Dhoura and Kimoi Villages

The Latest Villages

Wow! I cannot believe that it has been about a month since my last blog entry. A lot has happened since then. So far, I have been spending time in three different villages in three different districts of Uttarakhand. Generally speaking, the way of life in these villages is very much the same. However, there are some differences between the villages that can have a big impact. For this blog, I want to tell you a bit about what the new villages look like and the facilities there. Then, I will share with you some of the things related to village life which need some improvement. Finally, I will end on a happy note by sharing my experience of celebrating Holi and some other funny stories.

Dhoura Village

I went to Dhoura village last week and stayed for six days. This village is very small; only about 40 families live there, which are all of the scheduled caste designation (disadvantaged groups as identified by the Constitution of India). The village has very few facilities of its own – only a primary school which was started by one of the NGOs with which I am working. However, it is located next to a much larger village called Lakamandal which has a pharmacist, school up to class 12, and shops. You can even find bottled water in the adjacent village because it is home to a sacred temple which is at least 400-500 years old and attracts a number of Indian and foreign tourists. I actually stayed with a family in Lakamandal (a 5-10 minute walk away). In the morning, I would do my survey, and in the afternoon, I would help one of the teachers at the local school practice her English. The evenings consisted of me chatting with families and neighbors and telling them about life in the U.S. as well as showing my pictures.

Most people in Dhoura are involved with farming and animal husbandry (more buffalos here than cows). For money, people do as much labor as they can. Their plots of land are extremely small and divided throughout this terraced landscape mountain. Water for irrigation is relatively plentiful, and the water source for drinking originates from above the village. This means that there is a disparity in the access of drinking water throughout the community. Some people are able to afford to have water tapped directly to their homes. However, others have no choice to fetch water from the spring itself. Interestingly, there is a water tap in the primary school. For those who live close to the school, they collect water from this tap, and the NGO foots the bill. About three years ago, there was a communal (government) tap in this village. However, the service was shut off because no one paid the bill.

Getting water from the tank in Dhoura for testing.

The fact that no one paid the water bill is pretty interesting because one of my survey questions asks how much people are willing/able to pay for water which would be tapped to their houses. Many of the people I interviewed here responded that they would not be able to pay anything. People also noted during my interviews that they often get sick from the water. It does not matter the season, people are known to get sick from drinking their water. Unfortunately, there is not a better option for clean drinking water currently. People do not have resources to pay for clean drinking water and boiling water requires even more time spent in the jungle collecting fuel and fodder. (People here for the most part do not have gas stoves. If they do have gas, they are still likely to cook on wood stoves instead.) Also, it is striking that almost none of the houses have latrines. If they do have latrines, they are unlikely to use them.

In the U.S., we are used to paying for water. We get water tapped to our houses and are happy to pay because the water is treated before use. We understand that there is an infrastructure investment, and we must contribute in order to receive the benefits. However, things do not work like that in these villages. The market and capitalism are not as much of a factor here. (People have TVs, and some people sell their vegetables in the market. However, monetary expenses are just now becoming the practice.) People instead are able to get what they need without money. They collect fodder and fuel from the forest, they grow their own food (but are buying more and more from stores), and they collect water directly from the source. It would be easy for an American to come in to these villages and request an initial sum of money from each family for a tap. Then, they would install a meter system and call it a day. However, this is not how it works here. I do not have the solution, but it does beg the question: is access to clean water a right? If it is a right, how should it be provided and who should bear the cost?

Another interesting thing about this village is that the village leader is a woman as is stipulated by the current Indian laws. Because the tradition here is that only men attend village meetings, this means that she sends her father or brother in her place.

Kimoi Village

I have only gone to this village for two hikes – which means I only spent the day. The main thing about this village is that it has no road access. People here are migrating to Mussoorie because it is within 2-hour walking distance, and the schools are much better. Here there is a community water source and some houses have tapped water. I will have more details from this village in the future. However, governance in this village seems to be working better because the leader has a higher level of education.

Village Life as a Whole

These are a few of the items I have found shocking and disheartening about my visits to these villages so far.

• ·         Women are taken for granted while men do very little work. Anecdotally, I was staying with a family. The wife and daughters woke up at six am, tied up the cattle, fetched water, made breakfast, swept the house, washed the dishes, collected fodder for the animals, grazed the animals, made breakfast, lunch, dinner, and chai, worked in the field, and fetched more water. What did the man do? He asked for more chai (right when the daughter was about to leave to work in the field), commented that the food was too salty, and sat around watching everyone work. I think he felt a little bad at one point because I was helping with the dishes, made no bake cookies for everyone, helped work in the field, and carried grass back on my head. After this, he did actually come out to the field to help carry back more of the grass.

Try to ignore the finger. This picture was taken by an 11 year old.

•       My mom commented to me this week that she heard a statistic that more people have TVs than toilets. This is absolutely true from what I have seen so far. Very few people in these villages have latrines, and if they do, they don’t use them because they use so much water. Even the family with the eco-sand toilet (a toilet which does not require water) does not use it. I would agree with this choice, I would actually prefer the field to this structure.

• ·         The water even further up in the mountains is not consistently clean, people do get sick, and people do not associate their sickness with the unclean water.

• ·         I am not going to go into it, but there is also the problem of women’s health. I just read this really good article from the NY Times about it: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/29/opinion/the-taboo-of-menstruation.html.

Some fun stories:

This week I celebrated Holi in the village Mala Banas (where I went in January and have gone back a few times). I not only figured this was the safest place to be (staying with a very trustworthy family outside the city), but I also knew it would be quite fun. Holi is mostly for children who run around with powdered colors and spread it all over each other’s faces. However, the adults also like to participate too.

From right to left: Nisha, Esha, (I stay with them in Mala Banas), the other three are neighbors.

This is Esha applying colors to my face for Holi. Don't worry. The color came out of my shirt. Holi stopped at noon here, so we all went to the water source to wash our clothes and selves in the stream. Luckily, it was a warm day because spring water is really cold for bathing!

I went for a little sight-seeing on my last day in Dhoura village. One of the up and coming businessmen from the larger village took me and my friend Indra on a drive. Unfortunately for her, she gets car sick and did not enjoy it so much. However, I had to laugh because I was getting grilled the entire time on the U.S., etc. The entire time he kept saying that my speaking Hindi was…”katarnuk” (dangerous). Then, on the drive back, he decided to tell me that if anyone asked who he was, I should say that he was my driver. However, if anyone asked who I was, he would like to say that he was my boyfriend. It was pretty hilarious. I still have to laugh when I think about it.

This is me in traditional Jaunsari dress - langa. I think everyone in the village with a picture phone now has one of these pictures. Apparently, the dress is a hit! (The outfit belongs to Dipika, on the right. Indra is on left. She is a teacher at the primary school. She really wants to move to the U.S.)

I am currently two for two and having people looking for my future husband in the villages I visit. I will let you know if I can keep up my streak when I go to stay in Kimoi for a few more days.

That’s it for now! Happy Holi and Easter to everyone!

Love,

Margaret

P.S. I am staying healthy for the most part, although my diet in villages is made up of potatoes and roti for breakfast and dinner and dal and rice for lunch. It is also supplemented with chai twice a day. I have been either boiling my water or using my UV pen before drinking. I either get my water from the source along with the family (in Mala Banas/Kimsar) or stay with a family with a water tap (Dhoura/Lakamandal). I also mostly have access to latrines. However, I bring my own toilet paper and then throw it away back in the cities because there is no trash disposal system.