I-India trip, September 2011
Allow me to share my story of another amazing trip to Jaipur. Like every visit to I-India, we had many deeply moving, emotional experiences that make us feel satisfied that our hard work in Singapore is very worthwhile and has a great impact on many lives.
Five volunteers from Street Child Project in Singapore - Anna Collier, Wendy Elliot, Emma Clemence and Meg Geyer met Shilipi Sharma in Delhi. We travelled together to Jaipur for the official opening ceremony of the newly built Girls’ Shelter Home in the Jhag Children’s Village.
A long seven-hour car trip followed the night-flight from Singapore. Despite feeling weary from the journey, we were all ready, open and excited for what lay ahead.
Looking from the car window during the drive, I reflected that from time to time the Government undertakes “beautification” programs to clean up the streets. In the lead-up and immediately following the Commonwealth Games, the streets and pavements were cleared of street dwellers. Families had been forcibly removed from the streets so they were out of view of the tourists. They were moved to remote areas outside the cities where there is no hope of employment or opportunity. The “Green Jaipur Clean Jaipur” campaign targeted rubbish that was randomly and wantonly discarded in the streets and waterways. Sari-clad women with bamboo brooms swept the rubbish into piles. It provided employment and resulted in a cleaner environment.
I noticed this time that the streets were once again littered with waste. Lack of public rubbish bins doesn't help. Rural people, looking for a “better life”, were again living on the pavements. They were no longer “out of sight, out of mind”, all surviving as best they could in the frenetic pace of the city. Half-dressed children with matted hair and hungry eyes, hoped for a snack, some rupees, anything... One large section under a bridge was filled with families, cooking, sleeping, talking, their children playing or sitting in the dirt. One street away, an entire pavement of around 200 metres long was a designated defecation zone. People squatted carefully between piles of faeces. I spared a thought for those whose job it is to clean this pavement – those from the lowest caste. Heavy monsoonal rains washed the pavement clean that afternoon.
A small hand reached up through the side of our auto-rickshaw as we sat, stuck in traffic one night. Soon two more hands joined it, belonging to tiny naked children, their feet and bodies small enough to fit between the congested vehicles. We searched desperately for something to give them but found only chips. We wondered who would benefit if we gave them rupees - perhaps an abusive father to buy more liquor? Their mother appeared, an attractive young woman with a desperate look in her eyes. She was heavily pregnant, her blouse straining to fit her swollen exposed stomach. She wore a dirty torn skirt. This mother will soon bring another child into the world to share the same sad fate of its siblings. The air was thick with smoke and exhaust fumes. The relentless horn-blowing chaotic tangle of traffic makes it seem that the world is totally oblivious to their suffering. How I longed to go back and help this young mother.
Many children in India rag pick for a living. One girl with a large canvas bag filled with discarded plastic bottles was struggling to lift it to her back. A policeman with a large stick was berating her. Her expression was one of exhaustion and disdain. This girl, like so many others is dependent on the discards of others. Without any education, begging, prostitution and rag picking are her only means of survival.
The very same small children I see on each visit to Jaipur were performing acrobatic acts near the Jaipur Gates. A comb, soap and shampoo were again received with great joy. As they have for months, even years, they perform clever acts and dance for motorists, to the drumming sound of an older boy.
With the financial support of Flowering Tree Foundation New York, I-India visits fifteen slum communities. These fortunate communities now receive food, education, water and health care. The children eagerly attend to their schoolwork in exercise books neatly dated each day. Each community welcomed us with warm smiles, but the children quickly refocused on their lessons. After three hours studying Maths, Hindi and English, singing and dancing completed their school day.
Every child who attends I-India’s School on Wheels is given a hot meal of rice, dal, vegetables and roti. The children tend to eat as much as they can possibly fit into their little tummies, as for many, this is their only meal for the day. Prabhakar Goswami (co-founder of I-India) said it takes time for the children who are brought into I-India’s full-time care to realize that overeating is not necessary, as there will always be more food a few hours later.
I-India identifies communities most in need of help. The children from the fifteen communities they visit now do not need to rag pick in order to survive. Instead they can enjoy learning and growing together. It is a human right that is denied to so many in India.
The 45km journey from Jaipur to the Jhag Children’s Village through land which is usually barren, dry and dusty is now transformed into a sea of green, with large crops of maize. Monsoon rains are the greatest gift to the impoverished rural communities. An elderly man in a turban by his mud house said the rains were the best he had seen for 15 to 20 years. The village well which was almost dry is now full. The dry baked lakebed is filled with water, a lake once more.
The Jhag Children’s Village is a thriving hub of hope and happiness. Prem Pathshala School, a project of I-India Project Australia, is at maximum capacity. I-India has had to utilise the newly completed but as yet unfurnished and unequipped Medical Clinic building to temporarily accommodate three classes of preschool children. The common room in Snehanchal, the boys’ shelter home, is also utilised for lessons. Children from nine villages within a 15 km radius around Jhag attend Prem Pathshala. The Snehanchal boys attend school with the local children and soon another 52 girls will be joining them! Funded by a Singaporean donor, a new school hall could one day also accommodate extra classes as demand for I-India’s education programs grows.
The playground, once a large cricket field was a lake, a mirage of water... Harry Murphy's dream to fund the cricket pitches and playground will need to become reality when the rain is deeply absorbed into the soil, a school hall is built - and new landscaping with drainage is completed. The children wait with great anticipation for this. Harry and two good friends climbed to Everest Base Camp to raise funds and awareness for I-India's Jhag Children's Village, raising $6000 to enable sporting fields and facilities to be possible for hundreds of children on which is now a big plot of empty land.
