Bringin' back the '90s

These past two weeks have yet again (thank you 17 essay program) been filled with paper writing and CANDY. Easter chocolate eggs, fruit cake- the good kind, chocolate crosses, jelly beans, gummy bears, candy corn, you name it! Paper writing has meant spending more time in coffee shops where they like to blast American music- the same ten '90s songs over and over, play a Bollywood music video on the TV screen while Akon's "Right Now" plays or pretending to do work in the program center where we relive childhood by singing along to Smash Mouth's "All Star" and eating gummy bears. It also means going home later because you know you're just going to fall asleep as soon as you get in your room so you are walking in the dark, crossing the road at a busier time....

The Cons of Being a Foot Taller Than Your Roommate

1. After you are nearly hit by a rickshaw crossing the road and she finally releases the death grip she had on your wrist, she looks up sincerely at you and says, “Sorry. I was using you as a shield.”
2. You have to duck every time you walk on the sidewalk underneath the trees while she laughs behind you.
3. She automatically appears to be more flexible during yoga class.
4. She can cross her legs in an airplane seat while you spend 15 minutes trying to get your legs in from the aisle. 
5. She is normal height in India while you are just a freakin' giant, even around men.

But I guess she's alright because she made me banana pancakes :-)

The Good News...

Standard 8 students who took me to the Sacred Grove

The school at Village Tamhini

Flowers used to make natural dyes

     My internship with BAIF Development Research Foundation started last week. I go 3 days a week for all of April. My internship has been going better than I expected; I am now unsure of why I was so nervous in the first place. I have a student interpreter who comes with me, and my contacts at BAIF are extremely helpful and friendly. I visited the village I'm working in twice last week and will be back soon to actually work with the students.
     Village Tamhini is set about an hour west of Pune city in the Sahyadri mountain range, one of the largest in Maharashtra. The village lies just beyond the Mulshi dam. Tamhini only has a population of about 500 people, with students coming there for school from neighboring villages. The area has a high amount of rainfall, making it useful for growing rice. The village is heavily agriculture based with almost every student raising their hand when I asked if they had a farm at home. Wheat and sugar cane are also grown in the village, but the small number of crops grown leaves the village with a high deficiency of vegetables. They purchase them weekly from a nearby village, but this does not satisfy the need for a fresh, nutritious part of their diets. BAIF’s work includes the construction of kitchen gardens to grow vegetables with which they can feed their families. BAIF projects are new (within the past six months) and not very widespread, so I would assume that most students have not been exposed to vermicomposting and backyard gardens yet.
     I would like to learn more about the Indian education system, but from observations, I have seen a lot of book knowledge being taught and tested. There are little additions to learning, with few activities or out of classroom trips. The headmaster of the school also noted that students made little connection between the theoretical knowledge from their books and the practical knowledge in life. The curriculum does include practical exams that account for a decent percentage of their grade, but it does not seem to be enough. The projects, like taking care of plants, are useful, yet they do not allow students to see the need for environmental conservation. Standard ten students conduct a bigger project on an environmental topic of their choice; i.e., studying pollution levels in leaves, research on native plants, birds, and different kinds of soil. These are more beneficial because the students develop an appreciation for something through knowledge on the subject; the more they are aware of nature’s importance the more likely they are to treat it with respect. The students as a whole said their favorite subject was Marathi because it was easy.
     My experiences with the standard eight students have led me to believe that they are knowledgeable on their local environments, knowing what trees to pick sweet fruits from and the names of various plants/shrubs/trees in their village. Although they are comfortable in their natural environment, once in the classroom, the students lose the connection between the textbook and life. Environmental Education as a compulsory subject is a wonderful idea, and the students know about the issues taught in the textbook- pollution, waste, sanitation, etc. Yet, this is not enough. The students do not see a way to take this knowledge home and apply it to their everyday actions. When I asked the students what environmental issues they faced, they said they do not face any. I assumed that they would realize the sanitation issues of the soak pits outside their homes and the garbage piles littering the ground. Things like this have become so common though that they no longer think about its implications or affects, especially on their own health.
     What they read about in their textbooks is believed to be something happening outside of their world; in their eyes, pollution happens only in the city and does not affect them. Despite this current view, they have open minds and through encouragement and further experiential learning, they will be able to see the relevance of the environment in their lives. They are also lucky to live in a unique area; the area surrounding Tamhini is beautiful with the mountains, forest and water. There is also a waterfall, which is becoming a tourist attraction for urban dwellers.  The students are surrounded by vast natural resources, which is why they need to see the reality of the environmental fragility surrounding them, as well as their personal significance in its preservation. They understand what a sacred grove is and know what they should not do in their backyard sacred grove. This is knowledge that comes directly from their families through childhood. If they can respect this small area of nature, what makes everything else so vulnerable to human caused degradation?

