Calcutta Samaritans field work

Most of my orientation to The Calcutta Samaritans (TCS) has come from a social worker named Shamim (on the right). She has been working at TCS for 6 years; before that she actually used to attend one of their sewing and embroidery classes for women. The other woman in the picture, Rupa, is also a social worker. They both deal with homeless, pavement-dwelling populations.

So today I did a field visit with Shamim and Rupa. Before going into the details, I just want to note three things that surprised me about the day:

1. We went to visit homeless women, at the spot of pavement where they stay. AND THEY SERVED US TEA.

2. Earlier in the day, Shamim and I paid 37 rupees total for a very hearty lunch of several tandoori rotis, a vegetable dish and kebabs. And two drinks. I continue to be astounded at the price of food. When will I get used to it? And I have to try not to be amused/ impatient when, despite the low cost, people still get into arguments about who will treat who. The food isn't just cheap for me because I think in dollars... its pretty cheap for the social workers as well. Still... Shamim thought that I was joking when I told her a soda in the US costs 50 rupees. It took like 5 minutes of vending machine descriptions and having to produce a dollar bill from my wallet for me to convince her I was being serious.

3. The West Bengal government and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation routinely burn the identity documents (voter cards, ration cards, etc) of the homeless when they come to destroy their sidewalk settlements. According to several TCS social workers, it is an unofficial but widespread policy of stripping people of their citizenship rights. The standard explanation is that the homeless are Bangladeshi, which is sometimes true but not usually. The burning of documents surprises me because I think I have fallen into the trap of thinking of the CPM as advocates of poor people. (CPM is the ruling party in West Bengal). I'm a victim of political billboards! I also think that way because people tend to emphasize that the CPM does not exploit migrant-native cleavages in its electoral politics. But the act of burning citizenship documents is such an active and public rejection of a certain group of people (who are mostly Indian migrants, and in any case, labeled as illegal immigrants by the government).

And one thing that didn't surprise me: homeless people are about as poor as it gets, and yet, all the women I met were wearing some amount of gold. Most homeless people do have an income. As Rupa said, its not like they don't have anything. Its just that they have no awareness about their rights, or possible avenues for changing their situation. For example, they haven't been taught rules of basic nutrition... for them it is not obvious that vegetables are healthier than rice. Plus, there's no place for them to go.  In their terms, you need quite a bit of money and some insider contacts to even have a room in a slum.

So much for the surprises. I also want to write a quick description of the work I witnessed today. All the social workers (there are 12 total in TCS's campaign and advocacy office) spend work days either doing paperwork in the office, or out in the field working with marginalized populations. About six years ago, Action Aid India sponsored a large-scale survey of Calcutta's homeless. Surveyors went all over the city, recording the names, origin, occupations, ages, etc of pavement dwellers in most districts and sub-districts.  One thing they found out is that it is not so unsual to find families who have occupied the same patch of sidewalk for decades.  Once they got a handle on the numbers and location of the homeless population, TCS's social workers went out to try and organize/ educate them about their rights.

I accompanied Rupa and Shamim on a field visit to pavement dwellers in the Ballygunge area. Its actually a pretty posh area, but there are plenty of homeless people in some side alleys.  The current mission is to get a women's group started among the 25 or so families that TCS keeps track of in this area. These groups are being formed all over the city, to educate the families (through the women) about their basic rights and in some cases, to help them get identity documents like voter cards and ration cards. They also aim to educate the women about domestic violence (and how to get help), health, family planning and related issues.

Its painstaking work... the social workers do some variation of the following on almost a daily basis: They visit the sidewalks of their various assigned districts in the city. They interact with very small groups of people-- often 5 to 20ish-- who they train to disseminate information. Today, Rupa and Shamim came to the Ballygunge area and found a couple of the women they work with (pavement dwellers) resting behind a bus stop. They sent one of them to gather two or three more women. Then we all sat on woven straw mats behind the bus stop, and I listened to them work out the details of their women's group. They discussed who might be a good leader, and Rupa took down names of the interested parties. The group leader will be the primary point of contact for TCS's workshops on rights, violence, etc.

We stayed with this group of women for about half an hour, and then Shamim and Rupa moved on to another area in their portfolio. In total, Shamim's assignments encompass about 1,000 families in a handful of Calcutta neighborhoods... a really staggering amount.