Twelve Shining Stars

This week I’ve been doing something especially near and dear to my heart. Ever since I started working in developing countries, women’s issues have caught my interest. The way women are treated in some countries is appalling, and India is a pretty bad offender on this particular issue. The literacy rate for men in this area is around 76%, while girls have a literacy rate of only 52%. As has recently made the news lately, there is a huge problem in India, China, and other countries with “missing girls”—girls who are aborted before they are born or not given the food and health care they need in early childhood, causing them to die. In these populations there are significantly more males than females, and this can lead to many societal problems. Obviously women and girls are not valued as much in societies such as these, and often they are practically sold to a husband at a young age or are treated as a household servant. This has led me to a desire to work with women in India, to build self-confidence, teach them to stand up for themselves, and to further their education as a whole. Here in Vikrivandi I’ve found the perfect opportunity to do this.


At St. Mary’s, a local catholic school where James and I are teaching, we met a great group of girls. All of the kids are wonderful of course, but we found the 9th grade girls to be particularly eager to learn both about English and about life beyond rural India. An idea that has been bouncing around in my head for a while seemed like a perfect fit for these young fifteen year olds who will have to overcome so much in life—a “women’s club” just for them, for them to inspire and teach each other and also to have a strong group to turn to in times of adversity. Women in India who want to have a career of their own or a life of their own in any way are shunned and outcast from society, and girls have to struggle to defend their right to stay in school and have an education. The girls in this class have already made it to 9th grade and have high hopes for their futures.

After discussing the idea with the headmistress at the school, I convened the girls for a few hours after school last week. They were all very excited to be getting special attention, and all twelve of them stayed after school to participate in the group. They named themselves “The 12 Star Club” because there are twelve of them and they are beautiful like stars. Along with snacks and games, we talked about the challenges for women in India, what being a girl here is like for them, and what they envision for their future. Four of the girls were Christian, one is a Muslim, and the other seven are Hindu, so we had a wide range of religious backgrounds, making it even more interesting.

I was surprised to hear that despite all I know about the challenges women face in this country that the girls all had a pretty optimistic view about their country and their future in it. All of them aspire to attend college, and all besides one feel that if they earn high enough grades they will be able to achieve this goal. The one who is not going to continue to college was a Muslim girl named Nabe, who’s family tells her she will continue to 10th grade and then drop out to get a job and get married (at age 17). This seems to be the tradition for Muslims in the community, but otherwise the girls had no thoughts of marriage quite yet.
The group acknowledged that at times they are treated as the household servants, having to do all of the cooking, cleaning, etc for the family. They also are not allowed to do a lot of things boys can do: stay out late, go places unaccompanied, or drink alcohol (even when they’re adults). Their biggest gripe seemed to be that they want to wear pants like westerners but their parents would never allow them to do that. The common practice in India of requiring dowries from girls’ parents in marriage is also a big issue for them. The 12 Stars Club believes that this practice is wrong because it causes a lot of problems among the girl and her new husband and his family. The girl goes to live with the man and his family and if they felt that her dowry was not sufficient often she is beaten or not treated well in her new home. The girls in the group felt very strongly that the practice of having dowries is wrong and outdated, and they all say that they would not marry someone who demands a dowry. I also found out that having “love marriages” is slowly becoming more accepted here. About half or more of marriages, however, are still arranged by the families involved. Overall, the girls think that they have a better quality of life than their mothers before them, and have better opportunities in life. I left the group meeting feeling pretty optimistic about how women are becoming more valued members of society.

We also watched some movies, had snacks, and played a few fun games. The club has to take a break for now because they have final exams, but after their exams are finished we plan to continue the group, and even after I leave here hopefully they will continue having meetings of the 12 Stars Club. These girls are amazingly talented, intelligent, and outgoing and the hope is that the group will only strengthen them and give them more confidence. Although I don’t know all of the challenges they will face, or how their lives will ultimately play out, I do know one thing—I wouldn’t bet against these girls.