     

 

Rajashree, the woman at BAIF who has been guiding me in my internship, invited me to her daughter's Indian classical dance concert. Her daughter has been taking bharatnayam for the past 9 years. It is somewhat theatrical, with all the dances telling stories of the gods using facial expressions and detailed hand movements. The makeup, costumes and jewelry were very elaborate but beautiful; I was told it took them two hours to get ready before the show!

Happy Birthday to Me

So my birthday was pretty awesome. I went to mass in the morning, feasted on watermelon, had my friends sing to me while I tried to blow out trick candles, had cake shoved in my mouth, ate real PANCAKES, had ice cream, bought warm almond cake from a bakery, went to the movies and saw Rio and laughed out loud, got flowers and hand drawn birthday cards, skyped for three hours with my family and friends, talked to my friend whose birthday was happening at the same time on a different day in the US, and paid for nothing all day long. My birthday continued on into Monday as I opened a birthday package with Swiss chocolate, homemade granola bars, chocolate peanut chews and birthday decorations. My friends are jealous of my delightful packages. And I met my goal of doing absolutely no work on my birthday, hence why I was eating Toblerone at 3:30 am on Tuesday morning as I wrote my bazillionth paper this semester. Only 4 papers to go! and a journal of public health entries for every day of the past 3 months....whoooops.

We also celebrated my roommate, Hannah's 22nd birthday on April 5. We'll be celebrating with massages next week. 

The Bad News...

I would like to forewarn you of the depression that writing this paper put me in, but I would still encourage you to read it. 

I don't actually know what this says because it's in Malayalam but I'm going to find someone who can translate it.

Female Foeticide and Social Justice

Violence against women is at a completely new level in India. Women face unequal, degrading and unjust treatment daily, but the bigger issue lies in how few women are given the opportunity to live. The declining sex ratio shows how women in India socially lack the right to life. Although the law does not allow sex determination tests, it is socially acceptable to find out the sex of the fetus for female abortion purposes. India is facing a serious decline in the life of women because they are not given a chance to live. Sex-selective abortions take place left and right throughout the country; there are no locational or characteristically determined boundaries to this practice. Doctors perform them for the financial benefit and families happily allow it to try again for a son. Women are not always forced into the abortion; the mother often feels she is “saving” the female from a life of hell. This is a serious issue rooted in the low status of women.

India has one of the worst sex ratios in the world. This may not be a new fact, but the sex ratio is declining. The UN reported that 7,000 fetuses are aborted daily (Sinha), and data estimates that there will be 20% more men than women in the next few decades (Pathak). By 2020, there will be 40 million unmarried young men in the country due to the adverse sex ratio (Bedi).  This is already having severe social consequences including the importing of brides from other states or nearby countries like Nepal. Marriage has a huge cultural importance in Indian society and without as many women to wed, violence against women is surely going to increase.

            Indian society views women as a financial burden; it is cheaper to abort a female fetus than to birth it, raise it, find a groom for it, and give it away with a large dowry. It is extremely important for a daughter to be married; a woman who marries gains identity, prestige, protection and a home. Unfortunately, marrying off a daughter means paying dowry. Dowry has been illegal since 1961 but it is still a contemporary practice. It is growing to be more expensive, lasting long after the initial marriage ceremony of the bride and groom. The rise of consumerism has caused greater demands from the groom’s family in terms of dowry. Dowry, associated as a tradition of the higher castes, is now being used by lower castes who are replacing their previous tradition of bride price (Grewal). This movement of Sanskritization has spread the practice and caused financial drain to many families. Dowry in a marriage is also seen as an act of honor, love and respect, which is partly why it remains in place today.

