part was listening to the girls who had gathered around me. None of them had ever attended school – their mothers had told them it was unnecessary. Instead, they worked either at home or in the fields. They stared with fascination at my notes. All I could think to do was write each of their names on a loose piece of paper for them – they insisted on me writing down mine as well.

As we were leaving, we saw a number of boys returning from school in their uniforms, bags on their backs...

Our next stop was the PHC in Bagwat. We were accompanied by a woman member of the village Panchayat who is also part of the group set up to perform community monitoring of the PHC. The Medical Officer here, Dr. Patil, is young and energetic, and once he realized we were there to listen, gave us plenty to mull over. He laid out in full detail the problems with this PHC and the area it served as well as with neighbouring ones. The staffing shortage, a common story everywhere, was reiterated here. They still managed to operate 24/7 by having someone on call at all times, but until a few months ago, there wasn't a staff nurse at the PHC, let alone the 3 required for 24 hour operation. He then started on his own plight. He was hired on a contract basis and joined because he was promised a PG seat. He was still waiting on that a few years later. The contract doctors, numbering 220 in Karnataka, were planning on approaching the government asking for permanent posting with accrued benefits for their years of service. If they did not get that, they would leave government service – he would then gladly start a private practice. His native village was close by and he owns 100 acres of farmland there – that was his only motivation for staying on.

He showed us around the PHC, pointing out items like curtains that he and his staff had personally paid for. Apparently, he had spent his own money repairing the quarters he was allotted as well. He had plenty to say about NRHM and its failures at the field level. And when Jeyapaul mentioned HIV/AIDS, one could hear the anger resonate in his voice while he talked about the shortage in disposable syringes and the risk doctors and nurses take in operating on patients and delivering babies without a good supply of gloves and sterile equipment. “Who knows what the rates of HIV/AIDS are here? For testing, one has to go to Raichur. How many people will go?”

Afterwards, we spoke to him about CHC, JAAK, the worldwide People's Health Movement (PHM) and how people needed to come together at all levels to fix the health system. Hopefully, some of that got across because he promised to get in touch with CHC when he was next in Bangalore.

Afterwards, the Panchayat member, Lakshmi, took us around Bagwat. We wanted to walk around the entire village to get a sense of how different communities lived. What a contrast! The Dalit basti here was much better than in the other villages – a number of small cement houses had been sanctioned through the Indira Awas Yojana and were being constructed. According to Devaputra, the community here was more mobilized as well, not in small part due to Lakshmi herself. A young widow, she had struggled to provide for her two sons for years. Now that they were grown up and married, she had taken on community issues, eventually elected to a Dalit seat in the Panchayat.

Rain disrupted our plans to meet with the sanghas in Bagwat, so we took shelter in Lakshmi's house and left for Potnal when the downpour subsided. These were the first rains of the season - a little late, but holding out hope that the monsoon would be normal...

Back at the JMS hut, we found that everyone had had as eventful a day as we did. Lakshmi and others had visited a PDS shop, a PHC in terrible shape and had witnessed a face-off between the village community and an ANM. Varsha's group had met some Panchayat members and seen how the women members got sidelined. They had also received a feast for lunch. The best 'tragic' moment of the day was when Sabyasachi, who was in Lakshmi's group, realized that Varsha and Savitri had got to have fresh grilled mutton and all he had for lunch was rice and sambhar!!

Potnal ooralli, part 2

2008-08-22T00:17:00.000+05:30

Our first visit on Thursday was to a biothermal plant near Potnal. Premdas had never visited it, but had heard that they burn bio-waste to generate electricity. At any rate, we headed there to learn what we could. Like most plants, this was extremely noisy and dirty – a number of workers, their faces completely blackened, were exiting when we entered.

We visited the main control room, got a peek into the furnace and also saw the waste processing facility. Most of the engineers and technicians were Telugu-speaking, from the Hyderabad area. From them, we learnt that the plant generates 7.5 MW (it also receives 0.5 MW to power the magnet in its alternator). It requires 35 tonnes of fuel/hr and 3.5 tonnes of water/hr (the balance of its water needs are met by recycling). The main source of fuel was rice and other grains' husk according to the engineers - though we did hear later that when this bio-waste is not available, they burn wood. The impression we received from them is that they 'manage to get by' – one mentioned that the plant was shut down for a few months for repairs. But others in our group went to another level in the waste processing section heard that they were doubling the plant capacity soon – go figure!

On our return to Potnal, we split up into smaller groups and 'mingled' - the relaxed and familial atmosphere at JMS lured us in. I spent time with the terracota jewellery group – this is one of the income generating efforts launched during the drought years, when there was a need to do more than mobilization. Now 20 women from 2 SHGs work in this endeavour. The women maintain their own records and pay themselves, on average, Rs. 50/day. However, there is a huge backlog on payments because, though they have plenty of inventory, sales are not progressing at a good pace. Their biggest revenue grosser is the 'mela' in Delhi Haat. There are other fairs in Bangalore and other cities where they display their wares. But this is not enough. One possible handicap for the group is that they all speak only Kannada. Therefore they are not able to answer questions in Hindi and English. Premdas and Savitri had been thinking about getting some good posters done which would answer the most commonly asked questions and highlight the social aspects of the products. I offered to photograph the pieces with Dwiji's digital SLR and therefore found myself lugging around a lot of stuff for a weeklong trip. But it did prove worthwhile.

Savitri is one of the CHC fellows and this is her home turf – she grew up in Potnal and started working with the terracota group after completing her Std. X exams. Her elder sisters and even a younger one got married off before they turned 15. That Savitri managed to carve her own path (she has completed her BSW) is a testament to her determination.

After lunch, Premdas managed to herd us together for a discussion with the herbal medicine group – this is yet another income generation scheme with 14 women from different SHGs. When the program was first conceived, 4 women were sent to different places to get trained in health and herbal medicines. Later, more women were trained in Bangalore and local trainings continue on a regular basis. The health workers have combined the knowledge they acquired from their elders with what they learnt in Bangalore and other places and, in some cases, have developed their own cures. They shared some of their recipes with us along with the medicinal value of various plants. The tonics, hair oil etc. are bottled and sold in the melas, but their biggest sales are during their clinics held every Thursday and Sunday. These are market days in Potnal and people pour in from all the surrounding villages. Some of them make their way to the clinic. An amazing achievement of these health workers has been their ability to bridge the caste gap – high caste people will come to get treated by these Dalit women. It also shows how effective they have been and how renowned they have become.

Our next meeting was with the teachers and students of Chilipili. Earlier this school was operated as a day school, moving to a different village each year. But a few years ago, SSA and NCLP provided funding and mandates for residential schools for ex-child labourers. Then, Chilipili found a home in the JMS hut. Just like the school in Prakashpalya, children are taught for 1-2 years in a bridge school setting. Some of the funding Chilipili receives from NCLP was elaborated on. Rs. 11 is provided for food/day/child. This does not allow for much fruits and vegetables, though the JMS cooks do provide some vegetables every day. I found it ironic and sad that none of the employees – teachers, accountant, ayah or cook – is provided a minimum wage. The maximum paid is Rs. 2000 p.m. to the teachers. Navnirman Trust, the trust supporting JMS, does supplement this salary, but how conveniently the government ignores its own laws by cloaking it in terms like 'honorarium' and 'contract work'!

Chilipili refers to the sound birds make and the goals of everyone involved in the school is to make the children as cheerful as birds. And I think they have succeeded. The kids have all also learnt such beautiful songs – many of them original and some that teach them about the country etc. Some of us, especially the crooners in the group, began to feel a little sheepish that most of the songs we knew were timepass Hindi film numbers!

Later, we headed to the market which spilled over throughout the village - the main street, the side streets and an empty space in front of a temple. We managed to get our fix of junk food and also some local mangoes.

The final trip of the day, which in hindsight should have been avoided, was to meet with the women of the neem fertilizer group, the third and last income generating venture of JMS. We sat in the trailor of the JMS tractor and were driven a few kilometres to the village of Muddanagudi. By the time we went around the village once (and were invited into numerous households), it was quite late. The women had spent the entire day collecting and drying neem seeds and were too tired to have a meaningful discussion. We did learn that this venture is reasonably successful and that it is the most local of all the 3 ventures – nearby farmers purchase the fertilizer. It was a tired lot that returned to the JMS hut and turned in for the night.

Potnal ooralli (in the village of Potnal)

2008-07-17T10:20:00.000+05:30

June 25^th, 2008

We reached the JMS (Jagruta Mahila Sangathana) premises in Potnal, Raichur dt. on Tuesday night and woke up to the sound of children busy at their morning tasks. A child labour school is run in JMS and the room we were sleeping in was usually used by the boys who had slept in the hall instead.

After our breakfast, we were introducted to the JMS staff. The organization was formed by 8 people in 1999 – 4 from within the area and 4 from outside. Today the locals run the organization with a little help from the outsiders, including Premdas who is now with CHC. There are 6 Sanchalakis – convenors of the village sanghas, plus 3 teachers in charge of the school and a cook with 2 assistants. JMS started its work in 4 villages and now operates in 20 villages with 40 sanghas and a membership of about 800.

The challenges of working with Dalit women in Raichur dt., one of the most underdeveloped areas of Karnataka, was elaborated on through numbers and anecdotes. The literacy rate is about 1% among these women, most are landless or have less than 2 acres of unirrigated land and they face discrimination and even violence from upper castes. Further, being women, they face violence at home and get less than half the daily wage that men receive. A 3-year drought in recent history led to large-scale migration from the area. However, since forming Sanghas, the women have been able to unite and mobilize against injustice. In one incident, a woman was paraded naked in her village as a 'punishment'. The JMS women protested for action against the offenders and even managed to shut down Potnal, a big-sized village with plenty of shops, for a day. Legal action was taken and the woman received compensation. Another time, JMS organized a habba (festival) that was attended by the local MLA. The women demanded that he sanction funds for a road and he agreed. Their menfolk were unhappy with their actions and refused to cooperate, so the women began digging the road themselves. Their most notable achievement, in my opinion, was their action against harvesters - these machines were taking away the livelihoods of families already under distress. Their mobilization led to harvesters being banned throughout Raichur dt., a first in the country.

Later in the day, we met with John, a post-doctoral fellow from the University of London. He has been visiting Karnataka for the last 3-4 years, studying the impact of post-Washington consensus on PRIs and government programs at the village level. In brief, his conclusions are that the withdrawal of the state, which has been cloaked in 'governance at the village level', manifests itself through the poor technical support given to projects, understaffing, systemic corruption and the transformation of NGOs into contractors. He talked about how civil society is being depoliticized and neoliberalized. He also analysed the performance of NREGA and NRHM. I felt that the work and analysis he was doing needed to be shared in wider platforms than just academia and he replied that he was doing that to a certain extent and looking to disseminate his findings more widely.

Afterwards, Premdas led a session on Hyderabad Karnataka. The districts of Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur, Koppal and Bellary were all under the Hyderabad Nizam's rule. In fact, they received independence on September 17^th, 1948, more than a year after the rest of India. The Nizam retained the feudal system and the effects of this can still be seen today in terms of the huge inequities in land holdings. For example, a sitting MP, Rajarajeshwari, owned more than 10,000 acres. After 4 years of protest, she distributed just 100 acres of her land, that too of poor quality. In contrast, in coastal Karnataka, tillers in the lands of absentee landlords wrested control of the land after the Land Reforms Act was passed by the Indira Gandhi government. In Raichur, after the TB dam was built, land values further increased and there was even more encroachment by the landlords. In the earlier session, one Sanchalaki had talked about some rudimentary toilets the women had built, more to give themselves privacy than for hygiene purposes. This is directly attributable to the overuse of land.

We also spent some time going over statistics on health, education etc. in various districts in Karnataka. The districts of Hyderabad Karnataka were almost always at the bottom of the list. A lot of money has been pumped into these districts but has had little impact in the light of the strong structural inequities in place. However, the work done by JMS and other organizations in the district have shown that even in such situations, some change can be brought about through collective action.

As the day drew to an end, the shouts and laughter from the children drew us outside into the yard. As is common throughout India wherever there is a little place to be had, a cricket game was in progress. Jeyapaul, Sabyasachi and Lakshmi jumped into the game almost instantly with full enthusiasm. I stood around watching for a while until I noticed that only boys were playing and a group of girls were watching them. This wouldn't do! I went up to them and suggested they also play, at which they turned around and asked me to teach them a game! I was stumped for a minute, then remembered wishing I could play 'lagori' recently. Varsha joined in as did one of the schoolteachers, Sakeena. The game was played furiously – Varsha is as competitive as an eight year old – and I had an amazing time.

Later that night, when the children were saying their nightly prayers, Jeyapaul taught them a song that goes:
'Every single cell in my body is happy
Every single cell in my body is well
I thank you God, I feel so good
Every single cell in my body feels well'
complete with action and repetition at different speeds. What a fun little prayer it was!

Mining wealth and poverty

2008-07-12T18:53:00.001+05:30

23^rd - 24^th June 2008

Week 4 of our orientation was a field trip to Bellary and Raichur districts. We spent the first 2 days in Hospet in Bellary district. Our guide for the first day was Bhagya, a coordinator with SAKHI, an organization working with SC/ST women in Koppal and Bellary districts. In some areas here, the literacy rate of Dalit women is less than 10%! There are also high rates of child labour and child marriage and the Devadasi system still hasn't lost its stronghold here. SAKHI is trying to counter all this with counselling, dialogue, meeting young girls in hostels and working with them to improve the facilities etc. They've had success stories of girls going on for postgraduation and some getting government jobs etc. SAKHI has also been handling rape and abuses cases both legally and socially.

We then began discussing an issue very close to Bhagya's heart – mining. In the past 8-10 years, Bellary dt. has been transformed by the proliferation of mining operations. There are now atleast 138 open-cast mines in the district. It is very hard to campaign against them – in 2003, there were some farmers' protests. But 2 years of drought followed, so though these farmers realized the ill-effects of mining, they often ended up leasing their land for this purpose. For local organizations to work on this issue would be tantamount to suicide – already SAKHI's quarters have been raided because they had filmed some of these operations. Now, after the most recent state elections, the situation is even more intractable. One of the big mine owners in the area was elected as an MP and is now the Health Minister!

The SAKHI members talked about the health effects of mining. Deep shaft mining contains the dust generated to some extent, but open-cast mining is at the surface and does not allow for any protections for nearby areas. Rates of respiratory disease are on the rise, especially TB. Historically, this area was under the Nizam rule and has poorer health facilities than the rest of Karnataka. So the people face a double burden, unable to access good government health services – even the TB hospital in the area was closed recently. And then there is the psychological toll that the sudden influx of cash into a few hands has created in Hospet and other towns...

After the discussion with SAKHI, we headed out to visit a mining operation. As we discovered, open-cast mining can be done with very little machinery – in its simplest form, a JCB unearths a heap of soil and then workers sift through these to collect stones that might have iron ore. The stones are later sorted by weight – the heavier ones more likely to contain ore – and sent to a refinery. A little more equipment is required on hills – we saw hills in the process of being razed to the ground bit by bit.

The landscape in these areas is coated by red dust – whatever trees and shrubs still survive are struggling. And in these conditions, men, women and children slog on for indeterminate periods of time because they are paid for the amount of stones they can sift out. We chatted with a few people who were working at one operation – they said they got Rs. 10 for a small bag of stones. They can collect anywhere from 10 to 20 bags a day. They said that these were better wages than they were getting in their villages – a lot of them were from neighouring districts, some in Andhra. But there were also people from Tamilnadu, Maharashtra and beyond. Almost all the groups working in this mine were entire families, with children of all ages at the mine site and those old enough to lend a hand working. While we could clearly see children as young as 8 working, they told us that they were 16 years old...

While meeting these people was insightful for us, I felt very uncomfortable. Here we were - a huge group of well dressed people, clicking away, taking photographs without asking permission or even thinking it was necessary and intruding into others' lives. And while we saw these people as victims of a system that neglected their needs and then forced them to work in such conditions, was it fair of us to objectify them? A number of them had made a rational decision to work there. As they said, there was very little work in their native towns and villages, so by working here for a few months, they would make a good amount of money. Later Sabyasachi, who has lived in Jharkhand, made a strong case about tribals making an economic decision to work in mines even though they may be doing reasonably well in their native villages. Though I didn't fully agree with his analysis – this could be a forced choice – I feel we have to deal with more sensitivity in such situations. Otherwise, we will also be guilty of having engaged in social tourism...

In the afternoon, in a study of contrasts, we went to visit the Tungabhadra dam. Or as it referred to locally, the TB dam. Thanks to earlier politicization and AID discussion, I had been sensitized to the folly of big dams. But many of my co-fellows had developed a change of perspective. Now, the number of displaced villages and the area of land submerged took on a new meaning. Now all the proclamations about the importance of this water for irrigation seemed hollow – more and more of this water is being diverted for mining operations and urban use. We sat at the dam site, discussed what we had seen, sang songs and hopefully put in some good karma at a place of short-sighted plans and massive folly.

The next morning, we visited various interventions of the Punyakoti Trust. This trust was set up by a psychiatrist, Dr. Ravi, and has been working on alcohol and tobacco de-addiction, community psychiatry etc. In their alcohol and tobacco de-addiction programs, they make sure to involve the entire family and try to find jobs for rehabilitated individuals. Their new intervention is very interesting – they have contacted all private GPs in Hospet and now a social worker will be present once a week in most clinics. The job of this social worker is to be present during diagnosis and assess if the patient has a mental illness. A lot of studies are claiming that up to 50% of the general population suffers from some kind of psychological disorder at some point in their life. This effort could be clubbed as one to weed out the psychological from the physical and treat the patient accordingly.

Later, we visited Manochetana, a school for mentally retarded children run by Punyakoti. Here, about 20 children are looked after by staff and volunteers fro half a day while other children are brought in for therapy. The center has been running throgh community support and with a percentage of Dr. Ravi's earnings. The school is very thoughtfully built, with a lot of green and yellow, supposed to be visually soothing and plenty of uneven structures to provide mental and physical stimulation.

Dr. Ravi joined us later to discuss this and other efforts he has been involved in. According to him, in all of Northern Karnataka, with a population of about 1.2 crores, there are just 12-15 psychiatrists (most of them in the Hubli-Dharwad region) and ~30 beds for psychiatric care. This is woefully inadequate. But given that most psychological disorders can be alleviated by counselling and 45% of these disorders can be treated by people receiving paramedical training, there is a lot that can be done in the community. Therefore, people have been trained to identify mental disorders – people with physical disabilities have proven to be particularly adept at this – and ANMs, anganwadi workers, BSW graduates etc. have been trained to provide counselling or referrals. Punyakoti has even worked with women suffering from domestic violence, providing counselling if alcoholism is the problem, referring the family to legal services if mediation is possible and referring them to court if not.

We asked Dr. Ravi about the effects of increased mining on mental health and mental retardation. While the former can be easily linked – migration, a sudden influx of cash and environmental degradation can all lead to stress and mental disorders – the latter is less clear. The mining boom is very recent and it might take some time for it to show up in birth defects. Ravi did mention that a rough survey of Hospet indicated ~330 mentally retarded children in a population of 1.5 lakhs, which is slightly higher than normal.

All in all, an impressive array of work in a field and region that is grossly underserved...

After our time with Punyakoti, we had a few free hours that we decided to spend visiting Hampi, which is just about 15 km from Hospet. The capital of the once-mighty empire of Vijayanagar was a sight to behold. For ruins of this magnificence (it is designated as a UNESCO world heritage site), there were few visitors. Fields of sugarcane and banana dot the landscape as do huge rocks. In a few cases, a little exploration showed us yet another temple hidden from the casual eye. I was left wondering how this empire settled on a capital that was in such a dry region. Yes, there was the Tungabhadra, but these ruins were some distance away from the river. But then discussion revealed that this kingdom traded extensively in gold mined from the Kolar gold fields. Yet another rags-to-riches story based on mining? I'll have to revisit Indian history books!

Bettasivanna and Kaveri

2008-07-12T15:53:00.001+05:30

16th - 17th June 2008

We were to head to a village called Prakashpalya for lunch in the afternoon. This is where Holy Cross operates a school for former child labourers. It was nearly 1 pm when we reached the school and as we were approaching, we could see all the children lined up outside in the afternoon heat. Some of them started playing band instruments as we approach, with the drummers being extra enthusiastic. The children escorted us inside the school and assembled in a room to give us a little welcome program. They performed very well and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Later we had a round of introductions of the visitors, the teachers and the children. We had asked the kids to tell us where they came from and what they wanted to do when they grew up. For the boys, the most common answer was 'police' and 'military', though some did say 'master' and one or two wanted to be lawyers. For the girls, it was either 'sister', 'teacher' or 'housewife' – a few said 'doctor' and one surprised everybody by saying she wanted to be a bus conductor! There were some older girls in the age group 14-18 years. They were being provided vocational training in tailoring, baking etc. Even this training is covered through NCLP.

The headmaster, Mr. Ravi, talked about the school mission, activities and the children. It seems they hold a parent-teacher meeting every few months and in general they do not encourage the parents to visit often. The most frequent a parent visits is twice a month – most are less frequent. We asked about that and he cited financial difficulties on the parents' side also being a factor. He said that most parents were happy with the facilities their children were getting and grateful for the opportunity of an education. The children stay in this school for upto 2 years – this is geared to be a bridge school – and afterwards are mainstreamed in residential schools. The teachers do follow up with children who have left, meeting with them and helping out in personal and educational difficulties.

Soon it was time for lunch and we left for a delicious meal. Though the children had fewer items than us, they still got more variety than I have seen in many a rural setting. One of the kids' activities is square metre gardening – they grow a good share of the vegetables they consume. The school also has a papaya grove and the children get to eat the fruit a few times a week. Overall the facilities were well-maintained and cheerful and the children did seem to be happy there. However, there are runaways – just the previous day, a child had vanished. The school does try to check whenever possible if the child has returned to his or her parents, but then do not force the child to come back.

Our long day was far from over – we left to go to visit one of the Health Promoting Schools that the Hannur Program is working with. The school building seemed quite new and there was also a hostel nearby. There seemed to be just one teacher for 3-4 classes and he assembled all the children from Std. 1 to 3 in one room. The body language of these children could not have been more different from the children in Prakashpalya. Where those kids seemed curious, confident and noisy, these were eerily quiet and looked terrified of all the strangers in the room. Karibasappa, one of the CHC fellows, tried to engage them in various activities for a while (he used to be a teacher) and they followed and even seemed to enjoy them. But once done, they returned to their silence and didn't answer any questions about the health and nutrition related activities they had participated in last year. Their master did seem quite intimidating, walking around outside with his stick tap-tap-tapping on the ground. We all left the room feeling a little depressed.

Our next meeting was in another room in the school with the local farmers' group. This group was set up to facilitate various activities that farmers need help with, whether it be bank accounts or applications with the district officials etc. We had earlier seen teacher Karibasappa in action and now we got to see leader Kari in full force. He exhorted the farmers to think about why they had come together and what they could achieve as a sangha. One of the members of the group, a CHW, had told us about the problems they faced with health issues and he talked about what they were entitled to receive from the government. The road connecting their village to the nearest town was in bad shape – they should take up that issue together and demand improvements. Further, most of them were Adivasis – a lot of government schemes had been devised for them, at least on paper, and it was up to the people to use them for their benefit. His speech breathed energy into a muted lacklustre meeting – I for one had been dozing off earlier, but what's new about that?!

Our last visit in a very long day was to Rajappajinagar to meet a lantana furniture maker and his sister who helps him and also works as a CHW. Lantana furniture making was conceptualized in this region by ATREE with the goal of protecting bamboo, which is endangered, and keeping lantana, an invasive species, under control. Lantana furniture seems less sturdy than bamboo – the stems are more slender – but they are still quite elegant and definitely affordable in an urban market. But that in itsef is a problem – accessibility to markets. Bangalore is far away and such a sophisticated market requires more consistency and perfection than this furniture maker can manage currently. Currently, this furniture maker is selling his goods in smaller markets which are more forgiving, but that is not enough to earn him a good livelihood. But he manages...

Then the sister, Jedemadhamma, began talking about her health work and this was easily the highlight of the day. She recounted learning about herbal medicines and treating the village folk inspite of their initial scepticism. She was married in childhood and doesn't remember her husband – she only knows that he died young, after which she returned to her native village. Become a CHW has given her unparalleled respect, given her socioeconomic status. For her work treating illnesses and assisting in childbirths, she might receive a blouse piece or some few handfuls of ragi. But the satisfaction she receives doing this work is clearly visible.

This is a remote place, less than a kilometre from the forest that forms the border of Karnataka and Tamilnadu through which the Kaveri flows. The Soliga tribespeople lead a hard life – she told us how pregnant women go into the forest to collect timber and produce and sometimes return with their baby in tow! So Bettasivanna might be so named because he was born on a hill and Kaveri might have been born on the river's banks. We left Jedemadhamma's house long after darkness had set in, stumbling a little and marvelling at the lives of these hardy people.

Our tour of the Hannur area didn't end there – early the next morning, we went to visit a village where the watershed program was being implemented. This area is slightly hilly and has experienced massive deforestation in the last few decades. In more recent times, these forests were the hideout of the infamous Veerappan and ironically were better protected because fear of the bandit kept people and logging companies away.

The major work of the program has been to construct bunds, gully checks etc. that would make the water 'walk, not run'. This has been quite successful – farmers contributed their labour and materials and though they preferred straight rather than contour bunding, the bunds have been successful in increasing soil accumulation on the fields. Some farmers have even been able to plant crops where earlier there was not an inch of soil to support them. The next part of the program has been less successful. With trees donated by the Forest Department, MYRADA launches a massive tree planting programme each year. And each year for the past 3 year, the trees have dried up in the dry season and died. Why has this program not worked, I asked, and had work hard on getting an answer. It seems that the root of the problem is that most adults in the village migrate for work in the dry months leaving only their elders and cattle (and sometimes children) back home. So there is no one to take care of the saplings. Animals eat or trample them and that's that. Seems like a problem that can be addressed if the NGO puts some effort into it and the community is vested enough...

We went to visit the village later – it was a stark example of a water-deprived community. They get piped water for half an hour each day and in that time all 80 or so families have to fill up enough water for their daily needs. In this season, before the rains, there aren't any other sources of water. Everyone seemed to be waiting for the rains to come.

