The other day, we were waiting in the security office at Tata Chemicals and I found a newspaper in English. I declared my excitement that it appeared that Turkey had won a Eurocup match. Lee then reminded me that Eurocup was over, which prompted me to check the date on the paper: 17 June.
So hopefully nothing big happens because I won’t probably know about it for two weeks.
Yesterday, after a particularly frustrating mobile phone experience (our Rs 150 top up only lasted 10 minutes instead of the 25 minutes it lasted last time), I bitched to my mom about how I feel like “Princess Valerie” but I don’t care: I need Internet and phone access and other creature comforts … like toilet paper. This statement, of course, alarmed her. “No toilet paper? What?” Yeah, no toilet paper.
The “Indian way” is to fill up a bucket with water, and then use a little cup to dip into the water and pour down your backside, washing yourself with your left hand. That’s why you’re never allowed to hand anything to a person or eat with your left hand. It’s known to be your dirty hand.
So, in both places I stayed, there has been toilet paper, as well as a bucket and cup. I didn’t know what the bucket and cup were for … I thought this was just the cleaning people leaving their tools in my bathroom. But, then, at the Tata offices, I found that the ladies room has no toilet paper. There’s a faucet on the wall with the bucket and cup. Plus, there’s always water all over the toilet seat and also a little on the floor. This was when I realised what was going on. Hmmm. So, thank God we come back to the guest house for lunch, because I’m not doing that. Especially knowing that the soap dispenser in the ladies doesn’t really work either …
Jamal, the UC Berkeley intern here, grew up with the “Indian way.” Tonight, in our little toilet talk over dinner, he explained that the Indians see toilet paper as less effective and think we’re quite gross for not washing after each toilet experience. He agrees though that toilet paper is useful for drying your butt after this washing experience, but the theory is that in such hot, dry weather, you’ll dry in three seconds anyway without toilet paper.
The other interesting toilet tidbit is that most of our clients in the field don’t have toilets. The world is their toilet. So what does this all mean for me?
- I must pay special attention to not eat stuff that will make me sick because the only place I can “comfortably” sick is in my hotel room.
- I must drink water but not too much because if I have to pee on a field visit, I’m going to be bearing my white ass – surely another oddity of interest to everyone. (Men have it so easy!)
- I must bring a little bit of toilet paper with me to work, just in case.
- It is also imperative that I bring my hand sanitizer to work.
So far, I’ve not had any issues that required an uncomfortable bathroom experience. That’s not to say I haven’t had any issues. Fortunately though, they’ve occurred directly after meals in the guest house. I think my trouble is with the dairy-based stuff, so no more of that. Hopefully my “pet” (stomach in Gujarati!) gets tougher over time.
Anyway …
Today was another interesting day in the field … one that totally redefined my view of poverty. After lunch, we drove out to a place called Poshitra, where we stopped at the house of a farmer. This farmer and his wife have worked with Tata for a decade. Their homestead was comprised of two small houses they built themselves. We didn’t go inside, but I would guess the houses had one or two rooms each (and I don’t mean bedrooms – I mean rooms). There were no doors, just doorways. When we arrived, the farmer and his son pulled out three beds made of wood and a handmade net of rope. They spread blankets down on top of each bed and we sat in a little triangle facing each other. Mr. Kamani, the Tata Community Development staff responsible for Natural Resource Management, explained how Tata had helped this farmer over the years to build devices that collect rainwater that can be used for irrigating his farm land. Farming is this man’s livelihood, but farming is difficult here because the area is so drought prone and the groundwater is saline (i.e., not useable for crop irrigation).
Looking at this farmer’s homestead and considering that 10 people lived in these two small houses, the farmer appeared to be poor by Western standards. But, according to Mr. Kamani, this family is “middle class,” which is defined as a family whose income matches their expenses. That is, this family can afford the food, clothing, medical care, etc they need without struggle. They also have enough money to educate their children, which most rural families set as a very low priority, but this family set as a high one. One of the farmer’s children is a government-employed teacher and one is employed in the Tata Community Development department as a fieldworker that helps to facilitate Self Help Groups.
