From Ugire to Pothnal, Inde -Karnataka
A wedding celebration which we are very lucky to attend. The married couples are submitted to the rituals with dignity. A coconut wrapped up in a mango leaf and rice symbolizes fertility. The groom, venerated as a god, decorates the forehead of his wife with the red powder which certifies that she is married because, in this place, 85% of the marriages are arranged with the families of the same caste. The father of the bride spends the equivalent of one year's income to pay the dowry. Divorce, even it is legal, is not really tolerated; an unmarried woman has no future in the rural society.
Encountering India and its inhabitants means opening doors, beeing transformed by the country and living in the present.
Vishalakshi
When I decided to sponsor a child in India, in June 2004, I couldn't imagine that I would enter into such a nourishing and fruitful world and that my life would be changed.
After brushing aside all the clichés, the preconceived notions and the fantasies in my mind, I decided to visit this child, to meet her family, to discover her environnment.
She lives in Ugire, a small village in the Southwest of Karnataka, between the Ghats along the coast of Mangalore and the plain of Mangalore. For 3 years, we exchanged letters translated in kannada, the local dialect, by the Indian association which is our link in this country.
April 2007. As soon as I landed, I had the feeling of being at home, that this country is inviting me to discover it step by step. When Vishalakshi came to meet us after a few days, we were greatly moved.
We met the staff who have been working in the 16 villages for the past 7 years. For 3 days, we visited families, schools and dispensaries. We were deeply touched by the enthusiasm and the generosity of all these women and men who worked together for the benefit of the disadvantaged, whether they were Hindus, Muslims, Jaïns or Christians.
"You have seen and you are able to report what you have seen", my friend Alwyn said, a few months later.
Vimukti Pothnal
February 2010. We arrive at dawn by bus in Raichur station. Noise, pollution, bustle in the streets, dust, cacophony and visible confusion prevail. Arun tells us that in this poor area, the women have to wait for nightfall (sometimes at the risk of their lives) to go to the loo along the roads because the houses equiped with toilets are very rare.
Deeksha, Divya, Jasintha, Malama, are the four young women of the Vimukti staff, the Indian association that we are sponsoring. Elizabeth helps them for computer technology. Arogyapa, Jajasheela, Amaresh and Charlie, are older. They all live in these villages and they all have a Bachelor of Arts degree, so they have the keys to understanding the people and finding suitable solutions. Everyone is responsible for two or three villages. We are in the heart of the Pothnal programme.
Arun Lobo, the project manager, looks like St François d'Assise in modern times. He is very simple, jovial and enthusiastic. The computer and the portable phone are as familiar as the motorbike that he rides many times a day. When he is not in a meeting, he goes through the countryside to meet families, to discuss with children or to check the progress of an educational programme.
An extreme poverty
The north of Karnataka is a territory where the disparities between rich and poor are very flagrant. The Dalits, a part of Intouchables, earn less than 50 rupees a day. The women and the children are the first victims of this poverty. Even if Raichur district is the second largest producer of cotton in Asia, 30% of the workforce in the fields is provided by the children who sometimes work up to 45 hours a week. The illetaracy rate is more than 35%. Sometimes the small girls work in the fields when they are 7 and are married when they are 13. The public facilities are insufficient and the teachers are not very competent. In the country, the barriers are still very strong. Because of alcoholism, poverty, lack of food and communication, a lot of children become tramps, outlaws or have mental illnesses. You must understand that in this part of the world and in these villages in particular, the families cannot get drinking water, have no electricity and the children are often considered as a burden when they are not able to earn money. To use one's influence with the legal representatives to bring about the necessary changes implies a large social action for the children rights.
From village to village
The children are playing in the schoolyard. The eldest are playing a cricket match. Nearby, in a room fitted out for sewing, young girls are getting used to the sewing machine while the lenient teacher looks on.
Deeksha, Arun's assistant, is our ambassador. We join the wedding. We improvise songs and dances with the children. A teacher tells us the difficulties of his job. He would like to make contact with a French school to develop intercultural exchanges. We would be the messengers with the French teachers who share this particular adventure.
We accompany the children home. We come into the houses where we are heartily welcomed, without embarassment. The men are very happy to have their close-up photographs which they can see in the viewfinder.
The villages are divided in three areas according to the casts. The deprived people, the middle class and the richer class. The houses are very rudimentary: one or two rooms only. A few shelves for putting away the metal plates and stones for cooking. The mother sleeps with the youngest on a bed and the father with the eldest on the ground.
