Today, we shared three cups of chai with members of a small village in Uttarakhand. Those of you who are familiar with Greg Mortensen's semi-fictional work Three Cups of Tea know that the first cup means you are a stranger, the second cup means you are an honored guest, and the third cup means that you are family - what an honor!
As part of Margaret's research project, she reached out to Rajinder, who is coordinating efforts through the Landour Community Hospital to develop water programs in the area. Today, we drove about 60 km through the mountains, which took about two and a half hours each way. Our maximum speed (rarely reached) was about 40 km/hr due to all the turns and switchbacks along with the narrow roads. But our driver was excellent, and the scenery was gorgeous.
We got to the village and spoke briefly with some women who were washing clothes at a water source just outside of the village, then entered the village itself and spent some time with a couple of the male leaders on the roof of a building, where we were offered our first round of chai. The village was quite small and quite beautiful, especially with the mountains surrounding us.
We left this village after a simple but fantastic lunch of corriander-flavored eggs with chapati and our second round of chai, heading to a second village where we met with members of the Panchayats of both villages. There we shared our third cup of chai, while Rajinder presented the ideas for water management to the community, contingent on the grant from Samaritan's Purse. The leaders present at this meeting also gave feedback to the ideas presented. While I didn't understand the conversation, it was interesting to watch the dynamics. Although I was just tagging along, unable to contribute anything or communicate with them, the people in these communities welcomed me with open arms.
Tomorrow afternoon, we will go back to the Landour Community Hospital to meet with Rajinder so that Margaret can give feedback on his grant proposal for this project so that he can submit it tomorrow evening. Among the considerations we discussed as important to this project are the roles of women and the complete cycle of water. (We even briefly discussed the impact of farming issues on water because of my plans later this month to spend some time working at Navdanya's organic farm outside of Dehradun.)
Water is an issue that affects women in many ways - from cleanliness to the amount of time they must devote to the collection and transportation of water. In the village we visited, we found out that they spend about 30 minutes each day collecting water (about 20-30 L each day), and they must wait up to two hours for their turn to collect water. This takes a lot of time out of other activities, including economic activities within the family. Water is worldwide one of the biggest barriers to education for young women. Thus, it is one of the biggest issues in closing gender gaps (and reducing population, since well-educated women tend to wait longer to have children and give birth to fewer children).
Another issue related to women and water is the Panchayat, literally "assembly." The Panchayat is the local governing structure in India, and it is important for the community to be involved deeply in any project that comes from the outside. Many organizations require a significant percentage of the resources (up to 60%) to come from within the community. In 2009, the Union Cabinet approved a requirement that 50% of the seats on Panchayats be reserved for women. In some cases, the women basically serve as puppets for their husbands in these positions. In some cases, they are less effective because they have not been properly trained. It just goes to show that a simple requirement such as this reservation cannot be implemented without allowing the people to gain the necessary tools for successful implementation. It's not that they are incapable, just as it is not true that people are incapable of using water sanitation systems properly if they stop using them after getting sick because healthy practices were not taught to them as part of the installation of the water system. After all, each of us had to be taught these things from our communities before us.
The other main issue of concern is the entirety of the cycle of water. There are many ways to provide water to communities; some are more effective than others. Some work in mountainous regions; some work in flat regions. Each project has to be tailored to the community that receives it. Furthermore, part of the discussion included waste disposals, and Margaret introduced the idea of eco toilets, which are basically just simple composting toilets. Pollution in water is one of the major sources of sickness in India, and reducing that pollution to begin with would help greatly. Once the human waste is fully composted, it can be returned to the soil as fertilizer, becoming a resource for the people of these farming villages. We even talked about vermicompost as part of the waste management system. I do love worms!
Though exhausting, and although I couldn't understand most of what happened, today was a great day to see the real India, not just the tourist locations.
As part of Margaret's research project, she reached out to Rajinder, who is coordinating efforts through the Landour Community Hospital to develop water programs in the area. Today, we drove about 60 km through the mountains, which took about two and a half hours each way. Our maximum speed (rarely reached) was about 40 km/hr due to all the turns and switchbacks along with the narrow roads. But our driver was excellent, and the scenery was gorgeous.
We even got stalled briefly behind a donkey on the road (and cows, too, but I didn't get a picture of them).
We left this village after a simple but fantastic lunch of corriander-flavored eggs with chapati and our second round of chai, heading to a second village where we met with members of the Panchayats of both villages. There we shared our third cup of chai, while Rajinder presented the ideas for water management to the community, contingent on the grant from Samaritan's Purse. The leaders present at this meeting also gave feedback to the ideas presented. While I didn't understand the conversation, it was interesting to watch the dynamics. Although I was just tagging along, unable to contribute anything or communicate with them, the people in these communities welcomed me with open arms.
Tomorrow afternoon, we will go back to the Landour Community Hospital to meet with Rajinder so that Margaret can give feedback on his grant proposal for this project so that he can submit it tomorrow evening. Among the considerations we discussed as important to this project are the roles of women and the complete cycle of water. (We even briefly discussed the impact of farming issues on water because of my plans later this month to spend some time working at Navdanya's organic farm outside of Dehradun.)
Water is an issue that affects women in many ways - from cleanliness to the amount of time they must devote to the collection and transportation of water. In the village we visited, we found out that they spend about 30 minutes each day collecting water (about 20-30 L each day), and they must wait up to two hours for their turn to collect water. This takes a lot of time out of other activities, including economic activities within the family. Water is worldwide one of the biggest barriers to education for young women. Thus, it is one of the biggest issues in closing gender gaps (and reducing population, since well-educated women tend to wait longer to have children and give birth to fewer children).
Another issue related to women and water is the Panchayat, literally "assembly." The Panchayat is the local governing structure in India, and it is important for the community to be involved deeply in any project that comes from the outside. Many organizations require a significant percentage of the resources (up to 60%) to come from within the community. In 2009, the Union Cabinet approved a requirement that 50% of the seats on Panchayats be reserved for women. In some cases, the women basically serve as puppets for their husbands in these positions. In some cases, they are less effective because they have not been properly trained. It just goes to show that a simple requirement such as this reservation cannot be implemented without allowing the people to gain the necessary tools for successful implementation. It's not that they are incapable, just as it is not true that people are incapable of using water sanitation systems properly if they stop using them after getting sick because healthy practices were not taught to them as part of the installation of the water system. After all, each of us had to be taught these things from our communities before us.
The other main issue of concern is the entirety of the cycle of water. There are many ways to provide water to communities; some are more effective than others. Some work in mountainous regions; some work in flat regions. Each project has to be tailored to the community that receives it. Furthermore, part of the discussion included waste disposals, and Margaret introduced the idea of eco toilets, which are basically just simple composting toilets. Pollution in water is one of the major sources of sickness in India, and reducing that pollution to begin with would help greatly. Once the human waste is fully composted, it can be returned to the soil as fertilizer, becoming a resource for the people of these farming villages. We even talked about vermicompost as part of the waste management system. I do love worms!
Though exhausting, and although I couldn't understand most of what happened, today was a great day to see the real India, not just the tourist locations.
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