We had similar discussions here as in previous meetings, about health, work, government services and migration. These past few days have made me think more about seasonal migration and how it impacts communities' native villages. How hard it is to implement any kind of developmental initiative with this kind of instability!

Our last visit during the Hannur trip was to a day bridge school set up for former child labourers. A lot of these children were from the Muslim community and Urdu speaking, so I could finally chat freely. During our introductions, I ended up saying, as has become usual, that I do not have any one place to call home. This led to an impromptu geography discussion with the kids. The nice thing about this school, like the one in Prakashpalya, was the amount of information displayed on charts and the words written on flash cards and hanging from the ceiling across the room – plenty of visual stimulation. Among the charts was a map of India that was useful in our discussion. There were about 20 kids of all ages in the school and it was interesting to see how they were all learning different things in the same room.

We returned to the Hannur program centre to thank the sisters for their hospitality – the food and fruits they provided were a feast – and pick up our bags to leave. It had been a whirlwind tour but, like with everything else at CHC, had provided plenty of food for thought...

Callings and financial incentives - the motivations for community work

2008-07-11T15:44:00.001+05:30

15th - 16th June

Our first field visit as CHLP fellows was to Hannur, a town in Kollegal taluk in Chamarajanagara, a district in Karnataka that borders Tamilnadu. We left early Sunday morning and arrived there in the afternoon. We had briefly discussed the plight of border districts – they tend to be neglected and usually have lower developmental indicators than the rest of the state. Chamarajanagara continues in this trend, with indicators more like northern rather than southern Karnataka.

In Hannur, a group of sisters of the Holy Cross Congregation run a community health intervention. It was initiated by Sr. Aquinas, a doctor who worked in a nearby Order-run hospital. She noticed the poor rate of retention of TB patients on DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course). Patients who stop the treatment mid-course are more likely to develop drug-resistant TB, which can then spread in the community. She decided to train community health workers to provide follow-up for TB patients. As she and other sisters began their work, they realized that TB was the least of the problems that plagued these rural, mainly Adivasi communities.

Since then, the Holy Cross Comprehensive Rural Health Program at Hannur has trained a number of women in basic healthcare, safer deliveries and herbal medicines. Sister Teena gave us a brief presentation of their work. Beyond training CHWs, the Hannur Program has also organized health camps with GPs or specialists such as opthalmologists and has conducted sessions on health and nutrition in government schools that are designated as Health Promoting Schools. With help from Vellore Medical College (VMC) and CHC, they have developed a Health Information System that collects health data, analyzes the outcomes of specific interventions and makes the case for new ones.

The Program has partnered with a local NGO, MYRADA, to work on watershed development and some income generation activities. It is now actively involved in preventing child labour in the region. Child labour rates are very high in the district and in recent years, NCLP (National Child Labour Project) has focused efforts here. The Hannur Program works to identify children who have begun to work or who are at risk and places these children in a residential school.

This aspect of the Hannur program's work is controversial and Sister Teena was quite open and frank about it. Before NCLP got involved, the sisters would themselves go to meet the child, get the parents' approval for their child's placement through persuasion or with the threat of reporting their illegal action. In some cases, they have paid off bond money if the child was bonded to some landowner, factory owner etc. Now, with NCLP conducting raids and follow-up, their direct intervention is usually not necessary. But problems remain. Sometimes raids net children who are going to school and working evenings or weekends to pay school fees or buy books. The problem is: according to the law, children should not be working at all. Another aspect some of us found troubling was that children are effectively removed from their parental home and have very little contact with their parents afterwards. Sister Teena said that organizations working on the issue have found this to be the best approach.

The patience, strength and conviction exhibited by the sisters and staff when talking about their work was quite impressive. There is limited support within the church, as with most big institutions, for this kind of work that involves learning from the community and adapting to fit its needs. Yet these women soldier on and take satisfaction in every achievement, big or small.

The next morning, we went to visit the MYRADA office in Hannur. This centre coordinates the watershed development efforts in the area and conducts vocational training for TV repair, basic computer maintenance etc. They also provide operational support for a number of Community Based Organizations (CBOs). Most recently, they have started working with Panchayats on Participatory Planning activities.

From their talk, I received the impression that this is a typical NGO, which gets money to implement programs and therefore does them. One thing stood out – the charges for the vocational training. For training in driving, the NGO charges Rs. 2000. This seemed comparable to and maybe more expensive than commercial driving schools. I asked about job opportunities for this and other trainees and learnt that they mostly move out of the area to Kollegal, Mysore, Bangalore etc. and remit money home. How does this benefit the local community? Sure, more money flows into households, but is an NGO necessary for this kind of improvement?

Our next stop was the Hannur Primary Health Centre (PHC). At CHC, we have been learning about the basic amenities that government health services must provide and received a questionnaire that is being used by groups involved in community monitoring. We started our visit with the PHC Medical Officer (MO). This person was quite uninterested in us until he realized that Sukanya, who was coordinating this trip, is a doctor. Then he wanted her to be seated and have a cup of tea, which she very politely refused! He gave us some details of the PHC's operation and gave us permission to tour the facilities. All through our discussion, he continued treating patients, which was quite an education for us...

This PHC used to conduct minor operations but now is only restricted to deliveries. As with most other PHCs, it is understaffed – the lab technician and pharmacists alternate their time between this and another PHC. However, it had a functioning lab where we observed a simple haemoglobin test. They also conduct tests for various infectious diseases including TB. The pharmacist showed us their ice box which is used to store vaccines. It is able to maintain the correct low temperature for up to 24 hours without electricity. There are smaller ice boxes that the ANMs take with them on immunization days.

Later, the Block Health Officer (BHO) talked to us about his tasks. He is responsible for checking water sources to make sure they are fit for drinking, monitoring for malaria and other outbreaks, working with Village Health and Sanitation Committees (VHSCs) and more. He elaborated on the staff shortage – 4 of the ANM positions and 6 of the Male Health Worker (MHW) positions have not been filled. Each ANM is responsible for running a subcentre – if there is a shortage, many are responsible for 2, which means that many subcentres cannot open every day. The technician, pharmacist etc. shortages are rampant. Even this BHO is responsible for 2 blocks. With conservative thought dominant in India and throughout the world about the 'inefficiency of government' (paradoxically, alongside huge government programs), there is a deep reluctance to hire staff. This then leads to failures in the Health system, overworked employees and low morale. However, the BHO was still quite upbeat and positive about his work – kudos to him.

Finally, we went to see the delivery room with the staff nurse. There had been a delivery just that morning and the room still had a strange smell to it. A sterile delivery kit had been used and the room in which the new mother and her baby lay was in reasonably good condition. There has been a large drive nationwide to encourage institutional rather than home delivery. Families receive a cash allowance on the birth of a child, which is higher if the delivery is in the presence of a trained physician and also higher if they are Below Poverty Line (BPL). This scheme is called the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY).

In Karnataka, the new mother also receives a kit with a blanket, some clothes for the child etc. under a scheme called Madilu. We looked at a few of these kits. Finally, we talked briefly with a few ANMs. They looked so young, barely out of girlhood! Later, we learnt a snippet of history from Ravi (Narayan) that helped put this in perspective. After independence, one of the first needs of the young nation was to establish medical and nursing colleges. Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, the first health minister, pushed for training older married women as nurses. The dai tradition was strong and continues to be strong in India. As a rule, dais have experienced childbirth themselves. This helps them to be more empathetic to the to-be mother's pain. Further, by their age and experience, they have some respect and following within rural communities. How could young girls, fresh out of school, be expected to talk about family planning, child rearing techniques and more in rural India? But Nehru, in his continuing fascination with the West, vetoed this idea and the tradition of training girls right out of school was established. What a pity!

Everything is connected to health...

2008-07-10T15:38:00.001+05:30

June 2nd – July 5th 2008

In the second half of May, we went on a family vacation to Kerala with Dwiji's parents, brother, sister-in-law, sister and nephew. It was good fun and the longest purely touristy vacation that I've taken in India. The sociopolitical part of my mind was on partial hibernate, though it was active enough to think about the negative aspects of tea estates around Munnar. The spice gardens of Thekkady seemed better, especially because of the number of small landholders. And the backwaters of Allapuzha brought forth all kinds of thoughts about land reclamation, intensive cultivation and the instability of such places in light of global warming...

I had been selected as a fellow at Community Health Cell (CHC) and started the orientation on June 2nd. I learnt a lot in the following 5 weeks and will not document it all here. Instead, following is a brief report I submitted at the end of the orientation. I will also post detailed reports of the field trips we made to Hannur, Hospet and Potnal.

CHC Orientation

Having only a vague idea about CHC, I started CHLP with very few expectations beyond getting a grounding in community health. Ravi (Narayan) mentioned in one of his sessions that he thought of CHC as a 'sarai' that provided some space and time to fellow travellers. That is perhaps the best way to explain my viewpoint when I started the program. However, the orientation turned out to be much more than that.

Starting off, the CHLP fellows of 2008-09 couldn't have been better chosen. The diversity in ages, backgrounds and interests of the fellows was impressive, to say the least. There is a lot we can learn from each other and I hope we can manage that during the course of the fellowship. The 'group lab' session and the group assignments helped build connections and the time spent together during the field trips also allowed us to interact to a greater extent. We have learnt much more as a group than we would have individually, I believe, and that has underlined the importance of 'community' in community health.

The sessions that made up the orientation program could be broadly divided into the following categories:

Overviews of concepts such as Primary Health Care, globalization and the public health approaches to disease.
Specific topics of interest, for e.g. tobacco, non-communicable diseases, immunization.
Analysis of existing structures or approaches, for e.g. understanding social movements, the lacunae in public health approaches to disease.
Personal journeys such as Sunil Kaul's experiences with the ant and Lalitha's description of Tribal Health Initiative's (THI) work.
Field trips to organizations in and near Hannur, Hospet and Potnal.

There were overlaps, of course, and interwoven with most sessions were stories that breathed life into dry concepts and definitions. The breadth of topics and the varying styles of the facilitators kept us on our toes and motivated. I could not have imagined further reading after a long day of classes and yet that is what I often found myself doing!

At the end of the orientation, I have gained a much better understanding of community health as a concept, a philosophy and a uniting issue for mobilization. The ideas that I had about livelihoods, education etc. being connected to health have been solidified with data and examples. The sessions covering the history of community health have provided a foundation, those that were about specific issues have provided detail and the analyses have provided perspective.

The field trips were invaluable for understanding how the issues we talked about manifested themselves practically. At the same time, our field interactions with health and development workers, medical professionals and the community were enhanced by our in-class learning. We understood how to apply the lens of caste, class and patriarchy to various aspects of community work. Due to the presence of experienced activists during our field visits, we also got to see some approaches of interacting with and motivating the community. I realized that even in initial interactions where the focus is on our learning from the community, it does not hurt to share some useful information and to speak from the heart.

Finally, the positive and can-do attitude of everyone we interacted with is heartening. The road to good community health is littered with failures, unavoidable detours and roadblacks. Yet those who are working on these issues have not lost their enthusiasm for it and are motivating entrants into the field. The orientation session has left me brimming with ideas and enthusiasm. My thanks to the CHC team for their untiring efforts!

End of a chapter

2008-05-19T16:34:00.001+05:30

9th - 13th May 2008

As I'd mentioned earlier, Richa had asked me to present my writeup of the organization and the project proposal to the SKMS core committee. The committee members are Richa, Surbala, Reena, Kamala, Shammu, Rambeti, Sunita and Maya with Richa Nagar and Mukesh as advisory members. While Richa, Surbala and Reena are actively involved in all aspects of the organization, the others are newer and have varying levels of involvement in and understanding of the organization. Also, with the varying levels of literacy in the group, most ideas would have to be communicated orally. However, the enthusiasm and motivation of these women and men is very high, so I'm sure they will be equal to the challenge ahead of them.

On the 9th, we gathered in the usual meeting place, the Dak Bungalow in Mishrikh. We started off by discussing what SKMS does and moved on to what it should be doing and how those goals could be achieved. There were a few issues that I needed clarification on and the group did not disappoint. We have often heard that our way of analyzing situations is framed by our socio-economical background, education etc. and therefore we must be very careful not to apply our value system to someone else's life. This meeting gave me a valuable glimpse into this. It allowed me to put a lot of the principles I had reflected upon in a theoretical manner into practice.

The meeting adjourned at 4:30 pm because Rambeti and Maya had to head back to Pisawa before the last jeeps and tempos left. Mukesh, Dwiji and I headed back to Sitapur to brief Richa about it – she had been at another meeting. She had also not planned to attend this meeting to give space for the other committee members to speak.

On another front, a number of stamp papers had been issued in Sitapur dt., presumably to get more false affadavits signed. It was decided that a pre-emptive approach was necessary to stem this. A list of villages where SKMS was vulnerable was drawn up and plans were made for a 'pukka saathi', a seasoned SKMS member, to visit the village in the next few days in order to shore up the confidence of the SKMS members there. A set of 'difficult' villages was given to Richa to handle.

While all this was going on, our current stint in Sitapur was drawing to a close. I had applied for a fellowship at the Community Health Cell and the first 5 weeks of the program would be in Bangalore. Before that, we planned to go on a family vacation with Dwiji's parents and siblings. We found that we could all take time out in the second half of May and plans were made to go to Kerala. Therefore Dwiji and I were leaving on the 13th for Bangalore.

It was hard to believe that only six weeks had passed since we came to Sitapur. We had learnt and experienced so much. We had gained a solid appreciation for the ground realities in Sitapur. The experience also left us brimming with ideas and enthusiasm. This will definitely be the first of many stints with SKMS...

A bend in the road

2008-05-19T16:31:00.000+05:30

7th - 8th May 2008

Our plans for another village meeting the following day were cut short because of a new development. In a number of villages, Pradhan and district officials were pressuring people to sign affadavits saying that they had falsely applied for NREGA unemployment allowance. In a village close to Aant, some villagers had already signed affadavits. So on the evening of the 6th itself, we headed to that village.

Richa and Sharmaji met us there. This was yet another kind of meeting that we got to see, one where the village group was under pressure. There were quite a few arguments among the villagers – a father shouting at his son for signing in his name and another villager asking how on earth they could say no when the Pradhan appears at their doorstep along with other powerful men in their community. There are no easy answers in these circumstances, but Richa did an amazing job exhorting, chiding, reasoning with and inspiring the assembled crowd. Finally, after all the discussion, a plan was made to submit a complaint to the SDM the next day.

We left the next morning for Mishrikh and a group of villagers met the SDM and submitted their complaint. Later, Dwiji and I returned to Sitapur. Richa and Sharmaji were discussing the ramifications of this development. Since all these people had already given sworn statements to the investigation committee about their eligibility for unemployment allowance, it was unlikely that these affadavits would make a difference in the official process. But perhaps the Pradhans were planning to go to court. At this point, everything was speculation and conjecture.

Richa, Dwiji and I discussed the Kunwarapur meeting. She recommended that we meet with all the core committee members and discuss the project proposal. Some of the members were new, most of them were barely literate, so I would have to come up with ways of communicating what I had written down about the group and its planned activities.

Later in the night, Richa got a call from an SKMS member in a panic. He had been out in his orchard when a group of people close to the Pradhan came and started yelling at and threatening him. He had run away from that spot and into the village where his friends and family were. At the same time, another villager there who is part of SKMS had been arrested on trumped up robbery charges. Things were heating up, indeed...

It was decided that Richa, Sharmaji and Dwiji would go to the village and Reena would meet them there. I stayed back to keep the numbers down and get my other tasks done.

The arrested villager was released very soon – it was quite apparent to the SI (Sub Inspector) that the charges were trumped up. Richa and the others then proceeded to the village where they had a long discussion with both parties in the previous night's conflict. What seems to have been happening as SKMS's work progresses is a realignment of the power structures within villages, which upsets those that prefer the status quo. In some places, SKMS members are more sensitive to the situation and are able to defuse situations before they erupt into conflicts. In other places, SKMS members are either less sensitive or more hot-headed! Well, all part of growing pangs of an organization or increasing self-assertion of the oppressed, depending on one's point of view...

On the road to participatory planning

2008-05-18T13:33:00.005+05:30

5th - 6th May 2008

Richa and I returned to Sitapur on May 1st while Dwiji arrived 2 days later. Reena had made plans for us to spend some more time in the villages and so we set off for her house on the 4th. I had been working on a project proposal for the group and wanted to talk to the dairy cooperative to get their inputs on it. There were plans to organize village meetings as well.

On the 5th, we sent out to Vaikunthapur, a village about 8 km from Reena's house. Shammu joined us and the plan was to go by bicycle. Problem was, there were only two cycles available. Now Reena had no problems sitting on the carrier, but I was sure it was going to be uncomfortable. And sure enough, sitting behind Dwiji meant a joyride with no joy in it whatsoever. So we switched and Dwiji and Reena went on ahead. Shammu and I walked for some time, I sat on the carrier wincing occasionally for some time and I rode the cycle while Shammu ran alongside for some time – poor Shammu!

Vaikunthapur is part of a cluster of villages which includes Gopalapur where there are strong SKMS supporters. The group in Gopalapur even brought along a portable sound system and set it up at the meeting place. Groups from the villages of Ramnagar Tevti and Sibiliya attended and the sound system ensured a bumper turnout, so the atmosphere was much more vibrant than at previous meetings. Reena was conducting the meeting singlehandedly so the sound system really helped.

The proceedings did get interesting at some point as the Pradhan's son was in attendance and strongly objected to some of Reena's statements. A fight would have broken out if calmer heads hadn't prevailed. All in all, an interesting time...

While heading back to Kunwarapur, we stopped by in Sundar, an active SKMS member's house. During the conversation, we found that they had harvested a quintal of oats. During our earlier stay in Reena's house, we had eaten powdered oats with jaggery and mango chutney that was delicious. So we asked for 5 kg. of roasted oats. Initially, Sundar's family refused to take any payment from us. We then got into a discussion of how well-off we were, how it wasn't fair that they would charge their neighbours but not charge us etc. They finally accepted our cash and I think we didn't browbeat them into it!

We returned to Kunwarapur to wash up, cook and eat and plan the next day's activities. I haven't talked about bathing in the villages yet, have I? Not having a toilet is something I can get used to, I think – there are plenty of fields and trees in this part of the country. But bathing is an open-air activity in front of the hand pump. Richa advised me to be bold and ask the menfolk to leave the courtyard when I wanted to bathe, but most women can't do that and pretty much have incomplete baths partially clothed. Incidentally, Dwiji chose to bathe one evening at the handpump near the dairy and soon found himself gawked at by half the neighbourhood!

The next day, Reena called a meeting of the dairy cooperative. The dairy was set up in 2004, got funds to construct a two-room building and even got a road to the dairy sanctioned. However, it has not been smooth sailing where the functioning is concerned. Parag dairy in Sitapur is the main buyer of the milk and the relationship with them has had its ups and downs. A big problem has been the transportation of milk. It takes an hour to get to Sitapur and in the event of extremely hot weather or road delays, the milk is spoiled when it reaches the dairy. The cooperative is planning to buy a pasteurizer/cooler but is not sure how to get financing for it. Parag would give them one but would then want to be the exclusive buyer of milk. Getting funding from non-profits is not easy and none of them have the collateral to take on this kind of a loan. Further, they are thinking of value addition in terms of making khoya (condensed milk), ghee etc. They have also been considering composting, given the increased amounts of manure in the village, and sustainable farming.

We sat in Reena's cowshed and talked about this and other issues for hours. I was really interested in finding out how the cooperative helped empower these women. Two or three of them in particular did seem to have found their voice in the past few years. One woman talked about how shocked Parag officials were when they flatly refused to take a pasteurizer from them. Another talked about caste divisions within the village. A question about why I didn't wear a mangalsutra led to talk about the treatment of widows. Finally, we talked about the funding proposal I was writing up and the possibility of an exposure trip for these women to groups that are working on sustainable agriculture. This is the first time I have interacted so closely with people on whose behalf I was writing a funding proposal. In fact, I felt that with a few more discussions and planning meetings, I could just serve in the role of facilitator and translator for this proposal. As it should be.

Cooling off in Nainital

2008-05-18T09:34:00.000+05:30

28th - 30th April 2008

After the heat of the plains, a trip to Nainital felt all the more satisfying. Richa was to conduct a workshop on NREGA for the Mahila Samakhya Resource persons and Sahyoginis, the field-level organizers who are responsble for 10 villages each. MS's primary focus has been Violence against Women, but in some instances they have gone beyond that, campaigning for health services, education, ban on liquor etc. Yet, taking up the issue of NREGA would mean a completely different style of work. From what I could see, MS employees saw their role as educators, imparting information about job cards, benefits of NREGA, minimum wage laws etc. This is very different from the campaign style of work adopted by SKMS. However, the implementation of NREGA has just started in Nainital dt. and one can hope that things progress in a better manner there...

The situation in Uttarakhand is quite different from UP. There is large-scale migration (palaayan) to Lucknow, Delhi and other cities among young males. Those men still living in the hills can earn more than the minimum wage, whether it be through daily wage labour or more regular employment. Therefore, NREGA is currently more attractive to women who typically earn about Rs. 50/day compared to the NREGA wage of Rs. 73. However, Richa challenged the group to think about the difference Rs.7300 would make to a family. Would it bring home the youth slaving away in hotels in big cities? Would the influx of money allow Panchayats to plan new projects and improve their villages?

In another session, Richa asked the women to look ahead and think about what they would do if the administration was slow in implementing various phases of the Act. What if the minimum wage was not paid? While Uttarakhand does have a better record on poverty, oppression and caste-based discrimination, it is not free of them. Further, due to the entrenched corruption in the Forest departments and Natural Resource Management, there are some powerful vested interests to contend with. We showed the group some video of the SKMS dharna that I had been editing – who know, maybe they will need to protest in a similar manner here as well.

On the last day of the workshop, there was plenty of song and dance. I had forgotten to bring my voice recorder along and never regretted it more! But I did manage to learn a few songs and will hopefully get a chance to record them some time in the future.

Sangharsh, producer-consumer links and chaat

2008-05-18T09:29:00.000+05:30

23rd - 26th April 2008

The days after we returned to Sitapur was taken up by discussions about the vision of SKMS and in writing up project proposals for funding. Dwiji was heading to Delhi on the 26th to participate in Sangharsh 2008. This was an event organized by NAPM to highlight the issue of displacement, land rights and proposed changes to the Land Acquisition Act that would further water down the compensation that displacees are eligible for. A number of groups representing people whose land was under threat of acquisition were congregating in New Delhi to protest and mobilize. Dwiji would be there to lend a hand where necessary and to interact with the activists and organizers assembled there. I had a different plan.

Richa had been invited by Mahila Samakhya in Nainital to conduct a training on NREGA for their staff on April 28th, 29th and 30th. I planned to tag along. But this trip was thrown into uncertainty because of the investigation committee's work. Following the Pradhans' protest, extra efforts were being made to get them to testify before the committee. A notice was sent to all Pradhans in the Mishrikh and Pisawa block asking them to set a date for testifying before the committee. The deadline for this was April 30th and there were rumours that the Pradhans would turn up on that day itself.

On the 26th, Dwiji and I headed to Lucknow to spend a day shopping, visiting friends and satisfying my chaat cravings! Dwiji would head off to Delhi and I would return to Sitapur. We first met Madhavi Kuckreja, a veteran in women's groups and rights work in Uttar Pradesh. Her newest endeavour is setting up a shop – Sanatkada – that stocks products made by NGOs, people's movements etc. The shop is located in a residential area off the main road and is on the second floor of a house, so first off, the location was not ideal. But once inside, it was worth visiting. Clothes from the Northeast (the ant) and Rajasthan, material from Andhra (Dastkar), decorative pieces, jewellery, folders, stationery and more – the shop was a veritable treasure trove. Through mere word of mouth, Madhavi is managing to sell more than Rs. 1 lakh worth of items a month. However, the shop is still not yielding a profit and that is something she and her team need to figure out if they want to stay in business – all the best to them.

After the shop, we headed out for some 'pet puja', which Lucknow is well equipped to provide. While out on the streets, we got a call from Sitapur saying the Nainital trip was on – whew!

Living with the Loo

2008-05-17T06:56:00.001+05:30

18th - 21st April 2008

At the Pisawa meeting, plans had been made to visit 3 villages in that block. SKMS hasn't been active in Pisawa for long, and while the people there are highly motivated, more mobilization efforts are required. Dwiji and I left for Surbala's house on the 18^th itself in preparation. Harvesting activities were on in full swing throughout the region and given that full moon was just a few nights away, a lot of people were cutting wheat at night. Walking in the moonlit fields was an excellent experience. Unfortunately, Dwiji didn't get an opportunity to cut the wheat himself – the villagers were too nervous to let him!

The next morning, we left for Pisawa. Surbala and Reena weren't familiar with the village we were to go to, therefore we headed to Rambeti's house in Allipur. Allipur is close to the town of Pisawa, and 10-20 years earlier, very little was cultivated here due to sandy soil conditions. But apparently, about 10 years ago, Sikh farmers began moving here from Punjab and buying land. They irrigated the land, applied fertilizers etc. and started growing wheat and other crops. Looking at the crop yields they were getting, locals began growing wheat as well. Nowadays, even sugarcane is being cultivated here. But on the whole, Pisawa is less populated than Mishrikh and people are more dependent on daily labour.

On reaching Rambeti's house and after the usual hospitality, we realized that Manikapur, the village we were to go to, was quite far from Pisawa – about 8-10 km. It was more accessible from Maholi which is on the Sitapur-Delhi highway. Surbala and Reena, being unfamiliar with Pisawa geography, hadn't known that and Rambeti, being unfamiliar with the itinerary, hadn't communicated this information to them. Our meeting was about to be canceled due to lack of transportation! Finally, at 12:30 pm Jagannath, Rambeti's husband, managed to find a theliya driver who would take us on the 16-18 km round trip to Manikapur. Om Prakash, another resident of Allipur, lent his bicycle to Dwiji and we were off.

I haven't come across theliyas before coming to Sitapur so don't know how prevalent they are in other parts of the country. At first, I found them extremely uncomfortable and like most other things, they are not designed for people of my height, let alone Dwiji's. But they are beginning to grow on me. Having said that, travelling in an open theliya at 1 pm in 40 C conditions with a blowing loo was draining. I kept myself going thinking about the padyatra SKMS had organized in these parts last year. Not only had they walked from village to village, but they had visited 3 villages every day. After 3 days of this gruelling schedule, some people collapsed from exhaustion – naturally!