The villages are more often built near a river. No water, no life. But sometimes the torrential rains at monsoon cause serious damage as in this village destroyed last October by the floods. Piles of earth and mud ended up in the middle of the exploded houses. Jasintha lives in this village. We drink tea with her family by torchnight. The electricity only works a few hours a day.
Along the river, clouds of dust and the noise of the trucks which always move on the road works, show an intense activity to repair the bridge. To go to the sandbank, we go across a nauseating path with excrements. Up the river, women draw the water from the sand and they carry it with elegance in big jars on their head.
In this village women create terracotta handicraft and they sell them on the local markets. We choose a lot of pieces that we bring back and sell in France for the benefit of the poorest. Isabelle and Bernadette give money directly to the women while the head of the family looks at them with embarassment. This gesture, with a lot of emotion, takes on a symbolic value.
An old man shows us the house that he is building. They have to stop the work for lack of money. We are very touched by his insistence. How many people are they hoping to lodge in their own house? His daughter, well-dressed as a nurse, introduces us into the nursery. A child is born during the night.
To see, to hear, to feel, to watch, to meet, to host, to share... so many women and children who allow us to approach them. Friendship is spontaneous, presence within one's self, to meet him, to meet her... faces lit from within... We are in contact in a glance.
The purpose of education
With 525 million young people who under 25 years old, 12 million children wo work, the two priorities of the Indian government are education and health.
Since the 1st of April, a new law, adopted by the Indian Parliament, advocates free and obligatory schooling for all the children between 6 and 14. In a country where 70 or 80 million people have never been to school, it's a real revolution.
Some people consider this law as an historical event and they think that it will change the future of India. Skeptics already predict that it will never be put into operation. How to send the children to school, if a lot of families do not agree to it, because even if the salary is meager, they can live better. How to lay down compulsory teaching if nothing is stipulated against the parents who did not send the children to school?
The reality is more complex. In public schools, on average 25% of the teachers are absent during the year. In private schools, for underprivileged children, young teachers, who are themselves very poor, teach and study at the same time.
In the only class which welcomes the children who were victims of the floods, the teacher helps children repeat English words. Because of our presence, children are smiling and enthusiastic during the short moments of sharing with a song or sweets.
Vimukti association offers a commitment to the families. In return for permanent support and financial assistance, the families are obliged to send the children to school, to be present at the meetings about education and health, to accept training to get a good job, to participate in activities proposed during the year: library, toys library, sewing and computer workshops, and educational trips. With no training, there is no liberty.
An educational and health programme
There is the Child Friendly programmes on Sunday. More than 400 people are gathered under a big top. The children present paintings, scenes and soliloquies on stage, songs and traditional dances that they have been rehearsed for a long time. The children heartily eat rice prepared in big pots in the shade of a tree.
I have the honor to inaugurate "The Child Friendly programmes". Arun translates my English speech in kannada. The local and regional representatives speak about the priorities. We are here to celebrate our mutual assistance.
We give rewards to the winners, greeting them with a cheer. Children come back on stage to present local dances. At nightfall, parents and children climb into trailers to go back to their villages. A few hours later, this event is related in the newspaper "Le Progrès de Lyon".
We have a meeting with Arun and the staff for the last time. He summarizes all the projects. He speaks about committees which work in the field. The government assistance is also essential to help the poorest, the eldest, the widows, the handicapped. We give the priority to sponsoring the poorest children. A Charter for security and welfare of the children is written by the two teams to give the children a better future.
Going back to Ugire
Vishalakshi is 14 now and the adolescent welcomes us warmly when we come to Ugire. According to the Indian tradition, she could be already married and have no hope for the future. With the help of the local Project, which her family adhered, she can continue her studies. She would like to specialize in a health professsion. According to her school results, she could become a nurse or a doctor.
Three years later, the house has been repainted, the roof repaired, openings fitted out for more comfort and light. Recent improvements: the installation of the phone and the investment in a food processor to prepare frugal and various meals.
Genuine meetings, heartfelt emotion, and the feeling that we are getting to know a new world where we can share with people who welcome us, with sparkles in their eyes, immedialtly creating an atmosphere of trust.
The families and the children opened their heart and we can't put a price on that. I always remembered these words written on a piece of wood when I came to Ugire: "For it is giving that we receive". Everyone learns from each other and acknowledges each other's differences.
A drop in the ocean?
A small child is walking on an immense beach. One by one, he picks up the starfish washed up by million on the sand and put them back into the water. An old man, watching him, approaches and talks him: "What are you doing son? Can't you see that your gesture is useless? You could never save all of them". He lifts his eyes, reaching up with a starfish towards the incredulous man and replies: "For this one, it changes everything".