Reality Bites

Nothing could have prepared me for today.  We visited Mudhkheda village where WaterAid are not yet working.  The population of 470 people live in 105 dwellings which are a combination of mud and stone huts.  The population is mainly from the Sahariya tribe, which is so marginalized that they even fall out of the caste system. 

Exploitation

As we arrived we were greeted with shy interest by the children of the village and the villagers were confused by our interest in their daily collection of water.  Initially the situation didn't look too awful, they had a hand pump with clean water!  But then you start look a bit deeper, beyond the children's smiles and interest and see that children are all dirty, wearing dirty clothes and obviously malnourished.  There are actually 7 hand pumps in the village, but only two work, one on either side of the main Arga to Bombay highway (a boy was killed the week before crossing the road!)

one of two working hand pumps in the village

We watched WaterAid start the community mapping process, which is the first step to working in a community, and over the next two hours the villages produced a plan of the village, marking the water sources, open defecation sites, homes and geographical features in colour chalks on the ground.  It was amazing to watch how staff from WaterAid and the partner Sambhav started the process and then stepped back as the villagers became more engaged and their own natural leaders began to take ownership of the exercise.  Over the two hour process I interacted with the women and children, taking about their families and lives.  One woman my age (26 for those who don't know me) had been married for 7 years and had 4 small boys and was expecting a 5th child. She couldn't understand how I wasn't married with children. Another 15 year old girl had just been married. 

The comunity mapping excercise

At some point in the morning the inevitable occurred and the girls in the group needed to use a toilet, with some trepidation as we knew that there were no latrines in the village, we asked the women of the village and prepared to open defecate. The women had been so ashamed to let us (white people) open defecate they had arranged to take us to the only real house on the edge of the village, owned by a high caste (and therefore rich) family to use their latrine, the only one in the village. This was truly awkward for all of us, they had obviously gone to a lot of effort to arrange this special privilege, which none of the tribal village population would ever be allowed to do. So with the high caste family watching us with suspicion we used the their latrine.  These feelings of guilt were later compounded for us, when on a walk around the village we discovered there was another working hand pump in the village but that it had been modified by the high caste family, for their personal benefit. They had taken the top of the pump, sunk a submersible pump and were pumping the water from the borehole directly into their house, and thus depriving the village of an additional source of water.  Surrounding their concrete 2 story house were lush green fields growing crops using irrigation water from the pump which should be supplying the village with drinking water.  The exploitation of the village population purely because of their low tribal status was disgusting and made everyone in the group really angry.   

The dried up open well

After lunch in the Sambhav office near by we returned to the village in small groups to sit and talk to family groups about their lives and hope for the future.  Dan L, Annabelle and I were fortunate to talk to Champa a remarkable lady of 40 years who had been integral to the community mapping process earlier that day. By village standards Champa is well off, she has her own home and is the sole provider for her 4 sons. She has a grown up daughter who is married and her husband died 12 years ago from TB, which we found out from Dr Singh is endemic in the tribe.  We were overwhelmed by Champa's strength and resourcefulness to provide enough to send her children to private school (there is a school in the village, but the teacher rarely turns up) to ensure they had a better future.  In her own words Champa said "I am not an educated woman but I have achieved so much,  if I was educated I would have achieved remarkable things" and watching in awe we could only believe her.  We listened to how using her two water containers (15 litres and 7.5 litres) she collects water 4/5 times a day from the handpump.  She explained there is another pump but this is dirty (they can see the organisms living in the water) and the open well dried out at the end of the wet season.  Champa knows that open defecation is unclean and is scared of going out to defecate at night (women in the village have been sexually assulted while defecating at night) but they don't have any alternative. She hopes Sambhav and WaterAid will start working in the village in the future.   

The men's open defecation site

Having practiced our (very bad) Hindi, discussed water, family, schools education, the social injustice of women not being able to inherit land, we were then privileged to be taken into the confidence of this brave woman. We sat stunned and emotional as we watched her mask fall away and learnt about the fears and despair of this amazing woman who is losing her health and spirit.  Listening to Champa describe her daily battle to earn enough money to feed and educate her family was incredibly difficult and we were all torn with feelings of helplessness.  After saying very tearful goodbyes, the 2 hour drive to the hotel was quiet and sad.  On the way we stopped at a temple to provide us all time to reflect on what we had seen and experienced today. 

Trying to carry 15 litres of water

This evening the mood in the group remains somber and reflective and I think we are all apprehensive about tomorrow.  WaterAid will be working in the village in the future but due to finances and rescources probably not until 2008-09, and I worry that this will be too late for Champa.