We reached Manikapur just before 2 pm and got the active SKMS members to assemble the other villagers together quickly. The proceedings started, as always, with a song. Almost a hundred people had congregated at the meeting venue and it would take a firm hand to keep them engaged. Surbala and Reena proved up to the task. With stories, exhortations and a bit of humour, they kept the crowd entertained and put their points across about the importance of a sangathan and the issues that needed to be addressed in the village. It seems that the women in the village were meeting regularly but the men weren't interested in joining. Extra effort was put to get them involved in SKMS activities.

The meeting ended early because the theliya owner wanted to leave. So we left at 4 pm. The ride back was under cooler conditions and I even rode the bicycle for part of the way back. Dwiji and I were staying at Rambeti's house, so we left with her while Reena and Surbala left for Pisawa. Later, we found out that they had an awfully hard time finding transportation and had to call a relative to pick them up on his motorcycle.

Rambeti's village is electrified, which means that they get power for a few hours in the middle of the night! Well, atleast that allows mobiles to be charged in the village itself. There are a lot of gushing accolades being written for the cellphone these days, about how they've revolutionalized the countryside and empowered people as never before. Let's not go overboard, folks! Sure, more information is available than ever before and coordination is easier, but the existing power structures haven't changed. Getting payments for sugarcane and foodgrains is as hard as ever as is transportation. Reading some op-eds recently, one may be fooled into thinking that this little piece of technology has solved all the problems that decades of intervention haven't been able to fix...

That night, we chatted with Rambeti and learnt how she got involved in activism. She told us how she started off as a village-level organizer with Mahila Samakhya and then began talking up more and more issues that affected people in her village. This lady is tough – she has taken on ration shop owners who were hoarding goods, her village Pradhan and even the Block Development Officers. Apparently the BDO of Pisawa (who also has the charge of Mahol block) is so deluged with applications and complaints in Pisawa that he no longer comes to his office there! Rambeti now sits on the investigation committee looking into the unemployment allowance issue. The sheer symbolism of a Dalit woman sitting on a committee with district officials and questioning BDOs and Pradhans is not lost on anyone.

The next morning, we spent some time with the children of the house. Rambeti's younger daughter Khushboo loves playing the dholak and singing, so we coaxed her into a performance. Other girls in the neighbourhood joined in and we were treated to a rousing impromptu concert. Later we talked to the girls about their studies and they weren't as enthusiastic! The boys seemed to be more interested and doing better in school. This was, of course, just a snapshot of the literacy scenario in the area. But among adults, there is a clear difference in literacy levels between the genders. This creates a lot of challenges for SKMS as it tries to establish women and men on an equal footing in all tasks related to the organization.

On the 20^th, we were set to go to Taalgaon which is more accessible from Pisawa. Rambeti had to go for a committee meeting, so she left for Sitapur, while Reena, Surbala, Dwiji and I set off for Taalgaon in a theliya. A few kilometres out of Taalgaon, we learnt that a fire had broken out in the village. The conditions were so hot, dry and windy that even a tinder could start a blaze.

The fire in Taalgaon had been put out, we found, but so much for a meeting that day. We decided to proceed to the village to see what we could do. In the village, we found some SKMS members and went to tour the burnt houses.

The tragedy of a fire is heightened in late April because the newly harvested wheat has just been brought into homes for storage. In the burnt houses, the wheat that hadn't been destroyed by the fire was damaged by the water used to put out the fire. So, in many cases, a family's stock of foodgrain for the entire year was wiped out in just a few minutes. Surbala and Reena asked questions, comforted villagers and later talked to the Pradhan and other officials about getting compensation for the affected families. Then we headed back to Pisawa and from there to Reena's house in Kunwarapur. Given the weather conditions and reports of fires throughout the region, the next day's meeting was cancelled and we decided to head back to Sitapur instead.

Back in Kunwarapur, Reena took hospitality to a whole new level. Though we reached her home at 6 pm, she cooked a full meal and dahi wada as well! The next morning, she let us help her with making khoya (condensed milk) with fresh milk from her cows and buffaloes. We were also treated to sugarcane juice and fruits galore. After all the gastronomical delights, it was time for some food for thought. We talked about the women's dairy in Kaunwarapur and the plans to improve its capacity and revenue etc. I had offered to put together a proposal for soliciting funding for the upcoming year and this discussion would flesh out the dairy component.

The loo raged on through the afternoon and Reena extinguished all fires in her house. Her family had lost everything they possessed in a fire in 2004 and there was no desire to repeat the experience. We left Kunwarapur and returned to Sitapur in the evening tired, a little dehydrated and with a profound respect for life in the heat and wind of a north Indian summer.

The Rights of Pradhans

2008-05-17T06:48:00.000+05:30

16th April 2008

For the past few days, Dwiji, Richa and Mukesh had been busy at work on the next edition of 'Humara Safar', the Sangtin newsletter. Earlier editions had been put together on Pagemaker by DTP folks – this had always proven to be a major headache given the lack of resources in Sitapur. Dwiji suggested designing the newsletter in OpenOffice and exporting it to PDF format. Since neither Richa nor Mukesh are tech-savvy, they suggested that Dwiji do this and set up a template for future editions.

On another front, the Pradhan rally that was supposed to have happened on the 9^th was rescheduled for the 16^th – apparently, they needed time to organize. Behind the scenes, there were efforts to set up a dialogue with the Pradhans. Labourers getting an unemployment allowance would not hurt the Pradhans in any way, but there are enough players behind the scenes trying to convince them otherwise. At any rate, their 1-day rally did go ahead as planned and Dwiji and I went to listen in for a while.

From the speeches of various Pradhans, it was clear that they were unclear about the objectives of the rally! Some speakers talked about the need for a salary for Pradhans, since they had so many duties which were only increased with NREGA – fair enough. Others talked about how certain labourers did not do any work and yet demanded wages because of their collective strength. The Pradhans who talked about this were from areas that SKMS does not work in, so apparently they were projecting some other angst here! There was some talk about how the committee was unconstitutional and should be dissolved, and in the very next breath the speaker was asking for representation for Pradhans on this committee! Well, the Pradhan assocation has been set up just recently – they still need to get their act together...

However, there is also talk that the BDOs and Pradhans plan to go to court on this issue, so maybe they will create more hurdles and roadblocks in the future...

A Monthly round-up

2008-05-17T06:22:00.000+05:30

10th - 12th April 2008

On the 9th, Dwiji and I went to Vikas Bhavan and found not a Pradhan in sight. Later, we found out that the protest had been called off that morning itself. Why, we did not know. Most likely they felt that they were not prepared enough...

On the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th of every month, regional meetings are held by SKMS for clusters of ~15 villages। On Thursday, Dwiji and I headed to the first one, in the village of Aant. Richa could only stay for a short while as she had to attend the next meeting of the enquiry committee. She updated the group on the committee's work, the Pradhan Sangh's demands and the newspaper reports – Dainik Jagaran, which is more widely read in the villages, had also come out with an article on the issue.

The meeting was attended by about 30 people. More kept trickling in even though I thought we were late at noon – time is more flexible here! The first issue that was discussed was the BPL (Below Poverty Level) list. A survey of households had been carried out in the past few months where points were assigned based on income, land holdings and other assets, education of family members, appliances such as gas cylinders in the house etc. The list of those who had upto 52 points would be displayed in a public place in each Gram Sabha around the 16th. There was a lot of discussion about what needed to be done if the list was not available or if certain names were missing from the list etc. Most of the attendees in this meeting would qualify for BPL and yet were unaware of the benefits of the card.

Other topics of discussion included updates on NREGA and ensuring that job cards were in the hands of labourers themselves. As mentioned earlier, this is easier said than done and tactics for getting them back from the Pradhan or secretary were discussed. Payments on labour already done are also notoriously slow in arriving – usually the reason cited is that the funds haven't arrived in the village account yet. But the increasing awareness and mobilization of villagers is having an effect – work available this past year (2007-08) was much more than what was available the year before when NREGA was introduced.

An ongoing concern of the core members of SKMS is the mobilization and understanding at the village level. A lot of villagers join in SKMS activities when it is beneficial for them but step back during confrontations with the Pradhan or Block officials etc. This is a burden for the more loyal SKMS members. One member whose village is strongly mobilized, inspite of the challenges they face, stood up to share his experiences and motivate the rest.

As always, the meeting started and ended with a song. Reena's rendition of 'Bol ari oh dharti bol' is truly resounding!

We were to stay at Surbala's home overnight – she lives close to Qutubnagar, the site of the second meeting. To get to her house, we had to take a 'theliya' (a cart pulled by a cyclist) to the main road, then get a 'Ganesh' tempo (so named because of its long front – Dwiji says similar tempos are called 'Garuda' tempos in Karnataka) and then walk a kilometre through wheat fields. The fields stretched as far as the eye could see. This close to harvest, the stalks were long and the seeds had grown to full size. A few km. up the road, fields had greatly benefited from irrigation provided by the newly rejuvenated canal that SKMS had fought so hard for.

Surbala and her family can be considered well-off in their village's context – they have a 'pukka makaan' – a house with a cement roof as opposed to a thatched one, they have a gas cylinder and have actually managed to increase their land holdings (by just a few bighas, albeit). Yet, Surbala has had to fight hard for 'unnecessary' expenses such as her daughter's education. As she put it, she started working in order to have a stronger voice in directing her family finances.

As I've often experienced in villages, Surbala's hospitality was at the 'Athithi devobhava' – guest is god – level, to the extent of fanning us! We had to be quite firm and insist on helping her rather than have her wait upon us hand and foot.

One neat use of technology in Surbala's house – a solar panel she had purchased for a solar lantern is now being used to charge mobile phones. We had heard earlier that some villagers spend as much as half a day traveling to a nearby electrified town to charge their phone – this is a much more elegant solution. We started wondering if a laptop could be charged this way as well – will give it a shot.

The next day, we went to Qutubnagar for the second regional meeting. The group here seemed a lot more motivated and informed – SKMS had been working in this area longer and it shows. There were also a lot more arguments! As Richa had told us earlier, these meetings serve not only the purpose of sharing information but also allow disagreements to be aired out and resolved as much as possible.

The heat is beginning to build up in this part of the world – we had to move the meeting to a semi-closed space to escape the scorching loo outside.

After the meeting, we were besieged by invitations to stay overnight, have refreshments etc. etc. and had to employ the art of respectful declining. We headed back to Sitapur that night.

For the Pishawa meeting on the 12th, I was dreading the jeep-tempo-theliya travel of past days when an alternative idea struck. Richa wasn't using her scooter that day, so we borrowed it for the day. To think that I am now actually looking forward to traveling on a 2-wheeler! I had complained about it nonstop during my earlier stints in Bangalore, when Dwiji was taking me around the city on one. But priorities change, I guess – especially in the face of back-breaking travel in vehicles stuffed in defiance of space and structure!

In Pishawa, the dynamics are yet again different. This group had come together on the issue of NREGA and had approached SKMS for help. So, while they are highly motivated, there was a need felt for more mobilizing and perspective-building activities. Meetings in 3 villages in the Pishawa area were planned for 19th - 21st April an we planned to attend tham as well. For now, we decided we had earned some rest and headed back to Sitapur.

SKMS in action

2008-05-16T23:36:00.001+05:30

8th April 2008

The past couple of days had been a bit quiet after the hustle-bustle of Vikas Bhavan, especially given that Monday was a holiday (it also happened to be Ugadi/Gudi Padwa, celebrated here as the start of the summer Navratri). On Tuesday was 'Tehsil divas', a day when the DM meets block-level officials and staff and the public can file applications, complaints etc.

A lot of planning had gone on at the village level to get a number of applications filed on this day. When we got to Mishrikh with Richa and Sharmaji, we found a number of Sangathan members along with Surbala and Reena conferring over applications. We also met a number of core members such as Rambeti, Shammu and Tama. Richa and Sharmaji had to go on to Lucknow and soon left us. We stuck around, sometimes taking a peek into the block office to watch the proceedings. That might have been detrimental though – a lot of officials spent more time staring at us than looking at the applications in front of them.

After all the forms had been submitted and a receiving number and signature was registered on each copy, we adjourned to the Dak Bungalow. There were 20-30 Sangtin members and others kept joining in. The topic of discussion was the Pradhan demonstration the next day. The Pradhan association had threatened a demonstration if the DM wouldn't accede to their demands and dissolve the enquiry committee. It was quite possible that there would be a big turnout at this rally – the Pradhans were booking 'trolleys', trailers that could be hitched to a tractor, to go to Sitapur. If nothing else, villagers would get a chance to go to Sitapur free of cost! And of course, there were some who were in the Pradhans' camp to start with. This group of people were focused on making sure their supporters would not get onto the trolleys. They went over what arguments they could make and who to talk to. The meeting started and ended with songs – Tama has a powerful voice and it was a pleasure to listen to him. Dwiji recorded the song on our mobile – quite a decent recording it was too!

Doing the Math

2008-04-24T17:37:00.001+05:30

5th April 2008

Yesterday there had been a lot of speculation about who would get the charge of the CDO in his absence. Since the letter had already been sent to the CDO, we were not too worried about it, but word was that the DDO and Program Director (PD) were lobbying hard for it. We reached Vikas Bhavan at 11:30 am where the steno told Richa that the letter would be in our hands at 1:30 pm, guaranteed! We sat down outside the office to wait when a big group of villagers approached. They started speaking to the steno about getting an audience with someone or the other regarding their wages when Richa stepped in. Some of the villagers recognized her and began telling her their problem. They had done some work through NREGA some time ago and had yet not received their wages. Their job cards had been held by their Panchayat secretary and they had finally managed to get them back. In their cards a number of entries had been falsified – for example, a man who had worked for 6 days found 7 more entries of 6 days each in his card!

By now, Richa had found out that the PD had been given charge of NREGA. She took everyone upstairs to his office. On seeing her and the 20+ villagers in his office, the PD exclaimed, “Arre, Richaji, the NREGA file has not reached me yet and you are already here!” On hearing the circumstances, the PD called the BDO of Pisawa and began asking what was going on, with a lot of interjections along the lines of “If he is incompetent, remove him from his post.” After a lot of back and forth (and with a number of villagers trying to get their word in), he determined that the Pradhan of the village had recently passed away, some Panchayat members had been removed from their posts etc. with the result that there was only one office bearer in the village. This person was holding on to all the job cards.

The PD then started lecturing the villagers on why they need to hold on to their job cards. “How many times have we explained to you that you should not let them out of your hands?” Richa tried to explain to him that it was not easy to get them back – in one case, even when she was personally involved, it took a few days to get them back. If officials say that they will not pay the labourer unless they can keep their job cards, how long can the labourer resist?

Hearing the PD speak, I was reminded of all the instances when friends and family who have paid bribes have explained the circumstances: “If we didn't get a ration card, we wouldn't get a gas cylinder and how would we manage?”, “If I didn't bribe the official, my goods would rot in the godown”, “If I didn't pay the bribe, they'd keep me running around their offices for god-knows how long, and I had to leave in 3 days.” How easily we justify paying bribes. And how conveniently we dismiss villagers as ignorant when they do effectively the same, at greater costs to themselves.

Finally, the PD called in his assistant and handed the job cards and complaint letter over to him. Richa immediately asked the secretary to take copies and hand the job cards back to the villagers! We walked out and Richa told the villagers that they had been demanding their rights and the officials weren't doing them any favours – there was no need for them to be so deferential. She then strategized with them on what they would do next and we left them waiting for the secretary.

Downstairs the DDO called us into his office – he had received a copy of the letter and would hand us one. After the usual 'pleasantries', we got a copy of the letter. Just as it was handed to us, in walked the bureau chief of the Hindustan!

There was good and bad news to be found in the letter. The good news was that the committee had been ordered to complete the calculation work. The bad news was that the accusations of the Pradhan association had been mentioned in the letter and the committee was asked to give them a hearing. This incensed Sharmaji and he stormed out of the office. Richa and I followed with the editor who managed to get himself a copy as well.

Well, the task of getting an unemployment allowance from the government was not easy to start with and more and more roadblocks were appearing. More strategizing followed for the rest of the day.

By the way, the government's NREGA website is worth visiting here. Reports from all implementing districts in the form of statistics are uploaded. Speaking of which, earlier in the day we were sitting in the CDO's office and I was looking at all the graphs there. One bar graph was titled 'District schemes' and showed approved expenditure and actual expenditure for the past few years. Looking at the numbers, I realized that the 2007-2008 approved expenditure was pegged at ~Rs. 103 crore. This confused me – wasn't the NREGA allocation itself Rs. 110 crore?

I mentioned this to the 2 other people in the room, both men, who immediately started disputing my math – they said the number in the graph was Rs. 1030 crore (the figures were in thousands and there were no helpful commas). It took a few minutes of arguing and actual pencil-and-paper determination for them to accept (without actually accepting) that I was right. Then they told me that this was the State-approved expenditure and didn't include the funds from the Centre. Couldn't they have told me that in the first place?! At the back of the room was another chart which showed the money coming in from the centre under various schemes – Indira Awas Yojana, Afforestation, Rajiv Electrification Scheme etc. The total money from all of these schemes amounted to ~Rs. 1600 crores. With Sitapur's population estimated at ~40 lakhs, that works to about Rs. 4000/person. And, with luck, maybe Rs. 400 trickles down to some...

Getting nothing done

2008-04-24T11:00:00.001+05:30

4th April 2008

After the drama of yesterday, there had been a lot of speculation about what had motivated this shift in the DM's approach – after all, he had been the one to take the lead in setting up the enquiry committee in December. Some things became apparent after perusing Friday's Hindustan Hindi. The pradhans of Mishrikh and Pisawa had submitted a letter to the Sitapur City Magistrate alleging that the enquiry committee set up last December was unconstitutional and was completely under the control of 'dalali' organizations – basically groups that exploit both the government and the workers by taking a cut of wages. Now all the comments in the DDO's office began making sense...

Of course, this started a new round of phone calls and exchange of information. At the same time, the news reached Richa that the CDO had gone on leave! It was known that he would be going on leave for training (including a field trip to the US) later in the month. But it began to look like the CDO would not be appearing in Sitapur dt. for a while.

We reached Vikas Bhavan as planned at 11 am and found the DM in the CDO's office. His neck brace was off and he looked a lot more vigorous. A number of officials stood around busily taking notes. Richa started off about the letter and he immediately replied that it would be signed. When Richa asked when it would be done, he just repeated that it would be done. Then he mentioned that there had been opposition to the report from some officers and they had threatened to go on strike! Richa and Sharmaji talked about the fact that the committee was chaired by a Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), that it had given opportunities to the BDOs to make their statements etc. The DM sent us on our way promising to get the letter signed. Richa said that we would be back by evening.

We then went to the offices of Hindustan Hindi to lodge a protest about their article. Any person unfamiliar with the issue would get a very incomplete and biased picture from this article, especially considering the extensive and favourable coverage of the December dharna by the Hindustan. The bureau chief justified the coverage saying that the paper has to cover all news and that he had a high opinion of Hindustan's readers – they would be able to connect the dots. Well, they are his readers – I guess it's his prerogative to have such expectations from them. I wouldn't have such expectations from myself!

When we returned at 4 pm to Vikas Bhavan, we learnt that a special messenger had been sent to Lucknow to get the CDO's signature on the letter – wow! There were conflicting replies on when he had been sent – some said in the morning itself, others said at 3 pm. The DDO came by and threw out a few remarks – the letter has been sent, let's see if he will sign it etc. etc.

All in all, after 2 days and four rounds of Vikas Bhavan, we still didn't have the letter in hand. The bureaucrats have indeed mastered the art of never saying no and yet getting nothing done!

While returning home, Richa received a call from an SKMS member – this lady and others from her village had received daily wages of only Rs. 40 for a pond repair job. They had filed a complaint and protested and the DM had ordered an enquiry. A magistrate was supposed to visit their village the next day to take statements and that morning a constable from a nearby police station had come by and made threatening statements. This led to another round of phone calls, with Surbala planning to go to that village the next day. Richa also called the constable who visited the village and shouted at him. In such situations, only experience will tell you what to do and how much force to use, I guess. This also seems to be a big dilemma for activists and organizations – if the villagers, out of fear of the police, back down from the complaint, should their partners in cities or other villages pressure them to continue the fight, fight on in their absence or step back from this particular battle???

How to say No to NREGA - lessons from the district offices

2008-04-09T11:18:00.003+05:30

3rd April 2008

A little background to today's blog – as I had mentioned earlier, the December dharna had ended with the DM's order to set up an enquiry committee to look into the matter of unemployment allowance. The committee had submitted its initial report with a list of eligible receipients on March 14th. Unfortunately for the cause, the DM had not mentioned in his order that the final calculation of payments be done. According to NREGA rules, unemployment allowance is to be paid only to the head of household after calculating how many hours all members of that household have worked.

Without this accounting, the report is incomplete and therefore the committee was waiting for the DM to issue the order. When Richa went to visit him after submitting the initial report, the DM was making noises about setting up a separate committee to make the financial determinations and decide who was to blame for the earlier notice that said there were no eligible recipients. Richa was upset – while the latter issue is a department matter and could be decided by another committee, the former issue is very much under the purview of the enquiry committee. She protested and decided to bring along more SKMS members. The next day, almost 60 people turned up and entered the DM's office. The DM then promised to issue the order for the enquiry committee, but asked for a little time for the end-of-financial-year activities. So the matter was tabled till early April.

On Wednesday, Sharmaji visited the DM and was informed that the CDO would be signing the order. He let Richa know that evening. This news was highly upsetting – the earlier CDO was the one who had issued the notice that was challenged by SKMS. He had also been intractable in negotiations and stories of his corruption were rampant in Sitapur – apparently 2% was his cut for a signature! Only because of the DM were they able to achieve this much, so why was he shrugging off this last bit of responsibility?

This was the setting for Thursday's shenanigans...

10:45 am: We set off for Vikas Bhavan in Sharmaji's car. Sharmaji and Richa strategize on how to tackle this twist in events.

11 am: There aren't many people in the DM's office when we arrive – apparently it is early in the day yet. The DM is wearing a neck brace and looks quite beat down. We sit there for about 5 minutes and he presents one hell of a blank face – who knows what he is thinking! All Richa and Sharmaji manage to get out of him is 'CDO sign kar denge.' and 'Woh implementing officer hai' – the CDO will sign the order and he is the implementing officer. Conveniently, no mention of when he will sign the order!

11:10 am: After exchanging niceties with the CDO's stenographer (which includes cursing all corrupt officials to high hell), we enter the CDO's office. The current CDO was given his new posting on 5th March and arrived on 14th March. All his replies and body language reflect his guardedness in his new position. And of course he must have heard that SKMS was largely responsible for the removal of the previous CDO! He throws out a few sentences about how BDOs and Pradhans were unhappy with the report and how could he come out with an order that directly contradicts his predecessor. Richa and Sharmaji counter that the previous CDO did agree to the setting up of the enquiry committee and that the new order was just a minor one. At this point, he calls in the DDO and the atmosphere immediately changes.

Whether or not the DDO is villainous, he fits the role to a tee. Gutkha chewing and spitting is part of his repertoire as is, atleast in this situation, throwing out taunts and statements calculated to inflame. Among the many things he says: why did you submit an incomplete report, we have many demands on our time and haven't read your report, we have to take the side of justice. When Richa retorts that he was given the responsibility of this post because he was capable and the government provides him conveniences to help him do his work, he replies, “Aap ke paas bhi kam suvidhaayein nahin hain” - you don't have any less conveniences.

The volume of the people in the room has gone up while the CDO sits calmly watching the proceedings and occasionally mediating. Finally, he says and the DDO concurs that the letter will be available. We get up to leave after Richa promises to continue the discussion with the DDO in his office.

11:45 am: We step out of the CDO's office and into the main compound of Vikas Bhavan. Richa shows me the places of interest during the dharna – where they cooked, where they slept, where the people on a hunger strike sat etc. In the meantime, she has been fielding calls from a villager and we run into him. This man is from a Scheduled Caste and has come to collect some money he is eligible to receive for his daughter's wedding. The officials have been running him from pillar to post for the last 15 days – finally telling him his form was lost although there was a record of it in their register. He has come to ask if Richa or Sharmaji have the copy of the form that he remembered handing to them. They promise to look for it and also to talk to the officials upstairs.

12:30 pm: After a tea break and some discussion, we head back to Vikas Bhavan and to the DDO's office. A number of Block Development Officers (BDOs) are there and from the sound of things, they have been discussing ways to counter the enquiry committee's report. The backhanded compliments from the DDO continue - “You are quite capable, Richa-ji, you just need to go in the right direction.” The BDOs play the role of naysayers – 'explaining' that the committee formation was not mentioned in NREGA and is therefore unconstitutional, that there is no provision to cancel job cards so a lot of dud cards susceptible to misuse are floating around, that the Center and State are not allocating sufficient funds for NREGA – 'How are we supposed to pay all those labourers?', that there is no work left to do in the villages (ha ha ha!) etc. The chorus of excuses go on for quite a while – we try to counter whenever possible. I have joined the multiple discussions by this time – one can only keep quiet for so long! The DDO, on finding out that I have come to learn from SKMS says, “Arre, what will you learn from her – I will tell you. Go to a village, get 50 workers together and file an application for work. Then all of you disappear for 20 days and come back demanding an unemployment allowance!” I stare at him for a few seconds before delivering a weak reply – got to build on my rudimentary debating skills. Finally, Richa delivers her rebuke to the DDO and we leave the office while exchanging niceties as well.

We then go upstairs to deal with the villager's issue – Sharmaji talks to a few people and gets the ball rolling. We have told the CDO that we'd be back at 4 pm to get the letter, so decide to head home in the interim. As we are leaving the compound at 1:30 pm, the CDO and DDO depart with their respective entourages for lunch. Richa talks about how during the dharna, the BDOs and Pradhans had been called to Vikas Bhavan - their jeeps along with 'gunners' waited outside and that added to the tension at the time. “There were numerous times when we felt that, yes, today there will be a lathi charge.”

