After 5 long nights in Main Bazar with lots of talk, I am now in Maju Katilla, again and back to the drawing board.
I had come to Delhi to talk with the European founder and the regional project managers of an Indian based NGO. They want to expand their woman's vocational training and microfiannce program and I was very interested to see if there would be a chance of working with them and building on what they have already started. However and not going into details, this is just not going to work. I am very disappointed and generally frustrated at how business and communication is done in India, i.e. do it tomorrow thinking, along with disrespect for people's time, their female gender and not to mention the assumption that all foreigners have tonnes of cash and can therefore work all hours for free. Mind you that last assumption is rife in America in the assortment of unpaid internships. Oh well, anyway such is our crazy world.
What was very interesting this week, but also has left we with a very sad mind, was that I had the opportunity to visit a refuge camp on the edges of Delhi. The camp houses approx 1500 people who were made refugees at the partition of India. They are Muslims who came from Pakistan just over the border of Rajistan, so ethnically they at Rajistani but did not want to live in newly formed Pakistan. At that time, 1949 ish, India was promoting itself as a ethnically and religiously diverse democracy that would welcome anyone who did not want to live in the newly created Pakistan or West Bengal. So this group of people which were about 800 back then, moved into Indian Rajistan but had no luck in securing land from the government and decided to come to Delhi in the hope of procuring land here. Unfortunately they are still landless and have been squatting on small parcels of land in make shift tarpaulin and stick houses ever since. Every 5 to 10 years they have been forced off the land they squatt on and have to find a new place to live. They have been on their present piece of land for approx 7 years and once again will have to move very soon as the Delhi city plans to build a highway in the area.
The NGO have a small school for kids up to around age 10 then the kids go to government school. I was their on their behalf to find out the woman's needs. On asking the women about their living, health and income situation all they repeatedly told me was that they wanted was land, they can handle all hardship but for the NGO to help them get land. This of course makes perfect sense, so they need an advocate more that a vocational trainer.
The camp, which was beside some fields was pretty bad, tent close together, stick frames with black tarpaulin and an old shawl or cloth for a door. I could not see any well but did see two bathroom areas but I am sure there is no plumbing.The flies were thick and the terrain dusty. Most Children appeared to have skin rashes, mosquitoes bits or some some form of skin infections but were lively as all kids are and super curious to see a foreigner in their midst. The NGO staff talked with the people about their school project and it was then my turn to talk with the women. Overall we must have only been there for about 1 hour, not enough time to get any kind of a real story, but long enough to connect to and feel the women's frustration at their situation. I would have loved to do a full story on the camp and send that to journalist however due to the Indan governments reviewing of all NGO's I will not be doing any story and I feel terrible at even meeting the women if the NGO can not at least attempt to advocate on their behalf for land.
Lesson learned from this experience, never wander into a camp without being backed up with resources, cash, contacts and expertise because even asking the question, or hinting at the question, what do you need? creates false hope and is just a horrible thing to do to people.
So I truly hope the NGO can continue with their education programs and continue to benefit people and hopefully even help the Pakistani refugees get their own land.
I had come to Delhi to talk with the European founder and the regional project managers of an Indian based NGO. They want to expand their woman's vocational training and microfiannce program and I was very interested to see if there would be a chance of working with them and building on what they have already started. However and not going into details, this is just not going to work. I am very disappointed and generally frustrated at how business and communication is done in India, i.e. do it tomorrow thinking, along with disrespect for people's time, their female gender and not to mention the assumption that all foreigners have tonnes of cash and can therefore work all hours for free. Mind you that last assumption is rife in America in the assortment of unpaid internships. Oh well, anyway such is our crazy world.
What was very interesting this week, but also has left we with a very sad mind, was that I had the opportunity to visit a refuge camp on the edges of Delhi. The camp houses approx 1500 people who were made refugees at the partition of India. They are Muslims who came from Pakistan just over the border of Rajistan, so ethnically they at Rajistani but did not want to live in newly formed Pakistan. At that time, 1949 ish, India was promoting itself as a ethnically and religiously diverse democracy that would welcome anyone who did not want to live in the newly created Pakistan or West Bengal. So this group of people which were about 800 back then, moved into Indian Rajistan but had no luck in securing land from the government and decided to come to Delhi in the hope of procuring land here. Unfortunately they are still landless and have been squatting on small parcels of land in make shift tarpaulin and stick houses ever since. Every 5 to 10 years they have been forced off the land they squatt on and have to find a new place to live. They have been on their present piece of land for approx 7 years and once again will have to move very soon as the Delhi city plans to build a highway in the area.
The NGO have a small school for kids up to around age 10 then the kids go to government school. I was their on their behalf to find out the woman's needs. On asking the women about their living, health and income situation all they repeatedly told me was that they wanted was land, they can handle all hardship but for the NGO to help them get land. This of course makes perfect sense, so they need an advocate more that a vocational trainer.
The camp, which was beside some fields was pretty bad, tent close together, stick frames with black tarpaulin and an old shawl or cloth for a door. I could not see any well but did see two bathroom areas but I am sure there is no plumbing.The flies were thick and the terrain dusty. Most Children appeared to have skin rashes, mosquitoes bits or some some form of skin infections but were lively as all kids are and super curious to see a foreigner in their midst. The NGO staff talked with the people about their school project and it was then my turn to talk with the women. Overall we must have only been there for about 1 hour, not enough time to get any kind of a real story, but long enough to connect to and feel the women's frustration at their situation. I would have loved to do a full story on the camp and send that to journalist however due to the Indan governments reviewing of all NGO's I will not be doing any story and I feel terrible at even meeting the women if the NGO can not at least attempt to advocate on their behalf for land.
Lesson learned from this experience, never wander into a camp without being backed up with resources, cash, contacts and expertise because even asking the question, or hinting at the question, what do you need? creates false hope and is just a horrible thing to do to people.
So I truly hope the NGO can continue with their education programs and continue to benefit people and hopefully even help the Pakistani refugees get their own land.
No comments:
Post a Comment