            Indians have been socially conditioned to have a son complex. This socially constructed belief slightly differs by region, but facts generally remain the same; sons are every family’s desire. They bring in money through employment and dowry from their bride; they will continue to take care of their parents through old age, financially and physically. If a girl is born to the family, the son will take care of his sister and assist in paying for her dowry. A son can also inherit the family name, family property and other inheritances that a daughter does not receive. The birth of a son is met with great celebration because the family will be rewarded a higher social status due to his birth. Additionally, a son has a greater chance of living abroad, which gives the family a higher status as well. The son is seen as valuable because of the finances and status symbol he provides; a daughter is not believed to bring either of these joys to the family. The son complex also has a religious foundation with the Laws of Manu depicting an ideal female as obedient and dependent on the care of a male (Grewal). With Christians and Muslims having normal sex ratios, the Hindu religion is an influencing factor in terms of the declining sex ratio in India (Sinha). Contrary to popular belief, the son complex is nonexistent in tribal areas. Rather, it is more prevalent with the upper middle class and elite. All India Shiite Personal Law Board (AISPLB) New Delhi spokesperson Khan said that in a recent survey 70% of female harassment comes from the elite and upper-middle class (Pathak).  

Innovative technologies have allowed for sex-selective abortions; female infanticide still happens but female foeticide has become more common because of early detection availability. Private sex-determination clinics began after government hospitals banned the practice. Sex-determination happens more often in urban areas than rural, with Delhi and Bombay as two popular places for the illegal practice (Patel).

            Why are doctors permitting these immoral practices? Medical ethics are thrown out the window in a $250 million dollar industry like SD tests and sex-selective abortions (Sinha). There is a variety of sex-determination tests performed regularly, with amniocentesis being one of the most popular. Nineteen seventy-five was the beginning of the development of amniocentesis to find fetal abnormalities/genetic conditions but due to its ability to determine the sex of the baby, it is now also used as a sex determination (SD) test. Amniocentesis is also cheaper in India than in other countries, making it easily available and affordable to many Indians who want it (Patel).  Ultrasound scanning, created for a similar purpose as amniocentesis, has also been transformed into a SD test; it has grown more prevalent because it is less invasive to the woman (Grewal). There are a variety of other SD tests including sonography, needling, fetoscopy, and chorion villi biopsy (Patel). Some doctors even misuse ultrasonography by performing the test before 12 weeks when they will not be able to tell the sex of the fetus; they can use speculation to determine the sex of the fetus. If they tell the parents it is a girl, truth or not, this influences the parents into having a sex selective abortion. Sonalda Desai has reported that there are posters in Bombay advertising sex-determination tests that read, ‘It is better to pay 500 Rs now than 50,000 Rs (in dowry) later’. (Grewal). The performance of these tests contributes to the practice of female foeticide; there is no need to give birth to the baby in order to find out its sex. Abortion is being used to eliminate long before birth, which can also have detrimental health effects on the mother.

            Sex selection before or after birth is prohibited by the 1994 Pre- Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act. It came into force in 1996, and two amendments have been added since then. An assessment of this act’s implementation in Delhi revealed that management and implementation was failing; low commitment or motivation, corruption and little knowledge about the Act’s provisions in clinics, the majority of citizens were unaware of the prohibition of the Act (Grewal). The lack of enforcement has caused the common citizen and doctor to disregard the legal rules on abortion. The punishment can be a fine of Rs. 10,000 or up to three years imprisonment (Grewal). Bedi terms the government’s neglect for this act as “organized medical crime”. Abortion was legalized in India in 1971 (known as the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act) “to strengthen humanitarian values” (pregnancy can be aborted if it is a result of sexual assault, contraceptive failure, if the baby would be severely handicapped, or if the mother is incapable of bearing a healthy child) (Grewal). The state of Maharashtra in 1988 created a bill making sex determination tests illegal and advertisements for facilities with the test illegal. Although this is a step in the right direction, the bill has many limitations and does not address the whole of the issue (Patel). Most legality is useless in preventing sex selective abortions because of the filing of cases, long trial waiting times and lack of enforcement of the issue.