3:45 pm: After lunch and a break (for me – Richa has been on the phone nonstop), we return to Vikas Bhavan to find out that the letter has been typed and is just awaiting the CDO's signature! In the interim, we go up to ascertain the progress on the villager's form. We learn that the form hadn't been lost but had been rejected because, in a couple of places, there was overwriting due to a pen running out of ink! Not due to illegibility or inaccurate information but because a few words had been overwritten! Richa and Sharmaji cannot move the process forward so they tell the villager to wait a few days before setting out again, in which time they would try to resolve the issue. Talking to him later, I learn that he takes a tempo for a few kilometres (as he put it – 8 'kos') and then has to walk 8 km to get to his village. I wonder if it is really worth it in economical terms to travel this distance twice every day. Further, as he puts it, he still wouldn't have been able to get this far in his work if not for Sharmaji or Richa speaking on his behalf. When we talk about services and funds available in the rural sector, how many of us think about the access issue? In cities, it is hard enough to get things done in government offices – add a hundred rupees or more and a few days spent traveling to the equation and then how many people would continue this minor struggle? This villager was able to manage because he has adult sons taking care of the harvest at home.

4 pm: We learn that the CDO has still not returned since leaving at 1:30 pm – quite a long lunch he is having! Richa sits down on the bench outside his office and states that we are not leaving here until a copy of the letter reaches us. We chat with whoever passes by – a lot of people come to pay their respects to Richa and tell her how wonderful the December dharna had been. Some of them seem to have just enjoyed the spectacle but others express genuine support.

5 pm: It seems that the CDO left his house 45 minutes ago. It takes just takes 5 minutes to get to Vikas Bhavan. Some are saying that he has left for Lucknow – others that he is at the DM's bungalow. Sharmaji comes back and says that there is no point waiting – the CDO has gone for a doctor's appointment to Lucknow and won't be back today. The good fortune of Sitapur is that it is close to Lucknow, the state capital, so has good access to the corridors of power. The bad fortune of Sitapur is that it is close to Lucknow – officials go there at a moment's notice and many commute from Lucknow as well. Hard to get access to your local official when he is 2 ½ hours away!

So that was the story of my Thursday. It might be a familiar tale to quite a few of you – I remember a story in our Hindi reader about a soul hiding in his pension file still trying to get it released after his death! But observing the games and tricks played by Vikas Bhavan was a novel experience for me and so I've written out this long entry. Hope you've experienced atleast a fraction of both the entertainment and frustration I derived in watching this drama.

Back to Mishrikh

2008-04-09T11:09:00.001+05:30

2nd April 2008

No discussion about what Dwiji and I are doing in Sitapur can be complete without the inputs of Surbala and Reena. So on Wednesday, we set out for Mishrikh to meet them. Mishrikh is closer for both of them – coming to Sitapur would add another 30 km to their journey. Speaking of journeys, the economics of travel itself are worth considering – for a lot of villagers whose income barely crosses into 4 figures, the Rs. 40-50 that it takes for a day trip to Sitapur is prohibitive indeed. Mobile phones have transformed the landscape though and the practice of 'missed calls' is widely followed.

We got to Mishrikh just before noon and met Surbala on the way to the Dak Bungalow, our meeting place. Reena reached there soon after and a lively discussion ensued. One reason for meeting in a 'neutral' place was that we would be less interrupted by people coming by to pay their respects or with requests for assistance. But word gets around and sure enough, within a few minutes of Reena's arrival, some villagers from Pisawa block came by to update her on their efforts to get their job cards – though all workers are supposed to have one copy with them, their Pradhan wasn't releasing them. The more vocal among them were very clear on what they were doing and why and Richa said half-jokingly that some of them were becoming leaders in their own right. And rightly so – as they talked about later, during the early days of the December dharna, media coverage usually focussed on Richa Singh as the 'leader' of SKMS. But as the days went by, more and more people were mentioned as leaders, and more often than not, articles would say 'Mazdooron ne kahan' – the workers said.

Surbala and Reena talked about how Sangtin had built its strength on issues. “In some organizations,” said Surbala, “initial meetings are attended by 50 people and then the number goes down to 5 in a few years. In our meetings, we started with 5 people and the numbers gradually increased.” Reena talked about the canal issue – workers who cleaned the canal were promised foodgrains but none were distributed, even though on paper 1200 quintals of wheat had been distributed in Sitapur dt. With mobilization, labourers were able to get 58 quintals distributed in Mishrikh block. Now the work is focussed on NREGA – getting the job cards, applying for work and pressurizing for payment of wages or unemployment allowance.

Regional meetings are organized every month in Mishrikh and Pisawa blocks – these have been running for the past three years. At these meetings, SKMS asks that each village send only 2-3 representatives. Various issues are discussed – even personal or village-level arguments and fights. Certain issues start cropping up in a village or two. If they start coming up in more villages, then SKMS takes them on at an organizational level. That is how the canal issue and others have come up. Surbala and Reena expect that the ration card issue might come up in the next few months – this is of course not a new issue and thus in some ways is harder to fight. Ration shop owners have been holding on to ration cards and tampering with records for a very long time...

We also talked a bit about what kind of work can be done with NREGA funds. So far, the funds have mainly been used to clean canals and ponds, repair roads etc. Though it seems that the BDO of Pisawa block did use NREGA funds to level the fields of Dalit farmers – a worthy deed indeed.

But as with every other program, a huge chunk of money ends up in beaurocrats' pockets – the word on the streets is that 36% of the Rs. 111 crore allotted under NREGA to Sitapur dt. was immediately diverted. And the way 'babudom' is resisting making any payments, looks like their eye is on the remaining 64% as well.

We finally asked Reena and Surbala how they thought we could contribute and they turned the question around, asking us what our strengths are. Dwiji said his are cooking and a little bit of drama – so I guess we know what he'll be doing if there is another dharna!

A movement in action

2008-04-04T15:25:00.001+05:30

1st April, 2008

I had visited Richa Singh and other members of Sangtin in Sitapur dt., UP back in 2005. Blog entries from that time can be found here. Back then Richa, Surbala, Reena and others were still exploring various issues affecting the region. They were clear on their approaches and philosophy but not on what exactly they would be doing. Through the rest of 2005, they had intense discussions in villages throughout Mishrikh block. The first issue they took up on a regional level was 'nahar ka mudda' – the canal issue. The main canal in Mishrikh block had plenty of water, but a wall blocked water from reaching a number of villages downstream. Through intense mobilization, pressure was put on local officials to repair the canal downstream and release water into it. Finally, in January 2006, water was released into the canal. This started the next campaign – enduring that wages and foodgrains were provided to the labourers as promised.

Ever since then, Sangtin has taken on a number of issues, mainly livelihood related and has evolved into Sangtin Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan (SKMS). Sitapur dt. was one of the pilot districts where NREGA was first implemented and SKMS has taken on the fight to get the promised employment for villagers. When employment is not provided for those who seek it, the Law has a provision for an unemployment allowance. But getting this from the State is no easy matter. Unable to make any progress on this issue, SKMS organized a massive dharna in December 2007. For 10 days during the peak winter season, 300-600 people occupied the compound of Vikas Bhavan (the District Headquarters) in Sitapur. They slept and ate there, chanted slogans and listened to speeches, walked the corridors, went on hunger strikes and organized a 'gheraao' of the Chief Development Officer (CDO) who is in charge of NREGA implementation at the district level.

The most amazing part, in my opinion, was the amount of local support they received. Food, tents and blankets were donated and a number of residents of Sitapur donated money to the cause. The protestors had two donation boxes - one was labeled 'Contribute to support our Sangathan' and another was labeled 'Contribute to bribe the CDO'. They collected some money in the latter box as well and this was duly handed over to the CDO!

After 10 days, the District Government finally agreed to set up a committee to investigate whether there are eligible recipients for the unemployment allowance in the blocks of Mishrikh and Pisawa. Six people were appointed to the committee, of which three were from SKMS and its supporters. The report was submitted on March 14^th. One component of the report is yet to be completed for which an order from the DM is necessary. This was where the situation stood when we arrived.

We reached Sitapur on the noon of April 1^st and were met at the bus stand by Richa and her son Sunny. We had planned on traveling light, but ended up with 5 bags of varying sizes (thankfully, nothing of transatlantic proportions). Luckily for us, Richa had arranged for a room for us with a neighbour – she lives with her son and mother and is constantly hosting family and friends.

We arrived here without much of a plan beyond learning from SKMS's work and contributing in whatever way we can. But if this is not to turn out into a continuation of our long vacation, we need to have something more concrete in place. The first evening, we sat with Richa and Mukesh, an associate from Lucknow, to get some ideas. Mukesh had earlier talked about his motivation for working with SKMS. He is interested in strengthening movements and building their understanding. As he put it, “When Richa, Surbala, Reena and the rest were in the DM's office arguing with him, I was outside with the rest of the protestors, keeping their energy up.”

Richa also talked about what she saw as the needs of the organization and where the current campaign was going. Then we talked about what Dwiji and I could do. There was talk about designing a website and identifying sources for specific funding needs. Of course, we also plan to spend plenty of time traveling to villages and learning how things work at that level.

Another associate of SKMS, Sharmaji, came by in the evening - he is a journalist with Hindustan Times. During the conversation, he shared some news about Mishrikh block which shocked Richa before she realized what the date was! It appears that April Fool's Day is celebrated as well as any other festival in this part of the world...

Of Inventories and Itineraries

2008-04-03T20:31:00.002+05:30

27th March, 2008

It's been more than 2 years since I've updated this blog – not for lack of time, though. Maybe my blog writing bug is tied to Indian soil :)

We are finally back in India!! After a year of living out of suitcases and on the goodwill of friends, we are ready to do a year more of that, albeit in a more planned fashion. Most of our stuff is not with us but in boxes in my parents' basement or in suitcases in Dwiji's parents' attic. A comprehensive inventory of our worldly possessions was necessary, with constant updates required when we sent stuff ahead with my Dad and brother, when we had to prioritize and leave things behind etc. etc. Of course, some slips are inevitable – I forgot almost all my saris with mom in Canada. Well, I'll manage somehow!

All of our travel planning has required itineraries and more itineraries. These days I'm often mixing the words inventory and itinerary to Dwiji's great amusement (coming as it is from the self-proclaimed English whiz). But I guess they are closely connected in my head – where to go and what to take...

The first two weeks of our return has been devoted to catching up with family and friends. We have spent time in Bangalore and Rajahmundry so far. I've had to deal with a couple of digestive upsets – apparently, my stomach is not as tough as it used to be. Hopefully, it will resolve itself before we land in Sitapur, UP.

One thing I have sorely missed about India are the train rides. Yeah, they can be messy and long, but they're still more comfortable than traveling by plane or bus. And sometimes one gets to meet some real interesting people. In our journey from Bangalore to Rajahmundry, we met a lot of Indian Railways employees traveling home for Holi. There was a station master, a train guard and a locomotive driver. They regaled us with stories of coordinating passenger trains with goods trains, the latter being the bread and butter of the Railways; about iron ore mining in Kudremukh in coastal Karnataka where sometimes seven engines are pulling compartments up a 30% grade.

But the most poignant conversations were about 'suicides by train'. Each of them had experienced atleast a few people who ran in front of their train and died before they could brake to a halt. All of them have been affected by this to some extent or another, but have all learnt to cope with it. “If we can stop and save them, fine,” said one. “If not, we just have to shrug and go on.” Sometime, really determined persons wait till the train restarts and then jump on to the tracks. If the drivers are running late, they don't even try to stop. “It's not worth the bother of getting reprimanded for being late. Those people are going to kill themselves anyway.”

- Sudha

Walking and working for Clean Water

2006-03-02T22:34:00.000+05:30

Being an 'activist' is easy among friends and supporters. But where it really becomes challenging is out in the field - among the neutral, the faintly hostile and the confrontational. Perhaps this is what I wanted to experience when I signed on to be a field canvasser with Clean Water Action, an environmental advocacy group. Perhaps it was just the idea of making money while talking about something I believe. Well, all I can say after the first 4 weeks is – what an experience!

My work involves going to neighborhoods (based on predetermined turf maps), knocking on people's doors and asking them to sign on. They are asked to support our present campaign monetarily and/or by writing a letter to their representatives. The current campaign is to get more renewable energy (wind, solar, biomass) in Minnesota by passing a 'Renewable Electricity Standard'. This would set a goal of 20% of Minnesota's electricity needs to come from renewable sources by 2020 and, among other things, reduce mercury emissions from coal plants. At present, there are non-binding objectives with some electricity companies and a mandate for Excel Energy, which provides half of Minnesota's electricity, to get 10% from renewable sources by 2015.

The issue has been receiving coverage – it seems Minnesota is the biggest importer of power in the US (from other states as well as Canada) when there is enough wind potential to supply all the power needed. There are a number of projects and initiatives being launched in South-west Minnesota, including a wind turbine manufacturing facility in Pipestone set up by an Indian company. But of course, all this counts for nothing in the absence of legislation and citizen support. Hence, the need for advocacy and lobbying groups such as CWA.

The responses I receive at doors span the gamut. There are people who will sign up immediately and hand you a check almost before you can get a word in. There are others who will scold you for coming to the door so late at night (we work from 4.30 – 9 pm). Some gesture at you from inside without opening the door, almost setting their dogs on me. Since I have often had my privacy intruded upon, I can understand to an extent. But I must say my favorite naysayers are the ones who open the door, politely say that they are not interested and sometimes add, 'Thank you for doing this.' Bless their hearts! On one particularly cold evening, a sweet lady asked me to come in and warm my feet: 'Honey, it's freezing out there!' but politely declined to support CWA's work. I wished her a good evening, as I typically do, and moved on.

Then there are the undecided ones: the people who supposedly make up a sizable chunk of the population. 'What does it mean if I sign on?', 'Uhh, mercury? It's in our fish?', 'I don't know what difference it will make.' On Monday, a woman in her 20s said, 'Uh, I don't know. I don't think I could do this.' I told her, 'This is how democracy works.' And she wrote a letter. Yay!

The suspicious ones ask what we will do with this information. 'I don't want any calls at home – I get enough already.' I explain to them that to sell this list or misuse it in any way would be suicidal to us since we are a citizen-supported group. With the people who talk about how much I get as a cut from this, that I'm just another person making a paycheck, I trot out my old corporate job and salary for their inspection! That seems to get a contribution 80% of the time – I got to figure out how to use it more often!

The hardest part of the job is to make people contribute. Maybe it's because of my natural reticence on this front – I've never been too comfortable fundraising. But here I realize it's more than that – when people make a donation, they think about the issue. They get vested in it. Maybe they'll write letters and send e-mails – maybe they'll vote yes if it appears on their ballot. So it's important. Every reason in the world is offered for not contributing: 'I lost my job', 'I can't pay my mortgage' (and this is in a palatial house with a massive flat-screen TV), 'We're done with all our charitable giving for the year', 'I have health problems'. Some seem genuine, some not. Oh well – I'm not a mind reader! I tell them why it's important, re-negotiate the contribution...

The worst experience I've had so far was this gentleman who kept me at his door for almost half an hour, debating. Whenever I tried to disengage, he would tell me, 'Miss, you came to my door. You disturbed me. Now the least you can do is listen.' He talked about his investment in a windmill on his land in Southwest Minnesota - $300,000 - and how it is yielding little (the low-risk approach is to lease the land to a Utility company or join a consortium). He said that all this talk of mercury from coal was just talk, if we were really concerned, we should be moving towards nuclear energy etc. I tried to counter these arguments but could not match his debating skills. One valuable lesson from this experience: one cannot debate at doors, and the job of a canvasser is not to convert the skeptics – it is to move the mildly supportive and the undecided in our direction. And to harness more support from those who already agree with us.

Some of those folks are amazing – there are a lot of people who seem to be just waiting for us to come to their door. 'Oh, yes, you want money!' and out come their checkbooks. Some say they don't want to do more than contribute and I say, great, we'll do all the work for you! (After all the AID work, that seems weird – of course we want people to get involved!) Others have canvassed in the past or their children have and theirs' seems to be a sympathy contribution. Hey, we'll take what we can get. One man who really wanted to vent, I think, talked about how he and his wife had contributed a huge amount to one of the big charity organizations after the Indian Ocean tsunami. After that, almost once every 2 weeks, there is a mailing from them asking for more money. I told him we were a small group and would not do that. But he still wanted to make a statement. So he contributed one cent less than the newsletter subscription level! A little rehabilitative therapy, I hope!

Monday, Dec 5th: The Chennai Surprise

2005-12-23T18:00:00.000+05:30

Getting an auto rickshaw to the railway station after 9 PM is always a challenge in Bangalore. Fortunately, as we were searching for one, a BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) bus headed that way stopped for us even though we were in between bus stops. Somehow I wasnt really surprised that he stopped again between bus stops for another 3 (or was it 5) minutes to draw cash from an ATM !! But it was a pleasant surprise to see one of the passengers call up the BMTC complaint line and immediately lodge a complaint that more than 50 people in the bus were kept waiting for the driver to draw cash in an ATM. The incident highlighted the problems of modern banking in India - not enough ATMs ... but I guess thats true even in the US, there never is an ATM nearby when one wants it real bad !

We arrived in Chennai at 5 AM, and discovered that prepaid auto isnt really prepaid here, the prepaid window writes down the cost of the ride to the destination, but the cash is given to the driver - leaving open the chances for the autowalla to make some quick money. Waking up Dhanunjay and a few others who were sleeping in the office we were ready for a long wait before the AID Chennai folks came in at 10.

Initially, the plan had been for Sudha, Madhulika, Kamayani (formerly with AID Milwaukee), Chandrika (formerly with AID Austin), and myself to join the Chennai team on a survey on health indicators amongst some communities in Vembakkam near Chennai. But the recent spate of rain and cyclones in Chennai had once again thrust the Chennai team towards relief work, and that was going to be the main agenda of the day.

As the 'stock taking and planning for the day' meeting started, Sudha and I were on opposite sides of the circle ensuring that everyone was entertained by our dozing! The situation in the affected areas was pretty grim. Reports of efforts undertaken over the previous day and an assessment of requirements and plans for the day were discussed. The limited amount of food and material collected (and bought) was distributed to the various areas on the basis of this discussion. Different members of the group were being assigned to teams headed to different places, and an inexplicable feeling within kept me in the background, and not volunteering to join any. Sudha joined a group headed for Saidapet. After the teams started to disperse, my late attempt to join the team going to get more bread was botched by my weight – I was too heavy for the only two wheeler around !

I hung around the AID Chennai office, shadowing Balaji around. After a few hours, it was decided that after lunch I would join the team going to Kallukuttai, a slum near Velachery, located in a low lying area that has been flooded every time there has been heavy rains. Given my Tamil skills, I was only too glad when I was asked to be the photographer. I was accompanying Vanaja, Mangai and another volunteer, and the 45 minute ride to Kallukuttai was another round of dozing off! Once we reached Kallukuttai, sleep was far from my mind. The area was still under water.

As we entered the water logged road leading to the slum, a catamaran was leaving with supplies of bread and rice. We were asked to wait for another one that was coming back. It was a non - surfaced catamaran that we climbed into - the shaped logs of wood were held in place by cross beams, but didnt have a surface that would keep the water out. So by the time all of us had climbed in, the water had risen to our seat level ! The only relief was to know that the water was the run off from a nearby lake and didn't have any contributions from the city sewage system ... well, that doesn't by any means imply that the water was clean ! I was clicking away on the digital camera that Balaji had given me – the scene I was witnessing was something we see in TV reports and news flashes. The only difference here was that this scene had persisted ... and repeated itself every time Chennai is hit by above 10 mm (?) of rain during a single day.

The three or so sacks of rice brought in the catamaran carrying supplies was bought by a few community members from the marooned areas for setting up a community kitchen there. The mandate of the group I had accompanied was mainly to distribute the bread. But there were way too many recipients than the group of people distributing food could control. A few attempts were made to get the food supplies across the waiting crowd to a marooned high ground before starting distribution. As the restlessness and the entropy within the crowd increased, the team decided to distribute part of the bread here and carry the rest across. Before the catamaran with supplies was brought close to the crowd for distribution, a few sacks were filled with bread and carted away to be kept aside as a reserve. The distribution started quite peacefully – a human conveyor chain was formed to get loaves of bread that were handed out, rather than getting the catamaran close to the crowd. But the situation slowly deteriorated out of control – there were too many people seeking food and too few with an appreciation of the need for order and distribution. As about half of the loaves of bread were distributed, the agitation grew and the local volunteers distributing the material steered the catamaran further away. We were advised to get back to the road and not hang around, and after a little deliberation, we climbed into the other catamaran and headed back ...

One of the area coordinators started discussing how things went and what needed to be done. An earlier discussion on the need for sarees and bedsheets was re-iterated and it was a bit of a surprise that I was now being asked to talk to Balaji and try and convince him on the need for these ... I was actually thinking how futile such an effort would be, given that the entire community was living in at least knee deep water ! The need of the community might have been better clothing and warmer beds, but it would be a hard sell for anyone to project this as the need of the hour ...

We returned to the office by evening, tired field groups were trickling back into the office. I had a quick bath and had changed out of the soggy clothes before Sudha turned up. As planned we headed out for a quick bite before heading over to Chandra's house for the night.

A trickle in the flood

2005-12-23T17:50:00.000+05:30

December 5th, 2005 (contd.)

Once all the day's plans were made, Balaji began assigning us 'outsiders' to different teams. Other than Chandrika, none of us speak Tamil. In her case, she had accompanied some volunteers to Koturpuram the previous day where they had found many more people than they could possibly help. Chandrika had taken photographs but beyond that, could not do much. With a tiny bit of worry about what exactly I was getting into, I accompanied Gnanaprakasam, Sumati and Suresh to Saidapet. Sumati and I took about 150 packets of buns with us in an auto while Gnanam and Suresh were on a motorcycle.

In Saidapet, almost an hour of confusion followed. We waited at one gate without a mobile while the guys waited at another gate. We went through a teacher's training college where a temporary camp was set up, but could not find anyone from the group there. Finally, we met up with Suresh and Gnanam and went into a community near the relief camp. Here, people had moved back into their homes a day after the waters had receded. Recovery activities within each house were in full force – mats and household items were being laid out to dry, kerosene stoves and other appliances were being repaired and clothes were being washed. Almost all of the women were hard at work.

We met a few local people whom Gnanam had met earlier – from here on, I could only understand part of the discussion because of my limited knowledge of Tamil. But the upshot seemed to be that a few members of the community would take up the job of distributing buns and that one packet would be provided per household. A number of us had turned up, and there was no work for us at the present. Most of us chose to follow the people who were distributing the buns. It was interesting to see the reaction of families who were receiving the buns. Some were completely disinterested, mechanically receiving them. Others, with children, asked for more than one packet. One lady, on hearing the one packet-per-household rule, returned the packet and an argument ensued. Children eagerly came to the distributors and in some cases, the packets were opened and individual buns were handed out.

One of the group members went to get lunch and we sat down to eat on the street itself – later in the afternoon, a medical camp would be set up and we would have to help out with that. Meanwhile, I had been noticing a young woman washing her clothes a few yards away from where we sat. She ignored her toddler daughter who was making a fuss nearby (and who was eventually taken up by a neighbor) and methodically scrubbed and rinsed clothes, undergarments, bedsheets and more. She was representative of the women in this neighborhood – everywhere they were hard at work. I felt that our buns were of little use here. What would have really helped this woman was a full meal so that she would not have to cook or go hungry. And that was beyond our capacity...

After lunch, we moved to a parallel street where two tables had been lined up for the medical camp. Now started another long waiting period. The doctors were supposed to arrive at 2:30 pm, but that time passed without them in sight. Luckily for me, Smitha joined the group and talked to me about her work in Sulagiri and the activities in AID Bangalore. Finally, at 4:30 pm the doctors arrived. After a short discussion, it was decided that two doctors would stay here and one doctor would be escorted to Koturpuram to run a medical camp there. I chose to join them.

In Koturpuram, a government camp had been set up in a school – as before, this area was covered with drying clothes. Ravishankar met us at the entrance and escorted us to an area in the center of the school. Here, a table and chair was set up for the doctor and a couple of benches for dispensing medicines. The group got to work, opening boxes and setting out medicines while people lined up. As the doctor examined, Grace dressed wounds and some of the others handed out medicines based on the doctor's prescription. At first, just a few people were in line, but as word spread of the doctor's arrival, more began trickling in. A few had flood and water-related problems such as diarrhea, but there were other day-to-day problems. A few boys came in with play-related injuries.

Another doctor was being expected and finally arrived at about 6 pm. All this while, I hadn't been able to help in any way – expected, but frustrating. So when some full-timers left, I joined them. It seems that quite a few AID Tamilnadu full-timers live in Arakkonam, at least 2 hours away by bus and train. Thankfully, I did not have to travel all that far... after returning to the AID Chennai office, Dwiji and I headed to Chandra's house nearby for dosas and a good night's sleep.

A bird's eye view on a foggy morning

2005-12-11T11:56:00.000+05:30

Sunday Dec 4^th:

Our morning in Timbaktu started early. Much to the surprise of Shailesh, who had volunteered to be our guide for the early morning hike, Anitha and I woke up on the sound of the alarm and as we were stepping out, a sleepy Sudha surprised us at the door saying she would join us if we waited for a few minutes !! We hiked up to the saddle point to the north west of Timbaktu and Sudha decided to stay on there, while Shailesh, Anitha and I went ahead to climb up the tall peak further north of the saddle. Though the trek up to the peak was good fun, once there, it wasn't much fun. The fog was still quite thick and we couldn't see much of the view that we had heard comments about from the folks at the collective. Just as Sudha was about to give up on us and turn back we reached the saddle point and all of us headed back, all primed for a much needed breakfast !

After a relaxed breakfast and a hurried bath we headed out to meet with Dinesh, Subba, and Babloo in the remaining couple of hours at the collective. Sudha was able to join in a conversation between Uzramma and Subba in the mess hall while I sought out Babloo to talk to him about our ideas for the next few years. It was a short conversation, he felt that the conversation would be better held in a wider group, especially so because he himself didn't have to make the switch from a mainstream job to that of the collective. We joined the group in the mess hall and the next hour was spent discussing perspectives and approaches that one comes with when stepping into the alternative or developmental arena. More on this in a later post ...