We also met the farmer’s wife, Nathi Ben, who is quite an influential character in the region as a woman who runs and heavily promotes Self Help Groups (which I’ll explain more about another time). Nathi Ben was a rather old looking woman with a tight, backless red top on, a long red skirt, and a red veil that did not go over her face, but sat on her head like a nun’s veil. Her earlobes were pierced and stretched to accommodate massive gold hoops (about an inch wide). This is a very typical look for women in this region.
I also met their daughter, Laxmi Ben (“ben” is added to all female names, meaning “sister”), who was busy inside the house doing embroidery and beadwork on bags, blankets, and other linens that would make up her dowry when she gets married. The more skill she shows in her embroidery and beadwork, the more valuable she will be as a bride. It is expected that the amount the family will be given by Laxmi Ben’s future husband’s family is 1.5 lakhs (about 150,000 rupees). Incidentally, Laxmi Ben is highly literate and had done a lot of work to help other people in her community become literate.
After that, we drove up the road to the camp of some nomadic people. The nomadic people do not own land; instead, they acquire milk-providing animals like goats and buffalo. (There was a group of baby goats near the camp when we arrived. They were doing baby “baaaaahhs” and seemed to want to play with us. SO CUTE!) So anyway, at this camp, there was a small 10ft by 10ft piece of land that had been built up by hand so that it was a little platform of earth. Over the platform was a tent made of blue tarp and sticks. Under the tent was a pile of blankets on which this family of 10, including children ranging from about 1.5 years to 16 years, sleep. The only people there at the time were the women and the small boy children. The men were apparently out herding the buffalos. They seemed okay with us coming up to view and learn about their camp, though who could know what they really think? I felt a little strange – like we were treating them as a tourist attraction – but apparently, Tata has helped these people for many years. They know each other, and the people don’t mind our visits. In fact, we had our pictures taken together and the young girls LOVED viewing themselves on Durga Ben’s digital camera. A couple of them wanted to pose for individual headshots.
Lee and I saw lots of these families on our way from the Jamnagar airport, and I would have called them poor and judged them to be the most needy of all families, but apparently this family is relatively rich. They even have a house in the nearby village, but they choose to live out on the land in the tents. They are a very religious group with high moral standards, and they believe it is their duty to be out on the land and help watch the animals. What makes them rich is their ownership of so many milk-producing animals and the money they make selling the milk, but clearly, if the animals died, they would instantly become poor. So, every year, during the monsoon season (now), the nomad people come back to this area. Animal diseases (e.g., foot & mouth) tend to proliferate right after the monsoon ends, so that is when Tata comes in each year to immunize the nomads' animals. This is how Tata helps these people to not slip back into poverty. It is charity … but it is also preserving a legitimate, ancient way of life in such a modern world. It’s not development, but perhaps what is “development” is the fact that these individuals are welcome to join Tata-facilitated Self Help Groups, which may influence them to leave a child behind during migration season so that the child can receive some education. These children are typically illiterate and completely uneducated because they are expected to migrate with the family throughout most of the year. I believe the uptake of such education and Self Help Group membership is pretty low for these people though.
So, another interesting and educational day goes by. Apparently what I think of as “poor” is not necessarily poor. Apparently, I haven’t even met any poor people yet. Poor people, the Tata staff says, are ones who cannot afford their expenses. As an example, Mr. Kamani explained how a poor family will earn roughly Rs 100 per day (about $2). The average family size is 5. Porum, a porridge that poor people eat for every meal, costs about Rs 5 per person per meal, and only 2 meals are eaten per day. So, that means that of the Rs 100 this family has, they spend half of it on food. Even though this is a dry state, there is often alcoholism in these poor families, so Rs 20 per day might go to the purchase of alcohol. That leaves Rs 30 (less than $1) to pay for everything else, including healthcare, clothing, seeds and tools for farming, etc.
Out of this discussion, Mr. Kamani suggested that my project could be about this: I could help Tata to document the economics of a poor family and to identify indicators that help to clarify the levels of poverty in the area. I could then work with staff to develop a plan for how Tata can help these people double their income. Wow! What a project! They’d also like me to document more specifically the interworkings of Self Help Groups and how these groups benefit poor people, which will help Tata to better market the groups.
There seems to be plenty of ways in which I can help, which is good. Next week, I’ll be expected to settle on what specifically I’ll focus over the next eight weeks.