volunteering with down to earth
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 6:35AM Today was something of a day of contrasts.
I met some friends of Aazamina's who run an NGO called Down to Earth. They provide education for children in slums. I took a bus from the CST station to the last bus stop in a posh area of Mumbai called Cuff Parade. The bus drove by beautiful apartment residences and hotels, and stopped at a bus depot, right next to the slum where Down to Earth runs its classes. It may be a bit misleading to call this place a slum though. The definition of a slum is quite contested and varies depending on who you talk to and what their interests are. But I think most people would call this place (named Ambedkar-nagar) a slum. But the housing in it isn't temporary or disgusting. Most of the houses are two stories (with a small room on each floor and a simple ladder connecting the upstairs and downstairs), have cement walls and corrugated metal roofs and electricity (though it is not metered). Its an extremely crowded place, with really narrow alleys and walkways between the structures. And it is certainly very shabby, with a lot of crumbling cement and trash.
But at the same time, its quite vibrant. There are stores, people working and talking everywhere, chickens running around, food being sold. The Indian census defines a slum as a cluster of 50 or 60 households that are dilapidated and unconnected, and the BMC declares areas slums based on different housing conditions. But those are just technical definitions. I guess my point is that there are really bad slums, and better off slums, and this was probably a better off one.
So I met 3 NGO workers-- Dev, Maansi and Niki, all in their 20's or early 30's and all really friendly. As Maansi was taking me through the alleys to the NGOs headquarters, 3 or 4 people stopped her to say hello or ask a question. Several of the kids also said hi to her. The headquarters were in one of the cement structures. And everything was quite clean, as I assume the houses of the people who live in this area are as well. There were gaps in the places where the walls met the ceiling, and once two cats involved in a chase came through one corner of the room and streaked out another. I guess things must get a bit wet inside during the rainy season.
I met two of the pupils... about 9-11 year old boys. When I came in, they were working on sudoku puzzles with Dev. They had pretty decent English skills, and for the most part, understood me just fine when I said simple English sentences. Dev wanted me to help them practice their English, so I had a "Where are you from? How many siblings do you have?" type of conversation with them. They were really sweet boys. Dev, Maansi and Niki told me about Down To Earth and the kind of work they do, and I think I am going to help them with teaching a couple of times a week. And Dev offered to arrange interviews for me with the students' parents (they are mostly migrants from all different places in India) and to have one of the NGO staff accompany me. So that will be incredibly helpful. I'm really excited to be involved with this group.
To give me some practice, Dev called in an 18 year old guy named Nasir. I asked him my set of questions, and he answered like he thought his parents would. It was cool, and Dev had some great suggestions for fine-tuning my questions a bit. I mentioned earlier that the place didn't seem like a terrible slum to me. When I asked Nasir whether there was something he or his parents wished they could have, he told me nothing... they were doing pretty well. Dev wasn't sure if his parents would have said the same thing, but at least this 18 year old felt pretty good about his life.
So after my introduction to Down to Earth, I stopped by Makduda Aunty's house because her family lives right in Cuff Parade. Their flat is just gorgeous, and it was really nice to see her and get her advice on living in Mumbai. It was particularly good to hang out with someone who I've known for a long time... helped mitigate some of the culture shock I've been feeling. These two places were close to each other but also worlds apart (I would say a lot more so than the lives and dwellings of rich and poor people in the West). Not just worlds apart in terms of aesthetics and facilities, but also outlook. I guess its not surprising that I get totally different opinions on Bombay's slum issues from family and family friends here then I do from the NGO workers and the actual slum dwellers that I've met so far. Many people on the upper-middle and upper class end don't really seem to identify with their plight. Instead they seem to be thought of as people who are ruining Mumbai. I've heard that opinion several times over now.
I do think both sides of the issue make legitmate points. I'll write about those some other time.
Reader Comments (6)
Today I finally clicked on the link to your journal which your mom sent me, and read all the entries (backwards!) before I realized what time it was.
I also remembered the name of the novel I was telling you about that has some very vivid descriptions of Bombay slums (depressing and may be a little outdated) The book is called "A Fine Balance" by Rohington Mistry.
Hope to continue reading this most fascinating blog.
Contrasts in south asian cities like Mumbai and Karachi as well are finely etched. It takes a fresh pair of eyes to appreciate them. Doing something about it is quite something else. I hope that you are finding that the NGOs are making the difference.
I think the NGOs I've been exposed to so far are making a big difference to a very small number of people. There are so many people here that need help and while there are also lots of civil society organizations that try and help them, there's no way they can even have a reasonable impact on a large minority of the people that need their services.
Plus I think a lot of NGOs are engaged in temporary fixes or patches to problems, while the problems in Mumbai's slums are structural... and can't be truly addressed without doing something about huge issues like government corruption and the power of large development companies. Its basically impossible to tackle those things from the outside, and especially from an organization without much political clout.
Still, I'm really impressed with the two organizations I've been going around with so far-- LEARN India and Down to Earth. Both are engaged in capacity building among the poor (instead of raising money or giving handouts) and its obvious the people they work with find their services to be really valuable.
I have been folloowing your storyline and amazed that you really darted out without any hesitation.
The best way is to talk to people and question them and ask for their input. They love it.
I never waste any time either in a cab ,train or with vendors. You are on the right track and soon you will have a book out.
I have passed your site to both Tasneem and sausan.
Good luck and salaam to all.
Hibtullah phooppa
Sometimes people are bit amused that someone is asking them questions, but for the most part, people respond quite readily. I'm surprised at a what a friendly city this seems to be overall.
Hope all is well with you :)