We headed back to the collector's hut to pack up our bags and headed to the Chintavanam office with Dinesh. Overlooking a demo plot, the Chintavanam office is located just a kilometer out of C.K. Palli village and is a spacious and airy building constructed with the purpose of serving as the main office of the collective. We sat there to chat with Dinesh about the organic farming efforts the collective has undertaken. The collective works with farmers from the neighbouring villages moving them towards organic agriculture. Produce from organic farmer's of neighboring villages are collected and marketed by the collective, and Ashis is responsible for these marketing efforts.

We headed back to the collective had a quick lunch and started back for Bangalore. Madhu also came along – the three of us would be leaving for Chennai by the night train. We reached home base after 4 and a half hours, with the last 60 kms requiring 2 hours!

An education at Timbaktu

2005-12-11T11:19:00.000+05:30

Saturday, December 3rd:

We woke up early Saturday morning to head to the Timbaktu collective 165 km away. Travelling with Dwiji and me were his parents and sister Anitha. The collective is in Anantapur dt., AP very close to Chennekothapalli. We had heard of this group through various circles and incidentally Ashis, Madhulika's (formerly from AID Austin) husband is working there. Madhu herself is spending some time there after her return from the US and was to join us on our way back. We met up with her in Chennekothapalli and headed to Timbaktu, off the main road (National Highway-7).

One of the major efforts of the collective has been the preservation and regeneration of the local scrub forest. When they first bought the land, about 32 acres of it, it was completely bare. Now, 15 years later, it is covered with trees, shrubs and grasses. They have also protected surrounding areas from forest fires. Overgrazing is not allowed on Timbaktu land and the need to control grazing has been accepted by local communities managing their forests in the area. Of course, not everyone is happy with this – the next day, we overheard an altercation between a goatherd and a member of the collective over goats straying into areas they shouldn't be going into.

We were shown to our accomodations and found that the house we were staying in was built by a Collector who supported Timbaktu and had recently passed away. The neighboring house was built by Uzramma of Dastkar fame, who was also visiting this weekend with her son. Dastkar is a weavers' collective based in Andhra Pradesh which has done amazing work in regenerating incomes for weavers, introducing (or re-introducing) handloom textiles and natural dyeing techniques throughout the country and sensitizing the government and institutions about the problems faced by the weaving communities. Thousands of weavers have been mobilized and now have a powerful voice.

Back to Timbaktu... we headed out to lunch in the collective's kitchen and then decided to visit their demo plot. The collective has started working on agricultural issues a few years ago. Prior to that, they were procuring traditional grains such as ragi, sama and korra and using them to make biscuits, laddoos and other products. These grains were traditionally grown in an organic manner and continue to be grown thus. As time passed, the value of promoting organic techniques for other crops and approaches such as mixed cropping led the collective to begin agricultural interventions. This part of Anantapur dt. is dominated by groundnut production. But though this crop is planted along with pulses (toor), its continuous cultivation has led to lower yields and quality. Like in the cotton growing belt, there have been suicides here and depression, migration etc.

Further, with its commitment to organic products, the collective was finding it harder and harder to procure enough grain for its products. So, gradually, discussions were organized with local farmers and information about sustainable agriculture shared. The demo plot, 'Itavanam' is a valuable tool in this intervention.

The plot was about a kilometer and a half away, so the 'younger lot' walked there with Shailesh, a volunteer at the collective involved in gardening. Shailesh also talked about his involvement in putting out forest fires – the land around Timbuktu is reserve forest, but no Forest Department officials are present in the area. So, when forest fires erupt, the collective members rush out to put it out by beating the fires with palm leaves. Shailesh's job has been to cart up water for the thirsty fire-beaters – a sweat-inducing one in itself! Temperatures in the summer can go up to 45°C and they have to be particularly vigilant at such times.

'Itavanam' is flanked on one side by neem trees and by a variety of fruit trees on the other. Different pulses have been sown alternatively with ragi, castor and varied beans. Groundnuts have also been planted in some rows. The approach of the agricultural group has been to work on pest management first and then on reducing fertilizer inputs. Neem is invaluable in the former and we also noticed some insect traps throughout the plot. As Madhu explained (she has been doing a survey in one village about this) the biggest attraction of organic farming has been the reduced cost of inputs. The yield has not necessarily improved, but as long as it remains the same, farmers will be receptive to the approach.

Dwiji's mother grew up in a village (in Kolar dt.) and used a lot of these plants in her childhood. So she talked a lot about how different types of leaves are edible and in what stage, how certain pea or bean pods could be used etc. We sampled all kinds of grains, fruits and groundnuts – after all, how can a farm trip be complete without grazing?!

Timbaktu operates a number of schools – one in Timbaktu itself (a residential school) and day schools in Chennekothapalli and 3 other villages. We had to decide which school to visit and picked the residential one. We reached the school just as it was closing and the children rushed to meet us. A lot of attention was focussed on Dwiji and his hair, with one kid making up a story about how he is Dhoni's annayya! (for those uninterested in cricket, Dhoni is one of the new stars on the team and sports long, gold-highlighted hair) We talked briefly with one of the teachers and were told that this was the kids' gardening time. They all tend to gardens which supply most of the school's vegetable needs. Also, these kids are all from agricultural families, so this is a useful life skill for them. They get used to mixed planting and organic farming, so get 'trained young'. The kids were extremely enthusiastic, especially dragging Dwiji's mother to see yet another plant or tree. They had beans, tomatoes, sitaphal, brinjal, papaya... the list goes on. With the onset of heavy rain, we finally were able to say our goodbyes!

The school in Chennekothapalli, Prakruti Badi was first started to serve dropouts. As they began getting good results with these 'problem children', more people showed interest in sending their children to these school. Thus, gradually, day schools were expanded to other villages. The residential school was started with the idea to serve disadvantaged children – those with a single parent, extremely poor background, disinterested parents etc. When parents come to the school seeking admission for their children, they are asked to leave their names in a register. Some children are recommended by the cooperatives, villagers etc. Teachers go and investigate the child's background to see if they are suitable candidates for the residential school. Initially the education was offered free of charge, but it was found that this did not encourage parent involvement in their child's welfare. So a nominal fee was instituted. Since the school is fully funded, this goes into an individual savings account for the child. All this was explained to us by Kalyani, one of the teachers in Prakruti Badi, over tasty gongura tea prepared by her. Kalyani is the originator of many of the recipes for Timbaktu products. She is married to Dinesh, who is in charge of the agricultural program. Dinesh was to return the next day from Hyderabad, where a fair was being organized by CSA (Center for Sustainable Agriculture).

After dinner, we went to drop off Madhu in Chennekothapalli. Ashis was working late into the night with the cooperative to pack biscuits and other products for the fair in Hyderabad – he was heading there on Sunday night. The collective had recently participated in an organic fair in Bangalore. This year, they had produced 10 tonnes of products and Ashis was confident they could sell those pretty quickly. To reach the next level of marketing and sales, in his opinion, they would need organic certification. Most such certification is very expensive, working out to atleast Rs. 1000/acre. For a farmer who makes about Rs. 1500 profit/acre, this would only make sense if (s)he can make atleast double that profit. Again, Ashis thinks it can be achieved, but the links need to be established. That is the focus of his work with the collective.

We went to sleep with plans to go trekking the next day.

Biomass and critical mass

2005-12-02T09:38:00.000+05:30

Tuesday, November 29th, 2005:

On this day, we visited the Magadi area, about 40 km north of Bangalore – in some villages here, Prasanna (AID Saathi + Full-timer with AID Bangalore) and others are involved in an agriculture intervention. Prasanna had sent out documents a couple of days ago and I was pleased to find a report about their trip last year to Mr. Renake's project in Solapur. Mr. Renake has been producing vegetables in arid Solapur (and neighboring areas) and it seems he has demonstrated the best yields in such conditions.

This particular intervention in Magadi is being supported and planned by Dr. Datye. The team working on this includes Prasanna, his sister Prafulla, Vatsala - an (early) retired IISc professor, Ravi and Mr. Ramamurthy. The goal of the intervention is to introduce sustainable approaches to growing vegetables, grains and pulses etc. while working with the local population, especially the landless poor, to generate (or regenerate!) agricultural livelihoods. One way in which this could be achieved, according to Dr. Datye, is to work with Panchayats and develop food-for-work programs initially when the land has not reached its full productive capacity. Further, once these techniques have been well understood by the villagers, the Panchayats or Zilla Parishads (district level administration) could allot government 'wastelands' to the landless so that they can develop it further. According to Mr. Renake, 10 guntas of land would provide work and partially meet the food requirements of 5 women and their families. According to this group, that is too hard to implement, especially in the early stages, so they are working with 20 guntas (half an acre) for a group of 5 women.

Our first stop was Thorepalya and Mr. Ramamurthy's land, which is one of the plots being used. Mr. Ramamurthy retired from a senior position at the National Aeronautic Labs and is a philanthropist/social worker. AHe has raised funds to build a school for children in the area. The school buildings are all in the shape of a pyramid – apparently this structure concentrates the senses and aids thinking!

At Mr. Ramamurthy's house, we also met Ravi, one of the key members driving the project. Ravi hails from Motaganahalli, one of the villages in the area where land has been leased at a nominal price for the project. His presence and relationship with the villagers has meant that they have been actively involved in this process. Such is not the case in Mr. Ramamurthy's land – he calls for laborers when required and manages the planning etc. himself. However organic techniques, including the Madagascar or SRI technique for rice, are being employed on his land. He has also had a composting pit built and the humus generated has been used in an experimental plot. The soil in this area is predominantly red soil which has a low water-holding capacity. Addition of humus improves water-holding capacity as well as nutrient availability. In one plot, Mr. Ramamurthy has planted banana trees and in others vegetables. One plot is being used as a control plot in order to record differences in yield.

We next went to Maralagondala where Prasanna and Prafulla have bought land and are experimenting on it. This land was all under banana and ragi cultivation earlier. A caretaker, Govindappa, has been in charge of the farm and apparently he is not convinced enough about these methods to follow Prasanna's instructions. Subsequently, only one plot, in which Prasanna personally planted horse grams, has been worked on as planned. In a few other plots, mixed cropping techniques were initiated. Alternate rows of tur, jowar, marigold and other seeds had been planted in one but were not well tended. Inspite of that, they have grown well and are close to harvest. Prafulla and Prasanna had faced a number of personal issues, including their mother's illness, this past year and so could not devote as much time and energy as is needed in such an intervention. Further, because of Govindappa's lack of enthusiasm, it has not been easy to get local support. Prasanna has begun going to the farm regularly (atleast once a week) in the past few months and has also met the women in a local savings group. Hopefully, over this coming year, he can build stronger links with the community.

The last farm we visited was in Motaganahalli, Ravi's village. This was the best example of the project, also of Renake's methods. Rectangular plots had been prepared in a raised-bed style (here humus and soil is heaped on top of the ground without digging and seeds/saplings are planted directly on it – it is less labor intensive) and planted with radish. Circular heaps have bottle gourd in them and in other plots ragi is being cultivated. Vatsala and Ravi had planned to measure the height of ragi in a control plot, but it had already been harvested! Apparently, out of fear that the next day may be rainy (a reasonable one considering how wet this year has been), the women working on this land had harvested the crop the previous day. The travails of data collection!

In Renake's approach, 1.2 tonnes of biomass is required per gunta, especially in the initial stages. Since the team started work late this year, they were not able to collect as much as required, so have set up one plot with less biomass. Next year, they plan to put more land under cultivation and work with other organizations in the area. They will continue to record and analyze their results in order to come up with a feasible approach for this area.

The social aspects will also have to be concentrated on – more local people will have to be convinced about or develop an interest in the project. Prasanna has had some interactions with youth groups and women's savings groups. As he puts it, the social, economical and political conditions in this area have to be looked at to achieve some measure of success in this intervention.

Sound bytes from Magadi

2005-12-01T22:58:00.000+05:30

Its almost been a week since we landed in Bangalore. The city has changed, but I found it more interesting that the people have changed so much more. Kannada has been on the wane for sometime now, but the ease with which auto drivers and bus conductors, vegetable and fruit stall vendors and many others start to speak in English took me by surprise. Or maybe the pony tail I sport these days is giving them the impression that I am not from these parts ...

On Tuesday, Sudha and I accompanied Prasanna, Vatsala and Prafulla to a project undertaken by the AID Bangalore chapter. While Sudha is compiling a detailed note about the visit I am have taken up the simpler task of cataloging and uploading the images and audio from our trip :-)

There are three audio files describing the two different manures that they use - green manure and vermicompost. The lead voice being that of Ravi from Motaganahalli, a village activist, mobilizer, and the local resource person for the project. Prasanna and Vatsala also chip in in the green manure snippet.

Murphy had to be vindicated - by the time we reached the most picturesque part of the project the sun had set and we had to make do with so so snaps using the small flash from a digital camera. The couple of shots of Prasanna and the one with Werner, were taken in Prasanna's house, when we visited him on Saturday.

The entire collection can be found here ...

Class wars

2005-11-27T23:16:00.000+05:30

Living up to tradition, the night before leaving town was a non stop work-a-thon. The good thing is that I was able to (atlast) complete some book - keeping that has been pending since June !! The first journey of our tour began with an ominous sign - as we checked in our baggage and got our boarding passes at the MSP airport, we werent assigned seats for the Amsterdam to Mumbai flight - we would have to checkin (again) once we reached Schipol. As our flight approached Amsterdam, I realized that we would have just about an hour and a half in Schipol !! The ticket we originally bought for our international travel was for a Northwest Airlines flight from MSP to B'lore, via Amsterdam. NWA aborted its plans for starting flights in this segment and we were stuck at the raw end of the deal in early Nov. - either a full refund or fly in thru mumbai and out thru delhi. The decision was a no brainer, and ofcourse, this sets the context for our seatless check in. As we approached the transit desk in Schipol, the computer network went down. After a few minutes wait, we were asked to go directly to the gates and were told that the staff there should be able to assign seats as well.

One of the cool things I married into is access to the knowledge base of a seasoned traveller. In Schipol, on the level above the one in which the gates are (follow signs to Lounge 40 - 41 invitation only), there is a rest room which has a shower in it! Its just before the invitation only lounge, and yups it is free !! After a quick shower, we realized that we had less than 20 minutes left, and rushed to the gate. The chocolates I had promised my sister would have to wait for another time.

The network wasnt yet up and we were asked to wait till all the other passengers had boarded the flight. After holding off till 5 minutes after the scheduled departure time, the lady at the desk called us over and informed us that we were upgraded to First class and had seats 4J and 1 H !!! I think it was while we were checking in in MSP, in reply to Sudha's pondering on whether we would get a seat at all in the Amsterdam - Mumbai flight, I had reasoned that maybe we will be given an upgrade to first class. Well, for a change what I said had come true !

NWA cancelling flights to B'lore after we bought the tickets had brought my distaste for a floundering airline industry up close and personal. Now, stretching out on a first class seat, after a heavy meal, I am glad that the storm brewed the way it did ! We hadnt heeded to the advise of a more cautious travel agent, the Amsterdam - Bangalore flight had been cancelled just at the right time, we got our tickets for the Amsterdam Mumbai flight just at the nick of time, the network going down in Schipol, two vacant seats in the business class, quite a few factors that brought about the perfect storm ... Well, actually the other face of the storm will only be seen when my sister realizes that we did not get even a single bar of chocolate ! I hope the first class travel accessories can be the compromise goodies :-)

Even as we were settling in the lap of luxury, one thing kept striking me again and again, there's so much space here ! After a few moments of surprise at discovering the various luxuries of first class travel, invariably the contrast of the luxuries of the first class area with the cramped spaces in the economy class hit me. On our Mumbai to Bangalore flight, it was a pleasant confirmation to realize that I felt more at home in the economy class travel.

The last India trip?

2005-11-19T19:50:00.000+05:30

Sudha and I are about to start on another trip to India. Given that we are planning to move back once I am done with my PhD, this might very well end up being our last India trip.

Its going to be a 5 week essay, with the longest stay being the week in Bangalore soon after we land on Nov 25th. As expected we are travelling on a packed itinerary. But thinking about all the places we wont be able to go and people we wont be able to meet makes me sad :( ... but then the fact that we wont be in my home town for more than 11 days aggregate also makes me sad. With all the folks we wish to meet up with in B'lore, I would be really glad if we can call on atleast the first circle of family and friends.

As I look forward to it, the highlight of the trip is going to be the 2005 AID India Conference in Delhi. Other than that we will be meeting with quite a few interesting groups and individuals, more about all that in future posts. Drop back over the next few weeks to see whats happening. :-)

The North serves South crew on CBS

2005-09-07T20:30:00.000+05:30

Unfortunately, there is no video - we might have to pay for it if the reporter forgets to send the tape. But the text of the article (linked above) conveys the spirit, I think.

After the flood

2005-09-07T09:32:00.000+05:30

Sunday, September 4th, 2005

Early Sunday morning, the team reached Mt. Vernon and picked up relief materials collected by Brenda. The only item left to complete their load was gasoline cans – and as they found out, they would have been better off buying them earlier. Stores had run out of 5 gallon and larger cans in Memphis and even further north in Arkansas. The southernmost point for getting any was Missouri. So they got off the main road and, with the help of some locals, found a Mom-and-Pop store with cans and barrels in stock. Further down the road, another hitch: they found out that the barrels were not certified to carry diesel! Dr. Stacey, who was in Jackson to escort them further south, agreed to arrange for diesel, so they loaded the cans with gasoline and headed on.

In Jackson, they met Dr. Stacey and Jeffrey Stolworth, a parish minister from Gulfport, MS. Though gas was being rationed in Jackson, they were able to fill up as an emergency vehicle through Jeffrey's intervention. They reached the Biloxi-Gulfport area late Sunday night. Nighttime curfew is being imposed all along this stretch, so they stayed indoors (and hopefully got some sleep).

By Monday morning, they unloaded half their supplies at the Main Street Missionary Baptist Church. This church was serving as a distribution point for the neighboring areas. Most houses in the Gulfport-Biloxi area have lost their roofs, though the structures are still standing. Tarps brought in are being used as makeshift roofs.

The church has asked our team to purchase nails and 2x4s etc. as well as washtubs and other vessels for use in their kitchen. It was decided to go to Jackson for that. In the meantime, Diana and I separately had been making enquiries about Camp Sister Spirit:
http://www.campsisterspirit.com/
and the condition of it and its members. Since it was more remote, it was highly likely that relief had not reached. From Pat in Georgia and James in California, I found out that the founders and members were OK, but thery had suffered water damage and almost 200 trees had been downed by the storm.

Though it was pretty late by the time the team finished their work in Biloxi, they decided to head to the Sister Spirit camp. Maybe because they were exhausted or because the directions were bad or since it was so late, they lost their way and decided to go to sleep in their trucks somewhere close to Hattiesburg.

Caravan down the Mississippi

2005-09-07T09:07:00.001+05:30

Saturday, September 3rd, 2005

High on euphoria after Friday's successful material and monetary collection, Diana, Lynn, Aria and Dwiji set out on Saturday morning. The donated 24' truck was only about half filled and the Litahni and I, the support team back home, were to work on setting up collection points along the way in Madison, Bloomington IL and St. Louis.

The fertile belt of South-East Minnesota sparked the idea of approaching farms along the way for their excess produce – after all, this is the peak of the harvest season. Dwiji called me and I followed up with organic farms and farmers' markets in Southern Wisconsin. We hit pay dirt at Turkey Ridge Apple Orchard, about 30 miles Southeast of La Crosse, WI. The orchard had kept aside three bushels of apples (totalling 3000 lbs) with the idea of sending them to the hurricane-affected areas, but hadn't been able to arrange transportation. Our group was in the right place at the right time - whoopee! They found out the Turkey Ridge, in league with other farm groups in Wisconsin, was planning to set up a soup kitchen in Mississippi. Yet another grassroots effort we might be able to partner with...

Further east, I reached Heck's farm market and store outside Arena, WI. They offered corn and melons and got the truck close to its weight limit. Simultaneously, Litahni made contact with Brenda in Mt. Vernon IL (north of St. Louis) who offered to collect materials locally and bring them to a collection point near I-57.

In the meantime, Diana was in contact with a doctor from Southern Mississippi who was only too pleased to hear about the incoming produce. She offered to meet them in Jackson, MS and escort them to a community near Biloxi. When last I talked to them on Saturday, they sounded tired yet excited. They planned to meet Brenda at a Walmart in Mt. Vernon at 2 am and she offered to wait in her car till they got there - good for her!

No more long distance

2005-09-07T09:07:00.000+05:30

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

OK - for the next few blogs, instead of yakking about myself, I'll talk about my hubby Dwiji. This dude, also known as Dwija, Deepu and Guru does sometimes seem to be many different people at once. He has been been very effective in providing remote support during the tsunami and the recent floods in India. This time, in the aftermath of Katrina, he decided to take a different approach. Here it is in his own words:

Folks,

I am travelling down the Mississippi with supplies for hurricane survivors as part of a community organization that has come together here in Twin Cities, MN.

Over the day we have been able to collect ...

1. a huge 24' long truck
2. few thousand gallons of bottled water
and clothes, diapers, toiletries, dry food and lots of odds and ends
from the community either as donations.

Also raised about $3k in cash.

We are seeking donations in cash or kind. We still have space in the truck and will be stopping in different places on the way to hook up with groups that are collecting more relief materials. Please send an appeal / forward this mail to friends, relatives, contacts, etc. in Urbana Champaign IL, St Louis MO, Memphis TN and other places along I57 / I55. We are starting MN at 6 AM CDT on Sat. and plan to reach drop off locations near Jackson MS in 24 hours.

More info about the group can be found at
http://northservessouth.com

The latest of list of things that are needed is posted on the site.

The main point of contact will be Sudha Nagavarapu. she will be able to clarify any questions,
concerns and give you an update on how we are doing on time.

I plan to be back home by tuesday afternoon and will try to get as many audio snippets / photos as I can.

+ dwiji.

A great blog on PHA-2

2005-08-08T04:32:00.000+05:30

Jeff Conant is at the Hesperian foundation and is active in Right to Water campaigns among many other things. The Cuenca Declaration is noted on his blog - it isn't yet on the PHM website.

Taking stock

2005-08-08T04:16:00.000+05:30

July 22^nd:

Before setting out Friday morning, I packed my bags – Jael and I planned to set off at 1.30 pm. Today, there was just one plenary and we had been warned to arrive early to ensure seating and availability of headsets. The final day of the assembly started off with a parade of nations, with representatives from all countries invited onto the stage. Next, Qasem Choudhury, the convenor of the first Public Health Assembly spoke about the assembly in Bangladesh in 2000.

Then Ravi Narayan tok the stage. He spoke of the strengths and challenges that face PHM. An independent audit a year ago had yielded praise - 'PHM is a celebration of diversity.' and a 'young and growing movement'. The charter had been translated into over 50 languages and has benefited from the involvement of communities across the world. It has presence at local, national and international for a through networking and coalition buiding. A world health report – 'Global Health Watch' had been prepared and released. The weaknesses of the movement are that linkages to communities are not yet good and many areas of the globe have still not been reached. And of course, the blight of almost all movements – inadequate documentation. The language barriers have also been an impediment for achieving better documentation.

Of course, there is no dearth of opportunities: more links needed to be established with wider social movements and campaigns. Enthusiasm had to be generated among young health activists and the socially excluded – indigenous peoples, the disabled or differently abled and other groups. Ravi challenged the audience to have 50 % attendees under the age of thirty and/or from marginalized communities at the center of the next assembly. Oh geez, I'm old :(

Some of the question/challenges posed to the audience: is PHM too event- and publication-oriented? Has it done a good job in emphasizing social and political determinants of health? Does PHM make a difference in people's lives? Is it 'for the people' or 'by the people', i.e. is there true grassroots representation? Ravi remarked that this time more campaigns and movements were present (last time it was on a more individual basis), so a lot more people have been represented. But is PHM truly inclusive? A big dilemma for the movement is the balance between supporting local struggles and coordinating global actions. Local as well as policy-level changes have to be made to make a sustainable change.

The audience was then invited to make brief comments. One person mentioned how essential reports on environmental degradation was for the Global Health Watch report (which was released on Wednesday). Others comented that future PHA's should be held in grassroots communities rather than spread out in a city and should have less presentations and more songs and dances. A Canari man (indigenous, from near Cuenca) declared that this historic experience should not only remain only in our eyes and on paper. It should be translated and acted in all the countries of the world with a fraternal hug. A delegate from Africa commented on brain drain and its challenges to health care.

Ravi responded briefly to these comments. He said people have gotten quite carried away with Powerpoint presentations and this will not happen next time around (wonder what gizmo it will be then!). He also said that the choice of venue (which hasn't been very popular for conference purposes – the town is gorgeous though) had been made by the Ecuadorian delegation and reflects that PHM is everywhere – in villages, cities and grassroots communities and now in universities as well.

Next were testimonies from invited delegates. Anita Ghai represented the disabled or 'differently abled' people. She reminded us that we were all only temporarily abled. The group demanded more accessability everywhere – they have had a hard time this week, with being carried around to having to crawl up stairs in some dire cases. 'Nothing for us without us', she declared. Delegates from Australia and Haiti mentioned how important the empathy and friendship created during this week were. In typical poetic style, the Haitian woman declared that 'heaven had descended on all of us'.

Fatima from Bangladesh talked at length about Gono Shastro Kendra – about how it had created a pharmaceutical industry which employs women and supplies essential medicines. It influenced the National drug policy, the Labor movement and the status of women.

http://www.healthdevelopment.org/hphc/gonoshastha.htm

http://www.oneworldaction.org/programmes/bangladesh_partners.html

GSK were at the forefront of forming PHM and their work in Bangladesh is amazing

Lilian, a 13 year-old from Tanzania, delivered a simple message: 'We'll build a strong PHM in Africa'. Finally, a message from Director-General of WHO, Dr. Lee, was delivered to the audience via DVD. Among the various achievements he touted was a Treaty in opposition to harmful industries framed this year. He also lauded PHM's achievements.

It was time for an intermission and I stepped out to find Prasanna and Vineeta outside. After all these days, it was the first time the 3 of us were in the same place at the same time. We decided to skip the next presentation, which was the reading of the Cuenca declaration and discuss AID strategy instead. There have been a lot of misconceptions within us and this was a good opportunity to clear the air. I took the role of clarifying what AID-US is, what it can and cannot do legally and what it could strive to do operationally. The crux of the matter was the role AID-US can play in PHM-US – how much can we get involved in issues of interest in the US. We came to the conclusion that we can actively participate in decisions made in the US that directly impact India, such as the protest against the Patents Act, the anti-Dow campaign etc. The picture is less clear in the case of denial of healthcare within the US, environmental degradation etc. But plenty of AIDers have been engaged in such actions in an individual capacity and we could do that in the case of PHM-US as well. We decided to start on an educational module about PHM and Primary Health Care within chapters in the US.

