Advertisement
Published: October 1st 2007
Edit Blog Post
Basket Weaving
In an outcast community, one of the main sources of income is weaving baskets. A large basket takes an entire day to complete and is later sold at the market for 50 rupees (1.25 USD). Hey everybody, sorry it’s been a while since I last wrote. On Thursday, September 20 five other students and I took the train to Chennai in Tamil Nadu to start our first filed visit.
While in Tamil Nadu we worked with an NGO called People’s Action Movement (PAM). PAM’s motto is “Empowering People. Ensuring Rights,” and they work almost exclusively with Dalit people (known as “untouchables” in the States). This meant that almost all of the people who hosted us in their home, either for a single meal or to spend the night, were from the very bottom wrung of Indian society. It surprised me, then, that everywhere we went we were welcomed graciously and with generous portions of whatever was being served. The mentality of an Indian host is something like: “If they’re eating, they’re happy, so they probably need more food,” and we experienced this at nearly every meal. One of our guides explained to me that “if you eat once, you are a guest, but if you accept to eat a second time, then you are my friend.” It wasn’t uncommon for us to have to block our banana leaves from third servings.
Our first
Bonded Labor
Brick laborers are paid in pairs. Two pair of hands working together can produce 2000 bricks in a 12 hour work day. 1000 bricks are worth 150 rupees. Workers live and mold bricks in the same complex for six days a week and on Saturdays go to town to buy rice for the following week. Few manufacturing sites provide school for the laborer’s children, and if there is no school, children work right along side their parents. stop with Pam was at one of their major schools. The founder and director, Mr. Akambaram, feels that all children have the right to a positive learning environment, and since this often isn’t provided to Dalit children in government run public schools, he has taken the responsibility upon himself. At the school, 200 Dalit children receive subsidized education and Mr. Akambaram hopes to help all of the children graduate from high school.
From the school we traveled to the region of Pulicut where we did home stays with Dalit families. I was hesitant when they told us where we would be staying, afraid of what I might find. In my mind I pictured Dalit homes we had visited where the entire house wasn’t even the size of my bedroom- one half of the space is used as a kitchen and the other half is where the family eats and at night sleeps, all together, on straw mats rolled out on the floor.
However, the home stay turned out to be the greatest experience of the trip. We were divided into pairs and each pair was accompanied by a PAM employee to help translate. Tessa, Raj, and I took
Agriculture
Women working in rice paddies earn 80-120 rupees per day (2-3 USD), about 2/3 of what their male counterparts earn. a ferry across the backwaters to Lighthouse Island. There, we stayed with Murusami, a fisherman and the leader of the small village. His home was more comfortable than many Dalit homes, and the family offered their only bed to Tessa and me. We were hesitant to accept, but Murusami insisted, so after a large seafood dinner we went in and tried to fall asleep. The heat of Tamil Nadu got to us though, and in the end we opted to take straw mats up to the roof and sleep under the stars. We told Murusami that we weren’t going to sleep in the bed, but he stayed on his mat outside, apparently wanting to avoid the heat as well.
The next morning I woke up bright and early to the songs of the many island birds. I rolled up my mat and decided to take a walk to the beach. The entire neighborhood was already up, and in the middle of the path a came across a group of women sitting on mats apparently doing some sort of book work. Raj came to translate, and they told me that they were a self help group of about 17 members.
Every week each of the members contributes 24 rupees, which they deposit into their shared bank account. The money is used to help the groups members start personal businesses, cover emergency medical costs, and as a safety net when families are going through tough financial situations. The women said that in the years that they’ve been meeting their lives have been much improved, sighting the ability to pay for their children’s educations as one of the things they most appreciate about the group.
The neighborhood kids were intrigued by white skin and a foreign accent, so they accompanied me to the beach, all of them anxious to shake hands and ask, “How are you? I am fine?” They taught Indian dances and then I taught them the hokey pokey, and even some of the adults joined in for Simon Says.
One of the most informative parts of the trip for me was visiting a housing project where 25 permanent houses are being built to replace mud huts that wash away every year during the rainy season. I had the chance to interview some of the members of the community where the project is taking place. They said that
Self Help Group
The women pool their money, knowing that while it may benefit somebody else today, the funds will come through for each of them in their times of need. a permanent house costs 120,000 rupees (3,000 USD) to construct, but most of the families don’t have access to that amount of money at any given time. Mud huts, on the other hand, cost from 10,000-12,000 rupees, which is more manageable for the community members, even though they face this expense on a yearly basis. I asked if any of the families considered the construction of a new mud hut in a yearly budget, and I got a reaction similar to what I expected. One of the men laughed at me and said that he’s just trying to make it through today, just worried about what his family will eat tonight, so putting away money for an emergency fund isn’t anywhere near the top of his priority list.
Most of the men in this community were day laborers, working either in agriculture or the fishing industry. They earn between 1000 and 2000 rupees per month; the average cost of living per month is an estimated 1,500 rupees/ month, which mean that the entire village hovers right around the poverty line. We did the math, and figured out together that even in a good year, the reconstruction of a hut
Dinner
Tamil style- seated on the floor eating with our fingers from a banana leaf. would require 50% of their yearly income, and a whole year’s earnings if times were tough. Since they don’t have money ready to reconstruct, many of the community members go to lenders who charge up to 10% for loans. The lenders don’t give funds immediately, and the process of rebuilding a hut can last as long as a month. In the mean time, family members go to stay with relatives or neighbors while they wait for their home to be livable again.
PAM is doing its best to ensure that the permanent houses go to those who are most in need, including widows and orphans. Even though the project can’t house the entire community, it seemed that most of the locals were enthusiastic about it as they see it as an improvement not only for the families receiving houses but for the village as a whole.
After a couple of days in Pulicut it was time for our home stays to come to an end. We said goodbye to the people who had so graciously taken care of us, and returned to Chennai. My roommate and I both got sick, so sat out the last couple days, thankful that illness held off until we were done back at an international standard guest house. We recovered there and were able to see a bit of the city before taking a night train back to Bangalore on Friday.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.151s; Tpl: 0.022s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0649s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb