The past week I went on my next journey. This time with Sebastian, the American girls Candice and Jessica, and our TISS coordinator Soummya. Vi visited the rural campus of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. It was beautifully located on a hill top on the Indian countryside, outside Thulapur, a few hours from Solapur, Maharashtra. The campus itself and our housing was above expectation. We even had western style toilets... AND toilet paper!
During our time at the campus we visited various sites, villages and NGO:s (Non Government Organizations) in order to get exposed to, and learn about the rural life in India.
It was impressive to see the dedication and hard work that many people in the various NGO:s put in, and listening to their struggles and often uphill battles. Including working against against some people's bigotry in some areas. For example the view some upper caste people and their refusal to even speak to people of the lower castes.
Our first day started with some introduction and a little tour of parts of the campus. Our first visit was out to a place where water was preserved. It was interesting to hear how effectively water was preserved and harvested through the facilities that has been built, and how much it had changed the usually much dryer are to the better, and how much it has improved the lives of the people.
Our first village visit was to the Wadgaonlakh village, where we were guided about the lives and the system in that village. The visit was pretty brief but interesting. It was also interesting to see the curious yet very shy reactions of the people there when we came. Especially the children. During the tour I was told that the various groups try to get many children, because that gave them more power, the power as a group.
In the afternoon we visited the Apsinga village, where we started out at a special school for children with mental or physical disabilities. Children came there from various villages in the region and spent three months there. During that time they were taught according to their abilities. Hearing impaired students for example were given hearing aid, and were taught how to speak through various exercises (if that don't work, they are taught sign language). Even at this village it was big curiosity about us white people, and flocks of school children followed us, and peeked in through the window when we were in the school. Even adults joined in after a while.
After that we went along some TISS students (from the rural campus) to the area where the Dalith lived. That was a group of people that I wanted to visit even before coming to India, and I was very happy for this opportunity. The Daliths are the "untouchables" - a group of people without a caste. A group that is greatly discriminated in society.
We walked through their part of the village, smelling the bonfires from their kitchens and listening to the trumpet and drum music from a poor man's wedding. Unfortunately we weren't able to observe the festivities. It would have been interesting to see how it was like.
The Daliths were very nice and friendly. We all sat down on a big blanket on the ground outside, where we were informed about the various living conditions that they have. I was truly impressed by the Dalith women, and I hold a very high respect for these women. Most of them work on other people's farms, and for only 50 rupees a day (less than a dollar), half of what the men get. They get up at 5 am and do household work, then they work out in the fields from 10.30 am – 6.30 pm, after they get home they do even more household work. Then they go to bed around 11 pm. This is their lives every day of the year, and some of them even have seven children. I asked them if they don't get exhausted (with the help of a translator) and they said "Yes, but what should we do? We need to eat." That made me realize even more that a lot of changes needs to done in order to help these people. I felt love for this people.
In the evening we went in to Sholapur and visited the temple there. Sholapur hasn't been that impressive until then, so it was nice to see some more interesting parts of town. For the first time I experienced locals wanting to be photographed with me. "Hello sir, can I take a picture of you?" And then I had to pose standing next to them while one of their friends took a photo of us. The others experienced the same thing. It was something I only heard about before from other foreigners. But I thought that it was fair to pose with them, since I myself, after all do take photos of Indians, and sometimes pose with them.
On Thursday we visited an other village, close by, Where we were introduced to the panchayat system – the governing body of a village. We sat in a room and met with the Sarpanch – the head of the village. His job is to implement the government policies in the village. The board had seven members, who are elected every five years. It was interesting that two of the seats were reserved for women.
It was also interesting to hear that almost all students finish 8th grade, and that girls got free education and get free bus passes, in order to motive the parents to educate their daughters. This was in all honesty surprising, and very nice, since I didn't expect too much of these things in rural India, where the women's rights are held back.
This rural trip has been a great learning experience in many aspects, and I am very satisfied with the trip there. After that ruraal trip we went to Aurangabad, in northern Maharashtra... but I'll write about that in my next post.
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