Prasanna has a number of other thoughts he'd like chapters in US to internalize – thekind of projects we support and the expectations we have from them. I think he hopes that he can promote this through the Health issue. So the right to Health is not just a mobilizing but also an educational tool!

We left the venue to go to lunch and hopefully to meet Sarah and Tawnia there. But it was getting late for me, so I left to meet Jael and head out for the next part of my trip.

A link to photos

2005-07-26T21:10:00.000+05:30

The causes of the causes of illnesses

2005-07-26T21:09:00.000+05:30

Thursday, July 21st:

On Wednesday evening, I had thought of attending a meeting of the Indian delegation. That didn't happen, but I did talk to Janet Gottschalk of the North American delegation. Janet works part-time at George Washington University and is a visiting professor at Texas A&M University, Laredo. She works on border issues and is also the co-chair for the Religious Working committee at the WHO. She is interested in working on Trade and Health and proposed we connect up with the group working at APHA. A group called C-PATH is also working on these issues and she recommended that we connect with Ellen from that group. We also talked a bit about the education for Public Policy and Public Health in the US. Her suggestion was that I stick to online courses and self-study!

On Thursday, I decided to diligently attend every session I could, inspite of tiredness and muscle aches (in my usual fashion, I had taken a few tumbles in Cajas – but this time, blame the mud!) Plenary A was on the revitalization of the spirit of 'Health for all' and Alma Ata. The Alma Ata declaration was signed in 1978 by most of the countries in the world and promises to provide comprehensive Health Care for all by 2000. This amazing document has almost been forgotten in the mainstream for many reasons: the fall of the Soviet Union and decline of socialism, the rise of neoliberalism, the change in economies, expanding globalization etc. Details can be found at:

The testimonies covered local initiatives in Health Care and mobilization. A speaker from the Phillipines talked about the problems with militarization that her group of community health workers faces, in spite of which they have made strides. An aboriginal activist from Australia talked about the start of their movement in 1972 and the energy they got from attending Alma Ata. The Aboriginal community has been very marginalized, receiving less money for health care and facing the government's 'divide and rule' policy. A recent development has been 'personal responsibility' statements, wherein both communities and providers pledge to meet certain standards.

A short film from Guarjilla, El Salvadore was screened which talked about the resettlement of refugees who had fled to the Honduras during their civil war. Health workers had been selected from the community. They, along with an external group, worked to improve health indicators by constant monitoring through household surveys, the combination of education, treatment and rehabilitation and community radio. While malnutrition rates are 33% nationwide, they are only 12% in Guarjilla.

The next presenter, from Mozambique, talked about a comprehensive health care approach his NGO is implementing, which includes education, sanitation, small enterprises and credit programs. The primary health needs are met by training activists in rural sector and traditional birth attendants. Working groups aimed at finding problems and solving them are set up in all communities. Home visits, prenatal care, immunization and sexual and reproductive health are all part of the program. The difficulties include poor access to information, low sustainability of committees, lack of infrastructure and a poor economy.

Two community health workers from Haiti talked about the work their group Zanmi Lasante does with HIV/AIDS education and treatment. Next, a speaker from Venezuela talked about her country's 'Barrio Adentro' program. The mayor of Caracas had visited Cuba and requested its President for help in improving the medical facilities. Instead of 50 doctors, Fidel Castro sent 100. The program was expanded to the entire country by Hugo Chavez. An official mission has been formed and an agreement signed with Cuba. Health services are now completely free. She said 'Please get the word out that Hugo Chavez is not a terrorist'.

The final testimony was from a street child in Canar province (of which Cuenca is a part). In poetry and spoken word, he eloquently described the plight of street children. 'I don't have a face or a name. I look for you, but cannot find you... I am as important as the birds you feed... I have infections, but the nurses don't treat me... It's not my fault that I was born... My life is a bad dream. Why have you forgotten me?'

Next was the turn of the panelists. First was David Sanders from South Africa. He talked about the progress in Global Health – improved life expectancy and control of diseases – and the widening gap in health outcomes between and within countries. Since the 1980's, there had been mixed success in health due to a split in the health care movement. Some chose to do selected interventions, with some success like with the UNICEF's GOBI (Growth monitoring, Oral Rehydration Therapy, Breastfeeding & Immunization) program. But such programs leave out crucial gaps that can only be addressed using a Comprehensive health approach.

In the 1990's, there were reversals in health indicators due to globalization, health sector 'reform' and HIV/AIDS. Health care packages were now being drawn up with a basic set of deliverables and essential services. The cost-effectiveness of selective interventions was analyzed by the World Bank, with some very strange results. One example is the conclusion that case management of diarrhea and promotion of hand washing is more effective than providing safe water! David showed a cartoon of a man saying 'I'm hungry' and a fat executive eating a scrumptious meal replying 'Stop talking politics'!

An example from the Eastern Cape in South Africa was presented. This was a problem faced in tertiary centers - children were dying of malnutrition at rates of 28% - 46% across the hospitals in the region and this was unacceptable. A little analysis showed that children were dying due to delay in feeding which was the result of staffing and supply shortages. A 3 hour feeding cycle was established, but generated mixed results due to low morale and the underlying staff shortage. But in places that undertook leadership and capacity building, the results were very good. Mothers were educated about nutrition and 76% remembered the instructions. But 71% could not implement them due to poverty. All these households were eligible for but not receiving welfare. An advocacy campaign was launched through the press and the screening of a documentary on TV. Within 36 hours, the health minister arrived in the area and set up a task force for processing Child Support Grants. Thus, 'intersectoral action is required to institute real change'.

During and after the break, we were entertained by the exhilerating of a performance Cuban musician. After this foot-stomping routine, it was time for Michael Marmot to take the stage. Michael Marmot heads the Commission for Social Determinants at the WHO. PHM has achieved enough prominence to be recognized by the 'establishment' – it has a representative to the Commission for Social Determinants and a number of representatives from the WHO were present at the assembly. This has made it an eclectic mix - as Michael put it, this is the first time he has attended a conference with reports from the field and scientific discussions and performances all on the same stage. 'We have all come together on a basic idea – that health is a human right, not an economic activity', he said. We need to look at the causes of the causes of illness, which means that we have to address the distribution of diseases, government responsibility for health and social measures, poverty and inequality, environmental degradation and many other factors. The Commission for Social Determinants was launched in Santiago, Chile during March, 2005 to address this social imperative.

Michael Marmot also presented statistics demonstrating inequities in health. The probability that a 15-year old man will live to 60 is 8.3% in Sweden, 46.9% in Russia and 90% in Lesotho. In Russia, cardiovascular disease and violence have led to a sharp decline in health indicators. He also talked about the burden of non-communicable diseases and injury and the dependance of infant mortality on race and the mother's education.

There are 2 types of success for reducing mortality – the one most promoted is growth-mediated, such as in Hong Kong. But the other type, with support as in Cuba, Costa Rica and Sri Lanka has been equally successful. The commission will look into this and other issues through knowledge networks set up to collect information on specific issues. It plans to come out with a report in its 4-year term. In conclusion, 'what good does it do to treat people and send them back to the conditions that led to the disease in the first place?'

Next to speak was Dr. Espinoza from El Salvador. He talked about how the fight for Primary Health Care (PHC) can be used as an instrument for mobilization and development. He stated that we should be talking about the revitalization, not the resurrection, of Alma Ata, because it is still alive! The concept of PHC was born in communities, systemized in Alma Ata and still alive in communities. Alma Ata was a commitment. Cuba did it. Others have tried, but successes have been reversed in Nicaragua and elsewhere. Yet the struggle continues. He noted the success of the Guarjilla program, the 'silos' in North San Salvador and the healthy municipalities program in Nicaragua. Capacity has to be built at the local level, with activists then going beyond local spheres to mobilize people and influence government policy. Finally, Dr. Espinoza singled out IPHU, the International Public Health University, for praise.

Next was a presentation by the head of PAHO (Pan American Health Organization), the regional organization of WHO for the Americas. The presentation was lacklustre, talking about various resolutions and proposals and repeating a lot of textbook stuff. I later learnt that the PAHO head is a very strong supporter of the PHM model – good for her. Finally, in a short and simple presentation, Thelma Narayan talked about CHC's work in Karnataka. They have used theater for mobilization and have taken on the issues of gender and environmental justice. She talked about a situation (without) specifics where a local community campaigned successfully against mercury contamination by a factory in their vicinity. The Karnataka Task force set up in 1999 and Citizen's charters drawn up at PHC's also came up for honorable mention.

I had talked to Thelma a few days earlier about specific issues AID should get involved in. Our talk had been wide-ranging, with mention of the seeds issue (the new Seeds Bill that seeks to restrict barter and storing of seeds by farmers), health of slum populations and the resettlement of tsunami survivors. Incidentally, CEHAT has a project in Mumbai and Delhi which monitors health indicators of resettled slum residents, and CHC does some work with these populations in Bangalore. I hope I can follow up on this issue (volunteers welcome!) because it connects up the slum demolition issue. Resettlement is not the panacea many of us seem to think it is – conventional wisdom seems to be that slum residents are being moved to better accomodations and therefore should be better off. But this is often not the case. Anyway, more later...

Back to the plenary – it wound down after some audience comments. I was sitting next to Prasanna who was off to a meeting of the Global Right-to-Health campaign. This was being headed by Abhay Shukla and the objective was for participants to take up the responsibility of or to coordinate the developing of campaigns in their regions. This would involve contacting other groups – health-based groups, unions, human rights groups etc. As Abhay put it, the strength of the PHM – its lack of organizational structure and flexibility in operation – is also its weaknesses. At any rate, the PHM charter is such that any group can choose to adopt it and thus becomes a part of the network. He suggested a 6-month deadline for mobilizing and participating in conferences or fora in each region. Examples were the African Social Forum in Harare in October and the American Public Health Association in New Orleans in November. In Latin America, the InterAmerican forum and Alames had been invited to the PHA-2 to get an idea of how PHM functions – hopefully, now they would choose to use the Right to Health campaign as another tool for mobilization.

At 2.30 pm, I left the meeting to go to an afternoon session (no point calling these workshops). I finally figured out which bus to catch – this took me on a roundabout route and I might have been better off walking. But hey, I got to see more of Cuenca... The session I attended was on Seeds, a future under threat. Since there were only 3 English speakers, the translators chose to speak to us in a huddle rather than use the equipment. But it was a struggle – the translators deserve kudos for their hard work. Most of the speakers raced through their presentation and the translators have frantically tried to catch up. Things can't be this hard at the UN and other international meeting, what with diplomats reading carefully from documents, right?!

The presentations were average at best, with a lot of generalities about the field and statistics about the seed and pharma companies – nothing one cannot collect after a couple of hours on the web. The last 2 presentations may have been good, but I was way too tired and left. I had to plan my travel with Jael to Isla de la Plata, referred to in most guidebooks as the “poor man's Galapagos”. Or, as in our case, the poor woman's. The tickets to Galapagos alone cost ~$400. But for this island, we'd just have to take a series of buses to Puerto Lopez and then go on a 2-hour boat trip to the island.

After a rest at the hotel, the next stop was the meeting of the North American delegation. We talked about the Right to Health campaign. The Tennessee and Pennsylvania groups are doing some great mobilization and it was proposed that we build on them. Obviously, though, there is a lot of mobilization around the issue of health throughout the US and we'll have to connect with local groups. The truth commissions being planned in Tennessee could be organized elsewhere. It seems that one such commission has been organized during the Boston Social Forum (in which PHM-US had participated). These are similar to the Jan sunvaais in India. Everyone agreed that we should present information about PHM work in our local communities and there was an idea of coming up with an adaptive powerpoint presentation for this purpose. The social determinants work would involve feeding information to the knowledge networks and also the representative from the US to this commission (hope is faint that she will heed this information). Other groups provided updates – the militarization group had met with the European group and there was a proposal afloat to invite Dr. Salaam Ismael to the US and talk to communities. There was a suggestion that returning veterans who have been denied health care also speak at these events. Both on one stage? I don't know – it feels like the message will be diluted. But hey, maybe it would be a double whammy. And maybe more people will attend than the usual lot who turns up for these events. And maybe Dr. Ismael will get a visa... A national network of health workers is supporting 10,000 GI's who are refusing to go to war – it was suggested that we work with them.

The women's issues group has already been strong and they have had a great track. Nadia Van der Linde of Netherlands had arranged small group discussions in their session earlier in the day to come up with recommendations. Already some of them have been working on the global gag rule that prevents clinics who receive US aid from even mentioning abortion. More info can be found at www.globalgagrule.org
This was one of the issues it was suggested they work on.

Where trade and health was concerned, Janet and I gave our brief report. We were told that Ellen of C-Path would love to facilitate any contributions on our part. It was also suggested that debt relief should be a part of this sub-group. September 23rd, the day before a meeting of the WTO, had been suggested as a day to mobilize. Incidentally, Janet wore a white band to mark her participation in the Edinburgh protests. Finally, the meeting ended with the familiar headache of logistics and returning tickets to be sorted out.

Laura, Sonia and I headed out to dinner – some in the delegation had gone to the Cuban performance. Maybe I should have gone too, but at that moment, all I could think about was sleep, sweet sleep.

In the woods

2005-07-24T21:20:00.000+05:30

Wednesday, July 20^th:

Back in the hotel on Tuesday night, we had received a note from Tim Sexton, a student from U of Iowa, saying he wanted to join us on our trip. Unfortunately, we couldn't connect with him. On the bright side, Patty was able to join us as there was place in the van.

For those who are reading this blog to learn about the PHA-2 – sorry, folks! I'll get back on track tomorrow. However, since we learnt about the biodiversity of Ecuador and the healing properties of plants in the mountains, this could be considered a field trip! Read on...

The ride to Cajas took about an hour. We passed through a small town right outside Cuenca. Here, Santiago (our guide) said, every family has a member in the United States. It's the case with most of Cuenca too – a picturesque and teeming town, it's also a rich one. In the usual 'pulling a tale out of a hat' approach, Santiago mentioned that Gayacuil had the highest population in Ecuador, next Quito, then New York! That is, there are more Ecuadorians in New York than in Cuenca!

Our drive to the park took about an hour. Along the way were a few villages and that scourge of the countryside – Eucalyptus. Yes, Eucalyptus does have medicinal properties, its oil is fragrant and good for the skin and its wood is useful. But the trees don't allow any other vegetation to flourish. Further, it depletes the water table with its deep roots. But hey, it's a money maker...

We entered the park and started our first trek – to a height of 4100 meters. The trek was sharply uphill in places and a light rain made it worse. Luckily, I was dressed for the weather, down to my waterproof pants. We reached the heights to encounter clouds in every direction. Santiago suggested we wait and mentioned that we were on a continental divide, that is, water west of us would flow to the Pacific and to the east would flow to the Atlantic thousands of miles away. As he promised, the clouds started drifting away and some of the hundreds of lakes in the park became visible. We returned to the van and drove to the start of the second trek. This would be a 2-hour trek through the mountains and also in a 'wet mountain forest'. Santiago stopped every few minutes to show us a plant or tell us a legend about a certain lake. One lake is considered to 'eat the people' as it has a lot of algae that entangle swimmers. A type of tulip is a hermaphrodite and never opens. Another plant, related to the pineapple, can be eaten in emergencies. A number of medicinal plants and flowers were shown to us.

The wet mountain forest had trees with barks that peeled like paper – I forget their scientific name. After the wilderness in Minnesota, this forest was a welcome change. Here and elsewhere in the mountains, even rocks are covered with vegetation. Mosses, lichens, small plants, daisies at ground level (evolutionary response to the winds) abound. In the mountain forest, we had to watch our heads. Tracks were hard to make out – I wasn't much in favor of a guided tour but now was glad we took it instead of losing our way.

Ahead of us was another group so Santiago took us on another path. This took a lot longer than expected – a bonus was another wet forest. But we were dog tired when we reached the restaurant almost 4 hours later. The lunch was excellent – for the rest, a fried cod and for me, a salad with heart of palms, broccoli etc. The food has been almost universally good here – lots of fruits like naranjilla, mora etc. that are unique here and plenty of vegetables to satisfy the herbivores. After the meal, we went to see a cloud forest. This was at 2.30 pm and the clouds were gone by then. We also didn't see any birds – too many tourists, I guess. We did ask Santiago about the indigenous people – whether they lived in the park and were evicted. Santiago said yes, they were 'destroying' the environment. The biggest failure of environmental movements that look at local communities as the problem...

But overall, it was great to experience the combination of the tropics and the altitude and the amazing biodiversity of Ecuador.

The cost of war

2005-07-21T19:03:00.000+05:30

July 19th:

After breakfast, I went to an Internet center to check e-mail and send out blogs. It took longer than planned and I entered the Plenary late. This was on militarization. Outside, I met Nadia and exchanged notes on Monday. She said that her track had decided to shorten presentations and try to facilitate small group discussions so that the afternoon workshops would not turn into mini plenaries. The translation headphones had run out, so she had come out of the session to make phone calls. I went in to find out that the talk was in English – whew!

I also came in for what might be considered the highlight of the session – a presentation by Dr. Salaam Ismael of the Doctors from Iraq society. Dr. Ismael spoke from his heart. No, from his gut. I have been reading quite a bit on the war in Iraq – the casualties, the human rights violations, the devastation. But none of this was enough preparation for listening to a firsthand account of the horrors of Fallujah. Dr. Ismael talked about multiple ways in which health has been impacted – the new weapons of war (cluster bombs, depleted uranium), structural failures (power failures, lack of water), shortage of supplies (medicines, oxygen, anasthesia) and the brain drain of medical professionals. With photos and personal anecdotes, he thrust the situation into our midst. He had to cut short his talk due to time constraints – a crying shame. The crowd gave him a standing ovation.

The next presentation was the Medact report on Iraq by Judith Cook - a summary of statistics, a few of which had been covered by Dr. Ismael, and a list of recommendations. A valiant effort it was, but felt like the lull after a storm. Next was Dr. Bert de Belder from Belgium with an analysis of US military strategy and some actions Belgian doctors have taken. A little more lively. A statistic he quoted from http://costofwar.com was that so far $178.741 billion has been spent on the war. This money could provide 59 years of basic immunizations for all children in the world. An action his group had undertaken was to present a bill of medical expenses for an Iraqi child to the US government. This child had been injured during a US military operation. Reuters had picked up this story and thus it got circulated widely.

Again I had to leave early – we were singing near the food tent at 1 pm. At lunch, Pervez sat at my table and talked about the film he wanted to make and the struggle in obtaining funding for it. Pervez is an ex-psychiatrist who now makes films and performs. He comes from a family of activists – more pedigree. At our table was Patty of IPAS, a group that works on providing safe abortions based in North Carolina (!) and Brahm from the people's grocery in California.

The performance started late, as usual. This time, PHA attendees were present. A positive response here too.

Post-performance, some chitchat and then confusion in finding the venue led to me reaching the Nutrition and Health session late. The room was completely inadequate for the crowd. The smell of sweat permeated the atmosphere and there was barely enough space to stand. Narendra Gupta from Rajasthan was presenting when I arrived. He talked about the Right to Food, Information and Employment campaigns that were launched through mobilization, pressuring of government officials and other approaches. The questions he was asked were about the white revolution, on conditions of Dalits and the use of traditional medicines compared to Western medicine.

Next were two speakers from Columbia. The first speaker talked about a nutrition program launched by her group in a remote rural area of Columbia. This area is at a high altitude and experiences very high humidity. It seems the people in this area were eating a diet heavy in carbs but low in vitamins and minerals. The group went in with ideas about growing quinua, a highly nutritious cereal, and vegetables. To interest the villagers, they conducted cooking classes with recipes including quinua and vegetables. They helped the community set up vegetable gardens and rear hamsters for consumption. After 2 years, there has been marked improvement in nutrition in the area. The second presenter, an agriculture student, presented a proposal for a similar project in Sumapaz, a rural area of Columbia. He also talked about quinua. Incidentally, he talked later about the problems with monoculture, including the increased use of pesticides. But he didn't elaborate on strategies to combat that.

I had a number of questions: one, is quinua a non-native plant to the area, or was it just forgotten by these communities? (I'm guessing they migrated from lower altitudes) If non-native, are there native plants that could provide the same kind of nutrition? What are the pitfalls of introducing a non-native crop? Were they trying any kind of mixed cropping? If so, what?

A number of people raised their hands, however, and asked extremely valid questions. One was about land ownership. The answer was that this is a land reserve, so all land belongs to the government. Which means that the people can be forcibly evicted if the government wishes it. The next question was: how can any work in the area be done without allegiance either to government forces or the guerrilas? The answer was diplomatic, on the lines of 'We are doctors, we can be neutral'. After that, a number of audience members began asking about Plan Columbia – how one could even conceptualize a program for the Right to Food without the Right to Life. A number of people began speaking, there was shouting and I figured my questions could keep – it was past 5 pm and it didn't look like anything else would happen.

I handed my earphones back, thanked the translator (they truly have a thankless job and are exhausted – simultaneous translation is no joke with extremely passionate, rapid fire speakers). Claudia and Jael, a Jewish native of Calcutta currently working for the Ford Foundation, met me outside. They were in the Gender session. We wanted to play hookey the next day and visit either Cajas National Park or Ingapirca, a place with Inca ruins. We went back to the hotel and in search of a travel agent – IXA tours, the official travel company for the Assembly was swamped anyway. We booked a tour to Cajas for the next day.

Next, we headed to the North American delegation meeting. This time, the room was much fuller and we had some involved discussion. Not as much as I would have liked, but I have to agree that longer discussions should be carried out with smaller working groups. Working groups were asked for their reports and sadly had little to talk about. A group was set up to frame a press release – no shortage of volunteers for that! Tawnia was to coordinate a group to work on social determinants for health – I volunteered for that. Sonia and I talked about doing some work on the issue of Trade and Health. Then was time for logistics – Sarah Shannon has been worked hard on this. Some of us had to pay for our tickets even though we had paid Hesparian, others had to run around for hotels. The logistics for this event have been bad. It didn't need to be this way – so many things were done in a hurry in the last month inspite of a year of planning. Anyway, the delegation decided to meet again on Thursday.

A group of us went out to dinner and we convinced Patty to join us on our trip the next day. Lots of food and laughter later, the day came to a close.

Just another manic Monday

2005-07-21T18:59:00.000+05:30

July 18th:

Some carry-overs from yesterday – I had met folks from the Media Team and made some suggestions to them. In true voluntary group tradition, I was asked to do the work! One of the tasks included writing profiles of children attending the conference. I met and talked to 2 children from the African delegation (profile will be posted when complete). I also talked to their delegation head, Mwajuma Masaiganah – more about her later.

Anyway, Monday dawned gloomily and we walked over to the University for Plenary A dressed for the weather. The sound system was being unloaded as we entered the building at 7.55 am – so much for starting on time! Deepa (a member of the singing troupe) and I were to leave early so we sat close to the exit. It worked for another reason, because as soon as the auditorium began to fill up, an announcement was made that we had to go out and collect headphones for translation. A group of students collected ID's and even passports in return for headsets. Finally, around 8.40 am, the plenary rumbled to a start.

First, it was the testimonies. A group from Argentina screened a film about the takeover of a factory by workers. This brought out yet another problem – the film didn't run! Too many programs running on the laptop or as one panelist tried to explain it, 'problems with the RAM of the laptop'. Well, the audio was being provided in realtime, so it continued. A doctor from Columbia talked about the struggled to keep the government hospital where he works running in the wake of militarization. The hospital employees had not been paid for months and were now living in the hospital itself. When money stopped coming from the government, the hospital tried to reinvent itself as a cultural center with health facilities and mobilize the community to keep it alive. It hasn't succeeded and is set to close. Next another film which actually ran without hitches – one from Brazil for the 'right to sport'. I had been in discussions the previous day where this 'testimony' had been discussed, criticized and derided for being 'unrealistic', 'promoting something that already occupies so many minds' and so on. The film was OK, interspersing child laborers with elite athletes training in expensive facilities to show the contrast and ending with images of children playing in their school and on the streets as they should.

More testimonies: one from Chile about increasing privatization and another from Argentina about a community struggling with high rates of cancers and gastrointestinal problems. Finally, Thelma Narayan, who was chairing the plenary, took the stage. She said that they had hope to have testimonies from other continents but couldn't get the speakers to the Assembly, so chose to have testimonies entirely from Latin America. Next a dance was presented by 2 children from Bangladesh to celebrate the passing of the torch from Bangladesh to Ecuador. The girl was confident and in control and the boy compensated with plenty of enthusiasm!
After this came the turn of the presenters starting with Abhay Shukla of CEHAT. Abhay talked about the mobilization carried out by PHM throughout India – the 'Jan sunwaais' (people's courts), trainings, reports and so on. Halfway through his speech, Deepa (of PHM Bangalore), Raman (of the government and Mitanin, Chhatisgarh) and I had to leave to join Pervez. We took a cab to Parque Calderon to find, as seems par for the course, confusion. After a few minutes of walking around, we finally figured out where we would be performing. Another group was already setting up – we had been told we'd perform first. Some more talking and negotiating with the other group led to us getting the stage. The lead singer of the other group, Diego, kindly offered to translate. As we performed, the citizenry of Cuenca gathered around - old men talking a walk in the park, mothers with children, some youth. The PHA attendees were still in their meetings, so we had a crowd that had no contextual info about us. Well, they still enjoyed it, I think, or were extremely polite!

It was time for lunch, which was being served in the Medical Facility on the other side of town. There are multiple venues for PHA-2 plenaries and sessions throughout Cuenca and none of them are within walking distance. The only time everyone is at a single venue is lunch. Even more confusing, some venues are listed differently in the English and Spanish versions of the program and others are not marked on the map. The Media center is also in the Medical Facility and I went to visit Nisha and the rest of the team there. Letchu a.k.a. Sowbhagya was talking about the huge quantities of food wasted during the meal – Cuencans believe in serving big portions. I mentioned the widespread use of bottled water in an Assembly that has taken on the Right to Water campaign. She asked me to write about it by 7 pm.

