1 moon in India

One moon since arriving at Delhi international airport, I have begun to settle in India. I have descended the caste hierarchy as my skin darkens and have resisted the temptations of numerous adverts for skin whitening products as recommended by India’s most glamorous stars.

I’ve spent the morning with my Lonely Planet, reading up on sights and activities in the state of Tamil Nadu. There is a world within Inidia to explore and I need to make the most of my free time here. However, exploring opportunities are limited as volunteers and staff at the NGO (non-government organization) work six day a week and travelling times are lengthy. For now though I am loving getting to grips with the work at our work placement, the Narikuravar Education and Welfare Society (NEWS).  The Narikuravar people are semi-nomadic gypsies who have maintained their own cultural norms including fox-hunting and bead making.  They have been wrongly classed in Tamil Nadu as ‘Most Backward Class’ but have recently campaigned successfully to be recognized as a ‘Scheduled Tribe’ status, which is one rung below the Indian caste system and ensures access to government-funded programmes designed to alleviate from poverty. However, due to the speed of beaurocracy in India it may still be another two to five years before the change in status brings any practical changes. (Having just asked my development worker colleague (of Indian origin) how to describe the Narikuravar, the words used I cannot express!) Apart from ‘unchangeable’ which I thought was interesting. I’ll come back to this in 5 months time!

We have now met all of the five communities where NEWS works, where 80% of villagers live in absolute poverty of less than 1$ a day and literacy levels are low at 10-20%. Meeting people in the communities has been critical. It has enabled us to develop empathy and understanding of current difficulties as well as motivating us to work hard for real localised change. Also, face-to-face introductions, running games for children, asking about community needs and how we can help, is important for building a collaborative working relationship built on trust and openness. This is a critical issue for NEWS whose need to improve working relationships with communities is a priority. Communities other than Deverayaneri, where NEWS is based feel discriminated against and inferior on the basis that they are not receiving all of the services available to them. Their feelings are justified too. It seems that despite being the victims of discrimination and prejudice based on the entrenched Indian caste system, within the Narikuravar communities exists a hierarchy of its own. This serves to ignite distrust between communities and NEWS is regarded with suspicion by village leaders. Dev is the only community to have a school, hostel, and a Chidya group. Chidya is an community based organization (CBO) run by members of the community to make and sell Mala – religious beads which have been  the traditional source of Narikuravar income for centuries. The income generated from the sale of beads can help the community develop education, health and livelihood programmes. Although, even Chidya is riddled with community divides based on intra-family disputes which threaten the group’s progress.

Development is never a straight-forward process but the benefits from being a grass-roots, organic NGO lead by people from the communities the organization aims to serve, is that if run democratically, the NGO will be much better placed to overcome local challenges than an external development agency.  We are looking at strengthening board membership to include more members from communities other than Dev as a priority in being able to build trust between NEWS and its communities. Other key priorities shared by each community include improving access to water and sanitation, and the education of children. Speaking English is regarded highly within communities as a language which can shake off the shackles of poverty through gaining respect for Narikuravar whilst enabling artisans to sell their produce to a wider market. Also, education is vital to enabling communities to diversify their livelihoods, access services/funds and gain vocational training and jobs which can secure a steady income. Education is an important weapon against the discrimination and prejudice experienced by people of a Scheduled Tribe Status allowing communities to redress the imbalances of power within societal systems. 

Yesterday, I was pleased to run a staff meeting based on the meetings we had when I was part of the Home Treatment Service in Folkestone - community-based team in the NHS, working to improve the quality of life for people with a dementia. I was keen for us to develop a list of priorities for NEWS. After brainstorming we ranked priorities in three levels of importance.

Top priorities included: Increase visibility of NEWS; develop a corpus fund to save money for use when funds are restricted; strategic planning; improve documentation of NEWS’ work; sustain valuable staff; improve communication.  

Next priorities: Networking; NGO management; Education; Spoken English; Nutritional food and shelter for hostel children.

Next, next priorities: Establish income-generating groups in communities; community development; strengthen board members; infrastructure.

I pushed for community development, and income-generating groups/community based groups to be in the highest priority group and am still unclear at present as to why they’re not, but I will investigate!

After this we did a paper-carousel (technique learnt from my Global Xchange days with VSO) on each community’s needs and we will develop an action plan during next week’s meeting, based on the Camberwell Assesment of Needs for the Elderly (CANE), which we used in the NHS. This was effective for intervention planning and evaluating progress on a week-by-week basis. It’s very exciting stuff! We also had an excellent secretary who kept minutes during meetings and so this has been replicated with one staff member volunteering for the role.

So in summary, I’m excited about the work placement as the cause is a good one and there is lots of work for us to be getting on with and in many different areas. It will be a challenge to bring about much change in the limited 3 months the volunteers are her for and a lot of effort will be needed to ensure that any progress is made sustainable by working closely with and sharing skills with NEWS’ staff.