More on the Village Visit

Sarah and I enjoying succulent bananas dipped in mango pulp

September 10th, 2010

Part of our visit included this 84 yr old village drummer performing traditional music

Ah sometimes my own nerdiness, or as Guy, my friend from Northwestern, calls it, my "hard-on for development" is overwhelmingly strong. I acted like a news reporter, asking questions and taking notes like an investigative journalist, seeking more understanding of my foreign surroundings. After many agricultural field visits, we met with a council of the heads of women's Self Help Groups (SHG), coalitions of about 20 women in villages that advocate mostly for issues related to water, women's health, and the education of their children. Oftentimes, the women admit the stigma related to joining a SHG and the increased spousal and in-law abuse that often results from attending said meetings. However, since pooled collective micro-loans often improve the well-being of the entire family, gradually, more and more village women attend SHG sessions. The vivacity of these humble women absolutely moved me. MITTRA (see below post) conducted training and education for 15 initial women in 1999, who were then dispatched to train other villages. When asked the biggest changes they saw in their lives, many of the women on the panel said 'speaking up", "decision-making", "office skills" and "confidence". One woman, the leader of the SHG Federation, Babithai, has earned enough income and respect to finance her way through two years of college, in Ayurvedic medicine. In most villages, participation is at 50% with the goal being at least 1 women from every household enrolled in the monthly meeting. The delicious cuisine we ate was cooked by women from a SHG, so they made money off of us! Even though it was indirect, it felt nice to contribute to exuberant women.

Mutual Curiosity

 We also enjoyed the almost haphazard chants of traditional village music with an 84 year old man with a tabla (drum) tied to his foot. He told a folk story about Rama in Marathi with lots of voice intonation and hand gestures. Perplexed, I tried to concentrate and understand...alas, I kept holding back the giggles since his voice kept cracking and his eyes were dancing wildly. Once it was over, I recovered and actually got to meet the musician. Erik, my friend from New Mexico, greeted the man, who reached his hand to Erik's ear, pulled him in close, and whispered a blessing into his ear. Later we learned the man mentioned he wanted Erik to come back and he'd teach him everything he knew about living a long, happy life. [This is almost exactly what happens in Bali to Julia Roberts in "Eat, Pray, Love"...just saying...].

Shelling those creamy cashews!

Anyway, we also got to see cashew manufacturing! It was SO cool--the nuts are steamed, dried on the floor for 12 hours, then shelled using a nifty foot-petal-powered machine, then dried, and then "graded" and sold. The nut I ate was just dried and it was the sweetest, creamiest cashew I have ever eaten. I bought 2 bags of the broken ones (they were cheaper---180 Rs--about $3.86 for at least 1 lb!) and ONE will make it back to the States. I also picked up some dried gooseberries and raw honey(which is the BEST honey I have EVER tasted). I love that I spent $10 and it felt like an overindulgence...I usually only spend about $2 a day, since my big purchases (like Internet for $60 for the first month--will be $35 for the other ones) are pretty much over. Side note on money--I went to the doctor again post-village with a terrible fever. One kid has had dengue and many more on the program have fallen ill. Regardless, all of my medications together cost .36 cents and the visit was $2.15. So I think that's pretty reasonable for feeling better!

 The new mom is checking out a cell pic of her boy!

Onwards! To the Community Health Center. 80% of health facilities are concentrated in urban areas. However, 74% of India lives in rural areas, which often lack both preventative and curative medicine. So India launched the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in 2005, with the goal of improving the availability of and access to quality health care, especially to the rural poor. The scheme has increased public health fund allocation to 2-3% of GDP from existing allocation of .9% GDP. A village level ASHA(Accredited social health activist) is placed in every village to create referral chains. At the 1000 population level, there are gram panchayats: sub-health centers that serve 5-6 villages with a male and female health worker that have immunization days, drugs, and small clinics. We visited a public health center, which serves 30-40 villages or about 30, 000 people.

Check out THIS birthing table

Many villages rely on indigenous forms of medicine, but the NRHM has provided government funds for incentives to get people to these rural clinics. For example, the CHC we visited pays women 700 Rs to give birth at the clinic rather than at home. Trust-building between modern and traditional takes time, but our clinic claimed about 2-3 births a week. The rural health scheme trains traditional birth attendants as well to conduct delivery under safe hygienic conditions. I got to see a baby that was 8 hours old and SO small. Assured services of the CHC include routine and emergency surgery(like appendicitis), obstetric care, family planning and laproscopy, diagnosis and treatment of leprosy, eye diseases, malaria, TB, typhoid...etc. The one in Jawhar had 3 doctors and about four nurses. They also had an ambulance to drive severe cases to the district hospital about 45 minutes away.

MEDS

It was most interesting for me to learn about family planning. I enjoyed learning about the BIAF-oriented choice-based advice-in a government-run hospital. On government suggestions to limit children to two and to space births every three years, contraception is available. A lot of people are insecure about condoms, which is bad with high rates of HIV, but many women opt to have IUD inserted in between pregnancies and some use traditional birth control pills. They said a lot of their work has been relatively successful. We also met young girls under 18 who had dropped out after 10th standard, but enrolled in these girls' groups that teach sewing skills. The girls earn 90 Rs a shirt and are required to not marry before the legal age of 18 to remain in the program. Interesting!