Earlier, when I was entering the building, a young woman sitting outside it had asked me a logistics question. She then wondered aloud how I had figured out all these details – she turned out to be an Ecuadorian by birth (now a US citizen). Sonia is studying health policy at Johns Hopkins and looking at issues of international health and trade. I had planned on attending the Trade and Health session where the discussion was to be on Patents. But since it was already 2.30 pm, we headed to the nearest session – that on an education and training strategy for PHM activists. After some confusion, we found the room – it was tightly packed with more people than capacity. The simultaneous translation system via earphones didn't work, so the translator had to come forward to translate. This meant that each presentation would take twice as long and presentors were asked to cut short their talks.

Lanny Smith of Doctors for Global Health went first – he talked about Liberacion Medicin, a group started in Latin America that 'promotes the conscientious use of medicine with social justice and human dignity'. The talk didn't get into as much specifics as I would have liked – I wasn't able to understand what exactly LM does. There was no round of questions after the talk. Next was David Sanders, Director of the School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. He presented some health statistics for South Africa. Despite public sector spending per citizen of $140/year, the country' health statistics are poor even in areas such as immunization of children (78%). He then talked about the gaps in delivery, most of which he sees as due to poor training. His School's program for Public Health aims to fill this gap with training of doctors and nurses. It does not focus on methodologies and theoretical work as much on training of health workers from the undergrad stage onwards. Thus even dieticians and physiotherapists are exposed to the Public Health perspectives.

At this point in Dr. Sanders talk, he began getting into more detail than I thought necessary (I sound like Goldilocks here!) Finally he did yield the stage. Thelma Narayan was next but now began a royal snafu. The simultaneous translation system was back on, but there weren't enough earphones to go around. Eventually, folks realized that there were more Spanish speakers than English ones in the room. So a Spanish speaker, Florence Levy, was asked to go next. She is from Nicaragua and began speaking of a University for Public Health there. By this point, I was hot and tired. Further it didn't seem like there'd be any discussion – there were 3-4 more speakers to go. So Sonia and I left to get some coffee and chill out.

Afterwards, I went to the Media Center to write out the article on water and also complete the profile on the African children. I found Mwajuma Masaiganah, the head of the African delegation, in the travel office nearby and asked her for some background on them. We talked about other issues affecting Africa. I asked her if she ever felt that the focus on HIV/AIDS in Africa was drowning out attention to other diseases and problems. She told me that in her talk earlier in the afternoon (in the Gender issues track), she had given case studies of women suffering from Malaria. She had consciously chosen not to talk about HIV/AIDS and had given her reasons to the audience – to return focus to Malaria and other diseases that kill as much as AIDS.

I finished my writeups at 7 pm and left for the hotel. Claudia wasn't in our room. At the Presidente, I found Vineeta Gupta (of AID-US, SHAI and other groups working on HIV/AIDS) She had just contacted Tawnia. Yet another tale of woe, this time hers' of having to pay $60 for 4 hours in a hotel in Gayacuil! A journalist from the Indian Express, Rajeev, was with her – he hadn't yet received his luggage. It was on a merry trip to Caracas and then Gayacuil and...

Anyway, they weren't ready to go for dinner, so I headed out to a vegetarian retaurant for a lonely meal. The fried rice I ordered was great, and the serving as usual was enormous. I asked for a leftovers box with gestures, in the stereotypical manner of every klutzy tourist out there :) Well, at any rate, the mimes worked and I carried my next day's breakfast back to my room.

Heal the world, one delegate at a time

2005-07-19T19:22:00.000+05:30

July 17th:

Claudia and I had been told that the US delegation would be meeting at 9.30 am in the Presidente. After a breakfast at the hotel (more explaining about 'sin carne' – no meat), we went to the Presidente. There, we found a number of people dressed in white – it seemed that white apparel was suggested for the healing ceremony at noon. The closest thing I had to white was yellow, luckily ethnic (that wins some points). Some of the members of the Indian delegation were in the lobby and the restaurant upstairs.

The US delegation, or at least those who had arrived – about 20, met in a room nearby. About 65 people have registered for the conference from US and Canada. It was then we found out that we are actually the North American delegation. Mexican delegates are part of the Central American delegation – well, it atleast works out in terms of language!

We went through a round of introductions – this was a diverse set of people with varied experiences. Some have worked on US-Mexico border issues, others are union representatives fighting for heathcare, yet others work on global campaigns and quite a few are students. One delegate from Tennessee, Lori Smith, talked about her problems with health insurance when she fell sick. She is now part of a group organizing a sit-in in Tennessee protesting cuts in healthcare.

We discussed logistics – essential for finding people in this town filled with ~1500 delegates and more tourists. Incidentally, it seems there are only 1700 beds in hotels in this town. I guess a lot more people turned out than the organizers expected! Daily meetings of 5.30 pm were planned and a bulletin board would be set up so that delegates could exchange information. Some topics of interest to this group were discussed – a global 'Right to Health' campaign, right to water, protesting militarization, food security, women's health and reproductive rights and social determinants of health. I volunteered for a few tasks – the result of a high predilection for raising my hand at every occasion :)

Next, I had to buy batteries for my camera. The first shop I enquired in asked for $7 per battery (C2 lithium). 2 blocks down, it was $4!

The healing ceremony was to be led by indigenous peoples from across the world. The goal was to 'activate the earth' and seek blessings. It was held in a highly scenic place – a quadrangle bounded by buildings on three sides and a glorious backdrop on the fourth. We walked in to chanting interspersed with haunting music. The 'convenors', dressed in traditional clothes stood in a circle, with attendees in concentric circles around them and yet more in balconies around. The part of the ceremony that I witnessed included calls to the four directions, the heavens and the earth. Speakers talked about war, oppression and the hope for a better world.

I found Navin, Prasanna and Abraham from PHM, Bangalore in the crowd. All of them were in impeccable white, Prasanna attired in traditional South Indian style. 45 minutes into the event, I felt healed enough and headed out to the secretariat. More walking, especially since I lost my way. Thankfully, streets are labeled reasonably well.

At the secretariat, I found Laura of the North American delegation. We had volunteered to find the room we were assigned (Mt. St. Helena). One hour of searching and questioning everyone we could find (in fluent Spanish, thanks to Laura) was unsuccessful. Finally, Laura was able to collar the Dean of the Medical college and he promised her any room she wanted in the new facility.

Meanwhile, I joined the meeting of the Indian delegation. Because of the organizational needs, many members of this group had been drafted by various committees. The remaining members, almost to a person, were presenting papers – a marked difference from the N American delegation. As they remarked, this is just an indication of how mobilized PHM-India is. Among the attendees from India are Meera Shiva (VHAI), Abhay Shukla (CEHAT), Amitava Guha (of Patents fame) and others. One of the delegates, Pervez, is a filmmaker and musician. He asked for volunteers for a chorus for some performances around town. One more task, definitely more pleasant, added to my list.

After the meeting, I waited for Prasanna to finish his other tasks so that we could discuss a plan of action – we had earlier discussed sharing information throughout the week with AIDers and others. No luck – not only was he busy, but he was feeling mentally drained. We decided to convene the discussion to another day.

Finally, at 8 pm, a group of 5 met in Pervez's room to practice the songs we were to perform – one from the NBA (Narmada Bachao Andolan), another a Bhojpuri song and finally a 'maajhi' (boatman) song. That and a hearty meal signalled the end of one hectic day (of many to follow, hopefully).

Back on the map

2005-07-18T06:16:00.000+05:30

It's been a long time since I've updated this blog – maybe I'm only able to write on this while traveling. In the meantime, life's been busy, with a conference on Memorial Day (See http://conference.aidindia.org), other AID stuff now I'm part of the 'establishment' (more on that later) and volunteering at an organic farm (See http://w-e-i.org). But now that I´m traveling again, this time to the PHA-2 in Ecuador, it's high time I revived this blog... I think.

The second People's Health Assembly is being held in Cuenca, Ecuador. Details are at:http://www.phmovement.org/pha2I will be part of the part of the US delegation along with a group of extremely accomplished, highly motivated people. Help!

July 16th:

I stayed in Miami overnight in a hostel – not the best choice of accomodation (one of the girls in my dorm got up at 2 am to have a snack of extremely noisy chips) but cheap. The shuttle came at 4 am to pick me up for my 7:45 am flight. Thought of making a few calls from the airport but sleep, sweet sleep claimed me till it was time to take off.

The airline I flew was LAN, a Latin American carrier. Comfy seats and personal TV's made up for the fact that 'vegetarian' for this airline meant a fruit salad. Enroute, someone a few rows ahead began having problems and the call went out for a medical practitioner. A lady got up to help – I found myself wondering if she was heading to the PHA-2.

We touched down in Quito just before 11 am (it's on Central Daylight Time, like Minnesota). Quito is the second highest capital in the world (after La Paz, Bolivia) and landing at the airport there is memorable. The passengers clapped as we touched ground – surprising, the landing didn't seem all that dangerous. Maybe it's a part of Latin culture. Or Ecuadorians were just happy to be home.

I headed to the counter of Grupo Global, the agency organizing our tickets to Cuenca. They didn't have my ticket – I wasn't even on their list! The doctor who had helped out on the flight did turn out to be a PHA-2 delegate – Claudia Morrissey. (So I can be spared the stereotyping label!) Claudia was set to fly out in an hour to Cuenca and the Grupo Global team was determined to put me on that flight as well. Lots of broken communication and gesticulation later, the woman at the counter took me into the domestic terminal. I paid $63 for the ticket to Cuenca – Ecuador is a dollarized economy. In the gate area I found Claudia, along with Hedwig and Pedro, two delegates from Paraguay. And of course, the flight was delayed!

Claudia is a doctor with Public Health training and teaches International Health at the University of Illinois, Chicago and also at Northwestern University. She has worked in clinics in Bangladesh, Mexico and Guatemala (possibly other places – we didn't get that far). She has been working on reproductive rights issues for over 30 years. Another issue close to her heart is gender equity in University faculties, especially in reference to tenure. As she put it, “The system has many problems, but it's still better than what's offered for non-tenured faculty.”
We landed in Cuenca after a 35 minute flight (during which the attendants still managed to feed us, a la Indian carriers). Cuenca is a city of 350,000 people at an altitude of ~2500 m. It's set in a colonial style – when the Inca ruler of Cuenca heard of the conquistadors' imminent arrival, he ordered the city destroyed. It's also considered an easier city to navigate compared to other Latin American cities.

We had information that the US delegation was to be housed at Hotel El Presidente, so Claudia and I headed there along with Nadia, a member of the PHA steering committee who met us at the airport. We headed to El Presidente, only to find that they were full! Duh, weren't we already booked for this place? A note at the reception said to check with Tawnia Queen, the coordinator of the US delegation, for registration and meal tickets. I suggested we go meet her but already our luggage was being taken to another hotel! As I turned to follow the luggage, Tawnia herself appeared by my side. By now, I had had a sense of a few coordination problems – normal for a gathering of this size. From what Tawnia conveyed, it was a much bigger problem. Well, anyway it looked like we were getting a room in another hotel – the Cuenca and the room was pretty nice. Nadia, Claudia and I were put in one room. Since Nadia was part of the steering committee, it would make more sense for her to stay with the rest of that group in the Presidente and we headed there to work it out. She did get a room there – a dingy, tiny room with none of the charm of the Cuenca. Being on the steering committee would be all work and no fun, it looked like.

After picking up our registration material (and T-shirts), the 3 of us headed out to see the city and more importantly, fill our stomachs. We entered a church briefly - its chapel was gleaming draped in shiny cloths. The others admired it but I found myself thinking of Indian festival or wedding decorations of the more gaudy type! The few people wearing ethnic dresses – long pleated skirts and ponchos and leathery faces were a lot more interesting, in my opinion. It took a while, but we found a restaurant that looked promising. Nadia suggested we order Pote Millo, the local delicacy of Cuenca, which turned out to be a lovely mix of eggs and corn that had been soaked in lime.

Nadia is a coordinator with the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights and is from Amsterdam. If bloodlines and pedigree played a role in the NGO community (and well, doesn't it sometimes?), Nadia would be on the A-list. Her father worked at the UN and now is in the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands. Her mother taught around the world and is now in the Ministry of External Affairs. Nadia herself has been involved in global campaigns for reproductive rights, some of them frustrating and achieving little. But, as she put it, these things have to be tackled. One issue that she has worked, and interestingly, so did her mother thirty years ago – Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Africa. Her mother had attended a session she organized and was disheartened to see that the talking points – the taboos, the silence and the need to break 'cultural' mores – hadn't changed. We discussed how progress on certain issues, such as FGM, had been reversed and the rise of conservatism across the world. Even in the Netherlands, the supposed bastion of 'liberalism', it had taken a lot of work to approve over-the-counter availability of emergency contraception (also called 'the morning after' pill).

After the heavy meal of corn, eggs and potatoes, my systems were ready to shut down and we headed back to the hotel for long-overdue sleep.

Not just another exam

2005-04-24T19:40:00.000+05:30

March 24th:

On Thursday, after spending time with my friends and doing some shopping, I went to Kurla to Anjuman Khairul Islam college. Jayantbhai and I first went to meet the principal – 2 teachers were conducting the tests in their respective classes. The D.Ed. college is on the 4th or 5th storey of a building undergoing repair work (a school occupies the lower floors). The principal apologized profusely for the state of things and for her inability to arrange for tea from the teachers’ room itself. After she sent out an order to the nearest tea stall, we got down to ‘business’.

I asked her and a couple of the teachers who had come into the room what they felt about these interventions for promoting communal harmony. It then came out that one of Anjuman’s history teachers had met the Janmukti people at Mani Bhavan during an event. They had discussed this initiative and she had invited them to Anjuman. And thus had begun the expansion of communal harmony education to Urdu colleges. “You are all teachers,” I said. “What do you think of the current approach? Is a one hour talk, a book and an exam enough to get these thoughts into young minds?” It’s a start, was the reply. A lot more would have to be done, both here and elsewhere, to further develop these ideas. The suggestions started flowing – a debate, some discussions, cultural programs…

“What about the situation in Mumbai today? How can that be combated?” This brought forth another spurt of opinions. One of the staff lives in Mira Road and she talked about how the relatively new community there was already divided along communal lines. “We had some Hindu neighbors, who became nervous at some point and decided to move. We pleaded with them not to. But they said that in spite of the respect and affection they felt for us, they did not feel safe here. After they left, the 2-3 Christian families also moved out. Now we are truly a Muslim colony. The real estate agent near the station will not even show properties in Naya Nagar, where we stay. ‘It’s not a good area,’ he says.” The pain at this was evident in her voice. Another example came through of a Hindu teacher who had worked in their college for a number of years, who left because she could not put up with the pointed remarks of some teachers in the college. “Somehow they would treat her as if she was responsible for everything done by some extremists,” said the principal. “I tried explaining to them how unreasonable they were and even warning them. But in the end, she decided she didn’t want to go through this every day. What could I do after that?”

There was talk about how Muslims get misrepresented in books and the media – how they are all considered sympathizers of Pakistan. Even in the D.Ed. syllabus, there are passages about Sikhs and Muslims that are insulting. I told them about some of the initiatives for combating this kind of ‘hate’ teaching. One teacher said that reading the booklet distributed by the Sarvodaya/Janmukti group was very comforting.

By this time, the exam was completed and we headed to one of the classrooms. About 40 girls were sitting in it – the D.Ed. course is a 2-year program after 12th standard and so they must be in the 17-19 age group. I was introduced to the class – the American bit was emphasized! – but I made sure to tell them I was homegrown. I told them that I hadn’t come to talk but to listen, to hear what they had to say about the book, the exam, the topics raised by it etc. As expected, there was pin-drop silence! The teacher accompanying me then asked them to say something – if they thought all of this was a waste of time, now was the time to speak up. Finally, one girl did get up. She said that she had enjoyed reading the book and that she had been surprised by a quote from Swami Vivekananda. From reading about him in a sociology class, she had thought he was only a promoter of Hinduism. This quote had painted him in a more tolerant light. A Sarvodaya volunteer said he would find out more details, but the teacher suggested more reading about Vivekananda to resolve these seeming inconsistencies. Another girl mentioned how she enjoyed reading about Aurangzeb and Shivaji, and so on. From their comments, it was obvious that they had read the book and absorbed it.

I then asked what other ways they could work with this information and promote communal harmony. The answer was that the book should not be distributed to students alone – everyone should read it. Plays, discussions etc. could be done in their local communities also. After about 10 minutes of discussion, I thanked them and went to the other class. A similar experience ensued. One comment received here was that there was a perception that because Musilm girls covered their heads (about 80% of the girls did), they were somehow backward. “But we are not,” she said. “We also study and work and are independent.” Another asked about terrorism and its whole-scale condemnation without looking into the factors leading to it. This prompted a discussion on non-violence as well as various forms of oppression. In all, it was an engaging discussion.

This particular project and our funding of it have been highly controversial within our chapter. Some of the points raised by opponents to funding had my agreement, especially those about effectiveness. At that time, I felt we had no choice – we had to work with groups that believe in promoting communal harmony, regardless of how effective they are. After this interaction, I feel hopeful. 60+ teenage girls read this book and absorbed what it said. They had meaningful questions, good suggestions, hopeful ideas. And this is just one college. If just a handful more colleges take up these programs, make some value addition to them, tie them up to some social activism…

Apni CEHAT ka sawaal hai

2005-04-24T19:36:00.000+05:30

March 23rd:

On Wednesday morning, I headed to CEHAT, a health group AID is associated with. CEHAT is primarily involved in research and documentation - its Pune office is the Indian secretariat for the People's Health Movement. But it does have various initiatives on the ground as well, notably the Kolhapur work. At the Mumbai office, I met Dr. Amita Pitre. She is an ayurvedic doctor who now works on a number of projects at CEHAT, one of which is the design and distribution of a cheap and effective examination kit for sexual assault victims. Another project we discussed was the Resettlement issue. This work involves people who have been resettled by the government from slums, squatter colonies and other urban settlements considered undesirable. They are often moved into apartment buildings in completely new areas, often without access to city services. Many of them haven't been able to get new ration cards or immunization for their children, and many have been refused treatment for TB. They often cannot pay maintenance fees for the buildings they live in, so electricity and water supply has been cut off. "Imagine living on the 9th floor without running water or an operating lift," said Dr. Pitre. "Pregnant women have been known not to ever come down - they even give birth in their homes." Morever, the lifestyle in apartments is very different from that in chawls or slums or the villages that many these people have migrated from - there, doors weren't closed and typically childcare was a community activity. In apartments, those old social structures are shattered. CEHAT has been doing networking with a number of groups, including those involved in City Planning, to highlight this and other issues.

We also talked about water purification techniques, this being an issue I've gotten interested in after the discussions with the Sangtin folks. Dr. Pitre said that chlorination is still a very effective technique that shouldn't be discounted. It is cheap and easy to use - Mediclor, a commercial package is available with Gram Panchayats. But just 2 drops are sufficient for a litre and over-chlorination defeats the purpose. She also mentioned a group called Jan Swasthiya Sahyog (JSS) in Bilaspur that has developed some portable filters. One of the goals of this group is to develop cheap, easy-to-use medical/health products, for e.g., they have developed a kit for testing for Urinary Tract Infections. "Products like this are essential and yet so few people are working on them."

We also talked about the need for scientific approaches to testing various herbal remedies, the social aspects of community health work and the need for involving the middle class in Mumbai and elsewhere in issues of social justice.
After this meeting, I met a friend for lunch and then the two of us headed to a few shops for a bout of shopping. One stop we had was in South Mumbai, where I picked up one of many parcels heading to US in my baggage from a friend's husband. We also visited an NGO whose representative, Mr. Thomas, had been in Nagapattinam during my visit there. His group, which is working in 30 villages on house reconstruction, was waiting for the Tamilnadu government to make allotments of land. "So basically you are not doing anything until you hear from the government?" I asked and he replied yes. "What about health, education, advocacy?" It seems they were organizing a few health camps etc. but nothing major. The discussion gave me a sense of what 'seva' - service looks like when not linked to 'sangharsh' - struggle. And the importance of advocacy and political viewpoints for any group wishing to effect social change.

Sit together, eat together

2005-04-20T10:20:00.000+05:30

March 21st:

OK, so my second 24 hour train journey was more tiring than the last, or it was just the effect of Bombay's wonderful atmosphere, but I spent the morning tired and with a cough. My hosts, who were our neighbors during my school days, tried to get me to take some antibiotics. But I, in my infinite wisdom, refused and we compromised on standard cough syrup!

In the evening, I headed out to IIT to meet Om Damani. Om's adjusting to his new role - that of a prof. trying to encourage his students to operate 'out of the box'. Here's hoping he sticks it out. I also met my friend's 2-year-old son, who's staying for a while with his grandparents. My friend's father is a prof at IIT with enough seniority to get an independent house. But it's just he and his wife at home, and temporarily their grandson, so he's refused to take it and they continue to live in an apartment. So, when a professor is senior enough to be entitled to more spacious quarters, there aren't enough people at home to occupy them!

March 22nd:

After getting out of the traffic hell-hole that is Saki Naka (it took almost 2 hours), I got to Andheri station and then to town. I met P. Sainath for lunch in Gaylord's. It turned into a 3-hour lunch, though this seems to be the usual amount of time Sainath spends here. It seems the restaurant is very open to journalists spending a number of hours in it even if they just order coffee. And a waiter even stopped to discuss the denial of a US visa to Narendra Modi. Sainath had a lot to say about the status of agriculture, of different peoples' movements and their strategies and how AID has to position itself now and in the future. Since a lot of his writings are already online, I'll refrain from adding more here.

In the afternoon, I met with Jayantbhai of Bombay Sarvodaya Friendship Center (BSFC). AID-MN has been supporting their project on promoting communal harmony in B.Ed. and D.Ed. colleges in Mumbai. Jayantbhai is also associated with a group called Janmukti Sangharsh Vahini, a spinoff of a students' group established by JP during the Emergency. Janmukti is leading the work on the project. We hadn't received feedback for a while from them and slipped up on follow-up. Anyway, Jayantbhai told me that as soon as they received our questions and suggestions, they had a meeting. They also e-mailed us a reply, or so they thought, since nothing reached us. The idea of celebrating festivals jointly, which we suggested, appealed to them, especially since Diwali and Id were on the same day this past year. So they organized a joint celebration, which was attended by about 250 people. Different groups presented dances, sang ghazals and qawwalis, did mimicry etc. Food was provided, courtesy of the Mani Bhavan society (I didn't note down the exact name of this group). The function was co-sponsored by some Gandhian groups and a Muslim association.

Where the lectures in colleges are concerned, they are continuing in full pace. New speakers have been added - the list is now 9, including 2 women. Jayantbhai still does a major part of the lectures, maybe 30-40 %. But workshops, which are either a day long or a few days in duration, are handled entirely by another person, Mohan. They have also started distributing a pamphlet on Communalism written by Ram Puniyani, an IIT professor and member of EKTA, Mumbai. They conduct
an exam on the matter in this book - there was one scheduled for Thursday in Anjuman Khairul Islam college in Kurla. This college is an Urdu D.Ed. college - the group has extended its activities to Urdu colleges this year. Why an exam? was a question to which I did not get a satisfactory answer. I decided to ask the teachers and students in the college when I accompanied Jayantbhai there.

I asked Jayantbhai if he talks about the problems of Communalism in Bombay today - of how the city is divided and whether he thinks what they are doing can really bridge this gap. As he put it 'In 1947, the country was partitioned. In 1992-93, Bombay was partitioned. Most of the students in college today do not know any other reality. It is up to us to tell them about the past, to talk about what got us here - Shah Bano, the Babri Masjid and many other things.' How far these efforts will go, he doesn't know. But he continues to believe that by reaching out to future teachers, they will reach a much larger population eventually. In schools in Maharashtra, a one hour session called 'mulya shikshan' or value education has been added. Their plan is to distribute a set of lesson plans that can be used for this period by teachers.

I, for one, was immensely pleased that they incorporated our suggestion so promptly and slightly ashamed that we haven't done a better job of following up with them.

Ek ASHA

2005-04-10T07:19:00.000+05:30

March 19th:

On the last day of my stay in Sitapur, I met the remaining 2 members of Sangtin – Sasibala and Ramsheela. In all this flurry, we set out at 9 am. After picking up Vibha and Surbala, I realized I had forgotten the carpets!! Well, there's always the postal service!

It took longer than expected to reach the ashram – half of the route was on a single track road. Sandeep had told us that he wouldn't be able to make it to the ashram – the peace march was just 4 days away. There were others to greet us there. A young girl who volunteers at the tuition center told us she had gone to Assam to learn weaving and plans to set up an enterprise in the ashram or nearby. The tuition center operates in the evenings – earlier, it was a day-long school. A school was opened in Lalpur, the neighboring village and so this was made an evening school. The Sangtin women asked whether the school should be continued with a different set of people – dropouts, adults etc. The reply was that these are all wage earners who would not prefer to study during the day. Efforts to include them in the evening classes haven't been in earnest – so far, only children are attending. A weekly clinic is also run with a homeopathic doctor in attendance. A dispensary gives out medicines throughout the week as well.

By this time, Guddu and Neelkamal, two ASHA full-timers had arrived. They started talking about their efforts in Right-to-Information and Right-to-Food. Using RTI, village records were opened in a few villages to examine them for validity. This led to the suspension of the Pradhan in Bharawa village due to misappropriation of a few lakhs. The DM of Sitapur dt. Is very supportive of the ASHA work and has placed all public records and grievance redressals on the Sitapur dt. official website (Note: A Hindi font such as Krutidev is required, which is available on the site). ASHA has been working to ensure the payment of minimum wage (which is Rs. 58 for both men and women in these parts, we were informed) in all government projects.

Under their Right-to-Food efforts, they have been working with villagers to get BPL (Below Poverty Line) cards to the right families. Also, a percentage of ration shop licenses are reserved for poor people, but are typically run by richer folks – one effort has been to ensure that shops are run by the people they were allocated to. This came into a lot of questioning - as Surbala put it, “A deposit of Rs. 60,000 is required and most people can't afford it.” The response was that if the community was mobilized, the money collected could be the group's.