Princey, Nancy, Dhevi, Elai, Rany, Sangee, Sowme, Nabe, Hari, Mercy, Selvi, and Jaya

Stepping Into the Future

Sorry I haven’t written in so long. Time is flying by here so quickly, it is almost impossible to believe I ever thought I might be bored at night in rural India.
Not this past weekend but the weekend before James and I took a three-day trip to Bangalore, the “IT City” of India. If you’ve ever read Thomas Friedman’s book “The World is Flat”, you will recognize that Bangalore (actually now Bengaluru) is the up-and-coming city he talks about extensively as an example of the world being “flattened” by technology.

Bangalore is quite a sight to behold. I haven’t gotten a chance to travel too much here in India so I’m not sure how it compares to other big cities such as Delhi and Mumbai, but man oh man is Bangalore different from rural south-east India. Stepping off the five hour train from Chennai into Bangalore was like stepping into a different country in some ways. Sure there were stray cows here and there on the city sidewalks, and sure there were lots of urban poor. But instead of grass-roofed huts they have enormous IT buildings, and instead of roadside “tandoor” shops selling street food they have McDonalds and KFC (albeit with “veggie burgers” instead of the usual fare). Bangalore looks like a growing place, a city on the move, really on the rise. A new metro system is going in, and new luxury malls are starting to appear in the nicer section of town. Outside the city in the aptly named suburban area of “Electronics City” familiar companies such as Siemens, IBM, Goldman Sachs, and GE have their sprawling corporate offices, side by side with Indian companies such as Infosys and the Bank of India. We had a great time exploring the city, meeting up with some foreigners at last (no foreigners except us out here at CR, which is why we cause such a fuss everywhere we go) and enjoying some non-south Indian food for once.

After living for a month in rural India, where we literally drive over harvests that are laid out on the road, where seeing oxen teams pulling carts on the National Highway is a daily occurrence, and where many villages don’t have electricity let alone internet, seeing a different side of India was very interesting. Bangalore is also a mix of people—although it is in the Indian state of Karnataka, there are people from all over India who have migrated there for work, including the people from neighboring Tamil Nadu (where I’ve been living) who originally came to the city to work under the British rulers. This diversity is apparent from even a walk into a movie store—there are sections with movies in English, Hindi, Tamil, Teluga, Hindi, and more. Over the years they’ve developed a very cosmopolitan and diverse city with Indians from many different backgrounds all living together, speaking different languages, and becoming the entrepreneurs and leaders of their country’s future.


It’s inspiring and amazing to see. If India continues growing at the rate it has been and is successful in modernizing and educating its citizens, this could be what the majority of Indian cities look like 50 years from now. 50 years from now these poor rural farmers who pick their rice by hand and walk around the dusty Indian roads in rags and without shoes could be living in a nice house in the suburbs of a developed city. It almost sounds ridiculous given just how poor most people here are, but it is a future that could yet become a reality. India is rising. I can’t wait to come back for another visit in 50 years and see the difference.


Bangalore


Rural India

March 4

The Library at St. Mary’s has been a success so far. We had the 7th and 9th standard (grade) take out books already. Unfortunately there are not enough easy books for all three standards (7th, 8th, 9th) to take out books at the same time. With 59 kids in 7th standard alone, there just aren’t enough to go around. But the kids who do have books out so far seem really excited about the prospect of having a book all to themselves for a few days, and I’ve noticed that they’ve been carrying them around with them everywhere they go.



There was a horrible incident at St. Mary’s that we heard about from Father Felix the other day—a girl in 6th standard, who has known heart problems, was beaten by her teacher until she fainted. Beating of kids by teachers with a thick wooden stick is common practice here in rural India, and I’m sure most kids get a whack almost every day. But I was really shocked to hear about a girl being beaten until she fainted, and probably just for talking in class or forgetting her homework. It seems so abusive by our standards.