If female foeticide continues to occur at the current magnitude, the dwindling number of women will cause further social justice issues beside the lack of human rights for women. Due to a lack of available brides, kidnapping of women to be sold into marriage is bound to increase. With all these women ‘missing’, an increase in rape is likely, as well as a rise in the number of sex workers (Grewal). This scarcity of women is not going to increase females’ value or status. The genocide of the female race should be causing great alarm, especially since the effects are visible. Women already lack just treatment in many spheres of life across the world, but the right to live is definitely the worst of it. Much more needs to be done in stopping this practice. The mindset in India and across the world needs to change on the view of the female, and laws need stricter enforcement in order to be taken seriously. The action of female foeticide must be seen as having serious long term consequences, not just on the mother and the family, or on the female population, but on the whole world. 

But now you should watch this video and it will cheer you up a bit.

Here. Go to Pakistan.

When camels stand up, the back legs go up first and then the front
so you have a moment of imbalance where you hope you don't fall off. 

Me after playing Holi

Colors!

These are the words, Sahil, my camel driver said to Juli as he handed her the reins (he was joking). We were only 80 km from Pakistan in the Jaisalmer desert in Rajasthan.


I apologize for the delay. The past 2 weeks have been full of papers, class, a bit of illness, 3 days of crazy traveling, a trip to the movies (Matt Damon in Hereafter...which had the cheesiest ending that closely resembled Bollywood, caused me to cry way too much, and showed the London train bombings which felt too soon), some shopping, yoga, PACKAGES!, pregnancy news, heat, heat and heat. I received 2 wonderful packages full of cookies, granola, magazines, and candy plus prayers and letters from special people, like my 7 year old friend Jackson. Here's my shout out to you guys- thanks!

So that crazy trip...the 7 of us had a driver take us from Pune to the Mumbai airport- we flew to Jaipur where a driver picked us up and drove us to our hotel on Friday. The next morning our driver for the weekend, Mahavir, took us into the city to see the palace and a fort, we had some lunch and went to the elephant festival- raved about in Lonely Planet- a huge tourist attraction filled with more white people in one place than I've seen in India so far. We arrived early to get seats, then as soon as the procession of painted elephants started, people ran up to take pictures and stood right in front of us in a large crowd. It was kind of a disappointment- there was some dancing and music but we left early (our friends who stayed longer said it didn't get much better). From there, Mahavir drove us all night to Jaisalmer- a 15 hour drive including all the stops (yes he stopped to rest). The drive began with a flat tire at dinner. I probably only slept 2 hours, constantly changing positions, and losing energy coming up with creative positions to sleep in with the crowded space.

Sunday was when we played Holi- color throwing (which we thought was Saturday and had to wear our white outfits 2 days in a row)- so we had Mahavir drop us off in the center of town at Jaisalmer. Everything was closed for the holiday, the town was slightly deserted except for people riding their motorbikes around stained with every color of the rainbow. We bought some colors and walked around a little, immediately attracting attention, being smeared with powder on our cheeks, shrieking "Happy Holi!" Through spluttering pink spit, crowds of people overwhelmed me with piles of powder and little boys squirted dye (powder mixed with water);  we called quits to the human sand art that lost its appeal relatively fast. After carefully tiptoeing through the hotel lobby and being photographed by German tourists with a disapproving look from the staff at the counter, we attempted to wash the tie dye off our bodies, coming out clean with slightly stained purple skin and streaked hair.

As I sat in the car on our drive to the desert where we would be staying for the night, I remembered the melting half chocolate bar sitting in my new elephant purse from Didi. I squeezed out the gooey paste from the top, not realizing that the bottom of the wrapper had decided to release its sugary contents all over my white shirt. I lapped up the chocolate from the wrapper until Melissa opened the door to let me out of the car. Upon asking a store manager for the dust bin, he laughed, gesturing for me to dispose of the mess in the street. I couldn't do it (but I did see a girl from my program who I'm sure never litters in the states throw her candy wrapper in a pile of garbage on the sidewalk, justifying out loud that she had no other choice- trash cans are almost impossible to find and overflowing if found) so I left it on the sink where I washed the Cadbury marks from my face.