Guddu and Neelkamal then began to talk about a cause close to their hearts – their efforts in the nearby village of Natpurwa. This village was once full of sex workers and its economy ran on this 'business'. Guddu and Neelkamal are themselves from Natpurwa – their lives took a different direction after they went to Lucknow for their studies and met Sandeep. Early on, they had decided they would combat this situation and so they came back to the village and started work. In the 2 years and lots of work since, they have gained the women's sympathies. Women's groups have been formed and alternative lifestyles encouraged. The result is that gangs no longer operate in the area – once upon a time, 'girls' from the village were regularly taken to clients in Hardoi and Lucknow.

More importantly, there are now choices for the young girls in the village. Every time the ASHA staff or village women hear of a situation where a girl is of marriageable age, but her family is poor and is under pressure to 'sell' her off, they hold meetings and collect money to ensure the girl's marriage.

During all the discussions so far, a few things were said that reflected some gender misconceptions – statements like 'Oh, how can women walk so far?' and 'You must all be good cooks - forgive our poor efforts'. As these were nothing serious, they were let lie. But then someone made a statement that the ASHA staff could 'teach' Sangtin how to work on certain issues in Sitapur dt. This spurred Richa to speak and speak she did! In a very polite, yet firm manner, she stressed the experiences that the Sangtin team had and the work they have already initiated with minimal external support. Some statements had been made about how ASHA volunteers worked without salary – Vibha countered with a list of work she already did for free! I cut in with a mention of how they've supported the schools so far with their own money. In short, Sangtin made its case! The discussion then reached a different level, with everyone critiquing working styles, acknowledging hierarchies within organizations and agreeing that any collaboration would have to be two-way.

At this point, we thought of visiting a field area. But Surbala had to get back that night, which would not be possible if she came to Lucknow. Further, since there was not much transportation from the ashram, we had to backtrack and drop her off at the nearest big town well connected to Mishrikh. So we said our goodbyes. Richa said they would plan another outing to the ashram and visit field areas, especially Natpurwa. We parted with good wishes to Guddu and Neelkamal for the peace march - they would participate in turns.

After dropping Surbala off, we continued to Lucknow on a road that degenerated to a dusty path under construction for about 30 km. This tired us out, and inspite of some good kulfi and later lassi, it was a wilted me that boarded the train to Mumbai. But hey – there'd be 24 hours to recover! I said my goodbyes to Richa and Vibha, amid promises to visit again with Dwiji in tow.

March 20th:

Another long journey, this time in a part of the train without any female passengers. Something to be said for the XX factor (chromosomes, I mean!). I got down at Kalyan with the plan of taking a local train to Kanjurmarg (near IIT) and an auto to the Pandes' house, where I would be staying. The train was crowded, even though it was Sunday night – welcome to Bombay!

Weaving a lifestyle

2005-04-10T07:15:00.000+05:30

March 17th:

Richa was heading to Lucknow on Thursday to meet a representative of a Delhi group who was in Lucknow for a training session. I was planning to accompany her, but dropped out in the morning due to general tiredness. I spent most of the day reading, writing reports and sleeping.

But before I forget, one interesting event organized by Vanangana in Chitrakoot dt. recently was 'Cricket for Peace', inspired by the event held in Gujarat. There, each team was comprised of 50% Muslims and 50% Hindus. Here, the rule was to have a threefold representation of Dalits, Muslims and the rest (which is typically Savarns and Brahmins). A tournament was arranged and the weeklong event had participation from a number of teams. “This was the first time a cricket tournament of any kind had been organized in the district and so there was a lot of excitement,” said Madhavi. Local politicians and government officials attended the final and there are plans to organize it on a yearly basis. Madhavi has been stepping back from Vanangana to encourage the local leadership and chose not to attend the event, though of course she was giving plenty of long-distance advice and support. “But they did it, and did a great job!”

March 18th:

As planned earlier, Richa and I decided to go to Khairabad on Friday. Initially, on realizing it was Jumma, the Muslim day of prayer, we hesitated, then decided to leave in the afternoon. We spent most of the morning talking about Sangtin's work and direction, her own experiences and how they have shaped her, the previous day's events etc. In recent years, she has gained a lot of perspective into how government works and how hard it is for sincere people to change the system. “Even for a 10 minute visit by a senior official, a village is transformed,” she said. “How can the officials really understand what's going on there?” And on the future of Sangtin - “We will work in very few villages, maybe 10. But whatever we do there – jam ke karenge. We will tackle every issue we can.” The current Sangtin team is all based in Mishrikh block of Sitapur dt. and so this will be their field area.

On the question of income generation and good group dynamics, she didn't feel too optimistic. “I have yet to meet a group that does not have a personality attached to it, who ends up ultimately dominating it.” I told her about the groups I know about and those that I have just a little information about and promised to do some homework. In August, Sangtin members are planning to visit Utthan and the SEWA dairy in Ahmedabad and MKSS in Rajasthan. If time and money permit, they could do more exposure trips - suggestions are welcome.

We headed out to Khairabad by tempo – it is about 15 km away from Sitapur. It seems the nawabs that ultimately ruled over Awadh hailed from this town. Now it is predominantly a weavers' community. One carpet factory and its owner, Jaleesbhai, are at the top of the food chain. We went to Jaleesbhai's factory in search of him, passing the area where yarns were being dyed, and were taken to his house, a palatial mansion. Jaleesbhai greeted us distractedly – his attention was on the cricket match and Sachin Tendulkar's batting. But he did talk to Richa about her work and even ordered some dresses for his wife and daughters. In the course of the conversation, we found out that there had been a split in the business between him and his younger brother a week ago. Therefore, the factory showroom was no longer in his hands – he was planning to open a new one on the ground floor of his house.

We headed downstairs to look at the carpets – earlier, Richa told me, she and Richa Nagar had gone through the streets looking to purchase rugs directly from the weavers. But they weren't able to get any and had to come to the factory. Downstairs, we headed into a room filled with rugs from floor to ceiling – the rugs ranged in size from 1' by 2' to room size. Two neighboring rooms were also filled up – there must have been atleast a thousand rugs there. Two attendants started showing us rugs, but they hadn't even seen the stock in its new storage space so far. So they had no idea where everything was. Richa said she'd come later and we said our goodbyes.

We had planned to meet Reshma's brother's family in Khairabad and went to the main factory to enquire about their whereabouts. Here, we met Jaleesbhai's brother and an assistant that Richa knew and got talked into tea and seeing more carpets! But somehow neither she nor I liked any that we saw. We made the appropriate responses and left the factory to Reshma's brother's house. He wasn't at home, but his wife and daughters were. They greeted us and another round of hospitality commenced. At times like this, I wish I could drink tea without it entering my stomach!

A relative at their house, another weaver, took the lead in informing us about the weaver community. It is predominantly Muslim and has been in this trade for centuries. The weavers do not own any land and so are dependant on their craft for survival. Once upon a time, they used to sell their 'daris' in the local market themselves. As he put it, “If we didn't sell any, we didn't eat.” Then came the advent of trading companies which began to ship daris to Lucknow, Delhi and foreign markets. The market became more vertical, with traders such as Jaleesbhai picking up orders and placing them with the weavers. “Oh, so the factory does not have any looms?” I asked. Reshma's sister-in-law and nieces took up the tale. The factory just supplies the yarns and designs. Most of the weavers have looms in their own houses. For bigger carpets which require 2 weavers, a 'freelance' weaver may be engaged. Finally, there are small 'kaarkhane' – workshops – which have a few looms and engage weavers. The price per carpet is set by the factory based on size, complexity of design etc. The weaver who picks up an order, say, of 10 carpets may complete them himself or farm them out at a lower price.

Reshma's nieces brought out some carpets they have been working on. One carpet, which takes a day to weave, nets them Rs. 100. “Of course, we have to first put the yarns onto spools,” said the older daughter. “That takes some time.” After resisting fervent entreaties to stay the night, we headed out to visit some looms and possibly buy some carpets. Downstairs, their loom was lying idle, but a few doors across, a weaver was hard at work on a simple 2' by 5' carpet. He said he could make 5-6 a day and that each netted him Rs. 10. Our main interlocuter then took us to his house. There, a magnificient carpet was in progress – this was made with 'shanil', a finer yarn and was room-sized. Two weavers work for 2 days to complete it and earn Rs. 300. As the numbers show, compensation for the weavers is a little arbitrary.

The last place we headed to in Khairabad was a workshop with about 5 looms and a number of weavers. Here we struck the proverbial gold – a number of beautiful carpets were shown to us. I picked up two and Richa one. She also placed an order for a room-sized carpet after discussing design changes on an existing one. During our wait for carpet finishing, we found out that this was a small-scale supplier, with orders from Lucknow, Delhi and Mumbai. They said they pick up orders from Jaleesbhai as well, but they have managed to establish their own connections. Was it better buying here than in Jaleesbhai's showroom? I think so, because atleast we conducted the transaction in the presence of the weavers. I've been trying to make purchases where producers are compensated fairly – it hasn't always been easy.

We headed back to Sitapur and booked a car for the morrow. The plan was that Richa and Vibha to accompany me to the ASHA ashram in Hardoi dt., drop me off at Lucknow and return to Sitapur. In our absence, Surbala had called and pieced together our plan even though Amma could not convey it accurately. She said she would join us. The day ended with packing.

Milk for thought

2005-04-01T16:21:00.000+05:30

March 15th and 16th:

After breakfast, I went to meet Sandeep Pandey and Arundhuti Dhuru. They are good friends with Madhavi and I had already met their son Chaitanya at her house. Arundhuti had just returned from Raja Talab where she had participated in a protest outside the Coke factory. We talked about groups she has worked with, the conflicts within them and how hard it is to achieve democratic operation within any movement. I also told her about Sangtin's decision to close their schools. She was upset about this and promised to do what she could to expedite the review process.

Sandeep joined us at the breakfast table, busy at work with preparations for the India-Pakistan Peace March. He had just returned from Lahore and seemed a little stunned from the warm reception he received there. He has written about the trip and his discussion with the Pakistani PM, so I won't reiterate the details here. He was hopeful that the Indian group (including Sanat) would get visas to travel to Pakistan. We talked a little about the work they have been doing on communalism – they have organized meetings in Ayodhya - “We get more attendees than Pramod Mahajan does at his meetings.” Sandeep has also done a few ‘stunts’, like distribute copies of the Geeta while Mahajan was distributing trishuls (tridents). We talked about how his work is perceived in the wider ASHA circles - “I tell him not to send e-mails replying to arguments and accusations – his very presence online makes the situation worse!” Arundhuti interceded. Just like in AID, there seems to be a growing gap between ASHA volunteers who have spent time visiting grassroots groups and/or building close links with them and the rest – the challenge for everyone volunteering with these groups is how to bridge that gap. Sandeep seems to have stepped back a bit from that, as he should.

Sandeep and Arundhuti exchanged schedule information just before he got into his car to drop me off at the bus station – this seemed to be the first time they had after Sandeep's return from Lahore! In the car, we talked more about conflicts and challenges in ASHA. I also asked him for an opinion on FCRA clearance – from what I've been hearing, it's a process rife with corruption and tough for a group without money or connections in Delhi. He disagreed and said that the group could contact their elected MP. “At some point we have to work with politicians.” Further, he thought that groups should fight for their rights. “What about groups who do not have that kind of money?” I asked. After all, not all groups are in a position to wait – after meeting the Sangtin folks, I have perhaps become extra-conscious about economic realities. “There still will be a way,” he replied. I asked if AID volunteers should get involved in this as we do with other campaigns – by writing/faxing/e-mailing/calling the Registrar's office. “Why not?” was his reply!

Sandeep dropped me off at the bus stop, after suggesting I visit the ASHA ashram on the 19^th before leaving from Lucknow. I returned to Sitapur and shortly afterwards, Richa and I left for Kunmarapur. We first took a bus to Mishrikh and then a theliya – a cart attached to a bicycle, sort of a cycle rickshaw without the seating. “It's a multi-purpose vehicle and can transport both people and goods.” I didn't have my camera with me – pity, me on a theliya is worth a few laughs! Richa talked about how people used to stare seeing her on one after she left Mahila Samakhya. “There, I was the District in-charge. I would be driven everywhere in the office car,” she said. She may be reconciled to all kinds of transport, and even enjoying it sometimes, but it seems harder for others to adjust to her new reality.

We reached Kunmarapur at about 5 pm. Richa showed me Reena's old house – it had burned down during a fire in the village. Reena had been helping put out a fire in her brother-in-law's house. In the meantime, it spread to her house and she arrived too late to save it. Help from friends in Sangtin and elsewhere got the family emergency supplies and Reena has now collected enough money to rebuild. In the meantime, her family lives in 2 rooms that are part of the women's dairy.

The dairy has been operational for 3 years, though it was formally inaugurated only last June. Milk is collected in Kunmarapur and some neighboring villages and sent to Parag dairy in Sitapur for processing. If the milk arrives there in good condition, payments are made to the tune of ~Rs. 12/litre. But if one set of bad milk is mixed with the rest, the entire batch is spoiled and the payment is only 50 paise. So this has been Reena's biggest challenge – convincing the villagers that it is in their collective interest to supply good milk. Beyond the cash received when operating well, the villagers are saving time – earlier, they used to make khoya (condensed milk) and other milk products to sell in Mishrikh.

As we got to the dairy, Reena, her husband and two of her four sons were there to welcome us. In a little while, folks started bringing in their evening milk. Reena did a lactometer test on the milk to determine its density. Then her husband took all the milk collected to the main road where the Parag dairy van would pick it up.

All this time, Richa was telling me about Reena's enterprising nature. It seems when Reena married into the family, her husband had no land left in his name – it had all been grabbed by others. “There are a lot of fights in this village over land,” she said. “Papers have been falsified, schemes hatched and people killed for a few bighas.” Reena borrowed money, engineered agreements and somehow acquired 14 bighas. She has also helped defuse a family feud, which had been ongoing for the past 3 generations! In one part of her land, she hasn't used any chemical inputs, only gobar. The yield was better than that in the other fields. “We have to demonstrate pesticide-free farming to convince people to change.”

As the evening lengthened to night, two of Reena's sisters-in-law came to help her with the cooking. The village does not have electricity, so everything was done with lanterns. Fireflies flickered in the fields nearby, complementing the stars in the clear sky above. Richa and I sat on a cot, surrounded by the kids of the family. They began asking me questions about America, especially Reena's second son Akshit. His questions were varied and often incisive, ranging from geography to politics and trivia – I had to think on my feet. Richa later told me that he had studied in one of the schools set up by Sangtin, where they encouraged the kids to be inquisitive from the beginning. Both kids and adults were fascinated by my bottle, which has filter-cum-purifier. They requested me to forget it there. I declined, saying I didn’t want to start another fight in Kunmarapur!

We sat down to a sumptuous meal that I, sadly, could not do justice to – my digestive processes have been erratic, complaining no doubt due to my packed itinerary. We went to sleep soon after – Reena's day starts early.

On Wednesday morning, I got up at 6 am and soon went out to watch the morning milk collection process. This is a bigger event than the evening's – about 40 litres get collected as opposed to about 10 litres in the evening. At one time Reena had been receiving twice as much milk, but late and erratic payments from Parag has brought down people's confidence in the process. If the dairy supplied more milk, Sangtin could purchase better testing equipment and ultimately operate a fully functioning dairy. The plan would then be for Sangtin to get a percentage of the profit and distribute the rest among the producers, all whom are women (atleast on paper).

After the milk was collected and dispatched, Reena and a young man who has become her unofficial assistant started the work of testing. From every batch of milk, Reena takes 150 ml, for which she pays, for fat testing. This and other processes are described here. The process involves mixing milk in a tube with sulphuric acid and then alcohol, and churning the tubes in a centrifuge. The chemistry of the process is explained here. The work is tedious – it takes an hour to complete, including cleaning. Some dairy operators do not conduct this test and pay their producers a flat rate. But Reena computes the fat content, which varies from 4-14%, for the milk she receives and makes payments accordingly. Since everything is done in the open, some men and women wait to see the results for themselves. One woman, who had suspicions about her daughter-in-law mixing water in the milk, was satisfied when her milk's fat reading came to 13.6%! Ever since this process started, nutrition and care of buffaloes in Kunmarapur has improved!

The centrifuge machine was a very basic one – it was set in the earth (which was not very hard) and had to be rotated by a crank-shaft. I kept thinking of how little it would take to make a better setup – to set the machine in concrete so that it wouldn't vibrate, get a smaller, more efficient one etc. For all her work, Reena gets less than 1% of the returns. But she enjoys it, I felt, inspite of her occasional grumbling. I asked whether such dairies could be set up in the other villages that the group has a presence – Satnapur, Qutubnagar etc. The answer was roughly that income generation schemes cannot be exported as a model everywhere. Because of the conditions of Kunmarapur and the presence of Reena, this approach will work here. In Qutubnagar, the chikan model has more chances of success, and so on. And anyway, right now there are few hands and lots of work for Sangtin!

We left the village at ~10 am and walked to the nearest town, Aant, 2-3 km away. As we walked through fields and groves of trees, Reena and Richa talked about the eucalyptus tree problem. The Forest dept. has agreed to buy eucalyptus trees – therefore there is a financial incentive in planting them. But like pine trees in the Himalayas, these are not local and not conducive to other species. Further, they render the soil acidic, increase erosion etc. But how can this be combated? The group is searching for answers. Yet another issue that concerns them is the proliferation of brick kilns in the area, all controlled by strongmen and politicians (who are often one and the same). The kilns were devastating the land, as well as incomes in the neighboring villages. “But everyone wants bricks to build houses with,” said Reena. “If I could, I would build a brick house!”

After saying goodbye to Reena who was heading to the bank, we took a tempo to Mishrikh and went to the Mahila Shikshan Kendra, an education center run by Mahila Samakhya. Richa wanted me to meet 2 girls whose cases Mahila Samakhya, or at least the staff, had taken up. The girls were both not present, but all the Sahyoginis were. Sahyoginis are the field staff of Mahila Samakhya – each has 10 villages under her purview and looks after issues coming up in them, as well as running regular programs such as savings groups, events etc. Sahyoginis are supposed to be catalysts for change and often have been.

I also met the girls studying in a bridge course – an intensive 6-month residential educational program to get them up to 5^th standard level. We talked a bit about their course and their stay in the center. One component of the course is teaching girls to cycle, with the result that a lot of girls in the area have become mobile. It seems that one batch drove a cycle to pieces, but the women, led by Richa who was then the DPC (District Programme Co-ordinator), let them. “Let's give them a little fun in their lives,” seemed to be the consensus. The program costs include Rs.30/day/girl for food. Other programs are being run for much less, but Richa resists working with such programs. “Often the people planning them will spend Rs. 20 on a water bottle. And they think Rs. 15 is enough for food for a child!”

We reached Sitapur in time for a late lunch. Soon after, Richa received a call from a young girl in Mishrikh. I cannot explain the situation in detail as it would violate privacy, but events were occurring that would bring this girl's story to public scrutiny and 'shame' her all over again. Richa immediately got into damage control mode. Angrily, she said, “This is what I mean by exploitation. Certain books have been written in Delhi and Lucknow that we cannot allow to be circulated in our district. Forget shaming a person, they can put others' lives at risk. Ultimately, it is the field workers who take the brunt and none of the glory.”

I spent the rest of the evening thinking of all the women I've met so far who work in the field and praying for their continued strength and determination.

The health of a nation

2005-04-01T16:18:00.000+05:30

March 14th:

After a leisurely morning, I got a ride to the Sahayog office where I was to meet Abhijit Das. I met some of the staff of Sahayog and Kriti Resource Center, its documentation wing, including Ganesh Dey who does most of the illustrations for their publications as well as for CAC in Uttaranchal. Some of the staff sat around a table to discuss various issues Sahyog is involved in.

Firstly a little perspective on UP was provided – it has the highest population in India and the dubious distinction of 1/12^th of the world's maternal deaths – 40,000 women every year. Where Bihar suffers from anarchy, UP is oppressed by structural violence. In Bundelkhand, the southern part of UP, the problems are caste-based violence, dacoitry and lack of access (see notes from Vanangana). In eastern UP, an extremely fertile area, deaths from hunger still occur due to huge inequities, with people high up in the feudal hierarchy owning hundreds of acres while weaker sections of society are comprised of landless laborers. In western UP, yet another form of violence – that of village 'elders' exerting control over the community. The murder of a young couple who chose to marry against their parents' wishes in Muzzaffarnagar is a case in point. All these forms of violence, in their own right, have had an adverse impact on health, especially women's health.

And then there is the state-sponsored violence. When the average operating time for a female sterilization operation is two-and-a-half minutes, how can the government family planning program be considered even remotely humane? I mentioned watching 'Something like a war' recently – it is a horrific expose of the situation, including the quota system where government officials have to show proof of sterilization operations arranged by them before they can get their salaries. This movie is 20 years old, but it still holds true, I was told. I received a DVD which is a more recent production by Kriti Resource Center.

There was also a lot to be said about polio programs. As Abhijit put it, “Maternal deaths are a subsidy for polio eradication programs.” To elaborate, Rs. 13 crore is spent on each round of polio immunizations. And there are numerous every year. All government officials – PHC staff, village level officials, even teachers - are caught up in the activity. So where is the time or money to devote for other programs? Even regular vaccinations – DPT and BCG have been affected. Malaria and TB are on the rise, as well as maternal mortality. “To be able to say that polio has been eradicated, we are sacrificing the health and lives of countless people.”

Therefore, Sahayog, with the help of its partners in the field, has been demanding accountability. For example, Prayas, a spin-off group working in Nainital and Rudrapur dts. in Uttaranchal, has been partnering with village women to demand more from their health services. A maternal death audit was undertaken in UP – it listed 8 lakh cases. On the basis of this and other reports, the group has been fighting for improved quality of care and increased surgeon qualifications. Finally, compensation for deaths by negligence is a demand of HealthWatch, a network of groups facilitated by Sahayog.

On population control, there was again a lot to say. I, like most middle-class mainstream people, grew up thinking population rise is the root of almost all the problems in India. As the folks at Sahayog put it, “We are 'educated' to think that.” Sahayog has been working to increase awareness of the issue and the problems such single-minded focus on one 'problem' at the expense of all others has on the 'beneficiaries' – rural women. In one district, 1400 women were sterilized in 2 days. Some of them were unmarried, others past childbearing age. 99% of the interventions for 'family planning' are directed towards women and an overwhelming majority are sterilization operations. Recently, vasectomies or male sterilizations are again receiving attention – in the last 6 months, there have been cases of boys being intoxicated and operated on. And all of this inspite of the fact that there is a shortage of contraceptives in many parts of the state, so that families that want family planning approaches aren't getting them. Finally, there are so many factors that lead to families having more than 2 children – infant and child mortality, women's lack of control of their bodies and sexuality and so on.

With all this evidence in hand, various health and human rights groups successfully intervened in Himachal Pradesh, with the result that the government withdrew a plan to ban jobs and rations to families with more than 2 children. Also, the national government was forced to say that they do not endorse the 2-child norm, even though it is in the Common Minimum Program of the UPA. On the flip side, the Supreme Court passed an order to enforce the norm. So its a constant struggle... 8 months ago, Dwiji and I had a long discussion on this issue with staff members of Vanangana, based in Chitrakut dt., UP and a partner of Sahayog. Some of these women have more than 2 children and during a group meeting, the more vocal and 'radical' women in Vanangana convinced two women to go in for sterilization operations. They are still having health problems a year later as a result. Others who were contemplating sterilization were too scared to go in for it. Yet others, this the staff of an NGO fighting for women's rights, are contending with husbands who believe that more children is a sign of 'mardangi'. As they told us, this is not an easy problem to deal with.

On the role of NGO's – Kriti Resource Center relies on NGO partners to provide information from the field as it does not have a field presence itself. In Abhijit's opinion, 'Small is beautiful' as far as NGOs are concerned. One thing NGOs should NOT do is make the government redundant. “NGOs are in an area only for a few years. 'Sarkar aur samaaj' – government and society – these are the only sustainable partners in any effort.”

After the Sahayog staff left to continue their various tasks, Abhijit and I continued talking. We discussed his report on HIV/AIDS in Uttaranchal in 2000 and the subsequent arrest of 5 members of Sahayog (including Vasundhara, his partner) for distributing obscene literature. “We didn't anticipate the reaction to the report and should have,” he commented. Ironically, or maybe logically, he felt that the book 'Sangtin yatra' shouldn't have been written. “It upset a lot of people in the NGO community here and affected relationships.” He hadn't read the book, so couldn't comment on specific aspects of it. Incidentally, Kriti Resource Center has worked with Sangtin on their most recent campaign, after 'Sangtin yatra' was released.

Abhijit also expressed happiness that I was spending so much time in the region. “Not many AIDers visit UP,” he remarked. Working in the region was very hard, with the violence, caste and gender discrimination and everything else, but the inequities that exist between the North and South of India have to be tackled. And that requires more presence in the area. We discussed ways of further educating people in AID about population and health issues and I ended up adding a huge stack of Kriti Resource Center publications to my collection!

From the Sahayog office, I went to the railway reservation center to reschedule my Mumbai-Bangalore ticket. Only then did I realize that my ticket was for 27^th February, not 27^th March. Yet another loss by the Nagavarapu-Guru combine in travel, though mine is definitely not as expensive a mistake as Dwiji's last year!

Back at Madhavi's home, we talked about the activities she has been involved in. She moved from Karvi to Lucknow a few months ago and while she still continues to support Vanangana's activities, she has taken on new tasks such as helping the Dalit Women's network in UP with case work. This involved preparing briefs on about 200 cases in a couple of days, picking out some cases for highlighting and working with the group to organize an event that brought out the continuing oppression of Dalits in the state. She continues to work with groups in Gujarat – a tuition center started in Kalol town is into its third year of operation (and we're still waiting for the proposal!). The legal work they did so far has resulted in one case – Bilkees Bano's. Huma and Madhavi are among a group of people supporting Bilkees through her struggle. Madhavi was in Mumbai for about 10 days during when the case was postponed twice. She talked about Bilkees' courage and how important it was that a rape case in this country receives a favorable verdict. We talked about the adverse impact of the developments in the Best Bakery case. “But Bilkees has made her deposition and has stood firm. Now only time will tell.”

Some sightseeing, shopping in possibly the biggest chikan market in the world and more great chaat (7 different flavors in pani puri) and kulfi brought the day to a close.