Day 2 - India

Submitted by Salim on November 7, 2005 - 21:15.

If ever Michael Norton offers to take you out for a walk, clarify exactly what this entails! After a much needed first nights sleep in Delhi’s India International Center, I awoke to the 7am early morning wake up call on the telephone. I joined Michael, Bob, Farook, Andrea, Kate and Nickala for our early morning stroll through Lodhi Gardens. These gardens are the backdrop to the IIC Centre and are beautifully landscaped with flowers, shrubs, trees, water, ancient buildings – and a walking track.

This place was unbelievable. We were welcomed by the sight of what seemed like hundreds of people who were out at that time in the morning walking, jogging, running, speed walking, stretching and even practicing yoga! The place was buzzing and full of all types of people, male, female, young, old, fat, thin etc. There were even people who were grouped together practicing what seemed like laughter therapy. It seemed like a scene out of one of my favorite Bollywood films “Munna Bhai mbbs” For those who have seen it you will know exactly what I mean.

Forty minutes later having burned many a calorie trying to keep up with Michael who glided ahead and having had a conversation with Sue about religion, incarnation and the meaning of life, we walked back to the IIC absolutely starving but really looking forward to a big breakfast. I joined Kate and we both had a delicious Indian breakfast of Puri and Chola, orange juice and traditional Indian tea – makes a change from porridge.

The day started off with exercise and a big breakfast and did we need it. Today we visited our first project, Pratham, before we moved onto The British Council for presentations with some of India’s movers and shakers within the field of social enterprise. This was for me the start of the learning journey. I felt quietly excited and also unsure as to what to expect as we were to visit both extremes.

Pratham is a very exciting project working with children from the ages of 3-14 years in the slum areas of Delhi. It was started in 1994 but a group of like-minded academics in Mumbai who saw that there was a massive need to cater for the thousands of children who either never attended school or who dropped out of the system. Their motto became “Every Child in School and Learning Well”.  With initial funding from UNICEF, the project has grown from Mumbai into 12 states and 30 cities across the country. It now raises what in India is a staggering 248 Rs. Lacs (about £300,000) a year, mostly from foreign donors, to run the project.

The journey to Pratham’s offices was very bumpy but fascinating. We saw a constant flow of people, cars, bikes, and rickshaws just hordes of them everywhere. The sound of horns is a constant reminder of how people communicate when travelling through Delhi. There seems to be no sense to the traffic management systems that operates out here as everyone makes up their own rules. People driving on the wrong side of the road, on pavements, four to a motorbike, no crash helmets, overloaded. Whatever way you choose it is accepted. It just shows the extent that people go to in order to manage their everyday lives. The highlight of the journey was when we overtook a man riding an elephant on the road! The crazy thing about it was no one battered an eyelid except the people on our bus. Then there was a mad clamber as some of us tried hanging out of the window trying to take photos. In fact we drew more attention than the elephant!

Seeing some of the areas on route gave us a taste of what was to come. When we arrived at our destination, we went into a building on the side of an alley. We climbed a flight of dark unlit stairs and entered the offices of Pratham. A very large room with mats on the floor to sit on and some examples of their work on the otherwise bare walls. Everything about the place was minimalist. They kindly put some chairs out for us to sit on and made us very welcome. There were many people floating in and apart from one person everyone was female all dressed in brightly coloured outfits, which made the place look colourful. You could see a lot of excitement in their faces when they saw us and we all exchanged welcomes. We were quickly split into two groups and were introduced to our host, Fouzia.

My group consisted of Farook, Andrea, Sue, Rupert and Bob. Somebody made an observation and commented that they kept all the older ones together. I made an observation that I was the only one who could speak Hindi and boy was it a good tool to have! Pooja had to take Zulfiqar to the police station to register. He has had enormous problems due to his dual nationality and will continue to do so until he leaves the country. Normally Pooja does the interpreting but now I was to be put to the test.

We travelled by rickshaw. This is basically a man on a bike about 8 stone in weight carrying the combined weight of two adults. I think to myself, I’m about 13 and a bit stone everyone was a minimum 10 (yes Farook, its only a minimum – love ya man!), that’s at least 23stone, plus two rucksacks each. There must be at least 30 stone traveling about 15 minutes in the hot sun for about 20 rupees. 80 rupees make a pound – yes you’re thinking the same as me. To be honest, good experience but not my choice of travel, too cruel for me, but then they don’t earn a living. I will leave that for other people’s conscience to work out.

When we arrived at the slums I thought what a sight. The stench was first to grab you. Just a smoggy, hot stench. Four ladies who were all part of the project escorted us through the area. You were walking over rubbish, broken glass, bricks, boxes, metal you name it anything. These were the actual roads without any pavements and doorways in walls, which were living quarters. We had to avoid being run over by people on motorbikes and rickshaws squeezing through in both directions.

The alleyways are about 12 feet wide, littered with piles of rubbish and these were right outside people’s houses. The children run around barefooted and there are goats and cows all eating out of the same piles. The pollution coming out of the exhausts was very visible and disgusting. The children were playing in water that was just free running with so much grime in it that it changed colour and was unrecognizable.

These areas are known as “Bastis”. It is basically a community that has approximately 200 dwellings and houses families with approximately 400-500 children between the ages of 3-14. Pratham operate 3 classes per basti, with one teacher in each class. They have to recruit a teacher from the same basti as they are the only people who could interact with the families and their children. Classes run 6 days a week 9-12 pm and 2-5 pm. One operates an evening library session for 6-14 year olds. This age group normally works during the day. Exploitation of children in the form of child labour unfortunately still exists here. The classes hold maximum 25 children between the ages of 3-5. This is pre-school education they receive and they concentrate on literacy skills in the main but prepare them for school.

The children we met all seemed to have one thing in common: they all seemed happy. The staff that runs the projects have sheer determination and unlimited passion for what they are doing and they are achieving results and good outcomes. Out of one person’s idea, 50,000 children between the ages of 3-5 years from Delhi’s population of 12 million are receiving a start in life. A further 25,000 attend the library service across 8 cities.

After the third project we went back to the offices where we were introduced to a gentleman named Shaileen who heads up the operation in Delhi. We had a briefing on the project and had an opportunity to ask many questions over a much-needed cup of tea.

One moment of sadness arose when I asked a question as to how they cater for special needs children. The project does receive children who have these needs but the only special need they recognize is a mentally retarded child. They assess the child by seeing if they are physically able and can speak, talk and hear. I asked what they did with the mentally retarded children and the answer was simply, we cannot accommodate them as they do not have the experience or training. This category of child is therefore completely excluded from society and an education. So a more appropriate strap line should perhaps be “Every Child in School and learning Well - unless you are a special needs because no-one wants to help.”

It was agreed that everybody would take along a small gift to donate to all the projects we will be visiting. I volunteered to co-ordinate this and at the end I handed over the bag of goodies and an envelope that included a financial contribution from us all. We boarded the bus and there were many a conversation-taking place that reflected upon our visit. For me, India is the second fastest growing economy next to China, yet it cannot tear it self up away from poverty.

Our two guides Arshi and Fouzia, stayed with us for lunch at a very nice vegetarian restaurant before embarking onto our appointment with the British Council. About 15 external people were invited and were awaiting us. Rajeeb and Kate were chosen to present themselves and their projects to everyone. This was now the other extreme. We were meeting with the people who were going to help us cut through the beaurocracy and allow the ones who want to make a difference to the world to carry on. The meeting ended with lots of ideas including a proposal to set up a youth program in India jointly with the British Council.

I returned to the hotel feeling mentally shattered. This was the first day of visiting projects and what a fantastic day it was. I feel this trip is going to be invaluable. Today I witnessed both the bottom up and top down approach, I learnt a lot from today. I met the people and children who are excluded from society through no fault of their own, where even human life holds little or no value. Where survival is based on Maslow’s hierarchy of need of survival, security, food, comfort. They survive on a day-to-day basis and probably do not know where their next meal will come from. Then we met the people at the British Council who can make a difference through alternative routes, political persuasion and through their network of contacts. But the most memorable part of the day was meeting the people who are making a difference. The Pratham people passionately and endlessly work with their heart on their sleeves. They adopt a similar agenda that is current in the UK of Every Child Matters by ensuring irrespective of gender, religion, background, every child is entitled to a program of education. A lot of work to be done for a very populated country that has an unbelievable growth in its economy. Difficult to believe the Commonwealth games will be held in Delhi in 2010. Lets hope the people who need it most are the ones who benefit.