Anyway, driving through Rajasthan was beautiful. We rode camels from our tent hotel rooms in the early evening to watch the sunset.The desert sand felt like silk and the glowing sun disappearing behind the rolling hills of sand dunes was beautiful.  It was a fun little ride, but I felt bad for my 5 year old camel, Rocket, who was being led with reins coming from silver spikes in his nostrils;  Sahil, our camel driver, also kept trying to make the poor thing trot faster but he stubbornly remained at a slow walk. There actually were not many other foreign tourists, but it still felt strange- especially with one of the camel drivers being a 10 year old boy. I have become so conscious of being a tourist that I carry around this awkward feeling; no matter what we do to lay low we attract much attention. We sadly had to leave the beauty behind to escape a group of young male gawkers who pulled a donut in the sand on their way out behind us. The next morning we left at 5 am for a return 15 hour drive to the airport to fly to Mumbai and drive back to Pune, finally arriving back at 4 am Tuesday morning. It was quite something.

Saree Shopping

I tagged along with my host mom and her sister in law to shop for sarees on Laxmi Road- the most popular shopping place in Pune. They were looking for summer sarees- cotton ones and light colors to stay cool. As we walked down the street and passed teens in jeans and Western tops, Didi asked me, "Don't girls get hot wearing these tight clothes?" Sarees are apparently cool because they expose the back and midriff while being loose on the bottom. They can be 10 ft of fabric, sometimes longer, and it must take some time to master wrapping them around you. We went into 3 shops- you take off your shoes, sit on a thin mattress on the floor and men pull out dozens of brightly colored, elaborately patterned fabrics. Didi would say "white and cotton" and they would bring colored, non-cotton, then try to convince us how nice they were. The best was when the men would open up the fabric and hold it up on themselves to display (this isn't only in saree shops- men are workers in every store and restaurant, you don't find women working in any kind of sales job). The walls of the saree shops are lined with hundreds of designs and materials. There was a lot of arguing at the first shop and I was convinced that we were leaving without purchasing anything until I saw Didi's sister in law paying for 3 sarees at the counter. One of the workers also threw down the words "modern" about the patterns and how they were changing with the times. I even saw one with ships on it which was just strange. Many of them just appear to me as fancy tablecloths, which doesn't mean they won't make good sarees...I just view it differently. I also have a terrible American perception of color combinations- like how orange and black means Halloween or red and green means Christmas, and I refuse to wear those because of the holiday associations. In between stores, we stopped for a drink of coconut water where the man hacked off the very top of the coconut with his machete like knife, stuck a straw in and handed it to me. I've heard good and bad things about the taste, but I didn't think it had any taste at all. We ended with a visit to the blouse shop to find matching fabric for the little shirt that you wear underneath the saree. I think they're quite pretty but have no need to buy one unless I find a wedding to go to, and Didi told me I could borrow any of hers if I had to. She has many gorgeous ones. Who wants to bring a new fad to America? 

Bombay



Quote from the Gandhi Museum



Marine Drive

Gateway of India, built for the visit of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911

On our train ride to Mumbai, I finished reading Shantaram-an amazing 1,000 page adventure story based on the author's life in '80s Bombay. I highly recommend it- you won't get bored. It's been a great read here because it's about a foreigner experiencing and falling in love with India, having introduced me to new Marathi and Hindi words as well as Indian foods and cultures. I visited Leopold's Cafe during my stay in Mumbai the past three days, which is where the main character, Lin, hangs out often in the book.

Mumbai is a neat city and very different from Pune. It's on the coast with a nice ocean view, so we ran to Marine Drive to watch the sunset the other night. Unfortunately we missed it, but the salty smell and the cool wind was still refreshing. Mumbai also has a lot of pretty British architecture that makes you feel like you're in London. The humidity was kind of gross but the city has some western luxuries I have not experienced in 2 months...our group stayed at a hotel with real showers and regular towels ("you don't know what you got 'til it's gone..."). I also went to Theobroma, a bakery/cafe, that I could talk about for days. I ate the best brownie ever that tasted like a chocolate chip cookie and a brownie had a baby-warm, gooey, delish. I definitely saw some American food offerings during our stay that are hard to find in Pune; there is significantly more Westernization and tourism in Mumbai. I couldn't believe how many foreigners there was walking down the street; I am not used to that and I totally stared at them (in Pune when we see white people, we assume it's a student from our group). We met some students from Michigan at our hotel who were on spring break. The Westernization was even evident when we visited St. Xavier's College. All the students were wearing Western clothes, which might not be that surprising, but it's more than at the universities in Pune where it's common to wear traditional Indian clothes as well.