Not to diminish how horrible that was, but I do almost kind of understand why they use that kind of “easy” punishment so much. Especially in elementary schools like Periathachoor where we work in the afternoons, there are just too many kids in each class. If the teacher didn’t have access to corporal punishment it is nearly impossible to keep a class of 60 + young kids (most of whom are complete hooligans because they are neglected or abused at home) in line well enough for them to learn something. It is a sad fact but also just a reality of overpopulation and the government not having enough money for enough teachers. The system really needs to improve or India will never bring its 55% literacy rate up, especially among the rural populations.

March 3

Sometimes life in India is so overwhelming—all the people, animals, vehicles, everything. I’d say all the developing countries I’ve been to so far have been much more lively and “bustley” than the U.S., but India is just so much more of everything, it is like stimulus overload. There are so many people here! And everything is in motion all of the time.

Living at SAMSSS (with a priest and 5 boys he cares for, and a cook, and a bunch of other random people) is hectic. There is always someone coming or going, and always someone who wants to chat or show you something. Being foreigners, Sarah, James, and I are constant objects of curiosity. Pretty much whenever I am outside of my or James’ room doing anything, like reading, or typing on my computer, or writing a lesson plan, I have people standing over my shoulder, trying to say hello and start a conversation in broken English, or staring at me expectantly. It is so hard to just get a quiet moment to myself, mostly because I never want to say no or stop hanging out with these wonderful people who are always around. And even when everything is quiet, say around midnight, there are usually 3 or 4 people sleeping on the floor right outside Sarah and my room—they’re everywhere!

Seenu in particular has captured my heart. He is the 9 year old little boy I wrote about previously. He speaks a fair bit of English (usually just single words, but you can figure out what he means) and somewhere along the way someone must have tried to teach him “its”. So now, instead of saying “It’s sleeping” he has abbreviated it to “S-Sleeping” or “s-going?” or “sa-cat”. It is so adorable that we don’t even correct him, we say “Yep, that’s right Seenu, we’re s- going for now, but we’ll be back later”. It’s really bad, I guess at some point we’re going to have to start correcting him if he is ever going to learn English, but for now it’s just about the cutest thing ever.



Poor Seenu usually sleeps on the floor, but Sarah put him to bed the other night on a cot in the living room. He must have slept fitfully and sometime during the night or early morning he managed to fling himself out of the bed onto the concrete floor. They found him in the morning curled up under the kitchen table. His leg really hurt where he fell off the cot so Father Felix took him to the hospital. There they gave him two shots (no one seems to be really sure for what?) and sent him home with a bunch of medicine. Father Felix was away for the night and Seenu ate with us interns. Afterwards he pulls out a brown bag of medicine given to him by the doctor. Inside are 4 different pills, and Seenu claims that he is supposed to take them all that night. There is no label or anything to indicate what they are, and this is a 50-some pound kid we’re talking about. We were all concerned and called Father Felix to make sure that was right he was supposed to be taking these pills, and he confirmed. The Indian medical system is crazy! Apparently they just hand stuff out to make people feel like they’ve received some sort of treatment—two shots and 4 different pills just for a bruised leg. Goodness. The kid should have just taken some Tylenol! And then poor Seenu had a stomach ache and diarrhea the next day, no wonder.




Another crazy thing happened yesterday. I came home from working at the after-school program in the evening, around 6:30, to hear Father Felix talking about a cow in the well. Turns out that one of the cows we have here at SAMSSS (there are about 4 or 5 that live behind the house and whose milk we have every day) fell into a well! They had to lift her out with rope and a crane, but luckily the poor thing was ok. She was pregnant and maybe lost the baby because she probably has some cracked ribs, but the thing that can kill a cow is a broken leg and her legs seem to be ok. Always something going on here at SAMSSS.

On a very positive note, the one library I’ve been working on at Periathachoor is up and running! So far the kids love it and have been great at taking good care of their books and returning them safe and sound and on-time. The library I’m working on at St. Mary’s will be operational starting tomorrow morning, so that is also a huge success in a place where even the simplest tasks inexplicably take hours, days, or weeks longer than planned.