Currently the children sit in straight rows during school assemblies, exposed to the desert sun. Every morning, after announcements, a child reads the newspaper’s headline stories. Then the children do deep breathing and yoga exercises and singing before going into class. Each child greeted us with “Namaste didi”, some touching our feet in the traditional greeting of deep respect. Every student, wearing clean and pressed uniforms and with tidy hair, comes from local BPL families (below poverty line), many attending school for the first time. Herding livestock, collecting water, working in the fields or in the home was once their daily life. It’s no wonder that pride and eagerness for learning was so evident in every child. For those children who have no option but to work, I-India appeals to their families to allow them to attend “evening school”. They are collected in the afternoons by the School on Wheels bus, and given two hours of lessons, a nutritious meal and time to enjoy the outdoor playground.
Every child who lives too far to walk to school is picked up and dropped off at nominated points by one of the three Jhag Children’s Village buses. A walk with some students through their village streets, lined with mud brick houses, gave me an insight into just how impoverished Jhag community is. One girl, Lalita took us to her home. Her family was not expecting us, but we were immediately welcomed. We were offered to sit in the two chairs they owned and served delicious masala tea. Lalita shares a small traditional woven bed with her aunt, which is placed outside the house so they can catch any cool breezes. Lalita’s mother who is too poor to take care of her, is grateful to her brother's family and I-India for making a dream come true for her and her daughter.
The much anticipated Opening Ceremony of the new Girls’ Shelter Home was a moving and memorable experience. We were greeted by six girls wearing traditional Rajasthani dress. Lalita took my hand to lead us to the Girls’ Shelter Home festivities. Excitement danced in her eyes. I-India had organized for a large opened sided marquee to be erected alongside the home. Approximately 450 children, many Prem Pathshala students, were there to greet us. We received the traditional welcome of a red wax tikka placed on our forehead and flower garlands were placed around our necks. Drumming and singing over a loud speaker kicked off the ceremony. After speeches, where appreciation for our efforts in Singapore were expressed, one of the staff held a plate filled with rose petals as I cut the ribbon to officially open the home. Dances, a fabulous children’s fashion show, and a patriotic song and dance performance by the Ladli girls followed. We were then invited to dance with the children. Dressed in our saris, with odhanis over our heads and shoulders and adorned with garlands of flowers, we created a spectacle of colour, with botched moves and much laughter. It was a wonderful celebration of a shared spirit and sense of achievement. Rose petals were strewn everywhere.
The running cost of the Girls Shelter Home for the first year has been funded due to "Ponzi for a Purpose" efforts in Singapore, an initiative of Fleur Thomas. The Singapore community have banded together in support to enable almost $50 000 to be raised for I-India's new shelter home. A joyful celebration of a shared spirit of achievement was enjoyed by all. Terry Lobaton from Corazon Jewellery gave donations along with The Children’s Place in Singapore to enable full fit out to be possible. The home is a welcoming haven - a dream come true for I-India.
Abha Goswami spoke with deep sincerity and appreciation. This home, she said, will bring hope to fifty-two girls most in need. Later I spoke with a carer who shared one little girl’s reaction when she first saw her new home. She was greatly surprised by “a palace so big and beautiful”. Roopali, a pretty petit girl with shy and serious eyes, had been living on the streets. Her arms I noticed were badly scarred they looked like old cigarette burns. I didn’t ask. I hugged her in welcome.
After the ceremony and speeches were over, a boy joined us as we sat together outside the home with Abha. He put his arm around Abha and to our surprise began to sing. His voice, so pure, reaching high notes sang, “This is my family (with a broad wave of hand to include us all) you are my sister, you are my mother (looking at Abha), God is my family ….” Rajjeeb sang with no inhibition and with a big bright smile that never left him, even after he finished the song.
Rajjeeb was from Bengal. On a trip to Jaipur with his uncle, he was abandoned at the railway station. His uncle was never to be seen again. I-India’s Child Help Line was called and the boy immediately counselled and taken into care. He has been living at the Jhag Children’s Village home for boys, which is called Snehanchal (home of love) which sits opposite the newly opened Girls’ Home. I-India is actively searching for his parents. He knows only that his home is in Bengal, near a church. Abha hopes that his family, once found, will allow him to continue living at the home, with regular family visits. It’s impossible to know his future, but for now he sings like an angel, owning only the clothes he wears.
Thanks to sponsorship, Shilipi, a professional filmmaker joined us on this trip. We hope to have two to three wonderful films featuring all I-India’s projects, including “A Day in the Life of a Prem Pathshala School Child”.
As always, I feel so humbled by the children’s incredible positivity. Their smiles belie their sad personal stories. The rag pickers and beggars, who live a hard and cruel existence, are forever hopeful that things will improve and that their futures will be brighter.
Prabhakar Goswami said he wishes that every street child could have two meals a day and go to sleep with a full stomach. This is his dream. Currently I-India provides 1500 meals every day, 6 days a week. It visits fifteen slum communities, but there are 162 more that desperately need assistance.
Being aware that we have the ability to vastly improve the lives and futures of children is deeply motivating. Over the years I-India has demonstrated its true commitment to the rights and welfare of street and working children. They need our support to help more vulnerable children attain the brighter futures they so desperately hope for.
Anita Williams
Footage of i-india projects undertaken by Shilipi Sharma from Dusty Foot Productions, Shilipi makes films focusing on environment, wildlife and social issues www.dustyfootindia.com
Editing of footage by Nina Subramani from Elephant Corridor www.elephantcorridor.org
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